Chapter 578: The Hidden Dangers of the Suns
The Suns' schedule was brutal.
Right after finishing their game against the Timberwolves, they had to turn around and face the Miami Heat on the second night of a back to back.
Miami had made a few modest upgrades during the offseason, bringing in O'Neal and Richardson.
Those 2 shared a similar label. Both had once been brilliant. Both were now clearly trending downward.
Even so, the Heat had opened the season 3 and 0, and the matchup between Wade and Chen Yan drew plenty of attention before tipoff. Fans had been looking forward to it for days.
On paper, Miami was a respectable team in the East.
Against Phoenix, though, respectable was not enough.
The Heat stayed true to their old identity. They did not follow the leaguewide trend toward run and gun. It was not because they were unwilling. They simply did not have the personnel for it. To play that style, a team needed not only speed but also reliable 3 point shooting, and from their core players to the end of the bench, Miami had very few people who could really stretch the floor.
In this game, Wade went to work with drives and mid range jumpers, piling up 32 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Prime Wade was still terrifying, and the Suns found it difficult to completely shut him down.
But Phoenix did manage to choke off the rest of Miami's offense.
Richardson shot just 5 of 15. Beasley went 5 of 14. The Heat's supporting cast never found a rhythm.
On the other side, the Suns were on fire from deep, and their fast break attack flowed beautifully. Miami stopped resisting after 3 quarters.
Chen Yan clocked out early, finishing with 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. It was one of those games where he looked completely in control without ever needing to reach too deep into the bag.
After beating the Heat, the Suns extended their winning streak to 5 games.
So far, no team had really pushed them to the edge.
But even with Phoenix off to a strong start, a few hidden dangers were already beginning to show.
The first was Nash's back.
Unless he was actually in a game, Nash was almost always lying down.
He lay on the locker room floor. He lay across the advertising boards when he came out of the game. On the plane, he would take over an entire row just so he could stay stretched out.
The burden of 2 straight championship runs had clearly taken a toll on his body, and this season D'Antoni had already started trimming his minutes on purpose.
Given the way things were trending, even Suns management had begun to worry whether Nash could make it to the end of his contract in one piece.
Nash himself, however, stayed relaxed about it. Back problems had followed him for almost his entire career. This was not some new monster suddenly appearing.
Chen Yan even liked to joke that one day he would see Nash playing for the Suns on a stretcher.
The second hidden danger was more serious.
The Suns and Stoudemire still had not agreed on an extension.
Stoudemire had 1 year left on his current contract, worth roughly 17.7 million dollars, and he held a player option for the coming summer.
That meant if Phoenix failed to move him before February 18, the trade deadline for that season, and if Stoudemire chose to opt out, then the Suns could lose their All Star power forward, a man who had been with the franchise for 8 years, for absolutely nothing.
The craziest part was that the Suns were actually leaning toward trading him.
It sounded unbelievable. Stoudemire had been one of the core pieces in both title runs. Calling him a major contributor would be putting it mildly.
But it was true.
During the offseason, Stoudemire had already shown his dissatisfaction. The Suns had rewarded Nash with an extension, yet another cornerstone of the championship team, himself, had been left waiting.
Stoudemire wanted a 5 year fully guaranteed maximum contract.
Phoenix did not want to give it to him.
Part of the reason was simple. Owner Sarver had always been cautious with money.
The bigger reason, though, was health.
Since entering the league, Stoudemire had gone through a long list of surgeries, large and small. Last season alone, he had missed most of the year because of retinal surgery.
The Suns' medical staff had warned management that Stoudemire's knees could probably sustain no more than 2 more years at a high level. If Phoenix committed long term money to him and that medical prediction came true, they would be left carrying a massive contract for a declining player.
Still, no matter how the front office tried to justify it, trying to sell off a key member of a championship core was a hard thing to accept.
Calling it burning bridges would not have been unfair.
And once that kind of tension entered the picture, it was bound to affect Stoudemire mentally. His emotions bled into his play. In recent games, he had become wildly inconsistent. One night he would explode for 30 plus. The next, he might struggle to even reach 10.
That trend showed up again in the following game against the Magic.
Stoudemire completely lost his touch, shooting 2 of 13 from the field and 4 of 6 from the line for just 8 points.
Nash rested that night, so the entire offensive burden fell onto Chen Yan.
He scored 55 points and still could not save the Suns.
Howard, Carter, and Nelson combined to hand Phoenix its first loss of the season.
Carter had fit in well since arriving in Orlando, to the point that many fans had already forgotten the team had lost Turkoglu in the offseason.
In the eyes of many people, even a declining Carter was still a star, still a man who could deliver in crucial moments. Turkoglu, no matter how useful, was still just a role player in their minds, a player whose impact shrank when the stakes rose.
Howard was ecstatic after the win. In his mind, this was revenge for the previous season's Finals.
The Suns, top to bottom, did not make much of it. To most of the players, it was just a regular season loss.
Chen Yan saw something else.
He sensed the faint outline of a crisis.
He had a feeling the number of games in which he would have to go all out was about to increase.
2 days later, the Suns began their Eastern Conference road trip.
Their first stop was Boston.
Before the game, Durant was buzzing with motivation.
Chen Yan had been the biggest reason Durant worked so hard during the offseason. Deep down, Durant had always dreamed of beating him, proving himself against him, measuring his own growth against the standard Chen Yan had become.
His feelings were complicated.
On one hand, Chen Yan was his brother, his former roommate, one of his closest friends.
On the other hand, there was a flame inside him that never quite went out.
Jealousy.
Ever since Chen Yan won the championship, Durant had quietly turned him into the opponent in his imagination, the shadow he chased even when nobody else knew it.
After lunch and a short break, the Suns took the team bus to TD Garden.
NBA games usually started around 7:00 or 7:30 in the evening. In the end, it was a business, and business followed the crowd. Most paying customers worked during the day and only had time after dinner, so that timeslot fit perfectly.
Players usually arrived 3 to 4 hours early to warm up, loosen their bodies, and get comfortable with the court.
During warmups, Durant walked over to Chen Yan.
"Chen, are you ready for your second loss of the season?"
Chen Yan smiled.
"KD, do you realize you are talking to the MVP of a championship team?"
Durant did not back down.
"I came here tonight to beat a championship team."
Chen Yan laughed softly.
"Looks like the biggest thing you improved after entering the league is your trash talk."
Durant's smile widened.
"Then come test it. If you really think that, I promise you'll regret it after the game."
The two kept smiling the entire time, as if they were joking around.
But beneath those smiles, the tension was unmistakable.
.....
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