Chapter 555: Chen Yan Outscores the Magic in a Quarter
"Steady the pace. Slow it down," Van Gundy barked from the sideline, already sensing that Alston was pushing the ball too quickly and playing with too much impatience.
Alston eased off and made a handoff with Turkoglu at the top of the arc.
Howard stepped up to screen. Grant Hill fought over it decisively, and Jordan also rushed toward Turkoglu. Their communication was clearly off, leaving Howard open.
Turkoglu still did not force the pass inside right away. It was difficult to thread the ball through a double team, and Howard needed another beat to seal deeper in the lane. If the pass came too early, he would not have enough position.
Instead, Turkoglu swung the ball cross court to Lewis on the wing. Lewis had already spotted Howard diving into the paint and whipped the ball inside with both hands.
Howard caught it cleanly, and for a split second the Suns' restricted area was empty. Jordan was still near the top of the arc, and Diaw had followed Lewis out toward the wing.
Just as Howard was about to tear the rim off, Chen Yan broke away from Courtney Lee and came flying over. The instant Howard turned, Chen Yan slapped down hard.
To be precise, he got both hand and ball.
It was a calculated foul. Once Howard got the ball above his shoulders, the Magic would have had an easy 2 points.
"Wasn't that a little too rough?" Howard complained, shaking his reddened hand.
"When you are guarding a beast, you have to be a little ruthless," Chen Yan said with a shrug.
Howard grinned and walked to the line. He liked the nickname Beast. It sounded powerful.
That was one of the biggest differences between Howard and O'Neal. Both were clowns off the court, but O'Neal would have answered a hard foul with a glare. Howard just smiled.
Character often decides destiny. Howard's playful personality was why, even with once in a generation physical gifts, it was hard for him to become a truly suffocating interior tyrant.
Then he missed both free throws.
The smile faded from Howard's face.
His touch at the line had never been steady, and Chen Yan's slap to the wrist had made it even worse. Missing both was no surprise.
Grant Hill grabbed the rebound and immediately outlet passed to Nash.
Chen Yan posted at the elbow and called for the ball. Nash fed him, and Turkoglu instantly came to double.
The Magic were never going to let Chen Yan turn freely from that spot. If he got to face up against Courtney Lee, the previous possession would repeat itself.
Chen Yan did not hold the ball. He kicked it out immediately to Grant Hill.
Hill did not rush. He paused with the ball, forcing Turkoglu to hesitate and taking some pressure off Chen Yan.
Chen Yan cut toward the lane first, then suddenly reversed course and exploded to the top of the arc.
His off ball movement was ghostlike. That sort of stop start acceleration demanded not just vision and timing, but elite physical control.
Hill delivered the pass right on time.
Chen Yan caught it, leaned left with a quick fake, then rose into a sudden pull up jumper.
Swish.
61 to 56.
That entire sequence was clean and ruthless. From the pass to the movement to the finish, Chen Yan wasted nothing.
It felt like a one shot execution.
Van Gundy's expression darkened on the sideline. Chen Yan was clearly ramping up in the second half. His attacking instincts had fully awakened.
Even when Chen Yan had been quiet in the second quarter, Van Gundy knew that would not last forever. A scorer like him never stayed hidden for long.
Still, as an opponent, he would have preferred Chen Yan to wake up much later.
Alston brought it up and flashed a signal with his right fist.
Using a screen from Lewis, Alston suddenly accelerated and knifed into the paint.
It was a brave drive. He got into the lane before the Suns' defense could fully set. Jordan stepped up to challenge, and Alston lofted a high floater over him.
The ball floated just past Jordan's fingertips and dropped.
63 to 56.
The camera caught Alston pointing his teammates back on defense.
He was clearly more comfortable in Orlando than he had been in Houston. With the Rockets, he was basically asked to bring the ball across half court, hand it to Yao or McGrady, then drift outside the three point line and wait. In Orlando, the system was different. The offense revolved around a group of perimeter attackers, not one or two stars monopolizing every touch.
Even if Alston's jumper remained unstable, his role with the Magic gave him more room to show what he could do.
The Suns came back down. Nash scanned the floor from the top of the arc, already reading two moves ahead.
That was the biggest difference between Nash and an ordinary point guard. As soon as a seam appeared, he saw it.
Grant Hill suddenly cut hard along the baseline. Nash saw him, but he also saw the danger. Turkoglu was close, and Lewis was already shifting. The passing lane was fragile.
Nash's eyes stayed fixed on Hill.
His wrist flicked behind his back.
The pass went to Chen Yan.
Chen Yan used Nash like a screen, caught the ball on the move, and shot into the paint like a supercar.
In less than 2 seconds, he was at the rim.
Lewis and Turkoglu never closed the gap in time.
Howard rotated over, and Chen Yan spun with a huge arc at full speed.
Howard rose high to block it, but Chen Yan twisted in the air with absurd flexibility.
After the spin, he completed a reverse layup with his left hand, his body bent like a pretzel as he banked it home.
63 to 58.
The boos rained down from the home crowd. Now the Magic fans were finally getting a taste of what it felt like to be on the wrong side of Chen Yan.
On the next Magic trip, Howard got the ball deep and backed Jordan down with power.
Beep.
Jordan was whistled for a foul. It was a shaky call, but once the whistle blew, there was nothing he could do.
Howard split the free throws.
64 to 58.
"Defense!"
"Defense!"
"Defense!"
The crowd thundered, trying to drown out the Suns and cool off Chen Yan.
Instead, it made him sharper.
He liked turning a loud arena quiet.
This time Chen Yan handled the ball with brutal simplicity. Nash passed it to him beyond the three point line. Chen Yan took one hard retreat dribble.
Not just behind the line.
He stepped all the way back to the Magic logo, just a stride from half court.
Courtney Lee barely had time to react before Chen Yan launched a super long three.
Swish.
Nothing but net.
64 to 61.
That shot hit so cleanly it felt like a knife through the arena.
Van Gundy had seen enough. Chen Yan's rhythm was fully there now, and he was playing like a man in the Zone.
Timeout.
Out of the break, D'Antoni sent Stoudemire back in.
The Magic came down and ran a classic give and go. Howard got the ball, banged into Jordan, and powered toward the middle.
Beep.
Howard forced another foul on Jordan. The whistle again leaned his way.
He made 1 of 2.
65 to 61.
The Suns answered quickly.
Nash pushed in transition. The Magic retreated hard, so he slowed and let the offense develop.
Chen Yan trailed casually over half court, almost strolling into the play, the last Sun to cross the line.
It looked suspicious.
He usually was the first one flying ahead in transition.
A step in front of the logo, Nash hit him.
Chen Yan rose immediately.
The trajectory looked wrong. It was clearly short, obviously off.
Then the ball dropped perfectly into Stoudemire's hands under the rim.
It was a pass.
By the time the Magic realized it, Stoudemire was already in the air, hammering it down.
"This looked like a shot, but it wasn't a shot. It looked like a pass, but it wasn't a pass. That was brilliant from Chen Yan," Jackson said on the ABC feed.
Stoudemire came down grinning and slapped Chen Yan's hand. Getting that kind of dunk opportunity right after checking in felt great.
Nobody was surprised that Chen Yan could make a pass like that. He had the imagination and the audacity for it.
And when he got into rhythm, the brilliant passes always came. It was part of how he bent a defense until it cracked.
The third quarter became his show.
He scored from deep. He sliced to the rim. He forced the Magic to scramble. He controlled the pace of the game and the mood of the arena.
By the time the quarter ended, Chen Yan had dropped 22 points in the period and dragged Phoenix all the way back in front.
The Suns led 84 to 82 heading into the fourth.
It was worth noting that the entire Magic team had managed only 21 points in the third quarter.
Fans online immediately started joking that Chen Yan had outscored Orlando by 1 all by himself in a single quarter.
.....
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