Chapter 565: Tying His Own Record
Steve Nash was finally showing exactly why he was a 2 time MVP.
His 2 straight 3 point shots had pushed Phoenix back in front, and Stan Van Gundy had no choice but to call timeout. Both baskets had come directly from Chen Yan's playmaking. He handled the ball calmly, drew the defense in, and created the cleanest possible looks for Nash.
Out of the timeout, Orlando went right back to Howard in the post.
Van Gundy clearly wanted his team attacking inside. The officiating had already tilted in Orlando's favor, and as the Magic's head coach, he was not blind to that reality.
Stoudemire tried to front Howard half heartedly, but Alston could not make the entry pass. His passing had always been ordinary, especially when it came to risky feeds into traffic.
Forced to swing the ball back out, Orlando started another round of perimeter movement. It was exactly the kind of possession that made Van Gundy want to scream, but at least this time they did not repeat the previous disaster. After one full reversal, the ball finally found Howard.
Howard turned and went up strong, drawing contact from Stoudemire.
Stoudemire had not meant to foul on that play. He already had 3 fouls, and now he was up to 4.
Howard's first free throw hit the front rim, bounced high, then dropped in. Phoenix immediately subbed Jordan in for Stoudemire.
Hack a Howard had worked, but it had come at a price. At that point, 2 Suns big men were already in foul trouble.
Howard reset himself, took a breath, and stepped into the second free throw.
That one also bounced off the rim and somehow fell through.
69 to 68.
For the first time all night, Howard had made both. Even the broadcast could not resist taking a shot at him for how long it had taken.
Phoenix came right back.
Nash crossed half court and used a screen to try to hit Jordan with a bounce pass. Jordan was usually good at handling those feeds, but this time his inexperience showed. After the catch, he failed to bring the ball up quickly, and Howard slapped it out of bounds.
Fortunately for Phoenix, the officials ruled it Suns ball.
Diaw inbounded from the baseline. Chen Yan battled with Courtney Lee for position, then exploded free in an instant.
Diaw seized the opening and zipped the ball in.
Chen Yan caught it, turned, and rose in one smooth motion.
Swish.
Phoenix had the lead again, 70 to 69.
Lee did not even dare jump at the shot. He had chased too hard, and Chen Yan's turn and release were too fast. If he had left his feet there, he would have been begging for a 3 point play.
Sometimes blind pressure is not real defense. True elite defenders know when to crowd and when to give space.
Orlando came back with Alston attacking off the dribble. He tried to beat Nash with a strong change of direction, but Nash slid over quickly and cut off the lane. He had intentionally given Alston a step in the first place, which made the drive easier to contain.
As for the jumper, Nash did not care. Alston was not the kind of scorer who would suddenly shoot you out of the building.
Denied at the point of attack, Alston gave it up.
Turkoglu and Howard ran pick and roll, and after the switch Turkoglu immediately looked to go after Jordan one on one. Jordan had elite athletic gifts, but he was still a raw rookie. Any veteran guard would want to test him.
Barnes never let it happen.
He left Howard and came flying in from the side.
"Behind you. Behind you."
Howard yelled it. The coaches on the sideline yelled it too.
Turkoglu gathered the ball immediately, paused for a beat, then dropped it off to Howard.
Howard, of course, had zero interest in taking an open jumper. Even wide open, he would rather not shoot. That was exactly why Barnes had dared to leave him.
Jordan switched back onto Howard, and Howard kicked it out to Courtney Lee.
Lee caught the pass, but he did not secure the ball right away.
Chen Yan saw it.
And once he saw it, he was not letting it go.
He darted in and stripped the ball clean.
The ball hit the floor, and both he and Lee went down after it. The whistle blew.
Chen Yan expected a jump ball.
Instead, the referee pointed Orlando's way and called a foul on him.
He only shook his head and walked off.
That was not even close to the first bad whistle Phoenix had seen in this game.
Even the national broadcast thought the strip was clean.
Orlando inbounded from the sideline and went right back to their usual routine, passing the ball in circles around the perimeter. Their offense looked clogged again. The referees had tried their best to hand them a favorable whistle all night, and still the ball refused to move cleanly.
Even the crowd could see the issue. Orlando had shooters, yes, but not true shot creators. Most of their perimeter threats needed open catch and shoot chances. When the defense took those away, their bigs just stood in the paint and clogged everything up.
The shot clock kept draining. With 9 seconds left, Turkoglu finally put his head down and drove, leaning into Barnes as he went.
Jordan stepped over to help. Turkoglu slipped the ball to Howard at the short baseline.
Every Suns defender sagged off Howard by nearly 2 full meters.
Howard held it, paused, then launched one of his awkward baseline jumpers.
It bounced softly on the rim and dropped in.
71 to 70.
Howard broke into a huge grin. He had barely made a field goal all night.
Van Gundy nearly exploded on the sideline.
The possession had still been ugly. The offense had still not worked. It was a bailout jumper with a lucky bounce, and Howard was smiling like he had just solved basketball.
Phoenix answered again.
Chen Yan controlled the ball on the wing with one hand. The moment Stoudemire saw the signal, he sprinted over to screen without even waiting for a call. Their chemistry had reached that point.
Using the pick, Chen Yan did not drive. He took a hard step back to the side instead.
That move sent Orlando into immediate panic. Nobody wanted to see Chen Yan with space behind the arc.
Two defenders lunged at him.
Chen Yan instantly read it and whipped a high lead pass forward.
He put some velocity on it, but the pass was perfect. Stoudemire rolled hard out of the screen, caught it cleanly, and charged into the paint.
Howard went up to contest. Rather than try to finish through him, Stoudemire went to a guard style scoop finish.
He slipped around Howard's reach, but in the air he collided with Turkoglu rotating over from the weak side.
Off balance, Stoudemire still tried to guide it home.
Clang.
The ball hit the glass and bounced out.
The decision itself was reasonable. Going straight at Howard would probably have ended in a block. At least this way he had given himself a chance, and there had been contact on the rotation.
Howard grabbed the rebound and immediately pushed it to Alston. Orlando wanted to run.
Alston crossed half court quickly and fired it to Lewis.
Lewis caught and attacked. Stoudemire was still behind the play, and Barnes was forced to take the matchup.
Barnes stayed attached, but he did not have the strength to stop Lewis from getting all the way downhill.
Then Chen Yan came slicing in from the side.
Seeing Lewis already committed, Chen Yan planted himself just outside the restricted area, hands tucked low, ready for the hit.
Lewis went up for the layup and missed. It would not have counted anyway, because the whistle had already gone.
Charge.
This time the officials did not side with Orlando. They needed some balance, and after swallowing the contact on Stoudemire's last miss, they could not ignore that one too without risking the game boiling over.
Chen Yan hit the floor, clenched his fist, and roared.
The camera caught the whole scene.
It was not the kind of emotion he usually showed after a dunk. But a drawn charge in a game like this, at a moment like this, meant something.
Nash and Barnes helped him back up. Nash laughed and tapped the back of his head.
"Nice one."
"Learned it from you," Chen Yan shot back.
Nash had been a master at drawing charges for years. Chen Yan had never consciously studied it, but anyone who played beside Nash long enough picked up a few things.
After that, both teams went ice cold. Each side missed 4 straight possessions. As the second quarter wound down, legs got heavier, shots came up shorter, and the game stayed razor tight.
At halftime, Phoenix still held the lead, but only barely.
Chen Yan had already scored 21 points with 4 rebounds and 2 assists. It was a strong half, but by his standards it still felt like only the beginning.
In the third quarter, he took over.
He scored 19 points and handed out 4 assists in the period, pushing his line to 40 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds by the end of the quarter. The two sides kept trading blows, and after 3 quarters the score was dead even at 85.
D'Antoni made the call immediately.
The starters were staying on the floor for the entire 4th quarter.
The players agreed without hesitation. Playing 12 straight minutes now was easier than facing another game later, and if they dropped this one, the cost could be far greater than just one extra night of work.
Orlando made the same decision. If their starters sat now, they might as well sit all the way to the end and start planning the fishing trip.
The intensity rose another level in the 4th. Defensive contact got heavier, and Orlando's defenders grew even more physical. The officials continued to ignore plenty of minor contact, allowing the game to tilt toward wrestling.
Even so, Orlando's offense still looked shaky. Phoenix had too much speed and too much length on the perimeter. The Suns kept rotating out to shooters, making life miserable for the Magic wings.
The score stayed close, but the feel of the game still favored Phoenix.
The biggest danger for the Suns became Stoudemire's fouls.
With 7 minutes and 29 seconds left, he picked up foul number 5 and had to come out. Three minutes later, D'Antoni put him back in, but on his very first offensive possession Stoudemire was called for a moving screen and fouled out.
That changed everything.
Without a true interior scoring threat, Orlando could stretch its defense much farther toward Chen Yan and Nash.
Chen Yan immediately shifted into takeover mode.
He attacked over and over, mostly with pull up jumpers. At that point in the game, he knew the officials were not going to give him many calls. Driving and not getting the whistle would just burn possessions. Shooting was the smarter path.
As the tension peaked, Orlando finally got a response from its forwards. Lewis hit a 3. Turkoglu hit another. The Magic proved they were not just surviving on whistles. They could still make shots when it mattered.
With 1 minute and 30 seconds left, Chen Yan dribbled at the top and signaled for everyone to clear out.
At that stage there was no more system. It was pure star against star, skill against skill.
Chen Yan dribbled between his legs again and again, hunting rhythm. On the 5th one, he suddenly burst to his right.
Then came the step back, dragging him behind the arc.
The instant Courtney Lee lunged, Chen Yan gathered and rose.
It was an absurdly difficult shot, the kind only one man on the floor would dare take in that moment.
His confidence was outrageous, but it was not empty confidence. It was backed by skill.
The arc was lower than usual. Fatigue had clearly affected his lift.
It did not affect his accuracy at all.
The ball screamed through the net.
108 to 105.
Phoenix had the lead again.
Chen Yan had 55.
Without even realizing it, he had tied his own NBA Finals scoring record from the previous game.
.....
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