"Thud!"
At the top of the key, Blake Su faced Joe Johnson. Curry, Nash, and Carter all instinctively spaced out to one side, giving Blake Su all the room he needed to attack one-on-one.
"Thud, thud, thud!"
Facing Joe Johnson, Blake Su went into a series of crossovers, searching for his rhythm. The moment the ball came to his right hand, his foot planted, and he accelerated hard to the right.
"A drive to the right!"
Joe Johnson's eyes sharpened. He read the move, stepped over, and slid sideways to keep up.
"Screech!"
Blake Su had been reading the defense the entire time. He used the momentum to stop on a dime and step back, instantly creating space between them before rising into a jumper.
At only 6-foot-7, Joe Johnson had no chance of blocking it.
All he could do was hope the shot missed.
"Swish!"
But things did not go his way. The ball pierced through the net, clean as could be.
On the next possession, Blake Su faced Joe Johnson again and used the exact same attack. A string of crossovers, then a sudden stop into a step-back mid-range jumper.
"Swish!"
Once again, he shook Joe Johnson off by half a step and knocked down the jumper.
Then came another possession. Blake Su used the exact same move again, shaking Joe Johnson loose and hitting another step-back jumper.
The same move, three straight times.
Blake Su had beaten Joe Johnson one-on-one three possessions in a row. For "Iso Joe," this was pure humiliation.
The key was...
"The key is, Joe Johnson tried to use that same move earlier to take Blake Su one-on-one," Van Gundy said, shaking his head. "But Blake Su stopped him on two straight possessions, and one of them ended with Joe getting brutally blocked."
"That's right," Mike Breen said with a nod and a laugh. "Blake Su is giving him a taste of his own medicine. He's using Iso Joe's own offense to beat Iso Joe three times in a row.
That kind of attack can absolutely break a player mentally."
Break him mentally?
Yes.
Joe Johnson knew full well that Blake Su was deliberately using his own moves against him, beating him over and over, yet he had no way to stop it.
How could he not be angry?
Of course he was angry.
In fact... he was furious.
"Hmph!"
On another possession, Joe Johnson once again found himself matched up against Blake Su. He snorted coldly and sneered, "Dribble, dribble, dribble. What's the point of all those flashy moves?
You don't actually think you're a guard, do you?
Don't tell me... you really think your dribbling looks cool? You know, that ridiculous dribbling of yours makes you look like a clown jumping around."
Joe Johnson kept taunting him, trying to rattle Blake Su, hoping to force him into a miss or a turnover.
"Hm?"
Blake Su frowned when he heard him.
Yes.
Joe Johnson's words had affected Blake Su.
Or rather, they had successfully angered him.
So... at the top of the key, Blake Su stopped the crossover he had been dribbling into, slowly straightened up, and gave Joe Johnson a calm look.
Then...
"Whoosh!"
Right in front of him, directly against his defense, Blake Su jumped, gathered the ball, snapped his wrist, and launched a three-pointer.
"What?!"
Joe Johnson was startled, then even more furious. He jumped with everything he had to contest.
But... Blake Su had an absolute advantage in height, wingspan, leaping ability, and explosiveness. Add in the lightning-fast release from his [Peak Curry Three-Point Shot], and even without a single fake, even with a completely straightforward pull-up three...
Joe Johnson still could not reach it.
And...
"Swish!"
The ball drew a beautiful arc through the air, then plunged straight through the net.
"How is that possible?!"
Joe Johnson's eyes widened in shock.
"Why wouldn't it be?"
Blake Su gave a faint snort.
On the next possession, Blake Su brought the ball up again. Still no crossover. No change of direction. He gathered the ball at the top of the key and rose up once more, right in the face of Joe Johnson's desperate contest.
"Swish!"
Catch, release, bucket.
Another three-pointer splashed cleanly through the net.
Joe Johnson's eyes widened again. Facing Blake Su, facing a shot he knew was coming but still could not stop, his face was filled with disbelief.
"Hmph."
After hitting another three, Blake Su snorted softly. He ignored Joe Johnson in front of him and said flatly, "Dribbling twice is me showing you respect.
If I just pull up, can you even block it?"
Buzz!
Dribbling twice is me showing you respect.
If I just pull up, can you even block it?
Every word from Blake Su struck Joe Johnson's mind like thunder, crashing and exploding again and again inside his head.
Joe Johnson's brain buzzed.
"That's right. Dribbling twice is him showing me respect. If he just rises up and shoots in my face, I really can't block it. I really don't have any answer at all.
I simply... can't guard Blake Su!"
The moment Joe Johnson realized this, his mentality shattered completely. He lost all desire to keep defending Blake Su.
On the next possession, the Suns pushed in transition. Curry accelerated in one step and blew right past a distracted, completely out-of-sorts Joe Johnson, finishing easily at the rim.
"Beep, beep!"
Hawks head coach Larry Drew immediately knew things had gone bad. He called timeout at once, subbed Joe Johnson out, and kept comforting and encouraging him.
Although it looked like Blake Su destroying him was a simple matter, the truth was that Joe Johnson was an Eastern Conference All-Star reserve. He was at the peak of both his popularity and his ability.
Larry Drew did not want to see his team get beaten so badly that they lost confidence.
That would be disastrous.
At the commentary desk.
"Tsk, tsk..."
Van Gundy clicked his tongue when he saw it. "Joe Johnson is frozen. He... he really got shut down mentally by Blake Su."
"There's nothing he can do," Mike Breen said, shaking his head in amazement. "I think Iso Joe must have said something to Blake Su and angered him. That's why Blake Su stopped dribbling and stopped using crossovers.
He just started scoring with the most unreasonable pull-up jumper possible.
Joe Johnson thought Blake Su couldn't do it, but with Blake Su's athletic talent, he's practically the Human Mismatch. He can create a mismatch against almost anyone.
Against Joe Johnson, attacking off the dribble was already a courtesy. If Blake Su simply pulls up, Joe really can't block him.
And... Blake Su is best at pressing an advantage. He's best at delivering the fatal blow when his opponent is at his most vulnerable, completely breaking their mentality.
Joe Johnson is the strongest point on this team.
Once his confidence sinks, the Hawks' chances of winning are basically zero."
Yes.
Just as Mike Breen had analyzed, in the latter half of the first quarter, while the mentally shaken Joe Johnson sat for a brief rest, the Suns surged forward in one breath.
They hammered the Hawks with a 15-3 offensive storm.
In that quarter alone, they won by as many as 18 points.
By halftime, the Suns had already stretched their lead to a full 24 points. In just one half, they had snapped one of the wings of the fifth-seeded Hawks in the East.
...
After the break, the teams switched sides.
Joe Johnson gradually adjusted and returned to the floor, but everyone knew that whether he played or not, the result of this game was basically already decided.