Chapter 254 The offensive performance is late but it arrives
Chen Yan had just erased a fifteen point deficit by himself.
During the timeout, the TV ratings for Game Three between the Suns and the Nuggets spiked.
Chen Yan's sudden explosion had dragged the game back to life.
On the Suns bench, Mike D Antoni drew up a quick adjustment.
To be honest, the core of the plan was simple.
Give the ball to Chen Yan and let him go.
The rest of the Suns players agreed without complaint. They knew very well that Chen had just dragged them from a deep hole back to even. Their job now was to give him space and trust his reads.
The timeout ended. The Suns kept the same lineup. The Nuggets made a small change.
Denver was running Allen Iverson, Jr Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, and Marcus Camby.
George Karl usually did not like playing Iverson, Jr, and Anthony together for long stretches. He worried the ball would stick and the scoring load would be too top heavy.
But this moment was different. Every extra creator on the floor meant a better chance to close this game out.
Even Karl did not expect the effect to show up on the very first possession.
Jr Smith took the ball, drove into the crowd, then twisted his body and launched a wild pull up from behind his head.
The ball hit the rim, bounced high, kissed the iron a few more times, then finally dropped through.
98 - 96.
The Nuggets were back in front.
After the shot, Jr pounded his chest and shouted to the crowd. He lived for moments like this.
He never feared the stage. That was why some nights he looked like a star and other nights like a gambler.
The Suns came down on offense.
"Defense. Defense. Defense."
The whole building chanted in rhythm. Pepsi Center was shaking.
Steve Nash brought the ball over half court, head up, and looked for Chen Yan right away.
Jr Smith had the primary assignment on Chen now.
George Karl had seen how well Kenyon Martin had done earlier, but he did not dare leave Kenyon alone on Chen again in this kind of moment.
Jr and Chen were close in size and strength. Jr was fresh, full of energy, and he stuck to Chen like glue.
Chen Yan ran the baseline once, twice, then finally came open enough for Nash to zip him a pass.
Nash's mindset was clear. Get Chen the ball.
Chen caught it and attacked the baseline hard.
Jr did not lose position at first. He stayed with him.
Only for a moment.
Chen suddenly stopped, turned his body, and sold a hard move back toward the three point line.
Jr bit on the fake. In that split second, Chen exploded again, cutting back along the lane.
That short sequence completely shook Jr loose.
Once Chen turned the corner, Camby slid over to help.
He had already been dunked on by Chen once in this series and had never really gotten his revenge. As the defending shot block leader, that bothered him.
Now he locked in, ready to go all out for a huge block at this key moment.
Chen rose and floated the ball with one hand.
It looked like a floater, but it was really a lob.
Amare Stoudemire came flying in behind Camby, caught it in stride, and crushed it with both hands.
Boom.
After he landed, Amare roared and slapped the padding under the basket. This was his favorite way to score.
98 - 98.
"The right play," Kenny said, excited. "Chen drew the big and then dropped it off for the dunk."
"That is what he does," Barkley added. "He pulls the whole defense to himself like a magnet. Phoenix has not had a guy like that in years."
On the next trip, Denver needed an answer.
Once again, it was Jr Smith who stepped up.
He came off a screen, rose from deep on the wing, and let another tough three fly.
Drifting to the side, catch and fire, a moving jumper off the dribble. It was a very tough shot.
Karl held his breath as the ball went up. He knew Jr's threes were pure risk and reward.
This time, the reward came. The shot splashed through.
Swish.
100 - 98. The Nuggets led by three.
"Big time from Jr Smith," Kenny said. "In this stretch it is not Iverson or Melo, it is Jr making the shots."
The Nuggets fans whipped their towels and roared. For them, it did not matter who scored, as long as Denver stayed ahead.
The Suns came right back.
Chen used a screen to shake free, then suddenly stopped and cut toward the corner again.
All eyes on the floor followed him. His constant movement pulled the Nuggets defense around like a string.
Nash saw the gap.
Instead of forcing it to Chen, he stepped into the space around the free throw line and rose for a jumper.
Swish.
100 - 100.
Nash, the assist leader of the league, could run the offense all night, but when the defense overplayed his teammates, he could always score.
"Steve, great shot," Chen shouted as they ran back.
Nash smiled and pointed back at him.
For the viewers it looked like a simple pull up. Nash knew better. Chen's cuts had bent the defense and opened that space for him.
On both of those trips, Chen had accepted the tighter defense on himself, then used it to set up his teammates.
After the timeout, he could feel clearly that the Nuggets had turned up the pressure on him. When the defense tightened on Chen, it loosened on everyone else.
On the Nuggets side, Jr's burst had lit up the whole offense.
Anthony and Iverson each knocked down jumpers on the next two possessions.
Denver's shooting recovered, and the score stayed tight all the way down to the final fifty seven seconds.
Denver Nuggets 109, Phoenix Suns 108.
Nuggets ball.
The Pepsi Center crowd stood up.
This possession could swing the whole game.
Iverson held the ball at the top, while Anthony battled Matt Barnes on the block.
In the last two minutes, D Antoni had put Barnes on Melo to bring more toughness and size.
Iverson did not force it inside. One mistake here could be deadly.
From the right wing, around the sixty degree spot beyond the arc, Jr Smith popped out to catch.
Iverson trusted him and swung the ball his way.
Given how Jr had played these last few minutes, Iverson believed in him in this moment.
Once Jr caught it, he saw only the rim.
He put down a hard dribble, took a strong step, and rose into a pull up at the right elbow over Chen Yan.
The stop was sharp.
Chen stayed with him, but he did not sell out and crash into him.
He had gone on a huge scoring run, but he had not forgotten his foul trouble. If he picked up another cheap whistle here and got sent out, everything he had done could be wasted.
So he used a different trick.
At the moment Jr went up, Chen lifted his big hand and put it right in front of Jr's eyes.
He did not hit him, just blocked his view.
It was the same simple, annoying move Shane Battier used so often.
It had never worked on Chen himself. That did not mean it would not bother someone else.
Bang.
The shot hit the iron and bounced away. A groan rolled through the crowd.
Jr Smith had missed a huge one with Chen in his face.
Still, the Nuggets players kept their focus. They were up one. All they needed now was one big stop.
The ball bounced out toward the free throw line.
Nash took a quick step back, beat everyone to it, and grabbed the rebound.
He turned at once and pushed. No outlet needed.
Chen sprinted out to Nash's right.
Near the center circle, Nash flipped the ball to him.
Because Nash could also pull up and hit from deep, the Nuggets did not dare send a second defender at Chen.
The deeper the game got, the more careful both teams became.
Jr stuck to Chen. After that barrage of threes in the fourth quarter, he was not giving Chen any easy looks.
Chen understood exactly what Jr wanted to do on defense.
Sometimes in a close game, reading the defender matters more than any skill move.
If they play you to stop the drive, you shoot. If they crowd your shot, you drive. Get that one read right, and scoring gets a lot easier.
Chen did not slow down after the catch. He attacked with a hard dribble, trying to turn the corner.
Jr turned his hips quickly and chased. His body and burst were elite. Even as a reserve, his energy was high.
Chen pushed to the right side, reaching the forty five degree area beyond the three point line, then slammed on the brakes.
His shoes squeaked loud against the floor.
Jr's body weight carried forward. The moment his hand came up to contest, Chen rose straight into a pull up jumper.
The shot had perfect rhythm.
The ball floated through the air, then dropped clean through the net.
Swish.
One shot changed everything.
The crowd noise flipped in an instant.
Same angle. Same distance. Different result. The tiny gap was all it took.
110 - 109.
With thirty nine seconds left, the Suns finally took the lead.
It was their first lead of the entire game.
Suns fans watching at home lost control, shouting and jumping in front of their screens.
For the Nuggets and their fans, it felt like a punch to the gut.
It was like leading the whole way in a long race, only to be passed right before the finish line.
Even though the horn had not sounded yet, the shot alone was enough to rattle them.
With that jumper, Chen had scored twenty one points in the fourth quarter by himself.
His offensive performance came late, but it came right when the Suns needed it most.
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