Chapter 536: The Extra Large Triple Double Wins!
After the brief chaos, the game resumed.
With Stoudemire ejected, Jordan entered much earlier than expected, while the Lakers countered by sending in Josh Powell.
Both D Antoni and Phil Jackson were frowning on the sidelines. Losing a core big man this early completely disrupted their plans.
Relatively speaking, Phil Jackson was in a worse spot. Phoenix at least had serviceable frontcourt depth. Barnes and Jordan could both give solid minutes. But what about the Lakers? Mbenga, Powell, and the others might fill out the roster, but no one could honestly say they were real backup interior anchors for a team trying to win the Western Conference Finals.
Because Garnett had been ejected, he could not shoot the free throws, so Kobe stepped up in his place.
He made both with ease.
11 to 16.
The Lakers still kept possession, since the flagrant foul meant 2 free throws plus the ball.
Los Angeles inbounded. Posey held the ball on the baseline, and Chen Yan did not crowd him too tightly. Posey was not much of a threat as a handler.
As expected, after 2 probing dribbles, Posey swung the ball to Camby. Camby immediately moved it to Kobe on the perimeter.
The Suns had dropped into a 2 to 3 zone, with Grant Hill closest to Kobe.
Hill closed hard the instant Kobe rose, but the shot had too much drift and sailed long left.
Air ball.
The roar inside US Airways Center instantly spiked. The home crowd took great pleasure in that miss.
Kobe did not react. He turned and ran back on defense with the same cold expression, as if the noise around him did not exist.
Phoenix came back the other way with Nash organizing at the top.
Without Stoudemire, the Suns lost a huge chunk of their pick and roll pressure. Nash understood that winning this game would require more than outside shooting. He had to become more aggressive himself.
Diaw stepped up to screen on the perimeter. Nash moved laterally, looking for a 3 point opportunity, but Fisher fought over the screen in time and recovered to his front.
With 14 seconds still on the clock, Nash did not force the issue. He swung the ball to Chen Yan.
The moment Chen Yan caught it, he jabbed left, sold the fake, and then exploded right.
The feint was sharp, and his first step was outrageous. Posey barely had time to react and almost instinctively shifted the wrong way. By the time he tried to recover, Chen Yan had already gained half a step.
He pinned Posey on his hip, then hit a second burst into the lane.
Camby rotated over immediately.
Both jumped at the same time.
In midair, Chen Yan scooped the ball out from under Camby's far arm and floated it toward the rim, where Jordan already had both hands up waiting.
Before the game, Chen Yan had told him to always be ready near the basket. Jordan had not expected the chance to come this quickly. On his very first offensive possession after checking in, he got a free runway.
He caught the pass cleanly and finished with a violent 2 handed dunk.
11 to 18.
The Lakers came back down, and Phoenix loaded the defense toward Kobe. After the air ball on the previous possession, everyone expected him to answer.
Sure enough, Kobe immediately called for an isolation.
He caught it on the wing, sideways to Grant Hill, who pressed tightly and tried to shrink every inch of space.
Kobe answered with patience. He rocked the ball, took 1 hard dribble right, then snapped into a quick spin back the other direction.
Grant Hill stayed with the first move, but Kobe's rhythm was vicious. He changed pace in the middle of the move, lowered his shoulder, and created just enough separation.
Diaw stepped over. Jordan started shading from the weak side as well.
Kobe saw both of them.
He took a big hop step toward Diaw, cleverly using Diaw's body as a shield to momentarily take Jordan out of the play. Then he rose into a fading jumper.
13 to 18.
With 1 possession, Kobe recovered everything he had lost on the air ball.
Phoenix came back, and this time Kobe actively switched onto Chen Yan.
Fans had been waiting for this matchup, and finally they got it.
Unlike before, Kobe was not trying to trade buckets with him here. His focus was simple. Stop Chen Yan from getting comfortable and prevent him from igniting.
Chen Yan welcomed the challenge. If Kobe wanted the switch, then he would get it.
He was in excellent form tonight, and his confidence was obvious.
Jordan came up as if to screen, but Chen Yan waved him away.
At the top, he started with a series of rhythm dribbles on 1 leg, sizing Kobe up.
It was the kind of possession fans loved, a true one on one duel.
Kobe's center of gravity barely moved. Simple setup dribbles were never going to shake him.
Then, on the 3rd crossover, Chen Yan snapped his left shoulder, jabbed left, and immediately whipped the ball back to his right.
A beautiful crossover.
Kobe still managed to slide with him.
He had clearly studied Chen Yan in detail. Kobe's film work was different from everyone else's. He did not just memorize habits and favorite spots. He paid attention to expressions, body language, and the tiny cues most defenders missed. Calling him a basketball obsessive was not an exaggeration.
Leaning into Kobe, Chen Yan drove to the right elbow, then suddenly hopped, stopped, and showed the ball.
Kobe still did not bite.
Grant Hill floated around to the wing for a catch and shoot option, but Chen Yan ignored it. He spun into a turnaround fadeaway over Kobe instead.
Kobe got a hand up, but Chen Yan still shot right over the top.
Swish.
13 to 20.
Chen Yan jogged back with a blank expression. Stoudemire's ejection had not changed his mindset at all. Tonight, no matter who was gone, Phoenix had to win.
That shot gave the whole team a jolt.
The Suns rode that energy the rest of the quarter and closed the 1st with a 32 to 23 lead.
Chen Yan's line after 1 quarter was already loaded, 12 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds.
After resting for only 3 minutes and 30 seconds in the 2nd, he checked back in.
On his first touch, he buried a 3.
His rhythm had not cooled at all.
The rest of the quarter followed the same pattern. Chen Yan kept controlling the game in every category. His efficiency made Suns fans forget, at least for a while, how damaging Stoudemire's ejection could have been.
By halftime, Phoenix led 61 to 50, an 11 point advantage.
Chen Yan's numbers had climbed to 22 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. The triple double already felt inevitable. The only real question was how big it would get.
On TNT, Kenny Smith said, "Phoenix had a huge first half."
Barkley laughed. "To be more precise, Phoenix just played to the level everyone expected from them."
In the 3rd quarter, the Lakers' transition defense started to crack as their legs got heavier. The Suns immediately pounced, opening with a 10 to 3 run.
Phil Jackson called timeout. When play resumed, Kobe took over more of the offense and helped stabilize the Lakers, but the bleeding did not stop fast enough. Transition defense was only part of the problem. The bigger issue was inside. Once Garnett went out, Camby was left trying to hold the entire interior together by himself. He could cover for others in the 1st half, but as his legs faded in the 2nd, the weak points started showing.
By the end of the 3rd quarter, Phoenix led 89 to 73.
Midway through the 4th, the margin was still over 15.
Phil Jackson was ready to wave the white flag, but Kobe was not. He refused to let the game go without one last push.
He stayed in until the 1 minute and 57 second mark, but his stubbornness never changed the outcome. If anything, it just gave Chen Yan more time to inflate an already absurd stat line.
And absurd was the only word for it.
He did not just score 50. He also piled up 14 assists and 15 rebounds, an extra large triple double that powered Phoenix to a 114 to 96 home win and evened the series.
Kobe was excellent too, finishing with 30 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists, a strong all around line by any normal standard.
Tonight, though, it looked almost ordinary next to Chen Yan.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]