Chapter 539: The Difficult Next Battle
Four Phoenix players finished in double figures.
Chen Yan led the way with 33 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists, while Nash added 27 points and 13 assists. Between them, they directly accounted for more than half of Phoenix's total offense, enough to make both the players and the fans temporarily forget the pain of losing Stoudemire.
In the postgame interview, a reporter asked Chen Yan how the Suns managed to win at Staples Center.
Chen Yan answered casually, "They beat us on our home court, so we beat them back on theirs. That is all."
Kobe scored a game high 37 points, but he cared far more about the result than the box score. Losing at home did not just mean dropping one game. It also threatened the team's momentum heading into the rest of the series.
And as it turned out, that was not even the worst of it.
The next day, Kobe took another hit from an unexpected direction.
A leaked video surfaced of former Lakers guard Smush Parker criticizing him.
"I spent some time with the Lakers, and honestly, it was not pleasant," Parker said. "In Los Angeles, everything that happens at Staples Center gets magnified, and a lot of people inside that organization were overrated."
"Of course, that does not include Phil Jackson. He is a great coach, and I have no problem with him. The one who made my time with the Lakers miserable was Number 24, your favorite golden boy. He was the biggest problem on that team from start to finish."
"When people talk about greatness, the first thing they should talk about is leadership. From that angle, Kobe was not just below the mark, he was not even close. When I played with him, his word carried more weight than the coach's. If Kobe told you to do something, you did it. Otherwise, he would curse you out or freeze you out for the next 2 or 3 games. He treated teammates like servants, not family."
In reality, those remarks had been recorded back in the summer of 2008. They were simply released now by media outlets looking to stir chaos at the worst possible moment.
Smush Parker himself had little influence, but with the Lakers already under pressure, his words were instantly amplified.
He was cursed from every direction. When he woke up, Lakers fans were flooding him with abuse, and some even sent death threats.
Kobe was dragged into the center of the storm. Plenty of fans who loved drama began claiming he was the main reason the Lakers had lost.
D Antoni, meanwhile, was more than happy to watch the Lakers deal with internal noise. The strongest walls often collapse from the inside, and right now the Lakers looked as if cracks were starting to spread.
Two days later, the series shifted to Los Angeles for Game 4.
Before tipoff, many media outlets predicted Phoenix would take another one and return home with a 3 to 1 lead. Their reasoning was simple. Momentum was on Phoenix's side.
Of course, the media had been saying the exact opposite just before Game 3, confidently declaring that the Lakers were about to turn the series around. Taking them seriously was a fool's game.
Kobe entered the arena expressionless.
He was facing enormous pressure in this one, but pressure had always been his natural habitat.
From the opening quarter, he came out attacking without hesitation. He scored 13 points in the first period alone.
Phoenix, by contrast, was slow to settle in. Their players only began finding their rhythm near the end of the quarter.
At the end of the first, the Suns trailed 21 to 28.
In the second quarter, Phoenix tried to change things. D Antony repeatedly told his players to trap Kobe and force the ball out of his hands.
That opened the door for Fisher.
He stepped up and buried back to back 3 pointers from deep, stabilizing the Lakers whenever Phoenix threatened to push forward. Camby also gave them exactly what they needed in the quarter, scoring 7 points and swatting away 2 shots.
At halftime, Kobe delivered an impassioned speech, urging the entire team to carry their first half energy into the second and protect the lead all the way to the finish.
The Lakers responded.
They could feel the win.
Phil Jackson also kept reminding them to get back in transition and not give Phoenix anything easy. He knew exactly how dangerous the Suns could be once they found a rhythm. One third quarter burst from Phoenix could flip the whole game.
Sure enough, the Suns came out of the break flying.
They ripped off a 9 to 0 run and cut the deficit to 6.
Phil Jackson immediately called timeout.
And just when it felt like the Lakers were starting to wobble, Kobe took over.
A difficult fadeaway.
A pull up jumper through a trap.
A hard drive that turned into a 2 plus 1.
He turned the third quarter into his personal showcase, answering every Phoenix surge with one ruthless basket after another and keeping the Lakers firmly in front.
In the fourth quarter, Phoenix got desperate. They launched one 3 point attempt after another, including plenty of forced looks. The result was ugly. The misses piled up, and the gap only kept growing.
Midway through the fourth, Chen Yan targeted Fisher on 3 straight possessions, trying to spark one final push.
For a moment, it felt like the game might still turn.
Then Kobe crushed that hope.
First he calmly made 2 free throws.
Then he stepped into a deep 3 from well beyond the line and buried it.
That shot made one thing clear.
Tonight belonged to him, and nobody was taking it away. Not even the league's newest king.
With 3 minutes and 15 seconds left, the Lakers had pushed the lead to 15. D Antoni finally pulled Chen Yan from the floor.
Only then did the fans at Staples Center truly dare to breathe.
As long as Chen Yan was still out there, nobody in the building felt safe. Even with a comfortable lead, they were afraid to celebrate too early.
That was the kind of pressure he created.
He had reversed too many games already.
In the end, the Lakers defended home court with a 105 to 94 victory, tying the series at 2 to 2.
Kobe was the unquestioned star of the night. He shot 16 of 29 from the field, 4 of 7 from 3, and 10 of 11 at the line for a massive 46 points.
He answered every doubt with his play and defended the honor of his home floor.
Old Fish Fisher also gave him perfect support, knocking down five 3 pointers.
Chen Yan had a relatively quiet night by his standards, finishing with 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Phoenix's second leading scorer was Azubuike with 17 points. Nash had 15 points and 7 assists. Grant Hill added 11. Other than those three, no Sun reached double figures.
As expected, the American media immediately swung back toward the Lakers after the game.
Before Game 4, they had been saying Phoenix was stable and that the Suns would win without much trouble. The second the final buzzer sounded, they changed their tune and started saying the Lakers' win had always been logical, and that taking the series was now only a matter of time.
In Chen Yan's eyes, it was the same old routine. They were not reporting the truth. They were selling drama for the next game.
And Game 5 was going to be brutal.
Garnett was returning.
Stoudemire was still suspended.
The decisive battle ahead would be far more difficult for Phoenix.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]