Chapter 773: Unorthodox Tactics, A Bizarre Start
"1! 2! 3! Go! Go! Chicago!"
Before Game 3, the Bulls players gathered together and shouted with tremendous energy.
Thibodeau's motivational speech had clearly worked.
For the moment, Chicago had forgotten the 2 crushing defeats at Madison Square Garden.
Their attention was entirely focused on defending their home court.
The Knicks looked very different.
Several players appeared tired and sluggish.
Many of them had barely slept the previous night.
Chicago fans had used every trick they could think of to disrupt the visiting team.
Throughout the night, groups of fans gathered outside the Knicks hotel, banging drums, making noise, and creating as much disturbance as possible.
Chen Yan had experienced this kind of treatment before.
Road environments became especially hostile during the Playoffs, so he had prepared earplugs in advance.
Unfortunately, the noise outside was only the beginning.
Later that night, several scantily dressed women carrying cakes appeared at the hotel and began knocking on the Knicks players doors.
Some players failed to resist the temptation.
They opened their doors.
And apparently, a few of them spent the entire night entertaining their unexpected visitors.
The following morning, Chen Yan immediately noticed that several teammates looked exhausted.
DeAndre Jordan was the most obvious.
Dark circles surrounded his eyes, and even his walking looked unsteady.
Chen Yan stared at him suspiciously.
After repeated questioning, DeAndre finally confessed.
"I was going to turn her away," he said awkwardly. "But she was just too... convincing."
Chen Yan narrowed his eyes.
"So you gave in?"
DeAndre nodded sheepishly.
Chen Yan continued.
"How long?"
DeAndre hesitated.
"Until 6 AM."
Chen Yan stared at him speechlessly.
He wanted to scold him.
Unfortunately, DeAndre had technically not broken the rule Chen Yan had established.
Chen Yan had forbidden him from going to nightclubs on game days.
DeAndre had obeyed.
He had not gone anywhere.
The trouble had come directly to his hotel room.
During lunch, Chen Yan noticed Curry also had dark circles under his eyes.
A bad feeling immediately surfaced.
"Stephen, do not tell me you did it too."
Curry smiled helplessly.
"3 different women kept knocking on my door saying they wanted to give me cake. Eventually, I got tired of it, took the cake, and sent them away."
He paused.
"The cake was actually pretty good."
Chen Yan stared at him.
"You really ate it? You were not worried somebody might put something in it?"
Curry shrugged.
"I did not think that far ahead. It has been an entire night, and I feel fine."
There had long been stories surrounding Michael Jordan's famous illness during the Playoffs in Utah, with claims that contaminated food had left him vomiting, weak, and barely able to function on game day.
At least nothing that extreme had happened to the Knicks.
Most of the roster had behaved responsibly.
Battier, Jeremy Lin, David West, and Barea had all stayed out of trouble.
Jeremy Lin in particular never had any interest in the women.
As a devout Christian who refused premarital sex, Lin had simply stood at his doorway when 1 woman refused to leave.
"Please respect yourself."
The woman had apparently been left completely speechless.
When Chen Yan heard the story, he almost laughed.
Jeremy Lin had sounded less like an NBA player and more like a monk politely rejecting temptation.
Even without anyone doing anything reckless, however, the Knicks had still been affected by the constant harassment.
But Chen Yan refused to accept fatigue as an excuse.
Hostile treatment on the road was part of Playoffs basketball.
Before the game, he gathered everyone together.
"Wake up. Forget everything that happened last night."
His teammates looked toward him.
"Give everything you have and win this game. If we take this one, they will be 1 loss away from breaking completely."
Chen Yan wanted them to forget the noise, forget the lack of sleep, and immerse themselves completely in basketball.
Once the intensity of the game took over, fatigue could temporarily disappear.
The Knicks starting lineup was Stephen Curry, Chen Yan, Shane Battier, David West, and DeAndre Jordan.
Nelson returned DeAndre to the starting lineup.
He expected Chicago to attack aggressively from the opening tip and wanted a legitimate center protecting the rim and controlling the glass.
Nelson could clearly see that DeAndre was not in ideal condition.
Unfortunately, several Knicks players looked almost equally tired.
After considering his options, Nelson still decided to start him.
Chicago used Westbrook, Richard Hamilton, Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, and Ömer Aşık.
The Bulls controlled the opening tip.
Whatever had happened to DeAndre Jordan the previous night had clearly drained him.
His legs looked weak, and he could not even beat Aşık for the jump ball.
Westbrook immediately attacked.
After using a screen, he exploded toward the paint.
He reached the restricted area and attempted a high bank shot.
The finish was too stiff.
The ball slammed off the backboard and bounced away.
DeAndre turned, secured the rebound, protected the ball, and passed to Chen Yan.
Chen Yan brought it to the top of the arc.
DeAndre moved up to set a screen.
The moment Chen Yan used the pick, Chicago completely abandoned DeAndre and sent multiple defenders toward Chen Yan.
Chen Yan remained perfectly calm.
He lofted the ball forward to the completely open DeAndre.
Everything appeared under control.
Chen Yan had anticipated Chicago's defense perfectly.
What he had failed to anticipate was his own teammate.
DeAndre caught the ball with nobody in front of him.
Then, for some reason, he stopped at the free throw line and shot.
The ball missed everything.
No rim.
No backboard.
It dropped directly into Aşık's hands.
For several seconds, even the broadcasters struggled to process what they had just seen.
Charles Barkley finally broke the silence.
"Man, what was that?"
Kenny Smith laughed.
"I do not know, Chuck. DeAndre had all kinds of space, but I do not think that was the shot New York wanted."
Chicago immediately launched the fast break.
Aşık threw a long outlet pass toward Westbrook.
Only Curry stood between Westbrook and the basket.
Westbrook attacked him directly.
He used a Euro step, moving from right to left, then leaned into Curry while attempting the layup.
This was normally one of Westbrook's most reliable finishes.
But this one missed too.
Clang.
The ball bounced off the backboard.
Westbrook immediately jumped again and grabbed his own offensive rebound.
He turned to shoot.
Chen Yan arrived from behind and to the side.
Westbrook saw him at the last moment and flinched.
He adjusted his release in midair.
Air ball.
Barkley stared at the court.
"What is going on out there?"
Kenny smiled.
"Westbrook looks a little tight. Chicago came into this game with a lot of emotion, and sometimes that works against you early."
New York immediately pushed in transition.
Chen Yan advanced along the left side.
From 1 step outside the 3 point line, he fired a bounce pass diagonally ahead.
Curry caught it and took 1 step toward the rim.
Aşık stood in the paint with both arms raised but did not jump.
The contest came slightly from the side and was not particularly strong.
Curry still missed the layup.
The ball bounced off the backboard.
Barkley immediately laughed.
"Now Curry missed one too. Somebody better check these rims."
Kenny shook his head.
"He rushed it. That was an opportunity where he could have slowed down just a little."
Chicago brought the ball back.
This time, Westbrook crossed half court and deliberately slowed the pace.
He had already missed 3 attempts to open the game.
If he kept attacking by himself and continued missing, eventually his teammates would become frustrated.
Along the baseline, Luol Deng and Hamilton ran a cross screen.
Hamilton desperately tried to shake Chen Yan and get open.
Chen Yan stayed attached to him just as tightly as he had in Game 1.
Hamilton was working even harder tonight.
Even if he could not score, he intended to make Chen Yan run through screen after screen.
That was exactly what Thibodeau wanted.
If Hamilton could exhaust Chen Yan over the course of the game, Chicago would gladly make that trade.
After several cuts, Hamilton finally created separation.
Westbrook found him with the pass.
Hamilton caught the ball, took 2 steps, and attempted the layup.
Clang.
Another miss.
Barkley leaned back in disbelief.
"Nobody can make a layup tonight."
Kenny nodded.
"Both teams look tight right now. New York looks tired, and Chicago looks like they want this game so badly that they are forcing everything."
The Knicks pushed the ball the other way.
David West received the pass and rose for a mid range jumper.
He held the ball a moment too long before releasing it.
Taj Gibson met him directly and blocked the shot.
It was another ugly possession.
Chicago turned and tried to attack immediately.
Then Luol Deng lost control of the ball and knocked it out of bounds.
Turnover.
2 minutes had passed.
Neither team had scored.
0 to 0.
Kenny Smith finally summed it up.
"Both teams are playing tense basketball right now. When your body tightens up, your mechanics change. Shots you normally make start looking difficult."
Barkley nodded.
"Chicago is desperate to win, and New York looks like half the team did not sleep last night. Somebody has to settle down."
The bizarre opening continued.
After 2 full minutes of Playoffs basketball, the scoreboard still showed 0 to 0.
Fans watching at home could only laugh.
For a moment, it looked more like the score of a soccer match than an NBA Playoffs game.
....
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