Chapter 518: Match Point and Praise from the Opposing Coach
2 days later, Game 4 between the Suns and the Mavericks tipped off at the American Airlines Center.
After becoming the latest member of the Empty Stat Line Club in the previous game, Chen Yan reflected seriously and adjusted his offensive approach.
He came to a simple conclusion.
There was only 1 reason he had ended up in that club.
He had not attacked hard enough.
So from the opening possession of this game, he showed an overwhelming desire to score.
After two sharp crossovers shook Artest off balance, Chen Yan drove hard to the rim and drew a foul.
On the next possession, he attacked off the dribble again without hesitation.
When his jump shot had not fully settled in early, this was usually the way he preferred to play, direct, forceful, and punishing.
Chen Yan opened his scoring account quickly, and Rick Carlisle responded without delay by sending an aggressive double team at him.
The Mavericks trapped him the moment he caught the ball, trapped him after screens, shoved him farther and farther away from the arc, and did everything they could to disrupt his driving rhythm.
They did disrupt his driving rhythm.
Unfortunately for them, they also helped him find his shooting rhythm.
That was why Chen Yan was the most vicious perimeter scorer in the league this season, and why he had won the scoring title.
His in-game adjustments were frighteningly fast. More importantly, both his driving game and his 3 point shot were elite. You could not concede either one.
Artest could not stay in front of Chen Yan one on one, so he turned to the thing he trusted most, constant body contact.
He leaned on Chen Yan before the catch, bumped him on the move, and tried to make every touch uncomfortable. Artest wanted to wear him down.
Chen Yan, however, was not made of paper. He was one of the league's best physical specimens himself.
The contact between the two grew more intense as the first quarter progressed, but Chen Yan's rhythm never broke.
In the first quarter alone, he scored in every possible way. He split a forming double team for a pull up layup. He curled around the baseline, circled nearly two and a half times, then faded away for a tough mid range jumper. He stepped back over a double team and buried a 3.
By the end of the quarter, Chen Yan had 16 points and 2 rebounds, with 0 assists.
He had more or less laid his cards on the table.
I am going to score. Stop me if you can.
Dallas could not.
...
Artest was stunned after the first quarter.
Fortunately for him, his mentality was strong, and he adjusted in the second.
He had grown up in the streets. He had that rogue toughness, and he never admitted defeat easily.
Back in the day, Artest had dared to bang with Jordan himself and even broke 2 of Jordan's ribs. If he could do that to the god of basketball, why would he fear Chen Yan?
Under Artest's constant harassment, Chen Yan's scoring was slowed a bit in the second quarter.
Artest was still the former Defensive Player of the Year. He was not some fake tough guy. He knew exactly how to make scorers uncomfortable.
Chen Yan had an uncomfortable quarter, but Artest paid an even heavier price.
He picked up 4 fouls in that stretch, 3 personal fouls and 1 technical.
And that was still on Dallas's home court, where the officiating on physical defense was far more forgiving than usual. That alone showed how wild Artest's defense had become.
When the second half began, Carlisle moved Ray Allen onto Chen Yan. If Artest stayed on him much longer, he might have fouled out before the third quarter even ended.
Ray Allen was a decent defender.
Just decent.
The pressure he applied to Chen Yan was nowhere near Artest's level.
At best, Ray could stay in front and contest on time.
But that was exactly the type of defender Chen Yan feared least.
On Phoenix's first possession of the second half, Chen Yan backed him down at the elbow, turned smoothly, and knocked down a turnaround jumper.
The move was clean, fluid, and perfectly in rhythm.
Ray Allen had been bumped off his spot and could not even get off the floor. He still raised a hand when Chen Yan released the ball, but the contest was mostly for decoration.
That was the biggest difference between Ray Allen and Artest as defenders.
Artest would fight Chen Yan all the way out to the 3 point line before the catch and try to make him miserable from the first dribble.
Ray Allen could not do that. His frame was too similar to Chen Yan's, and his defense was not nearly as violent.
Kidd brought the ball across half court, and Nowitzki came up to screen for Nash before quickly popping out.
Kidd delivered the pass, and Dirk fired a 3 from the top.
The arc was extremely high, but the shot hit the rim hard and bounced away.
Old Driver was cold tonight. He was only 3 for 11 at that point, a huge contrast from the previous games.
Carlisle felt the pressure rising.
Even the best tactical adjustments were meaningless if your franchise player could not convert.
Phoenix came back on offense, and Chen Yan intensified his attack.
He caught the ball at the elbow, lowered it between his legs, and then rose straight up.
Swish.
He had spotted Kidd sliding over for the trap and simply shot before the double could close.
A pull up jumper to break the double team.
It was not a high percentage shot for most players, but for Chen Yan, in rhythm, with a clean release, it was the simplest answer.
If Carlisle insisted on doubling him that way, then Chen Yan would stop putting the ball on the floor altogether. He would catch and shoot, dribble once and rise, or hit pull ups from the wing until Dallas understood the cost.
He did not need to make every one.
If he stayed above 50 percent against those traps, the entire strategy would be a failure.
Dallas answered by playing through transition action.
After Kidd missed, the Suns ran. Chen Yan pushed the ball, Nash filled the lane, and Phoenix nearly got an easy look, but the Mavericks recovered in time.
Still, the pressure was building.
Carlisle's bench erupted in motion on the next Dallas possession. Kidd dribbled over half court and let Terry initiate while Dirk operated as a decoy. Ray Allen relocated. Artest cut inside. Carlisle had clearly decided to move away from the simple isolation heavy offense from the earlier games.
For a while, it worked.
The Mavericks stayed in it.
But the moment Chen Yan saw how they were rotating, he adapted again.
On one possession, he brought the ball up, angled right, and let the trap come early.
The instant Kidd and Ray Allen closed, Chen Yan split between them with a sharp rhythm dribble, snaked into the lane, and lofted a high off glass finish over Nowitzki.
The shot dropped.
Then he turned toward the Mavericks bench and shouted, "Why not send one more defender?"
The line was aimed at Carlisle, but Mark Cuban heard it too from his courtside seat.
Cuban clapped back and yelled toward the court, trying to fire up his team instead of provoking Chen Yan directly.
He understood exactly what kind of player Chen Yan was.
If you fed him anger, you might as well hand him a flamethrower.
Jordan used to imagine slights that did not even happen just to fuel himself.
Chen Yan was not that extreme, but he had his own version of the same switch.
And now it had flipped.
In the next few minutes, he entered another gear entirely.
He scored on a one man fast break after a steal.
He finished a twisting 2 plus 1 through traffic.
He buried a pull up from the elbow.
He drilled another ultra deep 3.
Chen Yan completely took over the third quarter.
He scored 22 points in the period alone and led Phoenix on a decisive run that stretched the lead to 16.
By the time the fourth quarter started, the game had already become his personal stage.
Even the double teams could not contain him. Artest eventually fouled out after trying to throw his body at him one last time.
The game quickly collapsed into garbage time.
The final score was 109 to 89.
Phoenix blew Dallas out by 20 on the road and moved to match point in the series.
The Suns' offense was not particularly fluid in a collective sense. Chen Yan had consumed an enormous share of the possessions.
But he had not wasted them.
He poured in 52 points by himself and buried the game under his own hands.
Afterward, even Carlisle had no choice but to praise him.
"He was unstoppable tonight," the Mavericks coach admitted. "He only needed the smallest bit of space to turn an opportunity into points."
.....
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