Chapter 523: No Rest, 50 Through 3 Quarters
Dallas kept going back to Terry.
He wanted to answer Chen Yan shot for shot. In Terry's mind, his scoring bursts were no worse than Chen Yan's. The problem was that kind of explosion only came when his touch was scorching, and tonight he clearly had not found that rhythm.
After working through a series of screens, Terry drove into the lane and, trying to avoid Jordan's shot blocking, leaned into an extreme fadeaway.
Jordan did not block the shot, but he bothered it enough. The jumper missed. Dampier and Stoudemire went up together, and the ball was tipped out of bounds.
The referee pointed toward the Mavericks' basket, signaling Dallas ball.
The crowd erupted in boos. In the eyes of the fans, Dampier had clearly touched it last, so the Suns should have had possession.
With the arena still roaring, Antoine Wright inbounded from the baseline while the Mavericks cut and screened.
Chen Yan had his back to Gerald Green. The instant Wright released the pass, he spun in place, turned all the way around in midair, and intercepted the ball cleanly.
The entire arena froze.
Fans in front of their televisions froze too.
Even the announcers needed a second to process what they had just seen.
Charles Barkley was the first to find his voice.
"Unbelievable steal. He had his back to the inbounder, but he was watching the receiver. He read the man, read the eyes, and made the right jump."
Kenny Smith nodded.
"That is veteran stuff. Sometimes Chen Yan really plays like a guy with 10 years in the league."
While they were still talking, Chen Yan had already raced the other way and finished alone at the rim.
That kind of live ball steal is almost impossible to recover from.
30 to 45.
His personal total was up to 26.
Dallas was wobbling, and Carlisle had no choice but to call timeout.
When Chen Yan came off the floor, teammates rushed over to slap hands and bump chests. For a game that was supposed to be Dallas fighting for its life, Phoenix was making it look far more manageable than expected.
The reason was obvious.
Chen Yan was making the whole game simpler.
D Antoni leaned in and asked, "Need a break?"
It sounded like a question, but the tone gave him away. He clearly wanted Chen Yan to stay out there.
Chen Yan understood immediately. He wanted the same thing. His feel tonight was too good, and he wanted to bury Dallas before the game could turn complicated.
"No, Coach. Leave me out there."
That answer lifted the entire bench. Everybody raised a fist and shouted together.
After the timeout, Dallas adjusted first. Carlisle brought Nowitzki and Kidd back onto the floor. He wanted Dirk's scoring gravity and Kidd's experience to stop the slide. If they could cut it back to single digits, the game was still alive.
The Mavericks had no alternative. They were already down 1 to 3 in the series. This game was life or death.
Phoenix answered by sending Nash and Stoudemire back in as well. D Antoni was not about to get careless just because Dallas had stumbled for a few minutes.
Nowitzki came in looking to attack right away. On his very first touch, he played through contact, drew a foul on Stoudemire, and calmly made both free throws.
32 to 45.
Stoudemire came back down wanting to answer immediately. He took Dirk one on one, jabbed, drove hard to his right, and tried to bully him at the rim.
Dirk held his ground.
The shot was rushed, and it bounced out.
Stoudemire was still playing too emotionally. With Nash and Chen Yan both on the floor, he could have used their gravity to create a cleaner look. But basketball is never played by robots. Not every possession is perfectly rational.
Dallas came back the other way and found Ray Allen, now much more comfortable with Kidd and Dirk back on the floor. The defensive pressure around him had eased, and the passes into his pocket were cleaner.
Dirk drew the double team, kicked it to Kidd, and Kidd moved it instantly to Allen.
Phoenix rotated hard, but Allen's release was quicker.
Swish.
35 to 45.
The gap was down to 10.
Dallas had more than enough firepower to erase a lead in a hurry. Against a lineup like theirs, a lead of 10 meant almost nothing.
Phoenix needed offense, not hope.
On the next trip, Nash controlled at the top while Chen Yan once again went to work without the ball.
That had been the story of the night. His scoring was coming more through movement than pure isolation.
Dallas saw him begin to run and immediately became tense. Their eyes drifted toward him almost by instinct.
That was exactly when Nash attacked.
He called for a screen, got Stoudemire into the action, and came off to his right. Stoudemire floated to the free throw line. Nash first glanced there, then swung his eyes toward Chen Yan outside the arc, selling both options with nothing but his gaze.
He froze the defense with his eyes, slipped into the paint, tapped his feet once, and laid it in.
35 to 47.
That was Nash in a nutshell.
He rarely hunted points as the primary option, but his scoring threat was always sharp enough to punish any mistake.
With Artest off the floor, Dallas had Ray Allen as the first defender on Chen Yan, with help coming quickly from the lane.
Allen defended better than Artest in one sense. He was lighter, a bit quicker laterally, and could stay attached for a beat. But that was also all he could do. He could not really move Chen Yan off his spots.
If anything, Chen Yan preferred seeing Allen in front of him. Allen was 34. He was disciplined and still dangerous, but the mileage was real. The more he had to chase, the more his legs would go, and the more his shooting would suffer.
Carlisle saw the same thing and quickly sent Artest back into the game.
Artest came in angry and immediately turned every possession into a wrestling match.
This time, the whistle was not on Dallas' side. He was called for a defensive foul almost immediately.
He had already picked up 2 earlier. After that, he had to rein himself in a little.
By halftime, Phoenix led 66 to 53, a 13 point cushion.
Chen Yan had already piled up 37 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Then came the second half, and he never cooled off.
He came out of the locker room looking like a man who had no intention of leaving the floor until the job was done.
A lot of Suns fans thought D Antoni was overdoing it again, squeezing too much from his starters. By the end of the third quarter, those complaints had quieted.
Dallas made a furious push in the third. Terry finally erupted, reminding everyone why he had that microwave reputation. He went 5 for 6 from the field, hit 3 of 3 from deep, and scored 13 points in the quarter alone.
Nowitzki was excellent too, both finishing efficiently and creating good looks for others.
Dallas won the quarter 34 to 24, and by the end of it, the Suns' 13 point halftime lead had been trimmed to just 3.
Chen Yan still scored 13 in the quarter and added 2 rebounds and 2 assists.
By the time the third ended, he had already crossed the 50 point mark.
He had done it in 3 quarters.
.....
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