Chapter 678: Leadership Qualities
The next day, the league announced its punishment for Crawford.
The NBA top brass suspended him indefinitely.
Crawford was an unpredictable referee who was difficult to control, and David Stern disliked that kind of official immensely.
The word indefinite was somewhat abstract, but 1 thing was certain.
Crawford would not appear again in this year's Playoffs.
It was not only the league that punished him.
The fans also sanctioned Crawford in their own way.
He was forced to shut down his social media accounts. According to media reports, between last night and today, he had received more than 1 death threat from fans.
And that was with the Knicks winning.
If New York had lost the previous game, Crawford's situation would have been unimaginable.
Game 4 started 2 days later.
The Celtics players played with exceptional intensity, basically treating it like Game 7.
Everyone understood that they could not afford to lose this game.
A loss would push the team to the brink.
Boston came out with strong momentum, suppressing the Knicks in the 1st quarter and temporarily taking a 26 to 19 lead.
In the 2nd quarter, Chen Yan significantly increased his ball handling and shot attempts.
He wanted to take over the game.
However, what waited for him was Boston's rough defense.
Chen Yan suffered several malicious fouls in a row and was knocked to the floor repeatedly.
Madison Square Garden was filled with boos, but Boston did not care.
They could not afford to lose this game.
If they lost, the series score would become 3 to 1, and the possibility of a comeback would become far too low.
So compared with reputation, the Celtics needed this victory more.
Their strategy also achieved some results.
Whenever Chen Yan's shooting touch showed signs of heating up, Boston immediately interrupted his rhythm with hard fouls, preventing him from finding scoring consistency.
Of course, Boston also paid a price.
By halftime, Durant had 3 fouls, Daniels had 4 fouls, while Weaver and several fringe players had also picked up fouls.
Many of Boston's fringe players received minutes tonight, and their purpose was to target Chen Yan.
If the starters had done all that dirty work themselves, several perimeter players might have been out before halftime.
Not only Chen Yan, but Curry was also targeted by Boston.
In the 2nd half, Boston backup center Murphy hit Curry during a screen, directly knocking him to the floor.
Seeing Curry fall sent a chill down the spine of everyone on the Knicks.
Curry did not have Chen Yan's durability.
Since entering the league, Curry had been bothered by minor injuries, showing signs of being prone to getting hurt.
Fortunately, the fall was not serious.
Curry got up after rubbing his backside.
But the Knicks players could not tolerate it.
Chen Yan was the 1st to rush over and stand up for Curry.
Murphy was also an old hand.
He immediately pushed Chen Yan back with a fierce expression, wanting to trade fouls.
Fortunately, the referee separated the 2 in time.
Chen Yan and Murphy each received a technical foul.
Of course, small tricks alone were not enough to win the game.
In the 3rd quarter, Stoudemire dominated the Knicks interior.
He was in explosive form tonight.
With powerful drives to the basket, he either scored or drew fouls.
He was unstoppable.
Although Durant and Rose were not as explosive, they were still playing well.
By the 4th quarter, Boston had already taken a 10 point lead.
The Celtics Big 3 were fully rolling.
In the 4th quarter, they were basically impossible to stop.
The Knicks could only open up their offense and engage in a shootout.
After Chen Yan hit a 3 pointer, Daniels tripped him 2 straight times.
Daniels simply wanted to mess with Chen Yan's mentality and prevent him from playing smoothly.
Daniels also paid the price.
Less than 3 minutes into the 4th quarter, he fouled out.
Weaver replaced him.
Boston head coach Rivers specifically instructed Weaver not to attack, only to defend and tightly guard Chen Yan.
If Chen Yan broke through, foul him.
Be decisive.
Weaver nodded to show that he understood, but he made a mistake as soon as he came on.
Chen Yan used a fake and drew a 3 point shooting foul from Weaver.
Chen Yan played very smartly, seeing through Weaver's reckless defense at a glance.
In the next 2 possessions, Chen Yan shook off Weaver repeatedly.
First, he hit a mid range pull up jumper.
Then he drove into the paint and passed to Kenyon Martin, assisting him for a dunk.
On the sideline, Rivers was furious.
His shouting finally woke Weaver up.
Over the next few minutes, Weaver increased his defensive intensity and committed 2 harsh fouls on Chen Yan.
Chen Yan was fired up.
He continuously demanded the ball and isolated against Weaver.
Boston immediately changed its defensive strategy, beginning to double team and even triple team Chen Yan.
Over the next few possessions, Chen Yan's efficiency on strong drives was not high.
Meanwhile, Boston's Big 3 maintained stable output, and the lead quickly stretched to 15 points.
Although Chen Yan was heavily targeted tonight, Nelson still had no choice but to give him the ball and let him create offense.
The other players were struggling.
Al Harrington and Battier had cold hands.
Curry could not find shooting opportunities either.
Tonight, Rose was determined to stick to him, chasing him all over the court, firmly denying his 3 point shots and preventing him from getting into a comfortable rhythm.
Curry had attempted only 4 shots so far, making 2.
In the final 2 minutes, Curry forced several 3 point attempts, but the results were not ideal.
With 1 minute and 7 seconds left, Chen Yan hit a super long logo 3 pointer.
But that shot could not change the outcome.
New York's chances were gone tonight.
As the final buzzer sounded, the Celtics tied the series, 2 to 2.
Boston's Big 3 combined for 73 points tonight.
Stoudemire was the most dominant player, scoring 32 points and becoming the undisputed star of the night.
Durant had 25 points.
Rose scored only 16 points tonight, because he spent a lot of energy chasing Curry on defense throughout the game, which affected his offensive performance.
However, Rose's effort paid off significantly.
Curry scored only 15 points tonight.
Chen Yan once again accounted for more than half of the team's scoring, finishing with 49 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds.
After the game, Chen Yan once again felt the team's weakness.
But this was not a reason for him to back down.
Immediately after the game, Chen Yan delivered an inspiring speech in the locker room.
"Let's forget this loss. This defeat will not affect us. The series has only returned to square 1. Let's treat the next game as the 1st game of the series. Come on, guys. Put your hands together. There are still tough battles ahead, and we will fight them together."
At the following press conference, Chen Yan also showed great maturity.
He did not complain about Boston's roughness.
He did not blame his teammates for failing to provide enough help.
Instead, he attributed the loss to his own performance and took all the responsibility upon himself.
Nelson listened from nearby and could not help nodding.
Chen Yan's leadership qualities were becoming more and more evident.
.....
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