Chapter 723 - 648: This Is How I Trained Them

Chapter 723: Chapter 648: This Is How I Trained Them

Young people get hot-headed easily.

They easily build immense confidence through one success after another.

In the third quarter, Milicic suddenly exploded.

Iguodala drove the baseline. He didn’t force the shot but chose to pass, sending the ball to Milicic at the elbow.

Whether it was the first or second round, Iguodala hadn’t scored much. His offensive ability was far inferior to Darius Miles’.

But he had better court vision, could pass, could defend, was willing to play help defense, and hustled hard enough to have cemented his starting position.

He had already become the second most important playmaker on the team, after Nash.

The ball arrived, and Milicic didn’t hesitate for a moment, making his move immediately.

The moment Nowitzki turned his head to watch the play under the basket, Milicic made an explosive dribble and strode straight for the hoop.

In one step, he blew past the slow-to-react Nowitzki; in two, he was already soaring high into the air.

He rose up as if to set the sky ablaze. Even though Chandler was already there on help defense, jumping to contest, Milicic seemed not to see him at all. He extended his arm and just managed to slam the ball through the rim.

An incredibly satisfying posterizing dunk!

The entire Rose Garden Arena erupted.

In a corner of the stands, the usually calm Paul Allen couldn’t help but rise to his feet, cheering with both arms raised high.

In the private box, Chen Yu sighed to himself.

’The Pioneer have truly found their fire.’

’A play like that... if this were the Milicic who had just entered the league, he wouldn’t have dared to attack even if he had the chance.’

’He just didn’t have that kind of confidence.’

’But now, blowing by Nowitzki and posterizing a defender without a second thought... Chen Yu felt that even if you replaced Chandler with O’Neal, Milicic would still dare to dunk on him.’

’His confidence was through the roof!’

Chen Yu recalled something Nash had said before.

When he was injured, Nash had told Chen Yu that they were much stronger than Chen Yu imagined.

When they first made it into the playoffs, the Pioneer themselves probably had the apprehensive mindset of juniors challenging their seniors, seeing it as a learning experience.

Then, they were surprised to find that they could actually beat the Spurs on their home court, even forcing the Spurs to resort to dirty plays.

At that point, their confidence had already started to build.

Then they completed the fourth eighth-seed upset in history.

With this newfound confidence, the Pioneer felt no fear, even when facing the defending champions.

What was even more crucial was that the Pioneer discovered the defending champions weren’t as tough to deal with as they’d thought.

After three games, they were the ones who were ahead in the series.

By now, the players’ confidence had ballooned infinitely. They dared to take even the most difficult shots.

Chen Yu looked toward Skiles on the sideline.

’If he doesn’t make an adjustment soon, we’re really going to lose this game.’

At the end of the third quarter, the Phoenix Suns were still trailing, 74 to 85.

As the players came off the court and gathered around him, Skiles could even see a hint of bewilderment on Marion’s face.

They were all a bit dazed, having never expected the Pioneer to be this fierce.

They were both young teams. Weren’t the Grizzlies, with Wade, also ground into the dust by the Suns?

So how come the Pioneer were this strong?

"Guys, we need this win," Skiles said grimly, his expression dead serious.

When the media was mocking Popovich, Skiles had laughed along, feeling like a bystander watching the drama unfold.

Now, he figured he was about to become the one people were watching.

"Forget the tactics! We’re out of time! Dirk, Anfernee, I need you to step up and win this game for us. It’s that simple!" Skiles said in a low, heavy voice.

At a time like this, fantasizing about executing brilliant team plays was just dreaming.

They had to rely on their stars.

In the fourth quarter, the Suns made an adjustment, subbing in James Posey to bolster their perimeter defense.

Right away, Nowitzki took the initiative.

He posted up Milicic near the baseline, exerted a bit of force, and pulled up for a shot.

His signature fadeaway jumper.

The arc was ridiculously high.

But it was pure.

Two points on the board.

The next possession, it was him again. A simple pump fake, a pull-back, and he shot it.

It went in again!

In the private box, Chen Yu clapped his hands.

It was obvious Nowitzki was getting anxious, too.

He came to the Suns to chase a championship, and now it looked like they wouldn’t even make it past the second round.

’If he’d known things would turn out this way, he might as well have stayed with the Mavericks.’

Of course, staying with the Mavericks would have been tough, too.

The Nuggets were no pushovers. The Mavericks only made it to the second round because they were single-handedly carried by O’Neal, who averaged 27.4 points and 13.2 rebounds.

Hardaway was also stepping up.

Though aging, he had lost his league-best first step, but his drives were still sharp and much more savvy. He hit a difficult pull-up jumper while being hounded by Tony Allen.

But Skiles’s adjustment had come too late.

Because the Suns hadn’t solved their biggest problem: how to stop the Pioneer.

Nash was truly worthy of the MVP title. His playmaking and ability to connect the offense were lethal; he always managed to get the ball where it needed to go, orchestrating the team’s attack to perfection.

And the tactical off-ball movement of the other players was excellent, too. They always managed to run themselves into open opportunities.

Even if the Suns kept scoring thanks to their stars, it was useless if they couldn’t stop the Pioneer.

The hole they’d dug for themselves in the first three quarters was too deep. Trying to close the gap in just one quarter was a bit too difficult.

Chen Yu crossed his arms, his expression grave.

’We might really lose this one.’

’And not just this game, but the entire series.’

Chen Yu felt that the Suns’ coaching staff’s strategy for the entire series had been wrong.

Not just tactically, but mentally as well.

Mentally, they hadn’t taken the Pioneer seriously enough. They hadn’t diligently studied countermeasures for the Pioneer’s run-and-gun system.

This dismissive attitude directly led to their losses in the first two games.

By the time they realized their mistake and wanted to adjust, it was already too late.

Chen Yu believed the Suns had lost to the unknown.

They had lost to D’Antoni’s run-and-gun system, a style no one had used before.

Sure enough, as the clock hit zero...

Even with Nowitzki exploding for 11 points in the fourth quarter alone, they still couldn’t reverse the score.

to 107. The Suns lost by 6 points.

The series score was now 1 to 3!

Beside him, Stern stood up to say goodbye to Chen Yu, even offering a word of consolation.

"Chen, no team can win forever. You have to take it in stride."

He said it as if the Suns were already about to be eliminated.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Chen Yu left the arena as well.

The Suns’ management had already shifted their team-building philosophy. They were no longer willing to pursue a championship by stacking stars and paying a hefty luxury tax at a loss, hoping instead to find a perfect balance between the team’s finances and the roster’s strength.

But when the team actually lost, it was still a little hard to accept.

On the plane back to Phoenix, the players were all resting, but Skiles’s coaching staff didn’t dare to.

"Chen, can you tell me, how in the world are we supposed to deal with their run-and-gun tactics?" Skiles asked, his eyes bloodshot.

The Pioneer’s tactical system had been co-established with the help of Chen Yu’s team.

So, besides D’Antoni, the person who understood this system best should be Chen Yu.

The others also turned to look at Chen Yu.

"Chen, how on earth did you guys train them?" Frank Johnson couldn’t help but ask.

What impressed him the most was the Pioneer’s off-ball movement.

They were like a precision machine. The five players were five gears, interlocking with each other. When one moved, the others all moved in response. In just a few moves, an opportunity would emerge.

That level of tactical execution, that ability to find the open man—it was too smooth, too astonishing.

"How did we train them?"

Chen Yu thought for a moment, opened a file on the laptop in front of him, played a video, and turned the screen for the others to see.

"This is how."

The group huddled closer to watch.

It was an internal training video of the Pioneer.

On the court, spotlights of different colors were constantly moving, guiding the players back and forth.

The coaches watched for only a short while before their faces filled with astonishment.

Every single Pioneer player seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand, executing all kinds of cuts, movements, and give-and-go plays, yet they never once collided.

The entire process was fluid and precise. It was simply art.