Chapter 812 - 730: Absolutely No Reason Not to Enter the Locker Room

Chapter 812: Chapter 730: Absolutely No Reason Not to Enter the Locker Room

The first half ended.

In an instant, on the Lakers’ bench, Jackson shot to his feet and stared across the court. Standing at mid-court, Ken Moore and the sideline referees all turned their gaze toward the Phoenix Suns’ bench in unison. Instead of tracking the players leaving the court, the national broadcast cameras immediately locked onto Chen Yu on the sidelines.

"Charles, you’re definitely going to lose!"

Inside the studio, Reggie Miller stared intently at the screen. Earlier, as the second quarter was drawing to a close, the broadcasting crew had discussed whether Chen Yu would return to the locker room during halftime. They hadn’t spelled it out explicitly. While out-of-the-loop viewers might have been confused, the broadcasters knew exactly what was going on. Over the past two years, teams across the league had pulled all sorts of shady maneuvers simply because Chen Yu’s abilities were outrageously overpowered. It had even forced the league to impose restrictions on him. Miller understood this better than anyone. Because of this, he and Barkley had ended up making a bet on whether Chen Yu would head back into the locker room.

"I’m not gonna lose." Barkley curled his lip. "I know Chen. He’s a principled and smart guy. He should know that even if the Phoenix Suns want to win, they need to do it fair and square."

Miller scoffed at the notion. He also knew Chen Yu’s character, of course, but if the opponents were already playing dirty, why should Chen Yu still play by the rules? Throughout the entire first half, even he felt that the league’s blatant bias was an ugly sight to behold. There were times when Miller genuinely couldn’t understand Stern’s logic. Even if there were massive immediate profits to be made, would the long-term cost of sacrificing fairness and impartiality really be outweighed by these short-term gains?

On camera, Skiles high-fived all of his players. Sitting in the front row, Chen Yu also stood up. As if sensing the camera on him, he glanced toward the lens, then turned around and followed the crowd of players straight into the locker room.

In that instant, countless faces across the arena turned grim and conflicted. Jackson let out a long sigh before turning to head into his own locker room. Ken Moore looked completely exasperated. Seeing Blazers shoot him an inquiring look, he simply shook his head slightly. It was just as they always said—when Chen Yu decided to do something, who could possibly stop him?

In the player tunnel.

Hardaway intentionally lagged behind a couple of steps to fall in beside Chen Yu. "Chen, is it okay for you to do this?" he asked in a low voice.

Chen Yu smiled and just patted him on the shoulder. Now that he had put the team doctor’s uniform back on, there was absolutely no reason for him to stay out of the locker room. It was his duty as a team doctor.

Inside the locker room, Chen Yu immediately directed the medical team to get to work. Meanwhile, he had Nowitzki lie down and began helping him relax his muscles.

"The second half is only going to be harder," Chen Yu noted. It was a foregone conclusion; Chandler was definitely going to foul out in the second half. Controlling his fouls was simply unrealistic. Once he was out of the game, the Phoenix Suns’ interior height would plummet, making the matchup even more difficult. There was no way Brown could defend against Yao Ming.

"It’s fine. You haven’t given up, so why would I?" Nowitzki smiled calmly. "I’ll guard him." As he spoke, he couldn’t help but close his eyes. "This feels amazing. No wonder the league banned you from the locker room back then."

By the time he had joined the Phoenix Suns, Chen Yu’s jersey was already retired, so he had never gotten to enjoy this kind of perk. Only now did he truly understand why the league had restricted Chen Yu. It was as if there were some sort of magic at work. His first-half fatigue was rapidly fading, and vitality was returning to his aching, heavy legs.

Chen Yu’s prediction hit the mark dead-on. Barely four minutes into the second half, Chandler fouled out. Overcome with frustration, he angrily slammed his fist against the basketball stanchion before finally trudging off the court.

Even though he had anticipated this scenario, Skiles still felt a surge of panic when the moment actually arrived. On the scoreboard, the Phoenix Suns were up 61 to 59—virtually no lead at all. Yao Ming had already racked up a ton of points today, and he was bound to score even more as the game went on. Poseidon had been defending exceptionally well, leaving Kobe with a rather cold shooting touch. The Lakers’ offensive focus had shifted entirely to Yao Ming, with Kobe only logging 19 points so far.

"I’ll do it." Nowitzki volunteered for the assignment. Among the remaining interior players, he was the tallest.

Skiles frowned. Nowitzki had already pitched this idea to him back in the locker room, but he hadn’t agreed to it. He felt it was too risky. Sure, Nowitzki had a bit more height, but he was severely lacking in strength and physical presence. He didn’t believe that Nowitzki’s extra few centimeters of height would make him any better at stopping Yao Ming than Kwame Brown. Still, since Nowitzki was stepping up so proactively, he couldn’t just ignore the offer. Hesitating for a second, he turned his head toward Chen Yu, casting him an inquiring look. He wanted to ask about Nowitzki’s physical condition—whether the forward could handle the grueling burden of both defending and attacking.

Unexpectedly, Chen Yu misinterpreted the glance. Thinking Skiles was asking for his tactical opinion, he paused before answering, "I think it could work. Actually, I think we should go even more extreme. Put Sean at the four, and bring Ben in. We need scoring."

With Chandler out of the game, their interior defense had essentially collapsed anyway. They might as well lean into an unorthodox strategy: actively sacrifice height and rely entirely on speed and offense to win the game. Yao Ming had put on a bit of extra weight recently, which had sapped his speed and drained his stamina. Pushing the tempo would exhaust him as much as possible.

Skiles froze for a moment, suddenly grasping Chen Yu’s line of thought. He crossed his arms, carefully calculating the risks, before looking at Nowitzki. "Alright, we’ll do it. From here on out, we need to play much faster. Anfernee, push the fast breaks off our defense. Try to cut into the paint on transitions. Sean, especially you—you need to sprint out in front. If you don’t have an opening, kick the ball out to the wings immediately."

Running frequent fast breaks just like Pioneer would utilize Marion’s outstanding athleticism and strong finishing ability at the rim. Then, they would spread out in a V-formation. If Marion’s drive was blocked, he could instantly distribute the ball to the left or right. Both Poseidon and Nowitzki were lethal from the corner three. He grabbed his clipboard and hurriedly sketched out the plays for the team.

Once the full timeout ended and the players took the court, Skiles finally couldn’t help but ask, "Chen, is this really gonna work?" The Phoenix Suns had tried running Pioneer’s offensive schemes before, but they had only lightly practiced them and never fully committed to the system. No one knew if it would actually be effective in a crucial, high-intensity playoff game like this. Most importantly, by actively lowering their defensive presence, he was genuinely afraid things would fall apart. After all, even the Pioneer squad, who had mastered that fast-paced style last year, had been swept out of the playoffs by the Lakers. If Pioneer playing that fast hadn’t been able to wear down Yao Ming, could the Phoenix Suns really pull it off?

"Who knows? We don’t have a choice anyway," Chen Yu replied, his expression relaxed. Putting Brown on the floor really wasn’t a good option. "Scott, we’ve already given it our all. Even if we end up losing, don’t put too much pressure on yourself." The Phoenix Suns had no plans to change their head coach anytime soon.

Skiles gave a bitter smile. He wasn’t worried about his job security. His main concern was putting Nowitzki on Yao Ming. Nowitzki’s defense was average to begin with. Being mismatched against the league’s most elite towering center would consume so much energy that it might negatively impact his offensive output. With Yao Ming’s playstyle, Nowitzki would inevitably have to endure heavy post-up defense. When a player gritted their teeth and exerted every ounce of strength to battle in the paint, their muscles naturally became incredibly tense. Yet, jump shooting relied on a delicate touch, which required the arm muscles to be relaxed. Almost no interior player could perfectly transition between those two extremes.