The rise of basketball legends

After the match, Chen Yan had just finished taking a shower when reporters surrounded him.

Chen Yan deeply felt the difference between the intensity of the playoffs and the intensity of the regular season. Not only the opponents, but even the reporters who interviewed him also increased the intensity. They entered the locker room a lot earlier. If they are not careful, they will easily disappear. .

Chen Yan sat on the seat wrapped in a bath towel. A year ago, he was somewhat shy in the face of this kind of scene, but now he behaved like an old fritter.

"Chen, you scored 33 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 steals in this game. Are you satisfied with your performance?" the reporter asked.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't satisfied, but I'm more satisfied with the team's win tonight than with my personal stats."

"Chen, do you think solar swept the cut?"

"Come on! Dude, this is the first game, our battle has just started! I can't promise the fans anything, I can only say that my teammates and I will do our best every game."

Chen Yan would not be fooled by the reporter. He would not say that he was already preparing for the second round of defeat. After all, it was McGrady who boasted so much.

"Will Amare Stoudemire be back in this playoff round?"

"Personally, I can't wait to play with him. He is an important force and a pillar of the team, but I have no say when he will play. It depends on the meaning of the coach and the medical team."

Chen Yan answered the reporter's questions patiently. He was in a good mood after a good start to the playoffs.

On the other hand, Sloan said in the post-match press conference: "Our players are too gentle tonight and must play tougher. This is the biggest trick to winning the playoffs."

As an old-school coach, Sloan's basketball philosophy has been consistent for decades. He feels that in the playoffs where bayonets are popular, he needs to be "dirty".

Later, Deron on the side expressed a different opinion: "We played very hard. In this game, both offense and defense were restrained. We must learn to adjust if we want to win back."

Deron was obviously playing against Sloan. During this period, there were obvious cracks in the master-student relationship. In the fourth quarter of the game, there was a quarrel between the master and the student. Deron complained that Sloan had imposed too many restrictions on him. Sloan accused Deron of unreasonable offensive methods.

......

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After a day off, the second game of the playoffs between the two sides started.

Sloan made another change in this game, and he placed Kirilenko and Millsap in the starting lineup.

Sloan's purpose is to increase his perimeter defense and mobility. The Suns won the last game too easily. The old-school coach doesn't want others to think that the Jazz are weak.

The effect of this change on the defensive end is very obvious. With the combination of mobile inside and all-around striker, the Jazz has a strong purpose. At the beginning, they aimed at blocking the Suns' outside strengths.

Nash and Chen Yan can only get the ball comfortably near the logo of the midfielder, and the inside line also has to step up to respond. Without the existence of Stoudemire, the Suns have almost no lethality inside. It is to step on the three-point line and defend outwards. Even in the small ball era of the previous life, it is rare to expand the defense like this.

The Suns were a little confused by the Jazz's sudden change, and fell into a 3-minute scoring drought at the beginning.

D'Antoni was forced to call a timeout. After the timeout, he made personnel adjustments, letting Azubuike replace Laja Bell and Novak replace Barnes.

After returning from the timeout, D'Antoni will use his plan to let Chen Yan attract double-teams at the top of the arc, and Novak will lead an inside line out of the penalty area from outside the three-point line, leaving a large open area for Azubuike.

Azubuike, a surprise player, played a role in the first round of the game, rushing to the basket and scoring 2+1.

Then Novak also hit a precise three-pointer after receiving the ball from Chen Yan.

The Suns in this period have the temperament of a champion. Even if the core players can't play, the role players dare to attack and make shots.

In the next round, the Suns took advantage of the Jazz's missed attack to counterattack. Chen Yan received the rebound, made a gorgeous change of direction and dribbled the ball behind Kirilenko, and drove straight into the penalty area.

Delong flew to cover the hole of the gun and wanted to make an offensive foul. Chen Yan started too fast, and he bumped into Delong before he could stand still. The moment he was bounced off, Chen Yan threw the ball.

"Shh!"

Even though his body lost its center of gravity, Chen Yan's finishing touch was still soft.

The referee's whistle also blew, it was 2+1.

Chen Yan made an extra free throw to help the Suns tie the score.

In this round, Chen Yan not only helped the team catch up with the score, but also regained their momentum.

The Jazz also immediately took out their trump card. They got off to a good start, and of course they were not willing to just let it go.

The duo between Deron and Boozer, this time Deron is not the classic pick-and-roll return ball for Boozer to shoot, but he handed the ball and then used his own air cut to attract the defense, creating space for Boozer to shoot. The distance hits steadily.

23 to 23, the two sides spent the first quarter in a stalemate.

In the first quarter, Okur only played for one minute at the end. Sloan's tactical deployment was to put him on the bench. This employment was very targeted, just to limit Chen Yan.

Doesn't Chen Yan like to call Aoku by name?

Let Okur not play now, it depends on how you order.

Okur has always been a functional player, and he can play his best function without playing tonight.

In the second quarter, Chen Yan played first with a substitute, and the Jazz's defensive strategy remained unchanged. Their number one task tonight was to lock Chen Yan.

Because the defense line was too wide, the Jazz was very empty inside. Old Hill and Barea rushed in and either scored or fouled.

Those who don't know the ball saw this scene and thought it was the substitute leading Chen Yan to play, but those who knew the ball knew that Chen Yan had triggered Yan's gravitational buff, because his teammates had such a comfortable offensive environment.

The Suns scored consecutive breakthroughs from the bench, the Jazz started to defend the zone defense, and Chen Yan continued to defend the 2-3 zone defense. Chen Yan had a keen sense of smell, and when he saw the Jazz's defensive formation changed, he immediately scored two three-pointers from the outside.

Sloan on the sidelines had a headache when he saw it. Chen Yan is the kind of assassin who can backstab you at any time, so you can't give him a chance to breathe.

Next, Sloan used the trick to deal with McGrady. He let Brewer, Kirilenko, and Harprin take turns to consume.

Several defenders played very tough under Sloan's instruction, but this kind of large-scale defensive action also needs to pay a price.

Brewer fouled 4 times in the half, Kirilenko 3 and Harperin 3 times.

If it is at the Jazz's home court, the referee may be able to relax a bit, but this is the territory of the Suns, and letting their big moves will arouse the public outrage of the fans.

Chen Yan still couldn't maintain the momentum under the repeated targeting of the Jazz players, but it took more energy than usual.

At the end of the third quarter, Brewer had already been sent off, and Chen Yan was under a lot of pressure on single defense, especially under the high pressure requirements of Sloan.

Kirilenko's fouls also rose rapidly, and the Jazz could only use Korver, CJ-Myers and even Deron to defend Chen Yan.

The Jazz suffered a backlash from the big defensive moves in the first three quarters, and their defensive quality plummeted to a notch in the final quarter. After less than 4 minutes in the fourth quarter, the two sides had another 10-point gap.

Deron was swayed by Chen Yan in a defensive round. In desperation, he stretched out his hand and pulled Chen Yan's wrist. The referee did not hesitate to call a physical foul. Pulling the wrist under such a high-speed breakthrough can easily cause the player to dislocate. .

The Jazz players are also playing more and more anxiously, and they are not as calm as they were when they played against the Rockets.

There is no way, the opponent's strength is different, and the mentality is naturally different.

On the offensive end, Boozer frequently showed his elbows and got fouled.

Zhang Lili couldn't help complaining: "Hey! Are you really thinking of yourself as Malone?"

The Jazz had a hit rate of Waterloo in the final quarter, and the Suns blasted a high hit rate of 67% in this quarter.

The final score was fixed at 111 to 91.

The Suns once again beat their opponents at home!

Chen Yan played harder than the last game, but he still made 22 of 12 shots and scored 39 points.

Barkley's comment on this is: "For a scorer like Chen Yan, you can only limit it as much as possible, and there is no way to prevent it."

Nash also played well. He scored 16 points and 14 assists in the game, connecting the team very well.

Azubuike scored 18 points as a surprise player tonight.

Utah's new Shuangsha's data is very good, Boozer scored 29 points and 13 rebounds, Deron had 18 points and 16 assists in the game, but the efficiency is very touching, only 14 of 6 shots.

Deron's offensive choice tonight is very confusing. Perhaps the conflict between him and Sloan will intensify after this game.

The Suns have won two consecutive games, and the outside world's evaluation of the Jazz is that they have lost and lost.

They move too much on the defensive end, touching, pulling, hugging, pulling, everything.

Sloan supported his players after the game. He said that toughness and iron blood are the essence of the Jazz team, and there is no problem with their performance.

The next day, the public opinion was also overwhelming. In addition to the local media in Phoenix, many sports media in New York, Miami, Houston, etc. all condemned the Jazz, thinking that they played too dirty.

It's no secret that the Jazz play dirty. Kobe once scolded Sloan's players for being too dirty in a press conference, and believed that Sloan's style should be expelled from the league.

Kobe is a player who likes confrontation. It is conceivable how dirty the Jazz are if he can say this.