"Don’t tell me this is going to a Game 7," Nelson said resignedly after the game.
At 2-2, the two teams were back at square one.
"Don’t jinx it," Chen Yu sighed. Even with him watching over them, the longer the series dragged on, the more of a disadvantage it was for the Phoenix Suns.
After all, the roster was too old.
Nelson gave an awkward laugh, then asked Chen Yu if he was going to Sacramento for the next game.
"Of course I’m going. With things as they are, how could I not?" If they lost the next game and fell behind 2-3, things would get even tougher.
Chen Yu couldn’t help but glance at Skiles up ahead.
’That guy needs to come up with a plan. He can’t expect me to restore the players’ stamina every game, or for Olajuwon to play all forty-eight minutes.’
Olajuwon hadn’t said a word, but after a few games, he was noticeably quieter. He was simply exhausted.
With no time for a proper rest, the entire team hurried to Sacramento the next day.
They figured it was better to rest in Sacramento than to wait.
They were staying at the same five-star hotel as before, which was apparently one of the Maruf Brothers’ properties. It wasn’t far from Arco Arena—only a few minutes’ walk.
In truth, Chen Yu was a bit troubled himself.
Traveling with the team for away games meant being gone for two or three days.
It didn’t have a major impact on treating his patients, but the problem was, when he was away, he couldn’t farm experience points.
He needed to use his ability on his patients, but he also needed it for the team’s away games.
It got to the point where before bed, Chen Yu would gather everyone—from the players to the coaching staff—and have them all go through a relaxation session, just so he could farm a round of experience.
This whole ordeal left Chen Yu exhausted, so he went to bed early.
But in the middle of his sleep, he was groggily awakened by a noise.
He glanced at the time and saw it was just after midnight. He had only been asleep for two hours.
A persistent THUMP-THUMP-THUMP sound continued, like the noise of construction.
’Are they insane? Doing renovations in the middle of the night.’
Chen Yu walked out onto the balcony and looked down.
This time, the hotel had put them on the fifth floor, where they had booked out half the level. It wasn’t very high up, so the noise from outside was quite clear.
It sounded like a THUMP-THUMP-THUMP, like someone was hammering the ground.
But as he scanned the area, everything was shrouded in darkness; he couldn’t see any construction anywhere.
Annoyed, he went back into his room and called the front desk. He told them to find out who was doing construction and to call the police if they couldn’t handle it.
He shut the windows and door, which muffled the sound a bit, but once you fixate on a noise, even a faint one can make it impossible to sleep.
He hadn’t brought any earplugs, so he just wadded up two pieces of paper and stuffed them in his ears.
He wasn’t sure when the noise stopped. After sleeping fitfully for who knows how long, Chen Yu woke up again.
He was drenched in sweat.
The sweltering heat was suffocating. He’d woken up from thirst.
The hum of the air conditioner had vanished. Chen Yu reached over to turn on the lamp.
CLICK. The lamp didn’t turn on.
"Fuck," Chen Yu cursed. ’Don’t tell me there’s a power outage.’
He fumbled for his phone and used its flashlight to illuminate the wall clock. It was one-thirty in the morning.
He hadn’t been asleep for long.
It was already May, not yet the hottest part of the year in Sacramento, but the temperature at night wasn’t low, still hovering in the sixties.
The crucial thing was that the power outage seemed to have shut down the ventilation system as well, making the room frighteningly stuffy.
Chen Yu left his room.
The emergency lights were on in the hallway. Chen Yu looked around and saw a few players already standing there.
"Is the power out for everyone?" Chen Yu asked as he walked over, having thought it was just his room.
Rodney Rogers, wearing just shorts and a tank top, nodded.
"It’s suffocating. I can’t sleep at all," Marion complained beside him.
Chen Yu frowned and went to find Skiles and the other coaches.
’They were already worn out from traveling for an away game, and now there was a power outage in the middle of the night. If they couldn’t rest properly, what would happen in tomorrow’s game?’
Skiles was also in his underwear, his forehead beaded with sweat from the heat. With a look of utter helplessness, he said, "The hotel says some road work outside severed their main power cable. The whole hotel is out. They’ve already contacted the power company for repairs, but they have no idea how long it’ll take."
Chen Yu sighed. Watching the players milling about in the hallway, he said gravely, "Scott, this is bad. We still have to get acclimated to the arena tomorrow. This lack of rest will affect tonight’s game."
’First the construction noise, now a power outage. This is just bizarre.’
Skiles thought, ’I know that,’ and said, "I’ve already sent someone to ask for ice. That should help a little."
’Help, my ass,’ Chen Yu thought.
’This whole mess has already wasted so much of the night. It’ll be a miracle if anyone gets a good rest.’
"You guys think something fishy is going on?" Jim Boylan suddenly asked.
This was a five-star hotel. How could it have a power outage?
"Exactly. And the backup generator just so happens to be broken, too. It’s unbelievable," chimed in the equipment manager, who had just returned from asking the front desk for an update.
What were the odds?
A flicker of understanding crossed Skiles’s eyes, but he remained silent.
A thought struck Chen Yu, and it suddenly clicked. ’Could this be some dirty trick from the Kings?’
Using underhanded tactics wasn’t exactly unheard of.
The "phantom" dead spots on the North Shore Garden floor, their own air conditioning that "coincidentally" malfunctioned, and even more devious tricks like sending models to players’ rooms with a cake before a game.
And this very hotel just so happened to be owned by the Maruf Brothers.
And why would they do it? To win, of course.
After all, the Maruf Brothers were in the casino business.
"So what do we do? Switch hotels?" Frank Johnson asked.
Switching hotels in the middle of the night was hardly practical, but what if they had more tricks up their sleeve?
"Fuck," Skiles cursed, gritting his teeth. "Let’s just try to get whatever sleep we can. We’ll wake up late tomorrow, skip the morning shootaround, and just head to the arena early in the afternoon."
He then looked toward Chen Yu.
What else could Chen Yu do but nod in agreement?
Having decided on a plan, they told the players to go back and try to rest.
"How is anyone supposed to sleep in this?" Ewing grumbled.
Chen Yu shot him a glare. "You’ll sleep whether you want to or not. If you can’t, I can always knock you out. I guarantee you’ll sleep soundly then."
Ewing’s eye twitched. He sulked back to his room.
The temperature itself wasn’t terrible, but the air was hot and stuffy. To make matters worse, the hotel had a glass curtain wall facade, which meant poor ventilation. Opening the door and windows did little to help.
At least the water was still running. But taking a cold shower was freezing, and with no hot water available, the whole situation was a total pain in the ass.
Lying in bed, Chen Yu silently cursed the Kings a hundred times before finally drifting into a restless sleep.
But he didn’t sleep for long. As dawn broke, the temperature began to rise, making the room even more unbearable.
"I can’t believe this hotel," Nelson griped at breakfast. "I just went down to the lobby. There’s a huge crowd of guests yelling at the front desk."
The power outage had also affected the hotel kitchen. Breakfast was catered from outside, and in the heat, Chen Yu had no appetite. He was more convinced than ever that the Kings were behind this.
’It’s a five-star hotel. An incident like this is terrible for their reputation. Even if the power company was slow, couldn’t they have found a few temporary generators? It shouldn’t be that hard.’
But the hotel had been painfully slow, dragging their feet until dawn before finally restoring power to a small section of the building.
The players were already trickling in for breakfast, many of them yawning, their faces etched with fatigue.
Skiles sat down across from Chen Yu, his expression worried. "Chen, this is bad. Do you have any way to help with the fatigue?"
The playoffs were already draining enough. After a night like this, even professional athletes would feel the effects.
Chen Yu put down his tray and said to Nelson, "Aaron, I need you to go out and find a large pharmacy. Use your judgment and buy some supplements."
He was referring to legal sports supplements, the kind that help with fatigue, not performance-enhancing drugs.
Nelson paused for a second, then immediately stood up and left.
Chen Yu continued, "After breakfast, I’ll take them to the gym for some recovery exercises. I don’t think it will be a major issue."
They wouldn’t do any strenuous training. Just practicing a wellness exercise like the Five Animals Qigong would also help restore their energy.
A nap at noon plus some massages to relax their muscles should do the trick.
"Go talk to the hotel again," Chen Yu then said to the equipment manager. "Tell them if the power isn’t fully restored by eleven o’clock this morning, we’re checking out and moving to another hotel immediately."
The equipment manager was not only in charge of the team’s gear for away games but also acted as the travel coordinator, handling flight and hotel bookings.
If they switched hotels, a one or two-hour nap at noon would help them recover a lot of energy.
The power wasn’t restored until just after nine in the morning.
Chen Yu didn’t rush to have the players catch up on sleep. Instead, he took them all to the gym for recovery exercises.
First, he had them practice the Five Animals Qigong a few times to loosen up and relax their bodies. Then, he instructed everyone to lie down for meditation.
"Follow my count. Breathe slowly."
"Empty your minds. Don’t think about anything."
Chen Yu moved between the players, his Eye of All-Seeing scanning over each one, allowing him to clearly see their individual heart rates.
Through meditation, he was attempting to guide everyone into a state of deep relaxation, which was incredibly helpful for alleviating fatigue.
「At four in the afternoon, the team departed from the hotel for the arena.」
"They look alright," Skiles remarked, watching the players take the court one by one. His anxiety eased somewhat, and he turned to thank Chen Yu.
The medical team led by Chen Yu had been an immense help to the team this season.
Chen Yu waved it off. "Scott, you still need to manage the minutes for Hakeem and the others in this game."
"Don’t worry. We’re planning to make some tactical adjustments for this one," Skiles said, giving Chen Yu an OK sign.
Now that the series was tied again, Skiles understood that he had to make a change if they wanted to beat the Kings.
So for this game, Skiles decided to go with his earlier idea: move Ewing to the bench and start Gugliotta alongside Olajuwon.
He had no idea how the adjustment would turn out, but the unexpected power outage had solidified his resolve to try it.
’They could use this game to adjust, then win the next one back on their home court.’
Chen Yu nodded. He had heard Boylan mention that Skiles was considering moving Ewing back to the bench.
"Should I have a talk with Patrick?" Chen Yu asked.
’With an adjustment like this, God only knew how Ewing would take it. If Chen Yu talked to him, he might be able to frame it psychologically to make it easier for him to accept.’
Skiles nodded, as that was exactly what he’d been about to suggest. "A little later, before the game, you and I can talk to him together."

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