At the end of the half, the score was 56 to 45. The Phoenix Suns still held an 11-point lead.
During the halftime break, a shooting contest for prizes was taking place on the court.
As he watched, Chen Yu suddenly turned his head and asked, "Steve, what do you think is more important, offense or defense?"
Curry, sitting beside him, froze for a second and looked at Chen Yu, confused.
Chen Yu leaned back against his chair and said, "Take this game, for example. The Pistons’ defense is excellent, both individually and as a team. But their offense isn’t good enough. In crucial moments, they lack a star player dominant enough to score."
"But they beat us in the first game. And historically, they used that same defense to steal two championships from Michael Jordan."
A few seats behind them, Jordan, who was in the middle of a conversation with George Gervin, turned his head with a blank expression. He thought he’d heard someone mention his name.
"But in this game, we’re maintaining our lead with superior offense. The Pistons’ defense is formidable, but they still can’t stop us. So I ask you, is defense more important, or is offense?"
Curry tilted his head, thought for a moment, and then said, "In that case, offense is more important. Basketball is a game of scoring points."
"Wrong." Chen Yu shook his head. "The offense you’re talking about only works if the opponent can’t stop you. If they can stop you, you can’t score."
Curry scratched his head and asked tentatively, "Sir, if that’s the case, then shouldn’t offense and defense be equally important?"
Chen Yu nodded. "Correct, there’s nothing wrong with what you said. But what if I have to ask you which is more important, offense or defense?"
Curry was completely baffled. He shook his head and said, "Sir, I don’t know. Can you tell me the answer?"
Chen Yu smiled and shook his head. "I’m the one asking you the questions. Why don’t you think about it on your own, or discuss it with people you know. By the way, for the second half, don’t sit here. Go up there."
Chen Yu pointed higher up into the stands.
"Those are all kids your age. You might even run into them in games someday. It would be good for you to get to know them."
Chen Yu had noticed at the buffet earlier that Curry hardly interacted with anyone else.
Maybe the other kids were giving him the cold shoulder, or maybe Curry himself didn’t want to talk to them.
But either way, it wasn’t a good thing. There was nothing wrong with getting to know these young prodigies from across the country, encouraging one another, and improving together.
Curry said, "Oh," and dutifully ran up into the stands.
"Chen, are you sure it’s a good idea to mess with a kid’s head like that?" Jabbar suddenly asked from beside him.
A question like that has no standard answer, yet Chen Yu insisted Curry provide one. He was simply putting the kid on the spot.
He was such a good kid; Jabbar was genuinely afraid Chen Yu’s mind games would mess him up.
Chen Yu turned back around and shrugged. "How could it? It’s good for him to think more about these things at his age. Call it building a good habit of critical thinking."
Chen Yu himself was also thinking.
Watching the first half had made Chen Yu contemplate the question of offense versus defense.
According to Mourinho’s theory of tactical periodization, if he ever had the opportunity to help build China’s National Team, he would have to set the tone from the very beginning: focus on offense, or focus on defense.
After watching the Pistons play, Chen Yu felt defense might be the better choice.
Offense requires talent, while defense relies more on experience and allows for weaknesses to be more easily overcome through hard work.
A hard-working player isn’t necessarily a good scorer, but they can absolutely be a good defender.
Building on a defensive foundation and then combining it with the Run-TMC-style tactics he’d previously envisioned could be an excellent option.
Initially, Chen Yu had thought about building around D’Antoni’s system—push the pace, shoot a lot of threes, and win games on offense.
In international basketball, for example, FIBA rules have no defensive three-second violation, and the three-point line is closer. Many teams choose to pack the paint on defense, which slows down the pace of the game.
In that environment, pushing the pace and shooting more threes is clearly the optimal solution.
This is especially true for weaker teams.
It’s just like the US Men’s National Team, which the media dubbed "the team that never stops running." They’d run like mad all over the field, relentlessly pushing the pace to create opportunities in the chaos, and in just a decade, they became a World Cup powerhouse.
But now, Chen Yu felt differently. You couldn’t just focus on offense; defense had to be the priority.
D’Antoni’s system was too demanding on the players. After a full season, he still hadn’t been able to make it work with the Pioneer.
Defense, on the other hand, was easier to drill and could produce results more quickly.
Then, with a solid defensive foundation, they could gradually transition toward D’Antoni’s system.
And for soccer, he could simply refer to the experience of the United States Team and Mourinho’s defensive counter-attack strategy.
First, establish the overall strategy, then slowly find the right players to train and develop according to that plan.
In the second half, the Pistons made adjustments.
They became more decisive with their double-teams on O’Neal. The man had torched them for 21 points in the first half; who else were they going to double?
But with only five men on the court, a double-team inevitably leaves someone open.
And the strength of the Five-star Phoenix Suns was that all five of their starters were offensive threats.
McDyess was just accommodating the team by doing the dirty work. Back on the Nuggets, he was the core of the team, a beast who averaged 20 and 10.
With a rock-solid mid-range jumper and low-post offense, McDyess went 5-for-6 in the quarter, pouring in 10 points to help the Phoenix Suns further extend their lead.
The Pistons’ biggest problem now was that while they might be able to shut down one of the Phoenix Suns’ scoring threats, they couldn’t shut them all down. And when they pushed their defense to its absolute limit, they had no effective offense of their own.
The Phoenix Suns were no slouches on defense, either.
to 64.
At the end of the third quarter, the Phoenix Suns were ahead by 16 points.
Given the Pistons’ offensive capabilities, the outcome of the game was all but decided.
Chen Yu thought back to the previous game.
The reason the Phoenix Suns had lost the previous game wasn’t just that the Pistons had shut them down; the bigger issue was the Suns’ own internal problems.
Chen Yu’s pep talk had at least helped the Phoenix Suns find their rhythm again.
With four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Pistons gave up.
When the game ended, the Pistons had scored a mere 78 points, a near-perfect reflection of the Phoenix Suns’ performance in the previous game.
As the crowd began to disperse, Chen Yu saw Curry and Rose huddled together in the distance.
’It didn’t matter who he was talking to,’ thought Chen Yu. ’What mattered was that he was talking to someone.’
There was certainly no harm in him interacting with this group of young prodigies from across the country.
「The next day」
The entire Phoenix Suns team departed for Detroit, and filming for Chen Yu’s show resumed.
The process was the same as before.
At the judges’ table, seven green lights lit up.
Seeing this result, a look of smug satisfaction flashed across the face of number 109, Tyreke Evans. He turned and ran off the court.
"This kid’s good. Real smart," Owen commented.
Jabbar nodded in agreement. "He has a great feel for the game, and his athleticism is outstanding."
Chen Yu smiled but said nothing. ’Of course he is,’ he thought.
This kid was no nobody. Back in Chester, Pennsylvania, he was a local basketball prodigy at age nine. At fourteen, he led his team to an AUU national championship. Now that he was about to enter high school, countless top basketball programs were trying to recruit him.
"Have you guys noticed?" Chen Yu added. "These kids are starting to study Ford and the others."
The others at the table nodded; they had noticed it long ago.
Everyone has weaknesses that can be exploited.
That’s exactly what Tyreke Evans did. He was taller—born in ’89, the fifteen-year-old was already 6-foot-3 and a solid 180 pounds.
He made one of his five shots.
He did it in two ways.
First, he picked his opponent.
In middle school, he played shooting guard, but he insisted he was a combo guard so he could match up against Ford.
This gave him a height and weight advantage.
Second, he targeted one of Ford’s weaknesses. Like many quick, undersized players, Ford had a bad habit on defense: he liked to gamble for steals.
That comes from not having the physical tools or confidence to defend an opponent straight up, forcing a player to gamble on steals.
So on the one shot he made, Chen Yu felt Evans had intentionally baited Ford, making it look for a moment like he’d mishandled the ball.
Ford didn’t completely fall for the bait, but he still instinctively shifted his weight.
Catching him unprepared, Evans capitalized on the opening, drove past him, and scored with a floater.
The kid was also a phenomenal athlete—incredibly fast.
"That’s true," Wes Unseld said with a nod. "Chen, why don’t you swap someone else in? TJ is just too easy to target."
On the defensive end, Ford’s disadvantages were quite significant.
Chen Yu shook his head. "It’s fine. The fact that they can figure out how to target him is a skill in itself. Besides, even if they devise a plan, only a select few can actually succeed, and those are the kids who would have passed this initial screening anyway."
Without a great feel for the game and excellent handles, would you dare to intentionally bait a defender?
And without outstanding athleticism, you couldn’t score even if you did get the upper hand.
So it didn’t really affect the outcome.
It was just a shame for Ford. He was on his way to becoming a permanent fixture on other players’ highlight reels.
Ford walked off the court, dejected.
He was used to being targeted on an NBA court, but he never expected to be targeted by a bunch of high schoolers.
He wished he could ask Chen Yu to perform surgery to make him taller.
But as soon as he sat down, he had to get back up.
The 6-foot-3 kid in front of him, Dominic Jones, also shamelessly insisted that he played point guard.
And he wasn’t wrong. Even a seven-footer like Durant started out playing point guard. It was fair to say that most players who made a name for themselves in middle or high school started at the point guard position.
Ford couldn’t help but glance over at Wade.
’That guy’s a point guard too, isn’t he?’
Number 129, Michael Beasley from Maryland.
Seeing the name, Chen Yu raised an eyebrow slightly.
Although he didn’t like the kid’s attitude, Chen Yu was an adult, and it wasn’t worth his time to get angry with a teenager.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had someone bail him out the previous night.
The kid came from a poor background. His parents were divorced, his father had never been in his life, and his mother had four other children to raise.
It was no surprise, then, that he had stolen pizza from Durant and his friends when they first met.
The kid was doing whatever it took to survive.
In an environment like that, the chances of picking up bad habits and developing a defiant, unruly personality were almost one hundred percent.
But setting all those factors aside, the kid had talent a blind man could see.
He was a household name on the AUU circuit, and in his freshman year of high school, he averaged 30 points and 10 rebounds. Growing up, he had consistently overshadowed Durant.

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