Sports Medicine Master System
This playoff series was generating an unbelievable amount of buzz in China.
The media was calling it the “China Derby.”
Although Mo Ke most likely wouldn’t get any playing time—he’d been a benchwarmer for years, and his contract was about to expire.
And once his contract was up, the Phoenix Suns were highly unlikely to re-sign him and let him continue to occupy a roster spot.
At 10 AM, the sports channel began its live broadcast right on schedule.
The commentators were Yang Jian, with guests Su Jun and Zhang Weiping.
The choice of these two guests was clearly intentional.
Thanks to his early connection with Chen Yu, Su Jun’s newspaper, the Basketball Pioneer, was once jokingly called the “Phoenix Suns’ China Division” by fans.
His favorite team was the Phoenix Suns.
As for Zhang Weiping...
He was, without a doubt, a loyal supporter of the Lakers.
This season, whenever he commentated on Lakers games, his most common refrain was always, “Look at that! What a beautiful play by Kobe! He can’t miss!”
Or, if Kobe missed, “He didn’t make the shot, but that was absolutely the right way to play it.”
If Kobe passed the ball, he would say, “What a gorgeous pass from Kobe!”
If a role player took a bad shot, he would inevitably chime in with something like, “That’s just reckless. He should have passed it to Kobe. Or at the very least, give it to Da Yao! He’s right there under the basket.”
“Coach Su, Coach Zhang, who do you two think is more likely to win this series?” Yang Jian asked, clearly trying to stir the pot.
Zhang Weiping, unshakeable, answered without a moment’s hesitation. “That’s a no-brainer. It has to be the Lakers.”
“It’s just like I’ve been saying. The Lakers’ roster is as good as it gets. You can’t ask for more. You’ve got Da Yao inside, Kobe outside, Artest on the wing, Odom connecting the offense, and Fisher, who’s as tough as ever despite his age. In a pinch, they can even start Raja Bell to shut down Hardaway.”
“You tell me, how can they possibly lose?”
Su Jun pushed up his glasses. “While on a personal level, I’d love to see the Lakers win and see Yao Ming get a championship, I think we need to be more rational about this.”
Beside him, Zhang Weiping raised a slight eyebrow.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? Is he saying I’m not being rational?’
Su Jun continued, “The Phoenix Suns are not weak. Just yesterday, our Basketball Pioneer published a special report analyzing why the Suns were able to sweep the Spurs. We made it very clear in the article: Nowitzki’s ability to punish defenses has gotten much stronger.”
“And keeping Chandler this year was the right move for the Phoenix Suns. This year’s roster is perfectly suited for Nowitzki. He can convert the opportunities his teammates create into points, which is crucial.”
“Therefore, I believe the Phoenix Suns’ half-court offense will be extremely potent. In the final game of that series, Duncan dropped 41 points and the Spurs still lost. A big reason for that was their inability to contain Nowitzki, who efficiently scored 34 points.”
“Now that he’s developed his Golden Chicken Standalone, Nowitzki’s scoring ability against set defenses has improved dramatically. The Phoenix Suns really have a chance this year.”
“And if we’re talking about strong rosters, two years ago, during the era of the Five-star Phoenix Suns, no team had a better lineup.”
Zhang Weiping pursed his lips slightly and added, “When it comes to scoring against a set defense, I still think the Lakers are stronger.”
Yang Jian cut in at just the right moment, breaking up their debate. “Both coaches have made some excellent points. This will undoubtedly be a fantastic series that will truly test the strategic moves of both coaching staffs. Alright, the game is about to begin, and we’re now cutting to the live feed from the arena.”
“For the Lakers, the starting lineup is Yao Ming, Odom, Artest, Kobe, and Fisher.”
“The Phoenix Suns haven’t made any adjustments either. Their starters are still Chandler, Nowitzki, Marion, Poseidon, and Hardaway.”
“The two teams are at center court for the opening tip. The Lakers win possession.”
“Speaking of which, when Yao Ming was still very young, he once faced off against Chandler and completely dominated him. So for this matchup in the paint, we’ll have to see how the Phoenix Suns choose to handle it.”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Zhang Weiping exclaimed, “What a play!”
Kobe swung the ball wide to Odom. Odom faked the shot and then suddenly stuffed a pass to Yao Ming under the basket.
Yao Ming caught the ball, took one step to muscle Chandler out of the way, and finished with a powerful dunk.
With his attention drawn to Odom, Chandler was a step too slow to react.
Even Su Jun couldn’t help but comment, “Yao Ming must have put on a little more weight this season. It’s really boosted his presence in the paint.”
「Far away in Phoenix.」
As Yao Ming threw down the opening dunk, Chen Yu folded his arms.
‘Yao Ming is a tough matchup,’ he thought.
As far as Chen Yu knew, Skiles and the coaching staff had held several meetings before the game to discuss just that.
They had even started discussing how to handle the Lakers in the next round as soon as a victory against the Spurs was certain.
Chen Yu hadn’t paid attention to the specific game plan, but now that he was watching the game, he could make an educated guess about Skiles’s strategy.
‘They aren’t specifically targeting Yao Ming. They’re just leaving him for Chandler to handle.’
‘Skiles must have decided to focus the defense on stopping Kobe.’
Chen Yu keenly observed that Marion wasn’t paying any attention to Artest. Instead, he was constantly adjusting his own position based on Kobe’s movements.
No one knew the Phoenix Suns’ tactics and player rotations better than Chen Yu.
After all, his team had helped design some of them.
Chen Yu figured Skiles’s plan was to use Marion and Poseidon to double-team Kobe, leaving Artest open.
Artest clearly had the ability to shoot threes, but his percentage wasn’t high—just a bit over thirty percent.
Some in the media were hyping Artest up as one of the Lakers’ “Big Four,” an All-Star caliber player, but Chen Yu thought he was overrated.
‘Artest could generously be labeled an all-around player. He has a streetball background and decent handles. He can face up, back down his man in the post, and hit spot-up jumpers—he knows a little bit of everything.’
‘He could make some things happen with his powerful physique.’
‘The problem is, none of his skills are particularly polished.’
‘He’s still a long way from being a true superstar.’
‘Even his renowned defense, supposedly capable of guarding positions one through five, has its flaws.’
‘Marion is also known for guarding positions one through four.’
‘In terms of build and core strength, Marion isn’t far behind him at all.’
‘And Marion is even more agile.’
‘Artest really struggles with navigating screens. He’s too muscular and lacks agility.’
‘And historically, ferocious perimeter defenders usually have a dominant presence behind them to clean things up.’
‘Bowen had Duncan behind him, Joe Dumars had the whole Pistons team, and Monkcliff had Lannier backing him up.’
‘So the huge spike in Artest’s defensive efficiency this season, which got him a spot on the All-Defensive First Team, should be at least one-third credited to Yao Ming behind him.’
‘Just having Yao Ming standing in the paint is enough to deter many perimeter players from driving aggressively to the hoop.’
‘Skiles choosing to leave him open is a gamble. He’s betting that Artest’s outside shot is unreliable, and even if they let him shoot at will, how many points can he really score?’
‘His career high is only a measly 35 points.’
‘If you leave Kobe open, he can drop 53 on you.’
The Phoenix Suns were on offense.
It was as if they had completely abandoned the paint.
Nowitzki roamed above the free-throw line, and Chandler also came up to the high post to set screens for his teammates.
It wasn’t that Yao Ming couldn’t follow him out to the perimeter.
But the moment he did, Marion began to drive the baseline.
Hardaway came off a screen and fired a bounce pass. Marion cut to the basket, caught the pass, and threw down a dunk.
With his agility, Marion spun free with lightning speed, leaving Artest a step behind.
After just this one offensive and defensive sequence, Chen Yu, who understood both the Phoenix Suns’ and the Lakers’ playbooks, had already figured out Skiles’s strategy for the game.
‘Shut down Kobe, concede the paint.’
‘Make back any points given up to Yao Ming on defense with Nowitzki’s perimeter scoring.’
‘And maybe add Hardaway using his height and speed advantage to bully Fisher.’
The logic was crystal clear.
He just didn’t know if it would work, because the Lakers hadn’t made their countermove yet.

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