The Brazilian media exploded in an uproar.
As the absolute core of the National Team, Ronaldo was fully expected to lead the Brazil Team to the championship trophy this year. Instead, he sneaked off to Las Vegas during their preparation camp to live it up, blowing millions.
For the days that followed, all Ronaldo could do was apologize and keep his head down. He did not dare leave the clinic.
Fortunately, his vomiting never returned. Judging solely by that result, the whole ordeal was worth it.
Meanwhile, the Western Conference Finals raged on.
In Game 2, Nash dished out fifteen assists, leading the Pioneer to tie the series. Rivers made another adjustment for this game, benching Randolph once again. The man’s defense was a genuine liability; his slightest lapse could trigger a chain reaction that collapsed the entire Pioneer defense.
Rivers opted for Salemport instead. Salemport was tough enough to hold his own in the post without giving up ground. His excellent athleticism and verticality made him perfect for containing the Phoenix Suns’ drives.
Simultaneously, Rivers tinkered with the bench rotations. He increased Nash’s minutes, allowing the point guard more time to lead the second unit. The Pioneer could push the pace, but with the bench unit on the floor, they could also slow things down and execute a half-court offense.
Randolph, Al Jefferson, and Larry Hughes. The Pioneer boasted a slew of offense-first players. When the benches clashed and the defensive intensity dropped across the board, scoring quickly became the paramount objective.
Throughout the game, the Pioneer bench poured in thirty-four points. The Phoenix Suns’ bench managed a meager sixteen. The gap was staggering.
When the series shifted to Phoenix for Game 3, the Pioneer inexplicably won again.
After this game, the public narrative took a bizarre turn. Following the Phoenix Suns’ Game 7 victory over the Lakers, both the mainstream media and the NBA brass had heavily pushed a specific storyline: beating the Lakers meant Phoenix was practically guaranteed the championship. They needed to manifest the hype they had built around an international player winning his first championship.
Furthermore, everyone had unanimously agreed that the Pioneer stood no chance against the Lakers. The previous year, the Pioneer had traded back all their draft picks, keeping their roster virtually unchanged, only to be cleanly swept by the Lakers. Meanwhile, those same Lakers had received an epic upgrade this year by acquiring Artest.
By that transitive logic, if Phoenix could eliminate a beefed-up Lakers squad, they should easily steamroll the Pioneer. Yet, shockingly, Phoenix was the team trailing. It was a result that left everyone scratching their heads.
Following Game 3, Chen Yu had just returned from Las Vegas and was promptly invited by Skiles to brainstorm a solution. After a heated debate among the coaching staff, Skiles and the others turned their collective gaze toward Chen.
In truth, Chen had already met with his own team the night before to study the situation thoroughly. Their first point of analysis was the Pioneer coaching staff’s performance. In this series, they had actually done quite well.
D’Antoni was a genius who laid the foundation for the Pioneer’s run-and-gun system. However, he was notoriously rigid and poor at managing rotations. But that did not matter, as he was only an assistant coach whose word wasn’t final. Rivers, on the other hand, had limited tactical acumen but excelled at utilizing personnel. Finally, on the court, they had Nash orchestrating everything like a floor general.
Consequently, these three flawed individuals formed a seamless alliance. The end result was a Pioneer team with very few tactical holes.
When Randolph became a defensive liability in Game 1, they immediately adjusted in Game 2. Moving into Game 3, instead of resting on their laurels with Game 2’s successful tactics, they proactively adjusted again, having Iguodala provide more help defense on Nowitzki. After reviewing the footage, Chen’s team suspected this adjustment came directly from Nash. There was a glaringly obvious clip where Nash physically shoved Iguodala, directing him to trap Nowitzki. And during the bench minutes, Nash continued to control the tempo, transitioning flawlessly between run-and-gun and half-court sets.
Then came the players. The Pioneer lacked a top-tier superstar. Even Nash fell just short of the true superstar caliber. Yet, every single player maximized their unique strengths: Nash’s floor-generalship, Joe Johnson’s pure isolation scoring, Iguodala’s two-way dominance, Milicic’s sheer impact, and Salemport’s defense. Off the bench, each player also possessed distinct traits. That was more than enough; at the very least, nobody was underperforming or choking under pressure.
This brought them to the ultimate question: how to respond.
"Brad, why don’t you explain?" Chen turned to look at Brad Stevens seated to his left.
The CBA season had already concluded. Knowing Stevens’ aspirations inside out, Chen had offered him a proposition: resign from his head coaching position and take a job at his company first. Stevens hadn’t hesitated much before accepting.
At the company, he served as an analyst—a crucial role. Providing consulting services and training players required designing targeted drills based on a team’s tactical needs. That demanded someone who deeply understood tactics. Even designing a simple training regimen required tactical input. If possible, Chen planned to eventually integrate him into Skiles’ coaching staff.
The man’s skills were genuinely top-notch. During their lengthy meeting the day before, it was Stevens who had proposed a viable solution.
Stevens nodded slightly. "After our discussion, we concluded that the most logical approach is to reduce Dirk’s shot attempts."
Skiles and the others froze. They had just been debating whether to shoulder Nowitzki with a heavier burden and feed him more shots—aiming for something absurd like forty points a game. To their shock, Chen’s camp was suggesting the exact opposite.
"Chen, Dirk is our offensive core. Are you sure about this?" Skiles asked.
They had eliminated the Lakers in the previous round purely by relying on Nowitzki. He had proven his mettle and demonstrated he could handle immense responsibility.
Chen remained silent, gesturing for Stevens to continue.
Stevens said, "First of all, under Milicic’s defense, Dirk’s offensive efficiency has dropped. We can simply conclude that Milicic—or a player of his archetype—is the most suitable defender for Dirk in the entire league."
Defense came down to physical tools and attitude. Milicic perfectly matched Nowitzki’s physical profile and possessed a relentless work ethic. He was the type of guy who would shadow his assignment relentlessly, refusing to give up a single inch for the entire game.
"Of course, when I say ’defense,’ I just mean containment. Milicic is great, but he still can’t shut Dirk down completely," Stevens added.
Over the first three games, Nowitzki had averaged 28.6 points. Could that really be considered "contained"? Obviously not. For most players, those were superstar-level numbers.
"Which brings me to my next point. Let me play a clip first." Stevens stood up, adjusted the projector, and played a video highlighting two offensive possessions by the Phoenix Suns.
In the first possession, Chandler set a screen, and Nowitzki immediately pulled up off the pick-and-roll, sinking a mid-range jumper. In the second possession, Nowitzki used another screen. However, Iguodala closed out in time, so instead of shooting, Nowitzki passed back to Chandler. The ball rotated around the perimeter before finding its way back to Nowitzki, who finally got an isolation look and nailed a fadeaway jumper near the baseline.
"What’s the issue with that?" Frank Johnson asked.
Skiles, however, had his arms crossed, lost in deep thought. He seemed to have caught on.
Stevens explained, "The problem is our over-reliance on Dirk. When the initial play breaks down, our secondary rotations are still entirely centered around him. Essentially, we always treat Dirk as our primary scoring option. Even when the offense stalls, we just force the same play instead of considering whether other players have better looks. Dirk is phenomenal, sure, but when his efficiency is being hampered, this shot selection becomes problematic. In other words, our shot selection isn’t logical enough."
Chen chimed in. "Exactly. Dirk is outstanding, there’s no denying that. He can drop thirty or forty points a night. But we believe we have other talented players. During the last series, we leaned far too heavily on Dirk’s heroics. It worked, but only because the Lakers were weak at the power forward position. The Pioneer are a different beast. Dako is a very hardworking kid. Under these circumstances, continuing to over-rely on Dirk really isn’t a wise choice."
Hardaway and Marion both possessed excellent offensive capabilities. The team could absolutely afford to give them more touches rather than blindly force-feeding Nowitzki.
The conference room fell silent for a moment. Finally, Boylan and the others looked over at Skiles.
Skiles finally spoke up. "Actually, over these past three games, I’ve had similar thoughts. Most importantly, we’re deep into the playoffs now. Our opponents have studied Dirk extensively."
Take Milicic, for example. His defense on Nowitzki visibly improved with each passing game. He played physical, smothering defense, doing everything in his power to deny Nowitzki room to turn. When Nowitzki jumped and kicked his leg out, Milicic would even intentionally lean into him to draw a groin-kicking foul. In fact, Nowitzki had been whistled for exactly that kind of offensive foul in Game 3.
Given that level of defensive pressure, expecting Nowitzki to average thirty or forty points a game was simply unrealistic.
"So, we really do need to play smarter offense," Skiles concluded.
Every team was different. Against the Lakers, they had a matchup advantage, allowing them to mindlessly run the offense through Nowitzki. But against the Pioneer, that simply wouldn’t cut it.

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