The Best Point Guard

Chapter 403: Chapter 130: Did They Steal Our Run and Gun?

The Phoenix Suns were all about offense. Stoudemire played center, Shaun Marion was at power forward, and Joe Johnson and Richardson were the guards, plus Steve Nash. Of all of them, only Marion had any real defensive ability. Joe Johnson could hold his own, at best. The other three were absolute sieves.

In contrast, the Pacers were built on defense.

When they settled into their defensive set, they played even more traditionally than other defensive powerhouses.

Su Xi hounded Tony Parker at the top of the arc, Reggie Miller covered Bowen, Stephen Jackson took on Ginobili, and Little O’Neal and Tony Battie held down the paint.

The San Antonio Spurs passed the ball to Duncan, who went one-on-one against Tony Battie.

Tony Battie’s defense was all about high volume and high effort.

You could score on him, but it would cost you your energy.

SWISH!

Duncan scored, steadying his team.

Then, Bruce Bowen closed in on him. Su Xi faked a drive inside, and Bowen quickly took a jab step inward and spread his arms.

But then Su Xi just sprinted backward. Bowen was already slower than Su Xi, and now, a step and a half behind, he had no chance of keeping up. Battie passed the ball to Stephen Jackson, who threw a long pass downcourt. Su Xi caught the ball and used a head fake to get past Parker.

Then he pulled up from beyond the three-point line... SWISH!

Nothing but net.

Conseco Fieldhouse erupted, the roar of the home crowd deafening.

BEEP!

Popovich called a timeout.

"That shot was ridiculous," Kenny Smith said from the commentary desk. "Little Sheep Su Xi just pulled up and shot it. Does that even make sense? Not even the Phoenix Suns are that crazy! Is this still run-and-gun?"

"Why not? He made it!" Barkley said bluntly.

"But..." Kenny Smith didn’t know what to say. He held a deep-seated prejudice against Su Xi; after all, this was the man who’d made him French kiss a donkey. "That’s not how you play normal basketball. It’s like treating a regular offensive possession like a game-winning buzzer-beater."

Barkley spread his hands. Why not?

The San Antonio Spurs were getting beaten so badly they had to call a timeout.

In front of his TV, Nash’s silence was deafening. He couldn’t quite tell if what the Pacers were doing was truly run-and-gun. But one thing he was sure of was that the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t stop Su Xi at all.

Su Xi was doing whatever he wanted.

He could drive through the San Antonio Spurs’ tough defensive line, and he could move without the ball to hit absurd three-pointers.

’If only I had his kind of athleticism.’

Nash thought to himself.

Even though he had a better three-pointer off the dribble, a better pull-up mid-range shot, better playmaking ability, better passing technique, and even better rhythm on his layups than Su Xi.

However, against the San Antonio Spurs, all those skills were merely the equivalent of hurting all ten of their fingers.

Su Xi’s brutish style of play, on the other hand, was like directly breaking one of them.

"That was awesome, Jack. I never knew I had the talent to play center."

Little O’Neal was ecstatic as he returned to the bench. Even though he wasn’t directly involved in the offense, he felt incredibly refreshed.

Carlisle hadn’t expected the Pacers’ run-and-gun to be so devastatingly effective either.

When Su Xi smiled and asked him, "Coach, let’s keep it going for another five minutes."

He smiled too.

There was no reason not to stick with a strategy that worked.

"But, the moment the San Antonio Spurs start to regain the advantage, we have to switch back to our half-court offense immediately." Although Carlisle wasn’t a by-the-book coach, he still believed in one truth: the tougher and more important the series, the more you have to take the hard road.

Popovich was also a member of this school of thought—and a senior one at that.

But now, he looked at his team’s lineup and remembered the look in Su Xi’s eyes from before.

That Su Xi kid was truly a monster. Taken on his own, Popovich wouldn’t be afraid of him in the slightest, even if he had led the Chinese Team to an Olympic gold medal. But in the NBA, within this system, Popovich had a hundred ways to neutralize him.

But, as fate would have it, he had the formidable Pacers as his foundation. His strengths were not only highlighted, but amplified.

On a weaker team, Su Xi might just be another all-around superstar; other teams wouldn’t be able to stop him, but he wouldn’t be able to win games either.

"Robert, you move up to power forward."

Popovich made his decision. "Brent, you’re in for Manu. Tony, pick up the pace for San Antonio."

The San Antonio Spurs decided to fight fire with fire.

The San Antonio Spurs were also capable of a fast-paced attack.

They weren’t purely a half-court offensive team.

BEEP!

The whistle blew.

Carlisle looked at the San Antonio Spurs’ new lineup and fell into deep thought.

Also lost in thought were Nash and D’Antoni, watching from their TV.

’Even the upright-looking San Antonio Spurs have defected?’

’Are they going to play run-and-gun too?’

Yes.

Tony Parker and Duncan ran a pick-and-roll, with Parker driving straight to the basket.

He scored with a floater.

Duncan’s screen was so effective that even Su Xi, the league’s number one player at fighting through picks, couldn’t keep up.

Meanwhile, the paint had been cleared out by Robert Horry. Horry ran out to the three-point line, so Tony Battie couldn’t stay in the paint to defend.

As soon as Parker scored, the entire team retreated on defense.

A strange scene unfolded on the court: both teams were sprinting at full speed.

Su Xi brought the ball to half-court with Bowen glued to him.

Su Xi and Tony Battie ran a pick-and-roll. Su Xi drove to the basket, then made an over-the-shoulder pass back to Battie, who took a jump shot from the free-throw line... he was wide open.

Then, the San Antonio Spurs initiated with a pick-and-roll of their own. Tony Parker drew the defense and passed the ball to Brent Barry.

Although Barry couldn’t pull off a free-throw line dunk like his dad, his three-pointer was deadly accurate.

SWISH!

He and Robert Horry were the San Antonio Spurs’ two veteran assassins.

Then, Reggie Miller answered right back.

The offensive pace from both sides was incredibly fast, almost dizzying.

It was also completely unexpected.

The scores for both teams climbed rapidly.

Before the game, everyone thought this year’s Finals might be the ugliest in history, as both teams were known for their grinding half-court offense and defense.

But now, their combined score looked like it was heading for 250.

Barkley rubbed his eyes and said, "Is this the Finals or the preseason?"

Of course it was the Finals.

Although both teams’ offenses were on fire and highly efficient.

However, their defense couldn’t be ignored.

The quality of their defense was also very high; it was just that neither team could stop the other.

In the last two minutes of the third quarter, both teams started clanking shots. Their offensive efficiency dropped, and the importance of defense became apparent.

But now, both teams were like kids who had gotten a taste of candy; neither was willing to give up the fast-paced style of play.

Soon, the third quarter was over.

87-92.

The Pacers led by 5.

That looked more like a final score, but with the scoring explosion in the third quarter, both sides had just been too ferocious!

"Playing center really is a bit tiring."

Little O’Neal said, panting, as he returned to the bench.

He had been matched up against Duncan.

Duncan was tired too.

For Duncan, the high-intensity physical battles weren’t as tiring; it was the constant, high-frequency running up and down the court that really drained his stamina.

"Stephen, quick, look at the game! The San Antonio Spurs are playing run-and-gun!"

Nash, sitting in front of his TV, received a call from Stoudemire.

Clearly, for Stoudemire, this was a novel sight. "If the San Antonio Spurs had played run-and-gun against us back then, we’d be the ones in the Finals right now."

Steve Nash was a true gentleman. He said elegantly to Stoudemire, "Amare, you should work on your defense a bit more. Otherwise, next season we still won’t have earned the right to make the San Antonio Spurs play run-and-gun against us."

Perhaps it was due to the phone’s reception, but Stoudemire didn’t seem to catch Steve Nash’s underlying meaning at all. "You think the San Antonio Spurs stole their run-and-gun technique from us?"

Nash gave a slight smile and decided not to continue the conversation with Stoudemire.

He looked at the TV, where Kenny Smith was saying, "I predict that both teams will return to their normal offense and defense in the fourth quarter. This fast-paced attack is just one tool in their arsenal."

"If the San Antonio Spurs win tonight, I predict they’ll beat the Pacers 4-1."

Kenny Smith predicted.

"Hearing you say that actually puts my mind at ease," Charles Barkley chuckled beside him. "I was starting to think the Pacers were in a bit of trouble."

...