TNT Studio.

The Phoenix Suns’ game was, of course, being nationally televised.

During halftime, Barkley and his two co-hosts were still discussing the Phoenix Suns’ chances of defending their title.

As for the first-round series, no matter how wild their imaginations ran, they couldn’t see the Phoenix Suns suffering an upset and losing to the Pioneer.

But when they came back from halftime and saw the Pioneer’s lineup change, the three of them were completely dumbfounded.

"What in the world is Morris doing? Has he lost his mind? He’s putting Rashid at the three?" Barkley’s eyes were wide with disbelief.

Morris Cheeks was his old teammate from their days on the Digital People. As a former point guard, Cheeks had always been the picture of intelligence and composure in Barkley’s memory.

But this move right here... Barkley just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Making the 6’11" Rashid Wallace play small forward... it was insane.

Rashid’s mobility was decent, and his range extended to the three-point line; he was a rare breed of big man who could hit a fair number of threes. But his strength was in the paint. Out on the perimeter, how was he supposed to deal with a nimble forward like Marion?

On the court.

The Pioneer’s lineup change had truly surprised a lot of people.

Brian couldn’t help but stand up, turning to look at the Pioneer bench opposite him. With a strange expression, he asked, "What are the Pioneer trying to do?"

You expect some surprise tactics in the playoffs, but this was just too bizarre.

It was completely out of left field.

Chen Yu couldn’t understand it either. For a big man, Rashid’s athleticism was excellent. Maybe against a team like the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Mavericks, when a player like Garnett or Nowitzki moved to the three-spot, you could have Rashid fill in there to counter their lack of speed. That might produce surprisingly effective results.

But Marion was a standard-sized small forward renowned for his athleticism. How was Rashid supposed to defend him?

"Do they think Sean can’t guard Rashid?" Chen Yu frowned.

With the height difference, Rashid Wallace could create some mismatch advantages.

But the problem was that Rashid Wallace’s scoring ability had never been explosive.

In the previous two seasons, he had averaged close to 20 points per game, but for a team’s number-one option and primary scorer, that was far from enough.

Marion, on the other hand, was plenty strong, handled contact well, and had an excellent wingspan. He could even switch and guard the power forward position at times.

If Marion really buckled down on defense, Chen Yu didn’t believe Rashid could get much of a mismatch advantage.

That’s why Chen Yu really couldn’t make any sense of the Pioneer’s lineup change.

Most importantly, there was the gap in speed.

On the court, Marion shot a confused glance at Rashid, who was guarding him. With a quick side-to-side fake and a reverse cut, he easily left Rashid behind.

Marion could also cut along the baseline and slip through the smallest of gaps.

Rashid’s large frame was plenty mobile for a power forward, but it would be a miracle if he could keep up with a standard-sized small forward.

"SHIT!"

Rashid cursed under his breath. ’I can’t guard him... so what about on offense?’

He called for the ball and instinctively started backing Marion down, trying to use his size advantage to overpower him. But the moment they made contact, he frowned again.

The pressure from behind was anything but weak. After bumping him repeatedly, he realized he wasn’t gaining much of an advantage at all.

And as he turned for the shot, Marion leaped with lightning-quick reflexes and successfully contested it.

Rashid cursed again, running off in frustration.

He knew Marion was strong and good with physical contact, but he hadn’t expected him to be this tough.

And soon, a scene unfolded that made his blood boil.

Still on the wing, Marion drove with the ball, using a change of pace followed by a wide crossover. No matter how agile Rashid was, his center of gravity was high. The successive changes in direction made him trip over his own feet and stumble to the ground.

Marion froze for a second, paused, and then sank the shot.

Sitting on the floor, Rashid’s face darkened. He could even hear the crowd’s laughter from the stands, and he couldn’t stop the rage from welling up inside him.

’He couldn’t understand it. Was Cheeks out of his mind? What was he thinking, putting him on Marion?’

But the Pioneer’s nightmare wasn’t over yet.

As the team’s on-court brain, Hardaway had willingly sacrificed some of his own scoring, which gave him more energy to orchestrate the offense and survey the court.

He immediately noticed that although the Pioneer’s new lineup was a mess, with three big men clogging the paint, the player most affected was O’Neal.

Not only could he not get the ball easily, but even if he did, he’d be triple-teamed and would find it very difficult to score.

At the same time, the crowded paint also restricted the Phoenix Suns’ drives.

The Phoenix Suns had once been a team that lived and died by the drive. After adding the pick-and-roll to their arsenal, they had fully committed to a style based on penetration.

But this season, the Phoenix Suns had changed things up.

Throughout the season, the Phoenix Suns had not only stockpiled shooters but also spent a great deal of time practicing their three-pointers.

When you have a dominant weapon in the paint like O’Neal, there’s no reason not to work on your three-point shooting.

His eyes scanning the court, Hardaway made his move from the high post.

The moment he moved, he drew the attention of the defense, and Rashid instinctively started to drift toward the paint.

Facing the clogged paint, Hardaway chose not to force it. Instead, he fired a wide skip pass straight to the weak-side corner.

Marion was already there waiting.

He rose up and drained a three.

In!

Last season, Marion had averaged 1.7 three-point attempts per game, shooting 39 percent, so he had a reliable catch-and-shoot game.

And he wasn’t done.

Hardaway’s signature skill was using his own threat to draw the defense, then dishing the ball to a teammate in a scoring position.

Bringing the ball up the court, Hardaway—as if he had eyes in the back of his head—suddenly threw an inspired no-look pass, finding James Posey perfectly on the wing.

With the Nuggets, Posey had always been used as a wing shooter, averaging around three 3-point attempts per game. While his percentage wasn’t great, he was at least a threat from deep.

The ball rattled around the rim before dropping in.

On the next play, Hardaway came off a screen and hit a three of his own.

Back in his Magic days, he averaged three to four three-point attempts a game; the three-pointer had always been a regular weapon in his arsenal.

On the sidelines.

Skiles clapped his hands twice and sat back down.

At first, the Pioneer’s lineup change had really given him a scare; he thought they were about to unleash some master stroke.

He never imagined they were just laying a giant egg.

Moving Rashid to the three was a terrible move. Not only did it fail to create any scoring advantages from the mismatch, but it also opened up a massive hole in their defense.

Skiles couldn’t help but glance over at the opposing bench.

’Has Cheeks lost his mind?’

This barrage of threes from the Phoenix Suns not only extinguished any hope the Pioneer had of a comeback but also extended the lead to 15 points.

The game was turning into a blowout.

Cheeks hurriedly called a timeout.

Jim Lynam looked at Cheeks’s worried expression, opened his mouth to speak, but ultimately said nothing.

He wasn’t optimistic about this lineup change anyway. It was a suicide lineup, plain and simple.

As the players came off the court, Jim Lynam instinctively went to meet them, intending to offer some encouragement.

To his surprise, Rashid, his face a thundercloud, ignored him completely and sat back down on the bench without saying a word.

His face was grim, his eyes full of unconcealed frustration.

Jim Lynam’s heart skipped a beat. Rashid had never been an easy personality to manage, and there had been far too many instances of him losing his temper.

Cheeks was too preoccupied to notice, his brow furrowed as he mulled over his strategy.

The previous lineup change hadn’t produced the desired effect.

’If that didn’t work, then I’ll just have to change it again.’

Steeling himself, Cheeks clapped his hands and immediately announced his adjustments.

Rashid, who had been stewing in silence, felt his jaw drop. The word "FUCK" was on the tip of his tongue.

Cheeks was now telling him to play the five, replacing Dale Davis.

He stared blankly at Cheeks, a single thought running through his mind: ’Are you sick in the head?’

’With all these changes, why don’t you just have me play point guard while you’re at it?’

His mind a tangled mess, Cheeks didn’t notice Rashid’s expression. As soon as the timeout ended, he hurriedly sent the players back onto the court.

With a grim expression, Rashid immediately experienced the living hell of trying to guard O’Neal one-on-one.

Back in 2000, the Pioneer had done a decent job containing O’Neal, but that was when he had Sabonis next to him. It had taken their combined effort to even slightly limit O’Neal.

’Going one-on-one against O’Neal... I really can’t handle this.’

Not long after the timeout, O’Neal seized an opportunity, spun with incredible agility, pushed Rashid aside, and finished with a monstrous, rim-hanging dunk.

Rashid’s face turned ashen.

He had been switched to three different positions in a single game and gotten burned in every single one. His mentality was about to shatter.

"The Pioneer have lost."

Back in the TNT studio, even though there was more than a quarter left to play, Kenny Smith made the bold declaration.

Beside him, Barkley was silent, offering a moment of silence for his old teammate.

If the Pioneer still had a sliver of hope for a comeback after the first half...

...then Cheeks’s series of bizarre moves in the second half had single-handedly thrown the game away.

Three lineup changes in a single game... Barkley had no idea what Cheeks was thinking.

Ernie Johnson, sitting next to them, offered a fair assessment: "There’s not much they can do. The talent gap is just too wide. To be honest, it doesn’t even feel like the Phoenix Suns are really trying yet."

Hardaway only had 11 points in the first half.

Even now, he only had 17 points.

Compared to last season’s playoffs, where he had averaged 30 points per game at one point, it was clear he was holding back.

"And you can tell just by looking at the rotations. The Phoenix Suns are rotating players like it’s a regular-season game, while on the Pioneer’s side, Rashid has only rested for two minutes so far."

The Phoenix Suns were treating this game like a regular-season game, using their normal rotations.

This was the confidence of a powerhouse team.

The Pioneer, on the other hand, were running their starters into the ground.

And the Pioneer’s collapse came swiftly.

Late in the third quarter, Dale Curry, who had come off the bench, suddenly found his rhythm and drained two consecutive three-pointers.

The lead instantly ballooned to over 20 points.

On the sidelines, Brian finally relaxed and suddenly remarked, "This Zach Randolph kid isn’t bad."

Just a moment ago, near the basket, Randolph had posted up on McDyess, using his sheer bulk and agility to fake him out, create space, and score.

Chen Yu nodded.

If you had to point to one player on the Pioneer who was performing well in the second half, it would be the substitute, Zach Randolph.

As he recalled, Randolph was the 19th pick from two years ago. He’d been a substitute his entire rookie season, hadn’t gotten much playing time, and hadn’t drawn much attention.

But watching him now, Chen Yu saw he was short but built like a tank, able to establish deep post position, and had solid skills in the low post.