As the final buzzer sounded, the entire Staples Center erupted into a sea of celebration.

"MVP!"

In the stands, many fans had already started chanting "MVP" in unison.

Mixed in were shouts of "We are the champions!"

Chen Yu stood up and looked at the yellow confetti raining down, his heart filled with helplessness.

Game 2, another loss.

It was a bit better than the last game. 91 to 95, only a four-point loss.

They even had a chance to win in the final moments.

But then O’Neal stepped up. In the final moments, he attacked aggressively, drew a foul that made Ewing foul out, and scored five straight points to put the Suns away.

"It’s just too tough," Nelson sighed beside him, filled with emotion.

He felt the Phoenix Suns had played well. They had learned their lesson from the last loss, and the coordination between the twin towers of Olajuwon and Ewing in the paint had improved. For instance, their timing when double-teaming O’Neal was clearly better than last game.

On the perimeter, Hardaway still managed to contribute 28 points while being guarded by Kobe, the youngest player ever to make the All-Defensive First Team.

You could only say that the Phoenix Suns gave it their all and, in the end, lost to O’Neal’s sheer brute force.

The guy had managed to drop another 31 points.

Chen Yu remained silent, but just as Nelson said, being down 0-2 made the rest of the series incredibly difficult.

On the court, players from both teams were embracing and showing respect.

They were certainly no strangers.

O’Neal and Hardaway had been teammates, once joining forces to battle Olajuwon.

That year, Old Horry was still by Olajuwon’s side.

Add to that the fact that Hardaway was once Kobe’s idol, and with old Ewing in the mix, these guys could always find something to talk about when they got together.

As they were talking, O’Neal walked straight over, arms open, wanting to hug Chen Yu.

Chen Yu wasn’t falling for it. A hug from a giant of that size would literally squeeze the life out of you.

So the hug became a handshake. Chen Yu patted O’Neal’s arm, which was as thick as his own thigh, and said, "Shaq, you really should lose some weight."

O’Neal just shook his head, then raised his arm to flex his muscle. "Chen, only at this weight can I be invincible under the basket."

’You might be invincible now,’ Chen Yu thought, ’but don’t come crying to me when your feet are ruined later.’

They regrettably failed to steal a win in Los Angeles, but the sun would rise again tomorrow.

The group didn’t linger in Los Angeles, taking a red-eye flight back to Phoenix.

On the plane, Chen Yu asked for a blanket and curled up in his seat early to sleep.

But just as he lay down, he heard the voices of Skiles and the others from a short distance away.

They had chartered a small passenger jet, which was divided into two cabins. The players were in the rear cabin and should have been resting by now.

The front cabin was for staff members like Chen Yu.

Right now, Skiles and his coaching staff were not resting. They were using the plane’s television to watch a recording of the game, analyzing the reasons for their loss.

Chen Yu turned his head and noticed that Nelson wasn’t sleeping either; he was looking at his phone.

Noticing Chen Yu’s gaze, he turned his head, smiled, and went back to looking at his phone. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

As he watched, a smile even appeared on his face.

In truth, for team staff like Chen Yu, the obsession with winning a championship wasn’t as strong as it was for the players, especially someone like Ewing.

As a member of the team, if they could win the championship, it would naturally be the icing on the cake, and might even add a significant highlight to his career.

But doctors and trainers of Chen Yu and Nelson’s caliber didn’t really need a title like "team doctor for a championship team" to prove their worth.

So even if the Phoenix Suns were eliminated in the Western Conference Finals this year, it wouldn’t really affect either of them.

Players might get traded for playing poorly, but Chen Yu and Nelson would never be short of work.

This was probably why Nelson could accept the loss so calmly.

However, Chen Yu did feel a flicker of anticipation, a desire to win a championship with the team.

He couldn’t name any particular reason for it; maybe it was simply because he’d never had one and wanted one.

After all, as the team doctor, he’d get a Championship Ring too.

So Chen Yu turned his head and listened in.

Losing by only four points at the Lakers’ home court, not a blowout of ten or twenty points, showed that the skill gap between the two teams wasn’t large; they were more or less on the same level.

That meant there was still hope of winning, as long as they executed the details better.

This was what the group was discussing the most. They were repeatedly rewatching the tape, debating the timing of the double-teams on O’Neal and which defensive possessions were out of position, leaving a man open.

In the playoffs, especially in a series like the Western Conference Finals, it really came down to nitpicking the details and seeing who made fewer mistakes.

Jim Boylan and Frank Johnson were talking and debating constantly, but Chen Yu noticed that Skiles wasn’t saying much. He just sat there with his arms crossed and brow furrowed, watching the others discuss with a distant look.

You could tell he was deeply worried.

Chen Yu couldn’t help but feel a little emotional. Being a head coach really wasn’t that easy. Understanding tactics was just the basics; you also had to manage the assistant coaching team, coordinate with management and players, and deal with the media. There was so much to it.

Just as he was thinking this, Skiles spoke up, interrupting the others. "Let’s give up on the double-team."

The men in front of him all froze.

’Give up the double-team?’ Chen Yu’s ears perked up as well. ’Wouldn’t that be an even more brutal death?’

’If you really let O’Neal play without restraint, he could score 60 points!’

Skiles sat up straight. "I know Shaq. You guys have probably never seen a rookie lead his team in scoring the moment he entered the league, but that’s the kind of player he is. And the way he is now, he’s simply unstoppable."

When O’Neal and Hardaway entered the league, Skiles hadn’t retired yet. He had been their teammate. As the first point guard to feed O’Neal the ball, he knew exactly how strong O’Neal was.

His historic-level physical gifts alone were enough to make him one of the best players on the planet.

And now, after years of honing his skills, his technique was fully developed. Even after bulking up, he still maintained sufficient agility. Relying on this epic-level talent, he had become the most dominant player in the league.

An O’Neal like that was impossible to guard.

"So we just give up on defense?" Boylan asked with a frown.

Skiles shook his head. "Giving up the double-team doesn’t mean we’re surrendering. After two games, haven’t you all seen it? With our current roster, we simply can’t contain him."

Even a prime Ewing would get sent flying if he ran into rookie O’Neal.

Olajuwon won his championship by beating O’Neal, but that was a young O’Neal. Even then, you couldn’t say he shut down O’Neal; it was more like they just traded blows.

And now, while both of them are still healthy, their age is a factor.

Some things can’t be restored just by being healthy.

Facing a stronger, prime O’Neal, the two of them really couldn’t handle him.

"I think if we continue to focus our efforts on how to contain O’Neal, we might win a game or two, but in the end, we’ll definitely be the ones eliminated."

This isn’t a single-elimination game; it’s a series. We might get hot one game and win by a fluke, but that doesn’t mean we can win the whole series.

"Instead of worrying about how to defend O’Neal, I think we should be playing to our strengths and winning with what we do best."

Using Ewing and Olajuwon as twin towers not only failed to stop O’Neal, but it also failed to bring out the characteristics of this season’s Phoenix Suns team.

Boylan frowned. "Scott, are you saying we should go back to how we played in the last two games against the Kings?"

Skiles nodded.

After a long season of lineup adjustments and tactical changes, after all the tinkering, Skiles had finally realized that the Suns were at their strongest, most logical, and most cohesive at the very beginning of the season.

The men looked at each other, their expressions complicated. To change the lineup now, after they were already down 0-2... if he was going to make a change, he should have done it earlier. What if this new strategy also failed? Wouldn’t they just lose even faster? At least with the previous strategy, there had been a glimmer of hope.

Skiles tapped the table, then turned his head to glance in Chen Yu’s direction.

When he saw Chen Yu looking over, he was slightly taken aback before quickly forcing a smile and giving a nod.

Chen Yu smiled back and pulled his head back.

"Let’s do it," Skiles said, no longer hesitating.

It wasn’t just because he felt they couldn’t beat the Lakers this way; it was also because Chen Yu was about to leave for South Korea. He should be there for Game 3, but definitely not for Game 4.

And their previous style of play also required Chen Yu’s help.

Therefore, Chen Yu’s impending absence was another reason for Skiles’ decision.

Chen Yu didn’t know what Skiles was thinking. He lay back down, pulled the blanket over himself, and couldn’t stop his thoughts from drifting across the ocean.

He would soon be meeting up with the National Team and heading to Japan.

Because of the draw ceremony, he hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to Xiaobei.

The third game of the Western Conference Finals was on the 24th. After the game, he had to leave the very next day.

And Lexi was planning to go with him. They would be gone for many days, so he had to arrange everything at the clinic.

He also had to find time to grind for some rehabilitation effects for emergencies.

Mulling over everything he had to do, Chen Yu soon drifted off to sleep.

The next day, ignoring his travel fatigue, Chen Yu said goodbye to his comfortable bed and hurried to the clinic early in the morning.

Time to grind for EXP.

There weren’t many VIP patients at the clinic right now.

Xiaobei and Gerrard were gone. Gary Neville had also returned to the United Kingdom long ago. Since it was confirmed he would miss this World Cup anyway, Chen Yu had performed his surgery, and he went back to the UK to recover.

The only one left was the "stubborn resident," Van Bronckhorst.

Then there was Guardiola. He had rushed to Phoenix yesterday and had already been settled in.

Before he left, Chen Yu needed to perform his surgery first.

He pushed open the door to the hospital room. Guardiola wasn’t awake yet. Chen Yu glanced at the medication chart and was about to leave when Guardiola woke up.

Seeing Chen Yu, his eyes lit up. He immediately got up and gave Chen Yu a warm hug.

He had a torn collateral ligament, but it wasn’t completely ruptured. For now, he was wearing a brace, so simple movements and getting out of bed weren’t a problem.

"Why didn’t Ronnie come? Didn’t you say you were going to have him come to the United States to work on his conditioning?" Guardiola asked.

At the mention of Ronaldo, Chen Yu sighed.

Ronar was originally planning to come to the United States after his break in Italy, but Scolari didn’t approve.

The Brazil Team assembled on the 12th. They first went to Spain for a short training camp, which was when Ronaldo met up with the National Team.

Then on the 20th, they had to go to Kuala Lumpur for another week of training to fine-tune their teamwork, and after that, they had one last warm-up match against Malaysia.

So there simply wasn’t enough time.

And the Brazil Team’s base camp was in South Korea, while the United States Team’s was in Japan. If they didn’t make it out of the group stage, they wouldn’t even see each other. So, even if Chen Yu wanted to help him with his conditioning on-site at the World Cup, it would be impossible.

Fortunately, he didn’t have any major issues.

His groin problem was simply from exhaustion. With the league season over and no matches for a while, just resting should be enough for him to recover.