Back on offense, Rose held the ball at the top of the key and launched another attack.
He waited in place for Hartenstein to come up and set a screen, then accelerated past it to the free-throw line and passed to Chen Xi on the wing.
After catching the ball, Chen Xi kept moving toward the top of the key. When the defense trapped him, he swung the ball again, passing it to Grant near the sideline on the opposite side.
Grant caught the ball and surged forward, driving straight past Bojan.
Using his strength to create space, he powered all the way to the basket, then jumped off both feet and tried to challenge Embiid's rim protection.
He held the ball in both hands, gave it a slight pull in midair to avoid Embiid's long arms, then switched to one hand after the contact and tried to float it in.
Dang!!
The ball struck the side of the rim and bounced away toward the other side. It didn't go in.
Embiid soon secured the rebound again and passed it to Oubre.
Oubre dribbled across half court.
"Don't rush, Jerami! Stay composed and watch where your teammates are!"
On the other side, the Knicks quickly retreated on defense.
Chen Xi dropped back to the free-throw line in the backcourt and shouted at Grant.
From a matchup standpoint, Grant needed to play aggressively against Bojan's defense. There was nothing wrong with that.
And he had indeed managed to break through from the wing.
But once he got into the paint and faced Embiid's rim protection, Grant's approach had been a little too simplistic.
Challenging Big Butt's rim protection head-on wasn't a very smart choice.
Especially when, after all that contact, his speed and momentum had already faded...
But Chen didn't have