The Perfectly Ordinary Chen—At this point, whether the Knicks used Chen Xi to guard Li Kaier or put Paul Joe on him, they could greatly free up the value of their help defense.
Under these circumstances, Edwards was the one who suffered.
His ability to break double teams had never been particularly good to begin with.
Now, he also had to face the successive high-pressure help-defense schemes of Chen Xi and Joe.
Especially on certain possessions, the moment he received the ball, he was met head-on by Chen Xi's one-on-one defense. The instant he drove, Joe or Toppin would converge to double-team him.
That caused Edwards, who had been in fairly good form, to suddenly lose control over the game and lose his ability to adjust his own rhythm.
The Knicks' high-pressure defense quickly turned him from an elite wing scorer capable of driving and shooting into an off-ball shooter who had to give up the ball as soon as he crossed half court, then stand in the corner and force up the occasional three.
He was even unable to quickly adapt to that role change, and his three-point efficiency—which had been quite solid for a while—began to look downright ugly.
And for the Timberwolves, there was something even worse.
During this stretch, with Towns forced to the bench and Edwards being relentlessly targeted, the only player left on the team who could step out was Oladipo.
But how could Odie's firepower alone possibly compete with the opposing Twin Stars offensively?
That was freaking Chris! PG!
The final result was obvious.
By the end of the first half, the score had reached 79-57.
That massive 22-point score difference reduced the suspense of the game to almost nothing.
Unless something unexpected happened in the second half, the Knicks taking tonight's game