Compared with teams they had faced before, like the Bucks and Thunder, the Suns' defense was clearly a notch below.
On this possession, they did not even have a second line of help defense to interfere with Joe.
That allowed Joe, after beating Booker, to deal with nothing more than Ayton stepping up in a strong delay. For a player of his caliber, it was simply too comfortable.
Without pressure from wing help defenders, being able to take a step, accelerate, and attack the center directly was practically the same as facing no defense at all for an All-Star forward with polished ball-handling skills.
Joe was only held back by his age. If this had been Paul Joe from four or five years ago, he would have taken flight for a dunk~~
The next possession began.
The Suns were on offense.
Haliburton dribbled across half-court and initiated a pick and roll from the left side of the arc.
He used the screen to accelerate to the three-point line, then, facing Hartenstein's soft delay, gathered and shot a three-pointer.
His form looked a little strange, but his shooting percentage was quite good.
Hali calmly knocked it down.
The score became 7-4.
Then it was New York's counterattack.
Chen Xi pointed at Hart, signaling him to receive the ball, then turned to Toppin.
"Hey, Obi, switch assignments with Isaiah next possession. Step up earlier and focus on limiting Haliburton and Booker's shooting. Let them drive inside—it's fine. Isaiah can provide Rim Protection, and leave the perimeter rotations to PG and me."
"Got it."
Toppin nodded and replied to Chen Xi.
Meanwhile, Hart steadily dribbled across half-court and passed the ball to Joe.
Joe caught it and faced Huang Zhong's defense again.
After settling into a Triple Threat stance, he gave a