The two-pointer went in, bringing the score to 7-9.
Though he looked pale and chubby, Teacher Jokic's footwork in the low post was incredibly agile.
More nimble than that of most active interior players in the league, his soft touch and complete arsenal had created an ultimate low-post weapon that was extremely difficult to contain.
But interestingly, over two straight possessions, the Knicks had not chosen to aggressively send help or double-team Jokic when he initiated offense from the post.
Little Porter's basket had displayed Jokic's passing vision, as well as Little Porter's own individual ability.
It had been a semi-open shooting opportunity that appeared while he was on the move.
George, who was responsible for Chase Defense, had shown absolutely no intention of collapsing inside.
And on that last play, they had directly allowed Jokic to go one-on-one against Hartenstein.
Perhaps this was the defensive strategy the Knicks had chosen tonight.
Let Jokic keep pounding away in the low post.
Let him take a large number of individual shots.
Because the Knicks had always believed that what made Jokic more formidable and more famous was his ability to connect and elevate the entire team.
He was an all-around center, not some interior isolation king known for scoring.
At the same time, the Knicks also believed that even if Jokic's low-post game truly became as unstoppable as Shaquille's, Chen Xi still would not lose when it came time to compare star scoring output!
An outside player whose core scoring weapon was the Mid-range jumper, competing in Offensive Efficiency against a low-post monster.
It sounded somewhat absurd.
But the truth was, no one believed Chen Xi would lose that battle.
A man who had led the Scoring Champion leaderboard by a massive margin for four straight years had that kind of