With the arrival of All-Star Weekend, it can be regarded as a pause button for the long regular season. Many teams in the league can take this opportunity to take a good rest. After all, after the All-Star break, it's time to enter the playoffs. After all, no one wants to go fishing early in April.
If we look back at the East and West landscape, we can see that the West is particularly intense, with the top four being the Timberwolves, Thunder, Clippers and Nuggets. The difference between the wins of these four teams is only 1-2 games, and no one can be sure of the final position until the last game of the playoffs.
But basically, they've locked up a top-four finish in the West. On the Phoenix Suns' side, the best offensive trio in the league are owned: Durant, Booker and Beal. There are no problems with the offense, mainly the defensive end is slightly inferior. Of course, the most important thing is the injury management stage, Durant and Beal are both glass man attributes, and how to arrange the playing time of Durant and Beal in the closing stage is a problem for Vogel.
On the side of the Lakers and Warriors, the performance has been pretty good in recent times. But the Lakers are at the bottom of the rankings, with the Lakers at 9th and the Warriors at 10th, and if the two teams can't move up the rankings in the sprint, then there's a good chance that one team will fall to the playoff threshold.
During All-Star Weekend, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was interviewed on the first day. Regarding Kawhi Leonard asking him to explain how he was called old at the game, Edwards said, "If he didn't tell you, I wouldn't tell you. He said you should ask me? I don't know, basically that's what I'm telling you, the older generation against the younger generation. ”
The performance of the Timberwolves this season is indeed eye-catching. At the beginning of the race, they were dark horses all the way. The reason why he was able to occupy the first place in the West for 3 months was mainly because the defensive end was in place. With Gobert on the side, Towns can unleash his offensive appetite. With Edwards + Towns + Gobert as the core, players such as Conley, McDaniels, Reed and Kyle Anderson are all actively contributing on the defensive end. Defensive efficiency 1085, is the league's first level.
This year's Timberwolves are very similar to last year's Grizzlies. The big bosses are all young defenders, and after achieving certain results, they are naturally a little arrogant. Especially against the Clippers, a 21-point win. "They're dying," Edwards said. Sorry, they're too old. "Blatantly mocking, he's even crazier than last year's Morant.
However, Xiaoka doesn't care about these remarks, he never speaks with strength. To be honest, Edwards wasn't really qualified to taunt Ka. In the same period, Xiaoka single-core led the Toronto Raptors in 2019, defeated the unbeatable Warriors, won the championship, and won the FMVP. This also includes the series against the 76ers, after hitting the tiebreaker, and beating Embiid! A healthy small card is a supergiant existence.
And Edwards, who said this, would only complain after the game about the unfairness of the referee. He didn't have any stats in the playoffs, and even if he made the playoffs last year, it was only a round. If you want to taunt the championship, you first have to be the champion yourself. But James gave Edwards a compliment: I would say Alexander, Edwards, and I think those two kids will probably continue to pass the torch after me, Stephen and KD retire. Hundreds of spectators