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Speaker 2: doing to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday.
Speaker 2: Everybody hope all you guys are having a great week. Well.
Speaker 2: The New York Knicks, with their season on the line,
Speaker 2: played the best game that they've played in this postseason
Speaker 2: from start to finish. This is a team that's had
Speaker 2: a lot of success in this postseason, but it's been
Speaker 2: pretty uneven. Even their wins, especially in the Celtics series,
Speaker 2: felt like all of them came from substantial deficits where
Speaker 2: they played poorly for the most part, but then played
Speaker 2: great in these short bursts. A wired to wire dominant
Speaker 2: performance by the New York Knicks kind of changing the
Speaker 2: way they were defending as well. We'll talk a lot
Speaker 2: about that and how it translates to Game six, as
Speaker 2: well as how it could translate forward to a potential
Speaker 2: NBA Final series. Lots of interesting stuff we're going to
Speaker 2: get into tonight that at the tail end of the show,
Speaker 2: we're going to take ten to fifteen minutes of mail
Speaker 2: bag questions from you guys. You guys know the drill
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Speaker 2: if you leave a rating in a review. On that front,
Speaker 2: Jackson is doing great work on our social media feeds.
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Speaker 2: us there, and then, like I mentioned off the top,
Speaker 2: get those mail bag questions into the chat so that
Speaker 2: we can hit them at the tail end of the show.
Speaker 2: Any specific angles of the series you guys want to
Speaker 2: dig deeper into, anything's fair game, you could drop them
Speaker 2: in the chat. Also, when we finish here tonight, we're
Speaker 2: heading over to playback. That's playback dot tv slash hoops tonight.
Speaker 2: That's where we take callers, we watch film. It's more informal,
Speaker 2: we just talk hoops. We kind of hang out more
Speaker 2: as a community, and I've been really enjoying those those streams.
Speaker 2: So make sure you guys hop over there with us
Speaker 2: when we finish tonight on YouTube. All right, let's talk
Speaker 2: some basketball. So the big takeaway in terms of the
Speaker 2: schematic difference between Game five and Game six, or Game
Speaker 2: four and Game five, and again, like most of the
Speaker 2: case when it comes to situations like this, is just
Speaker 2: the natural swings of urgency that take place in a
Speaker 2: playoff series. I feel like we've had fewer of those
Speaker 2: kinds of swings in this playoff run compared to some
Speaker 2: recent years. I think that probably has something to do
Speaker 2: with the overall level of physicality. But this is kind
Speaker 2: of what happens in playoff series. His urgency kind of
Speaker 2: oscillates back and forth, especially between two teams that are
Speaker 2: relatively evenly matched, at least when it comes to their ceiling,
Speaker 2: like these two teams, and the Knicks just came out
Speaker 2: with a ton of urgency Jalen Brunson immediately it comes
Speaker 2: out with a six to zero run, just obviously bringing
Speaker 2: the aggression that he wasn't bringing down the stretch of
Speaker 2: Game four, he kind of had a different feel in
Speaker 2: terms of that intensity. Tyre's Halliburton just completely no shows
Speaker 2: the game against some ball pressure, and here we are
Speaker 2: sitting at three two.
Speaker 1: But what were the specifics?
Speaker 2: So the Knicks really went with a bunch of super
Speaker 2: aggressive coverages tonight, tons of ball pressure, tons of denial
Speaker 2: trying to prevent Tyre's Haliburton from even getting the ball.
Speaker 2: This is something we talked a lot about going into
Speaker 2: the series, and we did see briefly in at various
Speaker 2: points throughout the series, especially down the stretch of Game
Speaker 2: three when they got a win, but just out the
Speaker 2: gates tonight, they were able to get Tyre's Halliburton to
Speaker 2: be way less aggressive just by bringing a ton of pressure,
Speaker 2: not just in the denials, but also when he had
Speaker 2: the ball. It kind of felt like Tyreese was getting
Speaker 2: rid of the ball just a beat too early tonight,
Speaker 2: like where he would get downhill on a ball screen
Speaker 2: and he'd already be jumping to turn around and pass
Speaker 2: out of it before he's even really threatened in any
Speaker 2: way as a scorer. And that's the impact of pressure.
Speaker 2: Pressure makes ball handlers uncomfortable. Another big thing you saw
Speaker 2: at night was off ball denials whenever anybody picked up
Speaker 2: their dribble so or had a ball in the triple threat,
Speaker 2: so like if you threw the ball to the high post,
Speaker 2: or if a guy happened to pick up his dribble
Speaker 2: because he overpenetrated and needed to stop boom. Everybody was
Speaker 2: face guarding, denying, trying to prevent those easy kickouts, and
Speaker 2: just in general, they made Indiana way way, way more
Speaker 2: uncomfortable than they did in previous moments in the series.
Speaker 2: In ball screens, they were blitzing, they were showing up high,
Speaker 2: just really getting aggressive on the ball. You could hear
Speaker 2: TIBs in that first or second time out on the
Speaker 2: broadcast when they show what he was saying in the huddle,
Speaker 2: he was like aggressive, aggressive, aggressive on our blitzes, on
Speaker 2: our shows, and our pressure and our denials aggressive. The
Speaker 2: point being you can take advantage of the dynamic that's
Speaker 2: at play in terms of the urgency and it being
Speaker 2: an elimination game.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of.
Speaker 2: Going with super aggressive coverages in this type of game.
Speaker 2: You're at home in front of Madison Square Garden and
Speaker 2: that crowd is just ravenous. Right, You're facing elimination, so
Speaker 2: you know you're gonna get a certain level of urgency
Speaker 2: out of your guys. The refs are gonna let you
Speaker 2: get away with a lot of physicality in this type
Speaker 2: of game, and most of all, it prevents you from
Speaker 2: coming out lethargic. These coverages puts you in situations where
Speaker 2: you're asked to sprint and be aggressive, whether that's in
Speaker 2: a ball pressure situation or just because you're rotating around
Speaker 2: off the ball after the pass comes out. It requires
Speaker 2: intensity to be that aggressive, and so it kind of
Speaker 2: just brings it out of you out of necessity, right,
Speaker 2: and Indiana really just came apart at the seams to
Speaker 2: give you guys an idea. Their previous series high and
Speaker 2: turnovers was fourteen at twenty tonight averaged just ten and
Speaker 2: a half turnovers per game in this series. They doubled
Speaker 2: that in tonight's game. That's the level of discomfort they caused.
Speaker 2: Indiana scored just forty five points in the first half. Remember, guys,
Speaker 2: first quarter of Game four they had forty three points.
Speaker 2: So just two completely different Pacers offenses in the last
Speaker 2: two games. Because of that intensity and physicality. And again,
Speaker 2: like Tyres Alliburton, as he's known to do at times,
Speaker 2: and it's been less often in this postseason run than
Speaker 2: it was last year, but when teams bring super intense
Speaker 2: defensive efforts, he can no show a game. And that's
Speaker 2: what he did tonight, and that you know, when that happens,
Speaker 2: it's really difficult for Indiana to score effectively. And it
Speaker 2: is something to keep in mind for Oklahoma City. We'll
Speaker 2: talk more about that later should we get to that
Speaker 2: to that point, if if Indiana can close it out.
Speaker 2: But I thought everyone for the Knicks was great on that,
Speaker 2: especially on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Tonight.
Speaker 2: I specifically want to shout out Mitchell Robinson he didn't
Speaker 2: get a ton of burn in the second half as
Speaker 2: Tibbs went more in the direction of Josh Hart and
Speaker 2: Josh I thought played well tonight. I thought it was
Speaker 2: one of Josh's better games in the series. It's kind
Speaker 2: of like making some of the shots he was missing earlier,
Speaker 2: grabbing some of the contested rebounds he was missing earlier
Speaker 2: in the series. Right type of game to play, Josh.
Speaker 2: And there was a couple runs that they gave up
Speaker 2: at various points, but in the first half in particular,
Speaker 2: when they were making that initial push, I thought Mitchell
Speaker 2: Robinson was everywhere. The big thing that really stands out
Speaker 2: to me with Mitch's his recovery athleticism. You saw a
Speaker 2: couple of his like transition defense sequences where he gets
Speaker 2: a little too much dip on his chip and he
Speaker 2: like just straight up like attacks someone in the air
Speaker 2: and commits a foul, but again preventing the easy layup
Speaker 2: and making the guys actually earn those points at the line.
Speaker 2: But in general, in every single one of those situations,
Speaker 2: whether it's a ball screen where he's pursuing, or he's
Speaker 2: in rotation, or he's in just like a situation where
Speaker 2: he's on the ball while everyone else is denying. He
Speaker 2: just brings this level of athleticism and kind of it
Speaker 2: just feels like he just engulfs whoever he's going after
Speaker 2: in those situations.
Speaker 1: He's one of them.
Speaker 2: Was fun to watch defensive players in the league when
Speaker 2: he's really going. And I you know, Mitchell Robbinson is
Speaker 2: an interesting player in terms of how he kind of
Speaker 2: fits in the league beyond the scope of just a
Speaker 2: backup center. There are some issues obviously in terms of
Speaker 2: maintaining motor over larger minute loads and whether or not
Speaker 2: he has the offensive utility to be a factor in
Speaker 2: a more, you know, featured role. But when he when
Speaker 2: he comes off the bench, and obviously for the last
Speaker 2: two games in a starting role, and he's when he's
Speaker 2: when he's out there in those limited minutes, he just
Speaker 2: brings this absurd amount of energy and it can just
Speaker 2: really be disruptive for their opponent. I thought Brunson and
Speaker 2: Cat were both phenomenal and offense tonight again, Brunson kind
Speaker 2: of a classic like we're not losing type of attitude,
Speaker 2: Like you could just see it in his body language
Speaker 2: and demeanor right out the gates. He knew that he
Speaker 2: didn't do enough at down the stretch of Game four.
Speaker 2: We watched the end of Game four after on playback
Speaker 2: a couple of nights ago, and it's just kind of
Speaker 2: weird how Brunson just wasn't looking to be aggressive down
Speaker 2: the stretch and was just kind of passing out of
Speaker 2: some situations that we typically see him.
Speaker 1: Shoot out of. But he fixed that right away.
Speaker 2: I mean, we were talking about Nie Smith not solving him,
Speaker 2: so to speak, but really wearing him down over the
Speaker 2: course of the series.
Speaker 1: Strong signed tonight that he came.
Speaker 2: Out and just straight up bested that matchup immediately out
Speaker 2: the gates, and he's going to have to do that
Speaker 2: again in Game six for the Knicks to win. And
Speaker 2: then Karl Anthony Towns. He's been basically unguardable since the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter of Game three. It seems like it's really
Speaker 2: clicked for him that none of these dudes can guard
Speaker 2: him in terms of one on one kind of face
Speaker 2: up situations. He can just rip through whether it's right
Speaker 2: or left, and just power through contact and get all
Speaker 2: the way to the bucket. And you could tell Indiana's
Speaker 2: trying really hard to send him to his left hand
Speaker 2: but he was able to power through to his right
Speaker 2: hand several times today and just get up through contact
Speaker 2: and he just like rips his arms up through the
Speaker 2: people that are reaching and grabbing, and he just has
Speaker 2: a gift for finishing through contact. He was amazing tonight.
Speaker 2: Really just a wired to wire dominant performance for the Knick,
Speaker 2: and that if you're looking for a bit of optimism,
Speaker 2: it's the first time in this series that they've had
Speaker 2: that type of wire wire performance. And the last time
Speaker 2: they had a wired to wire type of performance like
Speaker 2: that was in Game six against the Celtics. If you
Speaker 2: guys remember when they really were peaking at that point
Speaker 2: in the series, and they're going to need to maintain
Speaker 2: that peak if they're gonna have any chance to win
Speaker 2: Game six. Game six will be the toughest game that
Speaker 2: New York has played in the series. We talked after
Speaker 2: Game four. These two teams, when they're at their best
Speaker 2: are pretty similar. You could even argue that New York
Speaker 2: ceiling is maybe a touch higher just because Kat and
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson are more reliable as one on one players
Speaker 2: if they end up in slow down situations than a
Speaker 2: Siakam or a Halliburton. But the difference is I know
Speaker 2: what we're gonna get from Indiana on Saturday. We're going
Speaker 2: to get the Pacers very best. They're gonna come out
Speaker 2: the gates with a ton of pressure and pace and
Speaker 2: aggressiveness and energy and all of it. I feel pretty
Speaker 2: confident Haliburton's gonna have a big bounce back game. They
Speaker 2: are going to be the best version of the Pacers
Speaker 2: on Saturday night. With the Knicks, I literally have no
Speaker 2: idea what to expect this Saturday, and I would imagine
Speaker 2: most of you Knicks fans feel the same, Like they're
Speaker 2: just as likely to roll over and get beat by
Speaker 2: thirty as they are to win the game. And that's
Speaker 2: what makes them really difficult to get a read on
Speaker 2: for this type of game, because we've just seen so
Speaker 2: many times, even in series that they've won in this
Speaker 2: postseason look bad and it for extended stretches, and so
Speaker 2: it's just kind of weird. I just don't know what
Speaker 2: we're gonna get. But to be clear, I do know
Speaker 2: that New York can win that game. In terms of
Speaker 2: the schematics, I would try those same super aggressive coverages again.
Speaker 2: It's the only time in the series they've had sustained
Speaker 2: defensive success. Even going back to our playback session last night,
Speaker 2: when we started watching some of the OKC Indiana tape
Speaker 2: just in prep for a theoretical finals, there were a
Speaker 2: lot of Oklahoma City had a lot of success. They
Speaker 2: were also able to get Tyree Saliburton to just completely
Speaker 2: diseng with that type of pressure. It might just be
Speaker 2: your best chance to beat the Pacers. And also it
Speaker 2: just keeps you aggressive. I mean, like, think of it
Speaker 2: like this. If you're gonna give up a bunch of
Speaker 2: advantages anyway, because when you're in your traditional defense you
Speaker 2: get lost too often, might as well get lost in
Speaker 2: the context of everybody flying around and trying to pressure
Speaker 2: the ball and see if it can cause enough payoffs
Speaker 2: to prevent those sorts of easy kind of tick tack
Speaker 2: toe sequences where Indiana gets wide open shots over and
Speaker 2: over again. I also think trying to bring the worst
Speaker 2: out of Tyris Aliburn is the best way to give
Speaker 2: yourselself a chance to win in that building. If you
Speaker 2: let him get comfortable, I think you're just gonna lose.
Speaker 2: And so again, ball pressure denial, same sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: In Game six, I think you have to lean into that.
Speaker 2: But again, the Knicks have clearly demonstrated in this series
Speaker 2: at two different points down the stretch, at Game four
Speaker 2: and then again tonight, that they can shake Indiana's offensive
Speaker 2: foundation with their defense in Game six. If they do that,
Speaker 2: they've got a very good chance to win. For the Pacers,
Speaker 2: it's just about not allowing New York's pressure to dislodge
Speaker 2: them from their offense. Haliburton's gotta shed the denials. Be
Speaker 2: physical on the ball, throw the guy out of the way,
Speaker 2: go get the basketball. Look to be more aggressive early
Speaker 2: and often in the game. Don't pass the ball too
Speaker 2: early out of your attacks. If you pass the ball
Speaker 2: too early, if the defense hasn't committed to you in
Speaker 2: any real way, there's no advantage that you're creating. You
Speaker 2: create advantage by being a threat. You be a threat
Speaker 2: by looking to get further deeper into your attacks. Just
Speaker 2: that was just completely missing from Tyre's Halliburton tonight. Make
Speaker 2: the defense react to you. One of the things we
Speaker 2: saw in film, and this is something that I've talked
Speaker 2: about a lot in this postseason dating back to the
Speaker 2: Cavs series, But I really like when Haliburton is getting
Speaker 2: denied and facing a lot of pressure and he's going
Speaker 2: through one of those stretches where he's being a little
Speaker 2: bit more uninvolved. Get him involved in the action, have
Speaker 2: him be a screener. We saw some examples of that
Speaker 2: again in the Oklahoma City tape last night where in
Speaker 2: the one clutch game they played a lot of nemhard
Speaker 2: on ball because Halliburton was struggling with dort Well, they
Speaker 2: just used how Leburton as a screener and like you know,
Speaker 2: double dragon stack type of actions to try to keep
Speaker 2: him involved. And again, like when you and are in
Speaker 2: a situation where you're like hugging, and you said, there
Speaker 2: were so many examples tonight where like they're showing replays
Speaker 2: and like Nix are literally like hugging pacers off the ball,
Speaker 2: And again that's just playoff basketball. That's kind of contact.
Speaker 2: They've been allowing off ball more or less this entire postseason,
Speaker 2: in every series. But you've got to find a way to,
Speaker 2: uh to have success in that context. And if you
Speaker 2: have an on ball guys call it in them hard
Speaker 2: or siakam and you have you have Halliburton go up
Speaker 2: to set the screen and Michal Bridges is hugging him.
Speaker 2: Mcal's probably not gonna help on screens, and so there's
Speaker 2: a lot of advantages you can create there by either
Speaker 2: having the guy turn the corner as Haliburton screening, or
Speaker 2: if McHale comes off in any way, shape or form,
Speaker 2: he can then slip out of it and then Tyros
Speaker 2: Aliburton has an opportunity to attack with an advantage, but
Speaker 2: he is attacked from Halliburton when he does get his catches,
Speaker 2: when he does get his opportunities, he cannot just completely
Speaker 2: disengage from the game offensively the way he did tonight.
Speaker 2: And then on defense, I'm more or less okay with
Speaker 2: how they've guarded Jalen Brunson. I thought they could have
Speaker 2: been a little bit tighter on their help tonight. There
Speaker 2: were a couple of situations where I thought they were
Speaker 2: just a step light, especially from the low man position.
Speaker 1: Aaron E.
Speaker 2: Smith obviously can do a better job staying attached. He's
Speaker 2: won that matchup over the tail end of this series,
Speaker 2: but Brunson is what he is, and there's only so
Speaker 2: much you can do. I'm not necessarily worried about the
Speaker 2: specific coverage there with Kat, though I think they need
Speaker 2: to throw more resources at him. They have to make
Speaker 2: him a passer, more aggressive with the double teams earlier
Speaker 2: with help, put him in a situation where he has
Speaker 2: to make reads in traffic instead of just allowing him
Speaker 2: to bulldoze his way to the rim in one on
Speaker 2: one situations. Once Kat gets his momentum, he's just a
Speaker 2: bowl in a china shop and he's going to win
Speaker 2: that battle more often than not. You've got to put
Speaker 2: him in a situation where he can't get his runway.
Speaker 2: And the only way you're going to do that is
Speaker 2: if you bring early help or doubles, and so I
Speaker 2: want to see a lot of that in Game six.
Speaker 2: Last note on the Pacers before we get to our questions.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: I'm a little concerned about a theoretical Oklahoma City matchup
Speaker 2: after a little bit of the film that we watched
Speaker 2: last night and from what I saw tonight. So we've
Speaker 2: been going back and forth about this, and I haven't
Speaker 2: really devoted a ton of energy towards watching all of
Speaker 2: the tape because I want to wait till we know
Speaker 2: what the actual matchup is. It would be annoying if
Speaker 2: I did that and then all of a sudden we're
Speaker 2: covering a Knicks Thunder Finals, right.
Speaker 1: But we've done a little bit of it.
Speaker 2: We watched a little bit of tape last night from
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City, and I've been thinking through theoretical coverages and
Speaker 2: stuff like that with Jackson. We've talked in segments on
Speaker 2: the show, and you know, we came around to being
Speaker 2: a little more positive in terms of just their ability
Speaker 2: to pass through Oklahoma City's defense and some of their
Speaker 2: smaller guards and their ability to slide their feet and
Speaker 2: stay in front of Shay. But one of the things
Speaker 2: that we saw last night in the Oklahoma City game
Speaker 2: is Tyre's Halliburton wanted nothing to do with the basketball
Speaker 2: down the stretch of a game, and they were just
Speaker 2: going through Andrew emhard and using Halliburton a little bit
Speaker 2: as a screener. And they lost that game in a
Speaker 2: crunch time situation in Indiana. Now context there being substantially
Speaker 2: earlier in the season, basically a different Pacers team. Nie
Speaker 2: Smith wasn't even available in that game. There were several
Speaker 2: sequences when Oklahoma City was pinching off of Ben Mathern,
Speaker 2: and you could tell the Pacers are just a little
Speaker 2: bit hesitant to throw that kickout pass because he's not
Speaker 2: the level of shooter that Nie Smith is, and so
Speaker 2: like again, the regular season basketball is regular season basketball,
Speaker 2: and hopefully over the course of a series, Tyres would
Speaker 2: be more comfortable, but it was a little discouraging to
Speaker 2: see that he just didn't really seem to be comfortable
Speaker 2: at all operating with the ball against Oklahoma City's defense.
Speaker 2: The Knicks, they they've been like occasionally costplaying as a
Speaker 2: good defense at various points in the season. They have
Speaker 2: had no sustained defensive success at all at any point
Speaker 2: in this postseason or in this entire season, dating for
Speaker 2: from October all the way through to this point. The
Speaker 2: point being, they are not going to They're not going
Speaker 2: to be able to reach the level that Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: can reach on that end of the floor, point being
Speaker 2: you're going whatever it is you're seeing from New York,
Speaker 2: it's going to be a substantially harder version of it
Speaker 2: in the finals if you even get to that point.
Speaker 2: And so again, step number one is you got to
Speaker 2: be able to handle this pressure and you got to
Speaker 2: be able to play Pacers basketball, because if you can't
Speaker 2: figure it out against the Knicks, you have no chance
Speaker 2: of figuring it out against the thunder. If I had
Speaker 2: to pick right now for Game six, I think Indiana
Speaker 2: wins and wins comfortably. But I absolutely think the Knicks
Speaker 2: have a chance to win that series or that game.
Speaker 2: And I think if they do win that game, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, they become the favorite to win the
Speaker 2: series and have a great chance to go to the finals.
Speaker 2: So if you're a Knicks fan, you just got to
Speaker 2: think about it in a one game context. Go in
Speaker 2: on Saturday, and you're in great shape to go to
Speaker 2: the finals. Go in on Saturday, right, but you guys
Speaker 2: know the job. It's not going to be easy. That
Speaker 2: Pacers team and must win games at home as and
Speaker 2: a literally a buzzsaw. So I think the Pacers are
Speaker 2: to say bet, but the Knicks absolutely have their chance.
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Speaker 2: All right, let's get to Jackson, and let's get to
Speaker 2: some questions.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 4: Let's sort of stay on that Game six, how the
Speaker 4: Knicks would win topic for a minute here. If the
Speaker 4: Knicks win Game six, do you think it would be
Speaker 4: more about their defense and the pressure than the turnovers
Speaker 4: they were able to generate tonight, or more about the
Speaker 4: their offensive success via Catz sort of continued dominance in Brunson.
Speaker 2: I think that the Knicks offense kind of feeds off
Speaker 2: of their defense, their team that I think has been
Speaker 2: at their best offensively this season when they're running out
Speaker 2: in transition. So I think they're kind of connected to
Speaker 2: a certain extent. I'm not particularly worried about Brunston and
Speaker 2: cat being able to generate offense. There's a certain amount
Speaker 2: of like role player shooting variable that you have to
Speaker 2: factor in. Like I mean, I thought the four jump
Speaker 2: shots that Landry Shammitt and Duce McBride hit tonight were huge,
Speaker 2: Like they each hit a catch and shoot three and
Speaker 2: then they each hit a kind of a tough off
Speaker 2: the dribble jump shot in the mid range that were
Speaker 2: important shots Seamit's was weird he like jumped way back
Speaker 2: and almost had his feet on the three point line.
Speaker 2: But like there's a certain amount of like that role
Speaker 2: player shooting that could be a variable in that sort
Speaker 2: of game. But I think it's all about the defense.
Speaker 2: Like to put it very simply, the pacers are a
Speaker 2: great shot generating machine, and if they allow that machine
Speaker 2: to operate, they're just going to make the shots and
Speaker 2: you're going to lose. The only chance you have is
Speaker 2: to disrupt that engine, dislodge them from their offensive foundation
Speaker 2: to where they're not moving the ball as well, they're
Speaker 2: not playing with as much pace, they're starting to second
Speaker 2: guess their decision making. Tyres Haliburton wants no parts of it.
Speaker 2: That's where you have the opportunity to really slow the
Speaker 2: game down, at least on that side of the floor,
Speaker 2: and then just pushing off of missus, pushing off of turnovers,
Speaker 2: and when it comes down to a close game late
Speaker 2: in the half court, you like your chances with Jalen
Speaker 2: Brunston and Karl Anthony Towns, right.
Speaker 1: So I think it has more to do with their defense.
Speaker 4: So you were saying, if you were going to finish
Speaker 4: the sentence in like an old school sports caster, away
Speaker 4: the Knicks win Game six if if they're able to
Speaker 4: make Tyres Haliburton uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Yes, if they're able to I think in general, dislodging
Speaker 2: Indiana from their foundation on offense, meaning like taking away
Speaker 2: some of the easy transition opportunities, preventing the like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're seventeen on the shot clock and they've already gotten
Speaker 2: into action and created a wide open catch and shoot situation,
Speaker 2: like ball pressure denial, preventing them from getting into their
Speaker 2: stuff early, making them work deeper into the clock, and
Speaker 2: making them play one on one.
Speaker 4: What is your take on the Knicks looking so good
Speaker 4: in the last couple games, sort of extending leads with
Speaker 4: Brunt in the minutes with Brunson, it's been on the bench.
Speaker 2: This has been something we looked into in the numbers
Speaker 2: on playback one of the Knights a couple It was
Speaker 2: like a couple of nights ago or something like that. Basically,
Speaker 2: when Brunson's on and Kat's off, they're good, And when
Speaker 2: Kat's on and Brunson's off, they're good and when both
Speaker 2: of them have been on they've been a net negative
Speaker 2: at this point in the postseason. And it's really not
Speaker 2: all that complicated. There's a there's a simplified order of operations.
Speaker 2: When you have one ball handler on the floor, that
Speaker 2: dude just knows he's got to be super aggressive, and
Speaker 2: that can like any basketball player knows that, if you
Speaker 2: play alongside a bunch of ball handling talent, it can
Speaker 2: be a more complicated process of like figuring out rhythm,
Speaker 2: like sometimes you overpass, sometimes you underpass, Like there's a
Speaker 2: lot of like who is it that's looking to be
Speaker 2: aggressive in this part of the game. Having staggering gives
Speaker 2: you a situation where it's like, hey, here are the
Speaker 2: keys of the offense you're working you know, yeah, Deuce
Speaker 2: is out there, Michale's out there on second side action,
Speaker 2: but we're playing through you. And then it's a simple
Speaker 2: fact that like every other New York Knicks player that
Speaker 2: touches the floor is a dude that heats on the
Speaker 2: defensive end and flies around in rotation. And so if
Speaker 2: you have four of those dudes on the floor instead
Speaker 2: of three, you're just a better defensive team. And honestly,
Speaker 2: That's the thing that stood out in the numbers two
Speaker 2: when we looked it's just the next defense with both
Speaker 2: of them on the floor is just rough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's yeah, for sure on the point of the
Speaker 4: next defense in the ball pressure as that was definitely
Speaker 4: the big storyline from the night. Why do you think
Speaker 4: they haven't done this earlier? Is it a coach coaching
Speaker 4: tid not? His Tim's philosophy right now is easy word
Speaker 4: about the personnel, like what has taken them so long
Speaker 4: to make this kind of adjustment.
Speaker 2: Every basketball team has an identity. We've talked about this
Speaker 2: a lot with regards to the Pacers and the Thunder.
Speaker 2: We've talked about it, even with like Golden State. There's
Speaker 2: like certain teams where it's like, we have a goal
Speaker 2: to maximize our talent, grab every little bit of low
Speaker 2: hanging fruit, and so this is the way that we're
Speaker 2: looking to go. But those teams have depth. The Warriors
Speaker 2: consistently have had you know, twelve to thirteen role players
Speaker 2: that they've trusted to play big minutes. The Pacers have
Speaker 2: had a bench they can go to. The Thunder have
Speaker 2: a deep bench they can go to. I think that
Speaker 2: Tibbs has looked at his team and been like, I
Speaker 2: trust six of these dudes, so maybe seven. So we
Speaker 2: need to keep their minutes high. And so as a
Speaker 2: result of that, I can't be asking them to blitz
Speaker 2: and deny and pick up full cord and do all
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. Urgency brought that out, But I
Speaker 2: think another part of it too is like getting to
Speaker 2: the like I thought Precious to a shift that he
Speaker 2: played tonight was pretty effective. I think he came in
Speaker 2: late too, but the when he came in that third
Speaker 2: quarter stretch, I thought he was effective. The Delawn Wright
Speaker 2: minutes have been effective on the defensive end throughout the series,
Speaker 2: and the bits that he's been playing well Andrew Sham
Speaker 2: it's been like good, like flat out goods for them.
Speaker 2: So like digging deeper into the bench and putting those
Speaker 2: guys in a position where they're playing more roles, like
Speaker 2: eighteen minutes out of Duce McBride, fourteen minutes out of
Speaker 2: Lander sham At, ten minutes out of the Lawn right.
Speaker 2: That keeps everyone else's minutes down. Cat played thirty six minutes,
Speaker 2: no other starter played over thirty four. You put yourself
Speaker 2: in a situation where because you're using your depth. You're
Speaker 2: more comfortable picking up well court denying being that physical.
Speaker 2: I think they would have done it anyway under the circumstances,
Speaker 2: just because of the intensity of the moment, and we
Speaker 2: have seen in this postseason for stretches they really ratcheted
Speaker 2: up defensively and they look great. But I think just
Speaker 2: going with a shorter rotation has caused the Knicks, and
Speaker 2: this has been a thing they've done most of the season.
Speaker 2: Going with a shorter rotation most of the season has
Speaker 2: put them in a situation where their base scheme has
Speaker 2: had to involve a certain amount of passivity on the
Speaker 2: defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like that sort of speaks to a bit,
Speaker 4: like really shows the flaw in some of Tibbs's thinking.
Speaker 4: It's like he hasn't even even not not that you
Speaker 4: would if you were looking on paper, you would necessarily
Speaker 4: think guys like Delon Wright, Precious to Chewa, and Landry
Speaker 4: Shammitt would be playoff game changers. But it's sort of
Speaker 4: like the moment those guys came in, they were effective.
Speaker 4: It is a little not an indictment, It's not that
Speaker 4: too strong.
Speaker 1: Of a word.
Speaker 4: I don't mean it that strongly, but it does sort
Speaker 4: of illustrate I think some of the issues that Knicks
Speaker 4: fans have with TIBs. If he plays his start at
Speaker 4: such such heavy minutes, doesn't necessarily give these other guys
Speaker 4: a chance to carve out a role for themselves. Because
Speaker 4: the moment those guys are given the minutes, in the
Speaker 4: biggest moment of the season, they have been effective.
Speaker 2: There's a proven way to make basketball easy that Indiana
Speaker 2: and Oklahoma City have capitalized on too. What I mean
Speaker 2: by that is like, it's not like you if you
Speaker 2: look at Indiana's roster, how many people were super high
Speaker 2: on Obi Toppen before he played for the Pacers. How
Speaker 2: many people were super high on Thomas Bryant before he
Speaker 2: played for the Pacers. Like Ben Athern's a guy who's
Speaker 2: been integrated at various points throughout throughout his young career
Speaker 2: as being kind of a shot chucker and inefficient.
Speaker 1: You know, a guy who can't play off ball.
Speaker 2: When you put when you put these guys into a system,
Speaker 2: a system that has simple rules. Here's how we run,
Speaker 2: here's what we do on offense, Here's the way we defend.
Speaker 2: When you put these guys in situations where like any
Speaker 2: basketball player can be successful as long as they follow
Speaker 2: these basic rules and these basic reads, you can turn
Speaker 2: you know, fringe NBA talent. I'm not trying to say
Speaker 2: these guys are fringe NBA town, but relative to what
Speaker 2: we would consider to be like the types of rock solid,
Speaker 2: playoff bench guys that we've thought about over the years,
Speaker 2: you know, like Bruce Brown with the Nuggets, or you know,
Speaker 2: Livingston and Nigudala with the Warriors back in the day,
Speaker 2: or whoever. Like these guys are benefiting from the culture
Speaker 2: that comes from the top down. So like to your point,
Speaker 2: like if Tips started the season and said we're gonna
Speaker 2: pick up full court and we're gonna we're gonna deny
Speaker 2: and we're gonna be super physical with our ball pressure
Speaker 2: and we're gonna run in transition like crazy, then you
Speaker 2: get into a situation where you're running a ten eleven
Speaker 2: man rotation from the start of the year. We might
Speaker 2: look at Landry Shammitt and de Lawn right, and these
Speaker 2: guys pressures to Chua as like different basketball players in
Speaker 2: the big picture because they fit into like this scheme
Speaker 2: and it's like just TIBs won a different route. TIBs
Speaker 2: went that I want to lean on my top end
Speaker 2: talent as much as possible, So we're gonna be a
Speaker 2: team that cuts corners on defense all year long. And
Speaker 2: so guess what, they've been inconsistent on defense in this postseason.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like, you know, if there's one thing
Speaker 2: that has stood out to me in a big way,
Speaker 2: and it's it's funny because this is something I've always believed.
Speaker 2: This is this is something I've always believed, but I
Speaker 2: just it's at certain points I'll like undervalue it, you know,
Speaker 2: especially as we've been thinking more about offense recently.
Speaker 1: Getting a team to just.
Speaker 2: Play the right way on a night in, night out
Speaker 2: basis during the regular season matters just does. And we
Speaker 2: are looking down the barrel of most likely Indiana Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City Finals, and I would argue the Thunder played harder
Speaker 2: all season than anybody. And I'd argue the Pacers played
Speaker 2: harder over the second half of the season than anybody
Speaker 2: out east, and here they are looking sharper and getting
Speaker 2: more of that low hanging fruit and winning basketball games
Speaker 2: as a result.
Speaker 4: Well, next question, does Cats dominance in the back half
Speaker 4: of this series change your thought? Your perspective if the
Speaker 4: Knicks should trade him this summer.
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of a matchup related thing here
Speaker 2: going on with Indiana, which is like none of their
Speaker 2: dudes are big enough to handle him. So I think
Speaker 2: like there are versions of matchups that you could see
Speaker 2: on a series by series basis that like, for instance,
Speaker 2: like let's say that the Knicks made it to the finals,
Speaker 2: the Thunder are a more physical team with a with
Speaker 2: a pretty strong frontline defensively, now with Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein,
Speaker 2: it's very possible that he looks ineffectual offensively in a
Speaker 2: series like that. So, like, I don't want to sit
Speaker 2: here and say that, I don't want to sit here
Speaker 2: and undercut the work that Cat's done down the stretch
Speaker 2: of the series. He has found out the Indiana kank
Speaker 2: gard and he's having a lot of success now bulling
Speaker 2: his way to the basket, and that I think matters.
Speaker 2: But the flip side of it is is that everything
Speaker 2: is matchup dependent, and we just have so many examples
Speaker 2: over the years of Cat kind of struggling. And here's
Speaker 2: the thing, guys, Let's see how Cat defends in Game six,
Speaker 2: Like it's a big important game on the road must
Speaker 2: win elimination game. Like he goes out in game six
Speaker 2: and he defends the way that he needs to defend
Speaker 2: and he puts in you know, twenty five and fifteen,
Speaker 2: then yeah, we can start having a different conversation as
Speaker 2: he's now done it in a high stake situation to
Speaker 2: put himself in a situation where he can go to
Speaker 2: the finals. But like to this point, if we like
Speaker 2: really zoom out from this postseason, it's it's been a
Speaker 2: little bit more complicated than just here are his points
Speaker 2: per game totals for sure.
Speaker 4: Last before we go over to playback the draft, the
Speaker 4: DraftKings line on Game six is Pacers minus four. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna put you on the spot who is going to
Speaker 4: win games? If if you had to pick right now, who
Speaker 4: is gonna win Game six?
Speaker 1: I think the Pacers will win and they'll cover. I
Speaker 1: think I didn't pick the Pacers over the.
Speaker 2: Knicks because of like anti Knicks anything or any sort
Speaker 2: of like even matchup related stuff. I just think the
Speaker 2: Pacers are a better team. I think they're a better
Speaker 2: team on both ends of the floor because they're more
Speaker 2: more consistently at their ceiling. I do think the Knicks
Speaker 2: can win that game. But I just think the Pacers
Speaker 2: are safe for bet because they've demonstrated that throughout this season.
Speaker 2: They've also just been consistently an absolute buzz saw and
Speaker 2: like must win games at home, and I just think
Speaker 2: that I just think that's gonna be one of the
Speaker 2: most difficult games that you could ever ask a team
Speaker 2: to win, is go on the road to Indiana, they get,
Speaker 2: they get to go to the finals if they win, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's gonna it's gonna be it's gonna be rough. And
Speaker 2: so again, it's not that I don't think the Knicks
Speaker 2: can win. I just think the Pacers are far and
Speaker 2: away the safe bet, and I think it's more likely
Speaker 2: than not that they win big, Like i'd be looking
Speaker 2: at alternate spread bets in a game like that. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: that's all I have for tonight. Again, we're heading over
Speaker 2: to playback, So let's playback dot tv slash Hoops tonight.
Speaker 2: We'll be taking callers and hanging out and having fun.
Speaker 2: Make sure you guys head over there. For those of
Speaker 2: you guys who are not following us, we'll be back
Speaker 2: on YouTube Saturday night. We've got thirty eight of the
Speaker 2: last forty one nights, but we are finally done going
Speaker 2: every night, so we will be back on Saturday night
Speaker 2: for Game six of the Eastern Conference Finals between the
Speaker 2: Pacers and the Knicks.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys then. What's up guys?
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
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