Skip to the content
New York Knicks Star Addresses Controversial Call vs. Detroit Pistons – Sports Illustrated
05/05/2025 11:00:03
2025 NBA playoffs schedule: Games today, times, complete bracket with full second-round schedule set – CBS Sports
05/05/2025 10:54:11
The Post?s Knicks-Celtics Eastern Conference semifinal predictions – New York Post
05/05/2025 10:45:00
2 Minute Drill: Celtics ready for Knicks – WCVB
05/05/2025 10:29:00
Celtics vs. Knicks odds, prediction, start time: 2025 NBA playoff picks, Game 1 best bets by proven model – CBS Sports
05/05/2025 10:12:25
Rivals Celtics And Knicks Await First NBA Playoffs Matchup Since 2013 – Forbes
05/05/2025 10:00:00
Knicks vs. Celtics Prediction, Odds and Best NBA Prop Bets for Playoffs Game 1 – Sports Illustrated
05/05/2025 10:30:00
The one Knicks weakness that could decide it all against Celtics – New York Post
05/05/2025 10:15:00
NBA Round 2 matchups: Cavs-Pacers, Celtics-Knicks, Warriors-Timberwolves and Thunder-Nuggets – The Durango Herald
05/05/2025 10:01:47
?It?s going to be a war?: Celtics, Knicks renew long-dormant playoff rivalry – Boston Herald
05/05/2025 09:56:15
NY Knicks in NBA conference semifinals: this is how their record has been through the years – Diario AS
05/05/2025 10:17:36
For all their New York hype, Knicks present no real threat to Celtics – MassLive
05/05/2025 09:00:00
Knicks Bulletin: ?It?s idiotic to play if you don?t go in with confidence? – Posting and Toasting
05/05/2025 09:07:52
5 Keys to Knicks vs Celtics – Substack
05/05/2025 09:02:19
Knicks vs. Celtics Game 1: How to watch, stream and more for series opener in Boston – Asbury Park Press
05/05/2025 08:04:52
Were You Guys Just At The Charli XCX Show? No, We Were Watching The Knicks Game At The Dave & Buster’s On Atlantic. – Quartersnacks
05/05/2025 08:26:39
Healthy Celtics look to extend recent dominance over Knicks in East semifinal matchup – MSN
05/05/2025 08:02:37
Will Knicks upset the Celtics? Game 1 betting odds, analysis and our prediction – Bergen Record
05/05/2025 08:06:31
Knicks vs. Celtics (May 5, 2025) Pregame – ESPN
05/05/2025 06:37:02
NBA experts’ picks for Knicks-Celtics, Thunder-Nuggets and every second-round series – ESPN
05/05/2025 05:20:00
99 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.05)”
Happy Hope Day, everyone!
We all have at least 12 hours to be excited.
(EDIT: oh wait the game starts at 7, and the series might be over by the end of the first quarter, so 11.5 hours)
i had a dream last night that we lost 114-112 so there is bacically no useful information in there
holiday not on injury report right now no one from either team is that could change later
If you want to get fired up, read the Bernard King interview in the Post.
It’s like Sonny at the tollbooth. I will tell myself during each rewatch that if the toll taker had not dropped Sonny’s change, Sonny would be continuing on his way to rearrange Carlo’s face. The dozen hitmen waiting in the booth and the blockading car would have been out of luck. The Celtics have gunmen waiting for us.
After watching last night’s game, I think the winner of this series is going to the finals.
I’m actually very much looking forward to this series. We’ve been waiting all season for this matchup so let’s do it. It’ll be nice to actually watch a good basketball game too, no more bullshit Pistons tactics to deal with.
You could say the same for all the remaining series now that the non basketball playing teams like Detroit, Orlando and Houston are gone. The 5 best offenses are all still alive plus Indiana and Minnesota are in the top 10 with only Golden St not having a Top 10 offense but I assume they’ve been a Top 10 offense since Butler arrived.
“…no more bullshit Pistons tactics to deal with.”
I’m actually expecting some of the same tactics. Boston will put a smaller player in KAT’s grille, KP will lay way off of Hart so he can clog the lane, Brunson will get hounded by taller, more athletic players like White and Brown, etc.
Meanwhile, Tatum is going to iso a ton from the high corner near midcourt, especially after getting the matchups he wants, and any attempts to help will lead to someone taking an uncontested 3 or a slash to the rim. Brunson and KAT will be relentlessly targeted, and Tatum will try to overpower Mikal if that switch happens.
I know it sounds counter-intuitive because when healthy they are tough defenders, but I would try to attack Jrue and Brown early on to see if making them extend themselves on defense might put stress on their nagging injuries.
“…now that the non basketball playing teams like Detroit, Orlando and Houston are gone.”
All three of those teams had a core that is very inexperienced, which to me is a much bigger factor than how they play. There are no Cinderalla teams left. All of the remaining 8 teams went to at least the conference semis last year except GSW and all have mostly grizzled veterans in their rotations. The closest teams to being “inexperienced” are Cleveland and OKC.
I can’t believe we’re only FOUR Celtic injuries away from THE EAST FINALS!
“I can’t believe we’re only FOUR Celtic injuries away from THE EAST FINALS!”
Yeah, sort of how Indy was only five injuries (Randle, OG, Hart, Brunson, Mitch) away from the ECFs last year…
But seriously, am I the only one who thinks we should stagger KAT and Brunson more? Obviously they still need to play at least 36 minutes each, but they are going to get so picked on defensively, it would be nice to have one focus most of the time.
It’s not ideal with Mitch and Deuce not playing up to their potential rn, but I think it could help.
Since nothing has consistently worked against them, I’m up for trying anything. I just think both Brunson and KAT are going to play upwards of 40 mpg, the most that they won’t be on the court together would be 16-20 minutes. Boston isn’t just going to let either of those guys iso when the other if off the court, so it will be up to someone else to do the scoring. That would hopefully be Mikal, but that hasn’t worked out so well thus far. Maybe Cam, Deuce, or Shamet can step up?
And this tells you everything you need to know about this series D:
I did a post a month or so ago on how I would defend the Celtics. How do I find it?
The problem with defending the Celtics is that they have 5 starters who to one degree or another can both score at all 3 levels and who are plus defenders. Your best bet is to sag off of Brown and/or Jrue. Problem there is that if you put either Brunson, Bridges, or Hart on Brown, he has the size and athleticism to just use the space to get a running start and attack them. Or they can put Brown and Tatum in a pnr and just let whoever draws one of those 3 defenders on an island. Both of those guys can pass. With Jrue, he can just be opportunistic and if he gets iso’ed on Brunson, just back him down and either take him to the rim or swing it when the help comes. And if Brown or Jrue start making 3’s, everything else falls apart.
When healthy, their bench of Horford, Prichard, and Hauser, and to a lesser degree Kornet, is way better than ours, especially with Deuce being a consistent negative vs. DET and Shamet and Precious being unplayable. Cam isn’t all that good either.
Other than injury luck, our best hope is that the 3pt variance gods smile on us. Sort of like they did for Miami two years ago.
Man reading all the analysis on this blog about this upcoming series, the match ups, etc….since we beat Detroit..has thoroughly depressed me, lol. Seems like we don’t stand a chance!
So, if everyone pretty much agrees we don’t stand a chance, what would constitute a “good” showing in this series?
I’m not talking, necessarily, about how many games we have to win, but more, what are you looking from the team and from individuals in this series?
We win at least a couple of games. We are not consistently blown out. We lose more because of our lack of depth than because the individual components of this team fundamentally don’t work together. Basically, anything that suggests a few tweaks — and/or a change of coach — gives us a real chance next season, as opposed to Leon having to make significant roster changes.
Looking at games the Celtics lost this season, a theme emerges –> limit them to under 20 three point makes, outrebound them, and get to the line more than they do. The other thing is that even when they lose, they seem to have at least one or two microwave quarters — so our mental strength is going to need to be strong.
On D, If we can win the possession game, rebound, get to the line and get our bigs to do a better job contesting threes it should hopefully be close heading to the 4th quarter, and give Brunson a chance.
On O, 3 of the 4 of OG, Mikhal, Towns and Hart need to have strong games in 4 of these games.
Likely, probably not, impossible – I don’t think so
+1 on Alan’s last post, but I’m skeptical about the defense without a change.
The annoying thing about this matchup is that the Knicks built the team with the Celtics in mind, and we are here thinking how bad a matchup the Celtics are for them.
The problem is that once you are building around Brunson, it’s hard not to make the Celtics matchup a bad one. But even with Brunson being exploitable, I have a sense that KAT will be the weak link on defense that will make it virtually impossible for the Knicks to win unless a lot of stuff was to go in their favor.
The other annoying part is that we all thought this would be the ECF matchup, and then the Cavs happened.
It’s disheartening to think that if we could do to Boston what Detroit did to us, that would be a “good” showing. If we come away from this season feeling that we are closer to being passed by Detroit than catching Boston, then I would think of it as a “less bad” showing.
The only “good’ loss for me would be in a game 7, preferably a close one, where our “stars” (particularly KAT, Mikal, and OG) all played to their costs of acquisition/salaries and yet we just came up a bit short.
Cavs are currently down 0-1 in the series! Maybe if we beat The Celtics we can get a Pacers rematch!
Imagine improbably beating the Celtics to lose to the Pacers in the ECF. The Cavs should make it through though. They won’t shoot as poorly the rest of the series (nor will Indiana shoot as well).
But seriously, I think part of the issue is that nobody would be too disappointed if the Knicks lost to the Celtics 4-2 in the ECF rather than in the second round.
Matchup wise, the thing I hope the Knicks do is to (i) live with one-on-one disadvantages without help; (ii) channeling Boston’s shooting to Jaylen Brown, and living with the result.
I’ll be ok with 100% effort and reasonable coaching adjustments.
The rest would be decided by factors we cannot control.
It can be measured in minutes watched by Donnie. Here’s what I don’t watch:
1) blowouts
2) badly played basketball regardless of the score
3) 3-0 series games
4) 3-1 series games
5) games on NBATV
6) games that feature referees standing around watching a lot of TV
The Pistons series probably got about 55 total minutes out of me. Not bad, but way down from the 120 or so minutes of the Sixers last year. If Knicks can keep this one above 30, you all should feel pretty proud of your boys.
I’ll be honest, between my own angst and this site, I’ll be okay if we just play hard and don’t do the stupid things that everyone but this team knows won’t work (dribbling in place for 18 seconds, ignoring KAT, letting Prichard and Hauser shoot wide open threes, etc.).
Get swept: bogey
Lose in five: par
Lose in six: birdie
Lose in seven: eagle
Win series: miracle on ice
The difference in the series is defense and depth.
I think our starting lineup is as good as theirs on offense talent/skill wise. They may be better coached on offense, but the real difference is that we have two weaknesses on defense to exploit and they will be aggressive about it. They have maybe half a weakness (KP) that’s harder to exploit because well, we have a coach that won’t even try the right way.
Then because of their depth, our starters will probably play more minutes and we may weaken late relative to them when the game is on the line.
How many games that’s translates into is hard to say. Maybe we can win 1 or 2 if they have a couple of rough nights from 3 or we happen to shoot especially well. But if there are injuries and those things happen, it’s suddenly a much tougher series.
Exactly.
We got OG and Bridges in part because they are very good on both sides, but also because we are trying to match up with Brown and Tatum. The idea being, if we slow down those two (or at least keep them under control), then we have a chance to beat them. The problem is we have weak links on defense that will make stopping the others more difficult and perhaps even stopping them more difficult because of help and switches.
My Bos-Nyk ’25 series mantra:
Stay Close – Don’t Dig Holes
It’s just wild to me because the last two seasons we went into the second round reasonably expecting to win the second round but this year it feels like not only are we underdogs but we’re huge underdogs, which is a little crazy for a 2 vs. 3 seed matchup.
I can’t really remember the last time the Knicks were underdogs this much in the playoffs. Definitely when we played Boston and also Miami in 2011 and 2012 but those were first round match ups and while they were both sweeps/gentlemen’s sweep, at least before game 1, I though we stood a chance. Hell, after game 1 against Boston when we led the whole game, I actually thought we could win that series although in retrospect once Billups and Stat went down we stood no chance.
But this one it feels like literally David vs. Goliath.
Dependent on the coach coming up with a proper game plan. A coach who got bailed out in the 1st round. If it looks the same with open three point shooting and a clueless team Thibs should just get the boot in series.
I actually think the complete opposite: they should not be staggered at all in this series.
They can only attack one weakness at a time. The incremental damage of having both of them on the court together is marginal.
By staggering them in the regular season, Thibs did them a huge favor. He provided Boston one Achilles heel to focus their attack on for all 48 minutes, and they ruthlessly took advantage of it.
Having one of Brunson or Towns on the court all the time is just like the Lakers having one of Luka and LeBron on the court, except for the other team’s offense. Hopefully this is one of the “new wrinkles” Thibs allegedly has in store after watching film.
In terms of 2nd rd I would think Knicks haven’t been this big an underdog since 1996 vs Chicago.
And if you look at how we’ve done recently in the 2nd round when we were not the underdogs, maybe being the underdog is a good thing!
We lost to the Pacers last year and the Heat the year before when we were the higher seed. We lost to the Pacers in 2013 when we were the higher seed.
But in both the 2000 playoffs and the 1999 playoffs we were the lower seed in the 2nd round but won those series.
I think all of us assumed Boston would be on top of the east and even if 1-2 teams leapfrogged us in the regular season it would be someone in our own tier. The Cavs were easy to pick as a team that was better than they looked, but not so easy to pick to finish ahead of the Celtics.
7 games for me.
I know some folks will think winning 2 games is a good showing but I need to see them defend home court in an elimination game if I’m going to buy in to this core.
The Knicks only lost last year because OG got injured.
The thing I hate about Thibs btw is the sense of doom I currently have that we’re going to come out for this game doing exactly what Boston is expecting and get routed in the first half. I really want to like the guy but he often makes me think that we’re jumping out of a plane without a parachute. I will feel so good if we look prepared tonight. It’s just hard to expect.
The Pacers are very good. They got off to a medicore start and I wasn’t paying close enough attention to them to have an opinion as to why, but they were very good once they got rolling and they were good last year. I trhink people are underrating them.
Rooting for this team feels like rooting for a baseball team that sac bunts a runner from 1st to 2nd with their clean up hitter, and that’s why I literally can’t fathom a scenario in which we win the series.
I’m not even saying a high 3PAr is a prerequisite to having a good offense. There are counterexamples to that. To the best of my knowledge there’s a meaningful correlation, but it’s not 1:1. I’m saying this team was clearly assembled with the idea that it would have a high 3PAr, or at least that should’ve been the case. We moved heaven and earth to acquire high-volume 3PT shooters and we don’t have the kind of outlier talents, e.g. SGA and Jokic, who can put a boatload of efficient points on the board without bombing from 3.
Thing is, the Celtics don’t either! This is of course why they do in fact bomb from 3. We’re at a talent disadvantage yet we’re going to refuse to even avail ourselves of the possibility we get lucky. We can hit 40% of our 3s and still lose in 5 games, because hitting 40% of 25-30 3PA only does so much for you, i.e. not enough against a team like Boston.
All this to say, I truly don’t know what a Knicks win in this series would even look like, other than the boring “the Celtics get an insane number of injuries, and quickly” answer. We’d have to shoot extremely well, hope the Celtics don’t, and show creativity on both sides of the ball that’s been absent for 88 games.
Anyway, go Knicks.
This is why I think we need our best defense plus one of Brunson/KAT on the floor most of the time. We need to limit threes, get rebounds, get steals, make them run and get fouled on fast breaks.
I know, tall order. But yeah, if we can steal 2 games, that would be a decent series.
They have an elite offense led by their coach. I think they can certainly beat the Cavs who I have questions about. On the other hand, they’ve also got great draws in the playoffs playing injured teams all the time.
Ok, let’s see:
Brunson vs. Tatum: I think this is at best a wash, and would probably lean Tatum, even completely ignoring the defensive end.
KAT vs. KP: pretty much even. Here is a comparison of their last 4 seasons. If there is a difference on offense, it is miniscule.
Brown vs. Hart: I’d go Brown here, and by a pretty large margin, mainly due to shot creation ability and usage.
Jrue vs. OG: I’d go with Jrue, but it’s pretty close.
White vs. Mikal: Give me White here, but again, it’s close.
So while it is reasonably close, I think the biggest difference in our starting lineups is that they have a much greater ability to defend us than we have to defend them.
As far as the bench goes, looking at Horford, Prichard, Hauser, and Kornet vs. Mitch, Deuce, Payne, and Shamet, the gap in bench offense is enormous.
That’s the other thing about Thibs. It’s not personal, I actually like him a lot. He just has a way of blunting my enthusiasm and killing all hope. Forget about giving us the best chance to win. He makes me feel like we have no chance to win. I actually think pulling a Denver and firing him before the playoffs would have been smart. Bold, but smart. I really want to be wrong but he’s done it to us so many times already.
Yes, but we still lost. I wasn’t really commenting on the particulars of these series, just that in every 2nd round match up this century, we have lost as the higher seeded team. The last 2 times we won the 2nd round (99, 2000) we were actually the lower seed team.
So maybe it’s good we’re the lower seed!
I’m not an eye for an eye kinda gal, so I’m not gonna say “dislocate for Melo.” I got a lot of one dollar bets riding on this game. If we’re gonna lose to these bums we better leave a mark on their souls.
Look at us. I was gonna post my usual negative take but there really isn’t any need. Everyone knows we’re drawing dead, and that it’s because of Thibs.
This team should have a puncher’s chance with a coach like Carlisle or Kerr. We don’t, because having a puncher’s chance requires you to throw some punches. We have the most predictable coach in the NBA and he’s gonna have us do exactly what Joe Mazzulla expects and wants us to do for the 192 minutes it will take to eliminate us.
And that, boys, is the only question that matters. This series needs to be such an embarrassment that there is no other choice but to put Thibs out to pasture. It needs to be the Biden 2024 debate of NBA playoff series.
Fortunately, this is a rare case where a Knicks-related thing I want to happen is actually the most likely outcome. Official predictions:
-At least 3 blowout losses where it’s over by halftime
-BOS average MoV over 15
-BOS average over 15 3pm
-BOS doubles our 3pm total
-KAT under 4 3pa/game
-No starter over 20ppg except Brunson
-Brunson under 50% TS
Yeah I mean we all have issues with Thibs, but Boston is just a better, deeper team that we also match up poorly with.
This doesn’t mean you leave 3 point shooters wide open or you let them play off Josh Hart and cripple your offense. Thibs should be able to help with those things.
Thibs should also be advising his team to get 3 point attempts up high because that gives you a much better chance to compete.
F being negative or “realistic” and giving up before the actual competition begins.
Thibs will deliver a mastermind level game plan, OG and Mikal will go for 50 and we will blow them out tonight and win by 14.
I’m also sadly going to put my marker on Celtics in 5.
If I’m Thibs – I am willing to let Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown beat me from 3 point range, even spot-ups.
Regular season:
Jaylen Brown shot worse than Josh Hart from 3 (32.5 vs 33%). 29.2% on pullups, 26.4% on tight coverage, 32.4 on open coverage, and 36.7 on wide open coverage.
Jrue Holiday shot 35.3% on 3’s, but 26.7% on pullups and 40.1% on catch and shoot. If you leave him totally wide open he shot 40.6%, but even a little bit of pressure (4-6 feet) he drops to 29%.
In fact- I’d be perfectly happy to Josh Hart/ Tony Allen cover both those guys (ie. play way off them). If Brown then takes that space to drive with a head of steam, then I guess that might be a problem, but I think driving into a packed in defense is probably what we would prefer.
I am willing to let Jayson Tatum take pull up 3s. You’ll have to pick your poison, but he shot only 32.9% on pull-up 3’s. So maybe drop is better there too, depending on who is setting the pick (ie. Kristaps pick and pop would kill that coverage, but if it’s Kornet or Horford then play drop).
I am absolutely NOT letting Peyton Prichard and Sam Merrill take 3s.
I think the Knicks have to be super aware of who is the shooter and not do stupid stuff like helping off the corner to contest an ATB 3 from Jaylen Brown.
Trouble is – we have not seen that level of detail from this Knicks team. Ergo Celtics in 5.
Meanwhile – internet is telling me that Evan Mobley has an ankle. Cavs are in trouble – Pacers are good.
Whatever else you think about this series, the idea that the Celtics are -750 favorites is absurd.
sam marrill is on the cavs guessing you mean sam hauser
We were just a better, deeper team than Detroit and they matched up poorly with us, too. And yet JB fucking Bickerstaff found our weaknesses and game planned around them. All the pregame analysis was about how they wouldn’t do the wing on Towns thing because that’s not how they played for 82 games. Yet there they were, doing something different, giving us trouble for 6 games, forcing us to play our best basketball to eke out a close series.
It’s not going to be Thibs’ fault if we lose but we can’t go down doing the same shit they’re ready for over and over. That particular way of losing makes me give up hope.
LOL this isn’t the consensus at all.
Thibs and The Knicks are going to surprise us.
The Thunder are -800 favorites and Nuggets have the best player in the NBA. So in theory it doesn’t seem crazy.
Odds don’t reflect analysis, they reflect enthusiasm. And Knicks fans are not enthused right now.
Even at -750 I wouldn’t put my money on them.
Good catch, Doogie.
He has an ankle and they only found out now?
Pacers dark magic strikes again.
Hart with a great quote when asked about Boston’s physicality: “We just got out of a series where we got beat with bats for 6 games so we can handle the physicality.”
No, I am afraid that we are drawing dead. I don’t know it yet. I have hope.
All my eggs are in the game 1 basket, though.
Again, the ’92 Knicks were 0-8 vs Cleveland and Chicago (the two best teams in the East). They were probably bigger underdogs than this team is. And they punched Chicago in the mouth right away.
I give this team about a 20% chance of doing the same.
We traded for KAT & Mikal who have combined for 10.3 3PA/36 this season. Last season Donte had 10.8 per 36. I don’t know if that’s what we did.
Well the thought was going from playing with Gobert to play 5 out the 3 point attempts would go way up. If the Knicks had D’Antoni they would definitely be taking way more threes with this roster.
yeah we traded super gunner Donte for reluctant shooter with a hitch Mikal, and unwilling 3 point shooter KAT.
I really thought Shamet would give us something in the playoffs given his very high 3 point volume the last month of the season, but Thibs has disappeared him. We need someone who inspires 3 point fear in the defense, and no one else on the team really does that.
I posted this a few days ago, but in the Magic series the Celtics averaged 33 three point attempts vs. 48 in the regular season. And Boston averaged 105 points per game against Orlando vs. 116 in the regular season.
The Magic’s problem wasn’t on defense, it was putting the ball in the basket. Thibs needs to watch a ton of film from that series and figure out how to slow down the Celtics high octane offense like Orlando did.
“Everyone knows we’re drawing dead, and that it’s because of Thibs.”
Wrong.
“This team should have a puncher’s chance with a coach like Carlisle or Kerr.”
Also wrong.
“Fortunately, this is a rare case where a Knicks-related thing I want to happen is actually the most likely outcome. Official predictions:…”
So if most of your predictions turn out to be wrong, as has been the case a million times, can KB put you out to pasture?
Half of our team is on ice. Thibs has no use for them. Thibs is not gameplanning some Hubie Brown second unit trap schemes. Thibs is not experimenting with some defensive fuckery to destabilize the Celtic offense. Thibs would rather put a profile on Tinder than call Dadiet’s name to have a little extra length on the perimeter.
I’d be happy with a mistermind game plan … errr … any game plan? … errr … plan?
You’re both right–I thought we made the trades with the idea in mind that both KAT and Mikal could increase their 3PA volume. Didn’t seem unreasonable since KAT had been in the 6-8/game range before Gobert and Mikal was coming off a career high in 3PAr. There had been a lot of talk about the need to improve our team eFG%, and not just on Knickerblogger. I suppose it’s possible I was just seeing what I wanted to see, though.
If I knew in advance that after making the trades, our 3PAr would actually decrease in both raw and relative terms, I would’ve felt very differently about them.
If Deuce still looks like a deer in the headlights in his first few minutes of game 1, I see no reason Shamet shouldn’t get his minutes. I don’t even think Deuce has a major defensive edge against the Celtics, and if he can’t hit a shot it doesn’t matter anyway.
LOL, if Dadiet got into the game it would not end well for us, I assure you.
Celtics in 5, and I’d sooner say 4 than 6.
Hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not I hope the one we win is the one I’m going to on Saturday!
“
Those coaches would do way more with this lineup compared to Thibs.
so, have we already met our season’s expectations – reaching the second of the playoffs?
from a fan’s perspective: is it all just gravy from here on?
+1 to all of Alan’s response, especially:
Sad to say: This team has looked uncomfortable all season long, never doing anything consistently good and repeatable on offense except “Jalen playground ball.” That seems to be a problem Thibs has no interest in fixing.
I was definitely a “let them gel” guy, but the time is now. They need to show something to build on or (miracle) win the f-ing series.
Yeah c’mon, Z-man. I know you’re no fan of my clownery but if it leads to you making insane claims like “Thibs is maximizing the efficacy of our offense” then you’ve become what you seek to destroy.
https://x.com/TheDunkCentral/status/1919478723989938588?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Pacers play a healthy team challenge
If we win 1 game, I’ll be happy.
If we win 2, I’ll be ecstatic.
If we win 3 games, I’ll need you to confirm your age before I can describe my feelings.
We will not win 4 games.
+1 to this also. It’s mind-boggling that I may have had more optimism about last year’s squad after elimination than this year’s team right now. That opinion may be misguided, but these guys have got to show they have a plan. This is the series to do it.
I personally would feel more optimistic if we could swap Towns and Bridges for DDV and iHart right now.
Towns might have more talent than iHart, but Thibs has no clue how to use Towns, and he knew exactly how to use iHart. DDV could be counted on not disappear, get up a lot of threes, and add the variance we need to the series.
Add Randle on top of those guys and I might even think we were only a slight underdog.
It’s not a secret: they switched everything and they stayed home on the shooters. If Jayson Tatum ended up one-on-one with Cory Joseph or Cole Anthony, they didn’t send help.
It often took them a long time to get the matchup they want, which wasted the shot clock. And in the end it was an iso set, which is better than an open 3.
There is no Jalen Brunson or KAT on the Magic defense, though.
The impact of Donte’s quick trigger and infinite range was vastly underrated, especially by our front office.
I gave Leon all the credit in the world for assembling that team last year. It was remarkable work. But everything he did since then proved it was an accident. He didn’t know what made that team successful, he threw shit up against the wall and it stuck. Then he did it again this year and it didn’t.
I don’t know much about these guys, but are Cory Joseph and Cole Anthony known for their defense?
Why can’t the Knicks switch everything and burn the shot clock like the Magic did?
I’m not ready to go full gloom and doom. I still think these players *should fit together better than they’ve shown, so far. This is the series to prove it.
I posted this a few days ago but DEPM thinks Cory Joseph is by far the worst defender in the Magic rotation and he ranks something like 213rd in the league. Cole Anthony is an excellent defender and is in the top 100.
Jalen Brunson is 495th out of 530, the worst defender of any rotation player remaining in the playoffs, by a lot.
Tatum put up 31 ppg on 61% TS (9.8 BPM) against Orlando. We could try the same coverage, but we might see the first 50 ppg playoff series in NBA history.
If this was the case they’d have ‘jelled’ and played better together as the season went on. The opposite happened, and our league-leading offense crumbled once OKC figured out in January that you can cripple it by putting the center on Hart and a wing on Towns.
We’re still waiting for Thibs’ countermove to that stratagem. The idea that he finally got around to figuring it out this weekend is pretty unlikely. We all knew we’d have a thermal exhaust port on defense, but it turns out we have one on offense too.
I think Leon and some of the players are waiting, too. The missing piece this year was Mitch, and I think Thibs keeps or loses his job based on whether the Powers That Be think coach had enough time with the full roster. I think he did.
Thanks be for the courageous voice of temperance. Here’s to courage.
I was pretty down on this team toward the end of the season but shit they did win 51 games and as frustrating as the Pistons series was they still won it in 6 games with a bunch of clutch plays in every 4th quarter. This group might not have lived up to our preseason hopes but they’re not a bunch or scrubs either.
nice try jennifer but we both know you’re still about 90 minutes away from accusing mikal bridges of embarrassing your entire family for committing a three second violation
Wendall Carter is a lot better than KAT, d-mar. I think that’s the biggest problem.
I honestly don’t even remember Boston picking on Brunson that much. They probably did but my biggest memory of the Celtics games is how many easy dunks and open threes they got while they screened KAT into oblivion away from the ball.
That’s not Al, that’s his Innie. The opening tip is like the elevator bell on the Severed Floor.
(Speaking of the opening tip… don’t worry, milo… I’m prepared to run a regression analysis on every incremental inch KAT jumps and will tell you all about it.)
Pop looked and sounded alot like Tobin Bell at his press conference, didn’t he? I wasn’t sure if he was about to set up a death trap or not. That was a little freaky. Get and stay healthy, Pop! We’ll miss you on the sidelines
kat is the 4th ranked center and weneell carter is #41
New thread, guys!
My anticipation for this game reminds me how I felt when a bully told me he was going to kick my ass at 3:00 pm sharp after school.
Offensively the KAT/Brunson pnr has to work like it’s 2 all nba players or we’re dead. If it’s successful, that will open up open looks for others, which they then have to knock down. Defensively, I’m sending OG under screens on Tatum and hoping he can recover quickly enough to bother him. Despite how he looked against us, Tatum is not that great of an off the dribble 3 point shooter, only 33% on the year.