Knicks Morning News (2025.05.06)

86 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.06)”

Still can’t believe they won that game

Talk about improbable!
I literally was mansplaining to our babysitter last night in 3Q about how great the celtics are, and well that did not age well, at least for last night.

Amazing defensive game from, well, just about everyone.

I am honestly shocked that the Celtics did not go to Hack-a-mitch in the late 3Q when the Knicks started to make their push. I guess they weren’t in the penalty? But that hasn’t stopped teams from doing Hack-a-player before.

Anyway, minus that horrendous stretch by KAT in the 3Q, this game was pretty darn close throughout — we have now gone to OT with the Celtics both of the last 2 games. Maybe this series will be closer than we think? I’d still say Celtics in 6 but I am much less certain now.

Still can’t believe they won that game

Was coming here to say that.

Also unbelievable and impressive: after almost all of us, even the optimists, spending the last few days preemptively condemning Thibs for failing to switch up his defensive scheme to deal with the Celtics, Thibs switched up his defensive scheme to deal with the Celtics. More important, he stuck to that plan even after it was going so badly at the start, and putting KAT in the kind of foul trouble he’s been able to largely avoid when he plays drop.

Various analysts, including Zach Lowe, Macri, DJ Zullo, and Katz, have convincingly argued that the Celtics’ terrible shooting from downtown was as much about Wingstop closing in fast on shooters as it was on Boston having an off night. So in that respect, there are positives to take away from this game going forward. The flip side is that Mazzullo seemed wildly unprepared for the Knicks to play this way, and once KP was unavailable, he was completely at sea. He’s got 48 hours to prepare for this for Game 2, and now we’ll see how much he can adjust, and also whether Thibs has a counter prepared for Mazzullo’s counter.

But goddamn, the combination of relief, joy, and incredulity I felt when Mikal just ripped the ball cleanly out of Brown’s hands… like Brunson putting Ausar on skates, that’s why we watch sports.

Thanks, Knicks.

I don’t mind the hack a Mitch. We start every defensive possession with five guys in front of the ball. It stalls out our offense but it tilts the court favorably.

Wait, was that a dream?

I went back and looked at the play by play from the point when we were down 20, and OG made 2 huge three pointers when we were on the brink of a blowout.

OG might have scored more points in other games, but that was a truly magnificent performance by him, he should renegotiate his contract (-:

Lots of kudos to go around.
That’s 2 games is a row where we are up by 3 in the closing seconds and the other team fails to even get a shot attempt from the ensuing in-bounds play.

Good morning, folks. This is a Jalen Brunson appreciation post. Ironically, it is NOT due to his masterful (again) offensive display. And, I apologize if someone shouted this out last night- as I didn’t read through the thread. But..HOLY SHIT BRUNSON PLAYED TOUGH DEFENSE LAST NIGHT! The moment Brunson locked in was the same moment Tatum lost his way. I mean, he couldn’t post, and suddenly the fact he’s 6’8″(though he looks taller than that) didn’t matter as he couldn’t get a clear look over Brunson. Lil ol’ Brunson moved him off his spots. That 4th quarter was great. Hell..by then, Tatum couldn’t take KAT or Mitch off the bounce.

Let’s be honest about the rest of the series though. Boston’s not gonna miss 40-plus 3’s ever again. But we can guard the 3pt line fiercely every night. We had to do it to Beasley in round 1, but that was only 1 player. We can do it against Boston, but our best perimeter defenders are gonna have to play ALOT. And I think to do that, KAT might not play 32 minutes a night, unless he’s scorching the C’s. Mitch is gonna play, and Deuce is gonna play. They have to. Hell, I wouldn’t mind expanding the rotation to include Achiuwa just to get length and quickness up front. We’re never gonna be able to run them off the 3pt line, but we can at least make them work for those 3’s. That happens, then maybe we pull out a series win.

And lastly, I wanna make a coaching appreciation comment. Mazulla was masterful in the first 2.5 quarters. As frustrating as it was to see, hack a Mitch was the right call as the whole team were missing FT’s left and right. Kudos to him. Thibs is gonna have to be twice as good as he normally is.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6336298/2025/05/06/new-york-knicks-celtics-game-1-comeback/

Tucker said when he got to New York, the communication within this team was nearly nonexistent. Little by little, though, the group began to hold each other accountable.

“That’s been something I’ve been trying to help with — getting them to talk to each other more,” Tucker said after the game. “They all talk to me, but they didn’t talk to each other in real time, in those situations. The situations to get stops, to have help, you know what I’m saying? That, to me, we have talent. But that’s 80 percent of everything else — being able to communicate, be able to get stops, to be on the same page on offense and to be able to read each other. We needed to do those things instead of putting our hands up and looking at each other.

“It’s changed. Do I think it needs to get better? One hundred percent. But it’s come a long way since I’ve got here, for sure.”

On the one hand, this could read like self-aggrandizement by Tucker. On the other, pretty much every beat writer implied the chemistry was a mess, and that there was a reason Leon signed Tucker to the last spot rather than someone who might actually be able to push Shamet or Payne for minutes. (Payne was so bad last night, we played 7 guys in the second half and overtime.)

There was a possession in the fourth quarter (I think) in which I distinctly remember KAT being matched up with Brown. It was a dead ball possession, so he was deliberately guarding Brown, and Horford was on the court (I think Hart was on him). I don’t recall seeing many instances of a Knicks center cross matching on defense.

The only Celtics player who went inside in the 2nd half and OT was Brown. I wander if Mazulla changes that in game 2, and forces the Knicks defense to get a few easy points, and give more space to their shooters.

No comments on the Denver upset of OKC?

I read somewhere that the Celtics had 19 of their 20 third quarter shots from deep. It’s kind of crazy.

Out of the 60 3s, 33 were pull ups or on the move, the most they had in the season. they were 7-33. But 8-27 on catch and shoot 3s will probably not happen again, but many (most?) of those, I would guess, came off offensive rebounds.

it was cool denver could win this

All of a sudden I’m much more interested in the Cavs Pacers series.

Now that the strategy of fouling when up 3 has screwed a team out of a playoff win, hopefully boy-genius coaches all around the world will stop trying to ruin basketball games.

And yet I’m ok with that strategy, but I think you should do it only under 5 seconds of play.

I wonder what is up with KP. He has always been anemic. Maybe he is just worn out… PJ Tucker for coach of the year!

I was hoping that with Mitch’s long lay-off, he had been able to work on free throws. And there were hints he might have gotten better at them in his first few games back. But this game didn’t support that hypothesis.

Porzingis missed a bunch of games with some mystery illness during the season

we have now gone to OT with the Celtics both of the last 2 games.

I take that as a good sign also.

Porzingis missed a bunch of games with some mystery illness during the season

I could have sworn I saw KP limp off badly, but people are saying he’s sick?

The Celtics aren’t going to miss that many threes again BUT we are not going to miss THAT many free throws (well, maybe Mitch will).

Honestly, this might be the happiest I’ve ever been as a Knicks fan. I’m just so proud of this team and what they did last night.

And guys, however small those odds might be, we could win a title this year. I mean, it’s probably, most likely, not going to happen, but it could, ya know?

And seeing Leon’s wingstop vision come to fruition at just the right time, it feels wildly vindicating after all the shit Mikal has gotten (even from me) this season.

Regardless now of the outcome, I think the core of this team has earned another season together.

Now let’s go get game two!!!

The thing is…I kept saying this…The Celtics have never been tested. They had a cake walk to their title last year. Every round they faced a team that had their star player either completely out because of an injury or severly hampered.

They are elite. They are, obviously, the champs. They can blow you out in a hurry when their 3’s are falling. But can they close out close games?

So here’s the thing. If we can keep these games close and be within 5 points or so with a few minutes left, I like our chances. We got Brunson but also, especially if it plays out like last night where we fight back after they get ahead, they’re gonna get in their heads. Sorry, but Tatum is a fair weather superstar. I like our chances if it’s close.

The funny thing to me is that the Celtics were just this stupid last season, as well, it just never ended up hurting them in the playoffs.

They truly are an example of just getting by on talent. When things don’t go their way, they don’t adapt so much as just try to force things to go their way by virtue of their talent. And you KNOW that they’re not doing what Mazzulla is asking them to do out there. Most of the big Knick run, he looked irate as hell, as they just played sloppy ass basketball. And yet it often works for them. You know, Tatum will keep taking crazy threes because he’s confident it will eventually work out, and for the most part, it DOES.

It’s really fascinating to watch it fail in real time.

I could have sworn I saw KP limp off badly, but people are saying he’s sick?

That might have been Hauser, who tweaked his ankle.

I wound up Cinco de Mayo’ing myself with paloma’s and fell asleep sitting up watching the Denver-OKC game while scrolling through the Celtics Blog. After continuing this AM, the main takeaways is that a) their more fickle fans are very down on Mazz, Tatum, and Brown, and b) they have great respect for Brunson and OG. There was a ton of whining about the 60 3PA and about Mazz’s unwillingness to rein that in. There was an argument that this game (and others like it) diminish Tatum’s standing as a true superstar. Mostly a total meltdown.

To you, all white guys look the same, Strat…

KP is the final piece for that team, especially with Horford being so old. When he’s healthy, they are very very difficult to stop. Even when he’s out, they’re still the best team outside of OKC, but more vulnerable to their own stupidity. In OT Tatum got a designed play for a layup, and that was the first time in many minutes they were anywhere near the hoop. Live by the 3, die by the 3 makes sense when you’re the inferior team, but they aren’t, and once they had a big lead it was incredibly stupid to keep playing that way.

OG made 2 huge three pointers when we were on the brink of a blowout.

This was incredible to watch.

The missed 3s helped (though as many have pointed out, I was a-ok with plenty of the looks–they were downright chucking at a certain point), whatever is going on with Brown helped, whatever is going with Porzingis helped, but as BC has pointed out you can’t take advantage of any of this stuff if you’re not there.

Some ideas that might help us win another game even if Boston doesn’t miss 45 threes:

-Brown doesn’t look right, play him straight up. Not remotely worth risking shooters open to send help on him in this state.

-He was only 1/5, but Hart continuing to fire away when open is a must. An open Hart 3PA is a pretty good look, all things considered. He’s just gotta take them. I should add that he has probably been our second best player throughout the playoffs and anyone not sold on him at this point has a weird agenda.

-I’m still disgruntled about KAT’s whistle. Feels like the refs have declared open season on him. Still, attack the mismatches and for the love of god shoot some damn 3s. Dude is one of the few players in the NBA that doesn’t even need particularly good 3PT looks. There aren’t many players I’d say this about, but he really should just chuck them if we can’t figure out something better.

-From 2/1/2019 until the end of his rookie season Mitch shot 68% (60/88) from the line and he should watch that film and/or work with whoever he was working with back then.

-I said I wouldn’t complain about Mikal after last night so I will just say generally that it is not a good idea to take fadeaway midrange jumpers when there is space available for a player to drive.

In the flip side, Thibs made many of the adjustments we were all calling for – switching on D, running the offense through KAT more. The latter did not work out so well (that shot clock violation by KAT standing in the lane in the third was a low point), but our wings obviously did give them trouble, and Brunson took particular pride in D-ing up on switches. A great performance.

I still fully expect Boston to win, but if we keep making adjustments, and they keep playing dumb, we have a chance…

@dlee4three
Boston led the league in 3PAr (53.6), wide-open 3PAr (87.4%) & most PTS added on open 3PA/100 (49.2), mainly because they took the 2nd most C&S 3PA/g & shot 39.1%

In tonight’s loss, BOS shot the most pull-up/moving 3s they have all season (33) and made just 7 (21.21%).

Obviously the Knicks were the beneficiaries of some shooting luck last night but there more they make the Celtics take bad 3s the better

anyone not sold on him at this point has a weird agenda

100% on Hart. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a player with a better nose for the ball – he was freaking everywhere last night when I thought they were done. He’d be in a play on one side of the court and contest a 3 on the other a couple seconds later. It was truly incredible. Love that dude.

I’m not going to go overboard about this win, it was great and we should celebrate, but there’s still a long way to go. The Celts will come back with a vengeance and then it will be on us to respond in kind.

But what I like is that we firmly established that the regular season woes don’t matter any more. We are not afraid of them. And even though they have more rounds in the chamber, so do we. KAT can explode. The bench can perk up. Mikal can shoot better. We can avoid foul trouble.

I also think that Boston’s negative health situation was pretty apparent. Brown looked a step slow, no explosion, no ferocious dunks in traffic. KP is sick with what sounds like a draining illness, so he might not be 100% for a week or so even if he recovers quickly. Jrue played great but that hammy is a time bomb. Hauser has killed us at times so if he’s gimpy that helps tremendously. OTOH, we looked 100% healthy and fresh out there, particularly Brunson, who moved as well as ever on both ends.

It was pretty apparent that after enduring the brutish physicality of the Pistons series, and winning one nail-biter after another, and winning 3 straight on the road in an incredibly hostile arena, we were both mentally and physically prepared for whatever the Celtics brought to Game 1. Honestly, they seemed pretty soft in comparison.

That might have been Hauser, who tweaked his ankle.

I don’t think so. As he was leaving the court I said to myself, this guy just can’t stay on the court when things get physical. And then KP never played after that.

He’s been terrible since he took that shot in the head a few games back. We may be better off if he plays. 😉

I’m obviously excited for the rest of this series but I won’t start truly believing Knicks can advance past Boston until they get another win. I’m expecting a pretty motivated Boston response over the next couple of games so honestly I’ll be thrilled if this series after 4 games is tied 2-2.

So we beat the softish, semi-broken Celtics, Indiana is going to wilt against our suddenly competent defense, and KAT & Mitch can slow down Jokic in the finals, something that iHart really couldn’t do last night. Done, first championship in 53 years.

Re: OG, what I love about him when he’s in Demon Mode is he recognizes he’s not a great shot creator in the traditional, dribble-moves-into-shot sense, so he decides he’s just going to barrel to the rim and let the defense figure out what to do with his hulking self. It can be very effective, and all the better when he’s shooting well.

Defensively, I don’t think there’s a better perimeter defender in the game than a dialed-in OG. Him and Mikal were everywhere last night, and they kept it up throughout the game.

“I’m still disgruntled about KAT’s whistle. Feels like the refs have declared open season on him. Still, attack the mismatches and for the love of god shoot some damn 3s. Dude is one of the few players in the NBA that doesn’t even need particularly good 3PT looks. There aren’t many players I’d say this about, but he really should just chuck them if we can’t figure out something better.”

The guys who I think KAT’s offensive “size-speed-skill combination” can roughly be compared to are Jokic, Embiid, and Sengun. The problem I see KAT having compared to those other guys is that he doesn’t have the strength, quickness, or agility to consistently get an edge on smaller, quicker defenders. The way the game is played today, with the amount of physicality allowed, fouls are not going to be called on smaller defenders that beat KAT to the spot. KAT compounds the problem by committing offensive fouls (e.g. needlessly bowling over Jrue) or chucking up either ill-advised rushed 3’s or that same predictable drive-left-shoot-right move that winds up with him in the second row.

Personally, I’d like to see him take more midrange shots that are in his wheelhouse rather than trying to bully his way to the rim while help defenders (especially whoever is guarding Josh Hart) are waiting for him either there or in the passing lanes. I don’t think Hart taking more 3’s off of KAT doubles is the answer.

At least then, KAT is still in the play on defense and Hart is freed up to attack the offensive glass.

One gripe by Celts fans (and I think a correct one) is that they had KAT in foul trouble and successfully executed the hack-a-Mitch strategy, but stopped attacking KAT, choosing to settle for 3’s way too often. To his credit, KAT did a nice job of being a factor on D down the stretch and in OT. But if I were Mazz, I’d keep playing the “Attack KAT on the drive” card over and over.

Hart continuing to fire away when open is a must. An open Hart 3PA is a pretty good look, all things considered. He’s just gotta take them.

He has become such a good QB with the ball that he actually doesn’t have to shoot. He created the OG 3-pt play (direct assist) and the Bridges corner three (hockey assist) with intelligent pinpoint passes. That’s 6 of our 8 OT points (the other was the KAT OReb).

anyone not sold on him at this point has a weird agenda

Is it fair to say maybe Jalen Brunson is the guy not sold who has the agenda? (The agenda being “I’m so clutch and I’ll prove it again.)

While Josh was busy creating 75% of our offense in OT, Brunson went 0-4 attacking the double team of Horford and Jrue. And why wouldn’t he go 0-4? Those are two of the best defenders of all time! Maybe don’t hunt that 1-on-2 matchup when you can give the ball back to Josh and let him QB a 4-on-3 instead. (And if you do that, you’ll probably stop getting the Horford/Jrue soft double every time, and you can be clutch again.)

Say what you want about the Celtics missing a million threes but there’s a lot of room for improvement on our side, too. Jalen needs to battle his ego, though. After making a huge three to put us up 97-91 with 3.5 minutes to go, he went 0-6 with two turnovers over the games final 8.5 minutes. When you’re single-handedly taking their two best defenders out of the play, take advantage of it by passing.

No comments on the Denver upset of OKC?

Shai is probably still going to get MVP, but Jokic is both the best player in the NBA and most valuable to his team.

The Celtics scored 40 of their 105 pts against Brunson. They scored less than 15 against every other Knick. Brunson was great and had a few nice defensive sequences out there, but he’s clearly the target defender and really struggled in a lot of ways.

I love that the game 2 narrative is all about coaching and probably rightly so.

Jalen needs to battle his ego, though.

Part of what makes him so good is his competitiveness and lack of fear, but he hasn’t learned to tone it down when the matchup is less attractive or they double team him. We know we have other guys that are capable of hitting big shots if open, but it’s on him to make the right play and Thibs to coach him to make the right play . It’s not just in the playoffs. It was all season. If he has a quality shot or a mismatch, then by all means I want him creating and taking the shot, but not when he doesn’t.

Maybe we need to bring Mitch in earlier during the quarters, so Boston can’t start sending him to the FT line right away. If they do, rotate KAT back in and they spend the rest of the Q in the bonus.

Mitch’s shot looks incredibly broken right now. It keeps hitting the bottom front of the rim.

All that said, the non-Mitch Knicks still only shot 66% from the line

EB, when you are the obvious target of the opposing offense, it makes sense that more points will be scored against you than other players. That isn’t going away (although as indicated, KAT could have been targeted much more than he was.) You can only protect him so much without leaving shooters wide open. Hopefully he can force the guys he is guarding into enough tough shots without getting into foul trouble that it doesn’t compromise the overall game plan.

The Celtics scored 40 of their 105 pts against Brunson. They scored less than 15 against every other Knick. Brunson was great and had a few nice defensive sequences out there, but he’s clearly the target defender and really struggled in a lot of ways.

Wow.

I didn’t notice it as much yesterday while watching live. They are really targetting him.

Yeah at this point I’ll take Boston hunting mismatches vs Brunson if it means them just going ISO all the time against him while the Knicks stay home on the 3pt shooters.

Mitch’s shot looks incredibly broken right now. It keeps hitting the bottom front of the rim.

Mitch’s hands look bad also.

He may be physically fit at this point and can defend well, but he’s close to a zero on offense. His hands are terrible. He’s not even a significant lob threat anymore.

He may be physically fit at this point and can defend well, but he’s close to a zero on offense. His hands are terrible. He’s not even a significant lob threat anymore.

His hands weren’t always this bad, right?

One gripe by Celts fans (and I think a correct one) is that they had KAT in foul trouble and successfully executed the hack-a-Mitch strategy, but stopped attacking KAT, choosing to settle for 3’s way too often.

100%. I talked about it last night. There were a number of plays where Tatum and Brown had KAT on them on the perimeter, and they just held the ball, like as if they were hoping KAT would just run up and foul them for no reason, and then they would brick a long three. It was insane.

Tatum and Brown are very talented dudes, but man, they are not the brightest guys.

It wasn’t just volume, Boston scored the 40pts on 26 shots. Cam Payne was the only other Knick to give up 50% dfg%.

To the other starters’ credit:

OG 2-18
Hart 4-16
Mikal 4-14
Towns 3-13

From watching clips Brunson struggled most when trying to defend off-ball (usually late on closeouts) and when Brown/Tatum would step inside the 3pt line they hit several jumpers over him pretty easily even when he’s into them. I think he’s better in switch than hedging PnRs.

There’s also one fastbreak where Horford is 10ft behind him at half court and finished the dunk 10ft ahead of him.

It’s something to keep an eye on.

His hands weren’t always this bad, right?

I’ve always thought Mitch had terrible hands except for catching lobs. Anything in a straight line drive or bouncing off the floor is questionable, but we rarely look to him for those so it gets hidden.

As much as I love Mitch, I see his skills have badly atrophied. He used to be athletic enough that he could go get any lob and dunk it. Those days are long gone. His free throw shooting woes make him almost unplayable. His defense is still a plus, but I could see Huk catching him in the near future.

“It wasn’t just volume, Boston scored the 40pts on 26 shots.”

That’s pretty much in line with what I would expect from Brunson against a team with not a single guard he can effectively defend in either iso or transition. Boston has 8 players that are either much taller or much quicker than him, all of whom can score, most at all 3 levels. He’s our weakest link defensively, and he’s on the floor most of the time. I’m not sure what you are expecting from him. Should he wear himself out on defense (switching more, closing out harder, etc.) at the expense of his offense?

If anything, we should be encouraged that KAT only gave up 3-13. If we get that consistently, we can live with Brunson giving up 40 pts on 26 shots.

Unless he turns it around in these next games, I think Mitch has to be traded this offseason while he is healthy and we can still get something back for him. It would be less true if KAT wasn’t 3rd in the NBA in total fouls. I don’t think Huk is necessarily the answer, but something needs to be done there.

To be fair, I think some of his lack of lob-catching has to do with Brunson, Payne, etc. not being in synch with his on PnRs. But other areas suggest that he has lost a step or two. He’s not blocking shots or rebounding like he used to either.

Yeah at this point I’ll take Boston hunting mismatches vs Brunson if it means them just going ISO all the time against him while the Knicks stay home on the 3pt shooters.

100%

Also Brunson tends to not foul on defense, so better him than KAT.

While I fully expect to lose the next 4 games by 20+, this was very heartening.

Bball-ref thinks our odds to win the series have jumped to 40%. That’s a Brunson 3-pointer!

And if we do, the other upsets have created the tantalizing possibility of a run to the finals where we would not have to go through another 60-win team.

I think we should consider starting Mitch and dare them to hack. Even if Mitch doesn’t make free throws, getting their starters in foul trouble and fast-tracking towards the penalty only helps us. If they play their depth pieces to put fouls on Mitch, then they aren’t playing their best guys, so advantage us.

One thing about Mazz. Back in 2023, my diehard Celtics fan friend whined that they only lost to Miami because of how uncharacteristically hot they were from 3. I responded that Mazz refused to adjust his defensive strategy until it was too late (it actually wasn’t, Tatum spraining his ankle early in the first Q of game 7 prevented an historic comeback from an 0-3 deficit, but I digress). It will be interesting to see whether that stubbornness becomes a thing as this series goes forward. He never had to shift tactics last year because of the cakewalk they had to the championship. I don’t think he has to make many adjustments just yet, but the radar is definitely up.

yeah but also definitely not. these matchup stats are incredibly misleading. we were happily and somewhat surprisingly switching kat (so much so that we were actually giving up the switch way too easily if you ask me, probably bc we have no practice doing it), but jalen was mostly showing and going on tatum as he was with cade last series. tatum shows up as going 4-10 against jalen but 3 of them were just pull up threes after jalen showed and the contest responsibility was on the original defender (and all 3 were contested). we didn’t execute these perfectly (and the celtics held on two of them), but these are all good shots from our seat. closely contested pull up threes. it’s true they still represent hunting insofar as sending jalen’s man to set the screen, but not in any way that we should give a fuck about or how we want to think about points allowed by a player. another 3 pts assigned to jalen was the one 3 brown hit, which was not brown hunting jalen at all, just the knicks in rotation. similarly, that corner 3 white hit when mikal blocked kp was assigned to jalen bc he happened to be in the area when the ball bounced that way.

the jalen hunting we need to care about is when they get him on a switch and either mouse him with a 60pct plus 2pa or the knicks are forced to double and the points are actually assigned to someone else’s man hitting a 3pa. this was actually a surprisingly small issue last night at least relatively speaking and i think a lot of smart observers are getting it wrong. brown and tatum did get him for 3 rise up midrangers and 1 transition pin, but overall it was way better than expected. unfortunately i doubt that lasts.

Re: OG, what I love about him when he’s in Demon Mode is he recognizes he’s not a great shot creator in the traditional, dribble-moves-into-shot sense, so he decides he’s just going to barrel to the rim and let the defense figure out what to do with his hulking self. It can be very effective, and all the better when he’s shooting well.

I was thinking along those lines watching him yesterday. He’s doing more with less these days. Just making simple power moves in a straight line towards the hoop and taking advantage of his size and speed. He was the best two-way player on the floor yesterday.

I wonder if part of the reason Boston didn’t hack Mitch in the second half is that it became obvious pretty quickly that Precious Achiuwa fits into a switch-heavy scheme much better than either KAT or Mitch. Precious was -7 but that seems like noise, as almost all those points were scored on Jalen Brunson.

I am still impressed with Precious’ defensive cameo in game 4 of the Sixers series, where he and OG put on a defensive clinic against Maxey and Embiid. And he looked very comfortable guarding Jayson Tatum last night. Up 1-0, it would be wise to get him and Landry some run in game 2 in case we need them later in the series.

OG is clearly our 2nd best player. Agree or disagree?

I don’t remember Mitch’s hands ever being quite this bad — but in the past, when it was RJ or whoever, they were throwing the ball up for lobs, not these quick inside passes where he’s obviously not expecting the ball. The only person on this team who can throw a lob is Josh Hart – no one else seems to want to.

I really just don’t understand why an NBA player can’t shoot 50-60% from the line (which as I remember it is basically the threshold for the math working for hack-a-player). Mitch’s shooting motion looks identical to how it has looked his whole career. Can’t someone teach him to do it differently, get more arc under the ball, etc?

Speaking of bricks — the one thing that really struck me last night was that yes, the Celtics missed a bunch of 3’s, but they also missed so many 3’s by a mile. I mean these were a foot or two off the mark to the point that even on the TV angle you could tell they had no chance from the release.

Say what you want about the Celtics missing a million threes but there’s a lot of room for improvement on our side, too.

This. We left a lot of fat on the bone – missed FTs especially, but bad games from Mikal and KAT, too. And Yes, we can shift our strategy to have Mitch in at the start of quarters instead of the end. The Celtics did a good job of beating themselves, but while they will likely adjust/improve, we can do the same. I believe the Celtics are the better team and should win, but we have a real chance.

@fredkatz.bsky.social‬
Josh Hart on what he said to Jalen Brunson after Brunson missed the floater at the end of regulation: “I didn’t say nothing to him. I just kinda laughed at him.”

I love this comedy duo of ours.

As for Mitch’s hands, a lot of those passes were egregious. One from OG made me laugh out loud – a bullet pass on a drive. Mitch had no chance on it.

Are we avoiding lobs because they’re hazardous to his ankles? It would be nice to see a couple instead of waist-high bullets …

And yes, I agree OG has been our second-best player through the playoffs. With Josh a close second.

OG is our second-highest paid player, so that tracks. Now if our highest can dominate for a couple games, we’d have something.

OG is clearly our 2nd best player. Agree or disagree?

OG outplayed Tatum last night. Reggie Miller didn’t know what to do with that fact last night.

Exactly, talking heads mostly focused on how poorly the Celtics played. We didn’t play our A game by a wild stretch for much of the game. Couldn’t make a FT to save our lives. Towns in foul trouble for almost the entire 2nd quarter. Brunson was inefficient. The two players that had mostly 48 mins of great play were OG and Hart. Everyone else could play better to significantly better. The D was AMAZING in the 4th quarter and overtime — bottle that up pls. Yes they missed some open 3s, but our guys were ferocious dogs on the perimeter and boards in those 2 quarters

Also, OG’s quiet demeanor is so badass when he’s taking over like that. Dude is a fucking assassin who steals other players souls with steals, dunks and 3’s.

It reminds me of the whole thing about how really powerful people don’t need to talk about how powerful they are. He just let’s his game do the talking. Freaking love OG.

It’s really weird how Mitch is still plenty mobile and covers ground very well for a big, but his actual skills have declined instead of his athleticism. Can’t catch a pass, finish a dunk/putback, or make a free throw, and he used to be a whole lot better at all that stuff.

What happened? Is it a mental thing?

It’s really weird how Mitch is still plenty mobile and covers ground very well for a big, but his actual skills have declined instead of his athleticism. Can’t catch a pass, finish a dunk/putback, or make a free throw, and he used to be a whole lot better at all that stuff.

What happened? Is it a mental thing?

I think it’s a timing thing. Think about it. He got injured in early December of 2023 and missed the entire rest of the season until like 3 weeks before the playoffs. Then played in one series before he was shut down again and did not come back until, what, mid February?

So from December 2023 until February 2025 he misses all but what, 6 weeks of actual game basketball? And during those 6 weeks he’s starting out on a very strict minutes restriction, etc.

He probably needs the rest of this playoff run and the off season to truly get himself back skills and timing wise.

Re Mitch and lobs…it seems circular…like he doesn’t expect anyone to lob it to him so he half-heartedly rolls but doesn’t really make himself available (like really put himself in the position to catch and dunk) and vice versa…they don’t lob it because he doesn’t give off the vibe that he wants it…also, nobody seems to be able to do it…I think RJ had that one skill…I mean the guy almost treats the ball like a hot potato especially if its more than 5 feet from the hoop..feels like he has lost some confidence..maybe one good game and he’ll get some mojo back..

rama, I agree on the hack-a-Mitch thing. If he’s in when the Knicks aren’t in the penalty, then if they foul, we get to the penalty earlier. It is also a good idea to have him in when the Celts have their starters are in to put them in foul trouble, although there are workarounds for that. But there is no way to eliminate the strategy altogether.

The hope is to keep KAT out of foul trouble (easier said than done). Or if that doesn’t work, to have Precious or Huk eat some minutes. Or ideally, hope that Mitch gets up to 50%-ish.

Part of what makes him so good is his competitiveness and lack of fear, but he hasn’t learned to tone it down when the matchup is less attractive or they double team him.

When doubled or trapped, JB usually beats the coverage with a quick pass. He did that on that three to OG and passed to Josh on Mikal shot.

When guarded by a great defender, he’s both fearless and stubborn. See Thompson. JB was 0-5 in the quarter against him. It was technically a low percentage play to go against him 1v1 with a cheap fake screen and didn’t fake anyone.

We can’t have it both ways…Mamba killer mentality and Lebron psychology of pass it to your teamate when its a low percentage clutch shot becuase it’s the right basketball play.

One of the single most annoying things in the entire world is being sat next to an adult on an airplane that lacks the ability to sit still for more than 15 seconds.

you are underestimating kat cotributions first is jb then kat then hart if you are looking at the entire playoff run

OG has been our second leading scorer on only slightly lower efficiency than KAT, as well as our best defender (3.4 stocks/game!)

KAT’s 3pa rate is down 25% and TS is down 44 points. Rebounding way down. He’s been a little less bad on defense but outside of a couple of great shots vs. DET he has been a Randle-esque disappointment.

Knicks are 28-1 to win the championship … that’s like … kind of appealing?? They’re actually pretty healthy and both Boston and Cleveland are both somewhat banged up.

One of my things during the 2023 run (*) was “and then if they can get through this series, they’ll get to play a team coached by Joe Mazzulla” and, you know what? — two years down the road, I think that still holds.

I’m intrigued. Things are breaking somewhat nicely.

(*) Still really wish Hart and Grimes hadn’t stunk against Miami. Hart hasn’t played close to as bad since.

kat 18.9/.485/.462/.909 og 19.0/.438/.396/.880

He’s been a little less bad on defense

Disagree. First, I think KAT has been pretty good on defense. I don’t know. I feel like focusing just on his scoring misses the forest for the trees. He’s starting and playing for a team that is winning games. He’s battling and he’s showing toughness that I think many people here thought he lacked.

I know that is win one for the gipper, sports cliche talk but I think there’s some truth to it. He snagged 15 boards and had a huge steal at the end of game 6 against Detroit. He got a pretty important tip in shot.

IMO, if a star player isn’t scoring a ton in a playoff game but others are scoring enough to win and that player is doing enough to not hurt the team, then he’s doing his job. numbers don’t matter. W’s do.

Of course I want him to score more but he had some good scoring games against Detroit. I expect him to go off at least once in this series. But he’s battling and playing decent enough D to not get played off the floor.

We can’t have it both ways…Mamba killer mentality and Lebron psychology of pass it to your teamate when its a low percentage clutch shot becuase it’s the right basketball play.

I don’t want it both ways. Ditch the Mamba mentality and pass to your teammate.

When doubled or trapped, JB usually beats the coverage with a quick pass. He did that on that three to OG and passed to Josh on Mikal shot.

Not usually. Those were literally the only two times he did it in the last 8.5 minutes of the game.

Not coincidentally, they were the only two times we scored in the final 8.5 minutes of play other than when KAT put back one of his misses and Hart ran the fast break off the Bridges steal.

8.5 minutes is a really long time to have no success running the same action.

For me, KAT has been a huge disappointment thus far in the playoffs. He was brought here specifically for his “elite” offense. In the seven games so far, he has had four where he was mediocre at best and invisible at worst:

DET game 2: 10 points on 11 shots
DET game 4: 17 points on 14 shots
DET game 6: 10 points on 10 shots
BOS game 1: 14 points on 13 shots

Even in DET game 3, he had 27 points on 24 shots.

I don’t question his drive, or toughness, or any of that kind of stuff per se. I question whether he can adapt his offensive game to tilt the floor no matter how he is guarded, like all the other great offensive players can. If he can’t demand the ball and go to work on a consistent basis, especially when being primarily guarded by wings, there is no way to justify paying him $50M AAV. No one in their right mind would argue that he makes up for it on the defensive end. He’s at best neutral and mostly a detriment. This is common knowledge, not an opinion. He’s an excellent defensive rebounder, so there’s that, but again, that’s not enough. He either has to score often and efficiently or open the floor for others by drawing doubles, and neither DET nor BOS has doubled him outside of 10 feet, at which time it is too late, especially when the guy doubling is coming off of Josh Hart.

And as pt mentioned, he is, like, the slowest roller ever in the PnR, so the answer doesn’t seem to be running more of that with Brunson. But something has to start clicking if we are going to have any chance of winning this series.

BTW, two of the biggest shots thus far in the playoffs have been KAT taking a contested 15-18ft turnaround jumper on the baseline. Lots of great scoring bigs have made, and continue to make, a living on those shots. I’d like to see him work on that 15-18 foot game so that he can go to it any time he is single-teamed by a shorter player. He should be able to get to a spot more quickly and just bank it in before the help can come, as it always does when he plods into the paint.

KAT in Game 3 vs Det had 31 pts on 18 FGA, Game 4 was the 27 pts on 23 FGA with his final 5 pts winning the game.

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