Game 3 - Pistons-Knicks - 7pm ET

[MotownMadness]

What even happened to Stewart? I don’t recall seeing him get hurt or anything

[Canadafan]

What even happened to Stewart? I don’t recall seeing him get hurt or anything

Ya same. I think it's just a wear and tear inflammation thing so hopefully they very shortly tell us he's available for game 4. B-ball Reed has been a nice little spark but we need our defensive anchor back especially at end of games.

[the_l_train]

I might be alone in this….but Fontecchio getting zero minutes seems uncalled for. He was playing good at the end of the season, and seems like we could use him in these games where our other vets seem to be taking turns on having bad games….

Our deep rotation worked in the regular season, and i know the belt tightens in the playoffs, but I think he earned some spot minutes at least. Knicks are not deep, so I think we could use our depth to our advantage in this one.

[Jeff Van Gully]

Knicks fan here to show love. Loved this team all season.

Your team is gully af and will be a problem for a long time. As a fan of a team that pulled itself from the depths similarly recently, I just love what this series is made of.

Best of luck the rest of the way.

[GreekAlex]

Knicks fan here to show love. Loved this team all season.

Your team is gully af and will be a problem for a long time. As a fan of a team that pulled itself from the depths similarly recently, I just love what this series is made of.

Best of luck the rest of the way.

We appreciate the love and recognition.

The league is in a better place when the Knicks and Pistons have strong teams.

[cgf]

To me the big difference in this game is that the Knicks shared the ball on offense and KAT and OG were aggressive. When that happens instead of Brunson iso ball their offensive talent is hard to hold and when we're not getting stops on defense, our offense struggles.

Hopefully things are chill enough right now for me to comment here...my bad if that's not kosher until the series is over...but there's a chicken or the egg question to that. Does the rest of our offense look worse when Jalen dominates the ball, or does Jalen dominate the ball when the rest of our offense is struggling?

With how well he's run the offense and taken a step back when things were flowing...we had multiple big wins against good teams where Jalen took very few shots for a #1 option...I tend to believe it's the latter; especially since part of why he's so often not very influential until the 2nd quarter/half, is that he tries getting others involved first, before finding his own rhythm.

But it's an open question. Anyways, been a really fun series...you don't quit like the 6ers & Cavs did...and it was awesome seeing you guys finally taking the step I thought you would last year. Though it's a shame Grimes isn't a part of it, at least to me; really liked that kid in NY & thought landing with you guys was gunna be a really good fit for him once he got healthy / settled in.

[Kalamazoo317]

Hopefully things are chill enough right now for me to comment here...my bad if that's not kosher until the series is over...but there's a chicken or the egg question to that. Does the rest of our offense look worse when Jalen dominates the ball, or does Jalen dominate the ball when the rest of our offense is struggling?

With how well he's run the offense and taken a step back when things were flowing...we had multiple big wins against good teams where Jalen took very few shots for a #1 option...I tend to believe it's the latter; especially since part of why he's so often not very influential until the 2nd quarter/half, is that he tries getting others involved first, before finding his own rhythm.

I think in game 2, the Knicks (collectively, both Brunson not spreading the ball around and others not being aggressive on offense) did a poor job of getting players other than Brunson involved and it's what lost the game for y'all. When KAT and OG are aggressive and are getting touches, y'all are going to be hard for us to beat, imo. And that wasn't how it went in game 2. Game 3 seemed to be about your perfect formula on offense, with Brunson really getting his teammates involved early and KAT and OG staying aggressive throughout.

For our sake, I hope y'all don't sustain that!

[cgf]

Hopefully things are chill enough right now for me to comment here...my bad if that's not kosher until the series is over...but there's a chicken or the egg question to that. Does the rest of our offense look worse when Jalen dominates the ball, or does Jalen dominate the ball when the rest of our offense is struggling?

With how well he's run the offense and taken a step back when things were flowing...we had multiple big wins against good teams where Jalen took very few shots for a #1 option...I tend to believe it's the latter; especially since part of why he's so often not very influential until the 2nd quarter/half, is that he tries getting others involved first, before finding his own rhythm.

I think in game 2, the Knicks (collectively, both Brunson not spreading the ball around and others not being aggressive on offense) did a poor job of getting players other than Brunson involved and it's what lost the game for y'all. When KAT and OG are aggressive and are getting touches, y'all are going to be hard for us to beat, imo. And that wasn't how it went in game 2. Game 3 seemed to be about your perfect formula on offense, with Brunson really getting his teammates involved early and KAT and OG staying aggressive throughout.

For our sake, I hope y'all don't sustain that!

Gunna have to disagree with your last point like I was afraid you would, you’re proving a lot tougher than Cleveland or Philly and providing a lot more fight than they did…though luckily you don’t have the depth advantage over us like Indiana did, who I had similar questions about facing going into the series.

But we’ve forced it to OG and KAT on nights they didn’t have it before, with poor results. Which is another reason I lean towards the camp that thinks Brunson taking over is our plan B, when the balanced offense isn’t clicking and/or we need someone to hit a bad shot.

No doubt we’re better when Jalen can hang back and let the other guys cook, especially if our D is locked in at that time as well…but a big part of the idea behind our offseason was to get 4 guys in the starting lineup that could go off for 30 on any given night + a glue guy. Turned out to be Hart, though I think they did hope it would be Robinson initially.

So when KAT or OG doesn’t have it, like game 2, and we need Anunoby to just focus on his D, Bridges or McBride are there to step up, and if that’s not enough, Jalen is our offensive safety blanket…thus his career high in assists, despite down shooting years from our wings.

With the way Mikal was playing in game two, I do think Jalen could’ve featured him more after he realized it wasn’t gunna be a KAT & OG night…but Ausar’s physicality started to interfere with Jalen’s ability to run the offense & throw him off his game; getting Jalen to start focusing too much on getting the kid to back off.

Which was why I was surprised we didn’t see Thibs go back to the double PG lineup to get Jalen off the ball some more…which is probably where he is most dangerous, though without Randle we lack a high level enough playmaker to really take advantage of Brunson’s off-ball game this year. Hopefully KAT matures, he’s got the passing skills & gravity to be an elite playmaking hub in the high post, like a rich man’s Hartenstein, but his decision making as a playmaker is too slow & unreliable still.


Anyways; I’m a little anxious about game 4. We have had some really stinkers in matinee games, and I hope the core didn’t get too cocky from feeling in control through most of game 3. Especially if Stewart is back to provide more resistance against KAT.

Cause if we start to FAFO in the first again, instead of coming out focused & professional, you’ve shown you’ll keep punching us in the face. You don’t have an Embiid as your “leader”, just looking to throw a hissyfit, and Duren is your only kid who has pulled a Garland / Mobley / Allen; going full deer in the headlights.


Either way, I think you’ve already won a ton of respect from anyone who has watched this series with a reasonable eye, even if you don’t upset us. And moving forward I don’t think it will be long until you (and the Magic) make the jump that Cleveland & Indiana have to turn the East’s current top 4, into a simply brutal top 6 ahead of the old teams (Bucks / 6ers), the teams that just lack the high end talent (Miami / Chicago / Toronto), the tanking teams, and Atlanta…who I have such mixed feelings about lol

Just hope you don’t pull an Atlanta and rush to make the wrong next move the way they did with Dejounte. Even if you need to regress a little bit for a season while seeing how the kids respond to the league treating you differently next year and adjusting to your kids, as you wait for the right move to come your way like it did the Pacers.

[breezypeezy]

I might be alone in this….but Fontecchio getting zero minutes seems uncalled for. He was playing good at the end of the season, and seems like we could use him in these games where our other vets seem to be taking turns on having bad games….

Our deep rotation worked in the regular season, and i know the belt tightens in the playoffs, but I think he earned some spot minutes at least. Knicks are not deep, so I think we could use our depth to our advantage in this one.

I would give him negative minutes were such a thing possible.
The guy hasnt shown any interest in winning for months.

[Kalamazoo317]

Yeah, Tech got a long leash to show something at the end of the season and he just didn't show any kind of reliability. It's a shame. Was really rooting for the guy.