sol537 wrote:Would rather face CLE, ORL, Indy, or MIL in the 1st round over Miami or Philly. I think Miami and Philly would be tougher outs due to their experience, coaching, etc. So... yeah... I wouldn't mind "tanking" a game at the end if it puts us out of reach of those teams.
Definitely Cleveland as I think the Knicks has their number and matchup well against them.
Orlando I'm not so sure about as their style of play seems to give the Knicks problems. Same with Indy. Sure with Orlando there's the inexperience factor but you never know if that will kick in and how much it would negatively impact them.
As far as Philly goes? If Mitch is back at 100% I think we have a good matchup. He seems to be the one guy that can handle Embiid or at least make Embiid work. I think Embiid even said as much in the past. In the past when Mitch was on him, it didn't seem that Embiid was as all dominating as he normally is.
Milwaukee? I said this to a buddy. I don't think the tandem of Giannis and Lillard is working. Doesn't seem like there's a chemistry and they don't seem to play off one another real well. The numbers may say otherwise, but it almost looks like they take turns with the ball and when one guy has it the other guy isn't really involved. As much as Giannis is a perennial MVP type I would think they they might be better off with Lillard dictating the tempo and touching the ball (cause Lillard really can't do anything else real well) and have Giannis focus more of cuts and finishes off of passes on the offensive end (rather than running the ball through him the majority of the time like they've been pretty much forced to do in the past).
Miami? Yeah lol. I wan't nothing to do with Miami for as long as possible come playoff time.