PG: Knicks @ Detroit- Game 3-Proud of my Knicks!

[8516knicks]

Could not watch the game live. Just watched the final 5 min on youtube. Not as bad a collapse as I feared.

Pistons could not stop JB. Hart had some key rebounds. Saw KAT make a great D play after Cade faked OG on his ass.

Pistons made some clutch 3s as you figure a decent team on their home court, caught up in Playoff energy might (like Donte's clutch 3 in the Garden). But it was not an "almost loss" as the play-by-play ESPN made it seem.

Uncomfortable losing that halftime lead. Sure. But Pistons aren't bad and we still have a lot of talent.

More concerned we have NO bench, at least as Thibs uses it.

Lucky we're healthy this year, but would have rather been healthy last year when we had a real chance to go far.

[Context]

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401768042

Look at that box score...Compare Detroit's minutes distribution vs the Knicks minute's distribution. Detroit has seasoned most of their guys.
Mitch is not fully acclimated yet. Our bench guys getting 16,9,9,4...Thibs is using these guys to give our starters breaks We have no depth that Thibs will trust. Again defensive team like Detroit...
Considering all things... the fact that the Knicks had control of the game -on the road- in one of the worse environments
that Jalen has been in (in his nba career). That gives me confidence that the Knicks will win this series...
Maybe this tough Detroit team was just what the Knicks needed-- for the Knick engine to start running good.

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

[GONYK]

Jalen Brunson became the 13th NBA player ever to score at least 30 points on 20 or fewer shots and dish nine or more assists to one or fewer turnovers in a playoff game.

Like I said in the gamethread yesterday, the guy is a goddamn superhero and the best clutch player in the game. If you're not taking the time to appreciate him, you're missing out as a fan.

[BadNewsBarnes]

Mitch still doesn't look 100%. If he was, they would have featured him in the offense...

[Clyde_Style]

If we could just get a little bench production, this series should be over soon.

We don't use our bench for production. I really don't know why we have one.

I'd prefer allocating that extra seating to dim sum service for our rotation to snack on during timeouts.

[Clyde_Style]

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401768042

Look at that box score...Compare Detroit's minutes distribution vs the Knicks minute's distribution. Detroit has seasoned most of their guys.
Mitch is not fully acclimated yet. Our bench guys getting 16,9,9,4...Thibs is using these guys to give our starters breaks We have no depth that Thibs will trust. Again defensive team like Detroit...
Considering all things... the fact that the Knicks had control of the game -on the road- in one of the worse environments
that Jalen has been in (in his nba career). That gives me confidence that the Knicks will win this series...
Maybe this tough Detroit team was just what the Knicks needed-- for the Knick engine to start running good.

This was the game that likely decides the series.

They rose to the occasion.

The touches were well distributed.

They blueprinted their path forwards.

It is up to them to maintain good habits.

[HopelessKnick]

Hart actually had a pretty solid game. He made plenty of hustle plays and key reads. He kept on the move on the offensive end so his lack of shooting didn't impact us nearly as much as in recent games.

Still, I think he's best suited for a 26-minute bench role.

I think our biggest fault area in game three was the constant unnecessary helping off of 3pt shooters (THJr in particular). There were several times that Hart/Brunson/etc shouldn't have been helping off their assignment which led to wide open three's. Someone else was already helping or the help wasn't needed at that particular moment. If we stay disciplined and smart and mainly help off of the non-shooters, we'll be able to blow them out next game. But Thibs' teams lack discipline.

That's another thing I really don't get. And it is a recurrent theme also. Why in the world do they help so much? Against Detroit you stay home on their shooters. None of those guys has the quality to create anything off the dribble....really their only hope is to have Cunningham having a good shooting game and us helping so that their shooters can get going. If we stay home on them any of them will be hardpressed to put together 10points. Even if Cunningham scores 35points they would struggle to get to 100. Anytime in this game they closed the gap it was through a flurry of 3pointer off of unnecessary help. Let Cunningham cook....he is not the guy to score 50 points and sink you singlehandedly (yet). If you keep Schroeder, Hardaway, Harris and Beasley at around or under 10points, there is no way Detroit can win.

At first it was Beasley and Harris shooting open 3 pointer in game one and almost costing us that game. Now it is Schroeder and Hardaway. It's really nonsensical and comes down to lack of coaching really.

[K_ick_God]

Mitch still doesn't look 100%. If he was, they would have featured him in the offense...

They hit him rolling to the basket and the way he caught the ball was like What are you doing

[LFGK]

These dudes are disrespectful but they failed to secure their home court so maybe they should focus more on hooping instead of being fake tough. The only one of them that's crazy enough to really do something is Stewart and he's out.

I think we need to come out in Game 4 looking to run them out of the building

they will blow detroit out game 4, took THJR heroics where he was all time hot to keep em in the game(and that french midget to an extent) but like how all things even out he turned back into himself in the second half and sucked. Thats why hes been shipped time and time again, screw Tim Hardaway too, bald head midget. They did a good job on Cade 10/25, imagine if Brunson had a game like the best player( ) in this series just did. Knicks in 5

french? i thought he was a german midget...LOL

you are rite lol, either way screw him

[HopelessKnick]

Mitch still doesn't look 100%. If he was, they would have featured him in the offense...

Really concerning given the fact that his injury and surgery is now 1 year ago.

[dakomish23]

Kat finally featured and look what happens

Game 3
KAT 10-18
Brunson 9-20
38 FGA

Game 2
KAT 5-11
Brunson 12-27
38 FGA

Better distribution of FGA - especially when it's to an all NBA offensive stud & especially in crunch time - seems like it should be obvious. But I worry they will not have learned this lesson and Thibs will go back to the SMB offense

[K_ick_God]

Beasley had a bad game … guess got to credit our D for that

[8516knicks]

Mitch still doesn't look 100%. If he was, they would have featured him in the offense...

Really concerning given the fact that his injury and surgery is now 1 year ago.

People last year said he was worth the money for what he does. Now not so much. I think Leon's going to look for a replacement this summer.

Given this minutes at this crucial stage (playoffs) you'd think Thibs would be on board for that also.

But not sure Huk is the/or even an answer. Need a solid Defensive stopper for Thib's 90's D.

[dakomish23]

Beasley had a bad game … guess got to credit our D for that

Beasley made 319 3's (2nd most this season) at 41.6% clip.

This series so far he's 9 for 30 so under 30% - 3 for 18 the last 2 games. If he's making shots like he normally does, that might not be a W yesterday.

[K_ick_God]

If JB hadn’t had help from KAT, and had spent the first three quarters driving into set defenders, he would not have been able to find those seams for the final two baskets.

Meaning, past is prelude, and without a balanced attack, Brunson would have been shooting harder and longer shots at the end — like G2.

[spree2kawhi]

Hart actually had a pretty solid game. He made plenty of hustle plays and key reads. He kept on the move on the offensive end so his lack of shooting didn't impact us nearly as much as in recent games.

Still, I think he's best suited for a 26-minute bench role.

I think our biggest fault area in game three was the constant unnecessary helping off of 3pt shooters (THJr in particular). There were several times that Hart/Brunson/etc shouldn't have been helping off their assignment which led to wide open three's. Someone else was already helping or the help wasn't needed at that particular moment. If we stay disciplined and smart and mainly help off of the non-shooters, we'll be able to blow them out next game. But Thibs' teams lack discipline.

That's another thing I really don't get. And it is a recurrent theme also. Why in the world do they help so much? Against Detroit you stay home on their shooters. None of those guys has the quality to create anything off the dribble....really their only hope is to have Cunningham having a good shooting game and us helping so that their shooters can get going. If we stay home on them any of them will be hardpressed to put together 10points. Even if Cunningham scores 35points they would struggle to get to 100. Anytime in this game they closed the gap it was through a flurry of 3pointer off of unnecessary help. Let Cunningham cook....he is not the guy to score 50 points and sink you singlehandedly (yet). If you keep Schroeder, Hardaway, Harris and Beasley at around or under 10points, there is no way Detroit can win.

At first it was Beasley and Harris shooting open 3 pointer in game one and almost costing us that game. Now it is Schroeder and Hardaway. It's really nonsensical and comes down to lack of coaching really.

After all, this is professional basketball and they want that and they create that and they will move you. It happens very fast, Detroit creates a lot of pressure and guys are only human too. You can only game plan so much. The other team will score more than a hundred points each night and the games will be close, but the good news is all teams have that type of problem. A team like Detroit will always play close games.

They’re too gritty and their shot making is too consistent for them to be blown out of many games. At the end of the day they are a team of bench players plus Cunningham though, so eventually our answer of OG plus some Bridges on him will give us the edge. This is something this roster does have and something that was worth a lot, so I do like the roster construction. There is defensive ability on the wings and even though casuals may not be able to see it, this makes a real difference and gives us an actual edge. The fact that at the same time we also have four very capable scorers cannot be underestimated. Other teams don’t have that. Detroit doesn’t have that. They only have one long defender and one scorer. We have two and four, respectively. This is a good team.

[Woodsanity]

This is just unacceptable for someone who is 7FT 240LBS.




If we could have had ihart instead of this fool we would have been so much better.

Im beyond fed up with this bum.

Do not bring up trashy Iharts playoff defense, it was atrocious. Dude had 2 good games out of 13. Why y'all keep forgetting he was awesome in the regular season and got exposed in the playoffs.

As opposed to a guy who just flat out doesn't play?

2 good games out of 13 is way too big an exaggeration.

[Woodsanity]

Kat finally featured and look what happens

Game 3
KAT 10-18
Brunson 9-20
38 FGA

Game 2
KAT 5-11
Brunson 12-27
38 FGA

Better distribution of FGA - especially when it's to an all NBA offensive stud & especially in crunch time - seems like it should be obvious. But I worry they will not have learned this lesson and Thibs will go back to the SMB offense

We should win in 6 if Thibs doesn't revert back to old ways.... Big if sadly.

[dakomish23]

That KAT post up turnaround fadeaway to the baseline with 3 mins left that made it 108-101 was the bucket of the game. Then he followed it up with the huge block on Tobias.

He's been the best Knick this series even with his crappy game 2.