PG: Not fun

[rajajackal]

Missed the game for family stuff. Saw the score. I have it recorded but not sure I want to watch

nothing interesting happened. long story short, we didn't play well and we lost. it didn't feel like we fought and failed, so i have hope that monday will bode better. don't like feeling like we let this one go, but that is how it feels. i'm not saying we are in the driver's seat, just that we didn't fight tooth and nail today. we'll have to

[dakomish23]

Whoever wins game 4 will probably win the series. I expect us to come out on fire but that doesn’t matter in the playoffs. Champions would do 48 mins & send a message

[Clyde_Style]

Missed the game for family stuff. Saw the score. I have it recorded but not sure I want to watch

For the best. There were no wonderful rallies to offset the badness. It was a narcotic haze from tip-off until Jalen Bluntson woke up after the game. You can safely delete that game and never look back.

[dakomish23]

BOS ain’t winning the chip if Tatum & Brown don’t get their head out of their asses and play team basketball. What makes them great is that they could impact the game in all these other ways besides dropping 25, but instead they’re focused on dropping 30 , which is killing this team

[WargamesX]

I’m tired of the team bricking shots to start the game
And come out with no defensive intensity in the first quarters
The game is basically done in one quarter
Barring two miracles

From an energy standpoint I think that was the Celtics goal. Bust their behind to get the lead before the half. Rest during halftime and then just work to maintain it after.

In the prior two games they would create the lead, use a lot of energy to do it, and then fall off. All while the Knicks focused on increasing defensive pressure the later the game got.

That might be why the Knicks keep saying they have to be more urgent. They got to keep the game close going into half time to give their better conditioning a chance to matter. Also even we we do got on a run to chip away the lead if at the end of it the Knicks are still down 17 the Celtics aren’t going to feel any pressure to pad that lead and make mistakes.

The next game I expect a lot more intensity early from the Knicks to put pressure on the Celtics.

[The KnicksFix]

I’m tired of the team bricking shots to start the game
And come out with no defensive intensity in the first quarters
The game is basically done in one quarter
Barring two miracles

From an energy standpoint I think that was the Celtics goal. Bust their behind to get the lead before the half. Rest during halftime and then just work to maintain it after.

In the prior two games they would create the lead, use a lot of energy to do it, and then fall off. All while the Knicks focused on increasing defensive pressure the later the game got.

That might be why the Knicks keep saying they have to be more urgent. They got to keep the game close going into half time to give their better conditioning a chance to matter. Also even we we do got on a run to chip away the lead if at the end of it the Knicks are still down 17 the Celtics aren’t going to feel any pressure to pad that lead and make mistakes.

The next game I expect a lot more intensity early from the Knicks to put pressure on the Celtics.

The problem is they don’t bring the same defensive intensity in the first quarter that they do in the third or fourth
They need to crank up the defensive intensity and Jalen needs to stop passing it waiting for Mikal and KAT to score in the first quarter. That’s why the deficits balloon to 5 then 10,15,20

[Enzo954]

Missed the game for family stuff. Saw the score. I have it recorded but not sure I want to watch

You might as well just have someone kick you in the balls instead of watching this game. It will be over quicker and less painful.

[LFGK]

They only need to shoot like 26% and they would be up 3-0 right now. Other than the Celtics shooting terribly, nothing suggests we should should be winning any of these games. Your confidence is admired but, I'll believe it when I see it. We have played awful this entire playoffs. It is a miracle we have two wins and are even in the second round with the way we have performed.

i believe their shooting percentage was our doing. we'd been playing good D. not today, though. hope we get our **** together next game cause today they seemed as day-drunk as i was

Wide open misses. Like 56 of them. That's not our doing. It's literally the only reason we won those two games. If they hit 2-3 more shots we are down 3-0. That's how terrible we have played. Thibs sucks.

You all deserve the fizdale days man lol, everyone jumping off ship up 2-1 don't jump back in after it's 3-1 Monday

[ezmoney707]

Sidenote I’m curious why the league scheduled this game so early with only two games on the slate today

[Wildcat]

mikal shooting 37 & 27 percent from 3 in this series
kat shoting 42 & 14 percent from 3
brunson at 38 & 38 percent from 3
og at 37 & 41 percent from 3

og and brunson shooting the 3 well but otherwise not great

Let's not forget for whatever reason KAT (or the Knicks) went back to drop coverage.

I figure the game plan was not to allow the Cs to rage to the rim and pick up fouls and play the percebtages that the Cs shootong slump would travel on the road. Gambled and lost.

Sent from my SM-S9080 using RealGM mobile app

But why go back to drop coverage if the game plan was to watch them brick when games 1 and 2 had very little drop coverage? KAT the only one that I can remember dropping. I'd rewatch the game, but it was ugly from top to bottom, so not worth my time.

[Jeff Van Gully]

Same. It makes me feel instrumental to a secretive nighttime Knicks vigil. Perhaps, I am

there are two guard hours per day.

a wise man once told me a broken clock is right twice a day

more than some people, i suppose.

[Chanel Bomber]

We have led the score in 9% of all minutes played in the series.

The Knicks being up 2-1 after 3 games in this series is a major upset and feels like a win. Yet, I feel less optimistic about the team's chances than I did before the series.

We've been thoroughly outclassed and outplayed so far. And it took some exceptionally bad shooting from the Celtics in games 1 and 2 for us to have a chance to mount a comeback.

The question is can we scrap two more wins like the Nuggets did against the Sonics in 1994?

I think it's quite easy and convenient to pile on KAT for his defense when Brunson has been a bigger liability defensively. The more significant issue to me is that, besides some clutch shots by Brunson in Boston, neither has played like a star offensively, and we need them to provide elite offense to stay in the game with Boston's 3-point machine. If neither steps their game up, we're likely toast.

5-18 FGAs from KAT is not going to cut it, especially as Mazzzula fouls Mitch out of the series. KAT was a mess on offense. Brunson's final boxscore numbers are misleading, he did not have a good game offensively either. Let's see if either one of them can have a big game on Monday or whenever game 4 is. We're gonna need a dominant performance, likely from JB.

[mpharris36]

we are 5th in the playoffs in DEF rating

we are 13th in the playoffs in OFF rating

don't let one really hot half for one of the best shooting teams blind you. The offense is the issue. The poor possessions leading to fast breaks are what led BOS to get off to a hot start. When we have good offense we typically can get into a decent DEF position.

Im not as worried about the Celtics having a monster 1st half offensively...that will happen. They shoot a lot of 3's and will score in bunches. What is consistent for the Knicks in this playoffs is the lack of offensive explosion. Everything and I mean everything is a grind. Yes we have had some 4th qtrs and Brunson is as elite as your going to get late in games/4th qtr. But we simply haven't adjusted since the middle part of the year on how everyone is guarding us.

Our offensive rating was ELITE early in the season. A small adjustment by putting wings on KAT shouldn't make our offense all of a sudden an issue. The fact we haven't countered any of that is terrible coaching IMO.

Us consistently having poor possessions is the issue.

[mpharris36]

We have led the score in 9% of all minutes played in the series.

The Knicks being up 2-1 after 3 games in this series is a major upset and feels like a win. Yet, I feel less optimistic about the team's chances than I did before the series.

We've been thoroughly outclassed and outplayed so far. And it took some exceptionally bad shooting from the Celtics in games 1 and 2 for us to have a chance to mount a comeback.

The question is can we scrap two more wins like the Nuggets did against the Sonics in 1994?

I think it's quite easy and convenient to pile on KAT for his defense when Brunson has been a bigger liability defensively. The more significant issue to me is that, besides some clutch shots by Brunson in Boston, neither has played like a star offensively, and we need them to provide elite offense to stay in the game with Boston's 3-point machine. If neither steps their game up, we're likely toast.

5-18 FGAs from KAT is not going to cut it, especially as Mazzzula fouls Mitch out of the series. KAT was a mess on offense. Brunson's final boxscore numbers are misleading, he did not have a good game offensively either. Let's see if either one of them can have a big game on Monday or whenever game 4 is. We're gonna need a dominant performance, likely from JB.

I agree with a lot of your saying. And I ask why do you think Brunson and KAT are struggling? BOS has a very good defense so I will give them that. But it was the same struggles vs a much less talented defensive team in DET. Brunson wasn't overly EFF in that series even with a monster game 6 on the road.

KAT shot the ball decent but now in 3 games vs BOS and 6 games vs DET KAT is taking 3.5 3's per game, even then some of KATs make are crazy...he has to make some really difficult shots because nothing is schemed easy for us. That is dowright ubsurd. Under 4 attempts from 3 from our best shooter? How is that legit offense? How is our coach inable to scheme KAT to take more 3's...we have beeen guarded this was since Jan...no excuse now to just run the same "read and react" BS offense and just hope the talent level of Brunson/KAT bail us out.

Like you said...Brunson and KAT we already know aren't good defenders...they have to be on the top of there game offensively to really make this work. The fact both continue to struggle really only pts to one thing for me. Everything is a grind...everything is a struggle. We don't really try anything different. Its the same vanilla offense we have been running all year. Its just that early in the year KAT was being guarded by Centers and he kills those matchups.

[Garbagelo]

This was expected, but happened in game 3 rather than game 2

The scheme we are playing can lead to outcomes like this. It still works better than not and it gives us a punching chance.

Some of the reversion back to the old scheme needs to be shored up and the offense needs to be better, but in the end we are playing a game of numbers here.

Remember it's a series not a single game, have to stick to the plan and roll the dice while we figure out our offense

As i warned before the game, overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. I felt we were a little too confident which is why we are here.

Read on Twitter

?t=G7gVZyT3pm49In_ESkZ0Gg&s=19

[sol537]

I think we lose games 4 and 5 and then steal game 6 only to lose in game 7. Boston vs Cleveland semis but this time Cleveland wins and face OKC in the finals. We get a new champion.

[Wildcat]

Whoever wins game 4 will probably win the series. I expect us to come out on fire but that doesn’t matter in the playoffs. Champions would do 48 mins & send a message

Would love it if the Knicks just played 48 minutes. A full, fun, competent 48 minutes.

[Chanel Bomber]

We have led the score in 9% of all minutes played in the series.

The Knicks being up 2-1 after 3 games in this series is a major upset and feels like a win. Yet, I feel less optimistic about the team's chances than I did before the series.

We've been thoroughly outclassed and outplayed so far. And it took some exceptionally bad shooting from the Celtics in games 1 and 2 for us to have a chance to mount a comeback.

The question is can we scrap two more wins like the Nuggets did against the Sonics in 1994?

I think it's quite easy and convenient to pile on KAT for his defense when Brunson has been a bigger liability defensively. The more significant issue to me is that, besides some clutch shots by Brunson in Boston, neither has played like a star offensively, and we need them to provide elite offense to stay in the game with Boston's 3-point machine. If neither steps their game up, we're likely toast.

5-18 FGAs from KAT is not going to cut it, especially as Mazzzula fouls Mitch out of the series. KAT was a mess on offense. Brunson's final boxscore numbers are misleading, he did not have a good game offensively either. Let's see if either one of them can have a big game on Monday or whenever game 4 is. We're gonna need a dominant performance, likely from JB.

I agree with a lot of your saying. And I ask why do you think Brunson and KAT are struggling? BOS has a very good defense so I will give them that. But it was the same struggles vs a much less talented defensive team in DET. Brunson wasn't overly EFF in that series even with a monster game 6 on the road.

KAT shot the ball decent but now in 3 games vs BOS and 6 games vs DET KAT is taking 3.5 3's per game, even then some of KATs make are crazy...he has to make some really difficult shots because nothing is schemed easy for us. That is dowright ubsurd. Under 4 attempts from 3 from our best shooter? How is that legit offense? How is our coach inable to scheme KAT to take more 3's...we have beeen guarded this was since Jan...no excuse now to just run the same "read and react" BS offense and just hope the talent level of Brunson/KAT bail us out.

Like you said...Brunson and KAT we already know aren't good defenders...they have to be on the top of there game offensively to really make this work. The fact both continue to struggle really only pts to one thing for me. Everything is a grind...everything is a struggle. We don't really try anything different. Its the same vanilla offense we have been running all year. Its just that early in the year KAT was being guarded by Centers and he kills those matchups.

Fully agree. I think it's a combination of factors.

Thibs prefers to run an isolation offense because it limits turnovers.

Brunson and KAT are not better than the sum of their parts. Brunson's mindset is focused on scoring rather than playmaking, and KAT's probably not an aggressive screen setter.

We can't run a 5-out offense with Hart on the court. Not a criticism of Hart, but his lack of shooting throws a wrench in the works. I agree with you Hart should be setting more off-ball screens for KAT.

And I think there's no excuse for the low 3-point shooting output, for which I think Thibs is largely responsible. It's a low-risk, low-reward offense. In a series where our defensive weak points can be exposed, I don't know if this safe approach to offense can produce enough points. It makes sense to use our qualities in the midrange down the stretch of a close game, but we need to take more 3s over the course of 48 minutes. Including our stars.

[Clyde_Style]

there are two guard hours per day.

a wise man once told me a broken clock is right twice a day

more than some people, i suppose.

aside from the sheer obviousness of the saying, it is also an effective zen koan or a gnostic contemplation

[G_K_F]

Hey remember last game when I said I was wrong?

Yeah, my bad, I wasn’t.

It’s not a one game thing.

The Celtics have **** dominated - DOMINATED - this team all season. Including these playoffs where he have led for 12 of 144 minutes. 12 of 144! That’s insanity.

We are supremely overmatched in both ends of the floor despite what anyone here says. The fact that we have 2 wins this series is a miracle. That’s all it is. A straight up miracle. We have no business being in the lead. Series should be 3-0 Boston realistically. And at this point it’s going to end up 4-2 Boston because the sleeping giant has awakened and will make sure they step on our Knicks this time.

KAT is a zero on all ends - specifically defensively. And the Celtics know how to neutralize Brunson and tire him out. Without Brunson we are a rudderless team. We have no offense to speak of and we can’t defend the 3 point line.

Took historically disgraceful 3 point shooting by Boston for us to win 2 games which we were down 20. Think about that. Boston had historically bad shooting nights and were up 20 twice regardless.

Yeah, sorry, we’re still not very good.