PG: Awful gameplan, not prepared, not 1 good performance

[3toheadmelo]

Should've traded for him when the Kings bizarrely made him available.

Imagine how insufferable to the rest of the league he would be if he were a Knick.

That’s probably one of the worst trades I’ve ever seen

Imagine trading Haliburton for Sabonis to build around De'Aaron Fox

Being a Knicks fan is hard but being a Kings fan has to be worse now.

Fox isn’t even a bad player tbh. I think what made it worse is that they traded Fox away too. They had two good point guards and decided to trade them away for a Lavine and Monk back court. That’s some nba 2k sht lol

[Knicksfan1992]

Thibs worst coaching performance came in our most important game of the playoffs .

That being said the Pacers are picking at every one of our weaknesses better than we are picking at theirs and that's been the difference...

-Hart and Mikal have been non-factors basically this entire series and I'd go as far as to say they've been actively harmful to the cause. One of the big swing factors in this series, to me, was could Mikal make the Pacers pay for putting Hali on him... So far that's been resounding no and conversely Hali has torched him on the other end 3 out of the 4 games...Really just a disappointing follow up to the breakthrough from Mikal we got against Boston.
-After an impactful games 1+2 Mitch was a no-show for all of game 3 and most of game 4.
-Brunson has worn down as the series has gone along. His defense has fallen off a cliff since the Boston series. Has made him and KAT an unplayable duo against this Pacer team. If you can't play your two best offensive players together in the playoffs you're doomed.

IDK what the answers are outside of play better especially on defense lol. You can play Deuce more but he also hasn't shot it well through 4 games. I'd think about inserting him for Mitch in the starting lineup but then you run into the issue of Hart having to command the second unit and his turnovers have been brutal and he's stopped shooting again so him and Mitch together is a recipe for disaster. Maybe start Delon to harass Hali for the first 6 minutes of each half? Park him in the corner on offense. Problem with that is you give Haliburton a natural place to hide and make Brunson/Bridges/KAT's jobs a lot harder.

Basically, as much as we all didn't want to admit it at the time... The series was lost in game 1. By not winning a game you should have won you significantly lowered your margin for error the rest of the way. We could have survived a split in Indiana had we also split at home. Now you have to basically play flawless basketball the rest of the way and that may not even be enough if Indiana gets scorching hot one game.

[MrDollarBills]

Read on Twitter

I mentioned it the other day, changing the starting lineup achieves very little if the minutes distribution remains the same.

Stubborn is as stubborn does.

[rajajackal]

Siakam
25.8 PPG 4.8 RPG 3.3 APG 1.0 SPG 0.3 BPG 0.5 TOV
54.1% on 18.5 FGA
50.0% on 3.0 3PA
70.8% on 6.0 FTA

OG
17.5 PPG 3.5 RPG 1.5 APG 2.3 SPG 2.0 BPG 1.5 TOV
49.0% on 12.8 FGA
33.3% on 6.8 3PA
64.7% on 4.3 FTA

OG has been ok, but he is being thoroughly outplayed by Siakam this series

he's more friends with siakam than his current teammates so he's letting him go off

[Red Vines]

I was for trying the two big lineup but it won't work against Indy because we're too slow getting back on defense. KAT alone as your big puts you at a disadvantage because he's so slow but nothing you can do. Have to go back to the drawing board for game 5.

[Janquinn87]

People crying about Mitch and Deuce playing time but they wasn't good last night. Deuce was-14 and Mitch got ran off the floor.

[robillionaire]

Read on Twitter

I mentioned it the other day, changing the starting lineup achieves very little if the minutes distribution remains the same.

Stubborn is as stubborn does.

It wasn’t the minutes distribution. Mitch was a -20 in 18 minutes. If the lineup didn’t work even in limited minutes there’s no reason to think he would have worked in the 4th either

[robillionaire]

People crying about Mitch and Deuce playing time but they wasn't good last night. Deuce was-14 and Mitch got ran off the floor.

This

[Knicks Byke]

we need more spot up shooters

[Dave_R]

Mitch should guard Siakam (and KAT should guard Turner/Bradley - not the other way around).

Pacers started Nembhard (6'4" and 190 pounds) on OG (6'7" and 240 pounds). OG was only floating around the 3 pt. line (I bet Nembhard was very happy about that). If this doesn't change, you're essentially letting the Pacers "cheat" on D. Also, why aren't we running Nesmith through multiple picks - you probably noticed that he wasn't pressing Brunson as hard going up court. I'd make Nesmith cut on his ankle as much as possible. Why aren't we pressing (no token pressing) Hali.

Hart was HORRIBLE - captain turnover. Bridges was HORRIBLE - turns a layup (or foul call) into a fadeaway.

IF the Knicks take game 5, the Pacers may tighten up in game 6.

Bottom line - Knicks need to get mentally tougher and impose their will.

[dakomish23]

Read on Twitter

Simple breakdown but 100% accurate, not about coaching

Yep. Also Nembhard outplayed Hart when he was starting. And McConnell outplayed McBride. Mitch is more impactful than Obi, but Obi has had some huge shots for IND.

The only guy who's winning his matchup outright is KAT.

KAT
25.8 PPG 11.8 RPG 1.5 APG 0.3 SPG 0.3 BPG 2.5 TOV
52.4% on 15.8 FGA
45.5% on 5.5 3PA
84.4% on 8.0 FTA

Turner
15.5 PPG 3.8 RPG 1.8 APG 0.8 SPG 2.0 BPG 1.8 TOV
53.7% on 10.3 FGA
23.5% on 4.3 3PA
70.0% on 5.0 FTA

Simple question: if you see this dominance, tell me why Brunson has SEVEN MORE FGA per game than KAT with this advantage?

[robillionaire]

I was for trying the two big lineup but it won't work against Indy because we're too slow getting back on defense. KAT alone as your big puts you at a disadvantage because he's so slow but nothing you can do. Have to go back to the drawing board for game 5.

I feel like there are no more “what if we tried this” left in the tank. They tried everything that can be tried. They changed the starting lineup, they tried the two bigs, they incorporated the bench more, we still got ran off the court. We still can’t stop them. There is no kind of mystery left beyond accepting what our personnel is. Even if the coach is gone there has to be some realization that some these guys are what they are and they need to fix or improve something. Glad it’s not my job

[MrDollarBills]

I mentioned it the other day, changing the starting lineup achieves very little if the minutes distribution remains the same.

Stubborn is as stubborn does.

It wasn’t the minutes distribution. Mitch was a -20 in 18 minutes. If the lineup didn’t work even in limited minutes there’s no reason to think he would have worked in the 4th either

It's not about Mitch, its about Josh and how horrible he's been playing nearly 40 mins.

[Garbagelo]

We should definitely keep Wright for next season

[HopelessKnick]

Everyone relax here.

1) OKC is at least one level, probably two levels above our level of play. Even if we won game 1 and made it somehow to the finals, it would have been 1999 vibes all over again. Basically zero realistic chance at winning the title. Yes making the finals is better than losing in the ECF but to me the difference is marginal.

2) Stop really complaining and replaying game 1 in your heads....we were the Kings of winning undeservedly during this playoff run. Almost all our wins in the Pistons series and 3 out of 4 wins in the Celtics series we weren't outplaying anyone. If all it takes is one bad loss for this team to get eliminated, then they really didn't deserve to make the finals anyways.

3) If this team made the finals they are likely running it back. Losing to the Pacers (a good but not great team really that probably in the west struggles to make it past round 1), opens up the possibility and puts pressure on the team to make changes.

4) It opens up the Giannis window possibly. I personally do not believe the team in its current constitution can truly go all the way and it would be doubtful whether Giannis would even want to join a finals team (Durant vibes). Now the stage is set perfectly---ECF loss, not getting past the Pacers. Giannis comes for the rescue.
The margin is big to a title and this series showed it. For people in doubt about this I'm sure they will come around once OKC has hammered the Pacers in the finals. We profited from an epically bad shooting choke job by the Celtics....nothing more. This is a second round and out team. They look like it, they play like it. Brunson and KAT together is not going to work period. We need 4 strong defenders next to Brunson and we need much much more ball movement and a better offense.

[HEZI]

I mentioned it the other day, changing the starting lineup achieves very little if the minutes distribution remains the same.

Stubborn is as stubborn does.

It wasn’t the minutes distribution. Mitch was a -20 in 18 minutes. If the lineup didn’t work even in limited minutes there’s no reason to think he would have worked in the 4th either

Interesting how we never lost the 1st or 2nd quarter or never trailed going into the 4th in either the 1st or 2nd games with our regular starters and rotation. But the moment we took Hart out of the starting lineup and replaced him with Robinson is when we lost every 1st and 2nd quarter while trailing going into the 4th. Last night we gave up 43 points to them in the 1st quarter.

[MrDollarBills]

Read on Twitter

Simple breakdown but 100% accurate, not about coaching

Yep. Also Nembhard outplayed Hart when he was starting. And McConnell outplayed McBride. Mitch is more impactful than Obi, but Obi has had some huge shots for IND.

The only guy who's winning his matchup outright is KAT.

KAT
25.8 PPG 11.8 RPG 1.5 APG 0.3 SPG 0.3 BPG 2.5 TOV
52.4% on 15.8 FGA
45.5% on 5.5 3PA
84.4% on 8.0 FTA

Turner
15.5 PPG 3.8 RPG 1.8 APG 0.8 SPG 2.0 BPG 1.8 TOV
53.7% on 10.3 FGA
23.5% on 4.3 3PA
70.0% on 5.0 FTA

Simple question: if you see this dominance, tell me why Brunson has SEVEN MORE FGA per game than KAT with this advantage?

Ask the flawless coach.

[Dave_R]

Assuming people stay awake on D (as Clyde says, "see the man AND the ball"), Knicks need to put Pacers in 1/2 court as their 1/2 court offense is way below average. If they run, Pacers will win.

[HEZI]

Hart is the definition of glue guy. He was holding that group together and the moment he was removed from the lineup is when things fell apart

[Chanel Bomber]

That’s probably one of the worst trades I’ve ever seen

Imagine trading Haliburton for Sabonis to build around De'Aaron Fox

Being a Knicks fan is hard but being a Kings fan has to be worse now.

Fox isn’t even a bad player tbh. I think what made it worse is that they traded Fox away too. They had two good point guards and decided to trade them away for a Lavine and Monk back court. That’s some nba 2k sht lol

Fox is kinda mid. I think he just holds the ball enough to put up numbers, but it's not really conducive to winning.

He's not much different than Dejounte Murray.

These guys have played on mediocre teams their whole career for a reason.