Nalod wrote:Our bench? Precious and Mitch don't score. Deuce needs to be better.
Indy bench is deep and they use it. Its their game. It's how they do what they do.
I don't see easy wins vs them because we'll tire.
OG has to create. We are offensively thin. Jalen can't do it all.
OG defense is the difference. Josh a menace. A wrecking ball. The "Juggernaut"!
Jules and Bojan are missed.
SVG was right. He did not say it was not a foul, he was just surprised they called it. WE got gifted.
Indy fans must be frustrated by how much Brunson got fouled.
Knicks were clutch when they needed to execute a stop and DDV got it done. McConnell is a handful.

Haliburton is a long pass first PG and when heathy with length on defense. Brunson is a playmaking scoring machine.
Team USA seems front court heavy and I'd think someone will pull up injured and he gets the call.

The "rivalry renewed" was nice TV hype but these teams have not met in years or played an important game vs. each other in 20 years.
Fuck that noise. And Reggie on Wednesday.

Glad Obi did well but we get the win. He wanted out so he can play and get paid. I won't demonize him for that. IQ was on the same track.

Refs were kind to us. Im not going to be a homer about it. We got marginal calls. I did not say "Gifts", just we got home cooking.
Knicks looked tired. Mitch was a bubblehead a few times.
That 3pt shot by iHart to close the first half might have been the difference.
Why is Halliburton so annoying to watch? His highly animated reactions to seemingly every play vs. the stoic cool that is Jalen Brunson?

Love the Win. We are one sprained ankle from not advancing. With a thin bench we are susceptible. Thibs is doing what he needs to do win.
Its who we are but there is a ceiling I'm afraid to this team in this time and place. Teams get injured, Randle is missed.

Like Philly, we were just 3 games better than Indy this season. 47 wins vs. our 50. Parity.

good post Nalod

Especially agree with the bold. Haliburton hasn't been the same the all-star break. Definitely dealing with injuries. McConnell always seems to do well against the Knicks...I actually worry about him the most on this Indy team.

TheMTL wrote:

KnickDanger wrote:

TheMTL wrote:

Panos wrote:We got NOTHING from the bench tonight.

Honestly, that's on Thibs. Guys need more than 4 minutes

I'm guessing if we lost you would say that was on Thibs too.

Not necessarily. It would depend on how we lost. But luckily we won. Not the prettiest but I'm taking it.

I am concerned about the 7-man rotation though. We gotta get an 8th guy working

Honestly.. imagine just going with Precious and McBride MORE when it was clearly not working last night and losing. Thank god I didnt overplay anyone! Look at my good coaching ~THibs

geeze

Clean wrote:I am usually on the side of giving players a break but playoff time is different. You do whatever you must to win. McBride and Precious minutes were all negative last night. It is what it is. Players will have a few months to rest after we win the championship.

The curfew for the minutes police is suspended!!!!

Media: Coach, are you concerned over the minutes your playing your starters? Josh?
Thibs: Its the playoffs, if he dies, he dies. He'll have all summer to resurrect!

Clean wrote:I am usually on the side of giving players a break but playoff time is different. You do whatever you must to win. McBride and Precious minutes were all negative last night. It is what it is. Players will have a few months to rest after we win the championship.

Did Josh/OG/Jalen/DD look tired in crunch time last night? I mean honest question for everyone. Like this coach knows these players.

DLeethal wrote:

fishmike wrote:

Clean wrote:I am usually on the side of giving players a break but playoff time is different. You do whatever you must to win. McBride and Precious minutes were all negative last night. It is what it is. Players will have a few months to rest after we win the championship.

100% man, these guys are not made of paper. They are gonna be OK!

Did Josh/OG/Jalen/DD look tired in crunch time last night? I mean honest question for everyone. Like this coach knows these players.

Everyone else seems like they are good with 2-3 min rest in each half. "Good" in terms of having enough energy to finish the game strong like they did last night. Josh can just play the whole damn game and maybe get 2-3 mins in the first half.

I wonder if Achiuwa should be taking some of Robinson's minutes to give the big guy some rest. He's looking like those legs could use a break. Achiuwa played Siakam pretty well this season and would free OG up a little bit. Turner plays a soft outside in Center and I am not nearly as worried about his 3ball as the Aarons.

VDesai wrote:Ok they keep replaying that illegal screen and the more I watch it the more you see Turner intentionally stick his knee out on the screen. Now the issue is he probably did that about 8 other times and they chose to call it at the most crucial possession in the game.

Whatever, how many calls have gone against the Knicks? Its just something for the press to talk about.

like i said last night it had to be a situation where the Knicks were advocating for that and who knows maybe the refs even told Turner to watch it, that it was getting to be too much to ignore

it has to have been something like that because the whistle was quick like they were specifically on the lookout for it. ANd it wasn't just the knee. It was the step with his right leg was late, then the knee and then the slight shoulder. Nothing Miami-esque but i wouldn't consider that call in a vacuum. He sets a lot of screens and i suspect there was a lot of bitching about them during the game etc

Philc1 wrote:

DLeethal wrote:I think the panic is moreso looking at their bench scoring totals versus ours and somehow thinking if we played Precious more that would even it out. The only thing that would do is help us lose. Let their bench do what they do, our starters will do what they do. Wins are determined by who wins the bench scoring.

It’s more complicated than that. Besides the obvious statistical disparity Carlisle’s strategy is meant to physically wear out our guys and we lose yesterday if we don’t get that gift call against Turner in the final minute of the game

We were winning when we had that gift call so why would we lose?

I don't disagree with your premise though, that's what they do, and the Knicks have the things that they do well too. We have the ultimate closer, we dominate the offensive boards like we did in the 4th, we can put the clamps on in the 4th quarter like we did last night. Each team has their angles to work throughout the game. Ours doesn't have to be a deep bench, we can't pretend like we have a lot of options there and play guys for the sake of playing guys. Their bench is really good, we start playing scrubs we are gonna get killed.

In terms of wearing out, our team did the complete opposite late in the 4th quarter. Josh started rebounding like a madman, OG put the clamps on better than he did all game, Jalen was automatic down the stretch and had 20+ in the 4th. Nothing that indicates our guys were tired.

EwingsGlass wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

fishmike wrote:

Clean wrote:I am usually on the side of giving players a break but playoff time is different. You do whatever you must to win. McBride and Precious minutes were all negative last night. It is what it is. Players will have a few months to rest after we win the championship.

100% man, these guys are not made of paper. They are gonna be OK!

Did Josh/OG/Jalen/DD look tired in crunch time last night? I mean honest question for everyone. Like this coach knows these players.

Everyone else seems like they are good with 2-3 min rest in each half. "Good" in terms of having enough energy to finish the game strong like they did last night. Josh can just play the whole damn game and maybe get 2-3 mins in the first half.

I wonder if Achiuwa should be taking some of Robinson's minutes to give the big guy some rest. He's looking like those legs could use a break. Achiuwa played Siakam pretty well this season and would free OG up a little bit. Turner plays a soft outside in Center and I am not nearly as worried about his 3ball as the Aarons.

I think he should, but Mitch usually comes through whenever I start to doubt him. But yes he's probably in the worst shape of everyone on the team and least equipped to run up and down at a frenetic pace. Precious makes more sense in this series but Thibs probably sticks with Mitch.