martin wrote:

Clean wrote:

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Mitch is funny.

Mitch is ****in hilarious

I find Mitch particularly hilarious after 18 boards and 3 blocks.

Jarrett Allen ——- 4 pts and 4 boards.

This had the feeling of Hibbert vs Chandler

Clean wrote:

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RJ didn’t have Josh Hart in his shorts for entire series but YES RJ was fantastic.

Hard to understand how but his decision making was almost perfect in terms of when he gave it up and when he shot —— and some 3s fell.

Thibs - hard to argue what he’s done with this squad and what we are seeing from the young guys.

I'm really thrilled by this team's potential. The Randle injury is a tough break - but he has 4 days to get ready to at it again. He seemed well and in good spirits on the bench as well as the post-game farewells to the Cavs team.

The Cavs team just had an unfortunate bad matchup against the Knicks for a 50+ win team. Allen and Mobley are accustomed to being the tallest/longest/most athletic bigs on the floor. Certainly one of them should have a favorable match up. Yet the Knicks were one of the few teams in the league that has bigger/longer/stronger players that could match their athleticism, so their own version of bullyball was neutralized.

Then there was the back court: The Cavs bought into trading for the 6'1" Mitchell as their SG and had to deal with the consequences (albeit coming from a 44 win, 9th seed team last year!). The Knicks loaded up on athletic wing defenders. On the surface, Quickley had an oddly poor offensive series, but look a little deeper and he devoted the bulk of his energy to defense. His advanced defensive metrics were off the charts and played a big role in neutralizing the Cavs guards, particularly in game 3 onward.

Buying out Kevin Love late in the season ended up being a critical decision for the Cavs and they really paid for it. Instead of having a big man who could score from anywhere and take center defenders out of the paint to the 3pt line, the Knicks always seemed to have a 7 footer in the paint on D. (Love made it to the second round with the Heat, so we'll have a nice opportunity to thank him for sabotaging the franchise that so handsomely rewarded him!)

Anyway, great series win. There were 3 notable players on the Knicks:
* Brunson is a legit #1 option on offense. The Cavs didn't have any good answers. I think putting a taller defender on Brunson tends to put him on an iso mindset and with the effect of disrupting flow of the Knicks offense. Still, it isn't a bad choice to let Brunson do his work - he produces points in those circumstances!

* The redemption arc of RJ is a big deal - usually it gets harder for players the longer a series goes on as opponents figure them out. But instead, it looks like RJ figured out his defenders and found a way to get stronger as the series went on. That's not to diminish his contributions in the first two games - he had big steals and assists early on, plus was part of the gang of defenders keeping Mitchell and Garland at bay. He did his part making things difficult for two smaller, quicker players. RJ may not get enough credit for his contributions. The biggest thing to note was that he gave the team what they needed when they needed it.

* Mitch really dominated late in the series. It's almost like a switch went off and he realized what a physical advantage he had over his opponents, so long as the refs don't call tick tack fouls early! He dominated on D and rebounds. We've talked about it for years, but when he's right he's about as impactful as any big in the game. I initially considered calling out the Knicks two-headed center monster for giving the Cavs 48 minutes of strong effort. Hartenstein was great too and did everything he was supposed to.

Moving forward:
I'm a little worried about Randle's injury and whether he'll be ready for the next series. He seemed in good spirits as the game drew to a close. Grimes seemed to be celebrating and fist pumping like his shoulder didn't hurt either. :) I think we can beat the Heat without Randle/Grimes at 100%, but at the same time it makes our margin of error much smaller.

LivingLegend wrote:Not sure if anyone else was watching the NBA TV feed with Gus Johnson and G Anthony doing the game --- thought they were great and for a change seemed to be favoring the Knicks.

Gus had 2 great lines that made me laugh.

First Obi I think hit a mid-range plus banged in a 3 that lead to immediate Cavs timeout and Gus said Obi Toppin out here looking like John Havlichek.

Next there was a loose ball - Hart dove on the floor, flipped it to Brunson who hit Obi for the break away dunk. Gus goes --- Hart to Brunson to Toppin --- then he kept going Debussure to Bradley to the Pearl to Willis - thought it was funny because Gus seemed to be rooting for Knicks.

I need to see and hear this tape

martin wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:Not sure if anyone else was watching the NBA TV feed with Gus Johnson and G Anthony doing the game --- thought they were great and for a change seemed to be favoring the Knicks.

Gus had 2 great lines that made me laugh.

First Obi I think hit a mid-range plus banged in a 3 that lead to immediate Cavs timeout and Gus said Obi Toppin out here looking like John Havlichek.

Next there was a loose ball - Hart dove on the floor, flipped it to Brunson who hit Obi for the break away dunk. Gus goes --- Hart to Brunson to Toppin --- then he kept going Debussure to Bradley to the Pearl to Willis - thought it was funny because Gus seemed to be rooting for Knicks.

I need to see and hear this tape

Wish I knew how to find that and/or post it but I’m useless on that front.

It was funny - Gus was basically saying the ball never touched the floor and they were playing like the yesteryear Knicks - I think Anthony was laughing at it as well.

LivingLegend wrote:

Clean wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/KnicksMuse/status/1651408489128796160

RJ didn’t have Josh Hart in his shorts for entire series but YES RJ was fantastic.

Hard to understand how but his decision making was almost perfect in terms of when he gave it up and when he shot —— and some 3s fell.

Barrett deserves a ton of credit. He played much tighter. From 2, this is the Barrett many of us are hoping for. Tighten up that 3 and work on a more explosive first step and I am a believer. He can do it.

EwingsGlass wrote:
Barrett deserves a ton of credit. He played much tighter. From 2, this is the Barrett many of us are hoping for. Tighten up that 3 and work on a more explosive first step and I am a believer. He can do it.

This hasn't been Star-J. This has been sustainable - consistent effort on defense, better judgment on offense, and yes, hitting those layups!

I am waiting for a Star-J game though where he goes 6-9 from 3 and puts up 40+...but am thrilled to sign up for this version of RJ any day!

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fishmike wrote:

BigDaddyG wrote:Ricky Rubio probably uses the rationale when he reminds people he was drafted ahead of Seth Curry.

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bench talent counts... Rubio, yeah man he sure played well.

This wasnt a close series. They got beat every which way.

And from a talent perspective...turns out their guys aren't that good. Our bench vastly outclasses theirs. Evan Mobley has 0 offensive bag and isn't a consistent shooter. Allen is a glorified rim runner with above average defense. Dmith and Garland are good but Brunson is just better.

I'm not sure what caused the change. Perhaps Thibs had some devious schemes we don't yet appreciate where he took their aggression and used it against them -- Judo, ninja style

whatever it was, they did not present as the top rated D, and if Mobley and Allen are not giving you top rated D they are a liability on offense. We were able to cheat off of 2 or sometimes three guys to blitz or threaten a blitz on Garland and DM

Sending Obi and Hart on leakouts as a way to improve our defensive rebounding was genius. It forced the Cavs to cover those guys and not crash the glass. And since Obi is not a great defensive rebounder anyway we net benefitted.