MaTT4281 wrote:

DLeethal wrote:I saw an interesting piece of content where the guy brought up Donovan's Mitchell's interview after going down 0-3 and his response to how to turn the series around was "don't give up a 22 point lead in game 1". The point was that 2 games later, that's still all he was thinking about, that comeback broke them and they never recovered. A massive hill to climb for the Spurs to change the momentum in the series back in their favor again. And I think there is less pressure for these guys on the road to bring the first championship in 53 years back to New York. They get it done tomorrow.

I think the Spurs are the real variable here. Did the comeback mentally defeat them, or do they come back embarrassed and angry?

Knicks have already shown 3x now their focus and dominance closing out on the road.

Either we get a true heavyweight match vs. a desperate team, or this is going to be a bludgeoning.

Agreed. Spurs have shown they are at a different level than the teams we blew out in closeout games. But that heartbreak defeat was also a different level. If I was an objective NBA fan watching this series, the most interesting thing to me would be to see how the Spurs respond. It will speak volumes about those guys. But I wouldn't even fault them if they got blown out, they are well on their way regardless. Knicks are due for a good game, they really haven't played one yet. I'm confident we are sailing with the wind at our backs tomorrow night.

My wife isn't a knick fan but shes been interested in this run, and I find myself constantly saying the word "historic" to describe whats happened these playoffs. so many historic runs and comebacks, this might be one of the greatest post season teams of all time. I say we win by 20+ tomorrow. in fact im going to bet on it just like I did OG finals MVP last week

our entire defense is to protect the paint, short close and play in the gaps.

them shooting less threes on purpose will help us.

also OG dominated fox defensively. all of those reps are going to be heavily inspected by both teams, and SAS is almost certainly going to try and play away from OG in game 5. I would be upset if the knicks didn't prepare for this adjustment. Nothing fancy but maybe move OG to castle, put mikal on the ball. Brunson's reps on defense haven't been that bad as far as I could tell too.

aggo wrote:Spurs getting flamed for shooting too many threes is going to play into our hands in game 5.

our entire defense is to protect the paint, short close and play in the gaps.

them shooting less threes on purpose will help us.

also OG dominated fox defensively. all of those reps are going to be heavily inspected by both teams, and SAS is almost certainly going to try and play away from OG in game 5. I would be upset if the knicks didn't prepare for this adjustment. Nothing fancy but maybe move OG to castle, put mikal on the ball. Brunson's reps on defense haven't been that bad as far as I could tell too.

Good points.

The double PG combo also has data backing it going back to the cup game when we ran Kolek/Brunson/Clarkson ftw. Hopefully this continues to free up Brunson to get the space he can use to attack as well as free up other players.

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So excited for this next game !! It’s literally all I can think about.

I’d love to see us come out hot from the start!! Our fans travel well it sounds like over 50% of the ticket sales were from NY/NJ

We are going to take over San Antonio!!

BigDaddyG wrote:

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Oddly enough, we didn't play awful when we fell behind by 29, we just didn't pressure them defensively when they were draining threes and we were simultaneously stone cold from outside. It was just the perfect storm to fall behind, but we actually were able to score when we pushed the ball and went inside.

They did not really stop us from scoring, we just shot too much from outside when we were cold instead of sticking with what was working which was go to the hole. If we had done that we wouldn't have been down by more than a dozen points.

What changed midway through the third is we started pressuring them more at the POA plus we immediately double teamed any Spur who looked to penetrate. We also bumped Wemby out of position anytime he tried to turn a corner and he didn't sniff the paint for a 12-15 minute stretch in the second half.

This kept them at bay until they were the ones that went stone cold because they had no other offense than threes the way we played them in the 2nd half. We forced them into that and they did not adjust.

Mostly, the story of Game 4 was we cannot let them run their offensive sets as casually as we did in the first half. We let them go 3/4 court without pressure; we let them build a rhythm.

When we play defense with force they are not the most creative team on offense. We actually have more shotmakers than they do. And we do have defensive sets where we can scheme Wemby into defending one side of the court and not the middle. This will almost always open a lane to the basket. And without Wemby on the floor, the Spurs can't handle us in the paint at all.

TLDR; More POA defense from us + higher pace and attacking the rim = Knicks advantage. If we shoot threes only on clean-up kickouts and open pull-ups we'll hit those at a higher clip. We should prioritize playing an Inside/Out game, Not Outside/In.

Early in the game the Knicks will need to stunt some double teams higher up the court to disrupt their offensive sets. Just do not let them do the same thing every time down the floor.

If our defense keeps them guessing they will not have the kind of 3 point shooting run they had for one half.

More defensive intensity early should = more opportunities to build pace on offense which matters. Spur are tough when you let them settle into their defensive postures. But they are very vulnerable to offensive pressure.

I know Mike Brown saw all of this and made the correct adjustments in the 2nd half. We probably will see more minutes for Jose to get the ball upcourt faster and ease the pressure off Brunson.