Chandler wrote:so in the week of prep does Thibs do a better job figuring out how to slow down Trae, or does Nate do a better job of figuring out how to slow down Ju

that's the series, right there

Hawks don't really have the personnel to stop Randle. Randle would have to stop himself. Thibs will need to ensure Randle doesn't put to much pressure on himself leading to poor decisions. On the other hand Knicks have some size and length they can put on Young. Great offense can beat great defense so if Young is just feeling it he will be hard to stop regardless. But Knicks can def make him work very hard for it.

Knicks are the better defensive and grittier team. Playoffs favor that. But Hawks have better talent on paper at their disposal.

Hawks don't have the defensive chops to stop the Knicks offensively though. While Knicks can make Hawks make work for everything. The way I see it anyway

newyorknewyork wrote:

Chandler wrote:so in the week of prep does Thibs do a better job figuring out how to slow down Trae, or does Nate do a better job of figuring out how to slow down Ju

that's the series, right there

Hawks don't really have the personnel to stop Randle. Randle would have to stop himself. Thibs will need to ensure Randle doesn't put to much pressure on himself leading to poor decisions. On the other hand Knicks have some size and length they can put on Young. Great offense can beat great defense so if Young is just feeling it he will be hard to stop regardless. But Knicks can def make him work very hard for it.

Knicks are the better defensive and grittier team. Playoffs favor that. But Hawks have better talent on paper at their disposal.

Hawks don't have the defensive chops to stop the Knicks offensively though. While Knicks can make Hawks make work for everything. The way I see it anyway

John Collins can't handle Julius. They are going to throw De'Andre Hunter on him too, no idea what his defensive chops are.

And then this is where coaching will come in: when and how often to double Julius and force him to make a passing decision or TO

martin wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

Chandler wrote:so in the week of prep does Thibs do a better job figuring out how to slow down Trae, or does Nate do a better job of figuring out how to slow down Ju

that's the series, right there

Hawks don't really have the personnel to stop Randle. Randle would have to stop himself. Thibs will need to ensure Randle doesn't put to much pressure on himself leading to poor decisions. On the other hand Knicks have some size and length they can put on Young. Great offense can beat great defense so if Young is just feeling it he will be hard to stop regardless. But Knicks can def make him work very hard for it.

Knicks are the better defensive and grittier team. Playoffs favor that. But Hawks have better talent on paper at their disposal.

Hawks don't have the defensive chops to stop the Knicks offensively though. While Knicks can make Hawks make work for everything. The way I see it anyway

John Collins can't handle Julius. They are going to throw De'Andre Hunter on him too, no idea what his defensive chops are.

And then this is where coaching will come in: when and how often to double Julius and force him to make a passing decision or TO

Nate already made comments about how the NBA wants the Knicks to win or something along those lines. I believe he is saying this because he knows the Thibs is gonna have the Knicks beating his team up. And he wants to finesse the refs into calling ticky tack fouls.

He know his team ain't built for a dog fight.

KnickDanger wrote:Based on our recent history it's difficult to feel confident, much less overconfident, but I like our chances.

Collectively seems like there is the lot of us trying to talk ourselves into feeling better about the pending series. The 4th seed was a nice thing. But it seems to set up expectation and a 1st round bounce would be a disappointment.
In my view anything that happens after is a gift if it should. We had a great season by all measures. ATL also finished strong but more up to their expectations for the season.
Its been so long we forget how to act we so “giddy” about being in this position.

Just sit back and enjoy the games. Remember if you want to go on history Thibs did real well in teh regular season then his teams were a bit fried by the post season. Maybe good coaches take the teams further in the regular season. The better teams still often advance. ATL might just be a better team?
No sense arguing it, the games will decide! Enjoy.

newyorknewyork wrote:

martin wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

Chandler wrote:so in the week of prep does Thibs do a better job figuring out how to slow down Trae, or does Nate do a better job of figuring out how to slow down Ju

that's the series, right there

Hawks don't really have the personnel to stop Randle. Randle would have to stop himself. Thibs will need to ensure Randle doesn't put to much pressure on himself leading to poor decisions. On the other hand Knicks have some size and length they can put on Young. Great offense can beat great defense so if Young is just feeling it he will be hard to stop regardless. But Knicks can def make him work very hard for it.

Knicks are the better defensive and grittier team. Playoffs favor that. But Hawks have better talent on paper at their disposal.

Hawks don't have the defensive chops to stop the Knicks offensively though. While Knicks can make Hawks make work for everything. The way I see it anyway

John Collins can't handle Julius. They are going to throw De'Andre Hunter on him too, no idea what his defensive chops are.

And then this is where coaching will come in: when and how often to double Julius and force him to make a passing decision or TO

Nate already made comments about how the NBA wants the Knicks to win or something along those lines. I believe he is saying this because he knows the Thibs is gonna have the Knicks beating his team up. And he wants to finesse the refs into calling ticky tack fouls.

He know his team ain't built for a dog fight.

"Absolutely, I've talked about that to the team a lot. Basically, I've gone as far as saying the league wants this," he said. "They need this, New York, this is a big market for the league, and New York has been out of the playoffs for a number of years.

"And this is a team that our league, they want to see -- there's a huge fan base -- and they want to see New York in the playoffs."

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He added: "The league wants to see it, everybody wants to see this. Even to the fact that our [opening] game was moved to Sunday, they want to see this.

"So, yes, we have talked about that, about the advantages of this situation and some things that we're going to have to face, going into [Game 1], with everyone picking New York to win and a lot of folks wanting to see New York in the playoffs. It's a battle, it's a challenge, just playing New York, all that comes with it. ... They've had a really good season, and I think the NBA is excited about having them back in the playoffs."

McMillan also said on the call that "there's going to be a lot of calls that probably won't go our way," explaining how his team needs to remain calm under the pressure.

In addition, McMillan said he told his team that most media are picking the Knicks to knock off the Hawks in the series. New York won all three games during the regular season, though Atlanta has been one of the hottest teams in the league since McMillan took over as coach shortly before the All-Star break after Lloyd Pierce was fired.

The Hawks were 14-20 when they made the coaching change. They are 27-11 since then, matching the best record of any team in the Eastern Conference over that span.

The Knicks (41-31), in the playoffs for the first time since the 2012-13 season, are set to host Game 1 against the Hawks (41-31) on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. Atlanta is in the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

Seems to me he's already giving an excuse if he loses ONCE again in the 1st rnd

We’re a better team offensively than most admit and our defense will wear the opponent out.

And incredible victims of no-calls on violent acts against our players.

If the league wants the Knicks to succeed, they have a funny way of showing it. :) Tough love I guess.

Knicks did a pretty good job defensively. Keep the Hawks under 110 is tough.

Bogdonavic might be the key to the series. HE can pull out some crazy shots. The 3 he made in the final min was stone cold. Ball bouncing around he picks it up and hits off a quick release.

Knixkik wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

KnickDanger wrote:Based on our recent history it's difficult to feel confident, much less overconfident, but I like our chances.

This season has been a success no matter what happens.

The Knicks just need to play the right way and fight together as a team and as a family and everything else will take care of itself in it's own time.

Yeah the Knicks are a young up and coming team. They just need to build off of whatever the end result is for next season.

We have 3 young promising players OBI, IQ, RJ (Mitch and luka is still up in the air) everyone else (Randle, Rose, noel, TAJ, Burks, Bullock.

Most of our guys have been in the league for a while now, so a 1st round exit would be a let down.

Winning this series is a big part of developing, and i fully expect us to win it