DLeethal wrote:

fishmike wrote:

GustavBahler wrote:The expanded rotation was out of necessity. The question is will Wright and Shamet get buried on the bench again? We won because Thibs gave his bench an opportunity. Will there be others? IDK. If there aren’t, I doubt we win another game. Couldn’t win the first two at home. But I’d love to be proven wrong.

bench has always had an opportunity. The big "opportunity" in this game was giving Shamet 11 minutes. Bridges poor shooting surely helped with that.

As for the other adjustments stubborn old Thibs went with what he's most comfortable with and that is defense. He went big, got almost 30 minutes from Mitch, played Josh 30+ off the bench and benched Payne (2-10 in the series) for the better defensive player in Wright.

People act like suddenly Thibs is playing a bench and caving to internet pressure. He played Shamet for 11 minutes. Benched Payne for Wright and juggled the line up to keep Brunson/KAT together less. He was in an 0-2 hole. Having a healthy Mitch is huge.

According to Josh, it sounds like this move was almost made before game 6 against BOS. It's reasonable to see why, after not making the move and winning by 40+ in game 6, they decided to stick with the legacy rotation a couple more games until they fell down 0-2 and got desperate.

As it turns out Josh is getting beat pretty badly by Pascal who IMO is their best player and Josh overmatched there. After that it's an army of short annoying wings that Indy plays and Josh is as good as any of them.

Minn went to the conf finals last year with Towns playing next to Gobert.

KAT is a tough player to manage. But here we are in the conference finals with one win from riding him in the 4th.

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/DJAceNBA/status/1927344215182205346

martin wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/DJAceNBA/status/1927344215182205346

We are bigger and have better individual matchups. Gotta slow this down and make em earn every bucket

Chandler wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:

Chandler wrote:

VDesai wrote:The handsy stuff that Brunson gets called for and Nesmith doesn't get called for is an incredible contrast. Clearly there is an emphasis point here. We just need to be aware of what's happening and deal...

Honest question. Do we need to switch w the pacers. Of course we did w the celts because if Tatum or brown had a fraction of a second advantage they’d shoot. But that doesn’t seem to be the pacers way.

Why can’t we just have KAT and Brunson play man (ie whoever is easiest for them)

IMO the best way for us to control pace is w the pressure on glass created by double bigs. Pacers have to hang back more and fight. Of course hitting shots is ideal because it’s tough to run on made baskets. But our rebounding advantage is more,reliably present than our shooting and it may force pacers to go bigger and slower.

If you don't switch with them you get Kat in drop and Hali eats that stuff up.

If you don't switch with them you end up chasing the ball and bodies all over the court - putting great pressure on rotations.

If you DO switch - you reduce rotations and you make an Indy team that loves ball/player movement and you bait them into going 1 on 1 which isn't their normal play style.

TBH I still don't know what we are doing on D because seems to change by the possession or the particular player. Me personally I would limit the amount Kat/Jalen share the floor significantly. I'd put our best defenders out there surrounding either Jalen or Kat and take our chances. It's really when both Jalen/Kat are on the floor they've killed us.

Saw stat this AM --- Knicks +15 with just Kat on floor, Knicks +10 with just Jalen on the floor, Knicks -20 with both on the floor.

Thanks. I saw a similar stat and that’s why I was asking the question. I assumed it was because pacers were hunting, and thatbhunting implied we were switching into unfavorable matchups.

But then I was wondering if we’re playing pacers as if they were the celts and they’re not

I don’t have the answer for D but it does bother me tremendously that we’d be intentionally sitting tremendously gifted offensive players.

Yes - we are switching and they are hunting but I still think it's the way to go if we can limit time Jalen/Kat share floor.

First game I think we got lucky to an extent score was in high 130's (think we were in drop and help/recover a lot in that game) but last 2 games the winning scores of 114 and 106 are a bit more muted and maybe we are slowing their pace some with the switching.

I don't know --- but me personally I'd be switching and if guys can't hold up get them off the floor because we have to slow their offense #1, #2 and #3 because we can't get into run gun with them.

martin wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:Oh and cut down on the unforced TOs - Jalen has been super sloppy and Kat with 6 TOs last game.

Take care of the rock boys.

Knicks are down 2-1 and were a Brunson TO or KAT/OG FT away from being up 2-1 where Brunson has been brutal on both ends of the court for at least 2 of those games. 17 total assists on 13 TO's for the series? Very unBrunson'esque.

And the team is shooting horribly from 3 point land against their norm, I think. KAT/OG shooting very well but Brunson, Deuce, Mikal, Payne are all between 20-30% and a lot of them pretty wide open it seems.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2025-nba-eastern-conference-finals-pacers-vs-knicks.html

Right on those stats which makes you wonder what if we can put a good shooting game together.

Still though we have to slow Indy somehow -- if they are rolling we are going to be toast.

fishmike wrote:to me key to the game is simple... force them to grind in the halfcourt for every possession and we win. Let them get out into space where they attack the rim or shred you with a quick drive and dish game and that's how they have the best offense in the playoffs.

Slow it down. Take care of the ball and work the glass first and foremost.

Agree - grind it out but have to take care of ball and score under some control.

LivingLegend wrote:

martin wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/victorialipari/status/1927013309078704266

Knicks in sex.

Between the boobs, the blue, and the orange... this is what my brain scan would look like right now...

The dark spots are regions storing Knicks memories from ~2000-2020.

LivingLegend wrote:

Chandler wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:

Chandler wrote:

VDesai wrote:The handsy stuff that Brunson gets called for and Nesmith doesn't get called for is an incredible contrast. Clearly there is an emphasis point here. We just need to be aware of what's happening and deal...

Honest question. Do we need to switch w the pacers. Of course we did w the celts because if Tatum or brown had a fraction of a second advantage they’d shoot. But that doesn’t seem to be the pacers way.

Why can’t we just have KAT and Brunson play man (ie whoever is easiest for them)

IMO the best way for us to control pace is w the pressure on glass created by double bigs. Pacers have to hang back more and fight. Of course hitting shots is ideal because it’s tough to run on made baskets. But our rebounding advantage is more,reliably present than our shooting and it may force pacers to go bigger and slower.

If you don't switch with them you get Kat in drop and Hali eats that stuff up.

If you don't switch with them you end up chasing the ball and bodies all over the court - putting great pressure on rotations.

If you DO switch - you reduce rotations and you make an Indy team that loves ball/player movement and you bait them into going 1 on 1 which isn't their normal play style.

TBH I still don't know what we are doing on D because seems to change by the possession or the particular player. Me personally I would limit the amount Kat/Jalen share the floor significantly. I'd put our best defenders out there surrounding either Jalen or Kat and take our chances. It's really when both Jalen/Kat are on the floor they've killed us.

Saw stat this AM --- Knicks +15 with just Kat on floor, Knicks +10 with just Jalen on the floor, Knicks -20 with both on the floor.

Thanks. I saw a similar stat and that’s why I was asking the question. I assumed it was because pacers were hunting, and thatbhunting implied we were switching into unfavorable matchups.

But then I was wondering if we’re playing pacers as if they were the celts and they’re not

I don’t have the answer for D but it does bother me tremendously that we’d be intentionally sitting tremendously gifted offensive players.

On the sitting gifted offensive players to me it really comes down to how is your team functioning with them on the floor and is it obvious they are hurting you. If they hold up - keep them out there. Brunson been really getting roasted thus far.

Thank you!

that's why I was curious about defensive schemes. If we could have Brunson stick to some (relative) scrub and not switch I sure would like to see Brunson and Towns together on offense. Seems crazy how much we're struggling on D when we have such elite wing defenders

Continue to think staggering is showing up as a benefit as it forces us to focus on KAT more for offense and the mismatches there are much more favorable to us.

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/nba/status/1927453991459262686

ToddTT wrote:

Wholesome goodness just like our Knicks

martin wrote:This bro has the charm and savoir faire of Hicksville, Indiana. They fit like a designer short suit combo pack with matching men’s carry-all. It’s not a purse, it’s European

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/nba/status/1927453991459262686

Let's just hope we don't lose to this douche.