Embiid was holding his knee and wincing in warmups and hobbling around like old Ewing out there last night. He and Maxey were shook and ready to fold before his veteran role players got them back into the game and Embiid made a few plays at the end on one leg. I’m encouraged by what I saw last night. I think the Knicks can punk them like they punked Cleveland.
I think if Embiid is hobbled, the biggest difference will show up on defense. He's either not gonna come up from the foul line to challenge a pull up (Herro missed a lot of open pull ups last night, that Brunson won't miss), or he's not gonna offer much at the rim protection. Knicks will play the 2 man game with Brunson and Hartenstein. Remember Hartenstein had a huge game the night we beat them by 30 in Philly.
However, I still think the key to this series for us is containing Maxey's drives. To some extent OG will see time on Maxey, but I really want to see Deuce play a big role this series. Deuce is a better matchup on Maxey than DDV. DDV is aggressive and gambles great in lanes, but against a guy who relentlessly drives the ball like Maxey he is a bad matchup. DDV is a key to this team, but I wouldn't mind a more aggressive split of minutes for Deuce at the expense of DDV because I think it tilts the defensive matchup in our favor.
On Embiid, if he's slowed up like he looked last night, I would try to stick to one on one coverage with Hartenstein/Robinson and Achiuwa (I'm using Precious as a 3rd center more than I'm using him as a PF in this series). OG can come over to hedge when needed - I think you can leave Oubre and Harris and see if they can beat you on 3's - I don't think they can.
Lets see if Deuce shot is on. Also if if DDV and Brunson are hot also. Lets not forget, Maxey has to play defense also and expend energy. IF we have a lead I’d burn a few fouls with Sims on Embiid and also tire him out.
Thibs knows what he is doing,
Precious will need to stay on HOrford who can spread the floor.
At the end of the day, I think Thibs has his plan and will adjust? LOL, not all agree. they are watching tape, looking at 100 things we can’t even dream about and contingencies. Sure we can stay home and be critical but its about execution. Philly will do them, we do us.
Things go wroing, they can call time out and instead of reminding them of the plan, or what they need to execute, Thibs can say “Hey, I got this from some dude on the UK, he says we should……..”
Anyone have a link to download NYK playoff calendar to Google calendar? The regular season one didn't include playoffs.
UPDATE: Found it with a simple Google.
DLeethal wrote:Embiid was holding his knee and wincing in warmups and hobbling around like old Ewing out there last night. He and Maxey were shook and ready to fold before his veteran role players got them back into the game and Embiid made a few plays at the end on one leg. I’m encouraged by what I saw last night. I think the Knicks can punk them like they punked Cleveland.
I think the one thing that would have made me nervous was Phili taking care of business and smoking the Heat. It was the opposite. They look slow, tired, telegraphed on both sides of the ball. I am with you on what I saw.. this looks like a great matchup for us.
Moonangie wrote:Anyone have a link to download NYK playoff calendar to Google calendar? The regular season one didn't include playoffs.UPDATE: Found it with a simple Google.
Do you wanna share that link? I manually typed them all into my shared calendar with my wife as she is still "surprised" every time there's a game on!
Can see Philly trying to keep Embid out of the high pick/roll and primarily having him guard Josh while standing firmly in the paint.
It was just regular season but let’s remember with Embid and no Julius we ran them out of gym in Philly in early Jan. In that game we ran them very hard - also was big Bogey game.
- seems to me all,of Brunson, Donte and Josh like to play in Philly - could be key point for us
Some keys for me…..
- Josh and Donte have to be clean/solid defensively —- they have been getting roasted defensively lately
- Mitch has to show early or be shown to bench
- Bogey / Duece must provide some perimeter shooting off bench.
- Tom needs to use Deuce defensively on Maxey and Precious for his length/defense to rest Josh
fishmike wrote:DLeethal wrote:Embiid was holding his knee and wincing in warmups and hobbling around like old Ewing out there last night. He and Maxey were shook and ready to fold before his veteran role players got them back into the game and Embiid made a few plays at the end on one leg. I’m encouraged by what I saw last night. I think the Knicks can punk them like they punked Cleveland.
I think the one thing that would have made me nervous was Phili taking care of business and smoking the Heat. It was the opposite. They look slow, tired, telegraphed on both sides of the ball. I am with you on what I saw.. this looks like a great matchup for us.
Agreed, a high octane game where Joel and Maxey were firing and dueling with Jimmy would have struck some fear. But Embiid was hobbling around on one leg and Maxey has a lot of Tatum in him. Too nice and will turtle up when the going gets tough. They have some tough minded vets that saved their ass along with Jimmy getting hurt.
Tim Legler said Knicks should be licking their chops after watching Embiid play last night.
DLeethal wrote:Tim Legler said Knicks should be licking their chops after watching Embiid play last night.
I am... had a great night last night. Took my son to the pub, bought him a nice meal, listened to him in one ear and scouted Phili the whole time.
They are really gonna need to show another gear and level of play cause that is NOT gonna work vs. the Knicks and the way we play D. Embiid is gonna see a steady stream OG/Josh on the wing with a possible sprinkle of Precious as well and he's gonna get a fresh set of legs in Hart/Mitch in the post.
Maxey is fantastic but we play him pretty well.
Here's the thing. After Maxey/Embiid at 43 mins and 38 mins here's who's getting the rest: Oubre, Tobias, Lowry and a bench of Batum, Hield, Reed
Does that phucking scare you? I mean it's not trash but I really like my chances.
For the Knicks your top minute guys are Brunson and Josh. Josh and Randle are obviously very different but Josh is basically playing Jule's role and doing so very well.
So after Brunson/Josh, Knicks minutes are going to look like this: Donte, OG, IHart and a bench of McBride, Bojan, Mitch, Precious
Now of course a fair retort is "Who on the Knicks are scaring you?"
Which of course the answer is "all of them"
We are gonna play 8-9 guys who only go at one pace for all 48 minutes. There is no way Embiid survives this series with Nurse playing him 38 minutes.
DLeethal wrote:fishmike wrote:DLeethal wrote:Embiid was holding his knee and wincing in warmups and hobbling around like old Ewing out there last night. He and Maxey were shook and ready to fold before his veteran role players got them back into the game and Embiid made a few plays at the end on one leg. I’m encouraged by what I saw last night. I think the Knicks can punk them like they punked Cleveland.
I think the one thing that would have made me nervous was Phili taking care of business and smoking the Heat. It was the opposite. They look slow, tired, telegraphed on both sides of the ball. I am with you on what I saw.. this looks like a great matchup for us.
Agreed, a high octane game where Joel and Maxey were firing and dueling with Jimmy would have struck some fear. But Embiid was hobbling around on one leg and Maxey has a lot of Tatum in him. Too nice and will turtle up when the going gets tough. They have some tough minded vets that saved their ass along with Jimmy getting hurt.
this is spot on. I also think the Nova guys give us more big game experience then we get credit for. The late game execution was not impressive for either team last night considering what was at stake.
Phili is so weird. Maxey has a great motor. Joel ranges between unstoppable and a robot that moves like the tin man needing oil. The rest of the squad is a weird mix of guys. There isnt an identity or style of play for them to really fall on and you saw that vs. Miami.
When the Knicks struggle we fall back on D, transition, owning the glass, attacking the basket, launching 3s. What was Phili's path to success? Hope Joel gets fouled a ton 
Our treats are not over by a long shot! Woohoo
Gonna need him, plus 12 hard fouls from Mitch and Jericho.
martin wrote:Gonna need him, plus 12 hard fouls from Mitch and Jericho.
I think we see Precious... Can just hang and bang on him and looks good as our small ball center
I don't want to be over confident but last night made me feel really good about this match-up. If that is the Joel we get I think things worked out for the best anyway you look at it
EwingPSD wrote:I don't want to be over confident but last night made me feel really good about this match-up. If that is the Joel we get I think things worked out for the best anyway you look at it
Well Jimmy is out for a few weeks so it was probably best to catch Miami if they stole that game. But I'll take the version of Philly that I saw last night maybe over some of the other teams like Indiana and Cleveland.
fishmike wrote:DLeethal wrote:Tim Legler said Knicks should be licking their chops after watching Embiid play last night.
I am... had a great night last night. Took my son to the pub, bought him a nice meal, listened to him in one ear and scouted Phili the whole time. They are really gonna need to show another gear and level of play cause that is NOT gonna work vs. the Knicks and the way we play D. Embiid is gonna see a steady stream OG/Josh on the wing with a possible sprinkle of Precious as well and he's gonna get a fresh set of legs in Hart/Mitch in the post.
Maxey is fantastic but we play him pretty well.
Here's the thing. After Maxey/Embiid at 43 mins and 38 mins here's who's getting the rest: Oubre, Tobias, Lowry and a bench of Batum, Hield, Reed
Does that phucking scare you? I mean it's not trash but I really like my chances.
For the Knicks your top minute guys are Brunson and Josh. Josh and Randle are obviously very different but Josh is basically playing Jule's role and doing so very well.
So after Brunson/Josh, Knicks minutes are going to look like this: Donte, OG, IHart and a bench of McBride, Bojan, Mitch, Precious
Now of course a fair retort is "Who on the Knicks are scaring you?"
Which of course the answer is "all of them"
We are gonna play 8-9 guys who only go at one pace for all 48 minutes. There is no way Embiid survives this series with Nurse playing him 38 minutes.
Their role players do scare me a little bit tbh. They will throw Batum, Lowry, and Oubre on Brunson and all 3 of them have guarded him tough in the past. Lowry is a Knicks killer everywhere he goes. Hield lights us up as well. But I think we have very good antidotes to their top guns and their role players aren't gonna beat us by themselves.
martin wrote:Or watch on ESPN:
I might be in the minority but this crew has turned out to be VERY good and a nice replacement to Breen/JVG/Jax.
