fishmike wrote:The Celtics upset was legendary. Just wonderful shit from the whole team.
The series is different. I believe there is real pressure on this team and coach now and they simply must beat the Pacers. No style points but they must find ways to win these games and advance.
I do respect the Pacers. I think they do a great job with their roster and style of play. We have too many advantages in this series for Thibs to work with. He's gotta push the right buttons. I expect the Pacers to win 2 games. Knicks in 6
Knicks have the 2 best players and hardest to guard and both Brunson/KAT showed they will not be hunted for easy shots (see Boston series) Knicks have much more size. We are bigger at the wing and the KAT/Mitch combo at C should really cause Indy problems
Yea the pressure is back on the Knicks now. They had this kind of pressure in round 1, and in round 2 were able to go into that series as a heavy underdog and play with house money pretty much right up until game 6, where the once again had the expectation of being the favorite to advance. It's a different kind of pressure playing as the favorite in a series you are supposed to win, this series is all about taking care of business. I honestly think we have the ability to win this series in 5. But it will require supreme focus on defense. Knicks are gonna be able to score a ton of points in this series IMO. There will also be mismatches galore to exploit on that side of the ball with Haliburton likely guarding one of our big wings and KAT being a really tough matchup for them. Their wings are small, they don't have the 6'8 defensive forward prototype that we just faced in spades in the last 2 rounds.
DLeethal@ 5/19/2025 12:55 PM
Pacers attack you as a unit, so if we can communicate effectively on defense and match up in rotation like we did in game 6 we are good. We have all sorts of individual matchups to exploit on our side. If they put Turner on Hart they are gonna have to put Haliburton on Bridges or OG. And if they put Haliburton on Hart that means Towns gets to go against a big man which we want.
VDesai@ 5/19/2025 1:08 PM
martin wrote:
Javascript is not enabled or there was problem with the URL: https://www.twitter.com/C2_Cooper/status/1924441564090167321
Was just coming over to link this. This is must watch TV. Caitlin Cooper might be the best basketball analyst out there (and our side's Benjy Ritholtz/DJ Zullo are certainly up there).
martin@ 5/19/2025 1:14 PM
VDesai wrote:
martin wrote:
Javascript is not enabled or there was problem with the URL: https://www.twitter.com/C2_Cooper/status/1924441564090167321
Was just coming over to link this. This is must watch TV. Caitlin Cooper might be the best basketball analyst out there (and our side's Benjy Ritholtz/DJ Zullo are certainly up there).
Someone needs to ask her if the Knicks should Fire Thibs if hey don't win any games, cause that's relevant.
gradyandrew@ 5/19/2025 1:16 PM
One thing that's been really apparent is that the fan support for the Knicks is at another level. A lot of people are going to be looking at the cost of going to MSG vs. flight and hotel and tickets in Indiana. It will be an issue if it goes to 6 games as the Pacers might try to figure out a way to keep the Knicks fans out but for games 3 and 4, you might see something like 40% of the crowd in Indiana wearing Knicks jerseys.
I think Knicks as a team will just want it more. Pacers are still young enough that if things don't break right, they have a few more shots at the Finals.
That game 6 was the best game the Knicks played all year and I don't see them forgetting what they did to get there.
Media is predicting a 7 game tight series. I think Pacers win game 4 and that's it.
fishmike@ 5/19/2025 1:42 PM
gradyandrew wrote:One thing that's been really apparent is that the fan support for the Knicks is at another level. A lot of people are going to be looking at the cost of going to MSG vs. flight and hotel and tickets in Indiana. It will be an issue if it goes to 6 games as the Pacers might try to figure out a way to keep the Knicks fans out but for games 3 and 4, you might see something like 40% of the crowd in Indiana wearing Knicks jerseys.
I think Knicks as a team will just want it more. Pacers are still young enough that if things don't break right, they have a few more shots at the Finals.
That game 6 was the best game the Knicks played all year and I don't see them forgetting what they did to get there.
Media is predicting a 7 game tight series. I think Pacers win game 4 and that's it.
I really feel like this is a good match up for us. Coach will need to keep us focused on defense because there's temptation to shoot it out with these guys. Feels like we COULD really lock these guys down and make this a quick series. NBA is crazy and they have a lot of good players. Looking forward
martin@ 5/19/2025 1:42 PM
Windy with kind words up and down
Javascript is not enabled or there was problem with the URL: https://www.twitter.com/DJAceNBA/status/1924515057272017168
Nah man, I won't forgive him for starting "Dark Arts," foul baiter narrative.
GustavBahler@ 5/19/2025 5:18 PM
If KAT can get to the rim like he did during the regular season. Blowing by defenders, Im guessing that it wont get past 6 games.
If KAT cant get his dribble drive going. Cant hit the 3, then its going to be a long series, we may not win. We need KAT to dominate like he did in the regular season.
But it wont happen if Brunson doesnt keep KAT involved. He's a center, cant expect him to do all the creating himself. JB needs to go to the P&R with KAT a lot more this series.
DLeethal@ 5/19/2025 5:22 PM
martin wrote:
Javascript is not enabled or there was problem with the URL: https://www.twitter.com/C2_Cooper/status/1924441564090167321
Been listening to this and it seems Caitlin is expecting Turner to guard Towns and not go the route of putting a guard on him. It kind of makes sense because once they cross match there are big mismatches to exploit.
On paper I really like this matchup man, it just comes down to defensive execution against their ball movement. But we have great matchups on offense.
BigDaddyG@ 5/19/2025 5:22 PM
GustavBahler wrote:If KAT can get to the rim like he did during the regular season. Blowing by defenders, Im guessing that it wont get past 6 games.
If KAT cant get his dribble drive going. Cant hit the 3, then its going to be a long series, we may not win. We need KAT to dominate like he did in the regular season.
But it wont happen if Brunson doesnt keep KAT involved. He's a center, cant expect him to do all the creating himself. JB needs to go to the P&R with KAT a lot more this series.
It will depend on the matchup. If they stick Nesmith on him, it will negate a lot threes and dribble drive actions. I'm curious how Carlisle will matchup in game 1. He may be overrated and hateable, but he is good at making in game adjustments.
DLeethal@ 5/19/2025 5:24 PM
fishmike wrote:
gradyandrew wrote:One thing that's been really apparent is that the fan support for the Knicks is at another level. A lot of people are going to be looking at the cost of going to MSG vs. flight and hotel and tickets in Indiana. It will be an issue if it goes to 6 games as the Pacers might try to figure out a way to keep the Knicks fans out but for games 3 and 4, you might see something like 40% of the crowd in Indiana wearing Knicks jerseys.
I think Knicks as a team will just want it more. Pacers are still young enough that if things don't break right, they have a few more shots at the Finals.
That game 6 was the best game the Knicks played all year and I don't see them forgetting what they did to get there.
Media is predicting a 7 game tight series. I think Pacers win game 4 and that's it.
I really feel like this is a good match up for us. Coach will need to keep us focused on defense because there's temptation to shoot it out with these guys. Feels like we COULD really lock these guys down and make this a quick series. NBA is crazy and they have a lot of good players. Looking forward
I feel the same way. Don't want to get cocky and things can change quickly but this seems to me like the best matchup for us so far. I would not be shocked to see us win this series easily. This team is a different animal than the team we played them with last year.
Having Towns to bring Turner out of the paint, having Mikal to throw at Haliburton and McConnell, two massive improvements in this matchup compared to last year.
GustavBahler@ 5/19/2025 5:29 PM
BigDaddyG wrote:
GustavBahler wrote:If KAT can get to the rim like he did during the regular season. Blowing by defenders, Im guessing that it wont get past 6 games.
If KAT cant get his dribble drive going. Cant hit the 3, then its going to be a long series, we may not win. We need KAT to dominate like he did in the regular season.
But it wont happen if Brunson doesnt keep KAT involved. He's a center, cant expect him to do all the creating himself. JB needs to go to the P&R with KAT a lot more this series.
It will depend on the matchup. If they stick Nesmith on him, it will negate a lot threes and dribble drive actions. I'm curious how Carlisle will matchup in game 1. He may be overrated and hateable, but he is good at making in game adjustments.
Carlisle is a good coach. Has won in too many places to be called anything else. Agree about matchups. Thibs has upped his game when it comes to adjustments, so it should be a competitive series.
martin@ 5/19/2025 5:59 PM
Javascript is not enabled or there was problem with the URL: https://www.twitter.com/DJAceNBA/status/1924536127274226122
Knicks need to hunt Haliburton. I think either Mikal or Hart will end up matched against Haliburton so we have to exploit that.
I also think they will attempt to Nembhard on Brunson and Brunson cooked matchups with Nembhard in the past.
Panos@ 5/19/2025 10:41 PM
VDesai wrote:Knicks need to hunt Haliburton. I think either Mikal or Hart will end up matched against Haliburton so we have to exploit that.
I also think they will attempt to Nembhard on Brunson and Brunson cooked matchups with Nembhard in the past.
I think you're exaggerating Hali's defensive weakness. He's not that bad a defender.
martin@ 5/19/2025 11:17 PM
Big Mitch is elite at what he does.
BigDaddyG@ 5/20/2025 12:31 AM
Panos wrote:
VDesai wrote:Knicks need to hunt Haliburton. I think either Mikal or Hart will end up matched against Haliburton so we have to exploit that.
I also think they will attempt to Nembhard on Brunson and Brunson cooked matchups with Nembhard in the past.
I think you're exaggerating Hali's defensive weakness. He's not that bad a defender.
He's not physical and gets pushed around pretty easily. Also not that quick laterally. He can definitely be taken advantage of. But the pacers can also take advantage of Jalen on the other end. Both side will scheming their asses off on defense.
LivingLegend@ 5/20/2025 1:12 AM
I want to get Indy out of both their fast ball/player movement offense as best we can.
Similar to Celtics if we switch everything we bait Pacers into 1 on 1 as they try to take advantage of Jalen/Kat switching. We could get exposed some on the switches BUT we reduce our rotations, our rebounders are in position and we minimize Pacer ball/player movement. Don't think we can play drop coverage on Haliburton and don't like doubling him and opening up 4 on 3 with rest of D.
shinmen@ 5/20/2025 5:45 AM
If you were Rick Carlisle, how would you defend the knicks?
On defense i would go: Siakam on KAT Turner on OG Hali on Hart Nembhart on Jalen Nestsmith on Bridges
Siakam can somehow hold his ground in the post against KAT and negate his 3pt shooting and drives on the perimeter Turner cannot protect the paint anymore but OG mostly drive on straight lines so Turner would be able to follow. Hali hides on Hart their wing defenders try to take care of the rest.
KAT and Brunson cannot stopped but if they're less efficient, OG is the only one with a mismatch to exploit.
