Levittown Podcast Contributor (22:21)
And more experienced team. Malik Beasley hits a three with 8 1/2 minutes left that puts the Pistons up 11 from that point forward. The Knicks played at their ceiling. They knew they needed that game. They played peak Knicks basketball while the Pistons on the other end made mistake after mistake after mistake. The Knicks were able to get offense on several fronts. Mikhail Bridges actually started the run with two really tough movement threes out of the right corner in a game where he couldn't make a shot to save his life. Hit two massive ones in the right corner. Jalen Brunson got into a great rhythm after coming back from an ankle injury suffered right along the sideline in front of the scorers. TABLE he's really solved Dennis Schroeder at this point in the series he's figured out that he's just too big and strong for him. He had easy layup on the left side where he just used a right to left crossover to get Dennis pinned on his right side and then just use that shoulder to create separation. Then he had to drive on the right wing where he literally went through Dennis's chest for a floater from about like 78ft. But like he has solved the Dennis Schroeder matchup. He beat Kate Cunningham with a simple jab step move to get into the basket. He gave Tim Hardaway Jr. A couple of tough buckets. He had a step back going to his left on the three point line. He had another little short shot along the left baseline. Brunson was fantastic down the stretch, but it was actually Carl Anthony Towns who saved the day and stole a win for the Knicks. Hitting three jumpers. One was a simple catch and shoot off of a dumb overhelp from Jalen Duran that Jalen Brunson just kind of baited him into. Just stared at the basket and pretended like he was going to ISO. Jalen just kind of sat there on the block and just was super keyed in on on Brunson. And Jalen just rifled the pass across the court, wide open. Catch and shoot three for Carl Anthony. Towns knocks it down. Just capitalizing on a bad defensive mistake from Jalen Duran. But then he hit an insane left shoulder fade away just like he did in game three. This time over Jalen Durance. Over a tougher contest. It was probably even tougher than the shot he made in game three. Just insane right there along the baseline. Then he hits this step back three over Jalen Duran. A little shot clock kind of rescue possession. Ends up in the late clock situation and hits like a 28 footer off of a step back against a great contest from Jalen Durant. Just two insane shots that turned that loss into a win for the Knicks. The Knicks scored 26 points over the final eight minutes to steal game four and take a 31 lead heading back to to New York. Here's a simple list for you guys of the execution errors that Detroit made down the stretch their first possession after Mikhail Bridges hit a three in that right corner to cut the lead down to eight. They ran an ISO for a Sar Thompson against Mikhail Bridges. And anybody who watched that whole game knows Azar Thompson was really struggling in that game to do anything on offense. He was in no position to command that possession. They gave it to him and he missed. That's an execution error from the vets on the floor putting a Sar Thompson in that position. Then Assar Thompson threw the ball out of bounds. He caught the cut to the basket off the right slot. K dropped it off to him and he tried to make a connective pass to Malik Beasley, but he just didn't look before he threw it and rifled the ball out of bounds. JB Bickerstaff finally puts Dennis Schroeder in form. So two big mistakes from Aar Thompson to start the run. Jalen Dern gets a Defensive rebound and makes the classic young center mistake of bringing the ball down. Brings the ball down. Josh Hart comes in, swipes it off his leg, off the ensuing baseline, out of bounds. Mikhail Bridges comes off of a screen. Malik Beasley gets caught on it. Jalen Duran again, when he sees a shooter coming off a screen, is supposed to be up at the level of the screen. He's way back in the paint. Mikhail Bridges gets another clean look right where he just made one in the right corner. Knocks it down. So literally two Jalen Duran mistakes turned what should have been a stop into three points for the Knicks. And again, I'm not trying to pick on Jalen Duran or any of these guys. The Sar Thompson. I'm just pointing out the obvious fact that these are young players and young players are going to struggle with attention to detail in big, in big spots like this. Right. They gave up an easy transition take foul to Josh Hart on a really bad offensive possession where Cage just stand stood out by like the logo while Mikhail Bridges was face guarding him. And he just watched Dennis Schroeder and Malik Beasley have a rough offensive possession which, like, that's fine. Like rough offensive possessions are part of the playoffs. It's super physical. Sometimes you just get exhausted. That's not the problem. The problem is, is both Schroeder and Beasley were slow to get back. You can't compound the problem by not getting back. It turned into like a three on one and Kate had to just wrap up Josh Hart. Cade turned it over trying to split a ball screen. That's a little spoiler alert. He does it again later in the game on Cat's first three. Like I talked about, Jalen Duran is sinking all the way into the paint. That's just dumb. That was the whole reason why they had Tobias Harrison. Cat originally to begin with was to avoid that specific problem. Duran just struggles to guard shooting bigs, which is why he shouldn't have been in that position on the first place. That, that, that's on J.B. bickerstaff. Like they, they need to make sure that they have their matchup set up in a way that they're not going to give up that sort of problem. Especially since Kat was frying Jalen Duran anyway on an island. It's not like you're trying to protect Tobias Harris there in any short, any, any way. Cat hits the fade away over Jalen during the cuts. The lead to two Cade tries to ISO OG and an obi, which is probably the worst matchup he could attack on the floor. We talked a lot about that. Jalen Brunson has been much more surgical about being deliberate to get to the matchups. He wants that hits a three to put the Knicks up. Cade tries to split a double team again. Josh Hart is right there digging down off the strong side corner and Cade just tries to split the double team again and turns it over again and like it was just mistake after mistake after poor decision after poor decision. But this is just the reality of the process of developing as a basketball team. In order to win at the highest levels, attention to detail is required and young, inexperienced teams have a habit of missing those details, especially in their first few playoff runs. It's all good. Valuable lessons are being learned. It's just an explanation for why, even though Detroit presented so many problems for the Knicks over the course of the season, I had a feeling the Knicks were going to pull this series out. Last note on the Knicks I wanted to shout out OG Anunobi and Mikhail Bridges. Neither of them had big scoring nights, although McHale hit a couple of huge threes in the right corner. But those guys defended about a half a dozen one on ones against Cade Cunningham down the stretch and they didn't get beat off the dribble a single time. They forced him into a bunch of tough contested pull up mid Rangers turnaround jump shots out of the post. Brunson was getting to the rim and New York's defenders were forcing Cade into jump shots, which has variants. You might miss him, right? Cade's a good mid range jump shooter, but he might miss him. There's way less variance right at the rim. Jalen hit some tough jumpers that step back to his left. Sidestep three off of against Tim Hardaway Jr. Off the left wing. That's an incredibly tough shot, but he was at the rim and that really is the, the experience element. Like Cat played three playoff series last year. Jalen Brunson played four playoff series in the last two years. This team has just a lot of guys that have been in a lot of serious basketball over the last few years that gives them an advantage in this sort of situation. Looking like the Knicks are going to close things out in five on Tuesday. All right, very briefly on Celtics Magic and Pacers Bus Pacers Bucks. I thought Tatum was fantastic down the stretch of this game. Punishing switches. He had like a little jab step jumper over Gary Harris. He made a. There was kind of like a an obvious difference in just the level of patience and deliberate nature with which Tatum was attacking switches versus the Orlando Wings, like, there was a sequence where on both ends of the floor, like, Franz Vogner gets Peyton Pritchard and he caught Peyton Pritchard as like a primary assignment a few times down the stretch. Just pressuring Franz. Franz is having a lot of success attacking Porzingis. It's kind of an interesting kind of matchup decision there to just try to throw Franz off, but Franz tries to, like, drive against Pritchard, but he rushes, he drives and he spins and he spins in this, like, rushed floater and leaves it short. Right on the other end of the floor, Tatum gets Anthony Black and he methodically takes his time to back him down way into the lane. And Anthony Black ends up hacking the shit out of him and dragging him down into camera row. And he gets two free throws. And it was just kind of crazy to see the difference between the super experienced dude who's played in like damn near 200 playoff games and the, you know, young, inexperienced team that's like kind of figuring this out on the fly and seeing the difference in just like how deliberate they were in their matchup. Attacking down the stretch, Tatum hit a crazy step back mid Ranger over Paolo Banchero. He drew three shooting fouls just by getting people to jump up underneath his base. I just continue to be amazed by Tatum's growth as a half court decision maker. The big thing that stands out to me is just his overall comfort. There's, you see this a lot with, like, stars that are at the peak of their powers in their, like, early 30s, where they have so much playoff experience already and they're so sure of who they are as a player. They may not be quite as athletic as they used to be, but they're just so smart because they've had so much experience playing. You'll see a lot of those guys, like, in high pressure situations, even late round playoff series, like conference finals, finals. You'll just see them look comfortable and relaxed while they're playing Tatum's. Tatum's in his mid-20s and he's out there looking like one of those guys. I, I, that's been the thing that stood out to me all season with Tatum is just his overall level of comfort executing in the half court, getting this team into the right spots to get the right shots. I loved the set that Joe Missoula ran out of the timeout that got Porzingis the, the dunk where he dunked his own mission. Classic example of what happens when you try to involve screening actions with two very different types of players. Derrick White And Chris Obs Porzingis. Not a kind of action that you want to switch. You don't want to switch with Wendell Carter Jr. There. Derrick White sits a great screen. Wendell Carter Jr. Falls. The magic don't switch. Porzingis is wide open under the rim. He actually smokes the layup, but he gets a really quick second jump, which is a strong indicator of how he's feeling physically, and just dunks it down. Just an unbelievable play from Porzingis. Al Horford had a huge rebound where he beat Franz Wagner to the ball that led to a Derrick White layup. I had a Celtics fan tweet at me after the game that this was the type of series that the Celtics would have been tied 22 or maybe even down 31 a couple of years ago. But here they are up 3:1, and this was super important. They need to get the hell away from the Orlando Magic before someone gets hurt. Tatum felt the urgency, executed accordingly, and got the job done. And that's why I always put such a premium on that, like, veteran presence, that experience, because a lot of times these games are decided by the thinnest of margins. The Magic have been in this series for the most part, outside of game two. They've been in every game. It's like a more exaggerated example of some of the other series we've seen, like Rockets, warriors, and like Nick's Pistons. And it just comes down to late game execution. And the grownups just tend to do it better in that situation. Right. It's actually been the interesting part of the Minnesota Timberwolves series as they've been the younger team that has beat the veteran, more experienced team. But here they are, they're up three 1. A good, good spot for the Celtics to be in. In good shape to close out this series. All right, really quickly, before we get out of here tonight, Pacers, Bucks. First of all, I feel terrible for Dame to work as hard as he's worked behind the scenes to get back on the court for that series and to suffer the type of injury that he suffered. I just hope that he's doing okay mentally. I can't even imagine where he's at right now, especially after they had just got a big win and it was early in the game and you're in a position where you can potentially tie the series and give yourself a real chance to win. And it kind of reminded me, obviously, very different type of injury, but it kind of reminded me what happened after. Reminded me of what happened in the Lakers sun series in Game 5. Yeah, I think it was Game 5. So the Suns were up 3:1, right? If I remember correctly. And Anthony Davis comes back. They're like, oh, Anthony Davis is back. You know, here we go. We're gonna. We're gonna have a chance to win the series. And probably shouldn't have come back, as groin was obviously hurt. But in the first few minutes of the game, Anthony Edwards just. Or, excuse me, Anthony Davis just suddenly realizes that, like, no, I can't be playing out here, right? So he has to leave the game. And, like, you could just literally see the entire body language and the belief and the mentality of the Lakers just fall apart because they're like. Like, we can't. Like, we can't win this game, this game without Anthony Davis. Like, he's our anchor to everything that we do, right? And that. That's kind of what it reminded me of tonight. Like, obviously, Giannis is more important to the Bucks than Dame, and I in. In. Dame, at this phase of his career, is a different type of player, but you could literally see the Bucks just kind of let go of the rope a little bit after that Dame injury in a weird way, where it's like, you almost feel like if Dame was just out with the blood clot for the series, you almost feel like the Bucks would have had, like, a different approach going into that game. Like, all right, we don't have Dame tonight, but we're going to give this our best shot. You could just tell it just sucked the life out of them, and they just didn't do anything well enough. And to make matters worse, the Pacers played a phenomenal game. It's seven guys in double figures, 36. I checked this with two minutes left, so this might be a little bit updated. But at, like, a minute, 45 seconds left in the game, they had 36 assists on, 48 made field goals. That's insane. That's a 75% assist percentage. That's, like, outrageous. They shot the shit out of the basketball. They shot damn near 45% from three. Watching them versus the Cavs is going to be a ton of fun, Specifically the speed matchup. One of the things that I'm really excited about with that matchup is the Cavs in. In a lot of what they do to teams is play with pace, get into the teeth of the defense with their speed, and the Pacers do match up directly with that in a lot of ways. To me, the Cavs are just a better version of the Pacers. Right. Like, you're going to, like, Evan Mobley and Jared Allen is a better front court than Pascal Siakam and Miles Turner. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, obviously better back court than Andrew Nemhard and Tyrese Halliburton. You, you know, the Cavs have a bunch of different guys that they can plug in at the three, but like, the point is, is like they are kind of similar archetypes of teams, but the Cavs are just a little better at everything, right? And that's what makes it a super interesting series, because that speed element, a lot of the things that the Pacers do, they should be comfortable with going against the Cavs, and I think that's going to make for a very interesting series. That's my big prep for tomorrow. We're not doing a film session tomorrow morning, but what I'm going to be doing tomorrow morning is starting to watch film on Cavs Pacers. I'm really excited to dig into that series. As for Giannis, an Achilles tariff or Dame massively devalues the one trade asset that the Bucks would have had to attempt to pivot this summer. So now the chances of Giannis getting traded are astronomically higher than they were before the injury, obviously. But just for the record, I'm not going to get into anything regarding Giannis trades at this point until the postseason. Or, excuse me, until we're done with the postseason. That's a summer conversation. It just. I haven't even really thought about it much. Maybe we can do it for fun over a mailbag one of these nights, but like, I feel relatively certain that Giannis will get traded this summer, but, like, we just don't know what, how things are going to shake down. Like, it could be a team in this playoff field that gets eliminated and is disappointed and wants to make a super aggressive move. It could literally be the Thunder, for God's sakes. Like, we, we have no idea what it's going to be. We'll talk about it a lot this summer. I just don't want to get into it tonight. But again, I feel terrible for Dame and I. I'm sure Bucks fans are in a really tough spot right now. It's not a good spot to be, and I just sympathize with you guys and I'm thankful for you guys that you did get a championship out of the Giannis Antenna Kumpo era, and you can literally never take that away. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. No morning film session tomorrow, but we will be live after the final buzzer of Game 4 of Warriors Rockets. I'll see you guys then tomorrow night. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review view. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
