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Game Thread | Knicks playoff series Game #2 | Knicks @ Cavs | April 18, 2023 | 7:30 TNT

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If you take escalators and stairs down from MSG you’ll end up in the hellhole train station (New York Penn). Take any NJ transit train and in less than ten minutes you’ll be in Secaucus, a shitty NJ burg where the NBA has their replay center. Think we’ll get a fair deal there or more Embiid sixth foul reversal bullshit?

Blow them out and they can’t affect the outcome.
I’ve spent much time in Secaucus where my company was headquartered until about 10 years ago and yeah, it’s a dump in the Meadowlands. At least it has a modern train station so you can easily get out of town.
 
It will be interesting to see how the Knicks will game plan after this. We went a direction we literally haven’t gone all year and they obviously struggled against it. But with 3 days to game plan, Thibs will have something for that lineup.
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Obviously it's only 2 games in, but JB has a shot to really make people eat crow in here. And that's what playoff basketball is really all about.

Garland was obviously a new player tonight, but the swing in bench scoring was massive.

dude finally started to feel his job on the line and did something to change the game a bit. Also, Okoro getting 2 fouls helped. I don't want to give him credit just yet for doing something painstakingly obvious. I'd like a coach who doesn't get forced into decisions like this. And knows it's the right move before the playoffs.
 
I like starting Levert because it makes Brunson work on defense. I love how they hunted him in pick and rolls.
Better believe that him working on both ends affected his shooting.

JB was really good tonight. My only gripe was not getting the regulars out sooner.

Hart and Randle having ankle injuries will be interesting to follow as the series goes on.
Great win tonight. Loved seeing the young guy grow up some tonight. Let’s see how they come out on the road.
 
I’ve spent much time in Secaucus where my company was headquartered until about 10 years ago and yeah, it’s a dump in the Meadowlands. At least it has a modern train station so you can easily get out of town.
I worked in Carlstadt which makes Secaucus look like Paris.
 
I still think he should try Stevens. Osman was pretty brutal tonight. We can see if Stevens can be an 8th man at the expense of some Cedi minutes.

Agreed. If Cedis shot isn’t on I’d replace it with a Lamars physicality just to shore up the rebounding when it’s only one of Allen or Mobley with Hartenstein and Randle and Hart crashing glass.

But for the most part, JBBs gameplan after the first 6 minutes was beautiful. I think they wanted to see if they could get Mobley going early because then it would have really opened the floor up for everyone else. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go back to that at least early on.

But the Cavs ran about 15 weak side stagger screens into a Garland high pick and roll. Which got him the ball on the move. They moved the high screen up towards the basket about 3-4 feet. They had LeVert purposely on the weak side and Mitchell on the strong side with Allen on the baseline strong side because they knew LeVert was going to be the guy the Knicks chose to let try to beat them and they made sure he had the least resistance by loading the strong side with a shooter or dunker they didn’t want to leave and the weak side with LeVert who they gave the greenest of lights and demanded he be decisive.

It was a spectacular adjustment. Either LeVert was getting open looks or weak defender bbq chicken on the move.

The real beauty was how they unlocked Mitchell as a facilitator when Thibs called for Garland to get blitzed, they had Allen set a pin down screen for Mitchell which they had to switch leaving Mitchell a GUARANTEED blitz coming his way, and then they had Mobley set ANOTHER po down for Garland and then he slipped.

All Mitchrll had to do was pop it right back to Garland who was now in motion and free at the top of the key. If they didn’t blitz mitchell, BBQ chicken again. Drive. Collapse. Oh guess what to save lob after lob they have to leave LeVert all alone on the weak side. The rest is history.

First time I’ve ever had a modicum of belief in Bickerstaff as a strategist. He slapped Thibs around today. That being said, we have some real tests of testicular fortitude ahead at MSG. But we are the better team and we can win not only one, but both.
 
dude finally started to feel his job on the line and did something to change the game a bit. Also, Okoro getting 2 fouls helped. I don't want to give him credit just yet for doing something painstakingly obvious. I'd like a coach who doesn't get forced into decisions like this. And knows it's the right move before the playoffs.
Regular season is about a balance of long term development and short term seeding.

Okoro, a player the FO believes in, improved his 3P shooting and merited continuing development in the regular season.

But playoffs are about one thing only.

Survive and advance.

So with Okoro still a work in progress and likely still rusty/bothered from his injury, the right move/counter was made.m

I don’t think the way it worked out tonight is an indictment with the organizational decision to continue the long term developmental work on Okoro given THIS years roster.

Also, let’s at least acknowledge that back in the first two weeks of the season, JBB took Okoro out of the starting lineup for Dean Wade. Problem is, Wade got injured and then when he came back, shit worse than Okoro.

I am formally in agreement though that barring a rapid and unlikely further offensive development from Okoro, we HAVE to find a better option at starting SF then Okoro to continue to climb to the potential ceiling we should have over the next few years
 

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