00:00I don't mean to be dismissive over what the Knicks did in game number five.
00:03It's just, we've seen it plenty of times.
00:07Down 3-1, going back to your building, show some fight.
00:10And this is a team from the Knicks that you would expect to show fight.
00:13Brunson, Hart, Tom Thibodeau, those are guys that you don't expect to just lay down and roll over.
00:18Mikhail Bridges, OG Ananobi, those guys all stepped up, as did Carl Anthony Towns, by the way.
00:22That's actually, you know, having himself a pretty good series.
00:25I know the foul trouble's frustrating, I know the defense is frustrating,
00:28but if you look so far this postseason, it's easily been his most productive series of the playoffs here.
00:35So, J.Y., I'll ask you, do you feel like maybe the Knicks, as the series has gone on,
00:41have found some answers trying to slow down this Indiana team?
00:46I mean, I think they've made some adjustments.
00:48I don't know if we'll know what the answer is because there's going to be an adjustment made by, you know, Rick Carlisle.
00:54I think the first thing is with New York is you've seen them pick up Jalen Brunson in the backcourt.
01:03Now what you've seen is Tibbs picking up Tyrese Halliburton in the backcourt just to kind of slow down the momentum of the offense to start two to three seconds later,
01:12which two or three seconds later is an attorney, like I said before.
01:15It's defending one less action, and Indiana is not a team about their first action, Kevin.
01:21They're about their second, third action.
01:23Like, get your defense at stress, and then here comes the next action to open up the floor even more.
01:29That's number one.
01:30Number two is the ability to play his bench and literally stagger Brunson in Cat's minutes when he can.
01:39Cat always seems to go, and I mean, I haven't even looked yet.
01:42But the props would be you're looking at right now is Cat over second quarter points because that seems to be what happens.
01:48Brunson starts early.
01:50Cat gets an early break.
01:52Cat, Brunson goes to the bench.
01:54Literally one minute left to go in the first quarter.
01:56Cat checks back in.
01:58Brunson sticks the first four minutes of the second quarter, and then that should be the play.
02:01So the points prop, and I haven't even looked at it.
02:04This is just me watching the game.
02:05It's going to be Cat second quarter.
02:07Look at that because I think his first quarter prop is only four and a half.
02:10So that's what the Knicks have done.
02:12The question is, Tom, will, one, I know that Rick Carlisle will adjust, but two, when push comes to shove,
02:21is Tom Thibodeau going to trust Larry Shamit, DeLon Wright, Deuce McBride with some minutes,
02:26particularly in that second quarter, or is he going to say, I'm playing my five and heart and Deuce,
02:35and I'm playing seven guys, and that's it, and that's going to hurt the flow,
02:39particularly with someone like our Carl Anthony Townsend in the second quarter.
02:43The thought process that I would have is if you bring some of those backup guards on,
02:48are you kind of like telling your hand, it's like, hey, this is Cat's time.
02:53So defensively, the Pacers will make adjustments.
02:55They'll be like, hey, we just got to eliminate Cat, and then we can kind of stifle the Knicks offense
02:59because we're not worried about too much scoring getting out from a Deuce McBride or from a DeLon Wright.
03:05We're not worried about too much scoring happening.
03:07And at a point, the Pacers couldn't match that scoring, right?
03:10If they can subtract Cat or at least temper him in those non-Brunson minutes,
03:15it's like, listen, we just got to take care of Cat.
03:17Instead of him having eight points or 12 points in the quarter, if we can keep him to four,
03:20we can kind of take care of things.
03:21We can kind of match the Pacers offense that can kind of match what the rest of the Knicks are doing,
03:25and therefore, we kind of come out square, and then, boom, we get Hal Burton back,
03:29and then we can go toe-to-toe when Brunson's back on the court.
03:31And one thing, when you look at those guys, those bench guys that come off in that second unit,
03:37the one thing that they do, particularly Shamit and Deuce, is they're catch-and-shoot three-point shooters.
03:42So when you give the ball to Cat and he's driving downhill,
03:45you're sticking those two guys in the corner wing spots where they can catch and knock down shots.
03:50So it's a little bit of what they do defensively, but it's also the spacing that they allow themselves,
03:56and then it's either Bridges or OG as the fifth guy, particularly those two guys are good quarter three-point shooters.
04:01So it is a little bit about who you have around them in regards to what they're able to do.
04:07But yeah, if you're Rick Carlisle, you have to adjust here.
04:09But that has been the recipe for the Knicks because they do not – their offense looks stagnant when it's Brunson and Cat.
04:21There's not a lot of pick-and-pop action.
04:23It's a lot of Brunson.
04:24And why Brunson played well in the Knicks one is because Brunson got off to a hot start.
04:29There's been times where he's now gotten off to great starts, and they've been playing with the hole.
04:32So it'll be interesting to see what kind of adjustments, Kevin, are made by Rick Carlisle tonight.
