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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
But do you feel like this series is done, like it's over, Knicks advancing, or is there still a chance here in your mind Celtics have been a really good road team, maybe just shooting on some other rims and different sightlines helps them or whatever?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Do you think it's a wrap, or do you still think it's a very long series? I don't think it's a sweep, but I think it's a one-game series in Game 3. Like that's a must win for the Boston Celtics. They have been the best road team all season long. If they shoot 30% from three through these first two games, they're up to zero. It's that simple.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So win game three, all the pressure then flips back to New York for game four. That's a must win for New York because if it's 2-2 going back to Boston, at least the Celtics will feel like they have momentum, but they got to make some shots. There's like no other real anything to talk about with the Celtics. They gotta make shots. They're open looks.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Derek White was three for 11 from three.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He's so far eight for 27 in the series.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I was going to say, is that not like the best guy?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Like 33%. It's pretty good.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I was going to say, don't worry, it's bad.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They've been very bad in two fourth quarters.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Well, speaking of super short, I mean, he did have a great game, and we applauded him here, but we got to show you the free throw that Mitchell Robinson did attempt in this game. I'd be hard-pressed to find a shorter free throw than this.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I'm sure it exists, but this one where he stepped to the line and obviously went through his routine, did a little fake shot, a couple dribbles, and then lets it go, and it comes up so flat.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He might not have shot this 10 feet in the air.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I don't know if it got over the rim, ever. I don't think so. I mean, it tickled the net there as it went out of bounds. But, you know, it was funny, because then we had this, seeing this idea of like, is there going to be Hackamich here? But wisely of Tibbs, like, okay, if they're going to do it, let's let them rack up enough fouls to get into the bonus, and then we'll take him off.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Here we are. Hello to the YouTubes. Hello to the podcast listeners. Lots to talk about once again. It was deja vu last night when it came to that first game. I saw a Zach Cram tweet. Putting the Mario Kart blue shell in the NBA playoffs has done wonders for the entertainment product. Good tweet, Zach. Yeah, the New York Knicks did it again. Down 20 in the third quarter of Game 1.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So there's a little gamesmanship going on here between the two coaches of how they were going to approach this strategy. But he did have an incredible game. Just that's a real shacked and a full free throw there.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Not a great free throw shooter. Kevin Harlan hit him with a holy smokes.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
That's perfect on that one. I have random notes here. I loved when the comeback started to happen once again, and it was deja vu. You were getting good shots of the Knicks bench. My God, it was that bench. They sensed it. They were like, oh, we're going to do this. Bridges on fire here. Here we go. They can't score. The Celtics on our end. They're shooting on that net. Just going nuts. And P.J.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
holy crap get an iso cam on pj tucker him on both of these comebacks i just keep my eye up in the corner and he's talking to people in the crowd and he's like obviously pretty hyped that the comeback's uh real and they're gonna pull it off again and they did uh game three saturday 3 30 on abc i know chuck was pissed about that what how's this not prime time but madison square garden for game three a little afternoon game
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Yeah, yeah. He might just, well, oh, yeah, it's ABC, so he wouldn't even be working. Good point.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I was going to say he doesn't want to be working in the afternoon, but why would he be working? Yeah, tell me what happens.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
There's not many.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Clippers and Mavericks?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I remember Matt Austin dunking on us because after the Mavericks won game two, we said, the Clippers asked for this.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And then, as you can see what happened, good call by the Clippers.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Chicago Bulls. Right. Yeah, they were up 2-0 on the Celtics. Rondo got hurt.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I mean, does it involve our finalists of that year or no?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They were down 2-0.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Down 20 in the third quarter of Game 2. Two huge comebacks. Two incredible road wins against the defending champs. You can't have the Bing without the bong, Tass. My God, the Knicks. Up 2-0 as they go back to Madison Square Garden. And it was very similar to Game 1. Yeah.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And fans of the WWE are feeling great if they get a Halliburton Brunson in the Eastern Conference finals. Triple H will be pumped because they've had some good run-ins ringside. All right, well, would you bet on it? Would you bet on one of those two teams coming back to win the series this season, down 2-0, losing their first two home games?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I'm more likely, if I was picking either of them, I would pick the Celtics because the Cavs, I mean, who's playing for them?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I know the Porzingis part is very important, as, again, I keep just saying it. The Cavs, I mean, we don't even know if they're going to have two of their all-stars still, and then their main guy off the bench that they made a big trade for. That's true. So that's tough, too. What about you? How would you answer that one? Cavs or the Celtics more likely? Celtics. Okay.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Game three, though, on the line for both of them. Seasons. 100%. They're not winning. You can't go down 3-0.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Anything else from the Knicks? Shocking the world once again there. The Bing Bong Knicks, man. They are feeling themselves right now, and rightfully so. Nothing else? All right. Well, let's move to a game that shouldn't take that long. Shea Gildas Alexander scored 34 points in three quarters. Thunder set league and team records in a 149-106 win over the Nuggets last night.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They tied their series at one game apiece. OKC becoming the first home team to win a game in the second round. So kudos to them. Right from the jump, Trey. OKC pretty hell-bent on getting some revenge here for that Game 1 loss. They were up 45-21 at the end of the first quarter. They were shooting 71.4% from the field. They continued the dominance in the second. They were up 78-43 at one point.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They led 124-76 after three quarters. The largest lead was 49 points. SGA was a plus 51 in this game. So OKC did what we thought maybe they were doing game one, not game two. So maybe if we had flipped it, it's like, oh, yeah, this series is normal, but it was turned on its head here, but your takeaway is from a blowout from the Thunder.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Yeah, I thought the Nuggets had it when they were up 2-0, but then a brief 149-104 run for Oklahoma City. They found the NBA hack. 20-point leads aren't safe. 30-point leads are safe. Shout out to Tom Poro, who texted me at 12.24 a.m. and said, no effing way. Can't believe OKC coughed that game up. Nobody was staying awake during the second half of this one. The Thunder played with desperation.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They played with force. They completely sped up the nuggets. I talked after game one that I thought Denver was out in transition way too much. They had 24 fast break points, only five last night in game two. Shea Gilgis-Alexander is dominating in this series. He had 34 last night on 13 field goal attempts, made as many free throws as he did shots from the field, 11 for 13 touchdowns.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
from the field, 11 of 11 at the line, had eight assists, two turnovers. So far, he's averaging a Giannis-like 33.5 per game on 60% shooting. Like I said, there's no matchup for Shea Gilgis-Alexander, and he is dominating his matchup on the flip side. Jamal Murray can't find any space with Lou Dort putting the clamps on.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And then the other question is, how were the Thunder going to guard Nikola Jokic instead of Chet on him? They started with Isaiah Hartenstein on him, and then they just didn't guard anybody else. They completely swarmed him. You saw J-Dub getting him on the switch a lot, standing him up as much as he could. And then it was just help off literally everybody. They're not guarding Brown.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They're not guarding Westbrook. They're not guarding Watson. They're even risking it with Michael Porter Jr. They're just like... Maybe he can't get the shot up fast enough with his hurt arm. And kind of playing out correctly for them. Gordon didn't do much either. Only 17 points on 16 field goal attempts for Jokic. He had six assists and six turnovers.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Six of those assists, or a couple of those assists, were like... Full quarters as well. So he's got more turnovers than assists. He fouled out. You look at the box outs. There's three guys on them. They're just saying, we're completely taking away Jokic. Maybe somebody else can beat us. It ain't going to be Murray. And the other guys were not able to do it.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Meanwhile, the other guys for the Thunders totally, the Thunders, showed up. Caruso, he's had two good games. It was mostly just defense in this one. But Isaiah Joe hit four threes. I thought Wiggins was an absolute demon. He scored 10 points in the second quarter, and everyone felt like a highlight play from him. Case and Wallace, a couple of steals and a couple of threes.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
This was a perfect Thunder game.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
to be taken out of that toilet they would just clog that thing up enough enough and that's why Jokic had six buckets six turnovers and six fouls he seemed frustrated with the physicality in this one and the bodies and so many people swarming at him I mean like you said he got himself fouled out that last one was the one where he was like jumping on Jill and William's back if I remember correctly the end of the third quarter so game out of reach and if anything it's like good yeah sit him down for the entire fourth and get ready for game three but yeah he was he was frustrated
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
That's so many freaking points.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I mean, the Knicks scored 91 to win, right? Yeah.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Very different games last night, for sure. Yeah, I mean, what to watch in Game 3, I just go back to, like...
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
dort on jamal murray like they're gonna like jamal has to help out yokich and but that is easier said than done when you're not like when you're in the torture chamber man like he was all on him like it was like easily game plan shut that off and like dort lives for that and then we can worry about obviously throwing everybody else at yokich because we don't trust anybody else to shoot on that team but jamal is gonna have to be much much better in denver to try and get this back
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I think at the best, obviously a split back at home, making a three-game series because you got that first one in miraculous fashion. So, I mean, look, they're going back. They got the split. That's huge. But this was an absolute beatdown that I think, again, maybe more people expected probably in game one. But maybe there was a bit of a rust factor there. Who knows?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Because they had had so much time off. They just weren't ready for the different type of matchup.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I don't have a whole lot else from this one.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I think Aaron Gordon should bring the ball up more. Okay. Yeah. Alleviate? Yeah, like let Murray come and get the ball off the second side action or something like that. Save his legs, bring in the ball up the court, maybe Westbrook initiating things. It's risky, buddy. It's a risky call.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
But they need somebody else to handle the ball besides Jokic and Murray, especially if Murray's going to be taken out of the game by the physicality that Dort's bringing.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
What do you think of the Denver, excuse me, the OKC crowd changing how they received Russell Westbrook? Game one, it was all ovations, applause. This one was more leaning into the booze. Maybe a part of that is because they lost game one. Switch it on its head here. Westbrook had a fine game. I mean, he's a minus 30 like all the other starters. I mean, he came off the bench.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So it's not like he had an impact on winning, but he was at least getting into the free throw line a little bit. What do you think about that move?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Not really. No. It was more pointed out of people in the arena. Yeah, like I couldn't feel one way or the other. Game one was it like, wow, we're loving Westbrook. Not really. Game two is boo, boo, boo. Not really. So I'm sure there's like eight people that Andrew Schlecht is hearing. That guy's booing. I'll write that down. No, just a beat down. And it was pretty impressive.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And everybody contributed for the Thunder. And it was nobody really having any sort of answer for the Denver Nuggets. But they go back 1-1.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Going to be hard-pressed to lose a playoff game when you shoot 56% from the floor, 44 from deep, and then a cool 92 at the line if you want to round up. That's the old 50-40-90 for a team there. That's good. Good percentages.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Yeah, and nine turnovers. And nine turnovers, so they're shooting every time.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And shooting great percentages. And to go back to you giving praise to SGA, because he's averaging 33.5, I think you said, through these two games. And seven boards and eight assists. So filling up the box score, three turnovers in 70 minutes for the lead point guard on the Thunder. So just masterful with the ball right now. It's very easy, I guess, what I'm getting at for him.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So again, I'm trying to have to...
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
speed him up make him make some bad decisions good luck with that because he's always in control but he is dominating right now and it's like I know Jokic had the monster first game and that was the big surprise and then has had a quiet second one but like what SGA is doing here is proving like this is why this guy's an MVP just goes out a bit a little differently so maybe and maybe you need like a a big game winner or a big huge play at the end to get all the headlines and maybe that comes in this series because it is 1-1 as I said
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Alright, let's get to some news. Warriors star Steph Curry will miss at least one week of the playoffs after he was diagnosed with a grade 1 left hamstring strain. An exact return timeline will be based on how he responds to rehab. With the first career muscle strain in the hamstring at least, forehip, he's never had this injury before.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So Tash, he is set to be out through at least Game 4 on Monday. After that, Game 5 would be on May 14th, followed by three days off before Game 6 on May 18th, potential Game 7 on May 20th.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So we're looking at probably Game 5, maybe Game 6, and maybe that all depends on how the rest of the series goes and how either the Wolves take control of it or the Warriors can sort of win one or two here without him. I guess we'll see.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Your takeaways? Yeah, game five is eight days after the injury. They said he'll be reevaluated in one week, which doesn't mean he's coming back in one week. So my guess is that game six is most likely because that's three days after that. That's 11 days. It's the playoffs. The guy's going to push to play. a little earlier than he probably should.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
But still, the fact that there was no timeline for his return I think is disappointing for the Warriors. But if they're in Nico Harrison mode, let's look at it from a positive perspective. They need to win one game. They need to win one of the next three games to have a chance in this series. Then they would be 2-2 heading into Game 6 with Steph Curry coming back.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
You're feeling confident at least there. And can the Warriors win one more against the Timberwolves with no Curry? I think it's possible. Their defense is awesome. They completely shut down Minnesota in Game 1. They've got playoff Jimmy. And as John Krasinski has mentioned a lot of times at The Athletic, Minnesota has lost a ton of games this season when the other team is missing their stars.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They lost to Milwaukee without Giannis and Dame. Miami without Jimmy Butler, oddly enough. Sacramento without Jamar DeRozan. The Pacers without Halliburton. All of those were home games when the other team was missing their best player. So the Timberwolves, at least during the regular season, had a habit of overlooking their competition, thinking they would cruise to a victory.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They got to come out like they're playing against Steph Curry. I mean, I know Jade McDaniels was saying... Not much is different guarding Buddy Heald than Steph Curry. I like the mindset. He's like, I got to be as locked in on Buddy as Steph, and that's exactly what it's got to be. They got to come out and say, this is a full-strength team. We need to beat them down.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
That's a good point. I mean, everything you're hearing from the Warriors seems to be Obviously, we're not going to panic. We did get game one in a game which we do lose Curry for half the game. And what happened? It was in Jimmy Butler's hands for a majority of that sort of second half there. They trust him and Draymond Green to run the offense. They obviously believe in their defense enough.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He was the one guy to hit a bucket in the final eight or nine minutes of the game. Eight.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
It's been one of the best since they added Jimmy Butler to the mix at the deadline. And it's like, hey, don't worry. We got Jimmy to carry us. Draymond has said it. Curry has alluded to it. I guess that's why you sort of make this deal. Like, yeah, Curry makes everything go for the Warriors, but... You went and got Jimmy Butler at the deadline.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
For maybe instances like these where, hey, man, you've taken a team twice to the finals. Get us to, basically, like you guys were saying, get us to game five or six in either down one or up one. Get us a game or two here. So he's important. But what I look at is all those other guys, Buddy Heald, Pods, Gary Payton II to some extent, they're just going to have to hit shots.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They're going to have to make up for the absence of Curry as a collective crew. Now, Buddy Heald is on one. He is like Curry right now. But we've seen that, like, come and go with Buddy Hill. That's why Curry's the best. He's fairly damn consistent. But Pods is somebody to watch here. Like, at the end of the regular season, he had three out of four games where he was scoring over 20 points.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He had that big game four against the Rockets where he scored 26. He hit six threes. But since then... He's only scored 30 points over the last four games, and he can't shoot. He's 6-22 from deep. That's like around 27%.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So he's got to like – that's got to be higher because he's going to get the looks, and he's got to bang them down, and then maybe we have a series here because you know the Wolves are going to come out like a bat out of hell, I assume, tonight in game two. Or they should. Curry or no Curry because they've got to win. Holy crap. Something just fell here in the closet. That was actually frightening.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
That was legit loud.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And I know you heard that one on the podcast. Anyway, that's Pods knocking down a shot there. So we'll see.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Also missed a game, though, in the first round. Let's not forget. He has his own injury that he's sort of working through, dealing with, with the pelvis contusion. The pelvis contusion. So he's got to go through that, but all these guys are basically banged up and injured at this point.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
The elephant in the room, though, too, is like, okay, let's say they even win one of these, they get it to game six. How does Curry look when he returns from a hamstring injury? Because unfortunately we've seen stars rush to get back and all that, and then it gets even worse, and you re-injure it because it's such an injury where that's a concern with your hammy.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
It's like, you come back too soon, you can re-injure it quite easily. So there's that as well. I mean, we're not trying to just make it sound like, get to game six, Curry comes back, scores 40 and 50, and you win this thing. I don't think that's the case, but they just got to even hope that they even see Curry again.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
or the Wolves take control. Different injuries, but I'm thinking of Dame Lillard coming back, and he was basically a decoy for the Bucs because he couldn't move quite the same way he did. Who knows what Curry will return and look like, but the Warriors have such little shooting that you could run Steph out there with one leg, and it would be better than the other options that they have.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Having him out there is threatening. They also need Draymond to shoot as well as he did in game one. The guy made four threes. Buddy was five, so they're going to have to find their shooting somewhere until Steph is back.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Moving on, Fred Van Vliet and the Houston Rockets have agreed to push back the deadline date on his $44.9 million team option. This is according to Shams at ESPN. So the deadline, which was originally May 9th, which is tomorrow, is now pushed to June 29th. So all signs, Trey, suggest he is going to be back with the team next season, but we're figuring out what that looks like.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Do the Rockets pick up his option? They could decline it, sign him to a longer-term deal, but maybe at a lower starting salary. So they're just saying, we will wait and see on this one. Were you shocked by this at all, or does this make sense for both parties, or at least from the Rocket side of things?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I don't know if I was shocked by things, but they shouldn't have his contract expire when he could be playing during the playoffs. Fred VanVleet could literally still be playing right now. They were in a game seven.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Are we sure it may not be one of those weird things that it's like so many days after you're eliminated? I think it might be that.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Maybe it is. Nonetheless, this makes complete sense from both sides. They're not going to do his team option. They're going to give him less money per year for more years because he's a good culture guy to have around. So VanVleet is due for... 44.9 million basically next year. I think it's more likely he's at like 35 million for three years. That would be like what?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Three years, 105 or something like that. Because good vet to have around. Good starter right now if at the end of his contract when he's nearing 35 years old will be a good bench player to have around. The other thing is he fits perfectly around star players. We saw it with Kawhi Leonard when he showed up in Toronto for one season. We know the Rockets are going to be active this offseason.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Fred VanVleet is a guy who can be your number one ball handler, but also can be your fourth option in a starting lineup.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Because you have extensions kicking in for your guys too, right? And Chengun and Jalen Green. I mean, decisions to be made with some of those guys as well. And there's other guys like, I think Aaron Holland. I mean, lower down on the pecking order, but Aaron Holliday and Jock Landell. They got some things. They're getting into an expensive team is my point.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So hell yeah, I assume they want to keep Van Vliet because he's important, especially as a culture guy, but maybe not $45 million. Like you said, maybe a little discount, but we'll give you longer years.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
There's two explanations. On one side, it's what Boston did wrong. On the other side, it's what the Knicks did right. Boston is missing shots. There's no other way to put it. They went 7 for 34 in the second half on shots that were not in the restricted area. 2 for 11 on 3. And like you're saying, Tass, they were getting good shots. There are some wide open looks.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And then finally here in the news, some good news when it came to the Celtics at least. Yesterday, the NBA announced that Celtics guard Drew Holiday was named the league's social justice champion and will receive the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trophy. They gave it to him last night before the game. Hey, nice looking trophy.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Yeah, I liked it. The NBA will also donate $100,000 to the Drew and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund. Drew not only adds, or he does add, to his NBA Sportsmanship Award. He also gets this, the Social Justice Champion Award.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
just one Twyman Stokes away from the trifecta of good guy awards. Of course, Drew Holiday has won the Twyman Stokes award three times in his career. He's won the sportsmanship award twice in his career, and this is his first social justice award. I think he's a good guy. He's a great guy.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I think he's a well-liked guy who does good things. Him and Lauren.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Doing good work with their fun. Anything to add to here?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Congrats to Drew Holiday on the award. All right, that's all the news I got. That was a quickie. Sadly, we only have one game on tonight, guys. Just Warriors-Wolves, 8.30 Eastern on TNT. Can I just say, as an East Coaster, I think I can speak for all of us. I love these 7 and 9.30 starts.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I mean, I guess we're helped out by there's really only one super Western Conference team left because we have a lot in the Midwest area. So they're fine starting at 9.30.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Big shout out to the Midwest for holding us down.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Jesus, isn't it nice? 7 and 9.30. We can do that. That's good because then you're not getting into like 1 o'clock in a.m. when you got those 10.30 starts. It's a lot better. Oh, it's very nice. I mean, last night you could go to bed at like 10.30 after that buzz. I mean, no need to watch the second half of that one. But only that game on tonight.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
We'll be back here tomorrow with the drop podcast, though. So some rapid-fire fun, potentially worse of the week. Five-star Friday, I believe, we're due for. We'll do some big-picture questions when it comes to the playoffs. Maybe we'll do some ranking in terms of teams you think are most likely to win this title because this one feels wide open.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I mean, it's fairly open right now with all the way these series have gone and some of the elite-looking teams here down 2-0. So we'll get into that on tomorrow's podcast. If you're a Survivor fan... There was an episode of that last night. Let me just say it was more like the Thunder Nuggets game than it was the Celtics-Knicks game. Not the greatest. Not the greatest episode of Survivor.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They missed so many good looks that they are then passing up on good looks as well. It's just... A choke from shooting. There's no other way to put it. They're shooting 25% on 100 attempts through two games. They aren't making shots. Simply put, like, Derek White's getting good looks. Tatum's getting good looks. Al Horford's getting good looks. They're just missing.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
A little disappointing, but we'll break it down. Nora will join us here in the Classic Factory. 1 p.m. Eastern. No buffs. It's on YouTube feed. It's on podcast feed. So check that out. Otherwise, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They turned the ball over nine times in the second half. That hurts as well. And the last criticism I would have for the Celtics, Drew Holiday seemed a little panicked on that last play when he was guarding Jalen Brunson, like all up on him. And you don't see him playing that ragged all that often, I don't think. So the Boston side of things, I think, is kind of easy.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
It's more like what the Knicks are doing that's very impressive. Hart and McBride hit threes right at the end of the third quarter. I thought that was humongous. I started watching back when they were down 20 to see everything that happened. Bridges came alive. in the fourth quarter. That's crazy. 0-4 for the first three quarters, 14 in the fourth quarter.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
At one point, Reggie Miller says, there's no structure offensively for New York, because at that point, Kat's on the bench, Brunson is on the bench, so it's Deuce and Mitch in for those guys alongside Bridges, OG, and Hart. And Reggie was 100% right. These were not organized baskets that Mikael Bridges was scoring. It was broken plays. It was transition.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
It was just luckily getting points on the board, and then he got into such a rhythm that when the starters came back, Tim was happy to run things through Mikael Bridges, which was humongous. The Knicks were quicker to lose balls. You mentioned Josh Hart was massive on this one.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Al Horford steals an inbounds pass, and then Josh Hart blocks him at the rim, turns into a three-pointer on the other end for Bridges. The offensive rebounds were huge. Hart had one that turned into a Brunson three. Carl Anthony Towns had an and one. So the Knicks were just scrapping a little bit harder. And then I thought OGN and OB's point of attack defense was awesome.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I thought Deuce McBride's point of attack defense was awesome. They both played A-plus games, taking the Celtics out of their actions, making them play late into the shot clocks. And then Brunson, of course, just did his magic. Nine points, one assist in the fourth quarter, knocked down the two huge free throws. So I think it's a combination choke and well played by the Knicks. Uh-oh. For sure.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I mean, the Knicks have now made this, what, five straight road games where they've basically done this. Come back to some extent, maybe not down 20 against the Pistons, but obviously got back in those games and made all the clutch plays. They're now 5-0 on the road this postseason. All of them coming by three points or less. That sounds crazy.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
That's wilder than two 20-point comebacks to me against the defending champs. That many close games that you keep pulling out on the road. Incredible. Schumann has the stat when it comes to the Celtics. just being abysmal in the clutch or down the stretch. They've scored just 38 points on 50 possessions in the fourth quarter and overtime in the series. They've shot 11 for 53 in those 29 minutes.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And they're two superstars. The two Jays have been abysmal. They've just been very, very bad. That last play, to go back to that, you're right. Obviously, they... Sort of knew what they were going to do because they'd just done it and got the Tatum dunk. So they're a little bit more prepared for it. Al Horford couldn't get his blocking on as well.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Mitchell Robinson did a good job staying with Tatum. Then Tatum's handle was sloppy. He lost the ball as he got onto Mitchell around the free throw line. Then sort of like, where am I going? Got into the corner. Here comes all the help. And yeah, I think they originally said it was a block. I think it's been changed to a steal because he was trying to pass out.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He had no shot and he's maybe trying to get it to Jalen Brown, but Bridges with the huge steal again.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
They took 20 less. They were inside way more often.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
The start of this game was hilarious. The crowd basically groaning or sighing every time the Celtics attempted a three. I'm talking right back at the tip, right? Now, thankfully, the Celtics didn't take a lot of threes really early in the game. I think they only got like four three-point attempts up in the first six minutes.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
So instead, they were driving, they were getting post-ups, they were getting stuff around the paint. And yeah, the balance was better in this game, but I think that was so funny. Even the crowd is like... That narrative from Game 1 of when they took so many and missed so many, it was like, please stop shooting threes. And you could see it.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Like, okay, we can't shoot every damn possession of three-pointers. They were trying. But, you know, the defense from the Knicks is like, they're happy to switch. We talked about heading into the series. Man... Watch out for Cat and Brunson. They're going to try and be exposed. Celtics are doing it. Celtics are getting these matchups, but they're not scoring.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
More times than not, they're not scoring on them.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Well, yeah, 13 twos. One of them was the Tatum layup at the end. They went three for... 13 on twos. That's a problem. They missed 14 straight shots. And a large part of that, I think, is because Porzingis isn't really playing. Mitchell Robinson gets the game ball for this game. He was awesome in the third quarter going into the fourth quarter. That's a guy who's moving his feet on switches.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He's probably the slowest guy out there and Tatum cannot get past him. Right now, he's finishing possessions with the offensive rebound on the offensive end. He's just setting every single ball screen. He must have set 80 ball screens in the fourth quarter. Once he subs out, it's Josh Hart setting all the screens. They hacked Mitchell Robinson twice. That was a funny play.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Got the Knicks into the bonus, and then they subbed him out. Brilliant stuff by Tom Thibodeau, who's absolutely outcoaching Joe Mazzulla through the first two games so far. And without Porzingis out there, there's nobody that scares the Knicks on the perimeter. Like, Horford is a good shooter.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He hasn't been making them, obviously, but this guy looks tired in fourth quarters having to play so many minutes. Robinson staying on the court allows the Knicks to have three really big, long defenders when Bridges and Ananobi are out there, too. So when Tatum's trying to go by a guy like Mitchell Robinson, there are help defenders. in Bridges and Ananobi, and that's kind of their strength.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
It's like getting in passing lanes and messing things up. So I thought great stuff from Mitchell Robinson. Cat was playing well defensively. And then Josh Hart, you just can't leave him alone for a second. He's going to make the winning plays that need to be made. And yeah, Tatum, I don't know, man. He's just got to be better. There's no way around it. He scored 13 points on 19 shots.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He just came off of a series where he was averaging like 35 points per game against one of the best defenses in the league. And he has now been brutal through two games here. And you're right, he was trying to. He was trying to get to the rim or trying to get to spots and maybe not settle for three. Though that one clip you're seeing, which was pretty brutal.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I think it was maybe, I don't know, three or four minutes left. Ball kicked around, found Tatum in the corner, and Jalen Brunson was falling down in the paint. And you could see Tatum's like, well, I mean, I'm wide open. I'm wide open in the corner, and I can hit a three-pointer. But, I mean, probably.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Could have attacked on that one, especially when Brunson fell because he got tripped up on someone, but took the shot and missed. And it was just one of those 14 consecutive misses that just added up. I'm glad you brought up Cat. I thought Cat... Mitchell Robinson, you're right. Game ball. Even in the first half, he checked in. He deterred Tatum at the rim. He had two dunks. He had active hands.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He got sort of a steal on Horford that then got tied up. So he was good. But there was that stretch where Cat... They put him on the block. He scored on Horford like three straight times. Horford is still an amazing defense. Yeah, and that was a nice little swing there to keep them alive.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Really reminiscent, really, when I think about it, to the Pacers' comeback against the Cavs, where it was like, Halliburton's the hero at the end. That's sort of Brunson in this one, because, man, that guy just has the clutch gene. But it's all those other players, like... Keeping him around, not letting it get to a 40-point lead like we obviously saw in the second game.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And it was Hart, it was McBride, and it really, you know, Cat and Mitchell, until Bridges then also joined on as the hero with Brunson last night. It's just like, those are just as important as the big clutch shots or the big free throws, just to stay in the game as they did.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And especially, as Trey said, when Porzingis is not healthy and is not playing.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Yeah. I mean, I guess he sort of had a little bit of a better game than he did in game one. I mean, he did have some buckets inside, but he's still like a minus nine out there, limited minutes. And I think he's becoming more and more important here.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
You're seeing with the Knicks size, like it'd be nice to have a pick and pop option to expose maybe Mitchell, but he just can't play right now because of this weird – you know, respiratory illness that he had back in, what, February, March, and then seemed to dissipate, missed a lot of time. No one really knew what it was, except it was non-COVID.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
And then now it's rearing its ugly head again here at the worst possible time for them because it feels like, you know, they got to win four out of five now. I keep saying I've been banging this drum. I think they need KP to win the championship, unlike last year. But if the guy's not healthy, I don't know what they do. Because I don't know what the answer is.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
I guess maybe they're hoping Sam Houser comes back.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He was in a walking boot, wasn't he?
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Yeah, so I don't think that's likely, or I don't know when he's expected to be back. But, you know, Cornette plays, but he's not a threat at all, obviously, on the perimeter.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Thursday, May 8th, 2025. I'm Jay Skeets, here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as always, Tass Mellis. Podcast listeners, this is for you. Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. Ayo! Ayo! And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer JD. Hello. There he is.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
He has a stretch five back in his Bulls career. Yeah, but he's not anymore.
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The Knicks Do It Again, Thunder Crush Nuggets & Steph Curry Out For A Week
Let it fly, man. Let it fly. Luke, hit a three for us. What else from this one? It feels like there's a lot more to unpack here.