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00:16What a night for the New York Knicks here at Madison Square Garden is to get a fantastic
00:20comeback victory 108 to 106 over the Houston Rockets and this was not an easy one for the
00:26New York Knicks because it looked like they were going to be in trouble again but the
00:30Knicks prevail they've won 11 out of their last 14 games and this wasn't easy at all because
00:36it looked like the Knicks were going to have their second straight loss to a quality opponent
00:40following the all-star break but it was not to be as they come back from 18 down in the
00:45fourth quarter to get this victory so I'm going to share my four major takeaways from this Knicks
00:51victory one which I think you could possibly call one of their best victories if not their
00:55best victory of their season and they've had a couple of good ones even recently here at home
00:59but this one is definitely going to be right up there so my first major takeaway from this game
01:05has to be Carl Anthony Towns and how he was activated offensively now we got to go back to Thursday
01:10against Detroit where Cat struggled didn't really get into the flow of the offense he had a little
01:16spurt in the third quarter of that game but there was a lot of talk among the fan base and
01:20a lot of talk
01:21among members of the media as to was Carl Anthony Towns being used right against opponents like
01:27the Detroit Pistons well tonight you saw great things from Carl Anthony Towns 25 points very efficient
01:32shooting but I think the thing that stands out to me most was how he was being used there were
01:37some
01:37plays called for Carl Anthony Towns you saw him in some post-up situations this is a game in which
01:41I saw him post up maybe as much as we've seen from him all season and he was efficient you
01:46didn't see
01:47the silly fouls you didn't see the hooking you didn't see him picking up offensive fouls and killing
01:52the flow and the momentum in this game you saw Carl Anthony Towns was very efficient and it wasn't just
01:57early he had 18 points going into the fourth quarter seven of them came in the fourth quarter some big
02:03baskets from him also made some really important passes in this game so Cat was really good
02:08offensively and after this game head coach Mike Brown talked about how the team was able to activate
02:14Cat offensively tonight we tried to get him the ball in different places we tried to get him
02:18the ball in the post we tried to get him the ball in the pocket we tried to have him
02:20pick and pop
02:21you know and he did a good job delivering at the end of the day but you know we weren't
02:27specifically
02:28going to him we were just playing and he was the ball you know when you play the right way
02:34usually the
02:34energy of the ball finds you and that's what happened to him and when the ball was in his hands
02:39he did a
02:40nice job of making the right play whether it was for him to score or for him to pass now
02:45another major
02:46player in this game is one that probably will come as no surprise to anybody and that was the captain
02:50Jalen Brunson but Jalen Brunson halfway through this game was probably having one of his worst
02:55offensive games of the season he only had two points at halftime and he did not make his first field
03:01goal until 421 to go in the third quarter but he was huge in the fourth quarter and it wasn't
03:08just
03:08offensively he came up with some big defensive plays as well drawing a charge on Kevin Durant
03:13in the final minutes that was huge he had the game-winning go-ahead jumper you should say in
03:19this contest with 30 seconds to go to put the Knicks up for good and he had eight points in
03:24the fourth
03:24quarter going 4-4 from the field so the captain was huge in this one this is something that we
03:29see
03:30from Jalen Brunson from time and time again he has been huge and he delivered there one thing you can
03:35say about Jalen Brunson is you know he's going to be there when the Knicks need him my colleague
03:40Stephan Bondi has called him the smartest player he has ever covered when covering the New York Knicks
03:45and you saw tonight just a lot of heady plays a lot of intangible plays and there was a lot
03:50of talk
03:50among the Knicks fan base especially on social media about whether Jalen Brunson was taking too
03:55many shots or whether he was not their best offensive option particularly late game situations and I think
04:00tonight is one of the reasons why you were totally fine with him having the ball in his hands in
04:05late
04:05game situations he showed time and time again he will come up with big plays he will make the right
04:10play but you know what he also needs he also needs players to come along with him and he got
04:14that tonight
04:14from Carlton Town so that helped Jalen Brunson make some good decisions and he had players on the floor
04:19who helped make the right plays and come up big we'll talk about some of those guys later but another
04:24huge
04:24night for Jalen Brunson here and coming up big time in the fourth quarter showing that it's not about how
04:29you start
04:30it's really about how you finish and he finished strong in this quarter so that's another one of
04:34my takeaways here Jalen Brunson being really good another starter that we have to talk about in this
04:39one is OG Ananobi OG Ananobi got off to a fantastic start now OG he had a terrible game against
04:46the
04:47Pistons and one of the things that you've heard Mike Brown talk about a ton this season is adversity
04:51and adversity when it happens a lot of it has to do with well how are you going to bounce
04:55back
04:55well OG Ananobi bounced back he had a huge 16 points for the Knicks in the first half
05:00and in this game he finished with 20 so only four points in the second half for him but he
05:05was the
05:05Knicks best player in the first half of this game and they needed his offense the Knicks went into
05:09halftime trailing by one and a huge part of why they were in this game was OG Ananobi OG Ananobi
05:15was also
05:16huge defensively for steals in this contest but maybe arguably the biggest impact that he had tonight
05:22was on the defensive end Kevin Durant was his primary assignment he held Kevin Durant to 9 of 24
05:28shooting he frustrated him you're never going to stop a great player like KD but he was able to
05:33frustrate him a lot so a fantastic bounce back game for OG Ananobi we know he had been out dealing
05:38with
05:38the toe avulsion and he came back slow game against the Pistons but he bounced back in a major way
05:44for
05:44the Knicks and if he's playing that level of defense it's not just the offense and he was good
05:48offensively but it's about the level of defense if he's playing that all NBA defensive level that
05:54we saw from him earlier this season and we saw some of that tonight that is a huge huge boost
05:59for
05:59the Knicks going forward so you like have to like I think you should like what you've seen from OG
06:04Ananobi
06:04tonight and hopefully that is a good trend for the Knicks as they picked up a huge win now the
06:09last major
06:10takeaway for me in this game really was who Mike Brown chose to close with in this contest so a
06:17substitution that I found very interesting and we saw against Detroit Mikel Bridges sat for basically
06:23the final nine minutes of that game and with five minutes and one seconds to go in this contest Mike
06:28Brown made a substitution he brought in Jose Alvarado in for Mikel Bridges and very interesting because
06:34Alvarado had a fantastic game we'll get to that in a second but we found out after the game in
06:38the
06:38post-game press conference that this was a suggestion from assistant coach Rick Brunson who suggested
06:43that Jose Alvarado get in the game Alvarado had been wrecking things defensively he was huge in this
06:49one with five steals in this contest also came up with some big buckets for the Knicks but the Knicks
06:54did
06:55not employ a particularly large lineup down the stretch but what Mike Brown did is he looked at the
07:00guys who were playing hard defensively and so you did not see Josh Hart close most of this game down
07:05the stretch you did not see Mikel Bridges Mikel Bridges only played four minutes and 55 seconds
07:10of the final five minutes and one seconds of this game so mostly no Mikel Bridges he went with a
07:16small
07:16backcourt of Jalen Brunson and Jose Alvarado who played 20 minutes in this one also Landry Shamit
07:21OG Ananobi who I talked about who was tremendous defensively and then Carlton Towns those were the
07:26guys that pretty much closed the five minutes of this game those were the guys that helped the Knicks
07:30dominate the fourth quarter where they were able to outscore the Rockets so efficiently
07:34one of the things and why I think this is of note is sure you can look at that and
07:38say hey
07:39Mikel Bridges another disappointment offensively and defensively in this game that he didn't show up
07:44necessarily you could say hey you want a little bit more out of Josh Hart in this game who did
07:49not
07:49have a good offensive game but I think the major takeaway from this is Mike Brown is willing and ready
07:54to go with the guys who are playing hard defensively even if they're undersized right even if you look at
08:00it and say this might not be the best matchup the Houston Rockets have a large team they're long
08:04they're rangy they have some good defenders they were frustrated by Jose Alvarado five steals in this
08:10game right they were frustrated by Landry Shamit a guy who would get up in the grill of a lot
08:15of these
08:16offensive players and the Knicks needed to show more resistance defensively you did not see that Thursday
08:21night against the Pistons but with this group that closed in this contest you were able to see that
08:27and after the game Mike Brown talked about the defense with that closing group and how they were
08:32able to get the team to the finish line in this one our physicality or aggressiveness or sense of
08:39urgency was at a high high level in that fourth quarter and you know Jose's activity and it's
08:45happened before you know Jose's and a very active defender he gets his hands on a lot of balls he's
08:52extremely quick you know so his road you know he might not be in the right spot initially and so
08:57when you're driving the basketball you think somebody's open next thing you know because of
09:01his quickness he's able to make a beat beat on that basketball and get a deflection or something like
09:06that so that that helped out a lot too but again at the end of the day from top to
09:10bottom everybody
09:11that played there was an aggressiveness that in a physicality that we brought to the table that we
09:17got to find for 48 minutes and not just in the first quarter in the fourth quarter like tonight
09:21so all in all a gritty win for the New York Knicks I think it's one of their best wins
09:26of the season
09:27you could argue it's the best home win of the season you could talk about the Denver win that
09:30we saw here in double overtime a couple of weeks ago but this one has to rank right up there
09:35and
09:35it's good vibes for the Knicks because the vibes weren't well for a team that had won 10 out of
09:4013
09:40coming to this one now they've won 11 out of 14 and so much of the good vibes that you
09:46had around
09:46the Knicks was sort of taken away with the fact that they weren't able to get it done against
09:51Detroit and they're now 0-3 so I think for a lot of people looking at this team and trying
09:54to see
09:55what are they made of and do they have fight and do they have that tenacity that physicality that
10:01you want to see you saw some of that on display tonight and a lot of the whole NBA community
10:05is
10:06going to be watching fans are going to be watching to see are you going to see that against the
10:10really
10:10good and elite competition in this league throughout the rest of the season that is the major question
10:16the Knicks are going to have to answer but it's a feel-good victory and not much time to celebrate
10:20it they are right back at it in Chi-town tomorrow night where they will have to battle the Bulls
10:24so
10:25can the Knicks keep those good vibes going a very interesting week for them coming up they also have
10:29the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night so we'll see how the Knicks are able to fare and if they're
10:34able to build off of this big win they have been playing some better basketball lately but disappointing
10:39losses to Detroit in there as well and that loss to Indiana before the all-star break so now can
10:44they
10:44bounce back and can they continue the good vibes from tonight maybe this is the kind of win that
10:49can sort of spark this team give them some more fight there's some very interesting things you heard
10:54from head coach Mike Brown about after this game including how Carl Anthony Towns was talking about
10:59how the defense needed to get it going and defense is what won them this game they locked in defensively
11:04we know this team can be fine offensively but can they lock in defensively when it matters well
11:08tonight they did 108 to 106 victory over the Houston Rockets now the question is
11:13can they keep the good vibes going we will find out a lot more to talk about on New York
11:18Got Game a lot
11:19more coming this week we will talk about the Knicks and see how they do and how they bounce back
11:24from
11:24that loss to the Pistons but tonight is a good start I'm Dexter Henry signing off from Madison
11:28Greer Garden we'll have more coming up on New York Got Game
11:32and thanks for watching New York Got Game boom shakalaka
11:37you
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