00:00Afternoon delight.
00:01Knicks lock up red hot spurs and MSG matinee masterpiece.
00:05That's 14 wins out of their last 18 games and a gritty comeback win against a really good team.
00:11So Jonathan Macri of Knicks Film School is back on to talk about if the Knicks are heading into March
00:17looking like real contenders.
00:19All right, J-Mac, long time no talk, man.
00:21I appreciate you hopping on with us.
00:23Let's get straight to this, man, because the defense absolutely stepped up.
00:27But Diara gave them some good and solid minutes.
00:30Mikael Bridges looked like he was worth all those first round draft picks.
00:34I think it was an overall culture win for these guys.
00:37So was that a statement win for the Knicks going into the month of March?
00:41And are they back to looking like real contenders out of the East?
00:47Yeah, I mean, so to me, statement win is a win that changes people's perceptions about a team.
00:53And I'm not sure the Knicks needed that win to change anybody's perception about them, only because they'd already beaten
00:59this same Spurs team in the NBA Cup final.
01:02And you look across the league, they've beaten every good team that they've played, with the exception of the Detroit
01:07Pistons.
01:07We'll get back to them in a second.
01:09So I think the Knicks, you know, people who've been watching them all year kind of realized they are what
01:14they are, which is that inconsistency is the only consistent thing about them.
01:19Where they'll go out there, they'll have a game like this.
01:21They'll have a game like they had against Denver a few weeks ago, upending Jokic and company.
01:26They've had quality wins against Boston.
01:29Again, really the entire league, except the Pistons and the Thunder, who they haven't played yet.
01:33But the thing I want to kind of fall back on and why I think you do have to consider
01:38them at the end of the day, real contenders for the title, is you mentioned 18 games, how they have
01:4214 and four in their last 18 games.
01:44They're the number one defense in the league over that stretch.
01:47And what were we talking about for the first several months of the season?
01:50We were talking about a Knicks team that were they going to be able to defend well enough with Carl
01:54Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, both on the roster.
01:56They seem to have solved that issue.
01:59So, provided that the offense keeps doing its part, and I know there's been some shaky moments over the last
02:05couple of weeks, I think they are looking like a team that at least has a chance to play into
02:09June and win the title, which is all you can ask for.
02:12All right, so we agree that consistency is going to change the perception on this team, especially when it comes
02:17to defense.
02:18Now, I got an individual player that we should kind of put into the bullseye right now.
02:22We all can agree that Cat gets himself a lot of heat, and people question if he's the right number
02:28two for Jalen Brunson.
02:30But I feel like Mikael Bridges can make both of these guys' jobs a lot easier if he consistently changes
02:37the perception about him and plays the way he did against the Spurs.
02:42Does Mikael Bridges hold the key to how far the Knicks can go this season?
02:48I think he's one half of the key, and the other half, to me, is his tandem in crime there
02:55on the perimeter, and that's OG Ananobi.
02:58Because, to me, when the Knicks are operating at their best, when they have a defense that looks like it
03:03could be one of the best in the league, and they currently rank eighth on the season, so you know
03:06they can do it,
03:07it's OG Ananobi at the point of attack, covering the other team's best perimeter player, and it's Mikael Bridges doing
03:13what he does off the ball,
03:15which you saw, I thought, in spades against the Spurs, coming up with five steals, a couple of those turned
03:20into pick sixes.
03:21That's the way this Knicks defense has to operate.
03:24Again, defensive end.
03:26On offense, Mikael's job, honestly, I don't think it's that complicated, which is that he has to be money from
03:32the three-point, behind the three-point arc, and specifically from the corners.
03:36The Knicks, as a team, did not shoot great from three against the Spurs.
03:40They only shot about 30%.
03:42Mikael Bridges went five for nine, and a lot of his looks were with a Spurs hand in his face,
03:48quick release, and he still made more of them than he missed.
03:52I think something as simple as that, something as simple as Mikael Bridges just hitting the three-pointers that are
03:57afforded to him, because you know he's going to get the looks.
03:59So if he could be that outlet that Brunson, Cat, and the rest of the team could depend on, he
04:04doesn't need to do a whole lot of stuff with the ball for him to hold up his end of
04:08the bargain.
04:08I think those couple of basic things are more than enough.
04:11Five steals on the night, five three-pointers.
04:14It took me back to bad boys when Will Smith was saying to Martin Lawrence, for now on, that's how
04:20you shoot.
04:21Mikael Bridges from here on out, that's how he shoots.
04:25And yeah, I think this is the guy that's going to unlock the Knicks' real superpowers going into the playoffs.
04:31All right, 14-4 in the last 18.
04:33We talked about it.
04:34Big win against the Spurs Sunday.
04:36Now they're going into a week where they play the Raptors, Thunder, Nuggets, and the Lakers.
04:41This week is going to tell us what about the Knicks.
04:46I mean, Mike Brown said it, I think, the other day before the Spurs game,
04:50which is that after the All-Star break especially, you know, every game is a measuring stick game,
04:55especially when you play the better teams.
04:58All that being said, you know, not to repeat myself, but we've already seen the Knicks beat all the teams
05:03that they're about to play with the exception to the Thunder, who they haven't played yet.
05:06I do think the Thunder game is an important game.
05:09We know the Knicks had some struggles against Oklahoma City last year.
05:12One game they were terrible against them.
05:14The other game they kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter.
05:17But overall, you know, it's not that any one game here or even this week is going to tell me,
05:25you know, something about the Knicks that I didn't already know.
05:28I am just looking, from a fan's perspective, can we see more consistency from them?
05:34There's that buzzword again.
05:35From now until the postseason, because if they go out there and they, you know,
05:41throw up another stinker or two on the board,
05:43I think it's just going to reinforce the perception that we don't know which Knick team we are going to
05:48get
05:48when we get to the middle of April, May, and, you know, if they even get that far, June.
05:53If they can be consistent and they can show up and really perform to their capabilities,
05:57it doesn't mean they have to win every one of these games.
06:00But just, we know a Knick team firing on all sides in terms of how they execute
06:05and in terms of their effort when we see it.
06:07So, that's what I'm going to be looking for over the course of the next eight days.
06:11Currently, 39-22.
06:13Celtics are 40-20.
06:15Celtics are sitting in that two seed in the East right now.
06:18Is locking up the two seed over Boston a must going into the playoffs?
06:24I don't think locking up two over Boston is a must.
06:27I mean, ideally, you want to have home court advantage if you have to play the Celtics
06:30or the Cavs, for that matter, in round two.
06:33And there's also a first-round conversation to be had here.
06:37Who's going to be the seventh seed?
06:38Who's going to be the sixth seed?
06:39I think that part of it is interesting as well.
06:41For me, though, the priority for the Knicks has to be staying out of the fourth seed.
06:46It pains me to say this, but the Pistons have established themselves as a bad matchup
06:50for this New York team.
06:51And you could tell me the Knicks are going to turn it around in the playoffs.
06:54But I think based on what we've seen in the regular season, all things being equal,
06:58if you can potentially avoid the Pistons until the Eastern Conference Finals,
07:02or probably better yet, have some team, you know, whether it's the Celtics or the Cavs
07:07or whoever, knock off Detroit so they don't even make it to the Eastern Conference Finals,
07:11I think that's, you know, the best thing, all things considered.
07:13All right, J-Mac, appreciate you hopping on, man.
07:16Always a pleasure, my man.
07:21I'll see you next time.
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