00:00All right, Knicks fans, I'm going to ask you guys two questions.
00:03Is it time for Landry Shamit to start getting a little bit more minutes?
00:06And what's been going on with the Knicks turning the ball over so much lately?
00:10Let's head out to the West Coast to talk to our Knicks beat writer with the Post,
00:15Steph Bondi.
00:16Steph, what's going on, man?
00:17Usually I'd be a little jealous that you were out in L.A. right now,
00:21but we got 71 degrees here in New York.
00:23I'm about to be outside after this.
00:25So let's get straight into this one, man.
00:27Word is Bondi, and the loss to the Clippers, they turned the ball over 20 times.
00:32They gave up 24 points off those turnovers.
00:35It's back-to-back games.
00:36They gave it up over 15 times.
00:38So word is Bondi.
00:40What's the root of this sudden turnover issue?
00:43And is this something you feel like Knicks fans should be concerned about
00:47late in the season?
00:49Yeah, I think it's kind of twofold.
00:51The first one is the Lakers game was just sloppiness.
00:56No focus.
00:57Maybe they went out in L.A. the night before.
01:00We do have nice weather here, too, by the way.
01:03So, you know, that was just a bad overall offensive game up and down.
01:07The Clippers are a little bit different.
01:09They have lengthy defenders.
01:11That's how their defense is schemed to take advantage of turnovers.
01:16Kawhi Leonard is obviously a monster defensively.
01:19They got Nick Batum, who's long.
01:21So, I think they did play better against the Clippers.
01:25But it was still too many turnovers.
01:28I mean, 24 points off of turnovers.
01:30The Knicks only had 10 points off of turnovers.
01:33You can't win a game like that.
01:35And that's on everybody.
01:37I mean, Jalen Brunson is a point guard.
01:39He had three turnovers.
01:40But OG Ananobi had four turnovers.
01:42Josh Hart had three turnovers.
01:44Carl Anthony Towns had three turnovers.
01:46So, it was across the board.
01:49And they ended.
01:50They left Southern California with two clunkers.
01:54Let's stay with the weather analogies here.
01:57Because Mikael Bridges has been like the New York weather.
02:01One minute, he's hot.
02:02Like the 71 degrees today.
02:03The next, he's cold.
02:05It's a blizzard.
02:06He goes 0 for Sunday night.
02:07And then he scores only seven points and was benched in the fourth quarter Monday night.
02:12Is there any indication that Mike Brown might start getting Landry Schammett more of Bridges' minutes?
02:22Yeah, I mean, this has been a season-long trend.
02:25I think, you know, there's been a lot of focus.
02:27I've written this a couple times.
02:29But there's been a lot of focus on cat struggles.
02:31But to me, Mikael Bridges has been the bigger disappointment this season.
02:35And now we're not even talking about the five first-round picks that Leon Rose traded to acquire him.
02:40We're also talking about the $150 million extension that they gave him in the summer.
02:45He's got to produce more.
02:48Now, when it comes to Landry Schammett and Mikael Bridges, we know that Mike Brown trusts Landry Schammett.
02:55He loves Landry Schammett.
02:56He's been on top of Landry Schammett since the season started in terms of trusting him and giving him opportunities.
03:03Now, he rides Landry when he sees Mikael Bridges struggling.
03:08And so, you know, he has no problem if Mikael Bridges is having one of the shooting nights that he
03:15had in both games in L.A.,
03:17he has no problem telling Landry Schammett to close the game.
03:21So I think it goes by game-by-game basis.
03:24Mike Brown reads what's happening in the game, and he has no problem.
03:27It doesn't matter that they gave up five first-round picks.
03:30It doesn't matter that they gave him a $150 million extension.
03:34He has no problem benching him.
03:36With that said, Josh Hart was the one who was benched for Landry Schammett in the fourth quarter against the
03:43Lakers.
03:43So it was Josh Hart to the bench against the Lakers and Mikael Bridges to the bench against the Clippers.
03:51Shout-out to Landry Schammett, man.
03:53Like, here's a guy that people were questioning if he was even going to make the team.
03:57Comes on, comes on to the scene, plays well, gets hurt with the shoulder, then comes back, and he's taking
04:02guys' minutes.
04:03Definitely one of those New York success stories.
04:06You've got an article out on The Post's website about how Jalen Brunson has kind of changed his game
04:11and added some other elements to it.
04:13Can you break that down for us?
04:15Like, what have you seen about JB's game that's changed, and what has he been saying about it?
04:21Now, that was a round of three games actually before they got to L.A. and played the Lakers.
04:27But he had three games where he had double-digit assists.
04:32He had 40 assists in those three games.
04:35And part of that was just the defense is saying, all right, we're going to try to take everything away
04:39from you.
04:39We're going to blitz you.
04:40We're going to come at you.
04:41And Jalen, you know, like I've said it many times, he's the smartest player I've ever covered.
04:47He's going to read the defense, and he's going to make the right play.
04:51Now, listen, he's not the greatest passer, you know, threading the needle and in the paint
04:56and finding everybody and all that stuff, but he is smart.
04:59And so he figured out that I can get my teammates open shots.
05:03My teammates, if I get doubled or if, you know, Nikola Jokic is coming over, Mitchell Robinson is going to
05:11be open under the rim for an alley-oop.
05:13So he adjusted his game positively because he wasn't shooting well.
05:18And, you know, he found other ways to impact the game, and he became, as I wrote, like a true
05:23point guard.
05:24All right, let's look ahead a little bit.
05:27Six of the next seven games are against bottom feeders in the NBA.
05:31That includes Utah Wednesday and Friday at Indiana.
05:36Crazy ask right now, but are these must-win games considering the fact that that means that they'll win the
05:42road trip
05:43and to stay in close contention with Boston for the two seed?
05:48Yeah, I mean, the Eastern Conference is crazy.
05:51Like, one day we're saying the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to win the East
05:56because they just got James Harden there riding a hot trick.
05:58Now it's Boston because Jason Tatum is back.
06:01I'm never going to say anything is a must-win because anything can happen in the playoffs,
06:06as we saw in the last playoffs.
06:08But if I were the Knicks at this point, I'd want to avoid playing the Boston Celtics in the second
06:14round.
06:14And we were saying the same thing last year, and they ended up beating Boston.
06:18But if you look up and down the East, I think the Knicks have a good opportunity, certainly, to beat
06:24the Pistons again.
06:24They beat them last year.
06:25They have a good opportunity to beat the Cavaliers.
06:27I think they're tougher than the Cavaliers.
06:30But if you can avoid, I don't know how it would be because now it looks like the Celtics could
06:34eclipse the Pistons as the number one seed.
06:37We'll have to wait and see about that.
06:38But when it all shakes out, I think the best path for the Knicks is to avoid Boston until at
06:44least the conference finals.
06:46All right, off-topic here.
06:48We've seen a lot go down in NFL free agency.
06:51You're an Eagles fan.
06:52How does it feel to watch Philly lose so many free agency, so many players in two days of free
06:59agency?
07:01All right, so you're talking to me as a Giants fan, right?
07:04Because I feel confident in winning the division again, just like we win the division every year.
07:12We beat the Giants when we need to beat the Giants.
07:15I feel comfortable.
07:17I don't have a problem with how the offseason is shaking out so far.
07:20All right, mic drop on that one.
07:22I ain't got nothing to say on that one, man.
07:24Enjoy LA, man.
07:25Safe travels on the road trip, and I appreciate you hopping on with us.
07:29All right, bro.
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