00:00So, uh, you asked the question, yes, you, you people, what do you mean?
00:06You people, basketball fans, Hawks fans, let the game come to him.
00:11No, you go out and you establish yourself early and you set yourself up for a fourth
00:17quarter where you have a rhythm and you feel good about your game.
00:22Mike Jalen Johnson cannot allow the game to come to him.
00:26And what I mean by that is being passive aggressive and passing up shots and wanting to get other
00:31guys involved.
00:33You need to be aggressive.
00:36And look, I'm not calling Jalen, Kobe, or Mike.
00:40That's insulting.
00:41But the similarity is they didn't wait.
00:45Stars go out and establish themselves.
00:47And I think Mike, with this particular series, with the Knicks, if he gets going early, late
00:53in the game, and by the way, I'm not saying go ham in the first quarter and then disappear
00:56in the fourth, I'm saying get established, get your confidence going.
00:59And so this notion like, well, you know what?
01:02Let the game come to you because you asked the question to CJ McCollum yesterday about
01:06playing in the garden.
01:07I want you guys to listen to this.
01:08Now, this is his perspective because again, he's been in the league 13 years, kind of a
01:12different feel for him.
01:14I hope Jalen's not going to be intimidated by this because it's going to feel different
01:17than it did during the regular season.
01:19But we talk about all these other guys having to do their jobs.
01:22Let's be honest.
01:23Jalen has to lead the way.
01:24He's been that guy all year.
01:26Here's CJ McCollum about playing in the garden.
01:28I don't think it's intimidating, man.
01:30I think it's just like, it's a really cool opportunity.
01:33And the history of the arena, I've been to playoff games there.
01:36I've watched.
01:37I went to Knicks, Miami in 2023 after I got a surgery on my hand and just sat as a
01:41fan.
01:41And it's peak basketball, right?
01:43You have entertainment and basketball kind of intersecting, right?
01:45Obviously, you have the celebrity role.
01:47You have the organ playing.
01:48You have the music.
01:49I mean, the hot dogs, the popcorn, the popcorn, and it's Broadway, baby.
01:54But I think for us as competitors, it's fun.
01:57You relish the opportunity to play on the main stage, you know, play against a quality opponent
02:02who has championship hopes and aspirations.
02:04And there's nothing better than beating somebody on their home floor.
02:06So I think for us, it's just about having fun with it, embracing the moment, and embracing
02:10the opportunity, but also understanding that at the end of the day, it's a game we've played
02:13our whole lives.
02:14And I think that's what's, you know, important about these situations.
02:17And that's why I'm so loose and so free.
02:20And that's the thing.
02:21He's been there.
02:22He's been in the battles in the Western Conference, going all the way to the finals with Blazers
02:25and playing with Dane.
02:26We talked about that in the conversation.
02:28And, you know, but how does Jalen and how does, you know, Nikhil Alexander-Walker has been
02:31in that pressure cooker, albeit off the bench with Minnesota, but he's been there.
02:34For Jalen, yes, he's been on the bench or on the games for the play-in, but this is,
02:38as we said, the Mecca.
02:39Different vibe.
02:40Interesting factoid, maybe it gives you some hope, Carl, for getting the split on the road.
02:44The road team has won every game this year between the Knicks and the Hawks.
02:47Interesting.
02:47Knicks are 2-1.
02:50Goodness.
02:51Yeah.
02:52Yeah.
02:52Yeah.
02:53I mean, so, you know, if you see all the people that will be there, all the rock stars
02:57and, you know, everything from Ben Stiller.
02:59We wears the same outfit every time now.
03:01It feels that way.
03:01Black jacket.
03:02But anyway.
03:03Chris Rock.
03:03Chris Rock.
03:04Tracy Morgan.
03:05Yeah.
03:05And, of course, you know, you know who's going to be there.
03:08You know, Skip, I mean, you're going to be, I'm just going brain dead.
03:12I'm just, uh, Morehouse man, legendary director.
03:15Spike!
03:15Spike!
03:15Sorry, I was going to say Skip.
03:17Skip!
03:19Spike Lee will be there, of course.
03:20Now, how outlandish will his Knicks outfit entire be?
03:23It is the Mecca.
03:24And, again, as a kid who grew up going there, of course, those games, a little bit different.
03:27And that's, I saw Michael Jordan stick it to the Knicks every which way you could, you know,
03:32including 45 coming back.
03:34And remember that word?
03:34Remember 45?
03:35Oh, yeah.
03:35When he's 50 on the Knicks, the comeback?
03:36Like, one minute he's playing for the Barons, the next minute he's back in the NBA.
03:39And he's wearing four or five!
03:40Yeah, I watched that.
03:41I wasn't able to see that one.
03:42I was not in person for that one.
03:44It was on TV.
03:44But, no, the Knicks, big comeback from Atlanta.
03:47I'm reading this.
03:47This is from the review from SNY, which covers the Knicks.
03:50And they're talking about how, you know, the transition, the thing we talked about,
03:53the fast tempo that we want to go with.
03:55You know, Okonga going for 31 points.
03:58Hey, we haven't really talked about it.
03:59If he can be...
04:00No, we haven't.
04:01No, again, I have to address the non-positional basketball that we play.
04:05But, hey, if you can't beat him in the inside, then take it outside and score another point, right?
04:08Yeah, look, you're right.
04:09We haven't talked about double-O.
04:12But he's also got to play a big factor.
04:14And I think, Mike, like, I'm not going to say you've got one job.
04:16But he's got to help keep these boards under control.
04:19You talk about putting a body on somebody, blocking guys out.
04:22Again, I get back to this, and I will stress it.
04:24They are a very good rebounding team, man.
04:26And if we don't do a good job there, they're going to kill us on the glass.
04:29And that means limited opportunities on the offensive end.
04:33And then for them on offense, it means more possessions.
04:35How about Okongu?
04:37Yes, double-O.
04:38Yes, I agree with you.
04:39404-726-0929.
04:41You guys will be on this.
04:42This whole thing, I get it.
04:44Let the game come to you.
04:45But I also feel like, Jalen, this is your first opportunity.
04:49You need to get comfortable in this.
04:50And the way you do that, Mike, is to be aggressive.
04:53Get to the line a couple of times early, right?
04:55Make them play defense on you and not just, oh, what are you going to do?
04:59Okay, I don't want to take this shot.
05:00I'm going to pass it.
05:01And they double-teamed him.
05:02Well, that means to kill Alexander Walker.
05:04You know, like Dyson Daniels, you don't really like him taking the jump shots,
05:07but he can.
05:08He's a streaky guy in between, but he's there for defense.
05:11But they will let him shoot that.
05:12Correct.
05:13But that's where Nikhil Alexander, and this gets back to Kaminga, as we have already learned,
05:17is a real wild card with his jump shot, especially his three-point shot.
05:21Do we see something different where maybe, now, if you go small against the Knicks,
05:26they're just going to feed it to the post.
05:27That's why you and I were debating.
05:29Would you have Jalen Johnson, Kaminga in there, right?
05:32Along with Nikhil Alexander-Walker, C.J. McCollum, I mean.
05:35You know what's funny?
05:36And you brought up this, you said to me, the other day.
05:38Do you just put Dyson on Jalen Brunson?
05:40The whole game.
05:41You know what?
05:42And again, I don't know what the injury situation is.
05:44If Kaminga was 100, I'd like to see him match up with Jalen Brunson.
05:51Athletically, Mike, he's more athletic than Brunson is.
05:54He can stay with him, and he can be aggressive.
05:56I know Dyson is technically our best defender, but I'm saying, like,
05:59you really want to switch things up.
06:00He's a little bit bigger than Jalen, too.
06:02But I don't know if that's part of this game plan for him, because, again,
06:05he's been playing limited minutes.
06:07And by the way, speaking of minutes, has Tony Bradley played, been playing for the Hawks?
06:11He played a couple minutes.
06:12Yeah, because Tony, he's the guy we signed Veterans Center, because, you know,
06:15the Jock Landale injury is still an injury, and he's not going to be available,
06:18it looks like, at least to start.
06:19The good news is the series takes a month.
06:21So we talked about that earlier.
06:23It'll take three Saturdays to get this thing done.
06:24Well, and the reason why I bring that Kaminga thing up is because
06:27whoever is chasing Jalen Brunson, and you're going to be chasing him
06:30the whole damn series, it takes away from your offense.
06:33So the reason why the Dyson thing, look, we don't need Dyson to score 25 every game.
06:37We might need a game with him to do that.
06:39But who's ever chasing him around, Mike, that's the effort.
06:41That's what it's going to take.
06:42Sometimes that takes away from your offense when you're playing the other team's
06:45best defender or offensive player, and that's why you don't want to put
06:48your best offensive player on him.
06:50I'm not putting Jalen on him, because I need Jalen on the offensive end.
06:53So we'll see what Quinn Snyder does, but we've got some options, man.
06:57But again, so just for argument's sake, you've got Jalen, Nikhil Alexander-Walker,
07:02McCollum, Okongu, Kaminga.
07:03See, that's the thing, and you lose Dyson's defense.
07:05That's why.
07:05And if you take Okongu out, you're too short.
07:07No, I think he's going to come off the bench.
07:08And then they're going to beat you in the post, and Kaminga's still off the bench.
07:11It's hard to envision any rotation where he's on the floor with those guys.
07:14But when he is on the floor, do you put him on Jalen if he's still in the game?
07:18That's an interesting matchup.
07:19That's what I'm saying.
07:20You guys can let us know what you think.
07:21I think Jalen needs to be aggressive, and again, I'm not going to tell you he's got
07:24to score 38 every game.
07:26But if he establishes himself early, I think everything else opens up.
07:30But that's how we ask CJ, how do you handle it?
07:32We specifically asked in the interview, how do you handle it?
07:34We're going to replay it later in the week, guys, as we get closer to Saturday at the
07:36Garden.
07:37But how do you handle that pressure that you couldn't handle against the first game in
07:40Cleveland, the next game, where you started turning it over?
07:42And then who's taking the shot?
07:44And how does, as you said, they collapse on Jalen?
07:47And look, CJ had the look to send the damn game to overtime.
07:50It's crazy from half court.
07:52But anyway, again, the road team, as I mentioned, has won every time.
07:56Steal a game at the Garden, and there we go.
07:58And I'll be happy with that.
08:00I would be, too.
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