00:00They say it ain't a series until the road team wins one.
00:03The Atlanta Hawks are able to pull off the upset here at Madison Square Garden and take game two.
00:08Our New York Post sports columnist Mike McCarroll is here to talk and break down what we just saw just
00:14now
00:14because the Knicks broke down in the fourth quarter like they're breaking down the court behind us.
00:19We'll start with the McCall Bridges buzzer beater, not the one at halftime where he hit.
00:24We'll talk about the one that he wasn't able to hit to win the game.
00:28Mike Brown was asked about it, and he said that he had no problem with the shot.
00:34You know what? I usually like the go so they can't put in their best defenders and all that other
00:40stuff.
00:43Five to seven seconds is close.
00:47It would have been by gut feel, but there is a chance I could have taken a timeout.
00:52And then if I had one, and then there's a chance I wouldn't have.
00:55I thought it was a good shot.
00:57And McCall got up the floor.
01:00I thought he got to his spot.
01:01He was a little off balance.
01:05But, like, I don't think the shot was under a ton of duress.
01:10You know, that's shots that he's hit for us in the past.
01:14All right, a coach is going to stick up for his players.
01:16But, Mike, you're not Mike Brown.
01:19You're Mike McCarroll.
01:20What did you think of McCall Bridges' last shot?
01:22Look, it was as good a shot as I guess you could hope for in that situation.
01:25It's a miracle they had a chance to win it.
01:27And it was a clear look.
01:29You know, I think if I was Josh Hart, I might have, you know, as good as he is in
01:32negotiating the court, you know, coast to coast, I might have gone with that.
01:37But, you know, with the seconds running down, sometimes you have to take what you can get.
01:41You got a clean look.
01:43You know, it didn't go in.
01:44And that would have been a miracle of rescue from a real problematic fourth quarter, though.
01:48Yeah, Mike Brown is taking a lot of heat.
01:50People saying that, oh, he should have called a timeout there.
01:53There was an error on the broadcast.
01:55The Knicks had no timeouts at that time.
01:57But that's not the thing that he should be taking heat for, the timeout.
02:02A lot of people, he's taking a lot of heat on, I guess, Twitter, X, social media.
02:07A lot of Twitter basketball coaches out there don't like the lineups that he had in the fourth quarter.
02:13Are you team Mike Brown on this one or are you team Twitter basketball coaches?
02:17No, I think he has to go away from those long stretches where he has neither Brunson nor Cat on
02:22the floor because, especially in the first quarter, I mean, in the first half, they allowed the Hawks to come
02:27right back and take a lead.
02:28And the same thing happened in the fourth quarter where those two weren't on the court.
02:32I know there was foul trouble later on.
02:33But, look, I mean, the other guys on the floor have to step up, and if they're not going to,
02:37it's going to be a real problem.
02:38I mean, they could have, in both situations, the Hawks were primed to kind of let go of the rope
02:43a little bit.
02:44And they never did, and that's what happens.
02:46You know, you stick around long enough, you have a chance to pull off a miracle, and the Hawks did
02:50that tonight.
02:51Jalen Brunson and C.J. McCollum had a little Game 1 drama, no pun intended, about the acting and the
02:56theatrics.
02:57But these two went at it all night, and they gave us what playoff basketball and competitors are all about.
03:06C.J. McCollum was able to best him, get the win here.
03:10The bleep Trey Youngs changed to bleep you, C.J., but it seemed like he absolutely turned on when the
03:20Knicks crowd turned on him.
03:23Is C.J. McCollum the new villain here at Madison Square Garden?
03:27Well, look, if the Hawks win this series, they're going to probably hang Wanton posters with his picture on it
03:31all across the garden.
03:33Yeah, look, I mean, he was terrific.
03:35Brunson, not so much.
03:36Look, the fourth quarters usually belong to Jalen.
03:38This one did not.
03:39In fact, McCollum, you know, outplayed him up and down the floor, both sides of the floor.
03:44Missed those two free throws to give it a chance.
03:46But other than that, he was superb.
03:49Jalen, not so much, you know, it's round two to McCollum, round two to the Hawks.
03:53Were you surprised that McCollum was going after Jalen Brunson when he saw that he was guarding him?
03:58No, it wasn't because, look, he's a confident guy.
04:01He's the guy the Hawks are going to rely on the rest of the series, too.
04:03I realize he's not really necessarily their best player, but he's certainly the one that I want to go to
04:08in the playoffs.
04:08He's got the experience.
04:10He's an old-timer who understands how to play in these games.
04:13And tonight he showed everybody that he still could.
04:15Today in the post-game availability, he said that he wasn't a villain.
04:18He said he's a nice guy.
04:19He's got a wife and two kids.
04:20I said, all right, you're a competitor.
04:22We saw a competitor step up and hit some big shots at the guard when the game mattered for them.
04:28All right, Mike, packing up.
04:30Got to get some lemon pepper wings down in Atlanta.
04:32Game three on Thursday.
04:34What adjustments do you feel as though Mike Brown and the Knicks have to make in order to pull that
04:40one off?
04:40Look, they have to make sure that they have at least one of their prime guys on the floor at
04:44all times, unless there's crazy foul trouble.
04:48And I think that's something he really has to adjust.
04:50Look, right now the bench is playing poorly.
04:53I was surprised that Jordan Clarkson didn't get as much run in the second half as he did, especially with
04:58those other players,
04:58because he's the one guy on offense who seems to have a little bit of confidence.
05:01So I don't have any problem or any worry about the Knicks where they've got the starters on the floor.
05:05But you can't play them all 48, and that's when the issue is going to start.
05:08All right, thanks, Mike, for joining us for this post-game report.
05:11We got Hawks-Knicks game three down in the A on Thursday night.
05:16All right, Steph, we've got to talk about Mikael Bridges.
05:19Hits the buzzer beater at halftime or to go into the half, but doesn't hit the one for the win
05:24for game two.
05:25Mike Brown said he didn't have a problem with the shot.
05:28What were your thoughts on it?
05:29Yeah, I mean, listen, it was a good look.
05:31The problem I had was it shouldn't be him taking that shot.
05:35I mean, there's nothing that suggests that Mikael Bridges is going to make that shot.
05:38In fact, a year ago against the Troyton game two, he missed four clutch shots.
05:44And, you know, the big problem I had was they didn't have a timeout left to get the ball in
05:51Jalen Bruns's hands.
05:53And that was completely on Mike Brown because he had the use it or lose it timeout with three minutes
05:58left.
05:59He didn't use it.
06:00Then he used the timeout 17 seconds later because the offense was stalling.
06:05The offense was already stalling.
06:06So he mismanages timeouts there.
06:09They could have had one with 5.6 seconds left to set up their captain clutch, Jalen Brunson.
06:15The look was good still.
06:18I just, to me, it was the wrong person taking it.
06:21It should always be Jalen Brunson with the ball in his hands.
06:23Well, we know every Mike Brown decision is going to be under a microscope throughout the course of the postseason.
06:29Obviously, he's taking heat for the timeouts like you just said.
06:32But he's also taking heat online as well for the lineups in the fourth quarter.
06:37What are your thoughts on the lineups he decided to go with during clutch time?
06:43So which lineup do you have a problem with?
06:44Not having Cat on the floor with Jalen Brunson.
06:49Taking Jalen Brunson out and having some of those guys in there.
06:51Yeah, I mean, there was different stretches when he could have, when it was kind of silly to not have
06:57one of those guys on the floor.
06:58In the past, he staggered them.
07:00And it makes sense if you take your two best offensive players off the floor at the same time, the
07:05offense is going to struggle.
07:06So there were, like, you know, I understand why, like, game one, that reserve group actually were the ones that
07:16carried the lead in the beginning of the fourth quarter
07:19and kind of gave the Knicks the advantage.
07:21So, you know, I got to really take a look at his timeout rotation, I mean, his fourth quarter rotations
07:26before I dissect them.
07:27I didn't have a problem with it.
07:29It was all the social media head coaches that had a problem with it.
07:31So I had to bring that to you.
07:34CJ McCullough, we saw the back and forth between both he and Jalen Brunson.
07:37Obviously, the incident in game one, it was something that everyone was going to keep an eye out on, and
07:43those two being competitors.
07:45CJ was able to kind of best Jalen tonight.
07:48Obviously, he didn't hit the two free throws he wanted at the end.
07:52But CJ McCullough, is he the new garden here at, I mean, is he the new villain here at Madison
07:58Square Garden?
07:59Yeah, I mean, he's approaching that status, and he definitely outplayed Jalen Brunson.
08:04He hunted Jalen Brunson.
08:06He wanted Jalen Brunson in the matchup down the stretch.
08:09They purposely went to those screens to get that switch, and there were two possessions down the stretch,
08:15one with, like, 209 left, another with, like, 130 left, where he just crossed them up and went by them.
08:21And then the one with 130 left, Jalen did that weak thing.
08:24You know when the guy gets value real quick, and then you reach around, like, oh, I can beat, let
08:28me try to steal it?
08:28Yeah.
08:29It was just some weak defense from him.
08:31He admitted it.
08:33Jalen admitted it.
08:34He needs to do a better job.
08:38Garden, CJ McCullough, because they're going to keep looking for that switch,
08:40because Jalen in that alignment is the weak link defensively,
08:45and the Hawks are going to try to, you know, try to use that to their advantage.
08:52Man, and CJ in the post-game availability said he wanted that matchup at the end with him and Jalen
08:58Brunson.
08:59All right, a lot to unpack.
09:00We just unpacked a lot from game two.
09:03Now we head down to Atlanta for game three.
09:06What adjustments do you feel like Mike Brown has to make for this team to go in and steal game
09:12three?
09:13You know, they need to figure out CJ McCollum,
09:16because everything else they've had a good counter and situation for.
09:22Josh Hart has done a real good job on Jalen Johnson.
09:26Mikael Bridges has done a really good job defending Nikhil, Alexander Walker.
09:30The problem has been CJ McCollum, and when they do that guard-on-guard screens
09:35and get that matchup with Jalen Brunson, that's been a problem since game one.
09:40That reared its head, you know, down the stretch tonight.
09:44So that seems like the biggest glaring issue that they need to solve.
09:48All right, the Hawks take game two.
09:50We've got game three Thursday night.
09:52Steph Bonney, appreciate you joining us.
09:54Yeah, man.
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