00:00We took this game.
00:02Bingo.
00:03They allowed themselves to turn it over.
00:05We had 20 points off of 18 turnovers, and everybody wants to,
00:08in New York especially, hi, New York, everybody wants to say,
00:11well, we choked the game away.
00:13We lost the game.
00:14We should have won the game.
00:15Wah, wah, wah.
00:17We took the game.
00:18And you take a game, Mike, by upping your intensity on the defensive end,
00:22by making the shots you need to make late in the game,
00:25and having what we always talk about on this show, clutch.
00:29Last night, C.J. McCollum put it on Jalen Brunson's ass, okay?
00:33Plain and simple.
00:34For everybody who wants to talk about Brunson and what he is,
00:36and he's a great player, C.J. Mike took it personal and said,
00:40I got this.
00:41One-on-one, I'm taking you to the rack.
00:43There's nothing you can do about it.
00:44Brunson got exposed last night.
00:46Seriously.
00:47And, look, Brunson is a gamer.
00:49He knows how to work the refs.
00:50He knows how to fake the contact.
00:52My God, the Knicks, it was like a master class in flopping with the refs buying.
00:58That's another thing we had.
00:59Now, the foul calls themselves were pretty much even,
01:01but the Knicks had about four or five trips to the line that never should have happened.
01:04That's right.
01:05You know, let alone stuff to get reviewed.
01:06We lost our review because we challenged.
01:08We couldn't get that.
01:09I mean, they're setting illegal screens every time down.
01:12They're flopping.
01:13But Brunson, with that stupid face of his, Carl, we can say it,
01:17because gosh knows the Knicks fans have no class.
01:19You know, just bellyaching and just working the refs all day long.
01:22Go right at him.
01:23This is why Trey Young is in here.
01:26Short point guards are defensive liability.
01:28And I love it because, you know, I said it.
01:31You know, Mike Brown, what's going to happen to Mr. Potato Head, right?
01:34How is he going to handle the pressure?
01:36What's he going to do now?
01:38You're going to move Josh Hart onto McCollum?
01:40And then maybe things open up for Josh.
01:42All of a sudden, Jalen Johnson opens up.
01:43So all of a sudden, we went from, like, worried about the height,
01:46worried about the half court, worried about their defensive pressure,
01:48and they just evaporated.
01:50They did the same thing against the Pacers guys early in the series.
01:54They should have won that series in six games.
01:56They choked it away early at the Garden.
01:58They did it again.
01:58So we know they can do it here in Atlanta.
02:00Let's keep the pressure on.
02:01Don't give up your tickets.
02:02Don't sell your freaking tickets.
02:04No, no, no.
02:06If you have tickets, show up.
02:08Be loud.
02:09Be proud.
02:10404-726-0929.
02:12Phone lines are open because we do want to hear from you.
02:16And if this doesn't give you the confidence to buy into where this Hawks team
02:20is going, look, no one is telling you on this show that we are going to win
02:24the chip.
02:24But what we are telling you is our general manager has done some things to set
02:29this organization on the right track.
02:32And all of a sudden, the future is promising.
02:35We've got draft picks coming up.
02:37We already know about the young star power that's coming into its own.
02:40We now trust the general manager to go out and construct a team and say, hey, this is
02:45what the missing pieces are.
02:46And then let's give Quinn Snyder credit.
02:49I mean, look, I said this probably two or three weeks ago.
02:52He had four versions of this team.
02:54It was the Trae Young-Porzingis team.
02:56Then it was after that.
02:57Then the Trae deadline.
02:59He has had to adjust all season long.
03:01But yet he's made it work.
03:02And for everybody that's wondering what kind of coach he is, what did I say to you, Mike?
03:06We will find out in these playoffs.
03:07This is where you find out if you got a guy.
03:10And I like what Quinn Snyder's doing.
03:12I like the way this team responded.
03:14404-726-0929.
03:16A couple of things as we talk about Mike Brown.
03:18And look, these are Nick problems.
03:19But this is what Mike has been alluding to.
03:22For those of you who don't know, the timeout thing last night, okay?
03:25NBC screwed that up.
03:26They screwed it up.
03:28Didn't exist.
03:28It did not exist.
03:29They did not have one.
03:30But for those of you who are not familiar with NBA rules, I just want to explain it real quick,
03:34okay?
03:35It is use it or lose it.
03:37And teams are limited to just two timeouts in the final three minutes of a game.
03:42Now, to take you back to last night, New York used its second-to-last timeout of the game
03:48with about two minutes, 43 seconds left.
03:50Brunson was charging towards the basket.
03:52They called a timeout.
03:53Then their final timeout came with 10.2 seconds left after Jalen Johnson's dunk.
03:58That put the Hawks up four.
03:59It's why they didn't have a timeout to call when he should have to set up a shot for Jalen
04:06Brunson,
04:07who is their go-to guy.
04:08You mean Bridges shouldn't be taking the last shot of the game?
04:11Terrible coaching decision.
04:13That is on New York.
04:14That is on Mike Brown.
04:15But because he didn't have the timeout, they had to go.
04:18And that allowed Mikael Bridges to go down and take the shot, which, again, that's not the shot you want.
04:24Anybody in the NBA world will tell you ball should have been in Brunson's hands,
04:27but they didn't have the timeout to set it up.
04:29That is coaching.
04:31That is fundamentally a mistake by Mike Brown.
04:34And that is stuff that's going to come back to bite the Knicks.
04:37It's why Mike said, I don't trust him to get it done.
04:40If it's whether they move on or not, guys, is this series or the next,
04:43it's those little things that come back to bite you.
04:46Right.
04:46That's why I had a couple guys go, why are you calling that guy Mr. Potato Head?
04:49Because he's going to do this.
04:50He will do this.
04:52I mean, guys, it's happened before.
04:54Yes, he won coaching Steve Kerr's team that was an all-star team one year, okay,
04:58when Steve Kerr was dealing with his health issues.
05:00But come on, real talk.
05:02You know, he has done this before.
05:04So in the case of the Knicks, the pressure situation, they folded before.
05:09So they got better athletes.
05:10We still have no answer for Carl Anthony Towns.
05:12He takes one step to the basket.
05:13We can't stop it.
05:14You know, they were locking us down.
05:16Think about this.
05:17What happened to their defensive intensity?
05:19How they were locking us down?
05:20We couldn't take a step without somebody in somebody's back pocket.
05:23And all of a sudden, it just kind of evaporates.
05:25And then McCollum gets to the basket.
05:26One time he goes left.
05:27One time he goes right.
05:28You know, and you got certainly in Jonathan Kaminga, a dude who can use his athleticism to get to the
05:33He's not a consistent jump shooter, but he can get it under.
05:37He can scrawl in the paint.
05:38He can take it to the hole.
05:38Well, he did last night what he's good at.
05:41Slashing, right, and finishing.
05:45Kaminga's 19 points.
05:46Guys, did we not leave this show yesterday?
05:47I said, he's got to be the best six man.
05:49He was!
05:50He showed up.
05:51He played the entire fourth quarter.
05:53And Mike, to your point, by the way, about Rishashay, and I don't know what that's going
05:57to look like when the season's over or how they go about this.
06:00He didn't play a minute last night.
06:02And we were still the number one pick two years ago.
06:05Didn't play a minute in a playoff game.
06:09Right.
06:09And again, I say credit to Quinn.
06:11Quinn, I wasn't sure what Quinn was doing earlier in the year.
06:14Then we got the win streak.
06:14Then guys wrote up the win streak because we're playing, you know, teams that are going in
06:17the lottery.
06:18Now you're seeing the heart of this team.
06:19Carl started the show talking about it.
06:21We nearly won game one.
06:23We just won game two.
06:24And we haven't put four quarters together.
06:26Not even close to what this team is capable of.
06:28Yeah.
06:28I'm excited about where this can go.
06:31And by the way, if you are riding around right now, 285, 400, 20, I don't care what
06:37highway you're on or where you're at.
06:38If you don't think the Hawks have a chance to win this series, you're wrong.
06:43Everybody's going to tell you that the Knicks are better.
06:45And on paper, they are.
06:47But on paper, doesn't win in the real world.
06:50This is why they play the games.
06:52And right now, with the confidence that we have coming back and yet to have played our
06:57best game, if you don't feel like the Hawks could find a way to win this series, you're
07:00wrong.
07:01Now, will they?
07:02Mike, this is where it's about to...
07:04Look, and by the way, the one guy that we've all been impressed with, no, Nikhil Alexander,
07:11he's going to find it, guys.
07:12He will get going.
07:14If he does, and when he does, Mike, and it may be game three, it may be game four, this
07:18thing is going to look completely different.
07:20He's had two bad shooting opportunities up there at the Garden, partly because of the way
07:24they tried to defend him.
07:25I think they put a bigger defender on him.
07:27But that's neither here nor there.
07:28He's going to find it.
07:29And I feel like if we get Thursday night, you talk about pressure.
07:35Right on.
07:35Big time, man.
07:36Look, the Knicks, you understand the pressure cooker and the fan base.
07:39I put the link up with our buddy Sal Licata from up in New York.
07:43The Knicks gotta stop this.
07:45Fans, stop this.
07:46You did it with Trey, and now you created a villain when they'll call him and he's killing
07:50us.
07:52Full disclosure, I was just telling Carl before we came on the air, guys, been here 20 years,
07:57you can't help where you're born.
07:58I told Carl, I was talking to a buddy of mine that was there last night, I go, when did
08:01we become like WWE wrestling fans?
08:03You know, the guys I grew up with in the Garden.
08:05I go, the Maniacs, they're outside the Garden on 7th Avenue.
08:08Knicks in five!
08:09Knicks in five!
08:10Okay, well, keep convincing yourself that.
08:12Bunch of mutants.
08:13Half of the money seats took off with 10 seconds left in the game.
08:16A lot of money to spend to be walking out early.
08:19Damn skippy.
08:20$10,000 a seat?
08:22You know what?
08:23I'm in there until they tell me to leave.
08:24Hey, man, we got plenty to dive into today.
08:28Coming up, we're going to talk to our buddy Tony Gwynn Jr.
08:31But if you have a Hawks thought, please hit us up because we want to talk to you today
08:35on the show.
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