00:00Every NBA playoff series needs a good guy and it needs a villain.
00:05Jalen Brunson, he's the good guy.
00:07CJ McCollum, he's now the villain.
00:09But does the good guy win the series?
00:12Let's talk storylines heading into Game 3 with Alex Jotaros of Knicks Fan TV.
00:18Alex, we finally got you back on, my man.
00:20Appreciate you hopping back on.
00:21It's like a comic book right now because what we have is a classic case of good versus evil.
00:27And Dr. Evil has been on fire two games into this series.
00:31Now I was right there post-game with a reporter asked CJ McCollum
00:36if he both hunted and liked the matchup against Jalen Brunson.
00:40I'm going to play CJ's response and then I'm going to get your reaction to it.
00:44It was like you were maybe intentionally not looking to get that matchup against Jalen.
00:48I know you said it's not about beating him, but did you like what you had in that?
00:51It was one-on-one scenarios where we get to the room.
00:53What do you think?
00:55What do you think?
00:57Yeah.
00:58Yeah.
00:59All right, Alex.
01:01We know what Jalen Brunson brings to the offense, to this team, and to this city.
01:05But is he a liability on defense this series?
01:10Yeah, man.
01:10He is a liability on defense.
01:12But we've known that this entire time that he's been here.
01:14You know, in the past we've had Mitchell Robinson starting as your starting center,
01:18which is able to, you know, stop any guard getting past him and really attacking the rim.
01:23But if you're going to have Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns out there, then we know we're
01:27going to be at a defensive disadvantage.
01:30So for Jalen Brunson being hunted in this series, I'm not surprised.
01:33And that's what they're looking for, man.
01:35CJ, as you mentioned, is doing what Brunson would be doing to them.
01:38And he's doing it at a very high level.
01:40Now, to stop all that, you either, if you're not going to go to, here's the big thing, Brandon.
01:45Here's the big thing.
01:46If you're not going to go to Carl Anthony Towns late in that quarter, especially since
01:50game two is the one that we're focusing on.
01:51If you're not going to utilize him to be punishing the Hawks defense for the lack of bigs, then
01:57you got to get Mitchell Robinson out there if you're not looking to utilize your big man
02:00in that manner.
02:01So that way you can protect Jalen Brunson.
02:03But if you're going to have both of them out there and you're not going to use Carl Anthony
02:05Towns, then you're going to leave Jalen Brunson at a disadvantage, especially with the way
02:09that the wing defenders have been guarding Brunson this series.
02:12Yeah, we're talking about a CJ McCollum averaging 29 points on 55% shooting in the opening two games.
02:20The man wants that smoke and you kind of already, you've led me into the next question and I
02:25want you to go into even more detail on this one.
02:28Tell us, tell us how Mike Brown or what Mike Brown should do to protect Jalen Brunson.
02:34Can the X's and O's truly protect the Jimmy and Joe in this situation or is it just playoff
02:41basketball?
02:41My man's got to step up.
02:44There are X's and O's that Mike Brown can, you know, certainly utilize.
02:47I think one, if you're going to, like I said, if you're going to have Carl Anthony Towns not be
02:51utilized in the offense, just get Mitchell Robinson out there, man.
02:55The Hawks do not have a legitimate center that can stop either Carl Anthony Towns or Mitchell
03:00Robinson, both giving you impact on different ends, right?
03:03Cats been playing very well defensively, but offensively, Onyeka Nkong was not going to
03:07stop him.
03:08Who?
03:08Bradley's going to stop him.
03:10No one's going to stop this man.
03:11Even when Jock Landale comes back, if he does come back, he's not going to stop him either.
03:14And so with that, look, you got to utilize Carl Anthony Towns why he's out there offensively
03:20for Mitchell Robinson.
03:21No one's going to match his defensive intensity either.
03:24And especially if you want to protect Brunson on pick and rolls, Mitchell Robinson is a center
03:28that can guard the pick and roll very well.
03:31His athletic ability, his lateral movement, his verticality.
03:34He's going to deter guys like CJ McCollum, Nikhil Alexander Walker, Jalen Johnson from attacking
03:40the rim.
03:40So if you're going to have Brunson out there and you want him to be the true focal point of
03:44the offense and you're not going to get Carl Anthony Towns involved, then you got to go
03:48with Mitchell Robinson because he's going to be the five that protects Jalen Brunson dramatically.
03:52And of course, you got to round it out with Josh Hart, OG Ananobi, Mikal Bridges.
03:56Those guys have been doing a good job defensively as well.
03:59So if you put Mitchell Robinson out there and you want Brunson to be that focused guy offensively,
04:04that will help a lot of problems right there.
04:06So it seems like game three struggles just doesn't or has doesn't surprise you because
04:10you talk about Jalen Brunson being a liability on defense, you already knew that cat needing
04:16to be utilized more in crunch time.
04:19You already knew that, but I want you to listen to this clip about how someone talking about
04:23how cat disappeared in crunch time game three.
04:26And again, I'm going to get your response to that in the second half.
04:30Some of you were, you were in a good, pretty good rhythm.
04:32And then in fourth quarter, it didn't, you weren't as productive.
04:35I think you might've got one shot.
04:37What did you feel?
04:38I know you had to watch the table.
04:39What did you feel when you were out there?
04:42I just, you know, I, you know, the opportunity just didn't come around and, you know, shoot
04:48it.
04:48So, but at the end of the day, like I said, I trust everyone in this locker room to shoot
04:51the ball.
04:52It just, it didn't find, you know, the opportunity wasn't available for me in the
04:55fourth and it's fine.
04:56But these guys, you know, they broke on their games.
04:58I know they could shoot it 18 points at the middle of the third quarter and he didn't
05:02score a single bucket after that.
05:05You talked about how they can utilize them or get, get more action or production out of
05:10him in crunch time.
05:11But is that on the coach or is that on the player to stay hot during that time?
05:17It's on everybody involved, Brandon.
05:20There is no one that can miss this smoke when it comes to getting Carl Anthony Towns involved.
05:24Look, you're, we want to start, start from the top down from that being the head coach
05:30down to the individual player itself.
05:31Mike Brown is watching what's unfolding every single moment on that court, right?
05:36He, he should be fully engaged.
05:38And in game two, when you're seeing Jalen Brunson go hero ball for most of that fourth
05:44quarter, and he took the most shots, he took eight shots, if not more in that fourth quarter.
05:49And you saw that he was ineffective.
05:50I'm pretty sure he went three of four and those three shots.
05:54He got you six points down the end of the fourth quarter, critical threes, but you're
05:59allowing him to take a lot of shots.
06:00They didn't need or try to create for himself.
06:03They didn't need to.
06:03Now those eight shots did not truly encompass what he was doing that fourth quarter.
06:08He was trying to take on every single Atlanta Hawk wing defender by himself.
06:12Not a great outing for Jalen Brunson in that fourth quarter.
06:15He tried to get to go against Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nikhil Alexander Walker.
06:20How about in that fourth quarter?
06:21He tries to go against Nikhil Alexander Walker.
06:23Walker gets that strip leads to a Jalen Johnson dunk.
06:26I mean, you just can't do that, man.
06:27You got to keep your guys involved.
06:28I mean, if you're going to be that predictable, then guys are going to be able to set you up.
06:32So I look at Jalen Brunson as the number one guy that has to keep Caronty Towns involved.
06:36And we saw that that could work out perfectly with the pick and roll that they were doing
06:39in game one.
06:41Now, I mean, I just answered both of you for Mike Brown and Jalen Brunson right there, right?
06:46Like Mike Brown's got to be like, yo, Jalen, let's pull you aside.
06:50Don't, don't, don't go all in like that.
06:52But what your guy who's been killing, who had 14 points in that third quarter, man, he
06:57had 13 points.
06:58The man was an offensive rebounding machine, getting putbacks and everything.
07:01No one had an answer for him.
07:03If you're the head coach and you're the point guard, both of you got to come together by
07:06like, keep this guy involved.
07:07He's going to take us home.
07:09And then Caronty Towns.
07:10I mean, we saw that clip that's been flying around, man, where he's trying to post up
07:14Kaminga and he's just getting moved out to the perimeter.
07:17Kaminga legitimately moved him like he was a feather.
07:19And didn't let Caronty Towns get positioned on the block.
07:23That's a Towns thing right there.
07:25Fight, battle, get positioning on the block.
07:28I don't care if it's Kaminga.
07:29You have to give a little bit more effort than that.
07:32You can't be willing to let guys just move you around.
07:34On top of that, you got to be the other star on this team.
07:38You got to demand the rock.
07:39There's just some things like where you see like best players, man.
07:43And this is where like, even like when you saw Kobe and Shaq, right?
07:46And we all know about their disagreements.
07:49Shaq would say, yo, get me the damn ball.
07:52Get in the post.
07:52Get me the damn ball.
07:54And Caronty Towns has got to do that too, man.
07:56And he's just got to like, he's got to assert himself, man.
07:58So it's at all, it's at all phases.
08:00It's on the head coach for not saying to your point guard, hey, let's get this.
08:04Let's get Caronty Towns back involved.
08:06It's on Jalen Brunson for being a little too gun, like trigger happy, trying to beat everybody.
08:11It's on Caronty Towns, not asking for the ball enough.
08:13And just saying, you know what, forget the playbook.
08:16Let's go mano y mano.
08:18You're not going to stop me.
08:19Sounds like you want bloody nose cat back.
08:22Sounds like that's who the people, you remember how everybody in the city rallied behind him
08:26that game when he was banging down on the boards or whatever.
08:29He had that bloody nose or whatever.
08:31He had the scratch.
08:32And everybody was like, that's the Carl Anthony Towns we want to see.
08:35Not him getting pushed to the bridge by Kaminga.
08:40So, all right, they split the series 1-1 at the Garden.
08:44I'm going to be watching game three with some lemon pepper wings because they're down in the A.
08:49Let's get your game three thoughts, man.
08:52Well, game three, I think we're going to see a big Caronty Towns game.
08:56I think we're going to see the course correction.
08:58We know that Jalen Brunson doesn't have bad back-to-back bad games.
09:02I think he's going to look at the film.
09:04I think everyone's going to tell him, hey, you've got to keep Caronty Towns involved.
09:07And we've got to go back to what was working in game one, which is just sharing the rock, man.
09:11Sharing the rock.
09:12Sharing is caring, as Walt Clyde Frazier would say.
09:14I mean, getting guys working off ball like Hart, OG, Bridges, cutting to the basket,
09:19using Towns as a hub that we saw in that first game where he's working the high post.
09:24He's working at the top of the key with some dribble handoffs, working that pick and roll with Jalen Brunson,
09:28finding him cutting.
09:29I think we're going to see the overcorrection in this game for Caronty Towns.
09:33I expect Caronty Towns to have a big game three.
09:37And then we're going to just see this unfold right here where he's just punishing the entire Hawks defense
09:41because they don't have an answer for him.
09:43Nixon.
09:45Five.
09:46All right.
09:46There we go.
09:47Alex, appreciate you hopping on with this, bro.
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