00:00The Knicks are down 2-1.
00:02The Knicks are down 2-1.
00:04Here's the odd bit of it, though.
00:06They've lost consecutive games by a point.
00:12And I feel as if all of the panic and trade everybody
00:18and fire everybody's stuff, none of it would exist
00:22if they won one of these games by a point.
00:25I understand they didn't.
00:26But it's not like they're wildly outmatched.
00:28There's just a lot of pressure right now on the New York Knicks
00:32to break through.
00:34And there's a lot of people who certainly could be at fault.
00:40Coach, what has been your biggest takeaway
00:42from the first three games of Knicks-Hawks?
00:46The decision-making of Mike Brown has come to the forefront
00:52to the point where there's immense pressure.
00:54Listen, I texted Ian Begley this morning last night.
01:00I said, is this guy really in trouble?
01:02If they lose, he goes, yeah, he's probably going to be the fall guy.
01:05Which, there's going to be panic in New York
01:07because there always is panic in New York.
01:10There's panic in New York when they're not good.
01:12But now when they're good and expected to win,
01:14if they don't win, you're going to see fireworks.
01:17And it was just interesting.
01:20As crazy as it sounds, Kevin, the Knicks are literally, what,
01:2430 seconds away from being up 3-0.
01:27But when you lose the way you lose the last two games,
01:31with Brunson dominating the ball, not sharing it,
01:35and making just terrible decisions,
01:38and then being a cone defensively, he's got to get some heat.
01:43Mikel Bridges and his 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 first-round picks he was giving up,
01:48he's been a hot mess.
01:49Josh Hart hasn't been good.
01:50But I want to take people back to the last possession.
01:56You have CJ McCollum, who when he gets Brunson, is hunting Brunson.
02:01So you take him out of the game with Cap,
02:04and you put Deuce McBride on him.
02:08Now, Deuce had a nice game, did some things.
02:11But isn't this why you got OG Ananobi and Mikel Bridges?
02:16Isn't this why you sat Mitchell Robinson for long stretches
02:20and didn't play him big minutes and didn't play him back-to-backs?
02:23Why is Mitchell Robinson not on the floor?
02:25Why isn't Ananobi guarding McCollum?
02:28Like, if you say, all right, fine, then Bridges takes McCollum,
02:33you put, obviously, Okongo being guarded by Mitch,
02:36and then you put OG on Johnson.
02:39Everybody in the world knew the ball was going to CJ McCollum,
02:43except the Knicks staff.
02:45And they have immense pressure on them today.
02:50And you're going to find out a lot about this core of New York.
02:55And I'm not talking Cat and OG.
03:00I'm talking the Villanova boys.
03:02Oh, yeah.
03:03Because the blame now is going away from Cat, right?
03:07Yeah, of course.
03:08And it's going right to the Nova guys, and it should be as well.
03:13Yeah.
03:14No, no, no.
03:14And it has been now two years of a lot of Knick fans, not coach,
03:24a lot of Knick fans wanting to blame every single thing on Karl-Anthony Towns.
03:29Everything's Cat's fault.
03:30Brunson can do no wrong.
03:33Karl-Anthony Towns, again, has been the better of the two superstars
03:39compared to Brunson throughout the regular season, just like last year.
03:42But in the postseason, it's supposed to be Brunson's moment
03:45because he takes every single shot, dribbles every possession, da-da-da-da-da.
03:48Well, last game, Karl-Anthony Towns was a plus 22.
03:54Why is he only out there for 34 minutes?
03:56What's going on?
03:57Okay?
03:58At this point, people are wondering what the offseason move should be.
04:02You know what?
04:03It's Cat's team.
04:04Villanova guys are out.
04:06Find a way to get Devin Booker here and bring me the Harrison twins.
04:08Let John Calipari coach the team.
04:10We're going to make this the Kentucky Knicks.
04:12We try the Villanova one.
04:15It's crazy how this group operates
04:22because there is a lack of comfortability here
04:27with so many of the guys.
04:30It has never, to me, felt as if Cat has truly clicked with this group
04:37in the way that he should, considering I think he's actually their best player.
04:42It is interesting the pressure that McCall Bridges is faced with
04:47because he was traded for a Giannis amount of draft picks
04:53and draft capital to make this Villanova core all come together.
05:00It's been fascinating to watch Brunson's status drop the way it has.
05:07The one thing you expected were Knicks fans never to point the finger at him.
05:11They have no choice
05:13because CJ McCollum is putting him on an island
05:16and winning the matchup.
05:18That can't happen.
05:21Like, we're going to talk Jokic-Gobert.
05:24At least Rudy Gobert is one of the all-time great defensive players.
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