00:00The Knicks win game five with ease here at the Garden.
00:0429-point win to get a chance to close things out in Atlanta on Thursday.
00:09Brandon London, Jared Short, Steph Bondi here.
00:11I'll start with the whole Jalen Brunson versus C.J. McCollum at the beginning of the series.
00:17It was retweetable.
00:19Now it seems like Jalen's ready to put this thing away.
00:22C.J. McCollum, six points this game.
00:24That includes two in the second half.
00:27Staff, is this Jalen Brunson series, Steph?
00:30Well, I mean, it was his game, that's for sure.
00:32I mean, 39 points, and what he did, it was vintage Jalen.
00:35That footwork, that playoff two feet that he learned at Villanova, that was on full display.
00:41And so this was the Jalen Brunson we were waiting for.
00:44I say up until this game, he was average at best.
00:47But he came through.
00:49This is the Jalen Brunson we're used to in the playoffs.
00:52And if he does this again, goodbye, Hawks.
00:54Good night, Hawks.
00:55Is his defense still a liability?
00:57It can be, but you can mask that.
00:59And the Hawks, quite frankly, the Hawks stink on offense right now.
01:02They played, what, six straight quarters where they can't score.
01:07So defense is not that much of an issue because the Hawks look like they can't shoot and they can't
01:12score.
01:13If Jalen Brunson is able to offensively do what he did tonight, like I said, the Knicks are advancing.
01:19Jarrett, 16-point win game four, 29-point win tonight.
01:23They've had leads in this series and they've blown them, lost those games.
01:27How are they able to close it out tonight?
01:29Look, right now the Knicks have the Hawks on the ropes and they're just landing right hook after right hook
01:34after right hook.
01:35I think over the last nine quarters, you know, games four and five in that fourth quarter of game three,
01:40they've outscored the Hawks by 52 points.
01:42So since, you know, since the middle of the series, this has been a bloodbath.
01:46It's been a rout.
01:49Look, the end of game three and game four, they've blown leads.
01:54But this is, you know, we saw when the Knicks are at their best, this is a mismatch.
02:02They look like it tonight.
02:05And Atlanta is a different story.
02:06But if they keep playing like this, it should continue to be a mismatch.
02:09You wrote about this Knicks team playing with a sense of urgency.
02:12I think you used the word desperation.
02:14Where are you seeing that most on the court?
02:17On the defensive end, you know, I think Kat said the biggest change from, you know, two one-point losses
02:22to now two routes in a row was the physicality on the defensive end.
02:26They've been limiting the Hawks in transition.
02:28That's where the Hawks like to thrive.
02:30And also, in the last two games, they've been bullying the Hawks in the paint.
02:34I think they had an 18-point advantage in points in the paint.
02:37That was an advantage we thought they'd have early in the series.
02:39It didn't always show up early in the series.
02:41It's certainly showing up right now.
02:43I want to say one thing, though, that we haven't touched on.
02:45Because you were talking about C.J. McCollum.
02:47Josh Hart has locked up C.J. McCollum.
02:49He's done a much better job on him than anybody else.
02:51Josh Hart also did not play the end of this game.
02:54Because what we think, we don't know, is a back injury.
02:58So that is something that bears watching.
03:01That's something that's going to be a storyline heading into game six.
03:04Josh Hart has been tremendous.
03:06He hasn't been shooting the ball well.
03:07But we talk about the defense.
03:09Him and OG Ananobi have been the top two defenders.
03:12And we don't know what happened to him and why he wasn't playing at the end of the game tonight.
03:16So we talk about, in that moment, next man up.
03:19Or a guy has to kind of pick up that slack.
03:21OG Ananobi has been on the absolute heater these last two games.
03:25I believe 7-10 and 10 tonight.
03:2722 points game four.
03:29Jalen Brunson called him one of a kind in the post-game press conference.
03:34What has made OG so special these last two games?
03:37Well, you know what?
03:38We always know about his defense.
03:39He's the best defender on the team.
03:41He's done that time and time again.
03:42I think the difference now is he's rebounding.
03:45And he needs to do that because, you know, he's the power forward in this lineup.
03:50You got Cat as the seven-footer.
03:52They're not playing Mitchell Robinson that much.
03:54It is on OG Ananobi to grab those defensive rebounds.
03:58Certainly when Cat is out of the picture and is dealing with his own man, boxing out his own man,
04:03OG Ananobi has done a tremendous job doing that.
04:05He finished with a double-double again tonight.
04:08Rebounding has been the surprise.
04:10And if I were to pick one player that has been the best, and obviously Jalen had the best game,
04:14but if I were to pick one player who's had the best series, it's OG Ananobi.
04:19What about Cat tonight?
04:20What did you see from him that kind of helped him kind of take this team on his back
04:25and be able to just score in free will?
04:29Yeah, I mean, in the first half.
04:30So what happened was he was kind of like a continuation of what happened in game four
04:35when he had the triple-double.
04:35They started feeding him in the pinch post, and he was making a bunch of plays.
04:39He looked like Magic.
04:41I wrote the other day after game four, there's a reason why he wears number 32.
04:45It's Magic Johnson.
04:46That's his inspiration.
04:47He loves the pass.
04:48He's a better passer than you would think.
04:51He was doing that again today.
04:53He's racking up the assist.
04:54He got another double-double with the rebounds.
04:57But in the second half, it became Jalen time, not Cat time.
05:00So they took turns, and they look like a dynamo tandem tonight.
05:04I had someone tell me when they were leaving, I hope the next time that they see me is game
05:10one here,
05:11not for game seven.
05:13Talk about the importance of the Knicks going down to Atlanta and closing this thing out in six.
05:19The rest is big.
05:20And as you saw today, the Celtics are potentially having a long series themselves.
05:25All of a sudden, the Knicks, who we thought had a harder first-round matchup, could gain an advantage with
05:31an extra game
05:31or an extra couple days of rest.
05:33Any place you can find an advantage over the Celtics is important.
05:38So closing it out here, not needing a do-or-die game seven where anything could happen, obviously very important.
05:44Brandon, you're predicting the Sixers are going to make the second round because game one here would only be against
05:49the Sixers.
05:49Game one against the Celtics would be in Boston.
05:52Okay.
05:53And I would be remiss if I didn't ask you for word as Bonnie.
05:56I got you here.
05:57Close this out.
05:58The people want to get home.
05:59Close this out, man, with your final thoughts going into game six.
06:02My final thoughts are the Knicks are the better team.
06:04And they should wrap this up.
06:06And, you know, like Jared was saying, you got the Celtics waiting.
06:10That was always a team.
06:11I mean, now the Pistons are, I mean, they look beyond vulnerable.
06:16The Pistons don't look like the team you have to beat.
06:18The Celtics are always the team you have to beat.
06:20You want to get as much rest as possible going into that potential second round matchup.
06:25So they got to handle business and they should.
06:27All right.
06:27Let's hope they can wrap it up in six.
06:29We're going to wrap this thing up here now.
06:31Guys, appreciate you guys hopping on with this.
06:33All right, man.
Comments