00:00All right, let's try and unpack what we just witnessed here at the Garden.
00:04The Knicks 137-98 win over the 76ers game one, and with ESPN's Vince Goodwill.
00:10I'm going to ask you the same thing I asked the fans outside of the Garden.
00:14You don't have to be rowdy like them, but I need one scrabble word
00:18to describe what we just saw game one and why.
00:22Let's say brilliant.
00:24You know, that's a triple word, triple word score.
00:27You know, you get all the extra bonuses.
00:30The dominance of tonight has just been continual since game four of the first round
00:35against Atlanta.
00:36Each game successively, even though the score may not have increased,
00:41but the quality of performance has gotten better each night,
00:44and this is supposed to be when you're playing your best.
00:47And for this game to be over at effectively halftime, that points to a couple things.
00:51One, the 76ers were emotionally spent after that seven-game series
00:55with the Boston Celtics, but that ain't the Knicks' problem.
00:57The Knicks' job is to come in and restore home court advantage,
01:01keep home court advantage, and to send a message.
01:03And I feel like they sent the message in game one with their dominance showing,
01:05and Knicks fans should be very proud and excited about the next couple of weeks.
01:10A lot of people are going to be proud of Jalen Brunson's performance,
01:1327 points in the first half.
01:15That's the second most in one half in Knicks' playoff history.
01:19Is it safe to say that this could be another Jalen Brunson legacy series?
01:24I mean, I don't know how many legacy series he has so far,
01:27but I think the important thing is now he's got the Atlanta Hawks musk off of him.
01:32Like, he was really shackled in that series.
01:34It was not a Jalen Brunson series, but it didn't have to be.
01:36This one may have to be a Jalen Brunson series with Tyrese Maxey on the other end of the floor.
01:42Paul George took his time at guarding him.
01:44And because of the fact that Philadelphia plays Joel Embiid in the drop defense,
01:48and we know how the Knicks like to play pick and roll,
01:50this is a matchup series for Jalen Brunson.
01:53He got a lot of open shots.
01:54He got down the lane.
01:56And if he's going to be the engine of this,
01:58then this is an easy series for him to hunt down shots, to hunt against Philadelphia.
02:03It's Philadelphia that has to make the adjustments.
02:05Now, a lot of times it was the Knicks making the adjustments to the Atlanta Hawks in round one.
02:10Now the Knicks are in the driver's seat.
02:12Now, granted, it's one game Philadelphia was beat by Boston by 30 in game one.
02:16They recovered, and the series went the way that it went.
02:19So the Knicks aren't going to relax.
02:20But I do think that Jalen Brunson has a matchup advantage, and I think the Knicks are going to exploit
02:24that.
02:25I love the way you use the word adjustments, another triple word score for you.
02:30Like charades, spades, scrabble.
02:32Let me know if you need a partner.
02:34But all of New York kind of went crazy and panicked after the game two and game three losses to
02:41the Hawks.
02:42A lot of people were calling for Mike Brown's job right there in the middle of a playoff run.
02:46They now have three straight playoff wins of 25-plus points.
02:52Mike Brown is a champion already.
02:55Is that something that's expected from a coach of his caliber, these adjustments that he's made?
03:00I don't know if the adjustments are supposed to yield into 30-point wins every other night in the playoffs
03:05when you're playing high-level competition.
03:07But when you can see the adjustments in real time, when you can see Carl Anthony Towns being the hub
03:12of the offense,
03:13when you can see him occupying Joel Embiid, when you can see what Philadelphia is trying to do to get
03:18Carl Towns off the floor,
03:19to get Mitchell Robinson off the floor.
03:20When you do hack a Mitchell Robinson in the first quarter, that's a sign of desperation when the game is
03:26supposed to be a fill-out process.
03:28This is game one of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
03:30You're supposed to trust your guys.
03:32And instead, Nick Nurse showed almost a little bit of his hand to say,
03:35I don't think we have answers for this, so we're going to go to this sort of last gasp tactic.
03:41And it didn't work.
03:42So from Mike Brown's perspective, every counter that Nick Nurse had, it seemed like Mike Brown was prepared for it.
03:48The staff was prepared for it.
03:49They took their time in the last four days of preparing for the Philadelphia 76ers in a way that they
03:54hadn't had to
03:55because they hadn't played each other since February.
03:58They had not seen Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, BJ Edge come together,
04:03and yet they looked like they were ready for him.
04:05And I think you have to give Mike Brown and his staff a whole lot of credit.
04:08They say it's not a series until the road team wins one away.
04:13What are you looking forward to most game two?
04:15I don't know who says that because game one started tonight.
04:17The series began.
04:18So I do think Philadelphia is going to be a little more emotionally ready.
04:22They pulled their starters two-and-a-half quarters in to try to get some rest.
04:2648 hours ago, they were in Boston.
04:2848 hours from now, it'll be game two.
04:30You wonder if they're going to have the energy to be ready.
04:32And now they know kind of what to expect a little bit from the Knicks.
04:35And now it's just a game of chess.
04:37Now we're courting.
04:38Now we're dancing.
04:39I think that's where we are now.
04:40Can't say checkmate just yet.
04:42We still got more games left to go in this series, including game two Wednesday night.
04:46Here, back here at the Garden.
04:48Vince, appreciate you hopping on.
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