00:00getting the banged up knicks head down i-95 and take game three in philly a lot of big name
00:06players that are listed on the injury report so let's talk all things knicks with jeff johnson
00:11of knicks film school jeff all right man uh getting to getting down to the gritty game three
00:17down in philly but like i said the knicks are a little banged up right now i'm gonna list some
00:22names for you and you tell me how you feel about it we got josh hart thumb sprain questionable
00:27mitch robinson illness probable og and anobi hamstring questionable which would be the
00:35bigger blow to the knicks if he can't go for game three i mean i think there's no argument really
00:43against og and anobi he hasn't only been the mvp of the knicks throughout this playoff so far
00:49he's one of the best players in the nba playoffs this year so you're talking about 21.7 boards
00:56off 61 percent shooting i mean he had an off night 60 percent only 60 percent in game two
01:02right but he's doing this also as a two-way demon on the defensive side the guy that mucks up
01:09all of
01:10your offensive schemes he's attacking the offensive glass and he's in the midst of one of the best if
01:16not the best stretches of his career so that hamstring injury that looks like it's not as serious as people
01:23thought it out to be that is a bullet that the knicks dodge so him not being there leaves a
01:28gaping
01:29hole in their starting lineup now you gotta worry about whether or not their depth can fill in for
01:36where og's gonna potentially miss so yeah i i think josh hart josh hart could have one arm he could
01:42he
01:42could his whole system could be down he'll just reset and play we know how strong he is and mitch
01:47i don't
01:48if he caught a stomach bug or or he had a little bit of about it a flu being probable
01:53means you're
01:53probable to play more than likely going to play so i don't really have too many worries about him
01:57but og the way that he's played and the way that he's dominated in this postseason so far to me
02:03means
02:04he is going to be the most impactful loss if he can't go just because of the the way those
02:10hamstring
02:10injuries can linger i feel as though they need to sit og uh remember he missed what three weeks
02:16earlier in the season with the left hamstring he heard he tweaked the right hamstring uh in game
02:22two so i feel like they should sit him and only that one because it can linger too because mikhail
02:28bridges has been absolutely on fire games one and two the boy he looks like he's worth every single
02:33draft pick they gave up for him in this series is it safe to say let's say og sits tonight
02:40is that does that mean that it is mikhail bridges moment in game three yeah i think he has an
02:48awesome
02:48opportunity to step up and quietly i think the league and even nick fans have been sleeping on
02:55his impact the last three games i gave you the numbers about og mikhail on equal volume has been
03:01shooting 74 from the field 55 from three dropping almost 20 points over the last three games it's safe
03:09to say he's awake and he has arrived in the nba playoffs and now if og doesn't play and i
03:17agree
03:17with you brandon i think he should sit for game three one of the nick strengths are their depth and
03:22i think
03:23between deuce mcbride landry shaman and the rest of the guys they can compensate for what og and and
03:31holistically they can compensate for what he may be missing but you're gonna have to get those 21 points
03:36from somewhere and mikhail is somebody who has had great success in a knicks uniform against the
03:42sixers he's hit double digits and points all but one game that he's played since he's become a nick
03:47he's dropped 22 on them four out of the eight times and we can't forget that he's put banners up
03:55in that
03:55xfinity arena and the sixers haven't over the last few years so the villanova force is going to be
04:01strong in him too i think it's a homecoming and he's from philly this is his hometown so if it
04:08was
04:08poised for anyone to show out on the knicks in game three mikhail this is your moment brother let's stay
04:15on him for a little bit because you said he's awake and as you know you know we wake up
04:19early there's
04:20there's being awake and then there's having your coffee type awake so you know um what has made him
04:28kind of get his step together game one and two after kind of struggling throughout that round one
04:35series against the hawks i just think he was in an offensive funk man one thing that slept on in
04:41the
04:41nba playoffs is players do go through slumps it is a microcosm of the regular season nobody's
04:48infallible and i think with him he was supported by his team in a way that he didn't really need
04:54to
04:54score but mike brown isn't going to have a long leash especially in the playoffs if you're not
05:00effective offensively uh he has been stellar defensively for these entire players all these
05:06eight games so far defensively wasn't the problem but when there were points where they needed
05:10offense you know mike brown was quick to have the hooking and call deuce in i think the moment
05:16brandon was game six against the hawks where you know i think me and you combined for 20 points in
05:21that game i gotta check the score sheet right but mikhail was able to have a good game if they
05:27would have blew them out by 51 points and mikhail would have had eight i think for his psyche that
05:31wouldn't have fared well but for him to get off and drop about 20 points in that game and be
05:38as
05:38effective as he was i think that was the switch that flipped and then you look at the personnel for
05:43the sixers this is just a styles makes fight matchup and this is one of the matchups where
05:49mikhail can go off their their defenders he's not drawing their best defenders he can get out in
05:55transition and in the playoffs mid-range is the premium and if anybody is the most premium mid-range
06:03shooter in the league outside of demar de rosen you got mikhail bridges so i think you have all the
06:09elements combining to make this a perfect matchup for mikhail to be able to get back on the horse
06:15offensively and be another scoring option on a knicks team that all of a sudden looks like a
06:21offensive juggernaut with multiple weapons deuce mcbride said after the game when talking about
06:27filling in for og and uh crunch time that it's going to be hard to fill the role fill the
06:33void
06:33of a player of his status bet one of the best two-way players in the league so all hands
06:38on deck
06:39for this one to try and pull out a win in game three who else needs to step up who
06:44else needs to
06:45have their moment well you just mentioned it deuce he's somebody who came in in those final two minutes
06:51where everybody was asking where's og like he was wallace we wanted to know where og was but deuce was
06:58able to make that answer uh delayed until after the game the final two minutes he played exceptional
07:05defense he was another offensive weapon that they had out there that they could use as a decoy and
07:10to spread the the defense of the sixes right but now you look at a guy who's probably going to
07:17start
07:17in og's place and when you look at the lineup data with deuce and the combination of starters
07:25substituted for og they've been gangbusters this year they're about plus 14 in their minutes and it's a
07:32significant amount of minutes too so it's not so much data noise because he's a guy who can help
07:37spread the offense he knocked down a three-point shot you're going to get the same amount of energy
07:41nobody's og on defense he's first team all defense for me this year nobody's og on defense but deuce
07:47mcbride ain't no slouch you know what i mean so i think the combination of his tenacity his three-point
07:52accuracy look if he can reclaim even 75 percent of his accuracy from three that he had prior to his
08:01hernia injury i think the knicks at least offensively will be just fine and you look at
08:06the other side with the sixers we're playing attrition hoops right now they legitimately have
08:12six and a half guys that they're going to play in their rotation in earnest this is going to be
08:18a race
08:19to who's going to outlast the other that's what happened in game two and the knicks have the depth
08:24outside of deuce landry shammy he played quality minutes with cat and uh haporty in foul trouble
08:31you might even see an appearance from mo diawara we don't know clarkson's minutes might go up these
08:39are guys that were built for this moment and i think the depth that the knicks have is going to
08:45have to cash in in these games in philadelphia so let's say mike brown has to go into the bench
08:50go
08:51deep into the rotation tonight because again two of the let's say two of those three guys don't play
08:55tonight he sits them just to rest them if we always going to talk about or compare mike brown to
09:02tom
09:02tibodol in the playoffs right now do you think this could be a mike brown legacy game or moment game
09:09in
09:09terms of what adjustments he could potentially make down some of his horses so i think he already had
09:16that game against atlanta because once they were down one two all eyes were on mike brown and his
09:22rotations and his decisions and his uh fumbling of timeouts all those things that were going on over
09:29the past two those past two games where they lost by one point he showed the ability to adjust in
09:33the
09:34moment to tighten those rotations and to execute in the ways that a coach who is built on experimentation
09:42and trial and error and using their bench and being prepared situationally he was able to do it in this
09:49game now those principles that were built in the atlanta series and all throughout the regular season
09:54now it's time to execute now it's time to see okay mike brown we took one of your best chess
10:00pieces off
10:01the board what are we going to do i think we've seen some glimpses of that throughout the regular season
10:06and now we get to see who he has confidence in what is his tolerance for error and what new
10:15things
10:15schematically if they need to so yeah i think mike brown tactically this is where he's going to shine
10:22and if he is able to use all those different combinations i think he's going to go deep in his
10:27bag too depending on what the sixers do so i'm intrigued to see how he's able to operate without
10:33og potentially or anybody else in the lineup man you know how players and coaches say oh i don't
10:39watch i don't watch social media i don't care what people write about me i think mike brown he might
10:44he
10:44might have went on his burner account and checked twitter after that game two laws because nick's fans
10:49were on him because the way he made adjustments my man tightened up quick yeah tightened up real quick
10:55uh i'm about to head down to philly in a little bit i imagine all of new york and the
11:01tri-city uh tri-states
11:02are and b made that plea for 76ers fans not to sell their tickets and it seemed like the 76ers
11:09themselves tried to block folks that aren't from philly from grabbing up the tickets you still think
11:15there's going to be a huge new york turnout tonight listen i don't think i know you got tons of
11:20new
11:21yorkers that live in new jersey that live in philadelphia that are close to the arena we still
11:25coming that is the name of the day we are on deck to head out on amtrak or four wheels
11:32or two wheels
11:33whatever the knicks fans are going to be in the building you can't keep new yorkers out of your
11:37arena we were built to finesse we were built to get around whatever rules you have and listen
11:44everybody got a price joel you should have been thinking in 30 26 and paid knicks fans not to come
11:52that would have been smarter and you know what they probably would have took your money and used
11:55it to buy even better tickets you're not going to keep those fans out they know what it is those
12:00fans
12:00know what it is and the players know what it is too these are seven home games for the knicks
12:06that's
12:06just what it is the knicks fans are one of the best traveled fan bases in all of professional sports
12:12and when you have a rivalry that's separated by 90 miles or less depending on what part of the city
12:18you're coming from and especially the availability of tickets that is a combination for the home team
12:26the alleged home team in philadelphia to deal with a long night so yeah uh brandon expect to see a
12:32lot
12:32of new yorkers on your trip on the way down there expect to feel like you are on 33rd and
12:387th when you
12:39head out to xfinity square garden because that's exactly what it's going to be i had a fan tell me
12:44they're taking megabus down there i said you really want to get to oh yeah they're dedicated
12:5019 round trip plus the ticket i might be under 100 bucks right there that's date night
12:56you thought you figure it out i'm telling you that's how we do it we figure out we got the
13:00ingenuity here in this city before i let you go does the prediction stay the same nixon what
13:06i had nixon six you know what i will leave space to to keep nixon six because
13:12i know anything can happen in a playoff and i didn't prepare for the og injury i think either
13:18even without i do think that the knicks can get a split i've always earmarked the game three loss
13:23because you're going back to the home arena you know and beat is going to leave everything
13:27on the court and do his best to get the win so i think they can get a split and
13:32it's this is the
13:33saga i've said that the knicks are the greatest anime in the nba they are like an anime and this
13:39saga
13:39is the serious saga how serious are you as a team are you going to put this team away are
13:44you going
13:44to at least come away with a split and end it in game five there's also another team on that
13:50side
13:50that has a lot of pride and superstars so i expect them to try to be at their very best
13:56uh i wouldn't
13:57be shocked if this still goes six but at this point the way the knicks are playing i wouldn't be
14:02surprised if mother's day were breaking out the brooms either so i'm gonna keep nixon six and i'm gonna
14:07hope that they end it as soon as possible so that they can rest their starters and and their and
14:12heal up for whoever's coming out on the other side of the bracket it's a lot of knicks moms in
14:18this city
14:18that don't want a mother's day card they want a mother's day sweep for sure like exactly it's just
14:24that type of city man hey jeff appreciate you hopping on with me man thank you bro appreciate you
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