00:00Knicks fans didn't want any parts of Detroit and now they've got what could be the hottest team in the
00:05east outside of the Knicks.
00:06And that's the Cleveland Cavaliers coming to the city for game one of the Eastern Conference Finals.
00:12Jonathan Macri, creator of Knicks Film School, is on to talk all things ECF.
00:18J-Mac, let's get into it, man, because the biggest talk or storyline surrounding this matchup is the whole momentum
00:25versus rest argument.
00:26Both of these teams got some extreme momentum going into game one, but down 2-0, the Cavs got hot
00:33at the right time and they were able to win and close out that series.
00:38So they're healthy as well. We're talking nine days of rest for the Knicks at tip-off.
00:45Is there any worry that the Knicks could start off flat game one and not bite them in the ass?
00:52Yeah, I mean, I think there is obviously going to be some degree of worry, but when I think you
00:58compare that worry to the two very obvious benefits, which are one, you get home court advantage.
01:04And two, you got a ton of rest for O.J. Ananobi. I think the benefits outweigh the potential drawbacks.
01:10Now, just looking forward to the first quarter on Tuesday night, I think the Knicks, you know, there's going to
01:16be some rust that they have to shake off.
01:17Hopefully you could shake it off within half of a quarter. I'm sure they will have lots of stuff, you
01:23know, drawn up right out of the gate to try to hit the ground running.
01:26And then I think you just trust your home crowd. I think you trust the fact that the Cavs may
01:32have some tired legs down the stretch, you know, second half.
01:36But that, you know, it does kind of put a lot of pressure to get game one because the Cleveland
01:41Cavaliers are coming off of this grueling series.
01:44So you figure, you know, start off 1-0, obviously get off on the right foot.
01:48And that's going to be a really I mean, look, that you could argue that the series, not that it's
01:52going to come down to game one,
01:53but that it's it's more important for the Knicks to get that one under their belt.
01:57Certainly there it is for the Cavs.
01:58We've seen C.J. McCollum, Tyrese Maxey.
02:02Now it's Donovan Mitchell.
02:03Is Spider Mitchell the biggest threat the Knicks have seen and will see this postseason so far?
02:11Yeah, I mean, I think Donovan is certainly the most accomplished player of the three.
02:17For myself, I going into the Sixers series, I certainly had a lot of fear for Tyrese Maxey,
02:23only because I did not think that the Knicks had an ideal individual defender to slow him down.
02:29Now, Mikael Bridges obviously ended up doing a phenomenal job.
02:32But really, I think that was more the Knicks defense as a team being able to gear itself to stop
02:40or at least slow down Tyrese Maxey.
02:43I think his finger injury didn't help.
02:44The fact that he only shot 15 percent from three in that series certainly did not help his his cause.
02:49But the Knicks really did a good job, you know, containing Maxey and making sure that no one else could
02:54beat them.
02:55With Donovan Mitchell, I think you feel a little bit better about the fact that they could obviously throw Mikael
03:00Bridges on him.
03:01They could throw Josh Hart on him.
03:02I think they could even throw Deuce McBride on him to say nothing about maybe another one or two of
03:07these pieces off the bench.
03:09But in terms of Mitchell as a as a threat within the Cavs offense, I think it comes down to
03:17what version of Donovan Mitchell you get,
03:20because if you get the version that we've seen a lot of in the playoffs, a guy who was, you
03:24know, settled for three pointers and has not shot them particularly well.
03:29And more importantly than that, a guy who has not always looked to make the obvious open pass versus the
03:36guy that we saw in game seven versus Detroit when he went out there and had five assists in the
03:40first half against the Pistons.
03:41I think he ended up with eight or nine for the game.
03:43That's a much more dangerous version of Donovan Mitchell than the guy, again, that we've seen at times during the
03:50playoffs.
03:50So if that's the version they get, then I would say it's a tougher matchup than Maxie.
03:55But I still think the Knicks have the bodies to throw at Mitchell to to at least slow him down.
04:00Are you worried about what could be James Harden's last hurrah?
04:07I know he signed to be with this team in the for the future.
04:11But in terms of Harden having two good legs, two good hamstrings, playing some good basketball, do you feel like
04:17James Harden can hurt the Knicks?
04:19I think he can if they're not careful at this stage of his career.
04:23And look, Harden's one of the 30 or 40 greatest players ever, obviously a former MVP.
04:28But he is not able to get into the teeth of the defense like he used to be able to.
04:35And I just talked about the guys that the Knicks could have to slow down Donovan Mitchell.
04:38They definitely have the guys who can slow down James Harden.
04:42The key is don't let him draw fouls because that's what he wants to do.
04:47He has attempted seven and a half free throws a game in these playoffs and up until the last couple
04:52of games against Detroit, he was hitting those free throws.
04:55If you keep him off the line and, you know, avoid, you know, sticking your hand in the cookie jar,
05:00you have a much better chance of slowing him down.
05:03Because for as dangerous and as threatening as you think he would be as a three-point shooter, he's only
05:09hitting a third of his threes in the playoffs.
05:11He's shooting 33%.
05:12So he wants you to fear his three-pointer and get your hand in there and, you know, he's going
05:21to use the leg kick.
05:22He's going to use every trick in the book.
05:23There is no craftier player in terms of drawing fouls on three-point attempts than James Harden.
05:28As long as the Knicks could avoid doing that, they should be okay and he should not hurt them too
05:34much.
05:35I know a lot of the fan base and audience right now is watching this interview like, why are these
05:40dudes talking about the Cavaliers so much?
05:43Hey, don't worry, y'all.
05:44It's still New York or nowhere right here.
05:47Let's flip things and talk about how Mike Brown can kind of make adjustments or create his game plan going
05:53into the ECF.
05:54Do you think that the Knicks still run the offense through Cat or does it go back to JB?
05:59Like, how do you think Mike Brown is going to attack this Cavs defense?
06:02It's a good question.
06:03I mean, the one thing I will say that's different about this series versus the last two is neither the
06:09Hawks nor the Sixers, I think, had the ideal personnel to play this sort of defense that has flustered the
06:18Knicks the most over the last two years,
06:19which is that put your center on Josh Hart and then put, you know, a bigger wing sort of player
06:25on Carl Anthony Towns.
06:26The Cavs could do that.
06:27And they have Evan Mobley to put on Cat.
06:29We've seen him have success against Cat in the past.
06:32And they have Jared Allen, who I think for a variety of reasons is better suited for that sort of
06:36coverage.
06:36Now, we have not seen this version of the Knicks offense using Cat as the hub from the pinch post
06:42against the Cavs yet.
06:44So the notion that the Cavs are just going to be able to shut that down, I think, is silly.
06:50At the same time, you look at Jalen Brunson.
06:53He is a guy who, you know, I don't want to go too forceful with this, but in the past
06:59when he has seen Donovan Mitchell in front of him, whether it be on a switch or just in direct
07:03coverage, he has seen food.
07:05And that is a matchup that he feels confident in Donovan Mitchell.
07:10You know, he's a he's a sturdy defender, but he does not have the height or the length to fluster
07:16Jalen Brunson like we see with the Assar Thompsons and the Dyson Daniels of the world.
07:20So I would suspect that the Knicks are certainly going to continue to try to run things through Cat, try
07:27to get Jalen Brunson advantage situations off the ball.
07:33But when push comes to shove, I think if it if this series comes down to more matchup hunting, I
07:39think Jalen Brunson is going to feel very comfortable going up against Donovan Mitchell to say nothing of, you know,
07:44like the Sam Merrill's and the James Harden's of the world.
07:47We're also guys I think that he could he could take advantage of.
07:50The Knicks bench and rotation has been absolutely on fire this postseason have gotten a lot of game and court
07:57action because of these blowouts.
07:59So whose bench or rotation has the advantage going into the ECF?
08:04That's a clear advantage for the Knicks.
08:06Look, they have a guy coming off the bench, Mitchell Robinson, who was arguably I don't even think arguably he
08:13was the MVP of the series the last time these two teams played.
08:16And it's not like the Cavs have acquired anybody that can neutralize the sort of things that Mitchell Robinson does.
08:24And they're also just not as deep.
08:26I mean, they have Sam Merrill obviously coming off the bench.
08:29You know, they have Dennis Schroeder, but even like those two names that I just mentioned, those are those are
08:35two guards.
08:37And, you know, if it's one if it's a sort of team that can neutralize the Knicks depth, it's a
08:44team that has a lot of size such that the Knicks might not be comfortable playing.
08:49You know, the Jordan Clarkson's and the Jose Alvarado's and the Deuce McBride's as many minutes as they at Landry
08:55Schammett as many minutes as they as they might want to.
08:58They can play those guys against a Cavs team that is that is going to skew on the smaller side,
09:05whether just their starting lineup or if they dip into the bench.
09:08So, you know, another guy I should have mentioned, obviously, Max Strews, a very valuable piece.
09:14So it's again, it's not that the Cavs don't have solid depth.
09:17They do.
09:18But I think the Knicks are deeper and I think their depth will be able to to see the floor
09:25more and more comfortably against Cleveland than it would have been perhaps against a team like Detroit.
09:30Lastly, because I don't think anybody out there thought the Cavs are going to be in the ECF, especially after
09:36going down two games to the Detroit Pistons.
09:40Any predictions for this one?
09:43Can you give us your prediction?
09:45I think it's going to be a harder series than Knicks fans probably anticipate.
09:52Look, if you're let's just say you skipped Cavs Pistons game seven and all you were going off of was
10:00the Cavs playoff performance leading up to that game.
10:03You would have seen an extraordinarily inconsistent team, a team that often was its own worst enemy and a team
10:10that if you compare it to how the Knicks have been playing, you know, since the middle of the Hawk
10:14series, you say, well, this team's not going to stand a chance against this version of the Knicks.
10:19They showed us a different side to themselves in that game seven against Detroit.
10:23And for as much as we have talked about the Knicks finding a level of seriousness, perhaps because they see
10:32the opportunity that's in front of them and they see a very clear path to the NBA finals, you know,
10:37that's right there for them.
10:39I think if you're being fair, you could at least say the same thing about this Cavs team.
10:44You know, this is Donovan Mitchell's first trip to the Western or to the sorry to the conference finals.
10:48This is James Harden's first trip to a conference finals since 2018.
10:51He knows he does not have many chances left.
10:54I think the Cavs are going to be as engaged and locked in as they can possibly be.
11:00And they do have the talent.
11:02So the notion that this is going to be another sweep or even a five game series, I'm not sure
11:07I could go there.
11:08I think it's more likely that this series goes six, maybe even seven games.
11:13But at the end of the day, I do just think the Knicks are the better team.
11:17They have more questions and perhaps just as importantly, they are sorry.
11:21They have more answers.
11:22And just as importantly, they have fewer questions to answer.
11:25But I think it's gonna be a tough series, but I'll take Nixon six.
11:29All right, Nixon six.
11:30You heard it from the man himself, Jonathan Macri.
11:32Appreciate you hopping on with this, my man.
11:34Always a pleasure, Brandon.
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