00:00Did the Knicks take game one, or did the Cleveland Cavaliers choke?
00:04We just witnessed the biggest come-from-behind playoff win in Knicks franchise history.
00:09And when I say we, Steph Bondi, our beat writer for the New York Post, Brandon London here.
00:14This is your New York Post postgame report. Let's get straight into it.
00:18We'll talk about the comeback in a little bit, but the man who led the comeback,
00:23Jalen Brunson, was absolutely on fire, and he earned the name Captain Clutch tonight.
00:28That's right. I mean, he went at James Harden.
00:32We knew right from the start of this series, attack James Harden, attack James Harden, attack James Harden.
00:37They found themselves in a situation where they got James Harden on the switches in the fourth quarter,
00:41and Jalen Brunson just spammed that over and over again.
00:44And then by the time the Cavs adjusted and started sending two at Brunson,
00:49he just sprayed the ball because somebody was open, and he found his open teammates,
00:53and they were able to hit shots.
00:54It was quite a comeback, and what it devolved into, I don't know about devolve,
00:59but what it turned into towards the end was Brunson versus Harden.
01:03And when it's crunch time, if you're the Knicks, you'll take that matchup 10 times out of 10
01:08because you got Captain Clutch against Captain Choke.
01:13You had to throw that in.
01:14I'm ready for the next topic, and then you're going to make me sit there and laugh.
01:18There's a lot of people in this arena that was kind of ready to pack it up, go home.
01:23We're here at Penn Station.
01:25The LIR is kind of shut down right now due to the strike.
01:28A lot of people were going to call that Uber and Lyft, but they didn't.
01:32The Knicks were able to come back and win this one.
01:34And do you take that as the Knicks took this game or the Cavs choked down the crunch?
01:41Well, I mean, it was a combination of both.
01:43But when you look at the fans here, if I'm a fan of the Knicks and I bought tickets,
01:47first of all, the tickets are probably outrageously spent.
01:49Ain't no way in hell I'm leaving my $2,000 seats before it's time to go.
01:53I'd still be here right now.
01:54Yeah, exactly.
01:54I'd still be here.
01:55I'd be sitting right there eating the peanuts.
02:00But we've seen this team.
02:02They're resilient.
02:03Last year, they had two amazing comebacks against the Celtics.
02:07That's why when you tell me it's the biggest comeback in playoff history,
02:10I remember two big-ass comebacks last year in Boston.
02:13So, you know, this team, you can never really give up on them,
02:17especially when you have Jalen Brunson and when they showed it again tonight.
02:21That seemed to be the theme in the post-game press conference with Mike Brown, resiliency.
02:26I think he mentioned it like three, four times when he's talking about his team.
02:30All right, we've got to talk about this slow start.
02:33All throughout the nine days the Knicks were off, everyone was talking about rust versus rest.
02:39They kind of got off to a slow start.
02:42So now that they were able to capture that momentum in the fourth, two-part question here.
02:46Is it an expectation that they should pick up where they left off in game two?
02:52And what are the major adjustments you see Mike Brown making going into game two?
02:56Well, I mean, listen, he started game one trying to run cat, the elbow action that worked really well against
03:03Atlanta
03:03and sometimes against Philly.
03:05I kind of knew that wasn't going to work against Cleveland because you have Evan Mobley and Jared Allen,
03:10two guys that can kind of counter that as well.
03:13The Cavs did a good job plugging the passing lanes and not allowing those cuts that we've seen a lot
03:19of from the Knicks
03:20in the previous series.
03:21So I think that the Knicks should probably abandon that idea
03:26and try to run the offense through Brunson who, you know, get cat involved in picking roles with Jalen Brunson
03:33and see where it goes from there.
03:34One thing I will say, I'm interested to see how Josh Hart rebounds
03:38because he was benched for the entire fourth quarter here.
03:41The Knicks went with Landry Schammett and that was part of the reason the Knicks were so successful offensively
03:47is because they had five shooters on the floor and Landry Schammett is a shooter.
03:52Josh Hart, they were leaving open and he couldn't hit his shot tonight.
03:54So, you know, if Josh can hit his shot and they continue to leave him open,
03:59that adds another dynamic to the Knicks offense.
04:01After not playing in the fourth quarter, does Mike Brown start Josh Hart game two?
04:05Yeah, you can't bench Josh Hart.
04:07He's your heart and soul.
04:07Like, you're not going to say, all right, you had one bad shooting game, you're on the bench.
04:13That's not going to happen.
04:14Now, I will say this, we've said it forever, Mike Brown loves Landry Schammett
04:19and he will look for reasons to get him in the game
04:23and he found a reason today even though Landry wasn't in the rotation in the first half.
04:27Yeah, he said in the post-game press conference,
04:30Schammett made a difference in the ball game tonight on both ends of the floor.
04:34Let's talk about your unsung hero or the X factor for this game.
04:39We know Jalen Brunson.
04:40We know what he did.
04:41You mentioned Landry Schammett.
04:43Who else kind of stepped up and was a force for this Knicks when they needed him?
04:47Mikkel Bridges.
04:47He had a fantastic game.
04:49He's really played fantastic and amazing since game six in Atlanta.
04:54Before that, we know it was well documented.
04:56He was playing poorly.
04:58He was really struggling.
04:59But similar to last year when he really came alive in that second round against Boston,
05:05we've seen Mikkel Bridges turn it up in the playoffs.
05:08And today I think he was seven for 11 from the field.
05:10He hit a big three-point shot.
05:13Landry Schammett obviously had the biggest three-point shot, but Mikkel also hit one.
05:16And he was effective on both sides of the court.
05:19So Mikkel Bridges was my X factor.
05:22What about the rest of the bench?
05:24When we talk about Deuce McBride, no zero points, five fouls, Jordan Clarkson kind of struggled
05:30throughout the course of the night.
05:32Do you feel as though the bench, who has been absolutely on fire for the first two rounds
05:37of the postseason, do they rebound?
05:40Yeah, I mean, one thing I'm going to look for is Mitchell Robinson going to hit his free throws.
05:46Because he was such a dynamic player in that playoff series against the Cavaliers three years ago.
05:51He was the MVP of that series.
05:53He can be a monster on the glass.
05:54He can dominate Jared Allen and Evan Mobley on the glass.
05:58But he was, he only, I don't know how many minutes he had.
06:01You got the stat sheet there?
06:02No, it wasn't many.
06:03So part of the problem is that he just wasn't hitting his free throws.
06:07And they went to hack a Mitch, and it worked because Mitch wasn't hitting those.
06:11So, you know, in order to add that new dimension, that new wrinkle into the game for the Knicks,
06:16you got to have Mitchell Robinson hitting those free throws.
06:18So that's something I'm sure he's going to be practicing in the off day.
06:21Even the crowd tried to rally behind Mitch to get him to hit those free throws.
06:25You thought you were hearing, let's go, Knicks.
06:27But it was actually a let's go, Mitch.
06:29And when he hit it, the garden kind of went crazy.
06:32And that kind of leads me into my next one because the energy was flat here.
06:37I think we can both agree on that for about three quarters.
06:40And then it just came alive.
06:42The garden was the garden, the place where people talk about, the place where people dream that they can buy
06:49a ticket and experience.
06:51Just talk about that energy tonight and how Knicks fans kind of were that sixth man just now.
06:56You saw that mouse just now.
06:58The seventh man right there.
07:00The seventh man, that mouse has been running around.
07:01By the way, I've been keeping my composure.
07:03And that mouse has been running back and forth in the background.
07:05But, yeah, he might have been cheering, too.
07:08It was a pretty crazy crowd at the end there.
07:11It goes back to what we were saying earlier.
07:13You know, with this team, you never give up.
07:16They stayed until the end of the game.
07:18And they really pushed this team along.
07:21And it's not just what you do for your team.
07:23It's how you kind of psych out the other team.
07:25And we saw at the end of the game, James Harden was just a turnover machine, missing shots, couldn't play
07:31defense.
07:31And for whatever reason, the Cavs decided to go away from Donovan Mitchell down the stretch.
07:36And that really hurt them as well.
07:38You got a word is bondy in you to wrap this up?
07:42Yeah, I mean, listen, I thought the Knicks were going to win in five.
07:47That was my prediction.
07:48This is the kind of win where you're like, man, the Cavs could have just had their heart taken out
07:52of them because they had this game.
07:54So when you lose this type of game, you know, if the Knicks can rebound and just put their foot
08:00on the pedal and put their foot on their throats and really eliminate them in game two, I mean, this
08:07could be even a quicker series like it was in Philly.
08:09All right.
08:10Steph Bondy, appreciate your time, my man.
08:11All right, man.
08:16All right, man.
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