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00:00Oh baby! Sports! Sporty sports! Sports! Sports! Sports! Sports! That was the most bonkers,
00:07amazing, miracle Nick victory I've ever seen in my entire lifetime. That was a turnaround,
00:16a collapse by Cleveland, a choke by Cleveland, a comeback by the Knicks that we have never seen
00:24before in the history of Knicks basketball. I saw it. I still don't believe it's real life.
00:32You know it's a big deal when that game gets the front page and the back page treatment
00:37from the New York Post. Are you kidding me? Absolutely sensational. Knickerbockers. Yes!
00:45A miracle overtime win trailing by 22 points with eight minutes to play. And then of course
00:56the back page. I mean, my goodness, that was the ultimate Brunson burner. Just incredible.
01:04I talked to the legend Mike Breen on my Sirius XM radio show this morning and he also, and he's
01:11calling the game courtside for ESPN last night. He thought it was over. There's no way.
01:16Ebbing, flow, time, score. There was no way the Knicks could come back and win, which is why
01:24this was the greatest Nick victory I've ever seen. This was the most improbable Nick victory
01:31I've ever seen. It was one of those sporting events, where were you when moments. And listen,
01:38my poor son, he's an 11 year old diehard Knicks fan. And I told him and I put him to
01:43bed.
01:44I told him the game was over. My wife was laughing, said you deal with him in the morning. I
01:49mean,
01:50my goodness. And the way the Knicks came back and this 18 one run right here, the way Jalen Brunson
01:56just went on that ultimate heater. That flame of the Brunson burner was at an all time high.
02:02And this is why I will say it forever. I wouldn't trade Jalen Brunson for anyone. You could tell me
02:12I've told you there are better players in the NBA. Sure. Right. Any kind of ranking you want to,
02:16you want to list. I want Jalen Brunson on my team for this moment. Always. This is unbelievable
02:27stuff from Jalen Brunson. And when he was able to hit that twisting, turning layup at 101-101,
02:36that was next level kind of stuff. I still can't believe this shot went in. Talking to Mike Breen,
02:43he said you could hear the gasp of the crowd when Landry Shamit missed that shot because it was a
02:50miss.
02:51It was bouncing out the trajectory. There was no way it was going in. Instead, and that's a Mike
02:57Brown favorite to give Mike Brown credit. He loves Landry Shamit. Instead, that was the ultimate shot,
03:04the ultimate fortune. The Knicks, the long-suffering Knicks fan, listen, we've earned that. We've
03:11absolutely earned it. And then after tying that game, being down by 22 points, the way the Knicks
03:17played in overtime, that jumped on Cleveland to start the overtime frame, 9-0, that was unbelievable
03:25stuff. You look at that incredible run by New York, 44-11 after you had Cleveland up by 22,
03:35Brunson was unbelievable. Look at this. Look at these stats. Look at these facts. Look at these figures.
03:41Look at Jalen Brunson down the stretch. The Knicks, in the final seven minutes of regulation and
03:49overtime, shot 71% from the field. That's incredible. Brunson was everything. Shamit hitting that shot,
03:59and then Shamit obviously doing a terrific job in overtime was sensational. And the fact that the
04:05Knicks won this game in the fashion they wanted, after an ugly first half, with the way that they
04:13played when they were getting crunched and destroyed in the third quarter, it looked like it was going
04:19to be a nightmarish loss. I tweeted in moments, I don't want to hear from the old Takes Exposed crowd
04:25or the That Age Poorly crowd. It was a mess. It was a disaster. Because it was. There were no
04:31signs
04:32of life. The third quarter, the beginning of the fourth quarter, it was pure hot garbage from the
04:39Knicks, which is what makes this comeback out of nowhere just incredible. And the way Jalen Brunson
04:46was imploring his teammates and that shot of him on the sideline, you see it right here.
04:51This is Jalen Brunson in a nutshell. You could take any other player in the NBA. This is the guy
04:57I want.
04:57I want Coach Brunson. This is before the 18-1 run. This is everything you need to know about Jalen
05:05Brunson, who had 16 of his 38 points in that fourth quarter. Sparked that 18-1 run. The way he
05:12had shot
05:13after shot after shot. OG Ananobi during the 14-11 run was fantastic. 10 points. Landry Shamit had nine.
05:22How about Mikael Bridges? I thought he was incredible. Just a terrific game. Had those two
05:29late threes in regulation. One, he turned around at the buzzer, able to put it in. I thought Bridges
05:35had a terrific, consistent game. This was amazing. I mean, I couldn't get enough. And Knicks fans going nuts.
05:42Honestly, I was obsessed. And listen, it's sweet. Because there are generations of Knicks fans, you know,
05:50you might get haters who say, act like you've been here before. We haven't. Knicks fans literally have not been
05:58here
05:58before. We have never seen it. You have to be of a certain age to have seen a championship in
06:04the early 70s.
06:06I mean, I've only seen the Knicks go to the finals twice. I mean, I can't wait. I can't wait
06:13for the
06:14next game. This was something as amazing as it gets, as improbable as it gets. You look at the stats.
06:20You look at the facts. You look at the figures. I mean, you take a look at some of these
06:24nuggets of
06:25historical domination. Teams that were up 20 or more, 20 or more points with seven minutes to go in the
06:33fourth quarter. 643-0 until last night. 643-0. The Knicks, 0-277. 0-277 from 1996 on, trailing by
06:5322 or more in the
06:54fourth quarter. I mean, this, this was wild. The scene, Jalen Brunson, Shamit, the bounce of the ball.
07:03I mean, look, I talked to Mike Breen, as I mentioned, and on that Merrill shots, he certainly gave us
07:10the
07:10B and the bang, Mike Breen did, because that ball was in and then it bounced out. Sometimes in the
07:16course
07:16of a championship or a run to the finals, you have to get some breaks and then bam, capitalize on
07:23it.
07:24That was the most out of nowhere, satisfying, improbable victory of my Knicks fandom. I couldn't
07:32get enough. Incredible, sensational, remarkable, and honestly, that's one that's going to last a
07:40lifetime. Of course, there's a different side to the story and Kenny Atkinson had some interesting
07:47words to describe his team's performance. We got a little unlucky, quite honestly. You know,
07:55Brunson obviously took over at the end and, you know, we started double teaming them and try to try
08:01to do some different things. But listen, I'm super proud of the way our group played. We played great
08:07basketball tonight for, you know, three quarters. You know, unfortunately, fourth quarter, you know,
08:17they, you know, they dominated us in the fourth quarter.
08:21I thought Kenny Atkinson, in-game and post-game, absolutely embarrassed himself. He called his team
08:27unlucky. He's proud of his team. Kenny, I will acknowledge that the Merrill shots looked like it was
08:36going in. But how about everything else? This was, to me, the single most poorly coached big game
08:44in the history of the NBA, maybe in the history of professional sports. When you're up 22 points,
08:50you have to win the game. And for Kenny Atkinson not to use his timeouts as the Knicks are on
08:57an 18-1 run,
08:59that is a fireable offense. Seriously. And I love Kenny Atkinson. That was the theater of the absurd.
09:06And I can appreciate coaches. Phil Jackson with the Bulls and the Lakers used to do this all the time.
09:11I can appreciate coaches who say, I'm going to let my guys play. My guys will figure it out.
09:17Well, what was the big story in this series going in? Rest versus rust for the Knicks. Momentum and
09:25fatigue for Cleveland. Obviously, the Knicks hadn't played before last night in nine days. And
09:31Cleveland was coming off of a seven-game series on the heels of a seven-game series. They've played
09:3814 games, the max you could play in the first two rounds. That matters. Timeout. Clear fatigue.
09:46Timeout. Timeout. Timeout. I want to call two. Think about some of the great coaches we see
09:52in college basketball, in the NBA. Dan Hurley quickly comes to mind. Dan Hurley would never
09:58mess her out. Quick timeout instantly. Make sure your team, which has been dealing with fatigue,
10:04to the extent where Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler talked about it, rightly so,
10:10that Kenny Atkinson, and he did it, was going to play some different players to start the game
10:14because of fatigue. How do you not see your team is winded? How do you not see that? That,
10:23simply put, if you're a Cavs fan, an NBA fan, can't happen. And then the Knicks pounced, right?
10:29Just unbelievable. Proud of the team? I honestly thought when he said after the game that he wanted
10:36to hold his timeouts, I thought that was AI. Seriously. I genuinely thought that was an AI
10:43bite. I had to text Griff and Rich, our producer and executive producer. I said, let's just make
10:50sure that that's a real Kenny Atkinson quote. I was watching Inside the NBA and Jalen Brunson's
10:55getting interviewed. So, I saw that live before I saw Atkinson. I was like, there's no way. I mean,
11:01Cleveland rots. Are you kidding me? 99% chance to win. That was atrocious. Absolutely atrocious.
11:11Not to mention the fact, and let's be honest here, that James Harden is a complete and utter
11:19traffic cone of a defender. And this is all part of the deal here when you look at it
11:25from the standpoint of how Atkinson completely failed. And if you don't believe me, here's Mike
11:32Brown.
11:34Let out a secret. When I was with Golden State, we played Houston in the playoffs.
11:39We counted James Harden's dribbles. And, you know, we told our guys, hey, he's dribbling
11:46close to 1,000 times. He's not doing that anymore because they got Donovan Mitchell. But
11:49at the time, we were like, he's dribbling almost 1,000 times a game. And, you know, our
11:56high guys, KD, at like 300 or right below 300, keep picking them up full court. Keep making
12:02them dribble because at the end of the series, at the end of games, it's going to wear them
12:05down.
12:06They were trying to do the same thing with Jalen. And so we said, OK, you know, we feel
12:11like we can play that game. We try not to play that game much, but we feel like we have
12:16a
12:16guy that we can play that game with and Jalen. And so, you know, just like we have to try
12:23to figure out different ways to guard Harden and Mitchell, they got to figure out different
12:28ways to guard Jalen. But we were, there is no secret we were attacking Harden.
12:34He said the quiet part out loud. It was no secret we were attacking Harden. Yeah. And I love that
12:44Mike
12:44Brown said it. And I love that he went into depth. And I love that he went back to when
12:50he was an
12:51assistant with the Golden State Warriors because this is nothing new. Even when James Harden was
12:57carving out his Hall of Fame MVP kind of career based upon how majestic he was in the regular season,
13:05even
13:06during the salad days for James Harden, he was still terrible on defense, a terrible playoff performer.
13:12Now we're talking about another playoff game where James Harden was a disaster. 25 percent of his
13:22playoff games, 25, we have seen as many or more turnovers than field goals made. That is an
13:32unfathomable statistic. And James Harden was a liability when he picked up his fifth foul.
13:39Honestly, I out loud said, man, I hope he doesn't foul out. The Knicks need him in this game. If
13:48the
13:48Knicks go on and win a championship, the Knicks should have James Harden and Kenny Atkinson on a
13:55float for the parade. If the Knicks go and win a championship, they should raise a jersey to the
14:01rafters. Retire. Atkinson. Harden. Game one. Just raise it to the roof at MSG. I mean, this was the
14:10theater of the absurd on the part of the Cleveland Cavaliers. And give the Knicks credit and give
14:17Jalen Brunson credit. And give Mike Brown credit. They took advantage. They just kept coming. I mean,
14:25it was unreal. It was attack him, switch, Brunson calling for it. And Brunson's amazing in every
14:32possible way. But specifically when it comes to this, the ability to know when he's the hot hand,
14:39when he needs to distribute, when he needs to get the others involved. Man, he had James Harden on him.
14:44I mean, are you kidding me? Amateur hour from a Cleveland perspective. And hey,
14:50Knicks kept going to the well because this was working like no other. Now, here's how Donovan
14:56Mitchell summed up what the Cavs did following such a disappointing loss.
15:02Should have won the game, Joe. I ain't gonna put it on either of those things. And even if there
15:07was
15:07complacency, we're up 22 with God knows how much time, eight minutes. Did I win the game? We didn't.
15:14So Donovan Mitchell nailed it, right? And this is where, well, first of all, Donovan Mitchell I
15:22thought was superb last night. Absolutely superb last night. He deserves a lot of credit. And I
15:27thought he was amazing until the end. Look at his points. Look at his stats for the game. And then
15:36take a look at how bad he was in the fourth quarter and overtime. Clearly, he tweaked something. He was
15:44not
15:44healthy at the very end there. This series is over. And I'm not saying that screaming, yelling,
15:52raising my voice. I picked the Knicks to win the series in six. The Cleveland Cavaliers came into
16:00Madison Square Garden last night and grossly outplayed the Knicks. Grossly outplayed them.
16:08And the Knicks won that game. The Cavs have done an unbelievable job all postseason long,
16:15bouncing back from bad losses or losses in general in the postseason. Specifically the one that I give
16:22them the most credit, losing game six of the Piston series at home and then bouncing back and destroying
16:27Detroit, of course, in game number seven. We could talk about R.J. Barrett shot game six in the
16:32Toronto series and bam, what they did to the Raptors game seven. Plenty of examples when you have
16:37back-to-back seven-game series. But this series is over. And you don't bounce back from something
16:45like this. It just, it does not happen. You don't recover. How could anyone, Knicks fan, Cavs fan,
16:53neutral NBA fan, honestly and objectively go into the crystal ball and say, Cleveland's going to be
17:00able to beat the Knicks four times over the next six games? No one's saying it because it's not going
17:06to happen. Harden is terrible. The Cavs look splat against the wall. And the Knicks won the game
17:14where they were rusty. The Knicks won the game where they didn't play well. This is the kind of loss
17:21that
17:21and honestly, it stays with you for a very long time if you're the Cleveland Cavaliers. And they've
17:27got a game two coming up Thursday at Madison Square Garden. So that to me is ridiculously
17:32problematic for Cleveland. And honestly, I don't even know how my prediction holds and it goes six
17:38games. Because now that the Knicks played for the first time in nine days, they're going to be
17:44better, fresher, more ready, energized. They know they got away with one. They know Jalen Brunton's
17:53mentality of next play, next game. They understand all of it here. That's who the Knicks are. That's
18:00the secret sauce. That's the beauty of this Knicks team. I don't know how the Cavs get off the map.
18:06I have absolutely no idea how they respond in a favorable way. I think all the players have to be
18:13looking sideways at Kenny Atkinson. I don't know how James Harden shows his face ever again.
18:19And the Knicks didn't even get anything last night from Carl Anthony Towns. OG Ananobi was great late.
18:26He obviously was coming back from a hammy. The Knicks can play a million times better than they did.
18:33And they won that game in the greatest win you'll ever see. It's over. I'm not saying that
18:39screaming. I'm not saying it in a subject to hyperbole way. I said they were going to the finals
18:45at every single checkpoint of the season, including before the playoffs, including before the Cleveland
18:51series. The only question is, will Cleveland get a game? And I am guessing they will at some
18:58point in Cleveland? Maybe. But I don't think there's a chance in hell the Cavs bounce back
19:06and beat the Knicks coming up in game number two.
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