The Knicks’ issues didn’t begin of their Sport 2 loss to the Pistons, based on New York sports activities radio legend Mike Francesa.
The previous WFAN nice criticized coach Tom Thibodeau’s offensive scheme, which he believes is simply too centered on level guard Jalen Brunson and is holding them again.
“The stagnant four guys watching one guy play basketball is not an offense, and I don’t care what your name is,” Francesa mentioned on his Guess Rivers podcast after Monday’s recreation. “And Brunson is not Michael Jordan.”
Brunson tallied one-third of the staff’s 81 pictures from the ground in Monday’s 100-94 dwelling loss, scoring 37 factors in 44 minutes on 12-of-27 capturing.
He made 9-of-11 makes an attempt from the foul line.
Mikal Bridges added 19 factors and the three different starters every tallied 10, however the bench supplied simply eight factors with Sport 1 hero Cameron Payne notably taking part in simply 4 minutes.
“If this offense is just going to be Brunson bouncing the basketball for 15 seconds and then if he’s double-teamed he’ll flip a pass to somebody and hope they hit a long 3, or he’s going to find a way to get to the foul line. Dive against a guy and get free shots. Flop to the ground,” Francesa mentioned.
“How many times in one night is Brunson on the ground? 32? It’s not appealing basketball. It’s all about Brunson. Why do you think the other teams think he flops? He’s on the ground the whole game. That’s half the Knicks’ offense.”
Francesa provides that it doesn’t matter if the Knicks advance previous the Pistons as a result of if “four guys are going to be standing around watching Brunson, you’re never going to beat a good team. You’re never going to beat the Celtics.”
The winner of the Knicks-Pistons collection will face the victor from the Celtics-Magic. Boston, the defending champs, is closely favored and simply took Sport 1 of the collection with Sport 2 on Wednesday evening.
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The Sports activities Pope would like the Knicks to feed the ball to Karl-Anthony Cities, particularly with the Pistons lacking Isaiah Stewart Monday.
Cities solely scored 10 factors in Sport 2 and bizarrely didn’t try a shot within the fourth quarter.
“How can Thibs be there, be coaching that game, and not get the ball in the low box to Towns at some point?” Francesa requested. “Towns had eight points in the first quarter. He had 10 points in the game.”
Thibodeau and Cities shifted blame elsewhere for the poor performances and loss, with Thibodeau taking intention on the referees for a major discrepancy in free throws
Detroit acquired 34 free throw makes an attempt in comparison with the Knicks’ 19.
“Obviously, huge discrepancy in free throws. Huge. I gotta take a look at that, alright?” Thibodeau mentioned after the sport. “So … I don’t understand how on one side you talk about direct line drives, the guys get fouled and it’s not being called, right? And look, I really don’t give a crap how they call the game as long as it’s consistent on both sides. So [Cade] Cunningham’s driving and there’s marginal contact and he’s getting to the line. Then Jalen [Brunson] deserves to be getting to the line, it’s really that simple.”
In the meantime, Cities introduced up an absence of execution.
“Just trying to have the game do what it does, just executing what we talked about,” Cities mentioned of his lack of involvement down the stretch. “I thought we got some great shots, some great looks, you live with those kinds of great shots and great looks, especially when you’ve fought back in the game.”
The Knicks head to Detroit for Sport 3 on Thursday, the place they’ll look to get extra guys concerned with the Pistons now proudly owning home-court benefit..
“This is not an offense,” Francesa mentioned. “You can’t play this way. There is so much wrong with this game offensively. First of all, the Knicks are better when they move the ball with this team and when they push the ball. They’re much better in the open floor when everyone is involved.”
