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00:18Welcome back to another edition of New York Got Game. It is a very happy midweek edition of New
00:24York Got Game. Why? Because the Knicks they won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
00:28Thrilling, thrilling comfort behind win. 150 to 104 in Game 1. Joining me to talk about it,
00:34my good friend who was in the building. A little jealous that he was in the building. That was not
00:39last night. It's my guy, CP the Franchise of Knicks Fan TV. CP, what's good, man?
00:45Man, running on adrenaline still. It was an action-packed night, you know, inside the garden,
00:50outside the garden, you know, pre-game, post-game. Just one of those nights, man, that you're proud
00:56to be a Knicks fan, proud to be a New Yorker. Beautiful summer night in May. And yeah, man,
01:02just all around, vibes were just immaculate. What a night, man. Epic.
01:05What a night, man. You talk about running off of vibes, you're 100% right. I think we're all
01:10running off of fumes. Very late night. A lot of content to do today. So let me ask you this
01:17off
01:17the top because, you know, you and I are close in age. We've watched a lot of Knicks basketball.
01:24Is the comeback that we saw last night versus the Cavs, down 22 in the fourth quarter,
01:29is that the best Knicks playoff victory ever? And I know we can't talk before us,
01:35but in your lifetime, what you've seen, is that the best Knicks playoff victory ever?
01:39I think I still have to go with, you know, some of those victories, like the Houston shot over Miami
01:45to beat the Heat. You know, some of those that had deeper rivalries, deeper storylines,
01:51there was more depth and there's more meaning to those victories. But certainly from the point
01:57margin standpoint and the vibes and the way that they turn things around so quickly in the fourth
02:03quarter and the energy in Madison Square Garden, it's right up there. No question about it, man.
02:09That was one of the most incredible things to ever witness. I'm still shocked at what we saw.
02:16But with Jalen Brunson, all things are possible. He was fantastic last night, man.
02:22Well, no, you said it right there. And look, Jalen Brunson, the shot making last night from Jalen
02:27Brunson. I will never forget that about this game. It's the shot making CP.
02:33And obviously we'll get to decisions from Mike Brown, but he looked at Harden and he saw food
02:40and he was like, yo, I'm going to, I'm going to cook. What did you make of his performance in
02:45the fourth quarter? Because I know you're not surprised by anything that Jalen Brunson does
02:49anymore. This is almost what you expect, but I don't even know where to rank this among his greatest
02:56playoff performance. It's like that, that one I'm having problems with, because where do you put this
03:01among the Jalen Brunson? Great fourth quarter performances or great performances period in a
03:05game. I mean, he was tremendous.
03:07Number one. I'll put it number one.
03:10And yeah, I'll put it number one. And we've seen, you know, even the regular season, remember
03:14his first 50 point game in Phoenix. Remember the 60 point game last year, two years ago,
03:20against Wemby in his rookie year, they lost that game. But you know, those sensational performances,
03:25I was in Philly against the Sixers in, in that sec, in that first round matchup when he scores 47
03:31points in game four, just an incredible performance after he came back out of the locker room with a
03:37knee injury.
03:38Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. Insane performance. But this last night is what superstars and what
03:45leadership is all about. He accounted, he scored or assisted on 23 of the final 32 points. They showed
03:51the clip Christian Winfield, capturing it so effortlessly in, in Jalen Brunson, his leadership
03:57on display, you know, going in on his troops, rallying the troops, trying to galvanize them
04:03and get them into this game and understand the magnitude of the moment. And then says, you know
04:08what, let me show you, I'm going to show you what needs to be done here. And I said this
04:14on this show,
04:15you know, watching a 12 point lead, he's making his moves on Harden, boom, mid range,
04:21next possession, boom, gets the lay in next possession, gets another one. And by that time,
04:28it's eight points. And I leaned over to my wife. I said, the three point is coming.
04:32The three pointer, the patented Jalen Brunson, step back, elbow three, that's his shot.
04:40And I was waiting for it. I told her, I said, it's coming up. It's coming up. And when he
04:44hit that
04:48explosion, explosion in the garden, the garden, that was the turning point of the game. And that's
04:52when you knew they had a shot at this. I was going to ask you, was it a Brunson shot
04:58or was it a shot
04:59from somebody else where you were like, okay, they're going to complete this comeback? Because I
05:04thought the bridges shot, not the second three, the first three where he dribbled around and turned
05:09around was fading away on the three, which was a crazy shot that he hit. That's when I said,
05:14I think they can do this. But when did you, was it that Brunson shot? The step back three is
05:19when
05:19you said they got this. It was a Brunson barrage, man. Nine straight points, nine straight points.
05:25It was the Brunson barrage because I said at this point and with no Dean Wade and no Struce out
05:31there
05:31and you're just going to leave James Harden out there. That's a Jalen Brunson is going to destroy him.
05:37And in that, when he had that shooter's bounce, as Stephon Marbury says, calls it, you know,
05:42I get that word, that term from Steph and you see it when he just has that aura and forget
05:49about it.
05:50Once he hit that three and it was three 30 left, I said, oh, plenty of time, plenty of time.
05:55And then
05:55once it went to OT, so there's no shot. They have this in the bag. Yeah. When it went to
06:00OT, we were on
06:00the live stream and I said, yeah, I just, I don't think the Cavs can recover. And there's a bigger
06:05question is if the Cavs can recover from this at all in this series. Yeah. I thought about this
06:11cause you, I didn't realize we, before we came on and you were at the game, were you at game
06:15one last
06:15year too against the Pacers? Okay. So I, I remembered that and I thought you were at game one.
06:22So for you as a fan sitting there, they're down 22. You got to be thinking, ah, another Eastern
06:28conference finals. The Knicks are going down game one, they're favored. They're at home.
06:32They don't do it. And you talked about Jalen Brunson, that video that Christian Winfield
06:38had put up, you see him getting on the team. He's trying to rally them. And you're right.
06:42Leadership is about not just saying it, but then going out and doing it. CP
06:47Considering what happened last year in game one with the Halliburton shot,
06:52how big was this for the Knicks to get this? Because I don't think you can look at one and
06:56not
06:56look at the other. They're connected together year to year. Did you look at that as this is so big
07:00because of what happened to the Knicks in game one in the conference finals last year?
07:04No question about it. I spoke to my guy, Ty Butler. I was on his show yesterday and he was
07:09asking me who needs to win game one. He said, I think the Cavs need to win game one. I
07:13said,
07:13no, it's the Knicks. The Knicks need to win game one. Coming in with the momentum that they had
07:18and in the backdrop of that epic collapse in game one of the Eastern conference finals,
07:23I said, they need to set the tone and, and, and spread out some good vibes around them so that
07:31there no doubt seeps in at this stage of the playoffs. The Knicks needed that game one last
07:37night for many reasons, but it's, as you said, I was there last year and I remember, I vividly remember
07:45with like two minutes ago and I'm daydreaming, like this is real. This team can legitimately get
07:51to the NBA finals and they're going to do it. And after that, the nightmare just unfolded and the
07:57Halliburton shot literally dropped right in front of me. I was in section one or two right symmetrically
08:02down the middle. I saw that ball go up and right down through the hoop, but that is what sports
08:09is
08:09about. That's what's drawn me to all of my New York sports teams. It's the story unfolding before
08:15your eyes. It's unscripted. And even the bad memories, you know, the Ewing finger roll and,
08:20and stocks in the game seven, even the bad memories and the good memories etched in your brain. And
08:25last night was one of those, man, is for the younger generation to add to their stockpile
08:30of memories from, from this team and, and for fans of all generations, man, it was just one of those
08:35nights, man. Yeah. It's why we love sports. It's why we, we do what we do. And you know, I
08:40I've always
08:40loved the storytelling about it. I'll never forget where I was last night. I'll never forget that.
08:44And I'm still trying to process and wrap my mind around it. Now I think for most fans,
08:50and I'm sure it was that in the building, cause you heard the garden get quiet there in fourth
08:54and you know, fans, I saw we're hosting a live stream. They're not happy with Mike Brown.
08:59I had some criticisms of the way the defense played in the first half. I felt like they were
09:04over trapping CP on putting two on the ball constantly, very aggressive. And then the Cavs
09:10were beating them in four on three situations, but you saw adjustments from Mike Brown. I mean,
09:15I think the, the, the biggest, the biggest thing you saw too, and I'm sure we'll get to this as
09:19well
09:19is like, you saw Shamit for heart, but he did adjust in this game. And I have been a fan
09:26of the way
09:26Mike Brown was coached this season. I like how he's adjusted with guys. I liked how he hasn't been
09:31rigid. I thought he stayed with Mitchell Robinson a little bit too long in this game with the
09:36hackermit. Were you worried about the way Mike Brown was coaching this game early and the way
09:40the team was playing? And did you like his adjustments that we saw in the second half,
09:44particularly in the fourth quarter and overtime? Yes, absolutely worried. I looked at this game
09:48first two minutes into this game. I said, all right, it's time to get Mitchell Robinson into the
09:51game and get serious. I just didn't like the flow. I thought the Cavs were winning the matchups
09:57with Allen and Hart. I thought with, with Allen Mobley and Dean Wade out there, they were getting
10:02after it on the offensive boards. And I thought they needed to get Mitch out there right away.
10:07As soon as he gets in here, the game turned, he forces two steals. He forces Mobley into it,
10:13into a travel. He gets offensive rebounds with his effort. That changed. That's what changing and got
10:19the Knicks a good lead was when Mitch got into the game where Brown stumbles. Sometimes is he leaves
10:25them to be wounded a little too long. Like they're bleeding out in the third quarter. The starters are
10:30getting cooked. They're letting everything into the paint. The Cavs, once again, out remounted in
10:35the Knicks 14 to 11. And he waited until five minutes left in the third to go back to Mitchell
10:42Robinson. The problem there was number one in those minutes, Mitch wasn't all that impactful,
10:47but the biggest problem to me, Dex was at the time that Mitch comes in the Cavaliers, number one,
10:53they're gashing the Knicks, but they had also picked up four team fouls. And by the time Mitch comes in,
10:59they had one more foul and now the Knicks are in the bonus, but it became advantage Cavs because
11:04now they're going to hack a Mitch. So it took the Knicks offense out of rhythm. It gets a Cavs,
11:10some easier baskets. And then before you know it, he's, I thought he left them in for too long at
11:16that point. I agree to deal with the hack a Mitch situation. So that was very, very, I was very
11:22curious
11:22there with Mike Brown, like perplexed rather in terms of why he would go to that. You've got to go
11:27to
11:28Mitchell Robinson early in this series and in every series for him to be at maximum output and
11:34productivity. You got to go early. They have no choice. That feels like the adjustment that has
11:39to be made for game two. I think you, you know, you gotta go to Mitchell earlier. I was, I
11:44was on
11:44earlier today with, with our friend Jonathan Macri. Um, and I was talking to him about that and I was
11:49like, yeah, I think you got to switch that up and you got to get him in a little bit
11:52earlier
11:53to get Mitch's thing. You can't have the hack a Mitch and listen, Mitch, we know the struggles
11:57with the free throws, but I think you hit the nail on the head too. It killed any offensive
12:02momentum. They could have had to try to get back in the game. The Knicks just, they couldn't get
12:06it. We not look, they're going to need Mitch to impact the series. And the next guy I'm going to
12:10talk about the impact the series is Josh Hart, but Josh Hart didn't shoot the ball. Well,
12:15with Jared Allen guarding him from the outside, right? He was a little hesitant after that.
12:18And then he goes with Landry Shamit. I think that was a huge move, but we've seen Mike Brown
12:23trust guys and know when to push the right buttons. What did you make of the move of playing
12:28Shamit over Hart? And I'm going to ask you this, cause some people are talking about it. I don't
12:32necessarily agree, but do you think there should be a change to the starting lineup now with Hart
12:37struggling after one game? What do you say? No, I, I, we, I don't think you make panic moves
12:43this early in a series just off of a player struggling. It was the same conversation with
12:47McHale bridges. Josh Hart can easily step into three for four from downtown and game two. And
12:52you're not even speaking on that. But what Mike Brown did was, Hey, the guy didn't have it going.
12:57They, the Cavs were winning that matchup. We put a guy in there who's hungry, who's ready to go and
13:01change the momentum of the game. He had three big three pointers in that fourth quarter. He drew a
13:07big charge on Evan Mobley. That's that was part of the spark for the run. I thought Landry Shamit was
13:12excellent, man. So look, you give Hart a chance, but you go to, you go to quick hooks,
13:17you either go to deuce or go to Shamit on game two to spread the defense out a bit more.
13:22You can go
13:22true five out, but there's still to me, benefits of having Hart out there. He still had a productive
13:28game in certain respects in terms of the rebounding and the playmaking. But you know, from the shot
13:33making, it was advantage calves. It certainly was even giving him those shots. It got a little
13:39clunky. The spacing was a little bit clunky there. And so, you know, that was kind of playing
13:43into the calves hands where look, they're going to take away cat. They're going to try to take
13:47away Brunson and we'll live with Hart taking those threes. So again, for him, maybe it's shorter
13:54minutes with the starters. And then you either go to opt for more shooting or more rebounding
14:00toughness physicality with Mitch. Yeah. I'm intrigued to say, and look, Shannon came up huge. He was
14:05great defensively. Obviously nobody's going to ever forget the three. I called it the reverse
14:10Halliburton bounce. I said that in a minute on the live stream. It's like the basketball God said,
14:15hey, last year this happened. We had to give you one back. That was crazy. That was just insane.
14:21And Shamit was great defensively. He was fantastic on the ball. That has to be noted for sure. Now
14:28we've seen cat CP, you know, we've seen the offense run through him as the hub and it's been very
14:35effective. You saw early on in this game, it was not as effective. Um, this was going to look
14:39different for cat. He now is operating against much more length with Alan and Mobley. I thought
14:46the offense looked a little stagnant. You talked about the first two minutes you saw, they didn't
14:49have it. You saw cat a lot in that pinch post and he's just holding the ball, holding the ball
14:52for
14:52like 10 seconds. Yeah. That's not, that's not going to get it done for this team either. So I think
14:57my
14:58question for you here is how do you think Mike Brown tries to unlock cat in game two after what
15:04he
15:04saw in game one, where certain things didn't work well and cat really didn't get going these seven
15:10turnovers. That's not going to get it done. How do you unlock cat in game two? Yeah. I think number
15:14one, they have to move them around a little bit more. Maybe it's establishing more offense with
15:18him in the lower post. Right. And maybe again, is this a matchup where you have Mobley and Alan
15:24where the heart thing kind of compounds the spacing too much where now you're impacting cat a little bit
15:31more than you did in the first two series. So maybe it's personnel, you know, when Brunson is
15:37running that whole entire first quarter, who do you run out there with cat in the second quarter
15:42with the backups? You're still going to have him and Mitch out there. You're running more double big.
15:46So they're going to have to figure out the optimal rotations to get the best spacing around Carl
15:50Anthony towns, but maybe it is running him more in that low post because when they were running him
15:56in that pinch post, he's not going to be able to get around Mobley that quickly. He couldn't beat
16:01the harder matchup, which was the most disappointing to me. Yep. And so, and then you had a couple
16:06opportunities, a couple, um, situations where he hits the deck and creates a, the five on four
16:12situations. Those are some of the bad Carl Anthony towns habits that we saw in the regular season
16:16that he did a great job of cutting down as the season finished. And as they went into the post
16:23season,
16:24it's got to get a lot cleaner because he's vital for them in this series and beyond. It's only going
16:30to get harder in terms of the defenders that they could be facing. I think they will get past the
16:34caps in this series, but in the finals, it's only going to get harder. Whether it's Chet, you know,
16:40Caruso wants that matchup. It could be Hartenstein. It could be Jalen Williams. It could be J Dub.
16:46It could from the Spurs. It could be Wemby, Kelton Johnson, Luke Cornett. It's only going to get
16:51tougher. So the Nick, it is imperative. Jalen Brunch will find his offense, any place, anytime,
16:56any place. It is imperative for the Knicks to find a good rhythm for Carl Anthony Townsend and
17:02Carl Anthony Townsend to go out there and execute. Yeah, I absolutely agree. A couple more things for
17:06my guys, CP the franchise of Knicks fan TV. I think a lot will be made of the Knicks shot
17:11making it a
17:12comeback and the 30 to eight run 44 to 11 to close this game. But for me, and it's always
17:18going to be
17:18the thing I hang my hat on is watching this team as closely as we both do. Defense. Knicks defense
17:24flipped in this game and particularly in the fourth quarter. I talked about some of the habits I did
17:29not like in the first half, CP. What did you see about the defense that worked to get all the
17:35stops
17:36that he did in the fourth quarter and overtime? What were the Knicks doing better than they did
17:39through the first three and a half quarters? Yeah, I thought with the personnel, with McHale out
17:43there, you had OG and Shamit. I thought the ball denial was good. They didn't have to be as
17:48aggressive. Like you said, those two on the ball situations in the third quarter were just head
17:52scratchers. It signaled panic to me. It was desperate when they didn't need to be. You didn't
17:57have to put two on the ball situations with with with Harden. When you have Schroeder out there,
18:03the Cavs are just waiting for you to do it in those high pick and roll situations. Those were head
18:07scratches. So to me, allowing them to kind of stay at home, but just really just solid overall ball
18:13denial and good rotations to the three point shooters as well. I thought that's what got the
18:19job done, especially in the second in the fourth quarter to get the bright stops to end the
18:23possessions as well. Good job by Carl Anthony Towns getting the boards that were needed and and,
18:28you know, allowing Jalen Brunson to operate. Yeah, no, they were good. It was a completely
18:33different defensive effort. I guess we'll close with this. You know, the excitement was there at
18:40the garden last night. You can feel it everywhere from Knicks fans. But I think the big question is
18:45what does this game mean for the Knicks? And what I mean by that is I think the proverbial thinking
18:52is
18:53that the Cavs is going to be hard for them to recover from this. And I think it is, especially
18:56after you heard Kenny Atkinson and some of his answers in the press conference, you know,
19:00St. James Harden is one of the best defenders. Like, come on, you ain't got a lot of the people,
19:04right? You don't got to do that. But when I say, what does this mean for the Knicks CP?
19:08What I mean is what does it mean for them in terms of the belief that they can actually win
19:14the whole
19:14thing, right? Our colleague, Mike Vaccaro, he wrote a good column today about this. The Knicks should
19:19believe they can win it all after winning this game. Do you feel like this kind of win only increases
19:25that belief? The buzz in the city is crazy. We know that. But does this increase the belief for you
19:30and others that the Knicks can definitely win it all? They certainly can. But I think game one
19:35should be a wake up call for them. And hopefully it was a game that got them back into a
19:41rhythm,
19:41you know, oiled up the joints a little bit after the nine day layover. I thought that was real.
19:45The shots were off. They were like shooting 17% from three when they went into the half.
19:49And so, you know, they were able to regain that. But Jalen's huddle speech to his troops. He watched
20:00what was going on in the West Conference Finals. He watched that game. You know, he did. They have
20:04to up their intensity 10x. And so hopefully this game one situation when they found themselves
20:10looking at an embarrassing loss will wake them up and show them that, look, I give credit to the
20:17Cavs. I thought the Cavs tried to meet that intensity throughout that game. You know,
20:23when that one play, when Carl hits the floor with the ball in his hands and he's looking to make
20:28a
20:28pass and Donovan Mitchell ripped him. Dove right on that floor, ripped that ball and took it the
20:34other way. That is the type of thing on the margins. Every possession there has to be. You can't have
20:41wasted possessions. There has to be intent in everything. Can't be sloppy with the ball. The 50-50
20:46balls, you got to get after it. You look at what McHale Bridges did to almost seal that game last
20:51night. You know, Matt Struis is dribbling up the court. McHale Bridges right behind him. Picks his
20:56pocket. Like those type of things. They've got to be on the margins to end up their intensity to
21:03really have a shot at winning this thing. Because it's only going to get harder from here.
21:07I love what you said there. As great as game one was, as historic as that win is, and you
21:13will be in
21:13the mind of Knicks fans forever, it could also serve as a wake-up call for this team to really
21:17lock in for the rest of the series. And for Jalen Brunson, you talked about his leadership CP.
21:21He didn't forget about last year in game one. You know he didn't forget about that whole series.
21:25You know that stuck with him. The Knicks worked so hard to get back to this moment, and we're here
21:30now. And so we'll see. Now, I didn't ask you this. Last thing before we go. What was your prediction
21:35before the series? Six. Your Knicks' six. Does last night change your prediction at all?
21:42I'll keep it.
21:43Sticking with it.
21:44Yeah. I'll keep it at six. Look, I still, look, you had Donovan Mitchell with three points in the
21:49fourth quarter in overtime. I think on Thursday game two, you're going to have one of those
21:55Mitchell performances where he's going to try to get his team back tied 1-1.
21:58Yeah.
21:59And it's up to him to do so. He's the best offensive weapon that they have.
22:03And so, you know, they have to figure out that balance between keeping the ball in Harden's
22:09hands because sometimes Mitchell is that afterthought sometimes.
22:15And I think that hurts the Cavs at times. But I do think they're going to get one of his
22:20best shots in game two. And so that's why I think, look, one of those games on the road
22:25in Cleveland, maybe it's three, maybe it's four. You know, game three is that one where
22:28the crowd is really into it. They might get one of those.
22:32So I'd say Knicks in six.
22:34You're still with Knicks in six. There's going to be some keys for the Knicks. A lot of keys
22:37we can talk about for the Knicks to win game two. They cannot play like they did in the first
22:41three and a half quarters of this game. They got to keep more of that same energy that we saw
22:45from
22:45middle of the fourth quarter into overtime. If they keep that energy, they could easily go up
22:502-0 in this series. We'll see how it goes. Game two on Thursday night. Where are you going to
22:55be
22:55for game two? What are you doing?
22:56I'll be at the game. I will be at the game. I'll be at the guard.
22:58Man, you're out here living the life, man. I like it.
23:01Man, it's Eastern Conference Finals. It's a real time to be in the building.
23:05Time to be in the building.
23:06Well, you know what? Hopefully you bring some of that good luck from game one over to game
23:11two for the Knicks and see if they can go up 2-0 in this series before the series shifts
23:14to Cleveland. That's my guy, CP the franchise. Check him out on KnicksFanTV, all the great work
23:20that he does there. He will be in the building and all the fantastic work that KFTV does as well,
23:25too. CP, I appreciate you, man. Appreciate it, man. Anytime.
23:28All right, everybody. That is CP. This is Dex Henry signing off. We'll catch you on another
23:32edition of New York Got Game. Peace.
23:36And thanks for watching New York Got Game.
23:40Boobashakalaka.
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