Knicks Notes: Anunoby, Layoff, Brunson, Revenue
The Knicks are optimistic that, barring a setback, forward OG Anunoby will be ready to return from his hamstring strain for the start of the Eastern Conference finals, according to Shams Charania and Vincent Goodwill of ESPN.
The layoff following the Knicks’ second-round sweep has been beneficial for Anunoby, who suffered the hamstring injury in Game 2 of the conference semifinals last Wednesday. Reporting at the time indicated it was a very mild strain, and the veteran wing was listed as questionable for Games 3 and 4 before being downgraded to out for each contest. New York’s next series won’t begin until at least Sunday — it could be pushed back to Tuesday if the Pistons are able to force a Game 7 vs. Cleveland.
Anunoby didn’t do any live, full-speed work during Wednesday’s practice, but he went through portions of that practice and completed an individual workout, as Goodwill details.
“Any time anybody is able to do stuff, you’re encouraged,” head coach Mike Brown said. “But again, that’s what they told me he could do today. I’ll wait until Friday to see what they tell me.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- While the Knicks appreciated not having to jump right into their next series without a real break, they’re getting antsy to return to the court and carry over the momentum from their current seven-game winning streak, Josh Hart admitted on Wednesday. “The first series we had what, four days’ break I think it was? That was good enough,” Hart said, per Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press. “This right now, I think at least a week, if not nine days. That’s a long time. So obviously it’s good for recovery, but mentally I’m watching the games, I’m just like just waiting, just waiting to get back out there.”
- While Brown has received plenty of credit for unlocking Karl-Anthony Towns‘ play-making during the playoffs, Jalen Brunson deserves kudos for being willing to play off the ball more frequently, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Responding on Wednesday to the suggestion that some stars wouldn’t have taken that change in stride, Brunson replied, “One, I’m not a star. Two, I want to win.”
- If the Knicks are able to advance to the NBA Finals, they could be looking at somewhere in the range of $140-180MM in gross revenue as a result of their playoff run, writes Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. New York is the only team still alive that ranks among the NBA’s top 10 in gate revenue, according to Badenhausen, who suggests that players on eliminated clubs should be rooting for the Knicks to play as many home games as possible during the next two rounds, since it would increase the league’s basketball-related income for the 2025/26 season.
- Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports takes a closer look at how chemistry and “an absolutely bonkers level of shot-making” have contributed to New York’s historic run through the first two rounds of the postseason, noting that no team has a better point differential through 10 playoff games than this year’s Knicks (+194).
Knicks Notes: Shamet, Towns, Patton, Brown
With OG Anunoby expected to return from his right hamstring strain in the Eastern Conference finals, Landry Shamet will likely once again be the odd man out in the Knicks‘ rotation, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post.
Shamet played sparingly during the first eight games of the postseason, averaging just 9.3 minutes per night, but after Anunoby went down, he logged 37 total minutes in Games 3 and 4 vs. Philadelphia.
While he may still be behind fellow reserves Miles McBride, Jordan Clarkson, and Jose Alvarado on Mike Brown‘s depth chart, Shamet impressed when given an opportunity during those two victories in Philadelphia, scoring 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting and giving the Knicks’ head coach something to think about going forward.
“Landry hadn’t played a drop all playoffs,” Brown said. “I think the first game (of the first round), he was in the rotation and then the second game a little bit, then he was out. That’s six, seven games that he hadn’t seen significant minutes on the court. … He was huge on both ends of the floor.”
We have more on the Knicks:
- For a second straight year since swapping Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, the Knicks and Timberwolves are both making deep playoff runs. However, Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News (subscription required) argues that New York deserve to be crowned the winners of that blockbuster trade, given the way that Towns and the Knicks have dominated during this postseason. Towns has averaged a relatively modest 17.4 points per game during the playoffs, but he’s filling up the stat sheet with 10.0 RPG, 6.6 APG, 1.5 BPG, 1.1 SPG, and an incredible shooting line of .587/.483/.897. The Knicks had a +24.8 net rating when he was on the floor in the first two rounds.
- New York ranked fourth during the regular season with a 37.3% mark on three-pointers and has converted a league-high 40.8% during the postseason. In a subscriber-only story for The New York Post, Stefan Bondy profiles shooting coach Peter Patton, the club’s secret weapon who has helped multiple Knicks players post career-best numbers from beyond the arc. “I feel like when you have somebody telling you what you need out of your shot and you trust him, it’s big time. I feel like for all of the guys he’s been huge,” said McBride, who hit a career-best 41.3% of his three-pointers in 2025/26. “… I just love the fact that he’s watching, he’s locked in, he’s helping the whole team. … It’s just small technique things. Like if you’re dropping your hand down or you’re turning a little bit. Just anything you’re doing off with your shot, he points out and it helps.”
- Do the Knicks match up better against Detroit or Cleveland? James L. Edwards III of The Athletic considers which Central Division team New York should want to play, ultimately concluding that Detroit has played the Knicks tougher even though the Cavs look like the more difficult matchup on paper. Still, the Knicks should be favored over either team, Edwards notes.
- Although he doesn’t necessarily believe Tom Thibodeau deserved to be fired, Ian O’Connor of The Athletic argues, based on what he has seen from the team this spring, that the Knicks did the right thing by replacing Thibodeau with Brown.
Knicks Notes: Series Sweep, Hart, Towns, McBride, Brunson
The Knicks didn’t get to celebrate in front of their home crowd after finishing off a sweep of the Sixers on Sunday afternoon, but it kind of felt that way, writes Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. Plenty of New York fans made the trip to Xfinity Mobile Arena to enjoy their team’s latest dominant performance, a 144-114 win that ran the Knicks’ winning streak to seven games and put them in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Guard Josh Hart, who played at Villanova, couldn’t resist taking a playful swipe at his former home city.
“I used to think Philly was a sports town. I don’t know if it is anymore,” he said. “Everybody was begging for Philly [fans] not to sell their tickets. It never felt like a road game.”
In fairness to Philadelphia fans, they were probably dispirited by the one-sided nature of the matchup. New York controlled the series right from the start and had Sunday’s game virtually wrapped up by halftime. The Knicks tied an NBA record by making 18 three-pointers in the first half and held a 24-point lead at intermission.
Goodwill notes that New York has outscored its opponents by 19.4 points per game through the first two rounds, which is the largest differential for any team entering the conference finals since the playoffs were expanded 42 years ago. The Knicks have been looking unbeatable lately, but players aren’t taking anything for granted.
“Our team, the first year with each other, beating Boston last year we were very excited,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “This year, we’re locked into the moment, and there’s a lot more work to do. So, it’s great to see our guys kind of hungry for the next challenge.”
There’s more on the Knicks:
- Towns continued to flash his play-making skills with nine assists in 16 minutes during the first half on Sunday, observes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. He finished with 10, but only had to play four minutes in the second half because the game was out of reach. The Knicks’ offense has been energized since Brown decided to turn Towns into more of a passer midway through the first-round series. “Shout out to our team,” Towns said. “We found a way to, in a way, stabilize our season and do what was needed to adjust to Atlanta. And [we] found ourselves in a better position. It’s a shout-out to the coaching staff for realizing adjustments that needed to be made and also [a] shout-out to me personally that they trusted me.”
- Miles McBride, who hit seven three-pointers on Sunday while starting in place of the injured OG Anunoby, said the Knicks adopted a more aggressive attitude after falling behind Atlanta in Round 1, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “I feel like our mindset shifted,” McBride said. “We know we’re the better team (but) we can’t just come out there and expect to win, because they’re talented too. So I feel like our mindset just shifted totally to ‘take the game’ instead of (waiting for) them to give us the game.”
- The organization spent years chasing stars before landing Jalen Brunson in the summer of 2022, notes James L. Edwards of The Athletic. The undersized guard didn’t look like a franchise player when he was signed away from Dallas, but he has affected the team as much as anyone else could have. “What’s the dude’s name on Snoopy? Linus? He’s got a blanket,” coach Mike Brown said. “I’m Linus, and Jalen is my blanket. He helps me relax throughout the course of a game. That’s what great players do. They keep you poised, they make the game easier for everybody else and they help you get through a stretch.”
Knicks Notes: Towns, Brown, Hart, Bridges, Potential Sweep
Head coach Mike Brown made a strategic adjustment heading into Game 4 of the first-round series against Atlanta, and the Knicks haven’t lost since, writes Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Trailing 2-1 in the series, Brown opted to station Karl-Anthony Towns on the perimeter more often and use him as a play-maker. The results have been spectacular as New York has reeled off six straight wins by an average of 25.8 points per game and is now one victory away from the conference finals.
“The real change for us came before Game 4 in Atlanta,” Towns told reporters. “That’s when we really changed our offense. It’s been great. It’s been something I’ve talked about for a lot of the season, to feel like we can help our guys [on offense] more. We made the right moves.”
Brown likes having an “equal opportunity” offense where anyone can contribute in a variety of ways, and he believes the Knicks are “just scratching the surface” of what they can become on that end of the court. He plans to keep the philosophy in place beyond the current playoff run.
“What we’re doing now, I think, can have great carryover next year and down the line because we’d be able to expand on it the right way through a training camp,” Brown said.
There’s more on the Knicks:
- Josh Hart is still feeling the effects of a sprained left thumb he suffered in Game 2, Begley adds. An X-ray taken during that game showed that it wasn’t broken, so he opted to keep playing. “It’s something I’ll revisit in the offseason,” he said. “There’s people that played through this.”
- The Knicks are seeing the version of Mikal Bridges that caused them to send five first-round picks to Brooklyn in a 2024 trade, per Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News (subscription required). Bridges is playing shutdown defense on Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey and is contributing on offense as well. “I would take it a step further. There’s a ton of stuff that I would argue people don’t see that he does throughout the course of the game that’s far more important than just a couple of the big plays and coming up with a loose ball down the stretch,” Landry Shamet said. “He does that for 48 minutes. So does his level go up and does he show up in big moments? Absolutely, but I would argue that he’s the type of guy that does that for all 48 and finds a way to do it every night.”
- The Knicks have a chance to sweep their rivals from Philadelphia for the first time in 37 years, but they’re not looking past Sunday’s game, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. The Sixers overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat Boston in the first round, and the Knicks don’t want to offer them any hope of another big comeback. “We just gotta stay in the present,” Towns said. “The next game is the most important game. There’s a lot of things we need to clean up and we want to clean up and we have another game to do that. It’s about just staying about us.”
Knicks Notes: Anunoby, Bridges, McBride, Fouls, Workout
The Knicks came through in crunch time on Wednesday to pull out a victory in Game 2 of their second-round series vs. the 76ers and will carry a 2-0 lead into Philadelphia. However, the win may have come out a cost, as standout forward OG Anunoby exited the game in the fourth quarter due to an apparent right hamstring injury and didn’t return, according to Zach Braziller of The New York Post.
Anunoby appeared to sustain the injury on a missed dunk attempt with just over three minutes left in the game. The 28-year-old landed a little awkwardly and briefly grabbed at the back of his leg, then was limping as he begin running up the court following the offensive possession (video link via NBA.com). He signaled to the bench that he needed to check out of the game and was subbed out shortly thereafter.
“It looked like he was hopping, but I don’t know anything,” head coach Mike Brown said after the game, per Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. “They haven’t told me. I just know he left the game. Nobody said he was back. I haven’t talked to anybody yet.”
There have been on additional updates on Anunoby since last night, so we’re still waiting to get a sense of whether the injury is a minor one or if it’s more significant. As Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post and Ian O’Connor of The Athletic write, it’s a concerning development for a team that has been playing its best basketball since Game 4 of the first round, given how important Anunoby has been during that stretch. He holds overall playoff averages of 21.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.9 steals in 35.3 minutes per game.
We have more on the Knicks:
- Mikal Bridges‘ scoring average dropped to 14.4 points per game this season, making him a target for criticism given what the Knicks paid to acquire him (five first-round picks) and to extend him ($150MM over four years). However, he has been on a roll in the postseason, showing why the team valued him so highly, writes Jake Nisse of The New York Post. Bridges has scored 35 points on 16-of-23 (69.6%) shooting through the first two games of the second round and has been one of the primary defenders on Sixers star Tyrese Maxey, who has made just 12-of-32 shots (37.5%) while committing 10 turnovers. Bridges’ contributions could be even more important going forward if Anunoby misses time, Nisse notes.
- Count Miles McBride among the Knicks who is prepared to take on a larger role if necessary, depending on Anunoby’s diagnosis, writes Ian Begley of SNY.tv. McBride said he’d be “extremely comfortable” if asked to do more. “I feel like the coaching staff trusts me, I know my teammates trust me and I trust myself overall,” McBride said. “So if that happens, I know I’ll be ready.”
- After his big men got into foul trouble for the second straight game, Brown suggested in his post-game media session that he hopes the free throw discrepancy between the two teams gets “evened out a little bit more” over the course of the series, per Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. “I think it was (Karl-Anthony Towns)’ third or fourth foul where Maxey came off him,” Brown said, presumably referring to this play. “I’m not sure what’s a bump and what’s not a bump, but up by half-court, I gotta go back and I gotta watch that, because you can literally call somebody getting bumped every time down the floor if you want to. And so, for KAT to pick up his third or fourth foul that way — I can’t remember which one it was — that was tough.”
- Texas Tech wing Donovan Atwell, Michigan guard Elliot Cadeau, Kentucky center Malachi Moreno, and Ohio guard Jackson Paveletzke were among the prospects who took part in a pre-draft workout with the Knicks on Tuesday, a league source tells Adam Zagoria of NJ.com (Twitter link). New York holds three picks in this year’s draft — Nos. 24, 31, and 55.
Bontemps/Windhorst’s Latest: Celtics, Harden, Towns, Duren
Celtics big man Neemias Queta enjoyed a breakout year in an increased role in 2025/26, making 75 starts in the middle and averaging new career highs in points (10.2), rebounds (8.4), assists (1.7), and blocks (1.3) per game while finishing fourth in Most Improved Player voting. Still, center is considered a position Boston will look to upgrade this summer, sources tell Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
“Can Queta get you through 82 (games)?” one Western Conference scout said to ESPN. “Yes, but can he patchwork it through the playoffs? I think he keeps getting better, but there’s a ceiling. They have to get a higher-level center if they want to be considered serious contenders.”
The question is how the Celtics might be able to acquire a starting-caliber center after having moved so many of their larger, most tradable contracts last offseason. While the team should have some form of mid-level exception available, it’s not easy to add an impact free agent with that exception, especially since there’s no guarantee Boston will have access to the full non-taxpayer version of the MLE.
Here are a few more items of interest from Bontemps and Windhorst:
- Given their cap/apron situation, the Cavaliers will be incentivized to negotiate a new multiyear deal with James Harden that lowers his cap hit for 2026/27 rather than simply having him pick up his $42.3MM player option, Bontemps and Windhorst observe. “(That is the) best path to get under the apron without materially salary dumping,” one Eastern Conference executive said. “The Cavs will pay him more than he could get in free agency. They’ll probably work something out.” Sources tell ESPN that Harden and Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson have established a strong working relationship.
- Karl-Anthony Towns technically has two years left on his contract after this season, but 2027/28 is a player option, so the Knicks big man looks like a prime offseason extension candidate. A deal could hinge on how the rest of New York’s playoff run goes, but Towns had another All-Star season in 2025/26 and has been excellent so far in the postseason. “They’re probably in a spot with KAT that they should either extend him or look to trade him,” an Eastern Conference executive told ESPN. “If this playoff run convinces everyone this is a good fit, maybe they can get him to take a little discount off his max like (Jalen) Brunson did and help them keep the core together.”
- Earning an All-NBA spot this spring would make Jalen Duren eligible for a Rose Rule contract worth up to 30% of the salary cap (instead of 25%), but Bontemps and Windhorst suggest the Pistons will probably be reluctant to go that high for the All-Star center. One Western Conference executive who spoke to ESPN speculated that Duren might not even get a standard (25%) max deal, pointing to an average annual salary around $35MM as a figure that might work. “What’s a number that could leave both sides uncomfortable?” that exec said. “That might be what it takes to ultimately get a deal done.”
Knicks Notes: Hart, Clarkson, Alvarado, Towns
The Knicks‘ series against Atlanta turned around after Josh Hart demanded to be given the full-time defensive assignment on CJ McCollum, Stefan Bondy of The New York Post writes in a subscriber-only piece. After McCollum hit a game-winning shot to give the Hawks a 2-1 series lead, Hart made sure the coaching staff understood his intentions.
“I cursed out one of our defensive [coaches] for taking me off him at the end of Game 3,” said Hart, who also walked into the coaches’ room at halftime of Game 4 to make sure it didn’t happen again. “I said, ‘I’m on him. Don’t take me off him. I’m guarding him. And that was the challenge I wanted.”
The difference was stark, Bondy notes, as McCollum averaged 27 points per game in the first three games of the series while shooting 51% from the field and 39% on three-pointers. Over the final three games, he was limited to 11.3 PPG while his shooting dropped to 39.5% from the field and 10% from beyond the arc. He averaged 3.3 turnovers in that span and only 1.3 assists.
“At a certain point, it’s just pride,” Hart said. “It’s wanting to obviously try to stop him, to limit him. Games 1 and 2, he had (about) 30 (per game). It was just a pride thing. Go out there and get stops.”
There’s more from New York:
- The additions of Jordan Clarkson and Jose Alvarado have given the Knicks more depth than they’ve had in recent seasons, notes Howie Kussoy of The New York Post. That backcourt duo has teamed with Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride to provide a reliable second unit that takes some of the stress off the starters. Clarkson and Alvarado both fell out of coach Mike Brown’s rotation late in the season, but they’ve reemerged since the playoffs began. “[Being out of the rotation is] definitely challenging, but I’ve been in the league for 12 years. I know how it goes,” Clarkson said. “Just continue to stay ready. There’s a locker room of young guys and other people, watching me and seeing how I react to those things. Set an example for them. Continue to stay locked in. … Just wait for my opportunity to go out there and play. Everybody setting that example and having everybody ready is big for the team.”
- The first-round series featured Karl-Anthony Towns‘ best sustained performance since Brown took over as head coach, observes Ian Begley of SNY.tv. There were season-long concerns about whether Towns could adjust to Brown’s system, but he was dominant against Atlanta, posting a combined plus-62 rating over the final three games of the series. “I never doubted my ability,” Towns said. “I never doubted the work I put in. It’s just – you gotta adjust, you gotta adjust. Especially (with) a lot of new things being thrown at you, you’re being asked to do a lot more things – some things that (haven’t) consistently been asked of me in my career. It’s one thing anyone who knows me, who’s followed my career, I’m willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes for the team to win.”
- James L. Edwards of The Athletic considers whether the Knicks are now in the best position of anybody to win the East.
Knicks Notes: Brunson, Towns, Anunoby, Alvarado
A change in strategy by the Hawks set up Jalen Brunson for his best performance of the series in Tuesday’s Game 5, writes Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. Coach Quin Snyder opted to switch Dyson Daniels onto Karl-Anthony Towns, who posted a triple-double on Sunday. That gave Brunson more freedom to operate, and he responded with 39 points while shooting 15-of-23 from the field as the Knicks cruised to a 29-point win.
“It’s like a chess match,” Brunson said. “If someone makes a move, you’ve got to make another move. You’ve got to wait to see what they do. The way we play, we’ve got to be ready for anything.”
Atlanta posted a pair of one-point victories in Games 2 and 3 to take the lead in the series, but New York has been dominant since then, holding the Hawks to 42.7% from the field and 27.7% from three-point range in the last two outings. CJ McCollum, who looked like the star of the series early on, was limited to six points on Tuesday.
“It’s been a multitude of things. We picked it up as a unit,” Brunson of the Knicks’ defense. “They’ve also gotten a lot of looks. and we were lucky they were missing. I think us being on the same page, both sides of the ball, was a factor.”
There’s more from New York:
- The defensive adjustment didn’t seem to bother Towns, who finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and six assists as the Knicks ran their offense through him most of the night, observes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Towns was able to overpower Daniels in the paint and use his size advantage to get the ball to open teammates. “I feel like passing’s been my thing since I came into the league. Sometimes the scoring gets more noticed than the passing,” Towns said. “But I’m glad I have the opportunity to show what I can do, passing-wise. I’ve just got to continue to stay disciplined, continue to make the right play, regardless if it’s the scoring play or the hockey assist.”
- OG Anunoby may be New York’s best player throughout the series, Braziller adds in a separate story. Anunoby turned in another great game with 17 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and a plus-19 rating, and his teammates are recognizing the contribution he’s making every night. “He’s one of the best two-way players in the NBA,” Towns said. “This series has been great for him to show the world on a big stage something that we always thought he was. When you have someone like that who is that good offensively and even better defensively, weirdly enough, it’s special. I believe he’s going to be First Team All-Defense, and he deserves it.”
- After not playing in the series opener, Jose Alvarado has worked his way back into the rotation, per Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. He came off the bench to score 12 points in 12 minutes in Game 5 and helped the Knicks pull away early in the second quarter. Schwartz notes that Alvarado’s latest chance came after guards Landry Shamet and Miles McBride struggled earlier in the series.
Knicks Notes: Towns, Hart, Brunson, McBride
The Knicks struggled to put four straight quarters of high-level offense together in Games 2 and 3 of their series against the Hawks. In Game 4, they turned to Karl-Anthony Towns as the lead man, and it may have saved their season, Kristian Winfield writes for the New York Daily News. The Knicks have had issues getting the talented center involved at times, but they made a clear effort to do so on Saturday.
The six-time All-Star had his first playoff triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. His passing from the top of the key opened up the game for the Knicks, as did the off-ball play designs from head coach Mike Brown, which got players like OG Anunoby shot after shot inside, most of which were courtesy of Towns.
“[Towns] is a special talent. He can do it all. And I know if I get open, he’ll find me,” Anunoby said after the game, per Winfield. “No matter how tight the window is, he’ll be able to find it. It’s amazing playing with a player like him.”
Brown said that the decision to play through Towns was a result of being willing to adjust quickly, given the magnitude of the game, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
“We just switched our early offense,” Brown said. “So with us switching our early offense up the way we did, the ball went to his hands quite a bit.”
We have more from the Knicks:
- Josh Hart is best known for his rebounding and hustle plays, but it’s his defensive versatility that has allowed New York to come back and tie their first-round series with the Hawks, Jared Schwartz writes for the New York Post. Hart split his time guarding CJ McCollum, who has been picking apart the Knicks’ defense for much of the series, and Jalen Johnson. He was similarly effective on both players, and his intensity helped set the tone for New York’s perimeter defense, which held the Hawks to 24.4% shooting from deep and converted 19 Atlanta turnovers into 21 points. “Josh was really good on the ball,” Brown said. “Josh is a guy with quick feet, he’s strong and when he gets locked in, he’s locked in. His defensive activity, especially when he [pressures the ball], was fabulous [Saturday night]. Really, really good. And we needed all of it.”
- Another crucial part of the Knicks’ victory was finding a way to keep Jalen Brunson from being a target on defense. On Saturday, Brown was able to do that, Winfield writes. “We mix it up so Jalen is not always on [the ball-handler],” Brown said pregame. “When he is, we got to make sure we continue to mix up our defensive coverages.” Brunson also waved away concerns over the visible disagreement he had with his father, assistant coach Rick Brunson, simply saying, “That was two competitors,” per Schwartz.
- It’s been an inconsistent start to the playoffs for Miles McBride, who is still less than three months removed from undergoing sports hernia surgery. McBride has had some positive moments, especially late in games, but has made just one two-pointer and has yet to attempt a free throw. He’s not making excuses about his injury though, Bondy writes. “I expect a lot out of myself, more than anybody else, honestly. And I try not to listen to how I’m feeling day to day,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter; if I’m supposed to get a stop, I gotta get a stop. If I’m supposed to make a shot, I gotta make a shot. So I try not to think about it. Reality is, I’ve gotta go out there and perform.”
Knicks Notes: Brown, Towns, Robinson, Shamet
Much of the discussion following the Knicks‘ loss to the Hawks in Game 2 revolved around coach Mike Brown‘s decisions regarding lineups and timeout usage. Asked ahead of Game 3 whether he’ll stick with his usual substitution patterns, Brown says he’s open to tweaking his rotation, Andrew Crane writes for the New York Post.
“Anything’s open to discussion offensively, defensively,” Brown said. “Maybe changing this defensively. Maybe changing that offensively. I’m comfortable with all of our guys playing, no matter who the five is out there.”
The Knicks’ players themselves say they’re fully confident in Brown’s adjustments, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News, noting that it’s up to them to execute the game plan their coach lays out for them. Playing with pace and physicality are two points of emphasis among the coaching staff and the players.
“We [have to] get the ball faster, run on makes and misses,” said Jalen Brunson. “Just be who we are and don’t let things are not that important in this moment — it shouldn’t mean we’re not doing the things that we’re supposed to be doing.”
We have more Knicks notes:
- Karl-Anthony Towns took 12 shots in Game 2 and only two in the fourth quarter as the lead the Knicks had built slipped away. In a feature story for ESPN, Vincent Goodwill outlines how Brown and the coaching staff have struggled all season to maximize the star big man on offense but observes that it hasn’t impacted Towns’ desire to continue being a Knick. “He so badly wants things to work here,” a source close to Towns tells ESPN. “He wants to be a Knick for life.”
- Mitchell Robinson isn’t angry about the Hawks employing intentional fouls as a way to force him off the floor. He views it as a sign of respect, Winfield writes. “I mean, yeah, I feel like they want to get me off the court, so I know I’m threatening they ass and it be like that,” Robinson said. Despite being just 2-for-6 from the line through two games, Robinson believes that the work he puts in to practice his free throws will pay off in the end. “Sometimes, it go in; sometimes, it don’t,” he said. “Confidence still high, so still ready to go.” Brown is trying to figure out how to get the defensive-minded center more minutes, but he says it’s been difficult because the two-big lineups with Towns haven’t been effective so far this series, Ian Begley of SNY notes (via Twitter).
- The Knicks have praised Landry Shamet‘s plug-and-play ability all year, but he hit a rough patch towards the end of the season and hasn’t found a way to break out of it so far in the playoffs, Jared Schwartz writes for the New York Post. Shamet shot just 1-for-7 from the field over the first two games of the series, with six of those seven attempts from beyond the arc. The Knicks have struggled to find a stable ball-handler off the bench, as both Shamet and Miles McBride are more comfortable off the ball and have difficulty breaking down defenses off the dribble. Those two were supposed to be New York’s top guard depth, but neither has been able to get going, forcing Brown to turn to Jose Alvarado instead as a source of energy and ball-handling.