[Highlight] The Cavs’ controller gets removed which allows Jalen Brunson to casually stroll for an uncontested layup
Atlanta still the only team to beat New York this postseason
God damn CJ man
We needed that to unlock point KAT tho
Real ones know Mike brown was trying to save point KAT until the second round like it was his ult, but CJ put an early stop to that
brown def wanted to catch celtics off-guard
This team is built to play the Celtics. Got OG and Mikal to cover Brown and Tatum. Not saying we win but Leon was definitely thinking of that roster when he constructed ours.
beat em last year and considering the sixers beat the celtics, means knicks beat them this year too
We beat em in the reg season too iirc
yup. we figured them out. and we did it when they were at their best.
this season, they were a lesser (but still great) version of themselves
It’s like Azula’s lightning bending in Last Airbender. Got a glimpse a couple times, but then the avatar showed up and we need to strike that fucker down
Honestly they don’t make it this far if they don’t lose those games
Agreed
Imagine if you guys lost that Series. CJ would be the new Trae Young lmao
We probably lose that series with Thibs
He would’ve never figured out that KAT playmaking hub strategy
Easily lol
Did I do that?
-CJ
all he had to do was follow the train
Bro turned into Dame for 2 and a half games
Genuinely makes their victories against us even more impressive. It’s not surprising, considering they were one of the hottest teams going into the postseason, but significant credit is due.
Made a comeback from a double digit deficit in game 2 and staved off a Knick comeback in game 3, both 1 point victories. They played hard.
If you take this Knicks team and go back in time a month they’d have an 11-0 record right now and probably sweep the playoffs.
Knicks fell back on thibs iso ball those first 3 games which is why they lost those games to the hawks.
Knicks don’t unlock their full potential unless they get humiliated by an old CJ which is a freaking insane sentence to say lol
Championship level defense right there
Former defensive player of the Year Evan Mobley cleaning up the glass
The whole team must be expecting Harden to lock Brunson up again. Or are they blaming Strus for not sprinting faster and getting in front of Brunson?
Seriously why does this whole team have the defensive philosophy of not helping out your teammate when they get blown by and just watch? Happened to Strus here, happened to Harden 10 times in the first game. It’s like a “I got mine” mentality.
Don’t got no dog in em. On paper and in the regular season, certain teams seem like they should be good, but the playoffs is all about percentile of dog per player. Lakers were supposed to lose first round, but they had that dog in em. Nuggets were supposed to be 3rd best in the west, but that rim is free eats for a pack of dogs. Cavs get out dogged year after year
They just beat the number 1 seed in a game 7 on the round. Not many people picked them to even make it this far
People love to use the “other team wanted it more” mentality because it’s easy, these Knicks are a better team atm due to the following:
KAT can operate as either a playmaker or shooter
Brunson is a better scorer than James Harden and a better playmaker than D Mitch
OG/Mikal are high level defenders who can score 20 on any given night, Struss/Wade can defend at a similar level but do not have the same offensive output. Putting more pressure on Harden and Mitchell
Deuce and Shamet can catch fire from deep, Merrill can too but he’s worse defensively and tends to foul at poor times.
Knicks are a younger/fresher team. 9 days rest + two series against Atlanta and the 76ers (with 36 year old PG as their best defender) vs two very gritty defensive teams in the Raptors and Pistons
It’s only because the Pistons have exactly one shooter, lol. If Ausar has even a minor semblance of a jump shot this is an epic Pistons-Knicks rematch.
Doesn’t help that Duren had negative dawg level and couldn’t remember how to play basketball.
How do we measure Dawg +/-??
Cavs also went 7 vs the Raptors, and the Pistons were significantly more ass than they were in the regular season. They looked like Cade and friends out there, and also went to 7 with the Magic. They were never a serious contender
This is how the jazz were for years and it’s disgusting
Except Gobert, he was the only one who cared and kept getting scapegoated for it.
The fact that he was DPOY last year is crazy to me.
Fuckin bummed the pistons didn’t get through Cleveland, seeing they’ve gone down 0-3. Bums. Everyone knew Harden wouldn’t be it (in the playoffs), too bad it sounds like Donovan and Mobley aren’t carrying enough.
I know you guys kicked the shit out of us in the regular season but things would be so different now. Duren lost all his abilities he had in the regular season, Cade was already getting gassed out by the 4th after playing 2 straight 7 game series. Imagine having one day off then facing off against us for a series?
I don’t think it would look much different. We would make Cade do all the work and make him gas out in the 3rd.
Can’t do much when Harden and Mitchell are giving Brunson free run into the paint
What is Kenny doing? Tell your players to keep on playing until you hear a whistle. If they are deaf…sub in players from your bench, that actually have a pulse. Pathetic defense
He knows he’s fired
Im pretty sure Kenny needs another coaching tip from Dan Gilbert.
for who lol
Their defense effort was horrible for the majority of the game. Except for Strus
Seemed like Strus was the only one who actually wanted to be playing.
Not true at all. Harden of all people tried harder in this game defensively.
Got disconnected completely.
They left it at the couch the previous possession.
these guys would get eaten alive by OKC or Spurs in the finals 💀 it’s lowkey better that the Knicks go on. They need to regroup in the offseason
OKC vs. Cavs would be legitimately the worst finals of all time lmao
OKC in 3
This is frying me
That’s pretty much what’s going on in this series, too
Hard to get much worse than the Kobe-Shaq Lakers vs the Eastern Conference Participation Trophy New Jersey Nets.
It would be a lot worse, at least the games in that series were relatively close
Aah yes the same year where the league rigged the Lakers series against the kings
Man remember last January when they were the no.1 seed and had that epic regular season game against OKC (and won!) and people were like “this may have been a Finals preview??” Crazy how different are 15 months later.
Bro they’re like billions over the cap 🤣 they’re cooked.
I just looked at their salaries for next season and it’s bad. \(222 million, which is already over the 2nd apron. And that's for just 11 players. They're at best the 4th best team in the East next year. Knicks, Pistons, and Celtics will all be better and I'd probably put the Raptors ahead of them too. They better pray Harden declines his player option, but I doubt he will because I can't see a team offering more than \)42 million. They are in a horrible position.
Don’t forget the Pacers
They’re locked in to spida who needs to play a lot better
It’s crazy how much of a blessing the Knicks missing out on the Spida sweepstakes ended up being.
Also missing out on the kd and kyrie free agency summer to the nets
I think they left it at msg in the 4th quarter of game 1
A team with Mobley and JA should not be this terrible defensively in the paint, just insane display of quitting.
They’ve been ass for multiple postseasons. I don’t know why people rate them highly.
They are losing players. Julius Randle gets absolutely flamed for similar level performances.
It’s age. Fans are expecting the next step from Mobley. It hasn’t come yet, and whether he arrives or not is another debate.
He will be 25 next month, he can make a step forward but will he become that much better? Doubt it.
With him it was always MVP level potential. He can certainly get better, but I think his ceiling is lower than we originally thought.
He’s not within light years of MVP level even in a best case scenario. He’s already 25 and never made an All-NBA team.
You and several others who responded to me are missing my point. Early in his career, there was a thought that his skill set could make him a top 10 player in this league. You are right that now, with several years of work to evaluate, that he will not reach that once theorized ceiling.
MVP level? Naw, Top 10 player in the league I think was the potential but like you said his ceiling seems to be way lower now
He’s a role player at a contending team. He will never give you the output you expect from his contract. Like I’ve never heard anyone say “damn, mobly went crazy and got his team the win”.
This, i feel like he really lacks creation that most top 10 players have. Like defensively he’s obviously there but you can’t be a top 10 guy without cruising to 20 points in the league.
Tbh I think it’s more an issue that Harden and Mitchell are absolute negative POA defenders.
They were 15th in defense in the regular season. Hawks were actually the toughest defense this team has faced in the post season.
Perimeter defense with Mitchell and Harden is tough. Wade is good, but when your back court is that prime to get picked on youre kind of stuck at a certain ceiling.
JA has actually been consistently good this postseason.
The issue has been the guards. They’ve been awful on defense and it’s hard to cover up for BOTH of them. They’ve been inefficient on offense + Harden has been turnover prone and Mitchell has had poor shot selection, particularly falling in love with really long off-balance floaters.
Bigs getting blamed again when onovan mitchell doesn’t play any defense.
Mitchell is an interesting breed of awful defender because it seems in part because he doesn’t move to his left well on defense
JA and Mobley had nothing left physically. They literally have no help and they’ve been playing 35+ mins of high intensity basketball for a month straight.
We’ve broken their spirits
Think their spirits were broken after blowing a 20 point lead in the 4th quarter game 1
22 point lead
with 7 minutes left in the game
Excellent
The knicks went though I similar situation last ecf they still took it to 6 the cavs are literally rolling over
Knicks weren’t relying on 36 year old Harden to carry their offense and while being the POA defender on their opponents best player.
Cavs 2018 finals after blowing game 1 due to JR blunder kind of vibe.
They broke their backs… spinal.
As soon as I saw that I felt so depressed
This Cavs playoff run was basically another second round exit with some fancy decorations to gas it up everyone needs to go
If they were serious they wouldn’t have let either of their first two rounds series go to seven
It’s funny because it applies to multiple teams
Insane that this core has underperformed for years and they thought that trading for Harden would take them over the hump.
For what it’s worth, it got them to the ECF. Darius Garland probably wouldn’t have held up against Pistons/Raptors.
We lose to the raptors easily with Garland.
It may as well have been another second round exit the way they’ve played the last three games
It was like covering a turd in glitter. It’s still shit
Second round exit with extra steps, if you will
I hope their GM isn’t fooled by winning in 7 against an injured Raptors team. Then to a good but clearly flawed Pistons team. If Cavs were real contenders those series would’ve been over in 5⁄6 games at most in a decisive fashion.
1,2,3… Cancun!!
Harden booking his flight as we speak.
I think he has a seasonal deal with an airline already. They already had it auto-reserved for this time of the year
I know Atkinson is gonna get a lot of criticism but I kinda think this group of players just ain’t it. Seems weird to say but at times it feels like there is a lack of competitive drive. Not sure what a coach can do about that.
The answer is absolutely nothing. Sure…either Atkinson or Mitchell can give a rah rah speech to fire guys up…but you cant do that every single game or every time out. Guys have to bring their own competitiveness and desire to win to the game.
Ask yourself a question. Do you ever see Max Strus displaying a lack of drive? No? Then, why cant the rest of the team be like him? Because they’re all a bunch of pansy-asses.
You cant teach someone how to be a dog, how to take every made shot on you personally, how to mentally dig deep and say to yourself “I’m better than you and ur not gona score on me, and if you do im gona foul your ass into the floor boards, to make sure you think twice next time.”
This group of guys dont have it. I am so sick and tired of watching these ho-hum lackadaisical clowns. Nobody holds anybody accountable either. LeBron James would chew your head off if you went out there and gave that half ass effort. Lebron James also wouldnt be hiding in the corner letting someone else take the big shots.
The biggest victim of this series might be strus and I’m happy I’m not the only one catching it lol
Strus was the only cav who seemed like he wanted to be out there. Just embarrassing tbh.
Just like Kenny or Charles mentioned, there is no on-court sense of leadership either from Harden or Donovan when there should be.
Jimmy Butler inspired Miami to hustle and show grit. Harden doesn’t give a shit about Defense so the other players are probably thinking “Why am I working so hard then?”. Donovan should be a leader but he’s not really doing it either other than sinking baskets. Neither of them seem to be elevating others.
It’s pretty embarrassing. RJ & Legs were talking about Cavs giving up transition buckets off made baskets and the Cavs let it happen again and again. Zero urgency/communication.
Donovan Mitchell isn’t that guy.
Players just there for the playoff bonus checks.
They don’t have any wings.
Yeah this is not an NBA coaching issue. You get taught in grade school not to give someone an open layup if you’re right in front of the rim. Heck, you’ll get told in a pickup game.
Generally speaking, with few notable exceptions, most teams take on the personality of their best players. Harden and Mitchell don’t have the competitive fire that you need your star players to have. I think they’re both better off being the #2 options but they’re both stuck kinda/sorta trying to be #1s at the same time.
Just how good were the Hawks anyway lol. Perhaps we judged them too harshly.
You can NEVER get judged too harshly for losing a Win or Go home game on your home court by 50.
idk that elimination game is pretty hard to forgive
What was it? Like 72-22 at one point?
That score in particular is burned into my brain forever I think
Knicks largest lead was 61. There was a point in the 2nd quarter OG Anunoby even on the bench had more points himself than the Hawks.
Don’t forget 101-40
The two games they won were by one point each, with the Knicks having the last possession with a chance to win. It’s not like the Hawks blew them out like the Knicks did to them in game 6. Brown made some adjustments and Knicks are on a heater.
The Knicks fell back on bad thibs iso habits those first few games. Hawks aren’t anything special either. They got completely blown out once the Knicks woke up and started moving the ball
Sad way to go out.
Like every season
I’ve never seen a team just give up. Especially in a conference finals. Why is basketball so broken?
Knicks are breaking their spirit. The Cavs simply havent recovered from blowing that 22pt lead in Game 1. Meanwhile the Knicks won each game with different players stepping up each time. It’s perfect team basketball. It’s sound super cliché to say everyone is clicking and knows what they’re supposed to do but that’s simply what’s been the case.
Mostly they just know they’re outplayed and outclassed by a mile and half. And in their hearts they know they’re not close and they don’t have a chance.
On top of that, grueling regular season with all the travel. Played like 15+ games on top of that in playoffs. And a lot of these guys are 100 millionaires if not more. They are ready for vacation and grind starts again in September/October.
Indefensible behavior, seriously. If I was the owner or GM, I’m blowing up the team just based on that.
I think the problem was that the shot was *extremely* defensible
Pass the sticks, Knicks going to the finals yall
start spreading the news
Cavs have no chemistry
No chemistry, no heart and no coach
Towns is fucking hilarious in this clip lol
Like he’s doing the Wade arms-out in front of Lebron pose lol
Thank you for saying this, I didn’t see it the first time lol.
Harden already in Cancun
That was embarrassing.
It’s one thing to miss shots and play terrible. I have never seen a conference finals team go out like that in a must win game. One of the softest things I have ever seen, the absolute no sense of urgency on defense was embarrassing
It’s unbelievable, I can’t wrap my head around it, there must be some locker room drama or smt behind this.
Seems coach related to me. Atkinson has had some weird press conference answers
Once again Mitchell quits on another team
Honestly he’s the only one with a pulse and he’s playing injured clearly
He went to the locker room looking depressed before coming back out again. And he’s missing FTs like he’s Shaq, something’s definitely bothering him
I think the man is just sad bro, he makes it this far, loses and impossible game, and has to be on Cleveland? I think that’ll get to anyone
Worse. He’s living in Ohio.
Disagree, Strus has played with heart and I think Mobley/Allen have each had a lot of good moments.
KAT raising his arms in celebration is on brand
here’s a different angle: https://i.imgur.com/jcfuLco.png
Just gave up smh. I get it but it looks bad.
As a Cavs fan, this is just so… disheartening. You’re in the ECF. You made it this far for a reason. So many other players/teams would love to be in this situation, and would be respectful enough to put in legitimate effort to remain in this kind of contest. Pitiful.
Imagine paying $200 to see your favorite team play playoff basketball and they do this
They’re mentally in Cancun already
Lillia ulted
5 man sleep is crazy.
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They are just soft all around. Their coach..Mobley..Mitchell for sure, Harden goes absolutely passive when there is any type of challenge. Just a soft ass team.
Accidentally pressed Alt + F4
That head fake 👏🏽
Easy when you have that kind of head
Average Chicago Bulls finals competition
That’s not even training cones level defence
I’m shocked the crowd didn’t boo the hell out of them here tbh.
they deserve to get swept for this play alone.
They’re so defeated. I love it!!! Knicks in 4!
Brooms getting ready
Serious question whose fault is it on this play?
Allen. He lets Brunson pass with no effort, and is effectively guarding nobody given that Towns also strolled right past him.
I can express enough how crazy it is that we have not only dominated 3 straight playoff series. We have taken the soul from teams before the series is even over.
To be fair, the Hawks actually tried. They just weren’t good enough.
The Sixers and the Cavs? Yeah, they just quit.
What do the Cavs even do with this roster? I cant imagine any fan being happy running this same core back again
Pathetic. Still a minute and a half left and they’ve given up already. At least reduce the deficit. That’s how you know the Cavs are mentally weak.
What kind of effort was that. Knicks could have put me on that court and I could have made that layup. Jeez the Cavs look absolutely defeated.
They are down 14 with under 2 mins…they’re probably pissed they haven’t been subbed out yet. Still horrible look at home in the playoffs
It’s a must win playoff game, in the conference finals, at home, with 2 minutes left to play. And they’re gonna be down 3-0 if they lose, not 3-2. Why would they be subbed out?? The game’s not over. Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in 33 seconds, by himself. After this performance, they should be forced to play the whole next game, even if they’re losing by 50.
LOSERS
I WAS TOLD IM THIS SUB THAT STRUSS AND D WADE WHERE THE BRUNSON STOPPERS
Chefs kiss
Love the title lol
Beyond embarassing
flights booked suitcases packed
Mitchell is clearly hurt, but what is everyone else’s excuse?
It’s joever
“They stopped playing the possession before that.” They’ve stopped playing since there were 8 minutes left in Game 1.
disgraceful - ‘old timer’ mentality on stuff like this, this is game 3 - whole team and coaching staff gotta go after seeing this If i’m in charge, full reset
They all gave up collectively as a team. That is some sad shit.
They had to pick-up their doordash order.
Accurate
Strus chasing Brunson all game, and when he gets beat the Cavs defense immediately fouls Brunson or just lets him stroll in for the layup
Highest payroll in history
Knicks just strolling into the Finals. Meanwhile the Spurs and Thunder beating the shit out of each other.
That’s the veteran leadership Harden was brought there for
smh even Ben Simmons can score on this defense
Coach can keep his timeouts from game one all the way home after being fired. How the fuck do you lose up 22 with 7 mins man.
They fully gave up at that point. I expect either they’ll play super hard for game 4 so they don’t get swept or they’ll get blown out by 30 at halftime.
Brunson tricked the whole team with that head twist towards KAT, only noticed after watching the Jeremy Lin breakdown. He’s so subtle with it, what a pro move
the east is truly something
Money ruined a good portions of the competition in the league imo.
These guys get 100s of millions of dollars whether they win or lose anymore…. Meanwhile doing nothing to prove they should be close to what Steph, LeBron or even SGA make.
No dogs on the Cavs, Mobley has no drive to be better than he currently is when hes getting more money No matter what, Mitchell plays the same way he did in Utah, Harden does what he does but slower.
I dont even wanna blame Harden because Mitchell barely showed at all in the first or second round then doesn’t even shoot a ball in game 1 up 22 pnts lol.
List kind of goes on and on