Jalen Brunson dribbles the ball 21 times in one possession without passing the ball
This was 75% of the plays last night with 20% OG saving us. Shts sad
Because majority of the time, people double Brunson and Lin pointed this out. But if you see what happened, Brunson couldn’t win on the 1on1 so Spurs played on that.
Hawks also kinda figured this out, we just got cooked eventually because we didn’t have a Wemby (or any size at all) behind our guards.
Also kat moving screens
Maybe don’t be stupid and just get Wemby, ever consider that?
This is why I don’t understand why Mitch keeps going back to doubling. They were more effective when they didn’t double Shai on OKC, how much more against Brunson who is smaller. I get that he’s shifty, but the Spurs’ guards are big and long enough to make it tough for him.
Brunson cooked the one man coverage in game 1 4q. He’s also had excellent 4qs in the series while being awful overall. So I can understand the double teams
He did, but Spurs followed that up yesterday by having Harper instead of Champagnie. Brunson cooked Cham but couldn’t do it to either Castle or Harper. Good decision by Spurs but it’ll shorten em to a 3pt shooter.
They were excellent on their rotations yesterday so it seems it paid off.
Your coach deciding to double is so stupid man. As you’ve mentioned your perimeter defenders are big and long but combined that with them being allowed to defend really close as there is Wemby deterring any driving lanes, that’s some impenetrable defense. I won’t be surprised if there will be a graphic that will be shown in the future comparing the Spurs’ opponent star guards stats from the regular szn vs playoffs against the Spurs.
It constantly takes Mitch multiple games to figure out things he should have already known. Hilarious. Spurs fans must be sick of it.
He’s what in his second year coaching in the finals? I imagine they’re pretty happy with him
Mitch isn’t very bright
Isn’t it kinda wild a rookie can actually guard Brunson on an island like this though? Brunson hasn’t been bad in isolation all playoffs, but Dylan Harper is just different. I honestly think Harper is probably defending him better than anyone else the Knicks faced prior to the finals.
Both him and Castle are strong and shifty. Given that Brunson is 6’1, his usual moves won’t be as effective if the person can move with him and stay their ground.
Now if OG can be as he was last game and KAT can be as aggressive the past 2 games, that’ll be the difference maker. Cause Wemby can’t handle both and no one really can stop OG on the Spurs.
Its not just the length. Brunson outplays vassel for instance. Castle plays him better.
Harper has been damn near lockdown. Theres a reason for that and it isnt size
Harper is special, no doubt. But you need youth to give the energy and effort to react on every physical twitch. It’s so draining to play defense, only young guys and specialists can guard a Brunson all playoffs and even then only young guys can still be a threat on the offensive end too. Don’t forget they are picking him up and pressing him full court.
The older you get, the less twitch you have, the more time all your injuries start to nag. It’s a lot of energy to get beat and quickly recover, especially if you are gambling jumping passing lanes.
Defense naturally is never going to be polished because the movements are all reactive, even when you train a response or pattern from the opponent- because they are training you too.
Harper has the size, youth, bounce, and twitch to bother any guard and still dunk all game long. IMO he should start over Fox.
While I would usually agree, there’s a balance between youth and experience + conditioning. Harper has never played with much high intensity basketball in his life. Most rookies would be absolutely gassed by this point in the playoffs.
On top of that, most rookies don’t know how to play defense very well. They don’t have the experience to know where to be when the game is so fast. Dylan is just the most vet-looking rookie Ive seen since Tim Duncan, and he’s barely 20 years old.
Shamet hitting 3 his 3’s is 100% correlated to a Knick’s victory.
Sad? Yer 2-1 up in the fuggin finals. The other team us affecting things
I mean sure… but also it’s a strategy that’s gotten you guys this far lol
If you watched any of the games we won after down 2-1 to hawks
amongst players that have scored 15+ points and have made a finals run, OG has the highest TS% ever at 72.4% at 19.9ppg. He is also first at 10+ points
thats higher than 2017 KD at 68.3%, although at 28.5ppg
KAT is 69.3% at 16.9 ppg
This play looks like Knicks running an intentional ISO. The other 4 are just clearing out, not cutting or moving to get open. So this one is on whoever called that play.
This is the problem. It’s clearly a plan and it’s a collective failure. Makes no sense at all considering how good they look when everybody’s moving
Yeah, I never know how much Brunson hero ball is a Mike Brown call or Brunson going rogue. Outside a couple of shots, we’ve seen the less great version of Brunson, which like you said, goes against what has driven much of their recent success.
I do wonder if the Wemby flagrant that wasn’t called, and/or some of the other physical play, got in his head a bit.
Didn’t Brown say he doesn’t run plays for this team?
There’s no way with the amount of passing and amazing shots they had in that 13 game win streak that those weren’t drawn up.
Idk the Warriors were like that. A lot of it is just read and react, cutting, setting off ball screens etc. You don’t need to draw up plays to get good ball movement if you have a bunch of high IQ players which the Knicks do.
Yeah, it’s the same idea. The Knicks run a modernized version of the Princeton motion offense, from a similar school of thought to the Warriors motion. Funnily enough, Mike Brown actually tried to get the 2012 Lakers to use it as well, but got fired five games in before anything could actually develop lmao. I suppose he got the last laugh.
princeton offense felt like a meme when the cavs hired him lol
And right now they pulled 0 IQ plays which Mike Brown needs to correct immediately
Yeah this is absolutely the reason they lost. Gotta be a balance of both. I get letting Brunson go isolation in crunch time. But, it can’t be every possession especially when he’s missing most of them. It’s all about balance. They are a way better team the more KAT touches the ball.
The thing that Lin pointed out is that someone is supposed to come up for a double so that on O another person comes. But that didn’t happen this game. They let Brunson iso which is smart because you can see in this play and if you watch the game, he couldn’t win on a 1on1.
Thats still on Brunson for dribbling out the entire clock.
There were also several times he chucked it with 20 seconds on the clock.
True. But also on either the other guys for not just acting or Brown. But again, this was the starting minutes so it wasn’t expected for them to get this defense scheme.
I gotta say this should be a testament to how good Dylan Harper is. On paper, any coach would tell their star PG to try and iso a rookie in the nba finals. I genuinely can’t remember a rookie guard ever look this good on both sides of the ball in the playoffs.
2003
If you had to that far then that’s scary for the rest of the league
He’s also referring to lebron
I know
And to be fair, LeBron wasn’t really a guard (even though he technically started as a 2). Like Tony and Manu were both amazing as rookies, but they had more experience than Dylan had coming into the league.
If you’re talking about Manu, he was also 25 as a rookie
Such boring basketball. It’s like Knicks fed off the NY crowd too much and wanted to play hero ball for their captive audience
I don’t think knicks defensive coach know that everyone on the spurs an elite defender. If wemby is in a position to help this is not a recipe for success
I’m not sure anyone called this play. It looks like Brown gives instruction to someone as Brunson crosses halfcourt, but it doesn’t look like he’s calling a play here.
maybe the point guard should call a play?
Its their go to play though. KAT hasnt taken a single FGA attempt in the 4th quarter even though he’s been their best scorer in this series because the Knicks ice him out to run Brunson hero ball the whole time.
Man, it was like Thibs was coaching again.
Can always tell when a dude’s dad is on the coaching staff
Any time Jalen gets fouls or flops, potato head is out on the court yelling
Crazy we got overzealous dad coaching son in the finals. You only ever see that in grade school
Jalen is arguably only in this position cuz of his overzealous dad. You seen those training videos from when he was a kid?
He yelled at Brunson hawks series to not do that. You don’t know shit
Damn Brunson don’t listen to his father. That’s messed up
He did because KAT became the focal point of our offense that helped us win 13 straight. You dont know shit.
When’s the last time the wizards won 13 straight they might have been the bullets
Probably best to not take advice from a man who’s been accused of sexual assault TWICE
You mean was acquitted once and dismissed the second time?
ok fine, probably best not to take advice from a man who admitted to cheating on his wife, and then 4 years later resigns in disgrace because multiple women think he’s acted very weird towards them
Wow so he grew from his mistakes to be an assistant head coach. Good for him.
says who
Says Leon Rose
Wizards won a title more recently than the Knicks
Yeah bro 50 years ago who fucking cares. You have the worst team in the nba right now
Hell yea we do
“Oh no we got the first ovr pick in a stacked draft right before they changed the lottery system instead of getting stuck in playin purgatory”
When’s the last time the wizards won 13 straight they might have been the bullets.
Shots fired!
Gilbert Arenas has entered the chat.
Those women probably yelled at rick brunson to stop. Probably in the family genes to ignore it
If only there was a trial that could have happened. Dumb fuck you’re an idiot
and the second time he had allegations 4 years later which ended with him out of the league?
And then 4 years after that he was vetted by the Knicks and hired. You are stupid.
he was ‘vetted’
he was hired by his best friend Thibs lol
No he was not he was hired by Leon rose. He is still with the team. Again you are an idiot.
Rick Brunsons best friend, and Jalen Brunsons godfather Leon Rose?
I thought Thibs was his best friend? You’re an idiot 😂. Holy shit how do you get through life I would honestly stop if I were you
Ah yes, the great always fair justice system
He was actually acquitted there was no settlement.
His dad did yell at him not to do that, and it did work in the moment. I still wonder if its weird having a teammates dad as a coach. “Hey coach what if we don’t play Brunson … your son”. Like how impartial can he be?
Watching their interview the other day I think its definitely a plus for Brunson, in a totally positive way. He has like an extra personal coach, even just to talk tactics etc with. Although I guess he would probably do that with his dad even if dad wasn’t an official assistant coach
Pass the ball to Tucker
This is such a dumb casual take lol
I’ve never played basketball before never observed this behavior on a smaller scale. Nope in fact this is the first game I have ever seen
Maybe you were joking with your first comment and it went over my head? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one
Guess you’ve only been watching the finals
No I also watched the game from round 1 where his overdribbling directly lead to a loss but my memory doesn’t extend beyond March 2026
Yeah he was forcing way too much last game. He was in game 2 as well but they still came out on top so it wasn’t as big of a deal.
ngl it feels a little like Brunsons is trying to win Finals MVP instead of the Finals
I said last night that Brunson plays like he has no one to pass to and got downvoted to hell but here we are
Great job just repeating Steven A’s lazy take
Was in game 1 as well but then hit two great shots. It’s a problem. Offense stagnates, devolves into iso/hero ball and… he’s just not able to hit the shots this series (whether bc of Wemby or injury or just luck); plus was turning it over bad last night. Maybe the loss will force them to try something else. Maybe the spurs D is preventing that I dunno but the refs and two wins have papered over very bad 4th quarter play and old tendencies that cost them two this postseason already.
Hero ball is also tiring.
It’s wild that no player is better than him 😲
who said that unironically lol
Ur taking a joke comment about joke comments seriously
We went too far on the Brunson iso pendulum last night, I think the ball pressure had something to do with it – but also we had some dumbass turnovers in the first quarter when Hart or Mikal brought the ball up, so I think the team just got nervous and let Brunson do his thing.
I do expect the pendulum to swing.
That’s been the case for all three games. Brunson is not our best player in this matchup and hopefully Mike Brown understands that.
That is funny. One game ago, Knicks were the team, super prepare, KAT was in another level, Brunson a genius, Wemby is not thr hype.
One defeat after. Brunson overrated, Wemby will dominate the NBA.
Welcome to Reddit
It’s so true. Imagine Wemby hit that last shot in Game 2. The discussion would be completely different based on one shot falling.
Brunson went into this game with a 45% TS in the series he was always a fraud
Last part remains true
bad possession. I’ve always thought super dribble heavy iso games get easier to defend in the playoffs
that said, brunson isn’t quite the harden/luka iso-ball run everything player that I normally think of here, he has a little more ability to move off the ball, so I think he’ll be better, but ya that’s a bad possession
Hes pretty damn close. He has like 40 percent on ball this playoffs. Luka peaked at like 45
In the regular season he was higher than Luka in pretty much every on ball metric like time spent on ball, dribbles per possession etc
Brunsons usage is much lower. Probably because he just shoots less and and his passes result in less shot attempts then luka.
I think he is from a scoring aspect, the difference is those two can hit an open man with a cross court pass/skip pass and bail out of a bad shot easier than Brunson.
Very good point
Yes, Brunson did that many times last night. However, he didn’t have anyone to pass to in many cases like this one. No one was open here, and no one moved around to make himself open for a pass. They just stood around waiting for Brunson to do something.
That’s a coaching and brunson problem. He just dribbled right into open space to go 1v1. Where’s a screen on or off ball?
Did KAT take any shot in the 4th? How can he just disappear?
KAT was great the first two games. But yes you are correct, KAT has only taken 1 shot in the fourth quarter through all 3 games.
Why is Brunson not getting hate for shooting 37% and averaging 4.3 topg, while getting 4.3 apg?
Because his team is up 2-1
Tatum got hate for having better numbers when he won the finals but ok
why?
Who was he supposed to pass it to there, an audience member? That was lockdown defense on all 5
OG was open for a while
???? “lockdown defense” and it’s a Brunson iso where everyone is standing around
Where do you see passing lanes open there?
you’re missing the point, there are no passing lanes because it’s an iso. The defense doesn’t have to do anything. If you iso and can’t beat your man 1on1 this is what it looks like. Ask for a screen, swing the ball around, etc is what people are asking for
So why is Brunson seemingly getting the blame here, and not Mike Brown’s playcalling? Because that’s the implication here, but if people aren’t moving around much to get off-ball because it’s a designated iso play, what’s supposed to happen? I don’t think Brunson is trying to freeze his teammates out.
cuz hes handling the ball up the court. He would have the best view of where everyone is. He sees the ISO, and still commits to thinking he can beat Harper off the dribble.
Cause the only play. If you make an actual call then sure, but it was opening minutes so I assume they were waiting for a double to come but never did unlike the previous games. So the Spurs adapted knowing he wouldn’t win in an iso
Because Mike Brown said he doesn’t call plays?
Why should passing lanes be open if Knicks players are standing in one spot? One player moves this entire set and it’s McBride who shifts one position over.
you mean not shamet who is wide open for the 3 if he gets himself out of the ISO? lmao
Along with that, it was a final minute of the quarter play. Obviously, in any situation, having the ball hop around is preferable, but most teams go to iso ball near the end of quarters (just from my view, I dont have a stat to back that claim up).
I’m more interested in the the first 11 minutes and the third quarter, because was when iso ball killed us IMO.
I disagree, there’s still a minute left, that’s a bad possession. At the very least could’ve pulled back and ran something quick with OG…
That’s not how basketball works. You go out the perimeter, ask for a screen, or wait somebody to pop out.
[deleted]
With 2 seconds left on the shot clock
You could like, run a play that involves screens? That helps players get open
Have KAT initiate
And he’s the best player in the playoffs? Lmao
Dribbling is just passing to yourself
That deadass makes me want to **** ******
Jason makes my favorite basketball content currently, I would recommend him to anyone here as long as listening to a Laker fan doesn’t bother you.
He’s analytical without sounding like a dweeb or a guy who doesn’t actually watch the games. He’s usually right about things but doesn’t get weird or annoying when he’s wrong like a lot of other guys. He even meshes well with hot take guys like Colin too.
Jalen either thinks he’s harden, or his dad thinks he’s harden. And neither have seen the lack of success he’s had in the playoffs playing like this. Iso hero ball is like trying to win a championship on extra hard mode.
Yeah there’s a time and place during the game, but gotta pick and choose. Hell even Kobe took a backseat sometimes in the first half of games to ensure everyone was involved.
Up 2-0 people were saying he’s better than Wemby and Luka 😭
Harden 2.0
One loss in 14 games, losers coming out to critize the best player on the team…
Weren’t people just praising this guy?
he is generally pretty praiseworthy
He’s a great player. It’s just hard to dominate when Castle, Harper, and Wemby are in front of you at all times
yep, he just needs to get off the ball more. guards and wings get the ball up the floor urgently and securely. then crisp sets w acceleration, physicality, and attention to detail are key to getting wemby out of the paint or punishing the 4⁄1 zone with open 3s. kat has to shoot when he gets the ball in his pocket with lagging on ball pressure - that’s what opens his driving lanes. everything’s right in front of them tonight.
for the brunson iso to be a plus play against a wemby defense, the on ball guard would have to be a literal turnstile. anything better than that does not meaningfully put the spurs in rotation blender. the brunson iso doesn’t work straight up on castle and harper, and pursuing it even w vassell, champagnie and fox even bails out the spurs w low positional stress => let’s them camp wemby in the short corner/block.
He’s praying for fouls
Jalen Brunson needs to keep doing this so he can practice dribbling and not turning it over against hounding defense.
Ballhog
All time ball-hog game
Lets be real Brunson doesnt want KAT to be FMVP thats why he isnt passing the ball much to KAT
Where is the open pass? The Knicks have completely cleared out that side, setting up for an isolation. No one is cutting, moving, setting screens.
I am amazed the Knicks only lost this game by 4 and were one good Fox jumper from tying or winning it lol
Yeah but you can also say that about games 1 and 2 from the Spurs’ perspective.
They would be down 2-1 if Wemby hadn’t gifted them game 2 by throwing the ball off Castles back lol, which was also luck in the fact that JB was the closest to the ball after it hit Castle.
You just somewhat knew that the Knicks were going to lose Game 3 when Brunson came back in during the 4th quarter and continue playing the heroball that he was playing prior to being benched for foul trouble. Not sure if Brunson was attempting to make a case for his FMVP nomination or what, but he was just making things more difficult for himself by cosplaying as Carmelo Anthony, bouncing the air out of the ball, and then chucking it.
The “FMVP hunt” speculation for Brunson is pretty brutal. I wouldn’t think for a second this dude was trying to do anything except win. It’s more convincing that this is just how his game can look sometimes, especially against a strong defense not allowing him to get an opening.
The speculation he’s maybe just trying to get FMVP feels really nasty and I don’t think it’s necessary to explain possessions like this.
As a Pacers fan I have always preferred Brunson on the floor than off.
Last night’s game was giving me Cavs Mike Brown/LeBron flashbacks. Give it to LeBron and see what happens. The Knicks do have better players though but Brunson isn’t LeBron.
This is the epitome of unproductive content
Gonna get real awkward when the last second shots stop going in and the Spurs actually learn to rebound lmao. Spurs defense putting them into late shotclock situations regularly.
The PGs I get in random rec
Honestly have no idea what happened between Games 1 and 2 to 3. They didn’t particularly play great but came up with wins playing more team centric ball. The best shots Brunson had in Game 3 were after a good amount of ball and player movement. Even if there was some isos with him he played faster instead of pounding the air out the ball. The only logical thing that can explain it is that Game 3 was to set some ridiculous trap but you cant just be giving up games.
There was barely any off ball action. Who’s open? Every lane looks contested especially from his view.
What’s interesting the knicks have awesome ball movement when it does get moving
to be honest he usually makes that shot
Spurs will live with that in exchange for having Brunson to attack on the other end
Me when I play 2k
Not saying this is excusable, because it certainly isn’t, but the spurs adjusted their defensive plan to shut down Kat. They also put wings on Kat, so Wemby could stay in the box and not expend so much energy guarding Kat on the perimeter.
I felt like I was watching the Wolves again last night because that’s how we look when our offense is stagnant
We hate this about our captain. Blinders on.
It’s called Brunson centric
dribbling bad
I wonder how much his dad being the assistant coach has something to do with this style of play.
I played pick up ball 20 years ago so I can tell you, you dont roll to the rim as hard or cut when you know you arent getting the ball…
This was kinda what the Knicks offense look at a lot of the time during the regular season. Was genuinely surprising when Brown pulled the KAT centric offense out of his bag
I wish refs weren’t too scared to call dribbles #2 and #3 for carrying
I wonder what his take would be on kobe? kobe was called a dog because he would ball hog lol
That’s the Spurs strategy. They’d much rather have Jalen go 1v1 and have to beat the Spurs while taking the rest of his team out of the game. This strategy almost always works. The Spurs have capable defensive guards to make Brunson’s life difficult, just like they did SGA. The most annoying part is that Mitch never commits to this game plan and goes back to his stupid doubling Brunson defensive strategy.
The James Harden experience is alive and well
Brunson is all about brunson
Between BrunsonBall, Kat not showing in the fourth and role players hitting last second grenades, i dont like their chances to keep winning.
Spurs have locked down other teams stars (avdija, ant, sga) while their secondary players kind of disappear (jrue, randle, chet) and role players go nuclear (scoot, tsj, caruso, mccain). But the role players shooting like prime curry never lasts. This series might fall into the same formula
The good old James Harden offense.
Describing a rookie as an “apex defender” is a crazy compliment
It’s not just the dribbling, it’s how slowly he’s bringing the ball up the court. Forget about not getting into any action until 6 seconds left in the shot clock, he doesn’t even start his dribbling until 16 seconds left. I get he’s tired, but he HAS to move off the ball fast
Knicks got baited into this, the level of difficulty bringing up the ball is part of it.
I think they’ll play a lot cleaner tonight
They’ll win 4-1 if they go back to running their offense through KAT. Felt like Rick Brunson bullied Brown into playing Brunson Ball in Game 3 to try and make him the hero.
Rock Brunson needs to have another word
He is the Knicks!
Counting the backcourt dribbles in this feels entirely unnecessary. Like it’s just to get a higher number, but the point would be the same regardless.
Being so ball dominant while not playmaking is so frustrating to watch. 4 assists per game and 4 TOs a game. FMVP is KAT’s or OG’s to lose