Hoops Tonight - Knicks-Pacers Reaction: Haliburton EMBARRASSES Brunson's Knicks, Is New York done?

Jason Timpf reacts to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers blowout win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. After evening up the series at 2, and with all the momentum in their favor, are the Pacers in prime position to knock the Knicks out of the playoffs? #volume #herd

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Episode Transcript

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(01:51):
All right, welcome to hoopsinight here at the volume heavy Sunday.
Everybody hopeful, if you guys are having an incredible weekend,
show number two out of three today. Earlier this morning,
we broke down cav Celtics. This video we're just gonna
go for about ten minutes on Pacers Nicks, and then
later tonight after the final buzzer of Game four between
the Wolves and the Nuggets, I'm recording with Colin Coward,
so that one you're gonna want to check out on

(02:13):
the Colin Cowhard Podcast feed. You guys know the Droe
before we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube
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guys don't miss any show announcement. So forget about our
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and the last not at least keep dropping mail back
questions in the YouTube comments so we keep hitting them
throughout the rest of the postseason. The NBA playoffs are

(02:33):
heating up, and so is the action at DraftKings Sportsbook,
an official sports betting partner of the NBA with same
game parlays, live betting odds, boosts, and so much more.
Don't miss out as the NBA postseason winds down, so
lots of great odds for the second round. If you
still think the Nuggets are gonna come back and beat
the Timberwolves, you can get them right now at plus
one oh five. Thunder MAVs starts here shortly, and if

(02:57):
you like the MAVs to win that series, you can
get them at minus one of five. And if you're
new to DraftKings, you got to check this out. New customers,
bet five bucks to get one hundred and fifty in
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(03:19):
bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings.
The crown is yours. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So this show is supposed to be live, and the
Pacers literally beat the Nicks so bad that we scrapped
the live show and just decided to do a regular
old YouTube video. This was kind of an interesting game
from the standpoint of the schedule. Everyone's going every other

(03:40):
night now and the Pacers in the Knicks played Game
three on Friday night. Yet another crazy intense, clutch time
type of game, right, and so what was the turnaround?
Like roughly forty forty two hours since the end of
Game three to turn around, and that obviously was going
to be a major advantage to Indiana. You know, there's

(04:00):
been a lot of talking about the war of attrition
for the Knicks, but the truth of the matter is
is every playoff run is a war of attrition. It
just so happens that it's affecting the Knicks in a
big way in this postseason run, but just about every year,
you have to get a certain amount of injury luck
around the along the way, not just for your team,
but for the teams that you're going against. Like Lebron

(04:21):
said that in an episode of the Mind the Game
podcast with JJ which I thought was interesting. He basically
just said, you gotta get lucky every single like to
be a champion, you basically have to get lucky. It's
part of that journey. There's a basketball element, there's a
talent element, there's a coaching element, There's all these different elements.
But the war of attrition is a significant part of that.

(04:41):
And Indiana has held up better physically than the Knicks have,
and so they completely took advantage of that in Game four.
It was an ass kicking from the jump. It started
on defense. Aaron Ne Smith is continuing to do just
an incredible job on Jayalen Brunson, staying attached, physical ball pressure,
making him work to get to his spots. Obviously, Brunson
can't shoot over the top of him as easily as

(05:03):
he did Andrew and Mhard or some of the other
defenders on the floor getting out in transition was really
the story of this game for the Pacers, though, and
that really is the bread and butter of their offense.
Tyres Alliburton is so good at kick ahead passes. Everyone
on their team runs their lanes super well. If you're
not ready for the track meet with Indiana, you can
get run off the floor pretty quickly. The Pacers scored

(05:25):
seven times just in the first quarter alone in transition,
I mean seven points. They scored seven different possessions in
transition in the first quarter. The Knicks looked tired, like
I said, We're gonna get a little bit deeper into
that in a minute. Overall, in transition, according to Cleaning
the Glass, Indiana had a one point eighty seven offensive ratings.

(05:46):
That means they score one hundred and eighty seven points
per one hundred transition possessions. That's just off the charts.
Good started with that usual pace that Tyres Alliburton brings
that we were talking about earlier, kick ahead passes, guys
running their lanes. But then TJ McConnell and Obi Topping
in particular with that second unit, came in and they
just continued that onslaught. TJ immediately took Jalen Brunson off

(06:07):
the bounce and got an and won those transition pushes
we were talking about, had a lob to obi toppin
for a dunk obie top and hit a three on
the left wing as well, and this thing was literally
over before the first quarter. It was complete domination. According
to Cleaning the Glass, Indiana dominated the half court battle.
They had a one to five offensive rating and half

(06:30):
court so they get one hundred and five points per
one hundred half court plays. The Knicks only got eighty
points per one hundred half court plays. That's a twenty
five point per one hundred play gap between the Pacers
and the Knicks. In this game, they out rebounded them
fifty two to forty three, twenty two to five and
fast break points kind of what we were talking about

(06:51):
in transition earlier. Sixty to forty in points in the paint.
Just a complete and total ass kicking. Another twenty point
game from Tyres Halliburton. He's now averaging nineteen five and
nine for the playoffs. He has a game winner in
there as well. He's averaging twenty two points per game
in his last seven postseason games, shooting forty one percent

(07:12):
from three on eleven attempts over his last seven playoff games.
He's so good at coming off of those ball screens
at a little bit of an angle and dragging the
screen defender off to the side, but kind of baiting
him into giving him that space and rising up and
hitting that pull up three point shot. He's also just
doing an absolutely beautiful job of generating advantages every single

(07:33):
possession for his team. Every guy on that team, whether
it's Miles Turner, Aaronie Smith, Andrew Nemhard, Pascal Siakam, they're
almost always operating with the defender closing out at them,
and that's just a significant advantage that doesn't even show
up in the box score because of the fact that
if a guy gets you know, if Tyres Alburton comes
off a ball screen and brings in a guy tagging
from the weakside and throws a skip pass and that

(07:54):
dude drives a close out and makes a kick to
Nie Smith on the left wing and he hits a three,
Tyres Aalburn does not get an assist for that. You know,
a lot of times him breaking down the defense doesn't
result in assists. And it's just so much easier to
play basketball when the defender's closing out at you versus one,
he's in a set defense position, and I just think
he's done an unbelievable job, especially in the last few weeks,

(08:17):
of just consistently generating advantages for his team. And then
I can't say enough about the job that Aaron Nesmith
is doing on Jalen Brunson. It has completely changed the
feel of this series. Brunson is just sixteen for forty
three in his last two games, looking a lot more
like Game one and two against the Sixers, just two
for eleven from three. He's visibly a lot less comfortable

(08:38):
in that matchup than he is against pretty much anyone
else on the floor on an ex front. Like I said,
it is a war of attrition, but it extends beyond
the injured players. Obviously, you're down two starters Julius Randolo, Jiannobi,
multiple bench pieces like Mitchell Robinson and boy and mcdonovich.
But you're also just playing like a really tough brand
of basketball. You're playing hard all the time. You're asking

(09:01):
the healthy guys on your roster to do a lot.
Josh Hart has been playing over forty six minutes per
game in the postseason that's second place among remaining players
in the playoffs. In guests, who's second place Jalen Brunson,
his teammate. The highest non Nick remaining is Luca at
forty one point nine minutes per game. So Josh Hart's

(09:23):
just has the toughest workload in the league right now.
Dante di Vincenzo is averaging over forty four or just
beneath forty four minutes per game in this series with
Indiana not counting today obviously, So it's just a heavy workload.
And you just played on Friday night. That was forty
two hours before the tip of this game. It's basically
a day and a half. So I thought they clearly

(09:43):
looked exhausted. Brunton started the game zero for five. He
was struggling to get separation, he was leaving shots short
on the rim. The whole team was struggling to get
back in transition. There were so many of these plays
that one of the big guys I noticed it with
with with was Hartenstein, where I'm watching Hartenstein like he's
jogging up the floor exhausted. Everyone on this team is
really tired at this point. Now here's the upside, though,

(10:07):
You have fifty plus hours before Game five, everyone on
your team played a relatively light minute load. Brunson still
got over thirty, barely, I think, and then I think
Josh Hart got over thirty, but nothing like what you've
been doing the rest of this postseason. And you're going home,
so rest up and just get back to playing Nick's

(10:27):
basketball in Madison Square Garden in Game five and you're
in a much better spot to try to regain control
of this series. But the reality is is your five
best players are four guards in a center at this point,
so you're physically overmatched, you're fatigued, you're missing some vitally
important position groups, You're just not getting enough of the
skill piece of things from Precious to Chua to kind

(10:48):
of maintain that size on the floor, And so they
kind of have to go with Douce McBride in that spot,
and obviously that opens up a whole other can of worms,
so they've got a challenge in front of them. But
I do think a good hefty rest off of a
lighter workload in game four and going back to Madison
Square Garden should give the Knicks enough to at least
keep things really close in Game five and My guess
is Game five is gonna be another classic Knicks playoff

(11:11):
game where it's like, you know, tied game with five
minutes left, and it's gonna be who can create shots
better Tyres Aliburton versus Jalen Brunson. We will obviously be
there live after those games on Tuesday night. That's all
I have for this particular video. Like I said, we're
gonna be back tonight with Colin Coward after Wolve's Nuggets,
I will be that one's not gonna be live, So
you're just gonna want to check out the Colin Coward
podcast feed check, you know. I would say, like, you know,

(11:34):
a couple hours after the end of that game, and
it should be uploaded. I if I see the link
all tweeted out as well. But I really appreciate you
guys don't forget about Celtics Caves from earlier today, and
then I'll see you guys later tonight with Colin the

(12:09):
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