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Plus terms and conditions. Welcome

0:32

in to locked on. Nick's, Alex Wolf and

0:34

Gavin Shaw here. And I'm a

0:37

little more exuberant than I possibly could

0:39

have been going into this. Jalen Brunson

0:41

goes down with what looked like a

0:43

catastrophic injury early in the game against

0:45

the Cavs. But early opinions

0:48

are coming in positive and early

0:50

comments are coming in positive. We're

0:53

going to discuss that a gutty performance

0:55

by Josh Hart and the very short

0:57

handed Knicks and how the Knicks

0:59

can potentially last the next week or so without

1:01

Jalen Brunson. If that's all they need

1:03

to do next on locked on Knicks. You

1:07

are locked on Knicks. Your daily New

1:09

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Your team every day. All

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course, so you never miss an episode. like

2:00

when the star of

2:02

the Knicks goes down with what looks like

2:05

almost a catastrophic injury and Then

2:07

we podcast about it the next day and you

2:09

want to hear all about it because I'm sure

2:11

that everybody wants to consume all Of the media

2:13

that they can today to hopefully make sure that

2:15

Brunson is okay and Gavin I think that's where

2:17

we have to lead off. Of course the Knicks

2:20

win 107 to 98 versus Cleveland super gutsy win

2:23

a triple

2:26

double from Josh Hart Another

2:28

great scoring performance and Dante DiVincenzo do

2:30

some pride plays almost the entire game

2:32

after Brunson goes down So

2:34

like there's some good stuff to talk about in

2:36

this game However, the lead

2:38

story of course is the scary

2:40

injury to Jalen Brunson He goes

2:43

down like 30 seconds into the game

2:45

and it

2:47

looked like a non-contact injury which

2:50

then of course led to fear of

2:52

oh god, is it an ACL is

2:54

it a Achilles

2:56

tendon is it something Catastrophic

2:59

that is going to put him out for the next

3:01

year or so because that's usually

3:03

what happens in that case However,

3:05

we've seen some pretty I would

3:09

say optimistic quotes

3:11

and Things of that

3:13

nature since then some good videos

3:15

from from sports doctors and things like

3:17

that and things are looking Hopefully

3:20

a little better than bleak at the moment

3:23

Yes, I'll set the scene I am

3:26

Getting ready to get on a train back

3:28

to New York from Long Island after a

3:30

high school basketball championship I get a text

3:32

from you that says Jalen Brunson. I don't

3:34

I don't want to misquote you I'm actually

3:36

I'm gonna pull this up right

3:39

now Brunson

3:41

probably just tore his ACL or Achilles and

3:44

then I said a word I can't say on this podcast

3:46

and then I said Jesus and And then

3:49

I watched it. I was like, oh no, he wasn't

3:51

kidding It's just look like you

3:53

know when someone gets like cruciate in Harry Potter

3:55

Like it looked it looks a little bit like

3:58

that and I'm sure like everyone my heart dropped,

4:00

I was in a pretty dark place for about

4:02

an hour. And then, uh, some of

4:04

the tweets start coming out of the first, the

4:07

first one with like a glimmer of hope

4:09

was from, uh, Eric Friedman, MD at sports

4:11

injury. And he said, shout out to Eric

4:13

Freeman. He said, thanks for this clip. This

4:15

was a clip of the injury. This is

4:17

very, very reassuring. His lateral knee gets hit

4:19

right before Jalen Brunson jumps could have caused,

4:21

uh, perineal nerve contusion, which gives you a

4:24

dead leg and you're not able to lift

4:26

your ankle up this days to week injury

4:28

usually. And then, uh, after the game, after

4:30

we watched a video from, I think it's

4:32

Brian Sutterer that we'll talk about in a

4:34

sec, uh, Steve Popper had this quote from

4:36

Dante Di Vincenzo and Jalen Brunson asked him

4:38

if he was okay. And he said, he'll be

4:40

fine. And it's everything to me. I don't worry

4:42

about Jalen. He's one of the toughest guys in

4:45

league. Whatever it is, he's going to bounce back.

4:47

He's tough as nails. Um,

4:49

Jalen Brunson, I feel like, but what's an

4:51

Hercules or A.C.O would say he's fine. So

4:53

I don't know how much to read into

4:55

that. Um, but the stuff from the actual

4:57

doctors, Alex, um, basically everything

4:59

that happened leading up to the injury

5:01

and after the injury has indicated to

5:04

your point, uh, seemingly definitely

5:06

not an Achilles, very unlikely

5:08

to be an A.C.L. Most likely,

5:10

uh, a nerve injury, which was almost the equivalent

5:12

of hitting your funny bone, but in your knee

5:15

instead of your elbow. And one other doctor mentioned

5:17

potentially a fibula issue, which was something similar to

5:19

what Steph Curry dealt with. That would be kind

5:21

of like the middle case scenario that would keep

5:23

him out for a few weeks, but

5:25

not months or years or not years, but

5:28

months or a year. Um,

5:31

so seems like, seems like, seems like the

5:33

Knicks have avoided, uh, what I think could

5:35

have only been called a franchise altering injury.

5:37

And that's great news for everyone because you

5:40

get Jalen Brunson, you don't have to watch me and

5:42

Alex cry for a half hour. Like not, not like

5:44

cry, like complain, literally just cry on camera. Yeah.

5:48

I mean, I think the biggest thing,

5:50

so people have been watching the video

5:52

or saw it live and then have

5:54

not seen any of these, any of these

5:56

videos from the doctors yet, which, uh, I'll

5:58

shout out again, Brian. his

6:01

channel is Brian suitor MD

6:03

on YouTube.

6:05

He put out a great video where

6:07

he, you know, went through like practically

6:09

frame by frame to try to identify

6:11

what happened here. I mean,

6:13

his his thought and some of the other doctors

6:16

thoughts that I've seen were that

6:18

he thought that Brunson's knee

6:20

got hit and I looked at the

6:23

I looked at the replays and like to me it

6:25

doesn't look like it but he made a good case

6:27

for it looked like his knee took an unnatural motion

6:29

like it had been kicked almost or

6:31

like had a knee to knee contact which

6:34

then hit that nerve and you know

6:36

caused what we saw then happen afterwards

6:38

of Brunson like crumpling in air pretty

6:40

much. I mean he was up for

6:42

a jumper and then you could tell

6:44

was trying to bail out before he

6:46

even hit the ground again which

6:48

is also I would say maybe a little

6:50

uncharacteristic of an ACL or something injury because

6:53

as much as you know if

6:56

you take a plant and then you know

6:58

you feel that pop or whatever a lot of

7:00

times players are able to still sort of like

7:02

finish whatever play they were doing and then kind

7:04

of crumpled to the ground depending on

7:06

the severity or whatever so I

7:09

don't know maybe maybe that's a

7:11

good sign that he was crumpling in air

7:13

but then the other thing the part that

7:15

looks so scary about the injury is the

7:17

part that makes the doctors think that this

7:19

actually is just that nerve injury which is

7:22

that Brunson when he was

7:24

trying to walk essentially had like lost control of

7:26

his ankle which you could

7:28

see if he was trying to kind of get up and

7:30

like walk his way back to the bench his ankle kind

7:33

of buckled under him a couple times

7:35

where it looked like his foot was just like dead

7:37

and dangling more or less and as

7:40

much as that's not you know

7:42

dead and dangling is not normally

7:44

a good thing. Rarely the best

7:46

case scenario right? Yeah, in that

7:48

case scenario but apparently it's you

7:50

know if you if

7:53

your foot is looks like it's

7:55

about to fall off that's good in the

7:57

case of an injury like this that looks

7:59

non-contact But I guess maybe was caused

8:02

by contact to the knee. So I Don't

8:04

know. We'll hold out the other I guess the

8:06

other news is Tib

8:09

seems not despondent after

8:11

the game and also mentioned that the x-rays came

8:13

up negatives now I always

8:16

say with that x-rays are kind of Irrelevant

8:19

in scenarios like this because they only look at

8:21

your bones so I guess we could just rule

8:23

out like you didn't have a hairline

8:25

fracture or a Full-on fracture

8:27

of a leg, which I don't think anybody thought

8:29

it really was anyway Maybe

8:31

rules out the fibula injury though. That's true I

8:33

can't say I know enough about that to be

8:36

sure but I think that was a broken fit

8:38

or partially broken fibular fractured fibula For staff so

8:40

that that could be possible. Yeah,

8:42

so I mean, I guess that's that's positive

8:44

in that regard Doesn't really tell you anything

8:47

about the ligaments or nerves

8:49

or anything like that. So, you know Presumably

8:51

they'll put them in for an MRI today Just

8:54

to you know get a real idea of what's

8:57

going on I would imagine they probably want to bring them

8:59

back to New York to hospital for special surgery where they

9:01

get all their stuff done but Yeah,

9:03

I mean I'm breathing sigh relief.

9:05

I at least feel like if

9:08

it were something major major Woes

9:10

would have had it last night probably and we

9:12

would probably have been waking up this morning So

9:14

there was just why you know, we're recording this

9:16

in the morning and like last night We were

9:18

like, yeah We should probably wait till morning because

9:21

if it were something major was probably would have heard about it

9:23

and they would have been like yeah There's there's

9:25

a firm belief in the Knicks locker room the jail

9:28

and Brunson tours Achilles or there's you know I don't

9:30

know. There's a very Terrible,

9:32

right? Yeah, I mean there's There's

9:34

an easy test that you can do on

9:36

court even for a torn ACL and you

9:38

know Have a good idea of like, okay.

9:41

This is this is probably a

9:43

torn ACL it's like you flex your leg a certain

9:45

way or something and you know, there's something that the

9:47

the Trainer can feel and there's been

9:50

no reports of that either so I think like

9:53

as of right now we can sort of take a deep

9:55

breath and just wait for whatever the ultimate

9:57

diagnosis is here. Yeah It

10:00

just sort of feels like we should have a doctor on

10:02

call at this point. I like this podcast I feel like

10:04

every every third or fourth episode

10:07

is like like scrapping it like bits

10:09

of medical information You've heard of years

10:11

like I'm pretty sure about this But

10:14

but the good news is the real

10:16

the real doctors have again like by

10:19

and large been enormously positive on on

10:21

this injury that Yeah,

10:23

I mean I can't like not to not to

10:26

play devil's advocate But like can't state enough the

10:28

extent to which that would have

10:30

just killed the Knicks like

10:33

I know I know that's a captain obvious, but

10:35

I just What I keep coming

10:38

back to Is that

10:40

next year is the year for the Knicks more

10:42

than this year is and I

10:44

have like I think this is this is

10:46

Gonna be a dark point and what should

10:48

be an extraordinarily positive episode But I

10:51

can't shake the feeling that we're not gonna see

10:53

a hundred percent version of this team It's me

10:55

that mostly centers around the idea that I don't

10:57

think we're going to get a hundred percent version

10:59

of Julius Randall Um a year

11:01

from now with a chance to bring in

11:03

even more reinforcements and maybe even another centerpiece

11:06

I do think there's a world where this team can

11:09

legitimately compete for an NBA championship And if

11:11

Jalen Brunson was coming back halfway through the

11:13

year off a torn ACL or Achilles injury

11:16

I think you would have to some chance

11:18

to revise that as a franchise like our

11:20

whole summer would have been discussed like alright

11:22

Can you actually make an all-in-trade particularly like

11:24

someone for Joel Embiid? If

11:27

the guy who's gonna team up with him is not

11:29

a hundred percent and even with modern medicine You

11:32

can never be quite sure he's gonna be

11:34

exactly the same guy again when the margins

11:36

for someone like Jalen Brunson athletically are

11:39

already so thin so I

11:42

I say all that as as A

11:45

dark hypothetical but also to shine

11:47

a light on what was avoided here and

11:49

also just how much we should appreciate this

11:51

guy Yeah for sure

11:53

and we should probably also Share

11:57

some appreciation for Josh Hart for

11:59

Dr. D. Vinay. Cenzo for Deuce McBride

12:02

For the new guys for Bojan and Alec

12:04

Burks and Precious Achewa There's a lot of

12:06

a lot of love to go around in

12:08

this game Gavin But first would you let

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12:46

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12:48

tell you that the Oklahoma City Thunder or

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with that the Thunder our young team I

12:56

think they're gonna run the Lakers up

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and down the floor and get a

13:00

clean cut win in LA tonight So

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good neighbors, State Farm is there. Alrighty,

14:12

we are back on lock.nix a

14:14

107 to 98

14:16

victory for the New York Knicks over

14:18

the Cleveland Cavaliers. Alex,

14:21

how many teams in the NBA would come

14:23

into a game against the

14:25

team with what do they have like third best record

14:27

basketball, second best record of basketball right now admittedly,

14:31

no cares, Lavert, no doubt of Mitchell,

14:33

but still with two all stars and

14:35

another alleged future all star in Evan

14:37

Mobley in the starting lineup without three

14:39

of their four most important players. And

14:42

then what's the most important of those four players

14:45

have his leg die on the court and have

14:47

the team doctor go up to him and be

14:49

like, Hey guys, it's actually good news. And then

14:51

come out and respond to that instead

14:53

of being in total despair by

14:55

ripping off a nine point victory in

14:58

a season full of gutty wins for

15:00

the New York Knicks. This

15:02

one has to be pretty close right up

15:04

there with that Pacers win to

15:06

the top of the list. Just

15:09

another ridiculous game from Dante

15:11

DiVincenzo. 28 points,

15:13

six rebounds, four assists, three

15:15

steals, Josh Hart, 13 points, 19 rebounds

15:19

and 10 assists, two steals, two

15:22

blocks. Euse McBride plays 47

15:25

minutes, literally every single second after Brunson goes

15:27

out with 16 seconds left. Bojan Bogdanovich wasn't

15:29

good late in this game, but shot the

15:31

crap out of the ball and keep the

15:33

Knicks in it. Best Isaiah Hardenstein performance we've

15:36

gotten a long time. Precious

15:38

Achewah. I thought he

15:40

was exceptional. Again, Alex, I'm gonna

15:42

let you pick which one of those guys

15:45

you want to talk about first, but two

15:47

quick stats. DiVincenzo over his last 14 games

15:49

now, 23 points, four rebounds, three assists, only

15:51

Steph Curry has more threes than he's made

15:54

since January 1st. Josh Hart, his last

15:56

10 games, 15 points, 11 rebounds,

15:59

six assists. Most important

16:01

number there. 38%

16:03

from three on five attempts per game,

16:05

including in this one, a sidestep dagger

16:08

over Evan Mobley to make it 104.98.

16:11

Insanity for a guy who has avoided

16:13

wide open threes like the plague for

16:15

80% of this season. He's

16:18

also now had 37 rebounds over

16:20

the last two games as a man who's about

16:22

six foot four and a half in

16:24

the NBA. I'll see the floor to you. Where are

16:26

we starting off? Yeah, I guess we

16:28

should start with Josh Hart. That

16:31

dagger, first off, was insane. It

16:33

was just like almost

16:36

to the step. I

16:38

felt like it was almost exactly like that

16:40

Julius Randall one against the Heat last year.

16:43

I got immediate flashbacks when I saw

16:45

that shot. And I'm just like, Josh

16:48

Hart, why is this so fleeting for

16:50

you? Why are you sometimes able to

16:52

do this and sometimes not? I don't

16:54

understand. And I guess it's just

16:56

a case of some days you're feeling it, some days you're

16:59

not. Josh Hart runs a little hot and

17:01

cold from three people. Can I throw a theory at you? I

17:04

think this is who he is as a shooter. And

17:07

sometimes his confidence just tanks. You can go over

17:09

the numbers for his career. Maybe 38% is a

17:11

little high, but 35%, 36% on decent volume. He

17:16

did that for years. And something flipped the

17:18

last few seasons where he lost it. He got

17:20

it back in New York for half a season.

17:22

In the playoffs, he shrunk. That carried over. And

17:24

then he came out and said, yeah, I worked

17:26

on that over the All-Star break. But to me,

17:28

it was that game against the Mavericks where they

17:30

were missing everyone. And he just had to shoot.

17:33

And he had to work through it. That

17:35

felt cathartic. And I don't know about you.

17:37

I just hope this lasts when everyone back.

17:39

And it doesn't go away because he doesn't

17:41

have to do it anymore. Yeah,

17:44

I think that's kind of

17:46

what I'm hoping, too. I hope that there are some

17:48

positives that have come out of this. And I was

17:50

talking about that the other day, too, of Dante

17:54

finding this new gear. Hopefully

17:57

now, once he is back to being the fourth

17:59

op. He still has all that

18:01

same confidence and everything else and you

18:04

know on a night when maybe a couple of

18:06

those first three options Aren't having a good game

18:08

He could still come out there and gets you

18:10

20 something points and think nothing of

18:12

it And you know, hopefully Josh Hart to has

18:14

found his confidence in his three-pointer

18:16

and understands now Like don't worry

18:18

about it like just shoot, you know Don't

18:20

don't worry about if you made your first two like

18:22

make your next two, you know That kind of thing

18:25

and because that's what always seems to set him off

18:27

is like if he misses one of his first couple

18:29

attempts Or particularly if you missed it

18:31

poorly It seems like it just shakes him

18:33

for the whole game and you know did not

18:36

have that in this game obviously But

18:38

just the rebounds too. I mean the Knicks winning

18:40

the rebounds battle overall in this game

18:43

47 to 39 I Thought

18:46

was part of the reason that they won

18:48

as well I mean in addition to some

18:50

pretty good defense like if you look at

18:52

the percentages You know the

18:54

Cavs shot good enough to win this game like

18:56

they shot 45 percent overall 39%

18:59

from three like made 17 threes like

19:02

that's not Bad and

19:04

like 31 assists, you know, I mean it they

19:06

had like a fairly good Overall

19:10

shooting game but the Knicks, you know,

19:12

just kind of take them down with with eight

19:14

steals nine blocks as a team A lot

19:17

of that came from heart from a Chua Dante

19:19

had a number of steals like but then just the

19:22

rebound he's just back breaking and we saw that all

19:24

the way back to The playoffs and then now into

19:26

this season when the Knicks face this Cavs team like

19:29

they just cannot hang with a physical team you

19:31

know period and for all the Hoopla

19:34

that their bigs get and everything with with Mobley and

19:36

Allen and like how good of a combo that can

19:38

be That they get

19:40

routinely out muscled when they play the Knicks even

19:42

when the Knicks aren't playing their biggest

19:44

muscles Like there was no Julius Randall There

19:47

was no Mitchell Robinson who were two of

19:49

the guys that wrecked them in

19:51

last year's playoffs Like it's easy to forget but Julius

19:53

was really starting to figure things out before he sprained

19:55

his ankle again and was Rebounding the

19:57

crap out of the ball against this team

20:00

And Josh Hart too. I mean with 19 rebounds

20:03

in this one, they clearly have no answer for a Josh

20:05

Hart type so I

20:08

guess this sort of just lends credence to what we

20:11

were talking about the other day but like this Cavs

20:13

team is one that if I'm the Knicks and Things

20:15

are okay with Brunson and you can keep dreaming about

20:17

the playoffs like this is a Cavs team

20:20

that I would love to see if I were the Knicks

20:22

because like Josh Hart is sort of

20:24

like the the epitome of like

20:26

why the Knicks are able to beat this

20:28

team because he just out hustles out muscles

20:30

and Just

20:32

beats this Cavs team. Yeah,

20:35

I was I was thinking about that throughout the game just

20:37

Watching Isaac Okoro, and I know he's having a

20:39

better season. He hit two threes in this game

20:42

Had a he is kind of funny They they

20:44

posted him up on Jalen Brunson on the first

20:46

play of the game almost to prove a point

20:48

like yeah You can't hide Brunson on him anymore

20:50

He's gonna go at him and and all I

20:52

was thinking was like this guy was a top-five

20:55

pick and Josh Hart just eats his lunch Every

20:57

single day of the week is just such a

20:59

better player better option And and you're right like

21:01

I thought last year like heart After

21:04

Mitch and after Brunson was like the third best player

21:06

in that series It was the biggest difference in that series

21:08

and they've added stuff like like streus is

21:10

a big improvement Sam Merrill like cook the

21:12

like the Knicks at different points were getting

21:15

ready to run away with this game and

21:17

Sam Merrill would just Hit three threes or

21:19

in the third or fourth quarter. They were

21:21

gonna run away again Darius Garland It's two

21:23

crazy deep threes in a row So

21:25

like the Cavs had some answers and

21:27

yet at the end of the game like

21:29

it was heart over and over again It was even Chenzo

21:32

who I think I was late third

21:34

early fourth Like at one point just

21:36

scored 11 straight points like it was

21:38

ridiculous I had a backdoor cut into

21:41

like an inside hand reverse finish like

21:43

a steal into a three a relocation

21:46

three a kick out into another

21:48

three like the the shooting like

21:51

Obviously like we keep saying the shootings

21:53

insane But it's still weird to watch them

21:55

effortlessly take a 26 foot jumper If

21:57

you didn't read Fred Katz's and Anthony Slater's

22:00

excellent story on the athletic on Devin

22:02

Cenzo and how that confirmed my theory

22:04

that Devin Cenzo just basically like, like

22:06

put on like a Steph Curry mask last year, Mission

22:09

Impossible style and said, Hey, then I'm going to follow

22:11

you around. Like it was like, is it cool if

22:13

I like, like sleep on like a side bed, like

22:15

air match with you and Aisha, like, can I play

22:17

with your kids in the morning? Like, like he just

22:19

took on Steph Curry's life and

22:21

maybe even more importantly, like watch the whole

22:23

lot of film on how he scores his

22:25

shoulders and how he generates so much power,

22:27

um, even when he's catching the ball in

22:29

the move, like they ran this one play

22:31

for him. That is, it's just textbook out

22:33

of the Draymond green, uh, Steph Curry playbook

22:36

where Isaiah Hardenstein got a catch and Hardenstein

22:38

immediately like bounces it behind him in like

22:40

an improvised dribble handoff while acting as a

22:42

human screen. Even Cenzo on the run picks

22:44

it up nails the three. And like, if

22:47

you blink twice, like that was Draymond instead.

22:49

So it's cool that the Knicks have discount

22:51

Steph Curry for $14 million a year for

22:54

the next four years, Dante, Devin Cenzo, just,

22:56

just, just a bad ass on both ends of

22:58

the floor in this game. And

23:00

they were joined by a whole bunch of other guys we're

23:02

going to talk about next. Um, but Alex, before we get

23:05

into that, uh, would you mind telling everyone about

23:07

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24:24

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24:26

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24:28

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24:30

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24:33

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24:35

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24:37

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24:39

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24:42

until we get Brunson back. Cause I don't know

24:44

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when in doubt I feel like. The.

26:11

Next guy that deserves a shoutout is

26:13

the guy who barely sat down the

26:15

entire game. Do sweet forty seven minutes

26:17

and thirteen seconds out of a possible

26:20

forty eight for those you keep a

26:22

track a home. So he sat for

26:24

a exactly as many seconds as Johansen

26:26

played in this game because he came

26:28

in and immediate relief of them and

26:30

then did not sit down for the

26:33

entire game. After that ends with a

26:35

somewhat modest outline sixteen points. As.

26:37

Six or fifteen shooting for nine from

26:39

three Five assists. Ah, but

26:41

I thought was really good with with

26:43

Deuce and particularly something to. To.

26:46

Keep. Brunson

26:49

ends up being out now granted the Knicks are

26:51

going to be getting reinforcements

26:53

here Immediately, which we haven't

26:55

even really gotten to talk about yet with shake

26:57

Milton who they're signing off

26:59

of waivers after he was waived So

27:02

that's good timing. Yeah, yeah

27:04

in a weird way You

27:07

know, you thought it would just be good timing

27:09

in general but extra good timing considering the circumstances

27:11

now that he should probably be Signed

27:14

and ready today on Monday and and

27:16

ready to rock for hopefully the Knicks

27:18

next game So maybe he

27:20

ends up sliding and there's the starter But if

27:23

deuce ends up starting which I hope is the

27:25

case because I think he's earned that at this

27:27

point to take over a starter And if Brunson

27:29

is out I

27:31

think we saw something really good here with

27:33

him and Hartenstein Which we kind of already

27:35

knew that those two had a pretty good

27:37

symmetry from off the bench And you

27:39

know the the minutes that they have gotten together over

27:41

the last couple years but I

27:43

thought in particular in this game like just Having

27:46

Hartenstein there is sort of the bailout for

27:48

deuce where if he's coming into a screen

27:50

and it looks like oh I

27:53

don't think I'm gonna get the edge just right or whatever having

27:56

the ability to kick it to Hartenstein real quick

27:58

and have Hartenstein at the passing ability that he

28:00

has, which he ended up with eight assists in this

28:03

game. I think that's a great way to

28:05

sort of, uh, work

28:07

through one of the weaknesses of Deuce's game,

28:09

which is maybe not being the strongest guy

28:11

with the ball in his hands, just trying

28:13

to create and trying to like turn

28:16

corners and drive, you know, straight line hard

28:18

to the hoop, to create those opportunities, to

28:20

kick the ball out. Having a

28:22

bailout like Hartenstein, I think it's great for him. And

28:25

so hopefully if Deuce ends

28:27

up having to start for the,

28:29

you know, hopefully the next week or so, you know,

28:31

maybe the next like four games, whatever it ends up

28:33

being, I hope that

28:36

there's a lot of minutes with him and Hartenstein and

28:38

their dynamic playing out, because I thought that it was,

28:41

it was pronounced to me in this game,

28:43

you know, watching through it again, that those

28:46

two have a great chemistry that could

28:48

help the Knicks sort of mitigate the

28:51

loss of playmaking by Jalen Brunson. Yeah.

28:53

I'm, I'm with you. Though I don't know. Um,

28:55

and I will, I will say I've been first

28:58

and foremost on this podcast and critiquing Deuce's handle.

29:00

This might not be the game to do it

29:02

because he had one of the nastiest in and

29:04

out moves I've ever seen on Evan Mobley that

29:07

literally like crumpled. Uh, the, the,

29:09

did he win Deapoy last year or like runner

29:12

up for Deapoy? I don't know, but he, he,

29:14

he wrecked him. Like that was, that was so

29:16

dirty. Um, and yeah, and the

29:18

movement shooting from Deuce is maybe the single craziest

29:20

thing for me, for a guy who was, I

29:22

mean, it's very similar to Josh Hart. Like a

29:24

guy who was, who was scared to take, um,

29:27

like a spot up three last year. And now

29:29

like, I remember like there's one player where Dante

29:31

got an offensive rebound and Deuce just like relocation

29:33

three, like hatches it on the move and

29:36

it just like to me, it's, it's, I mean, this is,

29:38

this is a broader point that that's, that maybe a

29:40

podcast to itself, but it's emblematic of the

29:42

skill evolution, the NBA, like, like

29:44

15, 20 years ago, it

29:46

was Ray Allen who was making shots like

29:48

that. And pretty much no one else outside

29:50

of like Kobe and like a few of

29:52

the true like star star guys, like Tracy

29:55

McGrady would make shots like that. It just

29:57

was not common to hit like a running

29:59

corner three. And now Deuce McBride is

30:01

doing it. Sam Merrill does it four or five

30:03

times to the Knicks on the other end. Like

30:05

that's just in everyone's bag now and it's rapid

30:07

fire evolution. But this was such a good game

30:09

for Deuce. Like we didn't even mention like he

30:12

hit the three that, oh, like if the game

30:14

wasn't sealed, like he sealed it on that last

30:16

second three. Still doesn't really do

30:18

the point guard stuff you want, which is why

30:20

I almost wonder if they might start shake Milton

30:22

if it gets Alec Burks out of

30:24

my life. I'm really okay with either option. But

30:27

yeah, Deuce has been awesome and I hard had

30:29

a great passing game. Like I think the play you

30:31

were getting at in terms of the chemistry between those

30:33

two, like the bounce pass he threw Deuce on the

30:35

cut that led to the swing to diva cenzo for

30:37

three. That was one of the best passes I've ever

30:39

seen Hardin Stein throw. It wasn't even an assist, but

30:42

just the speed he got on that ball and like

30:44

the timing of it and had to throw it around

30:46

Mobley was ridiculous. Last two guys

30:49

I wanted to shout out in this game before we

30:51

wrap up talking about how to survive. Brunson

30:53

being out, Bojan,

30:56

despite the minus aid in this game it wasn't

30:58

really his fault because he was mostly on the

31:00

court when Merrill was just cooking. Like I thought

31:02

he just, like he gave the Knicks just enough

31:04

offense. Like when you look at this game versus

31:06

some of the other games last few weeks where

31:08

the Knicks were scoring 90 points, like Bojan was

31:10

the difference. Like just tough pull up jumpers. Like

31:12

one was a shot clock buzzer beater over Jared

31:14

Allen fading away. And

31:16

then even when he wasn't getting the ball, like

31:18

his gravity were precious went to set a screen

31:20

for him on an in-bounce play. And two guys

31:23

went with Bogdanovich and precious with a second on

31:25

the shot clock just got a dive dunk to

31:27

the rim. Had the four point play after the

31:29

caps cut it to four to make it 96

31:31

88. The only black bark

31:33

on Bojan tonight was he missed like including

31:36

one air ball, two late threes that were wide

31:38

open off of great plays by Devin Cenzo. But

31:41

he had a, like tonight was a good night for him. He

31:43

had just enough shots for the Knicks and then precious at Chua,

31:45

one great sequence where he absolutely destroyed Darius

31:47

Garland on a switch with a block, then

31:49

blocked his jumper, then ran the floor, got

31:51

a dunk crossed over Jared Allen for an

31:53

N1. Jericho Sims had some good

31:55

defensive moments. Alex I'm cheating a little bit,

31:57

but this was just a great, great team win. every

32:00

New York Nick not named Alex Burke so we

32:02

don't have to talk about that right now let's

32:04

talk about how the Knicks are gonna survive Jalen

32:06

Brunson being out pretty manageable schedule over

32:08

the next week if the basketball gods bless

32:10

us and that's all the time he's out. Yeah

32:14

so it's it's really not looking

32:16

too bad for the Knicks as far as

32:18

like degree of difficulty and this is we're

32:20

sort of getting at this the other day

32:23

like or I forget if this is one of the

32:25

ones I did solo last week but

32:27

like the Knicks schedule coming up here

32:29

really pretty favorable in general for

32:31

the next like two three weeks

32:33

yeah through the 29th I think

32:36

is pretty easy like

32:38

but in particular if this injury

32:40

holds Brunson out for like seven

32:42

eight days you've got the Hawks

32:44

at Madison Square Garden on

32:47

Tuesday so that's game one then you

32:49

don't play again till Friday where you

32:51

face the magic at home which that's

32:53

probably the toughest of the stretch and

32:56

then Sunday and Tuesday

32:58

face the Sixers in back-to-back

33:00

games at Madison Square Garden another one of

33:02

those weird two games

33:05

at Madison Square Garden in three days like

33:07

what they had with the Bucks for Christmas

33:09

I don't know why those are all the

33:11

sudden getting scheduled this year where they're just

33:13

giving teams vacations to New York for a

33:15

couple days but whatever the case

33:17

may be it's a Joel and beadless Sixers

33:20

team that is one of

33:22

the only teams that has been floundering more than the

33:25

Knicks in the face of injuries lately thanks

33:27

to you know it's tough to

33:29

say that that's even the case for the Knicks after this huge

33:32

win but like prior to this they were they were

33:34

looking a little a little rough but

33:36

yeah things are not going great for the Sixers

33:38

right now without him beat and he definitely will

33:40

not be back by then because the earliest estimates

33:42

for him say the end of March so three

33:45

out of four very winnable games and I think

33:48

the Hawks you were saying to me before the

33:50

show which I hadn't looked at yet but are

33:52

still without for young so yeah no no tray

33:54

so no tray for them I mean I think things

33:56

are looking pretty okay for the Knicks

33:58

as long as the Diagnosis on Brunson

34:01

is good now how

34:03

they how they survived the whole ordeal

34:05

I Guess just

34:07

comes down to like how ready is

34:09

shake Milton to be plugged directly in

34:11

from Hey,

34:13

bud, you're a you're a depth ad to just

34:15

make sure we have enough depth to well We

34:19

need to test our depth now, so Go

34:22

out there and start and maybe play like 30 minutes

34:24

or something Forest in this

34:26

you know these next few games I

34:29

guess it all depends on how comfortable he feels coming

34:31

out and kind of running the show or Backing

34:34

up Deuce McBride whatever the case may be

34:36

like I think he's he's sort

34:38

of the key now As much as

34:40

he was just a luxury ad two days ago Yeah,

34:43

it's super important that he

34:45

can just generate some offense

34:47

because it's so funny Like

34:49

I feel like Deuce McBride does 80% of

34:52

this stuff you need and Alec Burks does the other 20

34:55

or maybe the other 10% like there's still there's still some

34:57

passing between the two of them that you would love to

34:59

have But you can't smash them

35:01

into one player So you're in a little bit

35:03

of trouble and to your point like like deuce

35:05

just not a natural point guard Burks like even

35:08

less of a natural point guard than when he

35:10

was a failed point guard on the Knicks two

35:12

years ago So just having someone who's played point guard

35:14

in the NBA for long stretches of time will make

35:16

a big difference Here's the thing like the ball is

35:18

going to be and Dante deepens his hands for better

35:20

or worse For the bulk of these possessions that I

35:22

and I only throw the worst in there just because

35:24

I think we've seen him wear down Just a tiny

35:27

bit when he's had to try to

35:29

fully impersonate Jalen Brunson, which is understandable He's

35:31

never had to do anything close to that

35:33

in his NBA career So I think Milton

35:35

someone who's a very capable creator Can

35:38

replicate some of that there's going to be some

35:40

concerns on the defensive end and just how he's

35:42

gonna Ingratiate himself, but just having

35:44

another live body. I think is a really big

35:47

deal and to me I mean man how lucky

35:49

are the magic? It's gonna be four games against

35:51

the Knicks this year Or the Knicks are just

35:53

completely beat up against them I think Brunson is

35:55

maybe played one of those four games so good

35:57

for Orlando, but if the Knicks can go Two

36:00

two and two I'll totally take that like obviously

36:02

there's there is such a mosh pit right now

36:04

in the Eastern Conference standings that we can quickly

36:07

update on that the Knicks are Three

36:09

and a half games behind the Cavs for third who got jumped

36:11

by the Bucks They are half a

36:14

game ahead of the Sixers They are one full

36:16

game ahead of the Magic one and a half ahead of the

36:18

heat two and a half ahead of the Pacers So you go

36:20

on for here? You could see yourself

36:23

not only in a play and you can see yourself in eighth place in

36:25

the Eastern Conference Two and two I think they'll

36:27

be just fine Reinforcements are on the

36:29

way Oji and an OB We

36:32

mentioned that three-week timeline on our Friday podcast

36:34

So maybe two and a half at this

36:36

point for him to his Randles reported last

36:38

night that he has started Taking a light

36:40

contact not by players, but just being hit

36:42

by pads and stuff So he's seemingly on

36:44

the right track to at least start getting

36:46

back into playing shape Three

36:50

the Knicks are gonna be really good down the stretch of

36:52

the season as long as the injury is an ultra severe

36:54

to Brunson I'm not super worried like even one win here

36:56

is not the end of the world, but two and two

36:58

I think they're in a really good spot. Yeah,

37:01

I think so too and you know, this of course assumes that Brunson

37:04

is able to come back after like a weekend

37:07

change which yeah, man That was

37:09

just a that's such a relief after

37:11

after feeling that feeling of oh, wow

37:13

the next two years might be over

37:15

last night Because

37:17

any any one of those non-contact

37:19

injuries would have not

37:21

just killed this season but also next season So

37:24

if he's back after that Sixers game and

37:26

then gets to come back on

37:29

the road trip against the Trail Blazers then

37:31

cool there's also maybe a chance where the

37:33

Knicks leave him at home and just say

37:35

get fully fully healthy off this and Then

37:37

he would miss the next four but even those next

37:40

four games Well, I guess the back

37:42

half of that road trip is pretty tough. So it

37:44

would be the Blazers Kings warriors

37:46

and Nuggets all on the road before

37:49

returning home for a pretty favorable home

37:51

slate to Sort

37:53

of push towards the end of the month here and

37:56

then of course ending the month against the

37:58

Thunder at home, which you know That's the hottest

38:00

team in basketball right now. So

38:03

yeah, I don't know. It'll

38:06

be an interesting week and change to see, but I'm

38:08

with you. I think two and two is a

38:11

good outcome. Three and one is like,

38:14

okay, well, this is just like a weird

38:16

team of destiny and we need to just

38:18

accept it at this point, especially if every,

38:20

if all the injury you

38:22

know, updates come out really good over this next week or

38:24

so. And it looks like this team can actually get fully

38:26

healthy for once for the first time in a

38:29

month and a half, two months. I

38:31

think we'd be in really good shape. So yeah,

38:34

I'm just gonna sit and cross my

38:36

fingers, toes and I don't

38:39

know, do some good luck rituals, maybe call

38:41

up the Miami Heat and see if they've

38:43

got a good goat sacrifice guy and

38:46

see if we can get some good news on Jalen Brunson. Yeah,

38:49

I'm with you. All right, that's it for this episode

38:51

of locked up. Thanks a lot of plenty more. The

38:53

rest of the week including an update whenever we get

38:55

one officially on Jalen Brunson, but until then he's Alex

38:57

and Gavin, we'll talk to you soon. I'm locked on

39:00

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