NBA Countdown | Stephen A. Smith BOLD-predicts Celtics vs Knicks in Game 3: Brunson will bury Tatum?

NBA Countdown | Stephen A. Smith BOLD-predicts Celtics vs Knicks in Game 3: Brunson will bury Tatum?

Celtics and Knicks goes down today as the series shifts to New York. MSG will be rocking as the Knicks are up two nothing on the defending champs. The Celtics now look to steal one on the road after yet again blowing a 20point lead in game two. Here’s the countdown crew with a closer look at this matinea matchup. This is the biggest playoff game in Madison Square Garden in many, many years. We are here to get you set. Stephen A. Smith. The New York Knicks improbably maybe have a 200 series lead on the defending champs. What do they need to do to put down the clamps? Well, listen, what they got to do is Jaylen Brunson’s got to play better. Uh Muel Bridges can’t wait three quarters to get off. Carl Anthony Towns has to replicate his performance in game two. OG Anobi has to continue to play the kind of defense that he’s been playing. And you have to anticipate an onslaught from the Boston Celtics. They are the reigning defending NBA champions. shooting as poorest as they’ve been 25% from three-point range. You can’t anticipate that will last. Jaylen Jason Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown playing as poor in the fourth quarter. That’s not going to last. You have to prepare yourself for that and be ready to answer the call because they’re coming. And Jason Tatum, he he shouldered the blame after the game two loss. He said that this is on me. How do you expect him to respond? I don’t I mean, sure, that’s good. I’m glad he took some blame, but it’s not just him. The team has shot 25 for a 100red over the last two games from three that you don’t win when you do that. The encouraging thing if you’re a Celtics fan is that they lost game one by three points and game two by one point and shot that badly and stayed in the game. Now their margin for error is gone. Right now you can’t have any more bad shooting games or else you’re going to go home. You lose this game, you go down 3 0. You just don’t come back from that. So they got to win this game. Luckily, Stephen A will not be in the building, which helps the Celtics quite a bit. I think the line should probably move for for that. Well, well, one, a lot of it is on Jason Tatum. And here’s why. Like, you blow two 20-point leads, you’re supposed to be that guy. You got to find a way to get buckets, get to the free throw line. He’s averaging four and a half free throws a game against the New York Knicks. Unacceptable. We watch all the star guys, all the the the the past, you know, uh franchise guys. They did everything they did was get to the free throw line when they struggled from the outside. The Knicks side of things, I’m looking at Carl Anthony Towns, right? Christoff Porzingis obviously dealing with the the illness or whatever that may be, right? You got old man Al Horford out there, you know, trying to do everything, but he’s still he’s still old. This is a moment for Cat at the crib to feed off of the energy of the fans and mimic what he did in game two. He only shot one three. Yeah. The rest of it was in in the inside. So that’s what I’m looking for. Bob, I have a feeling that just because Stephen A isn’t in Madison Square Garden, they’re still going to feel his energy because he will be with us getting set for this one. NBA countdown at 3:00 each. I don’t know, Mal. Yes, I will. I mean stretching it. Thanks so much, guys. For historical perspective, this is the 33rd instance of a team trailing two to nothing in a best of seven series with both losses coming at home excluding the 2020 bubble. Of the previous 31, just five came back to win the series. The Cavaliers also trailed the Pacers two to nothing this postseason. Historic night of missed three-pointers. The Celtics coming up empty-handed. We found a way to win. That’s some wild stuff right there. Here they come again. New York has gone up two games to none. I take full ownership on the way that I play in this series. Can’t sugar coat anything. I need to be better. Going home, I realize an opportunity we have. You know, we just got to make sure we’re still locked in. We put ourselves in this position. We got an opportunity to see what we made of. I’m now trying to make something happen. Game three. And we got a pair of game threes in the NBA Conference semi-finals today and tonight at 3:30 Eastern. A day game on ABC. The Knicks will look to go up three games to none in the top seated Celtics. Each of the Knicks last six playoff games have been decided by three points or fewer, including their two big comeback wins in Boston to open up this series. Then we will go out west. The Warriors and Timberwolves square off at 8:30 Eastern on ABC. Minnesota even the series with a 24-point win in game two. Steph Curry will miss a second straight game due to that hamstring strain, including the postseason. And Golden State is seven and six without him so far this season. 13-year NBA vet Quinton Richardson and Anscape senior writer David Dennis Jr. back with us now here on Sports Center. All right, so the Celtics, they need to try to avoid going down three games to none to the Knicks. So this is kind of a simple question, David. What does Boston need to do today to pull out the win against New York outside of make sure their shots fall? Well, they need to remember how to play basketball in the fourth quarter. I have never seen a championship level team fall apart like this offensively when they have the same matchups and the same schemes that they can have earlier in the game that put them up by 20 points. And that falls on the backs of Tatum and Brown. And the last two fourth quarters, they are two for 19 and 0 for N9 from three. These are abysmal numbers from a team that that is trying to repeat as champion. And it’s not just missing shots, it’s bad shots. It’s they’re not utilizing the mismatches that they have. It is just an absolute collapse two games in a row from a team that needs to figure this thing out in Madison Square Garden. Yeah, I agree with you, Double D. It’s like they get up 20 and have an error message in their brain. You got up 20, you got to know you did that twice in a row. We better than them. Hold on to it. Finish it off. But hey, listen. I’m I’m going with Jaylen Brunson. If the Knicks want to win, all they got to do, like you just said, Double D, just get just get Brunson into clutch time. Just stay close enough. Don’t let him blow you out and just get him. However you got to do, get Brunson to clutch time. He has proven that if you can get me there, I will definitely do the rest. Obviously, he was the clutch player of the year this year, but I’m talking about these playoffs so far. He’s shown you that if he gets to clutch time, that he’s the guy that could get it done. So, if I’m the Knicks, I just want to get get our get our get our closer to the to the closing time and let him do his thing. It is expensive to get into the garden today in New York. Let me tell you, you can’t even stand for $900. Okay, it is going to be lit this afternoon. Do they still say that? I don’t even know if people still say that. Anyways, okay. Let’s They do. Okay, good. I’m I’m still kind of cool. Let’s go out west. Timberwolves and Warriors. The series is tied. Golden State obviously doesn’t have Steph Curry, David. And so they’re uh they’re right now trying to take a 2-1 lead at home. How do they do it? Two words, playoff Jimmy. He was not aggressive enough in game two. He only took 13 shots. He’s only taken five and a half free throws so far in this series. The Warriors are being outscored in the paint by 36 points. That is about Jimmy Butler getting to the rack and putting up shots. There were far too many times in game two when he got to the bucket and passed out. You got to put some of those guys in foul trouble. You got to score. You got to put pressure on this team because you you need to buy time for Stephen Curry to come back if possible by game five or maybe game six. And that is Jimmy Butler figuring out a way to get through and penetrate against this defense. Yeah, I agree with you, Double D. I know Jimmy said he’s not a high volume shooting guy, but like we gonna need you to go ahead and get up with the 20some shots for them to be having a chance tonight. But when you come to the Minnesota tide side of the fence, man, it’s all Ant-Man. He hasn’t had above 30 at this game, I’m expecting him to have one of his one of his explosive games and signature games for him to put his mark on this series cuz he hasn’t had it yet. He’s had his coach call him out for for setting the tone and different things in game one. Obviously, they came out and won game two, but it wasn’t it wasn’t a signature Ant-Man game. I’m waiting for an explosive 30, 40, however many point game where he puts his imprint on this game and lets everybody know that he’s the best player in this series. I’m I’m with you, Q, because I keep hearing Ant-Man talk about it. Talk about it. I want them to be about it. Now, today, I will say this for the Warriors though, they’re at home. They don’t have Steph Curry. And in the last game, we saw them come out in the first quarter and lay an egg, like the worst egg they’ve ever laid in the postseason in the first quarter since 2016, which is wild. Guys, thank you very much. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Come back here. Let go. Come on. Come here. I don’t want All right. foreign. Hello Wow. What? That is Wow. What’s up? Why you doing that? There you go.

NBA Countdown | Stephen A. Smith BOLD-predicts Celtics vs. Knicks in Game 3: Jalen Brunson will bury Jayson Tatum?