Can the Knicks secure the Eastern Conference? ‘The Pacers have more depth’ | SportsCenter

Can the Knicks secure the Eastern Conference? ‘The Pacers have more depth’ | SportsCenter

Knicks back in MSG looking to close things out against the Celtics in game six. Stephen A. Smith caught up with Ben Stiller before the game. Other than Brunson cuz we know he’s going to step up. Who are you predicting will step up to help him most for the Knicks? Cat and OG. I think we have to get Cat going early. And OG if he has 20, we’re in good shape. All right, first quarter. Let’s see if he’s right. Knicks up two. Carly Anthony Towns wide open here off the miss. That’s good. Knicks go up five. Oh, so we got a Steelers key to victory here. Okay, early in the second. Knicks up 11. Cat skipping in that lane. He got off to that hot hot start that Stiller was talking about. Big Bodega skipping in that lane. Great move there. Later in the quarter, Knicks up 17. Derek White gets met by Miles McBride for the block. Josh Hart says, “We’re not done yet.” Foul and the basket. Stiller, he was loving this. And so was Timothy Shalom. Oh, Adam Adam Sandler said it. You know what I’m talking about. Salame. They’re up 20. Their largest lead this postseason. We go into the third quarter. Knicks up big. Hart gets it to Anonobi on the wing and he cans that triple. Knicks tack on three. So OG needs to get 20 points. Not there yet. Let’s see if he does. Next possession off the miss. Anobi is waiting for the rock for threes, please. And he buries it. 23 points. 20 points just like Stiller said. Knicks win it 11981 and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. [Applause] Well, if you like five letters, I have a segment for you. Q Rich and Jay Will are here with us right now. And Q, I’m going to start with you. As someone who played for the Knicks, what does it mean to have him back in the East Finals for the first time since legitimately the turn of the century? I mean, you see this you see this that is a scene. It is chaotic. This is this is not even the conference finals yet. Shay, this is just to get there. Like, this is what New York Knicks mean to this to this city, to this basketball thing. I played there for four years and I had a chance to come back when the when when Melo and and those guys had the number one seed and I saw a whole different level. If they make the conference, if they if they win this series against the Pacers, listen, it will be a a state of emergency in New York City for the things that these fans will be doing to celebrate. Shay, let me add some um combination of business and sports commentary. Okay. Um a lot of times I see players have transactional games. What do I mean by transactional games? uh they’ll get their numbers, but sometimes those numbers, and Q, you know about this, those are empty calories, right? Because when and how you get those numbers matter. Carl Anthony Towns last night didn’t have a transactional game. He had a transformative game. And that all starts with the way that the Knicks utilized him. He didn’t settle for threes right out of the gate. He punished people with his physicality. When they prioritize him and he gets going, he adds a different dimension to the way this team plays. And this is a team with a commanding presence. When Cat is that missing piece that is able to arrive, this is a team that has a chance to legitimately win an NBA World Championship. That’s how talented they are. You are making everyone in New York go absolutely wild as they are slowly opening their eyes this morning, Jay. Well, we forget you guys. There’s still like a month to go in the NBA playoffs. We’re only halfway there, but nonetheless, there is reason for excitement obviously in New York. On the other side of things, we’ve got the Celtics. Their championship reign has now come to an end thanks to the Knicks in six games. And there are a lot of question marks that come with this. Jay Will, where do the Boston Celtics go from here? I mean, I truly believe Shay that this is the last iteration of this Celtics team that we will see moving forward. I mean, they they not only, you know, blow by the luxury cap, but they’re easily into the second apron on projection with the 2025 2026 season. Just think about alone. Jason Tatum 54 million, Jaylen Brown 53 million, and then Drew Holidayiday 32 million. So, just those three alone get them almost in the cap. Uh, I think you’re going to see Al Horford, you’re going to see a guy like Derek White. Al Horford’s obviously older. Derek White’s going to be commanding $28 million a year. Payton Pritchard, $7 million a year. That’s the sixth man of the year. He’s actually on the cheap, but there’s no way with the amount of capital into this team that you are able to keep them together. And then it seems like next year is going to be a gap year with Jason Tatum being out. Jaylen Brown is gonna be expected to do more. You have to revamp this whole roster in order to keep up with this arms race in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, it’s grown extremely quiet as you would expect here at the Garden. The Knicks now go home. Stops at a dime. Launches. Oh yeah. Pure joy here at Madison Square Garden. For the first time in two and a half decades, the New York Knicks are going to a conference final. We haven’t been here since my dad played. He’s not going to like that. It means a lot for this this organization and this city. We say good morning to our NBA analyst Quinton Richardson and Anscape senior writer David Dennis Jr. And guys I almost wore my Tims on Sports Center this morning because it is that serious. The Knicks are going to the Eastern Conference Finals. We got our resident former Nick here with us and I know you’ve seen the videos. I know you’ve seen the people on the polls. What’s led to this moment for the New York Knicks? I mean they made all the right route moves getting bringing this team together and I feel like when he got to the money time, these guys came out in game six with a with the proper sense of urgency. They gave their fans a chance to get into it early. You had a good Cat Anthony in the um in the first quarter and the guys rallied, man. After that, the wheels fell off. It was just a route. And I mean, me playing there for as long as I did, man, I was there four years when it was no winning. Literally no winning going on. And and it was it was tough to be there. But then coming back in 13 when they had the number one seed and it was the Knicks tape era, I got to see what it was like to be a Nick when it’s winning. And and I’m happy for all of these fans, for all of the people that’s been in that building, in the garden, all of the all of the executives and everybody. This is a great time. Hopefully, these guys can keep it going. Yeah. The Knicks now have their PhD in playoffs. It’s one thing coming into the playoffs as the little brother and you go into Boston and you shock them with a couple of games where you come back down 20. It’s another thing to have a game six closeout game where you are expected to win and you shut the door on them from the gate. And a lot of that is because of Carl Anthony Towns and the way that he came out early in that game, dominating down in the paint, being aggressive, staying out of foul trouble and really never giving that Boston Celtics team a chance to get a lead or to feel any sort of momentum. The Boston Celtics not have the energy that they needed and the Knicks capitalized on it. Mitchell Robinson was out there looking like David Robinson. You had OG New flying around the court. Jaylen Brunson was there closing them out and they shut the Celtics water off before they ever had a chance. This is veteran level championship basketball that they showed last night. Yeah, and this is why the Knicks brought Carl Anthony Towns to New York. He’s going backto back conference finals with this trip. And plenty of irony in this upcoming Knicks Pacers series, a rematch of the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals and last year’s semis which New York loss. So Q, what do you be watching for when this upcoming series tips off on Wednesday? To me, it’ll be interesting to see how I if New York can slow down Indiana’s pace because we know that they they like to get up and down. Tyrese Hie Burton moving the ball, sharing the ball. So, to me, the Knicks have to be extremely careful and extremely uh good with taking care of the ball. They can’t allow these guys to turn the ball over and get right into transition. Those are the points you don’t want to give them. And then overall, everybody got to show up and step up, man. This Indiana team is not to be taken lightly. They got every position. They got bench players, they got clutch players, they got a a big man that can shoot the three and protect the rim. And they got wings that are that are that are built for it. They got three and D wings. So, by no stretch of the imagination, I seen all of the videos. I mean, I seen the the the the chaos in the streets and the Nick fans going crazy, but they got to strap in. They got a fight on their hand with these Pacers. Yeah, this is not a foregone conclusion that they are making the finals at all. And I’m with you, Q, because this is about pace. This is about the Pacers having more depth and they are going to try to tire that Knicks team out. They’re going to utilize that fullcourt press because what this series is going to go down to, I think it’s going to go seven. What it’s going to go down to is those clutch numbers and those clutch performance. We know what Jaylen Brunson could do in the clutch. Those through the first 10 games, he has more fourth quarter uh points than anybody in NBA history in one playoff run through the first 10 games of these playoffs. Then you have Hallebertton. Let’s not sleep on his clutch performances. He has multiple go-ahad points and the final two seconds of a playoff game. He is the second person this century to do that. They can match up with these Knicks clutch for clutch points. It’s about who is going to execute best in those last two minutes of each of these games. Yeah, I agree. This series could go seven games, but you know, I’m taking my Knicks every single day of the week. Tyrese Hallebertton and Jaylen Brunson will face off in the Garden starting Wednesday, just like the WWE Smackdown from nearly a year ago. So Q, who would really win if they squared off in the ring? Man, I I don’t know. This would be this would be interesting. I mean, I see I see brass knuckles. I see chairs being I mean, are we going straight up while we using the the foreign objects? I mean, you know, Halle Burton has the hype, but I mean, Brunson is stocky. He’s a little He’s a little unit. He’s a little I would put my money on Jaylen Brunson. And let’s be real, he’s been in New York for a little bit. So, you give him some brass knuckles in the chair in Chicago. I mean, he come from Chicago, too. So, he got a little Chicago background in there, too. A little suburban Chicago, but you know that that’s still Chicago. Daniel, who you thinking? Look, I’m I’m a heel guy. I’m a Ric Flair heel guy. Hallebertton’s out here looking like the heel right there. Look like he’s going to cheat to win. I kind of go with the heel in these things, but you know, Jaylen Brunt, you don’t want to bet against him. But you know what? I want to talk about professionalism. Amina, shout out to you because I could have sworn I was looking at that video, those fans in New York. I thought I saw you with eight shape trying to flip over. I found out in the middle of New York just a little one too. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. You might have seen me there and I drove back this morning. Thank you guys for the insight. There you go. I could have sworn it was you out there. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On SportsCenter, Quentin Richardson and David Dennis Jr. join to discuss the New York Knicks beating the Boston Celtics in Game 6 and debate if the Knicks can defeat the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

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