Paul Pierce gives his thoughts on New York Knicks’ comeback win in Game 3 | SPEAK

Paul Pierce gives his thoughts on New York Knicks’ comeback win in Game 3 | SPEAK

We’re joined now by Fox Sports senior NBA analyst Rick Buer. Welcome, Slick. Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here. Uh, was Paul wrong about the Knicks? Paul’s been so wrong about so many things. Which derogatory comment were you are we talking about here? I was wrong. Well, I mean, I think we’re referring to uh the the series being over and their season being over. Oh, well, that’s right. He’s right on that. All right, then. There we go. I wasn’t wrong about that. Yeah. Uh, no. the the victory in Indiana uh salvaged that this could be an interesting series or that it could be an extended series, but but the idea that the New York Knicks could actually win the series at this point, I thought this was an aberration. We’ve seen it with the Indiana Pacers for whatever reason, game three is their bugaboo in every series. They lost game three in the first round, the second round, and they did it again here. And for whatever reason, Pascakum is very tied to that. He has a minus. The only minus that he’s had uh in any of the games in the playoffs so far has been in game three and previous series and was again in this one. So, um look, all the pressure was on them. They responded to it for whatever their their better road team. They’re five and one if I’m not mistaken in the playoffs on the road. But the idea that they’re going to somehow carry this back to uh depending on what happens in game four that they’re going to carry back to Madison Square Garden. Indiana Pacers are just as comfortable there as any place else. So So you weren’t wrong about the next spot. I just hope that it’s a competitive series. Earlier I was thinking, you know, what was impressive was Cat’s performance, but as far as the win, they got lucky again. I’m just saying I’m just lucky. We can’t we can’t I’m about to ban we’re lucky we didn’t ban from the the set. I mean there because the there no this is the third time in the playoffs they’ve come down come back from 20. You know the percentages is on that. If I got one roll on the dice and my chances is 4%. And I hit that’s luck. It ain’t nothing I did. I mean they play hard. Uh and think about it. You had five fouls with Brunson and Cat. So, I’m sitting there like, “Oh, there’s no way they’re gonna win this.” You got Brunson on the bench. You got Cat in the game having an out-of- body experience in the fourth quarter because in the first three quarters he was he was on the milk cart missing and so he decided to show up and play the game of his life to keep the season alive. Now, do I believe Indiana is going to lose another game at home? No. Cuz I feel like they’re the far better team. All right. But you would have to say that the Pacers are lucky too then cuz they’ve done the exact same thing. I did say that. I said it. It’s a lucky series then. So it’s just lucky versus the luck. Like like one time is an accident or luck. Two times it’s a pattern. Three times it’s who you are. Like that’s you can’t accidentally come down. Yeah. You can’t accidentally come down from down 20. I mean you can keep getting lucky. That’s a thing. That’s a thing. You can’t Yeah. It’s a lot of dudes that get lucky. It’s a lot of dudes. I think you’re watering down the definition of lucky. You know what I’m saying? Paul is saying it’s a lot of people that get lucky every time. But it’s a every now and then. I see. You can look online right now. It’s just a guy that won the lottery three times. Oh, we didn’t know where you were going with that. Me too. That’s why I put my hands up like I mean you get lucky. If you get lucky a couple times, that mean you just got some game. Look man, it it was impressive for the simple fact they stayed the course. the same thing that Indiana did in game one in New York. The Knicks, they stayed the course. They was down and they stayed the course. They didn’t panic. They just said, “Okay, we got to turn up the heat.” Cat had four points in the first half. Second half, fourth quarter, he came alive. He was something different. He stayed the course. That’s not luck. It’s just knowing that we got to continue to fight our tail off to be able to get the W. That’s impressive because they could have very easily looked at themselves and said, “Man, we getting ready to go down 3 0. It’s over.” And just quit. They could have completely just quit, but they didn’t do that. They did the same thing that Indie did in game one. The same exact thing, except Indie was lucky because they got that bounce that we all know should have gone over the backboard, but it went into the net. They got lucky. They got lucky as far as game one goes. I don’t think that this was luck. I think that for whatever reason they dug deep. They stayed the course. Cad had an amazing game and they said to themselves, “We can win this game.” I’d argue that they Yeah, they were they were fortunate. They were fortunate in that Jaylen Brunson got into foul trouble because it forced Tom Thibido to do something that he generally doesn’t do, which he went to his bench. And the one thing with the Knicks is when Jaylen Brun is on the floor, they’re pretty predictable. You know, you know where the ball’s going to go. You know what they’re going to do. You know who’s going to run the show. With him in foul trouble, it suddenly be became the Carl Anthony Town show. And as we know with Carl Carl, like we don’t know what he’s going to do. We don’t know. We don’t know where he’s going to shoot from. But he was in foul trouble in game two. Understood. Understood. But I think it it it changed the dynamic for the there was a combination. One, the Knicks suddenly became unpredictable in terms of who was on the floor and how they were going to play. Indiana wasn’t prepared to play this particular Knicks team in this rotation. And then the other part is, let’s face it, you’re the Indiana Pacers. You’re up 200 in the series. You’re up 20 plus in the in the in the in game three at home. like it would be it’s human nature where you’re not going to keep your foot on the pedal and these teams That’s true. We seen it in game one with the Knicks at home and up by whatever they were up by. Understood because there’s I don’t think there’s that great of a separation between these two teams. So th that combination of the unpredictability of the Knicks, the Pacers taking their foot off the pedal just a little bit resulted or delivered this result. I don’t know that that’s luck. I think that’s a lot of I don’t think it’s luck either. I I don’t think it’s luck at all, Joy. They did what they were supposed No luck. No fortunate situations or circumstances. It was very impressive and I’m going to give the Knicks some credit in the Eastern Conference Finals down 02 to then be down 20 points. They could have lost all hope. No. Exactly. And they didn’t. No. They became unpredictable. Brunson was in foul trouble. Cat was playing terrible. It’s a lot to snap out of that mid game and then go have the fourth quarter that he had. It’s a huge road win. The series was on the line. Your postseason dreams are dangling right there in front of you and they’ve already had taken two huge emotional lumps at home. Yeah. So, yeah, it was a very very impressive win. There was nothing lucky about this. Now, if you want to talk about what’s happened in game three throughout this postseason, that’s something to talk about because multiple teams have done that. The Bucks were down 02 to the Pacers. They won game three then lost the series in five. The Cavs were down 02 to the Pacers one game three lost the series in five. The Magic were down to the Celtics one game three then lost the series in five. And the Celtics were down 02 to the Knicks one game three and lost the series in six. So this game three thing where you have this lead of 02 and you just take this sort of emotional step back kind of happened but they still had a 20-point lead the bases did. But see, in a lot of those and all of the momentum at home, in a lot of those games that you mentioned though, I don’t think those other teams could have potentially been up 2-1. I honestly believe that the Knicks from a Knicks standpoint and Knicks side that they should be and could be up 2-1 right now. They have reason to believe that. Of course you do. Again, ball goes up in the air, typically goes behind the basket or to the left or the right, not right back down into the basket. Everyone in that building and everyone watching at home knew that that shot was going in. Yeah. You you knew once you kind of look you go, “Oh, it could it could have hit the roof and it was still going in.” Yeah. Because it was everyone. No, it just was what was happening. They got a dilemma though. I’m going to tell you something. We’re going to really see the Knicks got a super dilemma right now because if you look at game one when they made the run and pushed the lead, Brunson was on the bench. Game three. Mhm. Brunson was on the bench when they came back for the most part. And that’s and yes, obviously obviously the offense became a little more freer, but the defense got better. Yeah. So, what do you do now moving forward with Brunson’s minutes and how you play him cuz he’s it’s starting to look like he’s a liability or they’re searching him out on defense. That’s not a bad call. And I would say the Carl Anthony Towns, Miles Turner matchup is more advantageous for New York than than Jaylen against Aaron Eastman. And you got the guy who is considered one of the most clutch players in the NBA. Like down the stretch, do you sit him, play him? Do you sub him in on offense? Take him out on defense. This is what I’m going to be looking for in game four. You You They were taking him out in game one. Maybe it was even game two, too. They was taking him out late in the game on the defensive side. the defensive side, but switching it out. We’re talking about like for stretches. It’s a It is a dilemma because he’s been Tom Thibido’s guy, but you can’t do that. You You can’t take the the most clutch player in this year’s NBA out in tight games. But there’s a pattern. There’s a pattern now. Like right now, after three games, we’re seeing a pattern. Yeah. You can’t do it, though. Why not? Because if you do that, then all of a sudden, you got a guy that’s feeling a certain way. Think about that. He is human. He going to feel a certain way. You got to shelf that you got to shelf that ego and No, you want him to. Well, but will he is the question. I I watched Steph Curry come off the bench for three games for Jordan Pool in the playoffs because the team was rolling and he could have after game one said, “I’m healthy. I played. I scored 20 plus in game one.” And he was like, “Nah, you know what? I’m going to go with what’s working.” If Jaylen Brunson is really all about that, if if it’s the same Jaylen Brunson who gave up money in order for them to build a better team around him, then Jaylen Brunson is going to say, “You know what? If Cat’s got it going, if that’s the way we need to go, or if I need to come, you know, spend a little more time on the bench, then then that’s what we have to do.” But if you’re down by 20 or whatever the number would be at the point in time that he sat down, I’m sure he would look at it that way. But if it’s a tight game, Rick, I’m not sitting him down. I’m I’m just not I’m not sitting you down if it’s a dilemma. I mean, there’s no question. It’s not I’m not saying it’s an easy decision for Jaylen or for Tibs or for anybody, but I’m saying like if you make that decision, then you hope that everybody’s on the same page. Subscribe here to get the latest from Speak and go watch a few segments from our other shows on FS1.

Joy Taylor, Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce, and Ric Bucher react to the New York Knicks’ wild comeback win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 3. The crew discusses whether Paul Pierce was wrong about the Knicks and how impressive the win was in Indiana.

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Paul Pierce gives his thoughts on New York Knicks’ comeback win in Game 3 | SPEAK
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