Chris Broussard & Colin Cowherd REACT to Knicks-Pacers + Thunder-T’Wolves PREDICTIONS | THE HERD NBA

Chris Broussard & Colin Cowherd REACT to Knicks-Pacers + Thunder-T’Wolves PREDICTIONS | THE HERD NBA

Let’s go to Chris Brousard, co-host First Things First, joining us live from New York. So, you know, it was I was talking about this earlier. I’m not surprised Carl Anthony Town had a big game. I mean, he’s he’s a gifted offensive player, but it was interesting. Hallebertton leaves for about four minutes, end of the third, start of the fourth, and Indiana just lost their mojo totally offensively. He comes back. They kind of find it. But it’s interesting, Chris. My interpretation was Indiana is not just about talent. They’re really a pace team. They’re a rhythm team. And when Hallebertton end of third, early fourth was out for four and a half minutes. Chris, I don’t think they ever found their rhythm again. And and so I’m not discrediting the Knicks. Their rotational defense was better, but some of this was it showed it illustrated how valuable Hallebertton is to the pace of this offense. Yeah, absolutely. Look, like you said, give the Knicks credit, particularly Carl Anthony Towns was scoring the 20 points in the fourth quarter, hit the threes, attacked the basket, got to the free throw line. So, they deserve credit. But you’re absolutely right. And what you’re acknowledging is how great Tyrese Hallebertton is. And I was speaking with an agent about this this weekend and he was bringing up that Hallebertton doesn’t always lead the team in scoring. I said, “This dude is a true point guard, and he doesn’t have to lead the Pacers in scoring to be their best player. He controls the tempo. He sets the pace. He gets the ball to the right guys. He determines for the most part very smartly when he’s going to be aggressive as a scorer, when he’s going to sit back and get the ball elsewhere. He We’re not used to seeing true point guards anymore, Colin. We’re used to seeing the point guards that score first and pass second. Jaylen Brun, and I’m not even disrespecting them. They’re great, a lot of them. But Jaylen Brunson’s exhibit A and Steph Curry and Damen Lillard. So, a lot of them are are phenomenal players. But when we see a Tyrese Hallebertton, we almost think, uh, he he only gives you 20 points a game. Magic Johnson was a career 19 point score. I’m not saying Tyrese is magic, but he is a true point guard who can lead the league in assists and give you nine to 11 a game and then also get you 20 20 18 to 24 points. He’s a great player. He is truly a phenomenal player. Yeah. And there again, it it is a rhythm team and they lost their rhythm and they couldn’t find it. You know, it’s interesting about um the Knicks. I was saying the Knicks actually, you know, exactly what they need. So, they need somebody. They don’t shoot threes particularly well. And because Brunson and Cat Chris are poor defenders, it’s hard to have them on the floor simultaneously. So, if they move off Cat, who of course has a market, you keep Robinson for defense. You would say, “Okay, we need a three-ball shooter, a secondary scoreer who doesn’t need the ball in his hands. We need some length because we’re losing Cat and a willing defender.” Is that not Kevin Durant? Check, check, check, check, check. I mean, they don’t And is it not Is it not KD? Look, I I love KD with the Knicks with Carl Anthony Towns and Jaylen Brunson. I I look, he’s better than Cat. I’m not denying that. But I’m not at this point in their careers, I’m not giving up Cat for KD because Cat rebounds better. Ne, you know, he’s Cat gets in foul trouble. He’s not a great defender obviously, but I just I’m kind of done with the KD experiments where he has to be like the first guy. I mean, I get Brunson would be the first guy, but to think I’m going to get rid of Cat and bring Katie in here and the Knicks are going to be the best team in the East. I’m not really going there again. If I can get him without losing Cat, then certainly, you know, and that’d be a nice big three cuz KD would be the perfect piece with them. But what I do, Colin, if the Knicks go ahead and lose this series, I think what they need to do, and I said this on the show before about Tibs, you know, job security, certainly keep Tibs. No question about that. But the Knicks need to look at how do we make our offense less Brunson centric and more get more like when you look at the Pacers, they move the ball. They they the players are moving. The Knicks are stationary for the most part and what that does is you don’t know which Pacers is gonna have the hot hand. Could be Hallebertton, could be Seakum, could be knee smith or Nimhard or, you know, somebody uh uh uh uh the big guy, you know. So, it could be a number of their guys. That’s where the Knicks need to get cuz Miles Bridges is really good a score. Josh Hart can have his moments and Ojanna Noi can score. So, I just think they need to become a little more ealitarian in their offense cuz look, it’s they’re certainly not better without Brunson, but notice their two game turning runs. Game one when they took control, right? The 140 run with Brunson on the bench. Last night, 16-7 run into end of the third quarter when Brunson’s out and to early in the fourth when he comes in. They go on a 16 to7 run to get back into the game from down 13. So it just shows you they have the depth that usually Tibs doesn’t use and they also have other guys that can score the ball when needed to. So I think they should look at that. Yeah. You know, it’s really interesting. You just pointed out two things that are true. Brunson doesn’t always elevate others and he’s a poor defender. Hallebertton’s a better defender and elevates everybody but not as great a score. And I think if you look at the Knicks, they’re they’re a byproduct of Brunson’s game. You taught me this years ago. Your game is your game. If Brunson’s your point guard, then you have to have a catch and shoot shooter. You you because he and I you got to have somebody that can be like a Klay Thompson in his prime. Somebody that can watch him and just get it be the ball in the corner and shoot. You can’t have another That’s why Brunson and Luca did not work because they’re both ball centric. Whereas Hallebertton is the opposite. He he I mean he’ll just go into distribution mode, pace and distribution mode and for like eight minutes and you look up and he hits maybe one three. So it’s um the Pacers have had 10 different players lead them in scoring this season. Seakum I think let him in scoring for the regular season. So there I do think the Pacers are a product of Hallebertton style. He’s their quarterback and the and the Knicks are of Brunson style and so you have to work from there. I want to go to the other series that’s interesting. Now, there’s two, you know, that depth can be overrated in the playoffs. It can be a little overrated. Oklahoma City is the only of the four teams left, Chris that you get a literally different team on the road, 105 on the road, 123 at home. My take is their youth, their young players are not the same playoff games on the road. They look at times overwhelmed, which gives me the thought that oh, Minnesota’s got a heartbeat in this series. Do you believe that today? Yeah, I think that’s a great point. You know, I’ve been skeptical about OKC because of their youth all season. Like you said, we all know role players don’t typically play as well on the road, and that’s what you’re pointing to. Minnesota absolutely has a shot because they didn’t just win game three. They made a statement, Colin, 42 points, leading by 45. Like, that does not happen to OKC. And this this group for OKC has been in the playoffs two years. All right. They’ve lost seven games in those two years by a total of 49 points. They’ve only had two losses in their playoff history. You know, this group where by double figures and both of them were 12 points. So they have never been beaten by more than 12 points until Saturday night. So that is a mental statement that Minnesota made that hey we can impose our will on you. And the key for Minnesota is not to turn the ball over which they did in games one and two. They didn’t do that in game three. That didn’t allow OKC to get out and score in the in transition. And then you had Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall play well together. That’s the first time this series those two have played well together in the same game. If they can get that in game four, they can even up this series and then we really got something to look forward to. All right, Chris Bruce is on after us. First things first at the Indie 500, the last Thursday and Friday shows as always. It was great to watch. Good seeing you, buddy.

Colin Cowherd is joined by “First Things First” host Chris Broussard to react to Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks’ Game 3 win over Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers, despite the rough night from Jalen Brunson. They also compare predictions for the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Minnesota Timberwolves series.

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