Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. preview Saturday’s semifinal matchup in Las Vegas. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
NBA Cup semifinals: Orlando leads 2-1 in the season series so far.
The Knicks are coming off their first victory against Orlando this season.
A 106-100 victory.
But as I broaden out, I’m excited to watch Two good teams face off against each other.
Two teams that have looked to evolve.
Offensively, New York with their overall empowerment, Their pace, how quickly they want to get up.
Orlando wanting to play faster, Integrating Desmond Bains, so its a cool storyline there.
It’s interesting because Orlando has been one of those teams that has found a way to be Physicality and work to bog down the Knicks offense and try to take things off the table.
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Jalen Brunson has been a problem.
For the Magic.
I think hes averaging 33.5 in NBA Cup play.
Shooting 54% from the field, 51% from 3 against the Magic in all three games.
He’s giving them 30 every time.
And that’s while shooting, I think, 25% from 3.
So, okay, do we keep the Jalen Brunson portion and take away the OG drives?
The McCaw drives, because I think one thing, even when New York scored against Orlando, Hey, outlet, throw ahead, drive.
Let’s test their defense to see if theyre going to be able to handle our flow.
Our drives, our attacks.
And so, I think that’s kind of the back and forth there.
This naturally is going to be a lot more on the shoulders of Paul Ben Carroll in this one as He’s still working his way back after his lengthy absence.
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Now Franz is out, usage is going to go up.
You’re going to need Desmond Baines as well.
But if we’re talking about the front court, I am curious about the Paolo of it all.
And on the New York side, Karl-Anthony Towns has not had the same success against them Orlando Magic, at least so far this year.
And so I do kind of wonder which version of Kat Are we really getting one?
Like, do we actually get a cat explosion?
How do you get him going?
I think there are a multitude of ways they can get Kat involved.
But I don’t know if you have to sacrifice what you do offensively to do so.
I think you want him to get in the flow, if he has it going, You.
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Keep going to him.
For Paolo, it’s all about quick decisions, so we know he’ll get his post-outs, We know he’s going to be involved in pick-and-roll, but I think if you’re Orlando, You want Desmond Bane downhill; you want Jalen Suggs downhill.
You want Anthony Black downhill; you want Paolo on top of that.
If these guys have it going, we’ll see more of what they do, But I don’t necessarily know if they have to stir the drink based on how these two teams Play offense, especially early this season.