{"id":55235,"date":"2025-05-25T06:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T06:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/55235\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T06:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T06:26:21","slug":"little-used-reserve-tony-bradley-helped-pacers-blunt-knicks-rebounding-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/55235\/","title":{"rendered":"Little-used reserve Tony Bradley helped Pacers blunt Knicks\u2019 rebounding edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 While Tom Thibodeau\u2019s rotation is getting even shorter as the playoffs progress, Rick Carlisle went 11-deep in a close game Friday night as the Pacers seized a 2-0 series lead over the Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After acknowledging that his team was outdone on the boards in Game 1, Carlisle turned to little-used reserve big man Tony Bradley for a couple of brief stints to combat Mitchell Robinson\u2019s athleticism on the boards.<\/p>\n

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Bradley only had played 17 minutes of mop-up duty in four appearances in the postseason, but he banged bodies a few times and grabbed a couple of rebounds with a positive rating of plus-1 in eight minutes \u2014 four each in the second and third quarters \u2014 in the Pacers\u2019 114-109 victory in Game 2<\/a> at the Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cTony Bradley hasn\u2019t played in the series, but he\u2019s one of our better rebounders,\u201d Carlisle said after the game. \u201cWe elected to go with him to spell Myles [Turner] a little bit. We\u2019re a team that needs everybody. That\u2019s how we\u2019ve got to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony Bradley (l.) fights for possession during the Pacers\u2019 Game 2 win against the Knicks on May 23. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Turner and backup center Thomas Bryant each picked up two fouls in the first half, and Carlisle didn\u2019t hesitate to turn to the 6-foot-10 Bradley, a 2017 first-round pick out of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

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By contrast, dependable veteran big Precious Achiuwa and late-season pickup P.J. Tucker<\/a> have not gotten off the Knicks bench in either game.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau only has used Robinson and guard Miles McBride along with doling out heavy minutes to his starting five.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the Knicks in the 2025 NBA Playoffs<\/p>\n

Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks<\/a> to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take<\/a> for insider texts about the series.<\/p>\n

Backup guard Cam Payne was the only other second-team player to get in the game, and he logged nine scoreless minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just was ready when my name was called,\u201d the 27-year-old Bradley said, according to the Indianapolis Star. \u201cI work hard every day just staying in shape, just being a good teammate. I\u2019m ready to just go hard. That\u2019s all I know.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was just focused on keeping Robinson off the glass. Staying in contact with him, keeping a body on him. trying to get him tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony Bradley attempts a shot during the Pacers\u2019 Game 2 win over the Knicks on May 23. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

The Pacers are up 2-0 despite the Knicks holding an 84-70 rebounding edge, seven more in each game.<\/p>\n

Robinson logged a playoff-high 29 minutes for the Knicks, including several alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, who sat out for a seven-minute stretch of the fourth quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robinson finished the game with six points, nine rebounds (four offensive) and three blocked shots, but only one of his rebounds came with Bradley on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cShoutout to Tony Bradley. Tony Bradley was huge,\u201d Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said. \u201cHe came in for us and really got thrown in with our group that has been together for so long. Tony is just an awesome guy and contributes in so many different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re doing our scout through all these series, he\u2019s had to be the scout center. There\u2019s been times when he gets thrown in our first group to take some of Myles\u2019 reps when guys are going through things or are a little banged up or whatever the case may be. It\u2019s just so special to see what our group is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 While Tom Thibodeau\u2019s rotation is getting even shorter as the playoffs progress, Rick Carlisle went 11-deep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,14219,563,304,2715,1247,6,10017,114,10745,1714,760,2957,362,14218,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-55235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-jason-szenes","13":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","14":"tag-knicks","15":"tag-miles-mcbride","16":"tag-mitchell-robinson","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-p-j-tucker","19":"tag-pacers","20":"tag-precious-achiuwa","21":"tag-rick-carlisle","22":"tag-the-knicks","23":"tag-the-pacers","24":"tag-thomas-bryant","25":"tag-tony-bradley","26":"tag-tyrese-haliburton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114567052260386266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}