on the bench for most of the fourth quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\nStephen A. Smith wasn\u2019t happy after the Knicks\u2019 Game 2 loss to Pacers. Stephen A. Smith\/X<\/p>\n
That\u2019s probably not where most Knicks fans would have started.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand for the life of me how in the hell he has KAT playing just 28 minutes,\u201d a distraught Smith said in an X video, while rubbing his face with his hands. \u201c[Thibodeau] is going to try to tell us it was defense. But with Mitchell Robinson on the court, the deficit increased.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most Knicks fans want more Robinson because of his defense and offensive rebounding. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Thibodeau\u2019s loyalty to his starting lineup hurt the Knicks as they fell into holes at the start of the first and third quarters. <\/p>\n
But then his strange, offensively challenged fivesome \u2014 including Cam Payne over Jalen Brunson \u2014 to start the fourth quarter proved costly, too.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Brunson missed a forced 29-footer with eight seconds remaining and a chance to tie. <\/p>\n
The Pacers could have fouled and put the Knicks in a situation where they had to make a free throw and miss a free throw intentionally to play for an offensive rebound.<\/p>\n
New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau reacts on the court during the second quarter.
\n Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThat shot near the end of regulation,\u201d Smith said, shaking his head furiously, \u201cdon\u2019t know what that was about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks are down 2-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals and won\u2019t play again at Madison Square Garden unless they win at least one of the next two games in Indiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what else to say,\u201d Smith said, before getting loud. \u201cI mean, I do know what to say. I don\u2019t want to. I don\u2019t want to. I don\u2019t know what Thibs was doing (on Friday night). I have no clue. I have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) shoots against Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) in the third quarter during game two of the eastern conference finals for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Is the series all but over?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like they are going home,\u201d Smith said. \u201cLooks that way. Don\u2019t know if it is that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith skewered Tom Thibodeau and still had some criticism left to use on Jalen Brunson\u2019s shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,6,197,191,66,2603,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-55705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-playoffs-2025","11":"tag-new-york-knicks","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-stephen-a-smith","14":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114568817888643823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55705","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=55705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}