ATLANTA \u2014 The Knicks are confident in head coach Mike Brown\u2019s ability to make adjustments in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Adjustments are the name of the game in a best-of-seven series against the same opponent, and the Knicks had several to make on both ends of the floor following their Game 2 loss to the Hawks on Monday.<\/p>\n
Team captain Jalen Brunson said it falls on the players to adhere to the game plan the coaching staff, beginning with Brown, lays out for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s been great in making sure we\u2019re in the right positions to be successful,\u201d Brunson said after morning shootaround at State Farm Arena on Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s just on us to execute them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson, who spoke after Brunson on Thursday, oozed with confidence in Brown\u2019s ability to tinker with the game plan to better prepare for the Hawks, who frequently sought Brunson in isolation in crunch time and benefitted from the Knicks\u2019 lack of offensive flow in Game 2.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Our coaching staff] gets to every detail of the game, literally everything,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cThey break it down, see what needs to be changed, what doesn\u2019t, what we need, you know: bring more intensity out of us and stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean it\u2019s been great learning from him. It\u2019s been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown addressed the concept of making in-series playoff adjustments after practice at the team\u2019s Tarrytown training facility on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are seven-game series for a reason. Everyone would like the one-and-done, especially lower-seed teams,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019d welcome that because anything can happen in one game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chief among those adjustments \u2014 at least on the offensive end \u2014 will be playing with more pace, something the Knicks have struggled with this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe [have to] get the ball faster, run on makes and misses,\u201d said Brunson. \u201cJust be who we are and don\u2019t let things are not that important in this moment \u2014 it shouldn\u2019t mean we\u2019re not doing the things that we\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson, the team\u2019s defensive anchor, says it starts with ratcheting up the level of physicality from Game 2, which he said wasn\u2019t up to par based on his own stat line of recording just seven rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cHell no, we weren\u2019t physical at all,\u201d he said. \u201cSo physicality, make everything get physical. You know, just play ball and stay locked in and just fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brunson replied, \u201cyes,\u201d when a reporter asked him if the Knicks\u2019 offense could benefit from being more aggressive setting screens and establishing post position. He also used the word \u201cphysical\u201d when describing how he and co-star Karl-Anthony Towns can find more of a rhythm on the floor together.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We have to] be aggressive, be physical,\u201d he said. \u201cImpose our will on the game and keep trusting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks\u2019 captain also said he has to continue dissecting the defense the Hawks are presenting with nagging defenders Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker sharing the on-ball duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey both are great defenders. So you have to be smart. You have to be kind of tactical in what you do and just being able to not really focus on what they\u2019re doing but like focus on making sure I\u2019m doing the things I need to do to make sure that I\u2019m comfortable and shooting the shots that I want to shoot and, and be in the positions that I want to be in,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I mean, you got to give them credit. They make things very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brunson shot 9-of-22 from the field in the Knicks\u2019 Game 1 victory and 10-of-26 from the field in the Game 2 loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 The Knicks are confident in head coach Mike Brown\u2019s ability to make adjustments in the playoffs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,677,288,563,304,3357,6,1136,191,3810,3806,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-716768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-hawks","10":"tag-jalen-brunson","11":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","12":"tag-knicks","13":"tag-mike-brown","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkknicks","19":"tag-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116456050095806023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716768","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=716768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}