Knicks Ghost Card: The inside gate that affects the playoffs!

The New York Knicks last season were a typical Thibodeau-like team. Strong defense comes from excellent penalty area protection, and the offensive rebounding data are exaggerated enough.

The core players of the team are almost better than those of the other 29 teams in the league, and even the role players perform far exceeding expectations. This is also our established impression of the team coaching Thibodeau. But looking back at the Knicks this season, they seem to be different from before. The change in this part is not about themselves. Due to the new version of the labor-management agreement, the Knicks lost Harten. Miro was also almost reimbursed due to injury. They needed a center player, so they found Towns.

This reinforcement has almost completely changed the essence of the entire team. On paper, this should be a 5-out team with an offensive-oriented team. After the overall strength was weakened, the best response strategy that the Knicks could do at that time was to increase their talent in a single link to enhance the overall strength of the team.

From the perspective of paper, with Bridges and Towns, the Knicks' lineup has become more complete. However, judging from actual results, they only won one more game than last season, and their net winning efficiency has decreased.

Last season, they were the sixth-most opponent in the league in the penalty area, but this year they fell to 20th, and their rebounding efficiency dropped from the league's first to the league's ninth. Whether it is fighting for the ball, creating opponents' offensive fouls, pick-and-roll screens, rebound positions, etc., all data have declined significantly. Although the offensive end has made obvious progress, it often gives people the feeling that it is a miracle that is powerful, rather than a meticulous operation under the tactical system.

It is difficult for us to explain a team with Towns as the center, but its three-point shooting efficiency ranks third from the bottom in the league? The internal and external pick-and-roll combination of Brunson + Towns did not produce the expected offensive effect, and it was easy to be misplaced by the opponent's center in the pick-and-roll switch to Hart.

Even Bridges, who joined the new team, was in a state of disagreement with the team in the early stage. It was not until March that Brunson stepped back due to an ankle injury that Bridges finally played his own suitable position. According to the overall evaluation, our impression of the Knicks is very rough. On the premise that the team system is not stable enough, they are more like a team that relies entirely on the talent of the players to crush the weak team. Once the opponent is strong enough, their talent base will not be enough.

In the regular season of this season, the Knicks' record against the top teams of the Celtics, Cavaliers and Thunder was 0 wins and 10 losses, which just confirmed this aspect. Compared with the previous seasons, the Knicks this season no longer have the most original Thibodeau features.

However, such regular season status does not apply in the playoffs. The Knicks showed a terrifying competitive performance in the series with the Celtics, but it was not the brand new and eye-catching starting five who led them to win. In the first two games of the series, the Knicks' starting five players played for 46 minutes and lost 13 points in a net loss.

And in these two games with only 4 points difference, Mitchell Robinson played 43 minutes, and the Knicks beat the Celtics with a net score of 32 points. In order to get him out, the Celtics even deliberately fouled in the fourth quarter. This starting lineup lost 26 points in the 65 minutes of the regular season against the Celtics.

is easy to understand in this context. Even if it is not the Knicks' original intention, the Knicks are indeed very similar to imitating the Celtics, vigorously reusing multi-functional wings and big shooters, and performing counter-single singles in a crazy way, but the Celtics are doing much more thoroughly in these aspects than the Knicks. After all, the opponent is the champion team and will not be defeated by its own offensive mode. Therefore, Thibodeau surrounded Miro and forced the game into the quagmire, forcing the Celtics to enter the game mode of Thibodeau.

Of course, the biggest problem for the Celtics in this round of series is that they missed the three-pointers, but when Miro was on the court, they were difficult to score even two points: in the series, the Celtics only had 42% of the shooting percentage in the penalty area when Miro appeared, but after Miro left the court, this data increased to more than 50%. Although the Knicks' defense replacement strategy has significantly interfered with the Celtics' outside line, it also caused the Knicks to make a significant increase in the number of fouls because they were easily targeted by misalignment. When Miro was not on the court, the Celtics made 36 free throws in about 58 minutes; while when Miro was on the court, his opponent only received five free throws.

Because Miro has not fully recovered after an ankle injury in the playoffs last season, not every time Miro can defend successfully when switching defenses on the periphery. But he did a very good job in the penalty area defense, allowing his teammates to focus more on the disciplined defensive system. According to statistics, when the Celtics faced Miro, the shooting percentage in the penalty area was 57.1%.

Referring to the top franchise guards in the league, the same data in the regular season are mostly in the early 50%, while Miro has achieved a top level in the playoffs that is far beyond the regular season, and he even faces a defending champion team.

Although we always regard the Celtics as projection teams, they have always been the best team in the league to grab rebounds. When Miro was not on the court, the Celtics grabbed 57.7% of the rebounding efficiency standard for the top teams in the league is 53%. But when Miro was on the court, the Knicks even beat the Celtics slightly; if he and Towns were on the court for a short time, the rebounding data would completely crush the Celtics.

Tibodeau continuously emphasized Miro's rebounding value throughout the playoffs. Before the second game against the Pistons in the first round, he chose to keep Miro, and his explanation was simple:

"He is the only person who is still grabbing rebounds."

Although Miro played 23 minutes less than Towns, the rebounding number of positions was basically the same, tied for the first place in the two teams in the series..

These are the standard traits of the Thibodeau team and the key to the Knicks' several reversals against the Celtics. They have scored less than 110 points in 27 games this season, with only six winnings.

Try to imagine this regular season Knicks, it is almost impossible to win a game with 91 points. But what the playoffs value is high-intensity resilience, which is the key to the Knicks' successful changes and advantages this season.

For most of this round of series, Thibodeau chose to let Towns be the center. Miro's physical condition could not allow him to play more time, but the system developed in the regular season is still their main line. However, in a short period of time, Miro regained the advantage for Nix.

When he was on the court, the team was like a Thibodeau team again, and the Celtics have never found any effective solution in the series. Although such a game is not very good, Thibodeau's team has never won by beauty, they rely on high intensity and game efficiency. This is exactly the advantage that Thibodeau regained last year's Knicks, and after Miro gradually recovered his form.