Hart-less?

New York's Saturday night hero might be missing in action for Game 2.

Good morning! We have a jam-packed newsletter, so let’s get right to it, starting with some not-so-great news about Josh Hart…

🏙 Game Night 🏙

Who: Cavs

Where: Cleveland

When: 7:30 pm

TV: MSG & TNT

Personal Injury Report presented by Weiss & Rosenbloom: Bad news…Josh Hart is listed as DOUBTFUL for this game with the sprained ankle he suffered in the fourth quarter of Game 1 (yes, it was before the 3-pointer that may have saved the win). Will he play? Thibs said he participated in parts of practice but mostly got treatment on the ankle and they’ll see how he feels this morning. Fingers crossed.

Halftime: I might be in transit during halftime tonight, so make sure you check the Substack app for a message from me as to whether there will be a halftime Zoom. If I’m able to do one, click here to enter.

Hart Replacement? If Hart can’t go, it seems pretty obvious that Deuce McBride will get a chance to shine in his playoff debut. Theoretically, the Knicks could cut it to an eight-man rotation, but this might be an ideal matchup for McBride given his ability to cause fits for opposing guards.

One case for him getting a shot: if Thibodeau maintains the substitution patterns we saw on Saturday night (more on that below), McBride should be sharing the floor with Julius Randle and at least one of Immanuel Quickely and RJ Barrett, so his offensive limitations shouldn’t be as glaring.

(And as I say that, I feel compelled to point out that McBride hit 40 percent of his 3-pointers from February 1 until the end of the season, albeit on just under two attempts per game.)

A Method to the Madness

Of all the revelations from Saturday’s Game 1 victory, easily the biggest is how much easier it is to stay in a game against a good opponent when you fully commit on the defensive end for 48 minutes.

In other news, scoring more points than the other team usually leads to winning.

Only the most astute analysis here, folks.

Seriously though, New York’s activity and engagement was at a level I’m not sure we’ve seen all season.

As always, there were imperfections. On several occasions, various Knick bigs hung back a little too far in drop coverage when Donovan Mitchell came around a screen, which made me wonder if they’re just trying to show him some different looks. Either way, it might be playing with fire. We also saw the Cavs miss some easy looks at the rim on the couple occasions that New York’s rotations sprung leaks, but those misses were courtesy of Caris LeVert and Ricky Rubio. Those guys might be better and they might not. Either way, as we knew going into the series, the Knicks will live with Cleveland’s role players getting the chance to beat them.

Overall though, the D was on point, and when you combine that brand of defense with their normal level of physicality, it’s generally a recipe for success.

Right on cue, after the game was over, we immediately heard the Cavs talk about needing to step up to the plate to match the Knicks in this area. Here’s what Darius Garland had to say, courtesy of Ian Begley at SNY:

“The refs let us play a lot. So we hit first and see how the refs react instead of being punched in the face and just laying down to it…I think that’s the mentality that we have to have – go punch first. See what (the refs) do, see if they’re going to blow the whistle.”

There was some additional jibber jabber from some other Cavs yesterday that frankly isn’t worth our time because this is one area where actions speak much louder than words, and I’m not sure how much any Cleveland player has it in them to compete with the likes of Julius Randle when he’s at his most voracious:

Now, as we know from watching Randle over the last few years, there’s a thin line between unstoppable and unhinged. He toed that line perfectly on Saturday, but his ability to maintain his composure will bear watching, as will his minutes.

It’s unclear whether the rotation we saw in Game 1 is here to stay or if it was the result of Randle coming off an injury, but either way, it was the first time we’ve seen him deployed in this manner:

• 7:18, 1st Quarter - Obi subs in

• 2:57, 1st Quarter - Randle subs in

• 6:41, 2nd Quarter - Obi subs in

• 3:45, 2nd Quarter - Randle subs in, closes half

• 7:43, 3rd Quarter - Obi subs in

• 0:33, 3rd Quarter - Randle subs in, closes game

This pattern was notable for a few reasons. Primarily, we’ve never seen Randle get subbed out as early in the first or third quarters, nor have we seen him get three separate shifts within a half. On top of that, Jalen Brunson had subbed out with his first foul just before Julius sat in the first quarter and then subbed out with his third foul before Julius sat down in the second quarter. In total, the Knicks played seven first half minutes without either of JB or Ju on the court - far more than I’d have expected.

Of course, in the second half, there was a mere 19 second stretch when neither guy was on the court, and Julius played the final 12:33 seconds of the game. That’s what makes the first half substitution pattern so interesting. On one hand, you can point to a possible minutes limit being the reason for the new sub strategy (Julius played 34 in total), but with Brunson picking up two early fouls, wouldn’t you expect Thibs to deviate from any pre-determined substitution plans and instead choose to keep Randle on the floor for longer in the first quarter, and then make up the difference later, when Brunson was no longer in foul trouble?

It leads me to believe that this sub pattern was very intentional and not totally related to the injury, if at all. One thing that was accomplished - and perhaps this was the thinking behind the change - was that it got Randle on the court for the stretch when Cleveland had Evan Mobley as the only big in the game. If Julius wasn’t already set to exert his physical presence on the series, this certainly assured it.

The other side of the coin was that this substitution strategy allowed Obi Toppin to get more extended run, and boy did he deliver:

Several Knicks had an argument for the third best player in this game, and Obi was certainly one of them. He made the absolute most of his minutes, twice springing up the court for a transition bucket and nailing one of his two attempts from deep. He also saved a ball that was going out of bounds and on the ensuing Knicks possession, hit Mitch under the basket with a laser pass that led to a Cleveland foul. If nothing else, he earned himself just as many minutes moving forward.

Now for some other lingering Game 1 thoughts…