Knicks know they should tackle rebounding subject in a rush
This isn’t a brand new subject for the Knicks.
They struggled with containing offensive rebounding final spherical, too, however the Celtics taking — and lacking — so many pictures the opening two video games has magnified it.
Coming into Saturday’s Sport 3 on the Backyard, with the Knicks holding a 2-0 lead of their convention semifinal sequence, Boston has collected 35 offensive rebounds and possesses a 13-rebound benefit in that class, even with Mitchell Robinson, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Cities all wholesome.
The Knicks maintain the bottom defensive rebounding share among the many 4 remaining Japanese Convention groups (66.3) and the seventh-lowest among the many eight remaining groups within the postseason.
Someway, they’ve prevented catastrophe.
The Celtics have solely collected a plus-13 margin in second-chance factors.
Nevertheless it’s an space the Knicks know they should clear up, one of many errors they’ll solely get away with in opposition to the defending champions for therefore lengthy.
“I really feel like they’ve been attending to the offensive boards fast and so we’re conscious of that,” Jalen Brunson mentioned after the Knicks practiced Friday in Tarrytown, “but it surely’s a special factor in-game when in-game they’re taking lots of lengthy pictures and lots of lengthy rebounds. The pure factor to do is to go in across the restricted space, however with lengthy pictures, we’ve to not be as far within the restricted space.”
The Pistons collected extra offensive rebounds than the Knicks in 4 of their six first-round video games, and the Celtics’ five-out offense added one other wrinkle.
Smaller gamers of their lineup can get a “working begin” from the perimeter, coach Tom Thibodeau mentioned.
The Knicks have to shake their behavior of ending up so near the restricted space when crashing the basket, Brunson mentioned — and given how the Celtics have rebounded, he acknowledged, “It’s one thing we’ve to regulate to shortly.”
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Nonetheless, there have been different cases the place the Celtics grabbed rebounds close to the blocks.
Early within the fourth quarter of Sport 2, Kristaps Porzingis scooted round Hart close to the left block, collected a Jayson Tatum miss that simply grazed the rim, transformed a second-chance layup and drew a foul.
Within the first half, Jaylen Brown crashed from outdoors the 3-point line after Jrue Vacation tried an open look off a Knicks turnover, and moments later, Brown drained a 3 to capitalize on the extra possession.
Greater than something, Cities mentioned, it comes right down to execution.
To “simply discovering a physique and boxing out” — after which doing it over and over and over for 48 minutes.
The Knicks’ weak point didn’t disappear as soon as the postseason continued, and their means to advance once more would possibly require fixing it on the fly.
“We’ve watched the movie, we’ve seen our errors and we’re simply attempting to wash it up as a lot as doable so we generally is a higher model of ourselves than we have been within the first two video games,” Cities mentioned.
