Speaker 1: You know, I was waiting to learn a term that
Speaker 1: describes the way Zach pretends like he likes Pitbull and
Speaker 1: Tyres Saliburton dropped it. It's are a farming. That's what
Speaker 1: he's doing. It's the very definition. It's the act of
Speaker 1: intentionally trying to appear cool or charismatic through actions or
Speaker 1: behaviors often perceived as exaggerated or artificial.
Speaker 2: We have the term. Now, can you use Pitbull for that?
Speaker 2: And Zach Harper or a farming on a Friday?
Speaker 3: Right? I wouldn't say, I mean, I don't think I'm
Speaker 3: trying to look cool. I just enjoy the music. Whether
Speaker 3: you think that makes me look cool or not seems
Speaker 3: to be a projection of your own thoughts on what
Speaker 3: Pitbull is. So I think we just cracked the cake.
Speaker 1: Don't get psychological on me on a Friday. You don't
Speaker 1: need to go two levels deep. You had you ever
Speaker 1: heard the term are a farming before Halliburton dropped it
Speaker 1: because it was new to me, Okay.
Speaker 3: And I really hope I never hear it again. That
Speaker 3: founded real, dumb? It did?
Speaker 2: It did? All right?
Speaker 1: While we're while we're in the space, I don't know
Speaker 1: which target you want to aim at game one. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: there are so many different directions we could go. I
Speaker 1: referenced this earlier, had Howard beck On when Jalen hit
Speaker 1: his step back three to make it a fourteen point game.
Speaker 1: As a Nick fan, I'm never gonna be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's over. But I just thought Indiana was out of time.
Speaker 1: Right at what point of that game, if at all,
Speaker 1: were you like, all right, that's it.
Speaker 2: There's no way the Knicks can lose this.
Speaker 3: So I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Actually my experience
Speaker 3: of the game, I mistimed when I thought that game
Speaker 3: was going to be over, like an idiot. So I
Speaker 3: actually planned to go to dinner with somebody at seven thirty.
Speaker 3: They were late by a few minutes, so I'm just
Speaker 3: sitting outside a sushi restaurant watching on my phone. I
Speaker 3: had to stop looking at the game with thirty four
Speaker 3: seconds left. So with the five point game, they're in
Speaker 3: that replay review or thirty four seconds left in the
Speaker 3: fourth quarter, so they're in that review on the og foul,
Speaker 3: they're up what five at that point or whatever it was,
Speaker 3: I was thirty four seconds left. I'm like, well, I mean,
Speaker 3: I know the Pacers can do this, but whatever. Three
Speaker 3: hours later, I checked my phone and I'm like, wait
Speaker 3: a second, Pacers won. I had like I didn't know,
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Like I checked my phone. I had
Speaker 3: like one hundred and forty text messages or something like that.
Speaker 3: Like I just it was. It was chaos in my phone.
Speaker 3: I had no idea. But what's funny is like up
Speaker 3: until that point when I when I when I saw
Speaker 3: it was my phone. You know, we had this live
Speaker 3: blog going on the athletic and when it was one
Speaker 3: eighteen one oh two, with like seven something left, James
Speaker 3: Edwards the third does a great job covering the next
Speaker 3: for us. You know, maybe Cat had hit a shot
Speaker 3: or someone had hit a shot, and he's like, that's
Speaker 3: gonna do it. And Eric Name who does a great
Speaker 3: job covering the bucks for us, and then there he goes, guys,
Speaker 3: let's not count this Pacers team out of seen it
Speaker 3: too many times. And then you know when Jalen hits
Speaker 3: that that shot, you know, I think someone else said
Speaker 3: it in Eric Name again, it's like, guys, don't count
Speaker 3: the Pacers off. And then you know they made that
Speaker 3: little run and I think at the thirty four second
Speaker 3: Mark or maybe just before it, I want to say,
Speaker 3: Lot Murray for US was like, oh, this is a
Speaker 3: fake comeback, and Eric name again was like, guys, do
Speaker 3: not count this spacers in that because he can't. They've
Speaker 3: bought three times in this postseason. They just snapped a
Speaker 3: nine seventy game losing streak of teams down fourteen or
Speaker 3: more with two fifty left, which is a weird stat.
Speaker 3: But somebody looked it up, so we should say it.
Speaker 1: It is a weird stat. But you know, there are
Speaker 1: so many things about it that were wild historic. It
Speaker 1: was a comedy of errors. It was a perfect storm
Speaker 1: for Indianapolis. And as much as it was about crazy
Speaker 1: shot making, Zach, I don't know if you've had a
Speaker 1: chance to go back and watch the end at all,
Speaker 1: but it was simply that this team was out of gas.
Speaker 1: Og stopped closing, which he never does, Josh Hart slipped twice,
Speaker 1: and then there was a back door cut where he's
Speaker 1: flat footed Jalen with multiple odd turnovers down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Kat was limping up and down. Oh Kat has a
Speaker 1: New York accent. Now, I don't know if you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if.
Speaker 3: You're aware of that I'm sure that'll last.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I sent you a tweet.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you check that out. But the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is this Zach.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've been listening to him interviewed since he was eighteen,
Speaker 1: never had a New York accent until now. But look,
Speaker 1: Tom thibodeau' is a hell of a coach, all right,
Speaker 1: But at some point, here's my question to you. Can
Speaker 1: you get ten minutes out of Precious at YOUUA? Can
Speaker 1: you get eight minutes? If you're gonna play your boy campaign.
Speaker 1: Precious at YOUA can give you ten minutes and Landry
Speaker 1: Shammick can give you eight. I know he probably won't,
Speaker 1: but what what do they have to do If you
Speaker 1: will not extend his rotation, then they can't get in
Speaker 1: a track meet. They have to do something tonight to
Speaker 1: make sure their best players don't look gassed at the end.
Speaker 3: You can't run with these guys like that's first and
Speaker 3: portant like I know they played well. I know the
Speaker 3: Knicks played well. And if you don't have that overtime
Speaker 3: period and they don't give up that, you know that
Speaker 3: last shot or whatever, it all looks great, right, all right?
Speaker 3: You survived it. And you you Wane and everything, but
Speaker 3: the of it is like you can't run with the pacers.
Speaker 3: They and the thing is like Cat's a pretty methodical score.
Speaker 3: Jamon Brunson's definitely a methodical score. Oh, Janaoi's a methodical score.
Speaker 3: They should be slowing it down offensively. They should be
Speaker 3: trying to like, you're not gonna slow Indiana down offensively,
Speaker 3: but you can slow the game down yourself on your
Speaker 3: end of the floor. And so I like, I just
Speaker 3: think it's a mistake to allow both stop you know,
Speaker 3: both offenses to be a quick pace. I'm with you.
Speaker 3: And what's funny about this is I kind of feel
Speaker 3: like before game one, we had had all the backlash
Speaker 3: to fifteen years of backlash against oh. I thought Tom
Speaker 3: Thibodeau's running guys and you know, playing too many minutes.
Speaker 3: I thought that was supposed to prevent that, Like we
Speaker 3: got all this stuff kind of saying that that's no
Speaker 3: longer a thing, and then you know, Day one, they
Speaker 3: run out of gas. Maybe we shouldn't just do that.
Speaker 3: Maybe we shouldn't dismiss fifteen years of something just because
Speaker 3: they won another game and got to the conference finals.
Speaker 3: Like I'm with you like, like, if Campaign is on
Speaker 3: the court, precious can't be worse than Campaign. I've seen
Speaker 3: pressures chewing play Like I get if you don't know
Speaker 3: if pressures to chewing guy, but like he can he
Speaker 3: can give you six minutes, five, he can give you
Speaker 3: three somewhere in the second quarter, three, somewhere in the
Speaker 3: beginning of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: It's all you need.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I get sticking to the plan, and
Speaker 1: I get sticking to what brought you here. But in
Speaker 1: the in the fourth quarter against the Celtics, it was
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten to seventy six with five minutes left,
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brunson is fighting over pick set by Xavier Tillman,
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 2: Like, what are we doing? I mean, Delon Wright he like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, man.
Speaker 1: I actually thought one of my biggest takeaways from game one,
Speaker 1: and I didn't hear a ton of people dig into this.
Speaker 1: I thought Tom was out coached. He used his challenges
Speaker 1: way too early. He didn't stagger his timeouts. Carlisle had
Speaker 1: two challenges that he used late with two big plays.
Speaker 3: YEP.
Speaker 1: I think Tom Thibodeau has some uh adjusting to do
Speaker 1: as well. If they want to get out of this series,
Speaker 1: or you can just be stubborn and probably lose your
Speaker 1: job at the end of the year. I mean, because
Speaker 1: I think that's where we're headed if he refuses to
Speaker 1: adjust a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I thought if they got to the conference finals,
Speaker 3: his job was safe. But if you lose to the Pacers,
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's true. And that's not a shot.
Speaker 3: That's not me taking a shot at the Pacers. I
Speaker 3: just don't know if James Dolan's gonna feel that way, right, Like,
Speaker 3: that's that's the person you have to kind of convince
Speaker 3: and historically not the most rational guy, you know, not
Speaker 3: the not the clearest thinker there. Yeah, I don't think.
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any shame in getting out coached
Speaker 3: by Rick Carlisle, But the way he got out coached,
Speaker 3: I'm with you, like, I think that's bad. I do
Speaker 3: not know what is this obsession in this postseason with
Speaker 3: some of these coaches using challenges early on the most
Speaker 3: like mundane plays like I don't like Carlisle played it right,
Speaker 3: he had chat like you said, he had challenges late
Speaker 3: for plays that mattered, not some dumb challenge in the
Speaker 3: first half that really doesn't like unless it's a guy
Speaker 3: picking up a third foul, like a star picking up
Speaker 3: a third foul. I don't think I would ever challenge
Speaker 3: in the first half. I don't get it. I don't
Speaker 3: understand that. And Tom Thibodeau is one of those coaches
Speaker 3: that will do it, and he just like he can't
Speaker 3: be so stubborn. I know it got them there, and
Speaker 3: I know, like, oh, they're so conditioned now and they're
Speaker 3: ready for these big mens and everything. Not really, not really,
Speaker 3: they're they're a good team, and they are well coached
Speaker 3: to a degree, and they know their identity. But you
Speaker 3: do have to be adaptable, like they You're not so
Speaker 3: good that you have to force everybody to adapt to you, right.
Speaker 1: And there were two occasions, one from Halliburton and the
Speaker 1: other from Turner in the first half. And look every
Speaker 1: NBA player, whenever they commit a foul and they think
Speaker 1: it's questionable, they turn around, they do the thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's review the thing, and they all do it. There
Speaker 1: were two occasions that I took note of. Halliburton was
Speaker 1: called for a foul in the first half. He turns
Speaker 1: to the bench and he does the thing Okay, let's
Speaker 1: review it, and Carlisle basically told him to shut up.
Speaker 1: He said, go play, and then he did the same
Speaker 1: thing to Miles Turner about two minutes later, and I
Speaker 1: took note. I'm like, he's saving his challenges, which is
Speaker 1: what you should do. And the challenge Tom used on
Speaker 1: the Jalen offensive foul was beyond dumb. I don't know
Speaker 1: who told him to do that. It was clearly a foul.
Speaker 1: They were not gonna win that. So ultimately that brings
Speaker 1: us to tonight. Do you have a lean? I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a stoicism to Jalen Brunson that
Speaker 1: I respect. Like, after the Knicks beat the Celtics, he's
Speaker 1: summarily dismissing the celebrations and telling his teammates to go
Speaker 1: to the locker room. I don't anticipate, Like I know,
Speaker 1: the media narrative is like, hey, there's gonna be a hangover.
Speaker 1: There's no coming back from that, and that was a horrible,
Speaker 1: damn loss. I'm not saying it's not, but I feel
Speaker 1: like the Knicks, you're going to respond tonight.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if their coach is going to adjust
Speaker 1: enough to give them gas at the end to win
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: But I don't feel like all is lost.
Speaker 1: Tell me where your head is out as far as
Speaker 1: the game tonight and the rest of the series.
Speaker 3: It's a bad loss. I don't think it's like this
Speaker 3: gut punch they can't recover from. Yeah, I mean, if
Speaker 3: you think about it, even if like the end of regulation,
Speaker 3: yes it's a collapse because they gave up a fourteen
Speaker 3: point lead in two minutes and fifty seconds. They scored
Speaker 3: on seven of their last ten possessions like that. That's
Speaker 3: the thing. They weren't giving the ball away the whole
Speaker 3: time and missing shots badly like they scored. The problem
Speaker 3: is they just came up three pointers in Aaron neth
Speaker 3: Smith every time, like they were trading one for three,
Speaker 3: two for three every time. And so I do think
Speaker 3: it's fluky. I don't think it was. I think overtime
Speaker 3: was kind of was more of an indictment on the
Speaker 3: bad things about that team. I don't think the end
Speaker 3: of regulation was. I think that was a fluke. I
Speaker 3: think this is this isn't some young team that's rattled.
Speaker 3: I think it's just a team of veterans that will
Speaker 3: be fine. I think Jalen Bruns as the leader is
Speaker 3: going to make them fine. I think they'll probably win.
Speaker 3: I also think teams keep underestimating this Pacers team, and
Speaker 3: this Pacers team is capable of winning the championship.
Speaker 1: They're really good and I've been wildly impressed. And you know, ultimately,
Speaker 1: I do think the Knicks have some size down low
Speaker 1: that the Pacers don't. But the Pacers have the depth
Speaker 1: at the Knicks don't. It makes it really really fascinating.
Speaker 1: But I know you don't have a ton of time today,
Speaker 1: So let's move out this way and before we talk,
Speaker 1: okse t Wolves chase the MVP.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you think do you think that was the
Speaker 2: right call?
Speaker 3: I voted for him? Yeah? I think so. Here the
Speaker 3: season no one else has ever had. Their team was dominant,
Speaker 3: and he was the best player they you know, they
Speaker 3: there was a massive difference with him on the court
Speaker 3: versus him off the court. Like I don't fault if
Speaker 3: you if you voted for Jokicic and thought he was it,
Speaker 3: But if you dismiss Shaye as an MVP candidate, I
Speaker 3: think you've got a weird agenda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said, And I would not have had an
Speaker 1: issue with anyone who voted for Jokic, but I did
Speaker 1: I agree with you.
Speaker 2: I believe Shay was the red call. All right. So
Speaker 2: I said this earlier with Howard. I'll repeat it to you.
Speaker 1: And this is not breaking news because if you've watched
Speaker 1: them all year, you know that they have a level
Speaker 1: that maybe nobody else has. Boston had it last year
Speaker 1: and I started to feel like no one was going
Speaker 1: to touch the Celtics, and I'm starting to feel like
Speaker 1: nobody's touching Okasee. I'm always very hesitant to anoint the
Speaker 1: team that has never had a deep playoff run, and
Speaker 1: that was kind of my hesitancy, like, let's see how
Speaker 1: you guys respond. And you know, a couple of moments VERSU.
Speaker 1: Denver that weren't great, but Denver is a team that
Speaker 1: has one of the best players of this generation and
Speaker 1: won a championship a couple of years ago. I feel
Speaker 1: like they're ready, man. I feel like I'm ready to
Speaker 1: say that today that I feel like they're ready. I
Speaker 1: don't think the Wolves has what it takes to come
Speaker 1: back and win four. I think they can get one
Speaker 1: at home, and I don't think either New York or
Speaker 1: Indiana has the level Okasee has when they are maximizing
Speaker 1: their ceiling.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts.
Speaker 3: I think Indiana could challenge them, I do, like I
Speaker 3: I think Indiana's got the depth to do it and
Speaker 3: the style of play to maybe mess some things up,
Speaker 3: But it would take a lot of like hitting your
Speaker 3: peak at the right time. Right. But yeah, I mean, okay,
Speaker 3: so he's just super impressive. I actually I disagree with
Speaker 3: a lot of people, like I think Minnesota. Minnesota should
Speaker 3: have won Game one, and I know you look at
Speaker 3: the final score and think that's ridiculous, but Minnesota went
Speaker 3: eight of thirty on wide open three point shots and
Speaker 3: it was good shooters taken. It's not like it was
Speaker 3: a bunch of a bunch of bums getting these corner
Speaker 3: open corner shots because it was being funneled there. Like Devincenzo,
Speaker 3: Alexander Walker nas reed, Mike Connley like these were forty
Speaker 3: percent wide open shooters who were missing wide open shots.
Speaker 3: And I like, I they should have been up, you know,
Speaker 3: fifteen eighteen points in the first you know, at halftime
Speaker 3: they were up four, and we you know, okay, so
Speaker 3: he's the best third quarter team in basketball and they're
Speaker 3: going to make that run. It's different when you have
Speaker 3: the fifteen to eighteen point cushion versus the four point cushion,
Speaker 3: you know, like, I just think that's different. Also, this
Speaker 3: was a ten point game with four minute minutes left
Speaker 3: in a game where they just they missed so many
Speaker 3: open threes. So I actually think Minnesota probably should have
Speaker 3: won that game. Game two, you see the cracks there, right,
Speaker 3: You see the frustration of Minnesota, and it's really starting
Speaker 3: to get to them the disparity and how the game's
Speaker 3: being officiated. And I'm not even saying this is this
Speaker 3: is a they're losing because of the rest they even
Speaker 3: if it's not the case, they feel it is, and
Speaker 3: they're letting it get to them like they are whining
Speaker 3: through this stuff, like they're they're letting the frustration instead
Speaker 3: of just playing and being physical and just playing their way.
Speaker 3: They're in this in between zone because of it. Defensively,
Speaker 3: and I do think okay, See gets away with more
Speaker 3: more contact defensively than what Minnesota is. Okay, you got
Speaker 3: to adjust them, like you just got to figure it out.
Speaker 3: You can't just throw your hands up and start pushing
Speaker 3: and pouting everything like you gotta you gotta figure it out.
Speaker 3: And so like they're they're struggling a little bit mentally.
Speaker 3: I think they'll be I think things will change at home.
Speaker 3: It Like it really wouldn't shock me if it was
Speaker 3: two to two going back to okay See, but I like,
Speaker 3: I mean, okay, she's going to win the series. But
Speaker 3: I think I don't think Minnesota is going to shoot
Speaker 3: this poorly the whole time. I mean they're getting they're
Speaker 3: generating good looks. They cut down on the turnovers. The
Speaker 3: problem is when they force turnovers, they're dead ball turnovers.
Speaker 3: When okay See force turnovers, they're all live ball turnovers.
Speaker 3: Like they just there's there is a disparity there. And
Speaker 3: and we always talked about a team getting hot offensively,
Speaker 3: Okay See gets hot defensively. They go on these like
Speaker 3: runs defensively they're just crazy impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah they do. And when they dial it up a
Speaker 1: notch with that length and that size, it just feels
Speaker 1: like the Minnesota's up against it. And last thing before
Speaker 1: I say you lose, I mean, you know, I said
Speaker 1: this to a lot of my friends last year watching
Speaker 1: the Knicks in the playoffs, like what do you think?
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, what do you think about Julius Randall
Speaker 1: as your second option offensively? And look, I'm not taking
Speaker 1: anything away from what he's done so far, but last
Speaker 1: night I was like, yeah, that's kind of who he's
Speaker 1: been spring basketball.
Speaker 2: They need more from him, Zach if they're going to
Speaker 2: get back in this.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I said this in a video for Today where
Speaker 3: you know he was great for he was great for
Speaker 3: too much. He played the best basketball of his career
Speaker 3: for the last two months they did, and then he
Speaker 3: turned into a pumpkin yep in Game two and I said,
Speaker 3: this is all this is our bad with Like, you
Speaker 3: don't talk about a perfect game during a perfect game, right,
Speaker 3: you don't address it. Like that's what happened. Like everyone
Speaker 3: started to be like, oh, Julius Randall, he's really good,
Speaker 3: and now it feels like it's ruined. And yeah, like
Speaker 3: I mean maybe good because that player options coming up
Speaker 3: instead of needing a new contract. Yeah, like Julius Randall,
Speaker 3: maybe he gets back to it. I still think he's
Speaker 3: you know, he's definitely better than what he was last night,
Speaker 3: but they need him to be perfect. They need to
Speaker 3: be perfect, and they need to hit these outside shots
Speaker 3: to have a chance to win these games and then
Speaker 3: even then, like you like you were talking about, like, okay,
Speaker 3: see me, just have a gear that and hit that
Speaker 3: gear every game that no one else can touch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, we'll see what happens though.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the game tonight. I appreciate the time. Have a
Speaker 1: good long weekend.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, buddy, thank you, all right.
Speaker 1: Zach Harper from the Athletic at tak Hoops on Twitter
Speaker 1: is where you find his work. A bunch of different pods,
Speaker 1: a bunch of different videos for the Athletic and writes
Speaker 1: their weekly power rankings. He is a voter for NBA
Speaker 1: Awards as well. Appreciate Zach's time on this Friday afternoon.