'Attacking Harden': Mike Brown unveils Knicks' offensive strategy to win vs. Cavs
Coach Mike Brown made it known that the Knicks led by Jalen Brunson hung their offensive strategy around attacking Cavs veteran James Harden.
'Attacking Harden': Mike Brown unveils Knicks' offensive strategy to win vs. Cavs originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The New York Knicks mounted a very unlikely comeback against the Cleveland Cavaliers that has only ever happened four times in NBA Playoffs history. Coach Mike Brown got Jalen Brunson into spots that would make him succeed offensively and it resulted into a massive 115-104 overtime win in Game 1. How did they pull it off?
Well, it was all because they chose to attack the Cavs where it would hurt the most — James Harden. Knicks led by Brown and Brunson always planned to attack Cavs' Harden Going down 22 points usually means a grand adjustment needs to be made by the Knicks to survive the Cavs onslaught. Other teams try to employ a mix of schemes to distribute the offense in this scenario too.
Coach Mike Brown and the Knicks were different. They had always schemed around making James Harden play defense in isolation to tire him out so that he's unproductive on offense, via SNY TV. "Sometimes, you got to do what the game dictates.