Uh oh, we got the accompanying music here for our next guest. It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. The New York Knicks have a 2-0 series lead against the Boston Celtics. Who would have thought they had to overcome two 20-point deficits to get there and now they have an opportunity on Saturday afternoon to go up 3-0 against the defending champs. To talk about what the Knicks realistically might do, how they got here, what we can expect. It's time to chat with someone who covers the team full-time for the New York Daily News. His name, welcome back Christian Winfield.
Christian, how are you man? Man, I am first of all finally chilling in my own apartment after an extended stay in Boston. Uh, but I, I can't honestly, I can't believe what I just saw in these last two games and we're going to get into it. But my oh my, if anyone told me that the Knicks were coming back from Boston with a 2-0 lead, I'd have told them to go get drug tested. You know what I'm saying?
I told them to go seek help. There was no way that you were telling me walking into this series that a Knicks team that couldn't even really make some of these games against the Celtics competitive for the first half of the season was going to come in here and make this series competitive. But when you consider that for three of those games, they didn't have Mitchell Robinson and Big Mitch was plus 19 last night and he's got the Celtics shooting all these threes because they ain't trying to attack him. And then you got OG and Michaela, we're going to get into it and you start to put these pieces together, makes a little bit of sense that the Knicks are at least hanging in, in these games, but winning and up 2-0, I don't know that anybody saw this coming, man. This is, it's, it's, the city is on fire for a good reason right now.
Uh, I was going to ask you that on the scale of, uh, one to 10 on the obnoxious scale, it's only a Thursday. We got a two more days, well about a day and a half before we get to Saturday, New York, Nick fans are feeling, I'm sure you've heard about it since you got back into the city. I am concerned that Madison Square Garden will not make it to the conference finals because if the Knicks win game four, if there's a sweep of the Boston Celtics, they're going to have to find a new place to play home games, man. Knicks fans are going to burn this arena down. If they sweep the Celtics, forget a championship. If they sweep the Celtics, Knicks are going to be playing games at Rucker Park. They're going to be trying to rent out Barclays.
They're going to be trying to find a YMCA to bring the Pacers or the Cavaliers to, because there will not be a Madison Square Garden. It's just going to be rubble because Knicks fans have zero behavior for good reason. You know how long it's been to this team? So this fan base has had something to be proud of.
Like I, I remember the Alexi Sred days. I remember before that when it was just, it, we don't even need to bring all that up. It's just, I, I hope that Knicks fans can, can continue to allow the team to play basketball at MSG. But quite frankly, I don't know if there's going to be a home arena left. Oh, you don't, you don't want to, you don't want to bring back Clarence Weatherspoon and Howard Isley? No. No, no, no. We don't, we don't got to go down all the way down there.
Okay, Christian. Now you said it, I said it, I think most people honestly would say the same thing. Nobody expected the Knicks to be up 2-0 against these Celtics. Are we really just Jason, one Jason Tatum away from getting out of this slump and the things can go straight to hell for the Knicks?
I don't know. You know, this is what I wrote for the New York Daily News coming into the series, right? Because Cade Cunningham had the Knicks number all regular season. Some are 31 points, shooting 50% from the field, 50% from three, you know, but the difference was in those games, Mikael Bridges was the point of attack defender who was really chasing around the floor.
And we knew coming into the series that, you know, OG Ananobi was going to be the guy who got that assignment. And obviously Cade struggles from the field, right? I think he averaged five fewer points, he's shooting 18% from three point range during the series. I'm sitting there thinking, hmm, if OG can make Cade look like this, then what can you do to Jason Tatum?
And if Mikael isn't exerting all of his energy chasing around the point of attack, then what can he do to Jaylen Brown? And if you cut the head of the snake off, that just leaves you with a bunch of shooters out there who are going to have to hoist up some threes as opposed to having your two All-Stars create offense for you. And on top of that, the Knicks were, you know, bailed out a little bit with this injury, with this illness to Chris Asperzingis because Asperzingis, the last time he was healthy, had eight threes, I believe, against the Knicks.
So not having to deal with that has been a bonus for them. But in terms of just why you go out there and you just bet the farm in terms of franchise record, $212.5 million deal for OG and it'll be five draft picks, which is anyone talking about draft picks now? Is anyone even concerned with giving up first round pick now for Mikael Bridges in the moment? Sure. Yeah.
You wave, you press the big red button. Why would you trade your entire future? This is why you do it. Because all roads to a championship lead through Boston and to get through Boston, you got to get through Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. And that's what the Knicks have been able to do with OG, with Mikael and with big Mitch. I got to give big Mitch his flowers because before he came back, the Knicks were a bottom 10 defense. And the second he came back, they become a top 10 defense.
Why? Because this man, number one, he's just a deterrent. He doesn't have to block a shot to patrol the paint. Number two, he's crashing the glass on both ends of the floor. And number three, it's just the fact that his presence in the paint, people are looking at all these three point numbers like, oh, why are the Celtics shooting so many threes? I promise you it's because they don't want to have to go in there and challenge Mitchell Robinson. He's good on switching out onto the perimeter. This is why you don't trade him. I was talking to him for a story I wrote yesterday. You know, he was saying, hey, you know, he tries to tune out all the trade chatter that he lives in his own world, that you see what he posts on social media, that he doesn't really care about a lot of these things. But at the end of the day, there was a real chance that Mitch wasn't on this roster after the trade deadline because there was uncertainty about his injury timelines.
And then it kept getting pushed back. But at the end of the day, they knew it was going to be a perfect fit alongside Kat. And lo and behold, look at what they've done now on defense with him on the floor. Christian Winfield covers the New York Knicks beat for the New York Daily News. You talk about Mitchell Robinson and the New York Knicks are looking very healthy right now. But one criticism is their lack of depth, the use of that depth by Coach Tom Thibodeau. That's not something we've heard about over the past two games or really throughout these playoffs. Is Tom Thibodeau getting a little bit of a break right now?
People always want to say he's driving people into the ground. Listen, you have to prepare guys for this type of grind, right? I think Jalen, I asked Jalen in Detroit how he's going to, how he's prepared to be able to even go through a lot of these battles. And he goes, hey, you know, thankfully I play for a madman like Tom Thibodeau who's going to run, who's going to play us heavy minutes because now in the playoffs, these guys already, Mikel Bridges played what, 50 minutes the other day and he still looks like he's in better shape than Jalen Brown. And that is what Tom Thibodeau has said all year. He will, he starts the year with the end in mind. He wants guys to be ready for the long haul that is the playoffs. And sure, is there a criticism that, hey, the way he approaches minutes lends itself to injury?
Fine. That is a fair criticism. But guys get hurt for reasons that are completely unrelated to minutes distribution anyway. The NBA is like that. Guys get hurt off freak accidents. They get hurt off just collisions with other guys. Injuries aren't always directly correlated to minutes, right?
So there's two sides of the argument here. But the undeniable fact is that these guys are able to play these gritty, tough games. They're able to have energy left in the tank because this is what they've been trained for all season. They've been playing these minutes.
This isn't anything new, right? If you go to the playoffs and you're not used to playing 42 minutes, 43 minutes a game, then you're going to be grinded down. You're going to be worn down by the end of the game.
Look at a guy like Mikhail Bridges. Mikhail Bridges seems to get better as the minutes pick up, right? He plays his best basketball in the fourth quarter when everybody else is starting to run out of energy.
It doesn't make sense until you realize that this is what they've had to do all year. So, you know, you can criticize the minutes if you want, but it's working for Tom Thibodeau and for the bench. I mean, every team is cutting their rotation for the most part in the playoffs unless you're OKC or you're in Indiana where you have the luxury of playing 11 guys and they don't have that luxury. After the Mitchell Robinson campaign and Miles McBride, you're left with Landry Shammet, Precious Ochoa, P.J. Tucker, Ariel Hocordi, Delon Wright, you know, guys that you kind of would look to in a pinch. But if you've got a dedicated eight man rotation and you trust that rotation, then go with it. Look at what the Celtics did. They played eight players as well. They played Luke Cornette, Christos Porzingis and Peyton Pritchard off the bench. They probably would play Sam Houser if he was healthy. But, you know, Tibbs has his rotation. He trusts it and they're up 2-0 right now.
So you can't really you can't really argue with Thibodeau's method. Christian Winfield here with us on the J.R. sport re-show Coast to Coast. And we got a big game nationally televised, not even on ESPN, but ABC on Saturday afternoon. What do you think this game is going to look like? We know the Garden is going to be rocking. The celebrities are going to be courtside. There's going to be a lot of energy in the building. I think just by judging off of history, this can be a little bit of a letdown with a lot of hype.
What do you expect on Saturday? You know, quite frankly, the Knicks have not been the best home team, especially in the playoffs. The two games that they lost were at home. You know, they played well on the road. They need to find a way to protect home court, especially against the Celtics team that, you know, the numbers, 85, I think 86 percent of teams that take a 2-0 lead in the playoffs go on to win the series.
Right. And the Celtics are reigning champions. They're defending champions and they're trying to repeat. I expect the Celtics to come out. But at the same time, I expected them to make an adjustment after game one. When you go 15 to 60 from downtown, I expect you to do something a little bit different or at least have a different approach. They go 10 or 40 in game two.
They need to figure something out. And I think that Joe Missoula is a good enough coach to where he's going to adjust to what the Knicks are doing. I also, I'm expecting, I don't, this isn't, you know, I'm not breaking any news here or anything like that, but I'm expecting Kristaps Porzingis to come back and play more than what he played, uh, 14 minutes.
The other day was three or five from the field for eight points. Uh, I'm expecting him to come back. He's going to have to, because he, I think he's the key to saving their season. The Knicks have done a terrible job guarding, especially the pick in Pop Five. And that's where Porzingis can really get at him. But if he's not good to go and play the long stretches, this is a Celtics team that's going to have to dig deep. And quite frankly, the Knicks have had their number, but the issue is they've only had their number after they decide that they want to, you know what I'm saying, pick it up after being down by 20. And I've asked every player in the locker room yesterday, do you guys need to just spot them a 20 ball at tip off and like, no, we have some issues that we need to fix. So they've got a couple of days off here to try to nip those issues in the blood. But at the end of the day, that's been one of the next biggest problems this year has just been consistency over the course of the game. They have not become a 48 minute team, but they are a 12 minute team in the fourth quarter. And when the going gets tough, the Knicks are tougher. So we'll see if they can protect home court on Saturday. Yeah, listen, man, nobody wants to have to win a game by going down 20 each and every game.
Hey, Christian, final final question for you, man. Is there a beat reporter for the the crowd of crazy people out front of Madison Square Garden on seventh? Is there like coverage there for the fans and the police? Or is that just like a social media area? Uh, you know that that I should run that up the ladder for the New York Daily News.
That's something I would love to do. The fans are ridiculous. I'm sure that if there's a if if the Knicks win a title, I'm sure that they'll have me crowdsurfing somewhere trying to trying to write a story because they sent me when they had the protests over at Barclays Center, they sent me and I went on a whole citywide tour with a bunch of people and ended up being one of the best things that I ever wrote.
So if there's a crazy situation outside of MSG, when they if they sweep the Celtics, your boy will be on top of it for sure. OK, yeah, I did see a Spider-Man with a Hennessy bottle, so I was a little a little concerned about what was going on out there. But you sure that that wasn't you dressed up? That's that wasn't you?
No, no, no, no, no, I'm not I don't I don't daylight as Peter Parker. What does he what does he in the daytime? He's a college student, right?
Yeah, I don't know. He's going to NYU talking to Mary Jane. I don't know what he does now.
He's not he's not he's not a radio host in the daytime. No, no, no. Listen, Christian, don't don't don't put rumors out here, OK? That's enough.
Enough of you, Christian. Tell everybody where they can find you and your work with the Daily News. Oh, man. If you are if you go to a bodega and pick up a newspaper, if your corner store has the Daily News, you go to the back page. If there's a Nick's story in there, then that's me right there. Any New York Daily newspaper, you look for you for Nick's coverage. I'm there also New York Daily News dot com, Twitter, Chris Splash.
Yeah. Anywhere you look for Nick's content. Also, if you're if you're on inside, you're looking at TNT, you might see one of my tweets pop up there. They brought me up because I called the Knicks being losing that game. But when when the Celtics were up 20 and they came back and won and Josh Hart had some comments and then that made it on inside the NBA. So anything Knicks related, I'm your guy. But if the old fashioned way is go to your store, grab a New York Daily newspaper, go to the next section and you'll see yours truly. Hey, Christian, we appreciate you.
We'll see what the Knicks do the rest of this way, OK? Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. Anytime.
