Mike Brown practiced what he preached. He also won his debut by beating the consensus No. 1 threat in the East, which should only embolden this new vision of Knicks basketball, at least until we see it again Friday against the Celtics.
Most of Wednesday’s 119-111 victory over the Cavaliers became a strong first impression of the offensive changes Brown wants to implement. The Knicks spread the scoring, they relieved Jalen Brunson from bringing up the ball and dribbling too much, they went very deep in the bench, they picked up the pace and the ball movement, they shot early in the shot clock, they kept throwing fresh bodies into a full-court press.
Tom Thibodeau won a lot of games at MSG. But not many, if any, with the type of rotation Brown flaunted.
Eleven players touched the court in the first half, including Tyler Kolek, Ariel Hukporti (who started) and Trey Jemison III.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
