The starting unit of the Knicks harms New York Chance at an NBA championship

New York – If basketball had been played on paper, it would have made sense as a world champion in the New York Knicks. Jalen Brunson. Karl-Anthony cities. OG anunoby. Mikal Bridges. Josh hard. It is difficult for them to find a collection of five starters that are individually talented in the league.

The thing is, however, that basketball is played in a place that communication is as critical as who can achieve the most points. Where the lack of focus of a man influences the order of the next man. Where five players have to become one.

New York could still be world champion this season. The trip is not over. However, it has to get its biggest trick so far in this post-season, as the Knicks in the Indiana Pacers 114-109 in Madison Square Garden lost the second game in the final of the Eastern Conference on Friday evening to fall behind 0-2 in the series.

The reasoning for this deficit is simple: the starting unit was bad – and that makes it good. The starters were only good when they are separated and played by Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson. The starting unit of New York is a minus-29 through two games. The Knicks lost games 1 and 2 by 8 points.

“We always look at everything,” said coach Tom Thibodeau when he was asked whether he was considering a change of initial line after the loss on Friday.

This problem is not new. New York's start group was exceeded in the first two series (against Detroit and Boston) together with 21 points. In a six-game series, the starting unit was only a plus-3 against a young Pistons team and a minus-24 in a six-game series against the Celtics. During the regular season, from January 1st to the last game, the Knicks starters were exceeded in 379 minutes with 9 points and had a net assessment of minus-1.4.

What happens in the post-season, especially against the Pacers, who opened the game in 19: 9 lead, is demoralizing. The front office built this group in the summer in the hope of having a starting line -up that could smash any equivalent. And this unit is extreme in the most central stage of the game.

You know too.

“Obviously we can fingerpoint and say that this is wrong, that's wrong,” said Brunson. “It is the fault of this person, the fault of this person. But together we have to bring them together. That is really.”

“We are in a deficit and can't go on,” said Towns. “We have to do and be more disciplined.”

“I wish I could tell you,” said Hart. “I don't know. We have to find out. We have to find things that trigger us. We have to look at everything. It is difficult if you keep putting yourself in a hole.”

“I think it's a defensive thing,” said Bridges. “Sometimes you are so that you have to go back and look back at the game, but we just have to speak out of the jump. We have to be physical from the jump. I think maybe we play a little too soft at the beginning of the halves. I'm not sure.”

Bridges are correct. It is certainly a defensive thing. The Knicks have five lists that have played together in the playoffs for at least 30 minutes, and the starting group has a defensive assessment of 117.6, which is by far the worst. For the context, the Phoenix Suns took the 27th defensive with an assessment of 117.7 during the regular season.

Too often there are connections with this unit. Bad communication. Blown covers. Both things appear too much for a 50-win team that is still in this phase in the post-season.

Indiana's blow -speed does not overwhelm the kinks. New York has increased physically on the occasion. This series curved in favor of the Pacers because they forced the kinks in both games for several mental mistakes. New York loses the struggle for wear and tear, but from a mental point of view it is not physically.

“We are in the conference final,” said Brunson. “Nothing else is important at the moment. We have a game every other day. We play in a very high moment of deployment. The mental, the focus … it has to be there. There is no question.”

The Knicks starters played together in game for 2 16 minutes and were minus-13. In game 1, which went into extra time, the group was minus 16 in 26 minutes.

The solution seems easy: change the starting line -up. New York's best statistical line-up (played at least 30 minutes) This post-season is Brunson-McBride-Bridges-Anunoby-Robinson. The five has a net value of 34.3 in 34 minutes. The next best list is Brunson-McBride-Hart-Anunoby-Robinson. This group has a net value of 34.2 in 37 minutes. The last mentioned group is Brunson-Bridges-Hart-Anunoby-Robinson, and this group has a net value of 3.8 in 49 minutes.

All of these are of course relatively small sample sizes. So who should say that the results remain over a long time? This is obviously not guaranteed. However, it is clear that the starting unit is not successful and that this sample size is significant. Both the analysis and the Augentest show that the Knicks are a better basketball team when Robinson and/or McBride play with several starters.

After all of this, however, Thibodeau is a mentioned dilemma that cannot be measured in numbers. The best version of the Knicks should contain their five best players. The franchise invested a lot in these boys and fit together on paper. It would not be easy for Thibodeau to sit routine cities, an all-NBA talent, for most of the fourth quarter, as he did in game 2 or in the most critical moments of the game. It would be difficult to get hard or bridges for moving to the second unit if everything you did put your bodies on the line night after night. After all, the Knicks won 51 games in the regular season and made it to the Eastern Conference final with this starting unit and their defects. This is nothing.

But since her season is apparently shortly before the end, it could be time that hard decisions are made or that players really look in the mirror and find out how bad they want a chance to do a championship.

What the starters of the Knicks do does not work and the team has therefore dropped 0: 2.

(Topoto by Jalen Brunson, Links and Mikal Bridges: Elsa / Getty Images)