The King of New York appears, fight against the defending army alone?

For the New York Knicks, one of their biggest problems that cannot be avoided is Thibodeau. For a high-level stage like the playoffs that tests the team's integration ability, once the bench player's offense and defense performance is limited on the court, the coach will likely choose to shorten the rotation and thus increase the starting time. For New York, this situation is more obvious under Thibodeau.

Show off the regular season playing time, on the top 25 list of the league, all five starting players in Nick are among them, including Anunobi and Brunson, who have 40 minutes, and the other three have 38 minutes. The ultimate human performance ultimately helped them break out in the series against the Pistons. However, judging from the semi-finals, the Celtics with better system and game experience, and the results of losing all four games against the regular season, the Knicks' semi-final prospects are probably not optimistic.

Key to the match: Bench rotation power

The average playing time of the two teams in the playoffs is at the bottom of the league. The difference is that the Celtics can contribute 19.2 points in 13.6 minutes of substitute time, while the Knicks contribute only 11.5 points in 11.5 minutes of playing time.

Although the bench time will be adjusted with the game, compared to Mazula, he will boldly place Hauser, Connet and others to give the starter some breathing time when the game is stalemate, and Thibodeau keeps the starter on the court in large quantities, and the situation will not give the substitute time until the situation is completely biased towards the Knicks. Of course, when the battle is in a stalemate, the problem of Thibodeau's inability to use substitute players may be related to the player's characteristics to some extent.

Miro's influence on the defensive end is unquestionable, but the value it can give on the offensive end is really too little. McBride, Payne Jr. and Shamet are all dual-energy guards who provide functional assistance in the offense. However, due to their poor height and physical condition, the defensive disadvantages of the three are only amplified in the series facing the Celtics who are good at executing misalignment.

In the face of the Pistons, only Miro and McBride averaged more than 15 minutes on the bench. Once these substitutes come on, they will inevitably be scored by the Celtics when facing offense misalignment. Then, according to Thibodeau's dispatching model, the semi-finals are still in a state where the starter continues to play. Although there are only three major substitutes on the Celtics, the three players are very adaptable to the starting lineup. In particular, Connet has shown his ability to support the high position many times this season, and can provide good covers and frame protection, which gives Mazula more choices in the offensive and defensive strategy of the two towers this season.

Houser also played highlights in the Magic Series. As the offense gradually heated up, the Celtics' bench firepower was still more abundant than the Knicks. The defense also faces opponent targeting in the series against the Magic, but since last season's playoffs, he and Prichard have also proved that it is not as easy as they imagined to be singles.

The key to the match: The defensive rebounds

The Knicks' performance in the periphery against the Pistons series was not ideal, and most of them depend on the players' personal abilities to solve it. However, the Knicks are not essentially a team that grabs a lot of offensive rebounds. The gap between the data in the regular season and the playoffs is not large, and most of them are still concentrated on Hart and Miro. But the Knicks usually get full of enthusiasm for the offensive rebounds at the tug-of-war or when they want to build an advantage.

Reviewing the last game between the two teams in the regular season, the Knicks grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, winning more opportunities for them, and the second score also reached 23 points. On the Celtic side, he suffered a loss due to poor rebound consolidation when fighting against the Magic. In the semi-finals, Mazula needs special attention.

Key Players:

Celtics: Porzingis

Knicks: Downs

Pope's performance in the Magic Series was not ideal, with an average of only 12 points per game, and his shooting percentage in three events was 35.2%, 11.8%, and 71.4% of the sluggish level. Faced with the confrontation given by the Magic's defensive end, the weakness in the lower set was completely exposed, and the lack of confrontation made it impossible to easily come to his own projection hot zone. In the face of the opponent's ability to move sideways, it is difficult to hold the ball and directly attack the box. He can only rely on his height advantage to make difficult shots.

Referring to the regular season, Mazula has also adjusted to allow him to pick-and-roll on the strong side or at a high position, using the attractiveness of ball-holders like Tatum to reduce the offensive pressure of the Poker God and make the scoring efficiency increase. When facing the Knicks, who have better defensive conditions, he must regain his outside feel and misaligned offensive destructive power, so as to create greater defensive pressure on his opponent.

The Knicks' focus in this round of series is undoubtedly Brunson, but I personally believe that Towns is the most critical player for the Knicks.

Although the Knicks lost all four games in the regular season, Towns averaged 19.8 points and 10 rebounds per game in four games, and his three-point shooting percentage was as high as 63.6%. If the defense accidentally loses the position or retreats to the defense and reveals the open position, he is likely to be directly punished by him. If the Celtics can reduce Towns' scoring firepower, then relying on Brunson to support the Knicks alone will be very dangerous.

The final result shows that when it comes to physical strength and bench connection, the Celtics undoubtedly have the upper hand, and the series against the Magic also proves that when the three-pointer is out, they can use other methods to stably score on the offensive end, and then continue to put pressure on the defensive end so that the score will not be pulled apart. But facing the Knicks, whose personal abilities are higher than the Magic, also tests the Celtics' defense.

As for the Knicks, if they rely too much on the main player to play singles, facing the Celtics who are not afraid of changing defenses and have excellent single defense capabilities in the first to four positions, they may quite like the Knicks' style of play.