Knicks' plan for Game 4 simple: Match that 'Heat culture'
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson goes up for a shot against Heat forward Duncan Robinson during the first half of Game 3 of an NBA second-round playoff series Saturday in Miami. Credit: AP/Wilfredo Lee
MIAMI — It is not unusual for a team’s social media crew to highlight their team’s particular skills or highlights. Still, it seemed like a little bit of a shot, even if it rang true, when the Miami Heat Twitter account posted the following after the team wiped the Knicks out in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series.
“Hustled more. Battled more. Wanted it more. The essence of that #HEATCulture defense.”
The Heat did seem to hustle more and even the Knicks admitted that the Heat played with more desperation, coming off of a three-day break following the Knicks' Game 2 win that had evened the series, and returning home to Miami.
Still, it has to sting when someone tells you they wanted it more than you at this stage of the season.
“You hear all the time about the Heat culture, about being more physically stronger, being more conditioned,” Jalen Brunson said after the Knicks' morning shootaround on Monday. “That’s like their mantra. You’ve heard about it for years. But it’s on both sides. You just have to be ready to go from the jump. Physicality is a big thing. You just have to be ready to go.”
After the Game 1 loss at Madison Square Garden, Josh Hart echoed a similar sentiment, acknowledging the Heat’s culture and work ethic — something not hard to see from the eight undrafted players on the roster.
"That’s the Heat culture,” Hart said. “That’s something that you’ve seen them do for I’m not sure how many years. I think we do that for the most part, but we just can’t take a possession off here, a possession off there. I think that’s something they’ve done a great job of because obviously, they’ve got guys that have won championships, guys that have been to the Finals, the coach that’s a two-time champion. They realize how important each possession is. That’s something that we’ve got to continue to drill, continue to work at, because we don’t have that experience. So we’ve got to make sure we continue to do that every possession.”
The Knicks also acknowledged something more troubling than the 105-86 loss in Game 3 — that they had not matched the effort and intensity of the Heat. Brunson said that for the Knicks it is a work in progress — a team really together for the first season as a group and one that has little playoff pedigree.
Talking about it is one thing and a coach like Tom Thibodeau has certainly stressed it to his team until he’s blue in the face — a normal in-game mode for the Knicks coach — but until a team feels the punch hit they can not appreciate just what they are facing.
“I think there is a Knicks culture,” Brunson said. “The experience we need we’re getting. Can’t get experience without experiencing it, obviously. We’ve got to continue to grow together, fight through adversity together. We’ve got to continue to fight and stick together.”
The thing is, the Knicks have lived on that sort of a culture in the regular season and into the first round of the playoffs. They are prepared meticulously by Thibodeau for the most mundane regular season game and players don’t take load management days. Remember, it was in November when Brunson first uttered, “If I can walk, I can play.”
When they face the Heat, though, they are facing a team that has made that work ethic a trademark. Led by Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the rest of the players making names for themselves follow loyally behind.
For the Knicks to succeed now without the star power that most of the teams still playing possess, they can’t be outworked. So while there are game plan tweaks to be made as they readied for Monday’s Game 4, the simplest change was just to match the toughness of the Heat.
“You got to make adjustments,” Brunson said. “And you go to play harder. You got to be more mentally ready. Obviously, be ready to go as well. Just got to have that mental edge to go out there and fight for it, strategically and also mindset-wise. Everything has to take it up a notch.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
