You often hear that the NBA playoffs is a different animal. Yes, things are learned during the grind of the 82-game regular season. The postseason though is where coaches may stray from what they have grown comfortable with. Rotations are often shrunk as they want to win (or lose) with the players they trust most. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has been a successful head coach (at least in the regular season), but he can also be seen as stubborn. The 67-year-old went with a duo that New York fans haven’t seen much of in the fourth quarter of Game 1 against the Detroit Pistons. A Jalen Brunson and Cam Payne lineup helped the Knicks earn a comeback victory.
Knicks Rarely-Used Two Point Guard Lineup Helps Lead To Victory
Also Saw Double-Big Lineup
Much talk surrounding the Knicks entering the playoffs was about if Thibodeau would employ a double-big lineup of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson. When Robinson came back from injury, the two haven’t shared the court all that often. Of course, it was seen often with the Minnesota Timberwolves as Towns played power forward next to Rudy Gobert. New York did have both centers out there for a decent amount of time in the first half, and it didn’t look clunky.
What wasn’t talked about was the third seed in the Eastern Conference using a double point guard lineup. For much of the season, when Brunson has played, his backup (mostly Payne) would come in when he would rest. Once Brunson returned, the backup would head to the bench. Since Thibodeau has often used an eight (or sometimes even seven) man rotation come playoff time, it wasn’t even clear if Payne would play. He did, as the 30-year-old started off both the second and fourth quarters.
Jalen Brunson/Cam Payne Lineup Worked To Perfection
It was Payne’s performance which helped to spur the New York comeback. He drove for two buckets to start the final stanza, drawing an and-one on the second. The 10-year veteran also nailed two three-pointers, giving him 11 points in the first 5:39 of the quarter.
Brunson checked back in with 9:06 remaining. It wasn’t for Payne though, it was for Miles McBride. After a rough first half, the 28-year-old looked like his normal self in the final two quarters and scored 12 after returning in the fourth.
The point guard duo played a little over seven minutes of game action together until Payne was taken out for Mikal Bridges. Trailing by eight entering the fourth, the Knicks went on a 21-0 run to secure the win. Payne and Brunson were on the court for the final 18 of those points.
Small Sample Size In Regular Season
When Brunson was at the scorer’s table to check in, Payne was ready to shoot his free throw after being fouled by Isaiah Stewart. Would Brunson have come in for Payne if that wasn’t the case?
It’s possible, but Thibodeau couldn’t take Payne out once he saw how well the Knicks were playing with the two together. When Brunson checked back in, the score was 98-92 in favor of the Pistons. Once Payne checked out, it was 116-106 with New York close to closing out the victory.
During the regular season, the duo had played just a grand total of 119 minutes together. When both were on the court, albeit in a small sample size, NY had an offensive rating of 129.1. It will be interesting to see if Thibodeau gives it another look on Monday. The Knicks will look to go up 2-0 on Detroit.
Photo credit: © Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images
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