Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. highlight how former Golden State Warrior Jonathan Kuminga is slowing down Karl Anthony Towns.
Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Advertisement
View more
Video Transcript
Defensively, you touched on it a little bit.
Hey, the Hawks tapped the cross-matching bag a little bit.
Wanna shout out, David Lee really quickly, as he tweeted the game.
Through the first two games, it’s been 18 possessions where the Knicks have had Cat being defended by a five.
The offensive rating for the New York Knicks, not very great.
12 points through 18 possessions.
18 possessions is not a lot.
We saw Dyson Daniels on Cat towards the end of game one.
We saw Jonathan Kuminga on Karl-Anthony Towns at the end of game two, and woo, boy, Jonathan Kuminga.
What a close for him.
Advertisement
Timely drives and shot-making, taking on the Cat assignment late, but timely rebounding for him.
Very impressive close to the game for Jonathan Kuminga, as he was very much stressing me out through the first, what, six quarters of this series with what he was doing on both ends of the floor.
also thought about you, Steve, as I saw Corey Kispert get the early second quarter minutes.
We didn’t see Zachary Richard.
I was like, “Ah, well, this was the X factor for Steve.
Let’s see what the Kispert minutes look like.”
But man, just, just an electric back and forth between these two.
The Hawks finding some stuff in the half court, tapping into the cross-matching bag.
Advertisement
I am curious to see is the if there’s anything the Knicks feel like they need to overreact to, because this was still very much a winnable game for them.
In relation to Cat himself, if it is just Brunson-Hart, two-man game at the top of the key because Brunson is hunting the matchup, that does inherently just kind of leave Cat chilling in the corner.
And as Jonathan Kuminga had that matchup, I have had my quibbles with Jonathan Kuminga as an off-ball defender.
The Warriors have had their quibbles with Jonathan Kuminga as an off-ball defender.
Warriors fans have had their quibbles with Jonathan Kuminga as an off-ball defender.
Advertisement
If you’re telling me his only job is stay in front of Karl-Anthony Towns, do not let him get a touch, you do not have help responsibilities, you do not have rotation responsibilities, you are just putting paws on this guy and making sure he does not catch the ball, Jonathan Kuminga can execute that job.
And so that just puts the spotlight on Jalen Brunson.
Do you have the shot-making going for us?
