New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown’s experience coaching against James Harden in the playoffs helped him in Game 1.
On Tuesday evening, the New York Knicks pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in NBA playoff history by rallying from a 22-point fourth quarter deficit to steal Game 1 from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Knicks looked lifeless throughout much of the night on Tuesday, but they were able to catch fire just in time to send the game into overtime, where they went on to dominate the shellshocked Cavs.
Jalen Brunson kick-started the run for the Knicks with several tough isolation buckets, most of which occurred on switches against James Harden, with Cleveland inexplicably waiting several minutes to finally change up their defensive strategy.
After the game, Knicks head coach Mike Brown revealed how his time as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors helped prepare him to gameplan for Harden in the playoffs.
“When I was in Golden State and we played Houston, we counted James Harden’s dribbles. We told our guys he’s dribbling close to 1000 times a game. Keep picking him up full court and making him dribble. At the end of the game, it would wear him down,” said Brown, per HoodiGarland on X, formerly Twitter.