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Evan & Tiki

CP The Fanchise Believes the Knicks Are Built for This

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CP The Fanchise joins Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber in studio as Knicks fans prepare for the franchise’s first NBA Finals home game in 27 years. The guys capture the electricity around New York, the joy of a fan base that has waited through years of frustration, and the growing belief that this Knicks team is not just happy to be here. The conversation digs into Mitchell Robinson’s pinky injury, the Knicks’ dominant playoff run, Mike Brown’s impact, and Mikal Bridges proving he was worth the price. CP also explains why he would rather see San Antonio than Oklahoma City, while the guys debate whether the Knicks’ defense, depth, and playoff poise have them ready for the championship test ahead.

Transcript

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0:00.0

All right, what do you expect? Now, obviously, you mentioned it before.

0:02.7

He could rewind on the Odyssey app if you missed any of it.

0:04.6

We're talking to CP the franchise that you'd prefer the San Antonio Spurs. I think most Nick fans would say that. What do you think happens? Because this series has been very strange. SGA is shooting like 36%. He's been awful. The Thunder obviously compromised with the injuries they're dealing with. Wambi had a huge bounceback game. what do you almost expect to happen in game seven?

0:22.1

Like you said, I think the Thunder are going to take it

0:23.8

and they're dealing with. Wambi had a huge bounceback game. What do you almost expect to happen in Game 7?

0:22.0

Like you said, I think the Thunder are going to take it and they're going to go back to leaning on their defense. That's been their calling card to winning these games in that series, in so far in the series. It's forcing Stefan Castle and the Spurs to turn the ball over and get those easy points. also attacking the glass with Chet, with my guy Isaiah Hartenstein, getting those second chance opportunities and turning those into three-point shots. That's where the Jared McCain's and those guys start to turn up a bit. And I can't imagine SGA shooting that poorly. Now, the Spurs have had an answer for him in Carter Bryant. I mean, that rookie, he's stepping up. He's built like O'GN and OVie, and he's been very physical with SGA. But as SGA said last night in the presser, those are the shots that he takes. He just misfired last night. So we talked about it with, I think, both the 76ers and the Cavaliers series, how fatigue eventually catches up with you when you play multiple seven game series in a row, it catches up to you. And by the way, we saw that in the Cleveland series. It just had dead legs. They couldn't make any three-point shots. You're short all the time. Is that going to be a factor in this series as well? Because this is a grind series for these two teams, even though they've been blowouts and they're mostly resting in the fourth quarter but it's it's still seven games what i saw last night i that was a bar room roll give credit to the referees i thought they let them play i mean you remember the play where it was deb messelie gets the block on chet chad homegren then he pushes them and things get chippy and the referees didn't call anything. I'm sitting back like, this is, this is amazing.

1:46.9

How it's supposed to be.

1:47.8

How it's supposed to be. But you did see the fatigue setting in that game as well.

1:51.6

So it's going to be interesting to see who has the legs in game seven. But again, Advantage Knicks. Yes. advantage nix. Even though if you add it up,

1:58.9

like let's say the Thunderwin, which is like the

2:00.8

assumption we have, they

2:02.8

will have only played one more postseason game

2:04.9

but they'll have only played one more postseason game than the Knicks. Right. Because they flew through the opening rounds as well. Now it's more recent games. And so that probably plays a role in it. But the Thunder will also not have played nearly as much as some of these other teams. But the SGA defense, like, do you think you take kind of a page away from San Antonio,

2:21.0

try to get physical with him, have O.G. On an Obie, have that assignment a lot. How do you target SGA? Sorry, Macau Bridges. He's earned that. I got to put OG on Chad Holmgren to take him out. You put Cat on Isaiah Hartenstein, and then you'll have Brunson guard Lou Dort and then Hart would most likely guard if it's if most likely Jared McCain but I would start with McAll Bridges on on SGA I love the defense that he's played in the play all so far he's been very good at navigating those screens and nicks have been shifting those pick and rolls closer to the sideline I seen the pick and roll coverages so he helped there. I think the rotations by and large has been really good. I think so much of this series is going to come down to the reffing of the, you just mentioned it for the game six, but the reffing of this game because of the blatant and egregious flopping of SGA. How do the Knicks mitigate that?

3:08.7

Yeah.

3:09.1

You keep Tony Brothers away from the game.

3:12.4

Give me Zach Sarber.

3:13.9

I'll even take the extender in game seven.

3:17.1

It's got forced to keep Tony brothers away from the game.

3:20.6

But, you know, watching McCall Bridges on his defense of James Hardin, you know, James Hardin is one of those guys.

3:26.4

Very crafty at drawing fouls. He's just slower. Now he's slower. Now he's a shell of himself. But McCall Bridges, I feel like his defense has been quite disciplined. But for one, the Knicks, they have to keep it out of their heads. because especially with Josh Hart's concern and Carl Anthony Towns are concerned, when the

3:42.2

referees are against them, they kind of check out a little bit. So Mike Brown has talked about that all year long. They have to channel that energy on the court. We haven't seen it much in the postseason, but in the regular season, how many times were you probably screaming at the TV by Kat? Can you get back on defense? because he stole there bitching about not getting a call or getting called for chippy fouls and getting himself in a foul trouble. That's part of the concern of SGA, too. Not just getting to the free throw on being the merchant that he is, but getting guys in a foul trouble, which he's capable of doing. And that's the thing that you haven't heard all postseason. the question was can the the next win with their two guys in Brunson and Towns being the defensive vulnerabilities? But they haven't. I think their defense has been good. Carlante Towns leading the team in defensive rating, top five in the league in defensive rating in the playoffs so far. So he's been really good. You have to give him a lot of credit there. Incredible. The injuries with J.L.

...

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