Stephen A. says James Harden was HELPLESS against Jalen Brunson 😬🗣️ ‘ASS KICKED!’ | First Take

Stephen A. Smith, how you feeling after last night's butt kicking in the fourth quarter and beyond?

I love everybody.Will Bond is great to see you.Doggy, I even love the Blazer.Everybody is great.The skies are beautiful.It's sunshine.

It's orange and blue skies, baby.This is a beautiful feeling.It's a beautiful, beautiful morning in the neighborhood, everybody.I just wanted to say that.I love everybody.To everybody.

I hope everybody's great.I'm feeling wonderful.

Good.Let's capitalize on the good mood, OK?We're going to change.We're going to keep the vibes high here on First Take.Let's go to last night at the Garden.What a night.

The Knicks did the unprobable, of course.down by 22 with 740 left in the game.And then Jalen Brunson basically went to work, scoring 17 of his 38 points in the fourth and overtime to lead the Knicks to a game one comeback win in the Eastern Conference Finals.The Cavaliers left an absolute disbelief.The Knicks became the first team over the last 30 postseasons to win, win down 20 or more points with seven minutes remaining in the fourth.James Harden shot just one for seven in the fourth and in OT.

So here's Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson being asked if he can considered benching hearted.Jalen Brunson basically targeted down the stretch.

No, listen, he's been one of our best defenders in these playoffs.I trust him.You know, smart, great hands.Didn't think about that.

Sometimes you got to do what the game dictates and they were trying to do the same thing with Jalen and so we said, OK.You know, we feel like we could play that game.We try not to play that game much, but we feel like we have a guy that we can play a game with and Jalen.And so, you know, just like we have to try to figure out different ways to guard hard andand Mitchell they got to figure out different ways to guard Jalen but we were there is no secret we were attacking hard.

No secret we all saw it with our own 2 eyes.Okay so now the question is who was more responsible for last night's result?Is it Jalen Brunson and the way he was taking over?Or is it James Harden?Steve and I keep dancing with that good mood.What would you say?

James Harden or Brunson?

Let's see.The bottom line is this, it was definitely targeting, I mean, they brought new rules.I mean, if this was the NFL, they would have got fined and suspended for crying out loud.I mean, you can make a legitimate argument, Will Bond and Doggie.that Jalen Brunson should be arrested for the assault that he put on James Harden.It was really really bad.

I mean he destroyed him.You talk about somebody stepping on a basketball court and busting your living ass.That's what happened to James Harden.No disrespect to the brother.I mean there were there even though there were plays where you know what he seemed to lollygag just a little bit.That was after demoralization kicked in because Jalen Brunson was just giving it to him, dancing on him, pulling up on him in his face.

James Harden was right there contesting it.It would, it didn't matter.The man was helpless.It was one of the rare moments in the history of James Harden's career where you absolutely felt sorry for him.It was really, I mean, he was getting his ass kicked.It was like that.

Okay.And then from that point forward, Landry Sherman on and he hits a couple of threes, you know, one time James Harden was in the vicinity and contested another time.He didn't even try to put his hands up.But again, that was after demoralization kicked in.It was an 18 to 1 run.And then from there was a 30 to 8 run that amounts to 48 to 9 for crying out loud.

ThisThis is what the New York Knicks did and it was instigated by the little dynamo.That is the six foot one Jalen Brunson that refused to go out in game one like that.gave it to James Harden.We could point the finger at James Harden.I think the egregious part of the evening was with coach Kenny Atkinson for a bevy of errors.

He made not utilizing timeout sitting up there with that ridiculous utterly ridiculous soundbite talking about he trusted James Harden.Damn.Watch the game.See the flow of the game.Recognize your boy is getting completely abused.Call a timeout.

change schemes defensively do something to show him, you know to help him out.Not only was he abused and assaulted by Jalen Brunson, but he was also neglected by his coach who showed no sympathy whatsoever and left them on an island to handle his own business, which he was clearly incapable of handling.I don't know if James Harden is going to recover from this.I ain't gonna lie to you because when you get your ass kicked like that, The only way to come back from that is to make sure that you're prolific offensively, and we haven't seen that from James Harden for the most part in these playoffs.The credit to this, however, more responsible for the game one result was Brunson, not Harden.

It's Kenny Atkinson, period.Jalen Brunson's great.We've seen Jalen Brunson do this before.He's going to do it again.You can't do it.If you call a tight, you have to slow.

There's four reasons.You have to slow momentum.You don't go 18 to one with four timeouts initially and you're going to lose two of them at three minutes.You're going to lose them.He didn't call either one of those 18 to one run.The Knicks players were sort of slow getting back and forth.

because they thought he's going to call timeout now.He didn't.And they're like, okay, well, we'll keep, we'll roll with this.Oh, he's going to call timeout after two more baskets.No, he never did.You just played a game seven.

Your guys are tired.You need to help them.Coaches talk all the time about putting their players in the best position possible.He didn't do any of that.Not only that, you got James Harden.You've got to get him away from Jalen Brunson, who's on the right side of the court, not touching the basketball.

Donovan Mitchell, your best player, doesn't touch the ball.Call timeout.Draw up something.You've got other players out there who could hit a shot, could.Strews being one of them.At one point, Strews and Wade are both on the bench.

So you so now you're left with nobody to really even confront Jalen Brunson, who's on a heater granted and you've got all these other issues.It's Kenny Atkinson.Jay will sit this morning on get up.It's like coaching malpractice and that's I'm attributing him because that's the phrase.It was so bad to not use the timeouts to not design.You're going to let the Knicks dictate all the action and just say we're going to confront James Harden and Kenny Atkinson.

Look, he had to say that before the cameras.No coach has ever trusted James Harden defensively like that because there's no reason to do it.Every player in the league knows that's been his liability.Not as bad as say, Luka Doncic, but but bad over his whole career defensively.You don't trust him and you don't leave him out there in Madison Square Garden to be confronted by the most clutch player in the league.He's been voted that he's been that.

What are you doing?It's Kenny Atkinson.

100%.Atkinson had a horrific, and I love Kenny Atkinson, but he had a horrific game.The timeouts, Struce and Merrill were out of that game a lot in the last seven minutes.They had a six point lead.the ball, 1 .38 to go, and Mobley takes a shot after 10 seconds on a shot clock.You can't do that.

Use the clock.You got to take 10, 12 seconds more off that clock.They never set up a play.Now, I blame a little bit on Donovan Mitchell.Don, you want to be a superstar, get the ball, and make a basket.He didn't do that in the last seven.

He can't blame that all on a coach.The player's got to take some responsibility there.But here's what I would say, and this is why I had no problem with Mosley getting fired out of Orlando.He blew a 24 -point lead in game six.He did nothing in the game that changed the momentum of the game.I watched it.

I saw it.Zero.And Kenny, who's not gonna get fired, but Kenny in this situation had seven minutes and 45 seconds to do something, change the flow of the game.As Mike said, Stevie said, timeout, set a play, backdoor layup, get an open jump shot, double team Brunson to get the ball out of his hands.Put Struce in there to guard him.Struce has got a little competitiveness, he's got some size.

He did, and I'll tell you right now, I don't care if this series was a tough series to get into anyway, because the Knicks are not going to lose for a while there.If you wanted to see some juice, you thought you had it.Cleveland is finished in this series.They're not beating the Knicks five times, okay?They were not going to beat them four times.Now they're not going to beat them five times.

If this series ever got back to New York for a game six, I would be absolutely shocked.Teams do not recover on this level of sports, but go to baseball.I'll give you a million examples.You don't recover from these kind of losses in sports and they will not recover.

That's what I will say this.First of all, the shine has definitely dimmed from Kenny Atkinson.You're a person that has spoken up about him on several occasions.We can't do that today.And when it comes to coaching, it's aboutthat there's no such thing as just a bad game.

Unfortunately, guys, we know that when you show the kind of egregious errors that Kenny Atkinson has shown the star definitely dims from the cachet.You once had I don't know if we'll ever look at Kenny Atkinson, the same after the mistakes that he made last night.And then the sound bites.He provided in the postgame.It made no sense whatsoever.You talk about holding on the timeouts.

What are you talking about?Three minutes left.You already lose the two timeouts.You only have the two left.When you talking about it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.James Harden.

You trust him as a defender.When is James Harden ever been trusted editor?When has that ever been said about James Harden in his career?And I'm not saying You understand?I'm not here to denigrate him or anything like that.As a defender.

I'm simply saying Mike will bond.You've been covering the sport for decades.I've been covering the sport for decade doggy.You've been on radio for decades.When has anybody ever associated good defense with James Harden?Tell me that one time.

It's never happened.He's had good moments, but nobody has ever looked at him that way.So that coming out of Kenny Atkinson's mouth made absolutely no sense whatsoever.And then when you bring up the players doggy, I get where you're coming from about Donovan Mitchell and James Harden because one for 10 and over five for three -point range is what it is in a final 12 and a half minutes, but they had a seven -game series against Orlando.They had a seven -game series.Okay, you know against Toronto.

I'm sorry.And then they had a seven -game series against Detroit.All right.So you got game one against the New York Knicks.You saw Donovan Mitchell playing the role of spectator standing on the far side of the coat or the court clearly needing a timeout.Your players were damn near crying for it.

You didn't give them one.So not only were you egregious were not using the timeout from a schematic perspective, but you also were egregious from the standpoint of looking at your place.You didn't know they were tired.You didn't know they were spent.You didn't know they could use the timeout.a breather.

You didn't know they could come to the bench and get a dose of the Gatorade or something.You didn't know that and then you've got a competitor like Max Strews who by the way can shoot.and has shown in these playoffs.He could shoot didn't get him the ball didn't get.I mean, what were you doing?So there's a bevy of errors.

This guy Kenny Atkinson, who was the head coach in Brooklyn, who obviously KD and Kyrie wanted to move on from that's how Steve Nash became the coach in Brooklyn.If there was ever a day where Kyrie and KD look pretty damn good in wanting a different coach other than him.I Unfortunately, it is this morning.This is a coach that was on the bench for Steve Kerr.There's a coach that was a head coach in Brooklyn.This is a coach that did an outstanding job in Cleveland last year.

But last night boy, what a bad, bad, bad night for Kenny Atkinson and to couple it up with the comments that he made.I don't know how you come back from that.I'm not saying he's going to get fired or anything like that, but we will all remember this and we will all look at him differently and we will not hold him with the same reverence and respect and deference that we once held him with after how egregious he was or negligent rather.He was in coaching last night.Make no mistake about it because the errors are all over the place.It is as if he did not know what the hell he was doing.

Okay, so to Stephen A's point, Donovan Mitchell made his last field goal with 8 -19 remaining in the fourth quarter.Remember, Kenny Atkinson had two timeouts there in that fourth quarter.Let's hear from him on why he did not use them.

Yeah, I like to hold my timeouts.I mean, you know, I didn't want to have one timeout at the end of the game.One or two -point game, I try to hold them, you know.

Okay, so Stephen A alluded to that sound, and there it is.It's a little cringy.I feel like to hear this morning the word a little bit now that we know the result and we've dissected this a little but nonetheless, he wanted to hold him can't hold them.

First of all, you can't even what two of them evaporate.Well, he wants to have one in case he needs it, you know, an appeal, you know, in case there's a call he wants to need them appeal.Okay, so you I understand keeping one but You have the game in your control and I'm not talking about the last two minutes.I'm talking about from seven and a half minutes on.If you, if you stop the flow, you stop the momentum in the six or five minute mark with both of those timeouts.If you have to call them back to back, you've earned yourself enough time and got your players enough rest because yes, they just played those long too long.

Series seven game series.Don Mitchell was I thought is he so hurt that he can't touch the ball.He's on the right side of the floor out of the action in overtime.James Harden is going up the left side with the ball.James Harden hasn't hit anything and Donovan Mitchell's not touching the ball.What is this?

A coach has to see that diagnosis quickly and say what time out.Let's let's let's organize here.None of that.So this and by the way, when you spin it forward, how do you get the room back?You that's your soundbite.You think players don't see this stuff.

They don't see the clips.So you're not taking accountability.You should be out there in front saying, you know, fellas, this was on me.This was on me for not calling the timeouts or not changing things up.You couch it as you have to couch it.You do that because you're looking forward to a game 48 hours in the same city and you got to get that group back.

How do you do it with that?

I don't see it happening.Well, a hundred percent.I don't know about the players.We'll see how they respond.Two things that I should mention.First off, they missed four free throws in the last seven minutes of the game.

game.Allen missed two, two for Harden, and those are huge points.Number two, it was a spotty call and it hurt him.Foster, who I love as an official, he called away from the ball, a loose ball foul, and an OG missed free throw on Merrill.They got a three out of it, so they got a four -point play.right off a missed free throw.

And this is during this little comeback.Because remember, they're up 20.Think about this for a second.They're up 22.And they got a huge three.They're up five.

It was 94 -89.And then Mobley made a huge three.With three minutes left, you figure maybe that will settle things down.And the other thing I was thinking about, and then we'll throw it back to Stevie, I was thinking about two things, and it's funny how karma works.To me, I love this stuff.Last year, the Knicks blow the 14 -point lead to Indiana in game one in the conference final, and Hal Burton hits a shot, and they get that one back here today.

Cleveland down nine with three minutes to go in game five in Detroit, which they never should have won, and they gave one back.It's amazing.You win one like that.Eventually, you get a shot.One day shy of exactly a year.Is it one year?

Good job.

All right.So, we've pointed a lot of blame at Kenny Atkinson, deservedly so.But Stephen A., do you think Donovan Mitchell should absolve some of this blame for what also happened down the stretch last night?

Well, certainly, if you're the starter team, and you're averaging 27 a game against the New York Knicks, and your last field goal comes with eight minutes left in regulation, that's a problem.There's no doubt about that.You can't absolve him from it.What I'm saying is the coach didn't help him because clearly he was exhausted.He was spent.And so because that was the reality, you got to look at it and say fatigue definitely played a role.

There's no doubt about that.But in the same breath, you know what your Donovan Mitchell, you've got to find a way to be better than that.That's the difference.That's what we expect from superstars in this game.You got to find a way to answer the call to dig deeper and to find something inside of yourself to get something done and he didn't do that.There's no doubt about it.

I'm not completely absolving him.I'm just saying he's not the main culprit.for the Cleveland Cavaliers that would fall on the shoulders of the coach.And of course, James Harden getting abused the way that he was.I'm really really sick.I don't know if James Harden is going to recover from this.

We all know the sport of basketball.There are so many things that go in the stuff schematically in various other sports, but what I pride myself and what I love about the game of basketball at some point in time.It's you against that dude.at some point in time in the game, not for the whole game or anything like that, but it comes down to you against that dude.One of the great great moments that I saw in NBA.I always bring this up doggy and will bond when KD first arrived.

in Golden State.If you remember, you know, when LeBron was in Miami and him and D Wade and Bosch and the crew got the best of Oklahoma City, a young Oklahoma City squad when he had Russell Westbrook and James Harden coming off the bench to Serge Ibaka's of the world and Kendrick Perkins and other guys like that.That was different.That was one thing when KD decides to go to Golden State and he's in the finals.One of the moments that I loved is that he scores his first bucket of the game.I think it was the first bucket that the first or second bucket of the game and then he clapped his hands and spread his arms and was guarding LeBron like yeah, let's go.

In other words.It's my time now and we wanted to see that kind of matchup.If you saw Vince Carter in this day when he was doing things and then he goes on a court against Kobe and it's like Kobe like, yeah, let's go D Wade sits up there and make him Messes up Kobe's nose or his face or whatever doing all -star weekend, and then when he's donegames after all -star break came back.It was in LA at the Staples Center and D -Wayne and Kobe was going at one of them.It was like, yeah, let's go.

It's moments like that, that basketball gives you that a lot of sports aren't able to give you.And when you see that happen, like last night, where Jalen Brunson hits nine of his last ten shots or eight of his last nine shots and it's just abusing Harden but Harden and Mitchell answer by missing nine of their last ten shots.You're like This is basketball.This is what we love about it right now.We gonna find out who's who.And that's what we saw last night.

Jalen Brunson looking at Harden and was like, yo, appreciate your greatness, your years of service, but there's something different here right now.And you ain't on this level.That's what we saw last night from Jalen Brunson.That's the kind of stuff that you wait to see in a sport of basketball.

I would be, listen, the Knicks recovered, so, but they were terrible.for the first 38 minutes.They were terrible.The Knicks were playing.Now, I know Oklahoma City wasn't great either, so maybe the layover...Nine days rest.

Yeah.Nine days rest.

Yeah, nine days.

I think you're right, Steve.I expected the Knicks to be down.I said yesterday, I thought the Knicks would be down seven to ten points at halftime, and they would play their way back.Not 20.93 -73.You look at the score then, with seven plus minutes left, and you're thinking, I don't remember the actual words, this is over.

But you don't think you're going to be seeing the Knicks outscore Cleveland from that point, 44 to 11.

Yeah.

It's almost not possible.They were up 11 in the second quarter.So they were down 22, and they were up 11.So there was a 33 -point swing for the Cavaliers.But again, maybe that's how you win championships.So the second quarter.

you figure out maybe maybe what let's say what the teams trailing by 20 points in the fourth quarter this year the entire league was 1 and 521 went trailing by 20 points in the fourth quarter.

It just is improbable.It does.So now, really quick, you think about the psychology of this now, right?I know you said the series is over.Would you even give the Cavs one game here or do you think it's going to be a New York sweep?I might give the Cavs a game.

Okay, one game.Max.Okay, what about you?Do you think the series is over?

I think the Knicks come out and bludgeon them Thursday.It's just hard to see.I know they've come, the most overused word in sports is resilient.Not everybody's resilient.Cleveland has been in this postseason.They've gotten down in both these series and come back to win those series.

The Knicks are a better team.Either one of the two they beat.And I know, I don't see it.It was interesting just talking to some Hall of Famers who were in the building last night.And then just reaching out to a couple of guys.Because everybody is texting everybody else, expressing disbelief over what they saw.

But the other expression, which was almost unanimous, doggy, I found was, this is done.They're not coming back from this.I'm talking about basketball lifers that I was talking to and listening to.

Wow, interesting.

Stevie?What do you think?You can't lose like this.I mean, again, there is a difference.If you lose this game because it's nip and tuck, you're going back and forth, and then, you know what, they just come out on top, that's a game -won loss.That's all it is.

But demoralization kicks in when stuff like this happens.last night happens.The New York Knicks came storming back and it wasn't just about everybody hitting shots.Yeah, Mikel Bridges hit two big time threes and sodid Landry Sherman and we get that part.But when Jalen Brunson goes out there and bust your ass, I mean, and you have no answer for that whatsoever.

Demoralization kicks in.It's the equivalent of getting your heart snatched out of your chest.And I had the New York Knicks winning this series in six games.Now, I see it in five.Like Will Bond said, I see the next one in game two because they can't lose game two because everything that we're saying, let's keep in mind.It goes right out the window of Cleveland turns around and comes back and wins game two.

It goes right out the window, but we don't foresee that happening.So if the New York Knicks go up to oh, then it's about winning both games in Cleveland.I think the New York Knicks can steal one and then they come back for game five and they close the deal.

It was the Knicks largest playoff comeback since at least 1970.