The New York Knicks didn't need complex stratagems or tactical trickery to pull off their 22-point fourth-quarter comeback to steal Tuesday's Game 1 from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Instead, the Knicks' approach was simple, effective and exposed to the entire basketball-watching world.
"It was no secret," Knicks coach Mike Brown said afterward. "We were attacking Harden."
That was a blunt statement toward Cleveland guard James Harden. But it was no less vicious than the Knicks' treatment of the former MVP and future Hall of Famer throughout their historic comeback. They were relentless in seeking out Harden on the defensive end, and they took advantage of Cleveland's inability to stop Jalen Brunson from scoring on Harden.
This brutally successful tactic poses a thorny question for Cleveland as it enters Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). It also gives New York a blueprint to torch the Cavs' defense the rest of the series.
The tables have turned
The Knicks didn't start attacking Harden from the opening tip. In fact, they didn't target Harden with any picks in the first quarter, and they did so only six times through the first three quarters, according to GeniusIQ tracking.
But in the fourth quarter, facing a large deficit and a dwindling clock, the Knicks' offense used the man Harden was guarding -- typically Mikal Bridges or OG Anunoby -- to set a screen a whopping 16 times.
No guard had been screened more often in any playoff quarter in the tracking era (since 2013-14). New York targeted Harden with 27 picks overall, the most he had defended in a single game in his 17-year career.
NYK-CLE Game 1: Points off picks on Harden
Harden, incidentally, should be familiar with this single-minded approach. Out of 42 previous instances in the tracking era in which a guard had defended at least 10 screens in a quarter, more than half involved the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry. A large portion of those instances had Harden as the attacker back when he was a member of the Houston Rockets.
That approach made sense: Curry's teammates included ace defenders Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala. Prime Harden's best chance to score was to target their smallest defender, Curry.
New York has adopted the philosophy nearly a decade later.
Beginning with 8:30 remaining in regulation on Tuesday, the Knicks manipulated the matchups to switch Harden onto Brunson for 10 consecutive possessions. It stalled the first two times: Brunson passed to Karl-Anthony Towns, who missed a driving layup, and Brunson kicked out to Bridges, who bricked an open 3-pointer.