After the Knicks received Sport 5, Charles Barkley selected to ask Karl-Anthony Cities about one in all his essential points to his face.
The New York Knicks took care of the Indiana Pacers in Sport 5 to maintain their season alive. A cushty 111-94 win reveals the Knicks aren’t performed simply but.
Karl-Anthony Cities and Jalen Brunson matched a Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal file within the win. The duo led the way in which for New York with 24 and 32 factors, respectively.
Tyrese Haliburton’s Sport 5 disasterclass definitely helped, however no Pacers participant had it happening the night time. Indiana’s greatest run on the night time got here due to Cities entering into foul hassle.
It is a frequent problem with KAT, and one thing that an NBA legend introduced up after the sport.
Cities had 5 private fouls on the night time, selecting up his fourth within the third quarter. Indiana had no solutions for him on Thursday night time, however he took himself out of the sport for some time there.
Charles Barkley and the Contained in the NBA crew observed this. In an interview with KAT proper after the win, Barkley referred to as him out for his decision-making.
“I gotta criticize you. Yo man, why you be getting them dumb fouls? Why do you try this?” Barkley mentioned to Cities’ face. “I obtained the identical query,” O’Neal added because the 29-year-old laughed.
“God solely is aware of,” Cities answered. “I gotta do a a lot better job of that… I can’t. You ain’t incorrect, you ain’t incorrect. It hurts our workforce.
“Once more, I wanna give a shoutout to the bench. Achiuwa, whoever is available in. They maintain it down even once I’m making these errors. I gotta repair that, although.”
A lot has been made about Tom Thibodeau’s desire for taking part in his starters large minutes. Since arriving in New York, Cities is being relied upon much more than he was with the Timberwolves.
Because of this the massive man has to remain on the court docket. His fouling stats throughout these playoffs don’t make for nice studying, although.
KAT is averaging 4.3 private fouls per sport all through the playoffs. That is probably the most he has ever fouled throughout the postseason. It’s the very best mark of his profession.
This impacts rotations, and it impacts consistency for the massive man himself. A method or one other, he has to repair the problem if New York goes to win a championship with this core.