CLEVELAND — Isaac Okoro, the Cavaliers’ top perimeter defender who is being tasked with defending Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson, believes Cleveland has to do a better job dealing with his “antics.”
On the eve of Game 2, the 6-foot-5 wing suggested that Brunson embellishes contact and the Cavaliers have to be ready for that.
“We feel like we played him well last game. Probably get him off the free-throw line, not falling for his pump-fakes and his antics,” Okoro said. “It’s just being disciplined, talking to the refs, trying to let [them] know some of the antics he might do well, staying down on pump fakes, trying to use my size and my length just to try to deter shots and passes.”
Whether or not talking to the officials helped, Okoro wasn’t sure.
“I can’t tell,” he said.
Brunson, it should be noted, only attempted four free throws in Game 1 as part of his 27-point performance.
In the four regular season meetings against the Cavaliers, in which the Knicks won three of them, he attempted a grand total of 21 free throws. Brunson did average a career-best 5.8 free throws during the year.
So what are his “antics?”
“Nodding your head back, falling on the ground when not a lot of physicality is used on you, just little things to help you get fouls and get to the free-throw line,” Okoro said. “In today’s game, a lot of players do that to get to the free-throw line. As a defender, you have to adjust to that and be smart.”
The Cavaliers haven’t defended Brunson very well in their past few meetings.
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He torched them for 48 points in the final regular-season contest between the two teams and followed that up by scoring 21 of his 27 points in the second half on Saturday.
Due to foul trouble, Brunson was limited to six points in nine minutes in the first half of the series opener.
The Cavaliers went with a bigger defender on him, 6-foot-7 wing Cedi Osman, for long stretches of the fourth quarter to mixed results.
Brunson was 4-for-9 from the field for nine points in the final period.
Cleveland also tried throwing double teams at him to get the ball out of his hands.
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When asked if the Cavaliers learned something from that adjustment, Bickerstaff smiled and said, “yes,” without elaborating.
But later, the Cleveland coach acknowledged that Brunson is too smart to defend him one way.
“He’s the type of the guy if you go back and look at their offense over the year, they’re really good when teams trap him, because he’s very willing to get the ball out of his hands,” Bickerstaff said. “And now it makes the other guys around him better. So there’s a certain mix of things you have to do to him. But if you give him a steady diet of one thing, he’s intelligent enough to take it apart.”
Particularly when factoring in those “antics” Okoro mentioned.
