The stat line was awesome, but was he "awesome"? I'm not trying to criticize him, but most of his points came from the Knicks not accounting for him. Whoever was penetrating from the perimeter was getting by his man, the Knicks defense would then collapse on the penetrator, and no one stuck to Ayton. The penetrators did a great job of continuing to find him, but Ayton just moved to an open spot caught the ball and laid it up/dunked it. Pretty simple/basic stuff. KJ to Corie Blount stuff, circa 2000. Then there was the usually gravity of Booker and CP3 drawing attention from the pick and rolll, and Ayton effectively diving. So credit to him for that.Split T wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 9:50 pmHe was awesome tonight, made up for a total no show by Book. Granted they trapped Book a lot and played him very tight, sending a lot of help. Ayton will need to play like this to keep teams from doing that in the playoffs.The Bobster wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 9:39 pmAyton -10/14 FG, 6/6 FT, 15 rebounds, 26 points in 29 only minutes
Credit to Ayton for moving and being alert, instead of just standing and staring, but the only time he actually had to make something happen was in the 3rd where he was a few steps inside the the 3 point line, put the ball on the floor, drove past his man, and got the bucket. That was nice.