Liberty coach Chris DeMarco has plenty of reasons to watch Knicks-Cavs series ‘closely’
The Liberty open their seven-game homestand Thursday against the Golden State Valkyries.
But as that game tips off at Barclays Center, the Knicks will simultaneously start Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers across the East River at Madison Square Garden.
Talk about a good time to be a New York basketball fan.
“They deserve it,” Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said after shootaround. “My dad’s from New York, I lived in Long Island, I like the teams he likes so I’ve grown up, I know what it was like some close calls, being able to win one in New York, so New York deserves it, for sure.”
DeMarco, of course, is keeping an eye on the basketball action happening in the other borough.
The longtime Warriors assistant and hoops junkie attended Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday and witnessed Jalen Brunson help the Knicks mount an improbable 22-point comeback to force overtime, where New York ultimately won.
DeMarco, who’s worked alongside both Knicks head coach Mike Brown and Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson on the Warriors staff, won’t publicly pick a side in this series, but he lauded both of his friends and former coworkers.
“I’m watching the series closely,” DeMarco said. “It’s pretty cool to watch, they’re battling to go to the Finals.”
Brown and Atkinson overlapped on Steve Kerr’s staff for only the 2021-22 season, the same campaign the Warriors won their fourth championship in eight years.
DeMarco was along for all six of the Warriors’ NBA Finals runs during his 13-year tenure. The longtime assistant coach worked his way up from roles in the video room and player development to eventually be in charge of the team’s defense.
The Knicks on Tuesday were successful at slowing down Harden, something DeMarco is familiar with doing.
Obviously the current version of Harden is far different from the bearded man who led the Rockets a decade ago. DeMarco aided the Warriors in figuring out a plan to wear down Harden over the course of a seven-game series, and Brown divulged that “secret” after Tuesday’s win.
“When I was at Golden State, we played Houston in the playoffs, we counted James Harden’s dribbles,” Brown told reporters. “We told our guys, ‘He’s dribbling close to a thousand times… Keep picking him up full court, keep making him dribble because at the end of the series, at the end of games, it’s going to wear him down.’
“And did it? Probably not,” Brown continued, “but you say stuff like that to help give your guys a psychological advantage.”
DeMarco recalled tracking Harden when the Warriors faced the Rockets in the postseason. He said examining those details to create a game plan is one of his favorite parts of the playoffs.
“In that specific series with Houston, it was about having James heavily handle the ball, and one, what that would do to his fatigue or… just his overall being able to produce through a seven-game series and then what it did to the others if he’s dribbling the whole game so you look at all of that stuff,” DeMarco said. “Houston was always one of the most competitive teams we played and those were always battles.”
The Warriors were quite successful against Harden, beating the Rockets in the 2015 Western Conference finals, the 2016 first round, the 2018 Western Conference finals and the 2019 second round.
Golden State went 16-7 in the playoffs against the Rockets during Harden’s era.
Harden’s ballhandling responsibilities aren’t as consuming with the Cavaliers thanks to Donovan Mitchell. But that mentality of wearing an opponent down to eventually pounce held true for the Knicks.
