The ball barely touched his palms. The protection barely had time to react. However the shot was already up — and already good.
Cameron Payne didn’t log a single minute within the first quarter of Recreation 1 between the Knicks and Pistons. Seven seconds into the second? He was already on the board. Three factors courtesy of a protection that forgot what time it was: Turbo Time.
That’s the factor about Payne. You don’t ease into his rhythm. You both catch up otherwise you get burned. He doesn’t heat up into video games — he enters them already on hearth.
It occurred once more within the fourth quarter of Recreation 1, simply when it regarded like Detroit was poised to steal one on the street. Payne had gone the complete third with out even a shot try. However as soon as he re-entered the sport, the fuse was lit.
Layup. And-one. Three. Step-back three. All within the blink of an eye fixed — all a part of an 11-point outburst in three minutes and alter that helped set off a 21-0 Knicks run and slam the door shut on Recreation 1.
A shot most gamers would name a warmth examine? For Payne, that’s only a common Tuesday.
“Turbo’s been that all year for us,” Karl-Anthony Cities mentioned. “He’s been great for us every time we’ve needed him either when JB went down or gets hurt. Cam has always stepped in as an integral part of our team and finding ways for us to be successful.”
This has been Payne’s identification lengthy earlier than his arrival in New York. The Knicks are his fifth straight playoff cease, nevertheless it’s not the primary time he’s modified a recreation at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Final yr, carrying a Philadelphia 76ers jersey, Payne torched the Knicks for 11 factors and three triples off the bench in Recreation 2.
Josh Hart remembers — vividly.
“He really changed that game,” Hart mentioned. “And fortunately for us, [the Sixers] were foolish enough to not play him after that for some reason. He’s someone that’s been in big moments, that loves big moments.”
This yr, he’s altering them in orange and blue.
However Hart additionally admitted it took time to get used to Payne’s shot profile.
“It definitely took a little bit of adjusting,” he mentioned, grinning. “Sometimes, I’ll be in with him and he’ll shoot it, and I’ll be like: ‘Cam what the hell—Oh there we go! Yessir!’ There was a moment of transition of those kinds of shots, but obviously you have faith in him.”
The pictures look audacious from the skin. From Payne’s perspective? Routine.
“Honestly, I’m just trying to take the best shot I can get,” he mentioned. “It’s not necessarily heat checks, I’m just trying to play basketball the right way.”
Payne needed to discover ways to play this fashion. It’s not what he was taught in highschool in Memphis or throughout his faculty years at Murray State.
His aggressive shot profile materialized as a byproduct, he says, of playoff game-planning.
“Everybody knows what we’re running. We know what they’re running,” mentioned Payne. “So it’s about being aggressive and taking the shots you work on and keep building confidence from there.”
That confidence is actual. It’s why he’s an issue for opposing scouting studies. A loaded Knicks roster could make him an afterthought — till he swings the sport, similar to he did in opposition to the Pistons in Recreation 1.
“You’ve got to respect him because he’s been doing it for a long time,” Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff mentioned earlier than Recreation 2. “This isn’t something that just happened. Every time we play him, he finds a way to have an impact.”
It’s the shot profile. It’s the pace. It’s the unpredictability.
Payne forces you to defend at a wholly completely different tempo — and. Bickerstaff realized that the laborious approach. New York opened the fourth with a Payne-induced five-second violation. Then got here the 24-second shot clock violation. Then got here the buckets.
Payne scored 11 of New York’s 15 factors in a three-and-a-half-minute fourth-quarter span. The run blew the sport wide-open.
“You just have to be aware. There’s just so much respect for the professionalism of these guys. You don’t last as long in this league if you can’t make an impact on winning,” Bickerstaff mentioned. “I think Cam has proven he can do that, but we’ve just got to do a job of locating him, contesting him and taking away the easy ones from him.”
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has an appreciation for the pace Payne brings to the courtroom. Turbo isn’t only a nickname. It’s a mode of play.
“He’s always had great speed, and he’s a catalyst,” Thibodeau mentioned. “He can make you play fast. He’s got a good floater. And he’s not afraid. He’s very very confident. But he likes to play fast, and I like the speed in which he plays.”
Coincidentally, Turbo Time is much less about pace and extra about momentum. It’s not simply quickness. It’s perception. And when Payne enters a recreation, the Knicks consider one thing large is about to occur.
Hart wanted an adjustment interval. How lengthy did it take the captain to get on the identical web page?
“That’s who he’s been since I’ve seen him play. I think the best thing that a player can have, in whatever league, whatever level you’re in, is confidence,” mentioned Brunson. “There’s lots of people who can work out in a health club, do all this different stuff once they’re by themselves, do all these items in observe, nevertheless it takes rather a lot to do it in a recreation when folks might ask that query you simply requested.
“He has the most confidence in himself, we have the most confidence in him. I think that’s what helps us as a team – we give ourselves confidence. I didn’t have to adjust to it at all. I just know that’s Cam Payne, he’s gonna bring energy regardless.”
Turbo Time begins the second Payne steps on the ground. It’s not simply pace. It’s the heart. It takes guts to take what’s extensively thought of an ill-advised shot.
“You need a guy that’s gonna make an impact like that. You wanna instill energy and get into the game,” mentioned Hart. “Sometimes you need someone who shoots some of those ‘what the hell?’ shots. He’s not scared of the moment. He relishes in it. And playoff time, you need those guys. Last year against Philly, Game 3, he really changed that game.”
Payne is simply completely happy to be on the opposite facet after the Knicks eradicated him in Spherical 1 final season. A deep playoff run could be cool, too.
“It feels good. It feels good,” he mentioned. “Everybody [at MSG] is on my side this time. I ain’t most hated right now. But it’s fun. It’s fun.”
