When you hear the name Tom Thibodeau, what’s the first thing you think of? Well-organized defenses? Resolute leadership? Whatever it may be, efficiently rotating his squad is probably something you don’t associate the Knicks’ head coach with. Well, Thibs rewrote the playbook in tonight’s Game 4 against the Indiana Pacers. And it left TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith floored.

The Knicks are down 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pacers. And it seems in his bid to turn around the series, Thibs will do anything. In this case, that includes using his bench — something that Tom is not known for relying on heavily or at all in some instances.

Thibs used a 10-man rotation in the first half of Game 4. And this led to Inside the NBA‘s Ernie Johnson remark, “Tom Thibodeau, who you said couldn’t play 9 guys in a baseball game, has played 10 in the first half.” And Kenny “The Jet” Smith was so shocked he wouldn’t even let Ernie finish before reacting.

“OH MY GOODNESS, HE’S GOIN’ FOR A FOOTBALL TEAM!“ quipped, rather, exclaimed Kenny. His co-host, Shaq, was equally stunned with an opposite reaction — the former Lakers big man was literally speechless! Shaq only opened his mouth to mock Charles Barkley, who made a joke about a softball pitching rover. “You would watch softball!” said Shaq, roasting Chuck.

But the Inside The NBA crew’s reaction is wholly understandable here. Tom Thibodeau is notorious for picking a 5-7 man rotation and sticking with it, come hell or high water. In the regular season, his key starters Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart all played an average of 35 minutes or more. The closest another Knicks player came to this number was Miles McBride with 24.9 minutes.

That said, Ernie Johnson’s “couldn’t play 9 guys in a baseball game” comment didn’t come out of nowhere. You see, Shaq and Ernie’s co-host made this comment after the Knicks showed off a new rotation in Game 3 against the Pacers. And this yielded results which led to Shaquille O’Neal giving the veteran coach his props.

Shaq said he wouldn’t “question” Tom Thibodeau’s decisions after Game 3

One narrative that follows Tom Thibodeau like a loan shark with an eerily accurate GPS is the narrative that the Knicks’ head coach barely uses his rotation. Even if the game calls for it. However, Game 3 saw Thibs flip the script as he used 9 players in that game and came away with the 100-106 victory at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

But this opened another can of worms as fans criticized him for not doing it earlier. However, Shaq said that criticizing Tom isn’t on his to-do list. Why? Well, that’s because the 4x NBA champion feels that the coach knows his team better than anyone on the outside looking in. And Shaq actually defended Tom for his decisions in Game 3.

“I like how the Knicks are the only team to be down by 20 points and come back, showing that they have the resilience and the fight to continue to work. I’m not going to question Thibs on what he does. We all know coaches are going to stay in their bag and will do what they do. But I think the Pacers are also saying that they didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves,” said the player-turned-analyst on Inside the NBA.

And Shaq probably made the right call. After all, Thibs did manage to close the gap a little on the Pacers with his plan in Game 3. So faulting him for a winning strategy is a little backwards. no? However, Thibs’ rotation choices didn’t pan out tonight as his team dropped Game 4 to the Pacers. They’re now 3-1 and at risk of elimination. So, was Thibs right to only rely on his starters? Or does this loss have nothing to do with the rotation? Let us know what you think!