2015-16 Game Thread: Knicks @ Magic

Brian Cronin Game Thread

Woah, I thought this was a 7:30 PM game time!

Okay, so the Knicks try to rebound from a bad loss to Miami by showing that they can beat some of the feisty back-of-the-standings Eastern Conference teams, which there are suddenly a lot of.

Let’s go Knicks!

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119 thoughts to “2015-16 Game Thread: Knicks @ Magic”

  1. It’s like the Magic never watched the Knicks play defense all season.

    EDITED TO ADD: As I wrote that, Payton drove to the basket for a hoop. My bad. Never mind, keep doing what you were doing, Orlando!

  6. I don’t understand why we don’t look to post KP more often. Good things happen when he does anchor down.

  7. I don’t understand why KP rushes his shot. He’s fucking 7’3 these guys aren’t blocking him.

  12. the refusal to involve porzingis in the offense in any way is pretty annoying

    Its really quite amazing. He’s scoring on cutbacks, putbacks, and whatever he can create whenever Melo or Affalo don’t want the ball.

  17. I think the Knicksiest thing that could happen tonight would be for Jason Smith to drop 30 on us.

  18. This is some ugly ugly basketball and fishers rotations are not helping at all

    it’s really amazing how Fisher quite literally throws away points with these absurdly bad rotations. Say what you want about other aspects of his coaching, but we’ve been winning in spite of his awful rotation choices.

  21. Who is supposed to score in this ridiculous lineup? Grant-Vujacic-Thomas-O’Quinn-Seraphin. That lineup is an atrocity.

  24. Derek Fisher is stupid! He doesn’t play O’Quinn!

    Why is stupid Fisher playing O’Quinn! O’Quinn sucks!

    When you have a team with only a few good players its hard to find good lineups. How many good players are on the Knicks?

  27. I still want O’Quinn to play more but even for those who change constantly in who they want to play still are right in that his rotations have been unqualifiably awful. Put the rotation to 8 or 9 men rather than 11, is that too much to ask?

  28. Yeah, but Williams doesn’t pass, shoot well, or play defense. Lots of these guys are good at something, but most of them have serious flaws too

  29. It is kind of weird that they don’t have a fifth NBA level guard on the team. Fisher almost has to play Sasha sometimes. Early isn’t a 2, ya know?

  31. Carmelo Porzingis Robin Lopez Calderon Afflalo Galloway Grant Thomas O’Quinn and spot minutes for Williams

    It’s that easy folks.

  32. What’s really most annoying is less even who’s in the rotations and more that Fisher randomly pulls some of his best players when they miss a few shots (i.e. Galloway)

  33. If we’re heading down the road where the bench comes in and continues to suck, and Melo ends up playing 40+ minutes a game, that’s not a good thing.

  36. Grant-Vuj-Lance-KOQ-Seraphin is a lineup that obviously cannot score. You can’t send that lineup out there. This isn’t rocket science.

  38. For me it’s less “these players are shooting like shit, take them out” and more “lou amundson and seraphin and Vujacic should not be playing under any circumstance and galloway should have more than 4 mintues with 5 to go in the half”

    Is that a lot to ask?

  39. Yeah, the shooting has been woeful. Surely they’ll heat up in the 2nd half? Just stay close…

  41. Grant-Vuj-Lance-KOQ-Seraphin is a lineup that obviously cannot score. You can’t send that lineup out there. This isn’t rocket science.

    Then why not just cut Vuj and pick up a scorer from the D-League and give him a shot?

  47. I didn’t see the Miami game but that was the ugliest half of basketball the Knicks have played this season

    Or was Miami even worse?

  50. I didn’t see the Miami game but that was the ugliest half of basketball the Knicks have played this season

    Or was Miami even worse?

    This was worse because Miami is better. However, Miami was almost a bit more disconcerting, because it was like they just took them out of the game like it was nothing.

  51. come on this is a should win game.

    The bottom of the East is surprisingly feisty this year. I’d honestly rather play a team with Anthony freakin’ Dacis on it than a team with Evan Fournier on it. But yes, they gotta pull this one out.

  52. Halftime phone call from Phil to Fish:

    Phil: Hi Fish! How are you feeling tonight?

    Fish: Good Phil. Why do you ask?

    Phil: Ok, Fish. I’m glad. No headache or dizziness tonight?

    Fish: No Phil. Just fine.

    Phil: Great. I was just wondering why we haven’t been scoring much.

    Fish: Well honestly I haven’t been happy with our defense from those guys.

    Phil: Have you been happy with the offense from the guys that you’ve been playing?

    Fish: No but I really appreciate their defensive effort.

    Phil: Yes but how can we win if we can’t get any scoring?

    Fish: Well I never thought of it that way!

    Phil: Have a great night, Fish!

    Fish: You too, Phil. Bye!

  54. lou amundson and seraphin and Vujacic should not be playing under any circumstance and galloway should have more than 4 mintues with 5 to go in the half”

    Galloway sucked against Miami-maybe he’s worn out? I can’t argue about Vujacic or Seraphin, but Lou is fine- he just looks bad in games where nobody else can shoot either. Yeah, I probably would have let Derrick Williams get some run, but he kinda sucks too. Knicks would probably have more points if we’d put him in instead of Amundson, but Orlando probably would have more points too. And then O’Quinn is 0-3, Galloway is 0-3 with 2 fouls in 4 minutes, Grant has two more turnovers than points and Porzingis is 0-5. This is just not that great of a team.

  57. This is just not that great of a team.

    This is also true and almost definitely plays a part but I still find Fisher’s rotations independently maddening even abstracting from the quality of players involved

  58. come on this is a should win game.

    Orlando is good enough to be above .500 at home. The Knicks are not good enough that a road game against a decent team is a should win game. Could win? Absolutely, which is good, but let’s be real here.

  59. I mean I’m looking forward to your narrative tho

    Ok, you tell me what their record would be today without Melo. He’s far from elite, but they still would be a whole lot worse without him.

  61. I’m not the one doing the counterfactuals here, dude

    I’m just pointing out that in the actual games, he’s been anywhere from exceptional to pure shite, with pure shite coming more often than not

    we could very well be looking at a team with a better record if not for his terrible shooting, I mean it’s not like the Knicks would have to play 5 on 4 if Melo didn’t exist smdh

    and that’s counterfactorial

  62. Knicks’ bench with a grand total of one FG in the 1st half.

    WHY IS THAT STUPID HEAD PLAYING PEOPLE OFF THE BENCH??

  73. They ought to take Vuj from Fisher. Give him someone else to play with. Some young guard. Try to strike gold and then cut the guy and try again if it doesn’t work.

  75. It’s not the fact that some of these mediocre-to-terrible players play at all that bothers me. We’re not that good, some bad players will have to play. It’s the fact that Fisher puts them all in at once that pisses me off. It’s just a recipe for falling behind.

  84. Maybe Fisher wants to play Vuj so much that he forces Phil to take him off his hands

    Or Fisher wants to be fired.

    Who knows?

  96. The bench is burying this team. We’re losing this game despite every starter having a positive differential when they play. I blame this on Fisher and his seeming inability to still find the right combination of bench players and starters to mix together during the game.

  100. Words we may never have thought we would hear from Mike Breen “another good defensive play from Calderon. ” It’s still possible with just five strong minutes.

  106. Can’t complain about going 2-2 on this road trip though I wouldve preferred not going 0-2 vs the teams from the East. If they can hang around a playoff spot the conference tie-breaker could come into play but thats a long ways away.

  107. This is on Fisher. The bench has sucked ass and he’s done nothing to rectify it beyond sitting the suckiest guy at the time and replacing him with another sucky player. He has to look to see which players can be used in tandem with some starters instead of having separate squads.

  108. @106. Agreed. Frustrating to watch these last 2 games, but there will probably be lots of games like this this year. A 2-2 road trip is fine. They just need to start winning more at home.

  113. Fish can stagger the starters, but the way I see it, they still would have to lean heavily on Melo, KP (I think we should wait a bit longer before asking him to anchor a unit on offense), and Afflalo?

    Coming into the season, it was analyzed that scoring (outside Melo) be at a premium at times. This be one of dem times.

  114. IEarly might not be a two but I’d rather aLance defend 2s and play Early at the 3. Susha should be inactive.

    Also, if you are not going to play Early why not send him down to Westchester?

  115. If the bench is gonna suck ass regardless at least suck ass with the young/athletic guys. Grant, Williams, O’Quinn and Early I want to see play consistent minutes. Gallo is the only bench player who is guaranteed minutes every game (as he should be) but the guys I mentioned above should be too just cause they are young enough to have the potential to improve and benefit from minutes period.

  117. Nothing really needs to be said that already hasn’t, the second unit is killing the Knicks.

    The loss to Orlando stings but they’re a better team than most people think. They’re just never on TV so they’re kind of on the outskirts–essentially they’re the mole rats in Fallout 4 of NBA teams ever since they woke up from the Dwightmare.

  118. The bench is going to live and die by Derrick Williams’ play as long as Fisher insists on rotating Afflalo, Melo and Porzingis at similar times. He’s the guy who’s been able to create fouls, and his ability to run the floor has pushed the pace and caused enough chaos to keep the team out of the halfcourt. Now that teams know not to defend Grant outside 12′ and the sheen has predictably worn off Thomas and Galloway’s early play, the second is even more dependent on having a guy like Williams.

  119. Our 2nd unit needs offense. Should be Grant, Gallo, Thomas, Williams and Oquinn/Seraphin. Period!. No Sasha. No Oquinn plus Seraphin. Fisher is not helping right now.

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