Author: Brian Cronin

NY Post: Derrick Rose, Reggie Bullock heroics lift Knicks to OT win over Pelicans

Brian Cronin 108 Comments

From Marc Berman:

It was a great battle of power-forward stud southpaws as Zion Williamson went toe to toe with Julius Randle.

But the game was decided by the Knicks’ backcourt of Derrick Rose and Reggie Bullock, propelling the Knicks to their sixth straight victory, 122-112 in overtime, over the Pelicans to move their record to a season-best 31-27 record.

The Knicks rallied from a six-point deficit in the final 1:30 — capped by Rose taking the inbounds driving down the lane and having the wherewithal to whip a pass to Bullock, who drained the game-tying 3-pointer from the left corner with 2.3 seconds left. The Pelicans could have fouled Rose, but might figured he was going for the easy 2.

Maybe there’s something to coaching skills atrophying, because these two Knicks/Pelicans matchups have been embarrassing, as Thibs has coached rings around Van Gundy, who used to be a pretty darn good coach back in Orlando. But SVG was terrible in Detroit and he’s somehow even worse here in New Orleans. They really need to fire that dude.

Anyhow, yet another amazing victory. In a lot of ways, this is the same exact sort of hustle we saw from them when they were losing these close games, but now they’re making the last second shot instead of missing them. That really makes all of the difference.

Four games over .500! Wow! Hopefully they can keep it going against the Hornets next! Hmmm…Future Knick Terry Rozier, perhaps?

NY Post: Julius Randle absolutely dominates Mavericks to keep Knicks rolling

Brian Cronin 86 Comments

From Marc Berman:

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle knew what his club might be in for with Julius Randle back in his hometown of Big D.

“He’s an All-Star who loves coming back to play here,’’ Carlisle said before the game.

And how. Friday was Randle’s best game yet — and one of the Knicks’ most impressive victories this season.

It has been an eventful week of homecoming games for Randle, and he capped it with a spectacular 44-point outing that paced the streaking Knicks to a terrific 117-109 victory over the Mavericks before a pandemic crowd of 4,000 fans at American Airlines Center.

The Knicks won their season-high fifth straight game to go a season-high three games over .500 at 30-27, and Randle missed tying his career high by one point. The Knicks, who are 3-1 against their former star, Kristaps Porzingis, the past two seasons, hadn’t won five straight in seven years.

Yeah, I agree, the Grizzlies win was very nice, but this was a much better win. This was a dominant road win over a team that is a good deal better than Memphis. Randle just demolished them. Wow.

The Knicks are now in the #6 spot and have a real chance of sticking there and avoiding the play-in game entirely, which would be wonderful. Heck, they could even move up to the #4/5 series, but that’d be tougher. But doable! Especially if they just keep winning every darn game!

2020-21 Game Thread: Knicks @ Future Knick Jalen Brunson’s Team

Brian Cronin 175 Comments

The Knicks head to Dallas to hopefully put more of a stamp on their chances of avoiding the play-in games while also helping to make sure that the Dallas Mavericks do have to play in the play-in games (and hopefully lose them both and have their first round pick, which goes to the Knicks, end up in the lottery, where I can only assume it will be picked as the #1 overall pick).

The Knicks head into tonight clinging to the #6 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they’re just barely ahead of the Miami Heat for the #7 seed (and the Heat own the tiebreaker with the Knicks). Luckily for the Knicks, the injury-ravaged Hornets are falling down, and while the slightly less-injury ravaged Pacers are doing better, they have some ground to make up, so it really looks like the Knicks’ best chance is being either the #6 or the #7 seed, which would be either an amazing avoidance of the play-in game all together or at least get to have two chances at making the playoffs via the play-in games.

Let’s go win five in a row, Knicks!

2020-21 Game Thread: Knicks @ Future Knick Lonzo Ball’s Team

Brian Cronin 287 Comments

The Knicks head to the Big Easy to take on the New Orleans Pelicans, with the Knicks facing off against Zion Williamson for the first time ever!

We saw RJ Barrett up his game during the clutch against the #2 pick of the draft where Barrett was taken third, so will he do the same against the #1 pick from that draft? Let’s hope so!

Let’s go win four in a row and a make a move to avoid the play-in game entirely, Knicks!

NY Post: Julius Randle too much to handle as Knicks drop Lakers

Brian Cronin 134 Comments

From Marc Berman:

It was too much Julius Randle and too much Knicks’ defense for the Lakers to handle.

Yes, this was Lakers Lite, but Randle punished his former team with 34 points and 10 rebounds and the Knicks’ crushing defense stymied the gold-clad defending champions in a 111-96 victory.

The Lakers (33-21) are the No. 1 defense in the NBA — based on the all-important defensive efficiency number. But Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks showed the Lakers on Monday at the Garden that sometimes numbers can lie.

“We had to bring our hard hat,’’ Randle said. “We’ve relied on our defense all year. Just doing what we’ve done all year. They’re a good defensive team. I was aggressive from the start. It’s important early on in the second night of a back-to-back to bring energy and that’s what I tried to do.”

After beating Memphis Friday and the Raptors Sunday, this was the Knicks’ third straight victory to boost their record to 28-27. They have survived that recent 1-5 stretch, survived it stronger.

It’s fucking BEE-ZARRE that the Knicks are now over .500 (which is amazing) and yet still in 8th place and tied in the loss column with the #9 team. What a strange twist of fate for the Eastern Conference, right? The #4 seed was .500 seemingly just a month ago and now the #9 seed is practically .500? In-sane.

But anyhow, this was a very, very impressive win. The Lakers are not a good team, but they’re not an awful team, either, and the Knicks just dismantled them easily. Great win.

One thing I don’t like, though, is that Immanuel Quickley is basically an afterthought at this point. He’s shown he belongs in the NBA, why not let him play through this recent stretch of poor play? Currently, it’s “Be awesome or you don’t play” and I don’t like that. They won by 15 and Quickley couldn’t get more than 15 minutes? That doesn’t seem right. He’s going to be an important part of this team next year and who knows if that’s the case for some of these other guys, so let him play through his issues.