2016-17 Game Thread: Knicks @ Warriors

Brian Cronin Game Thread

The Knicks travel to Oakland later tonight to take on the best team in the league, the Golden State Warriors.

Derrick Rose and Carmelo Anthony will both be out tonight, so it would take a Christmas miracle for the Knicks to win, but hey, the Memphis Grizzlies actually kicked the Warriors’ ass recently while playing without Mike Conley so, as they would say in Dumb and Dumber, “so you’re saying there’s a chance?”

Hopefully Porzingis will not be run into the ground tonight. At the very least, we’ll likely see some excellent play by the Warriors. That’s something.

RIP to Craig Sager. TNT did a wonderful tribute video to him. They have it up on their Twitter account here.

Every game up to (and including) the Christmas Day game against Boston, I’ll be featuring a video from an old school TV Christmas Special.

Here’s a musical number from an Andy Williams Christmas Special…

Let’s go, Knicks!

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140 thoughts to “2016-17 Game Thread: Knicks @ Warriors”

  1. Long time lurker, first time poster. Just excited to join the board. Maybe I post some questions from time to time, you guys know so many things…

    If the Knicks beat the Warriors, I’ll accept your “thanks”. If we lose, the jynx is on Brian, you know.

  2. hey KBrazilian…nice to see you here…knickerblogger seems to have acquired a whole bunch of first timers this season…

    which out you old timers – us “kids” are fitting to keep you on your toes this year :-)

  3. Regardless of the fact that Hornacek is making a wise move by resting Melo & Rose tonight, the broadcast is gonna be hard to watch. The basketball world is gonna miss Craig Sager tremendously. I knew it was coming but it’s still a wow moment for me.

    In any case…Go Knicks! I hope the team plays Sager Strong, but at the same time I don’t wanna see KP get more than 28-32 minutes tonight since Rose and Melo are resting. I’d love to get an extended look at Ndour, Hernangomez, Kuzminskas, & Baker tonight. It’d be nice if Plumlee gets some burn too

  7. I remember telling people Jabari Parker would be better than Andrew Wiggins. They all laughed and now Jabari is ballin. He reminds me so much of Carmelo Anthony.

  8. So basically, Paul and Curry more than ever are staying on their current teams. It was probably less than a 1% chance they were leaving anyway but now Curry can get $207m over 5yrs.

  9. I remember telling people Jabari Parker would be better than Andrew Wiggins. They all laughed and now Jabari is ballin. He reminds me so much of Carmelo Anthony.

    I didn’t really like either one of them, but yes, of the two, I liked Parker better.

  16. Draymond played KP tough last time. Staying up for this game will be tough. I hope i don’t have nightmares.

  17. KP is not a ball hog but I would call him a ball piglet. He rarely passes the ball but its allowed because he is young and is a finisher. However, you would like to see him develop his passing ability like Julius Randle or a big like Mile Plumlee has. He not only needs to look to score when he drives but pass to the open man or look to draw a double team when he is matched up against a smaller player.

  19. I’ve seen KP pass, but he gets ISO’s like Melo does. He may be as tough to guard as Melo is 1-on-1.

  20. Taking a few liberties at work this afternoon and putting on the game in the office boardroom. Suffice to say it will be an unproductive afternoon but fuck it, it’s Friday. Just hoping the gang can put together a competitive game. That KP/Draymond matchup should be a treat. Would love to see KP school Draymond.

  24. Supposedly GS is vulnerable at the rim, and Noah did have numerous opportunities, but he couldn’t finish at all.

  29. Whoa, did Ron Baker just penetrate and get to the rim? I thought the Knicks couldn’t penetrate without Derrick Rose or Carmelo creating space?

  34. Did Ron Baker just score a three without having Carmelo or Derrick Rose to draw the defense away? What the fuck is this?

  35. GS is up 10 and theyve missed a fair amount of makeable shots. Nice start for Baker though

  38. Anyone have any idea what that little exchange of smiles and banter between Baker and Durant was?

  41. This is why I really like this team. We actually have good role players. If Rose and Melo just play to the back of their card we could have something here

  42. The issue with Baker is that Livingston is just way too tall for Baker to play decent D on.

  46. From ESPN, on Twitter:

    “Warriors FG: 21
    Warriors Assists: 21

    0 unassisted FG thus far.

    Unreal”.

  47. I’m thinking the GS scorer is a little liberal with assists for the home team. That Livingston turnaround was catch two dribbles post and turnaround and they called that an assisted basket?

  55. Whatever Jennings gives us on offense, his turnstile defense gives up on the other end. Warriors guards barely even have to make a move to get by him.

  60. Lance Thomas needs to be traded before it becomes even more obvious that he doesn’t belong in the NBA

  61. Every time Lance gets the ball, he takes an instant shot fake, even if he’s literally facing away from the basket. It’s like a nervous tic

  66. Baker attended the Kevin Durant Skills Academy so maybe that’s the connection

  67. @64

    If the Warriors had made half the easy shots they’ve missed we’d be down 24.

    Both teams are shooting like crap.

  69. Can they play the 2nd half without commercial interruption for those of us who are sleep deprived?

  70. Rose should really be practicing his towel waving this game since I have a feeling that might be his chief contribution in the future.

  76. Noah has resorted to trying to pump himself up by grunting like Monica Seles every time he grabs a board

  81. Noah’s contract is going to be the worst in the NBA isn’t it

  82. @81
    Depends what you think a guy getting stomped by the “shaqtin a fool” posterboy should be making per year.

  88. Wait DRed are you not for getting the 5-8 seed and a first round playoff exit for the next four years?

  94. I consider this game a success just in resting Melo and Rose, and getting an extended, mostly positive, look at Baker. This was always going to be a loss.

  95. Kevin Pelton, on Twitter: “How clearly not an assist would a Warriors field goal have to be for the scorekeeper to end the streak at this point?”

  96. Does Lance Thomas play good enough D to justify playing him over Kuz or nah?

    I don’t think Lance Thomas even plays good D period. He is just really active out there, so it looks like he’s a good defender.

  101. It’s frustrating to watch golden state due to the fact that we’ll never have a team like that because we refuse to rebuild the right way

  103. I’d like to see Ron Baker keep getting minutes. It’s nice to have a PG who can his those spot ups a la Charlie Ward plus also he looks decent off the dribble.

  108. I think @101 was taking a sarcastic shot at those who think there is a rebuilding roadmap that results in a team like GS with any reasonable probability.

  112. Failed poster reub trying to make people forget all his anti-Phil anti-Knicks hating earlier in the thread. Sad!

  116. It’s amazing how many times KP has looked of Willy in the post. He isn’t the only one though and there have been times teammates looked him off too.

  118. I want KP to sink or swim against this team. If he sinks he’s the type of player to use it as motivation to get better. Simultaneously, he’s one Green common-but-really-it’s-a-flagrant foul away from a season jeopardizing injury, so maybe not.

  120. How different would the score be with healthy Melo n rose?

    Definitely closer, but the Warriors are also pretty clearly half-assing it out there, and I imagine they wouldn’t against the Knicks with Melo and rose.

  129. We have some very nice bench pieces…now just roll back the clock 6 years on Melo, Noah, and Rose and we’d be cooking!

  136. just got home (rogue one has got some serious eye candy – if your definition of eye candy includes cool sci fi looking stuff)…

    watching the game on the dvr now…wanna see our young mister baker in action…sounds like he may actually be able to help given a bit of an opportunity…

    maybe we don’t need old ass chalmers or back home chillin in the crib DWTDD…or to trade anyone useful for whomever minny would throw our way…

    rest for melo and rose and some burn for baker – a successful game…hopefully we’ll stomp denver saturday…

    kinda encouraging that rose was able to sit in a chair on the bench…

  137. It’s frustrating to watch golden state due to the fact that we’ll never have a team like that because we refuse to rebuild the right way

    Yeah except that they didn’t tank. Actually did the opposite then got lucky that Steph has shit ankles and were able to low ball him. But yeah just like that

  138. er come on… few teams have to tank when they rebuild. Phil hasn’t tried to rebuild the team. He’s just replaced old players with other old players. Calling that rebuilding is like calling buying a new car an investment. To improve your talent base, you have to make investments in your future that outweigh the declining assets you have on hand.

    The Warriors had a ton of luck and definitely aren’t the most deserving team of their success when you talk about process, but they’re way more deserving than Jackson.

  139. I was at the game tonight. Here’s what I saw in person, FWIW:

    The Knicks are horrifying defensively?—?and this was with their two worst defenders in street clothes. There was so much confusion on each pick, so many missed rotations, so much thinking on the court. Defending doesn’t feel natural for many of them. Baker, for example, not only can’t stop anyone on the ball, but gets lost constantly in a maze of cuts and it causes miscommunications. Porzingis has so much to learn on defending pick-and-rolls, and his guesses and reactions were usually wrong, especially on the perimeter. Kuz is just too slow. Granted, they’re playing against a genius offensive team, but the breakdowns were more constant and glaring as opposed to other teams who play the Dubs.

    Noah had 10 rebounds in 15 minutes, I guess, but he was mostly invisible if you don’t count the missed layups and tips and slow rotations. He looks old and broken down. I hope that isn’t true, but I feel like this is going to be a long four years.

    Having said that, I was impressed by O’Quinn and Hernangomez. They clearly looked like they belonged on an NBA court, and there’s so much room for growth, especially for the latter. The Knicks just operated better with them in the mix.

    Small Sample Size Theater: Ron Baker made 6-of-7 shots, most of them on drives. That’s good. But he looked miscast as a drive-and-dish point creator, and he wasn’t able to find any seams for his teammates. In fact, it seemed like every pass he made was deflected away. Zero vision. Again, this was against one of the best defensive teams in the league, but still, I don’t know if he’s an NBA player, especially with his glaring defensive shortcomings.

    Here’s my entire post, which admittedly is Warriors-centric: https://medium.com/@steveohville/the-view-from-section-118-all-day-dray-97559f37be7#.dytoxnf3u

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