2019-20 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Nets

If the Knicks are going to get up for any game this season, you would think that it would be the Nets, right?

The Nets are playing without Kyrie Irving, but have actually won their last two games.

RJ Barrett is sick, so he will miss the game tonight. The Knicks are hilariously replacing him with Kevin Knox in the starting lineup, so they are, in fact, starting four power forwards along with Frank Ntilikina.

It’s always nice to beat the Nets, so hopefully they do just that.

Let’s go, Knicks!

140 replies on “2019-20 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Nets”

Doncic’s week was absurd:

148 points on 92 shots. 47 assists. 34 rebounds. 123 minutes.

Doncic is going from potentially great to potentially a new species. When he learns to turn down the aggression just a little, makes the right play more often, and skips a few of the suspect 3s, he’s going to be other worldly good on offense. He can already do everything extremely well at 20. It’s just minor decision making. He’s got years to learn and will eventually get into the playoff wars (maybe this year), and go to a next unbelievable level.

Defense may always be a bit of an issue, but he’s even trying harder there.

What a great decade of basketball Dallas has ahead of them if he and KP stay healthy. They need a few defensive role players and forgetaboutit

What a dumb starting lineup. Wait, make that stupid. Kevin Knox at the 2? DSJ, Dotson, or Trier would be a much better choice.

Now that I’ve said that, watch Knox play great.

Dizfail should be fired with this starting line up. You bench a guy for lack of effort on D last night and start him at the 2 tonight???

If we lose this game , fiz has to be out right?

No. Nets are a playoff contender at a minimum. If the Knicks player’s give up or they get blown out Questions Will Be Asked but we’re expected to lose this game.

Give me Power Forwards or give me death !

Yet Wooten remains in Westchester for some inexplicable reason.

In the East? Probably. And they’re still favored against us without Kyrie, though the line is only 2.5. Plus we played last night and they didn’t have to travel, ect.

Nothing to reinforce KD’s and Kyrie’s choice of team as potentially getting blown out by the Nets without either of them…

Mitch is multi dimensional, blocking shots and ripping down offensive boards for dunks are an entire realm

Bobby Portis might be the most useless basketball player I have ever seen.

And I of course agree about Mitch. I was trying to allude to the dimension of “up there^. That layer of space between 11 and 13 feet above the ground.

This unit with Mitch and sit together has some spacing. Unfortunately fiz has to wait till we were down double digits

Fiz trying out unorthodox lineups tells me he got the trust of the FO back….
And that s not good….

Taking a Marvel movies break to tune in… Nice that they’ve responded after being down 14.
Finally getting the TV to myself today (well me and the fiancee)

if Dotson doesn’t start heating up soon, I don’t see the point. He needs to knock the rust off and get his stroke back or he’s not adding much given he doesn’t even look the same on the boards or defensively right now. If we were in all out tank mode, I could see allowing him to play himself back into shape, but he’s so ridiculously rusty off the layoff maybe he should play a little less and play Ellington or bring up Kadeem Allen when he’s ready.

And now Mitch picks up his third. That one was a totally garbage call. Barely touched the guy.

Dinwiddie goes to the hole past a Knick for a layup.

Clyde “Spencer is the Ultimate Driving Machine.”

The ball can’t find Randle with 3 secs left when he’s not in the paint.

DSJ gotta pull on open 3s.

Bobby Portis might be the most useless basketball player I have ever seen.

Sometimes I watch Portis and I think ‘man, if that guy could squint he’d be an okay player.’ Then it passes. He’s one of those guys who’s real close to being pretty decent but the ways in which he isn’t quite there make him so damn useless.

Dotson has never really got his scoring going in the NBA. It’s partly why I’ve kinda written him off. He has some valuable skills, but they’re not at the elite level where you can overlook his subpar offense.

The last few minutes have been some of the most futile pathetic basketball I have ever seen.

Dotson and Knox really don’t look like NBA players.

I really don’t understand the starting lineup, why would you put Knox in over Ellington or Dotson? Just from a positional standpoint Knox would fit better with the bench crew and Ellington/Dotson/Trier at least might fit with the 1st unit we ran out tonight.

Prince tried to get another J off but Frank wasn’t about to give him space to shoot.

That was a tough layup by Dinwiddie. Frank tried to give him nothing, but he had one angle to lay that up and he converted.

This may be a good night to give Smith more run. He’s been sharper since the unfortunate death in his family and Frank looks a little gassed from all the effort on a back to back or a little out of it mentally tonight.

I like how MSG runs the answer to the trivia question in the first half when they figure nobody is going to watch the second half.

@40 tru. Giving up 52 at halftime is not bad defense. But they can only find offensive cohesion in spurts.

The Doncic/THjr/KP trio had a pretty strong showing today.

So did Tacko Fall. I would definitely go to a G League game if he were playing. Made Wooton look like a little person.

Dotson and Knox really don’t look like NBA players.

At this point we are still at the stage where we are looking for solid role players. We don’t have a #1 or #2 option.

One didn’t lift a basketball all summer after surgery and is clearly rusty and out shape and the other stinks but is only 20.

Too soon to give up, but one is not a spring chicken and the other has a suspect basketball IQ and motor.

@40 tru. Giving up 52 at halftime is not bad defense. But they can only find offensive cohesion in spurts.Seems like every other

Seems like every other possession ends with Randle having the ball at the top of the key and forcing his way to the basket

@45

If Dallas turns Hardaway into a good ball player we’ll unequivocally know our organization needs to be burned to the ground.

Honestly, he looked like he might become a useful player someday while in Atlanta. At a minimum a good 6th man seemed possible with any improvement in his shot selection or from 3. In NY he was hot garbage most of the time.

He just EARNED the starting spot in Dallas for a good coach. He was coming off the bench. Smh

If Dallas turns Hardaway into a good ball player we’ll unequivocally know our organization needs to be burned to the ground.

I mean, do we need more proof?

Just tuned in. Starting Knox at guard is a fireable offense, right? Like the Ukraine quid pro quo?

In NY he was hot garbage most of the time.

A big part of what the Knicks do is pay 5th options to come to New York to try to be the 1st options they can’t possibly be.

Very confused about why Knox gave away the baseline there. Clyde talking about it too but it was sort of bizarre.

Starting Knox at guard is a fireable offense, right? Like the Ukraine quid pro quo?

There’s no payoff for Fiz though. It was a baffling choice. How convoluted must your reasoning be to arrive at that decision?

Taurean Prince is not a bad player. But he shouldn’t be made to be unguardable by Kevin Knox.

Clyde pays Frank’s defense a nice compliment, says “he reminds me of a guy named Clyde.”

So if a player can’t hit wide open 3’s but plays great defense, what’s his net value to the team?

Just askin’…

DSJ gaining confidence in his 3 ball will give defenses 1 less reason to sag and hopefully create more space on offense.

Musa is rangy and plays great D from what I understand but doesn’t show well in the box score.He’s 6’9 though, more in the Kirlenko mold…

This is a lifeless team with no cohesion and too many selfish players. I don’t see how Steve Mills and Scott Perry survive this season.

I said it before: DSJ is too hesitant when deciding to shoot and it’s contributing to throwing the offense off balance.

I appreciate the effort they’re making trying to scrap their way to a win here but jeez this team is hideous to watch

I’m surprised this team has an assist this season. Everyone is pretty much a black hole.

I’m surprised this team has an assist this season. Everyone is pretty much a black hole.

Knicks have more assists than the Nets? They’ve been sharing the ball fairly well this game.

They pass, but it’s moreso station-to-station.
Stylistically similar to Eli Manning’s passing early this season and last, in that he was completing passes but not threatening the defense.

Now see, why did Frank pass to Randle there? Not a good spot on the floor for Randle to do anything positive.

#97

I think Frank thought Randle was going to pull up for a transition 3 which would have been a much better outcome but Randle ran right across the line.

Ok well at least some contender will want to trade for Morris during the career year he’s having from 3 pt range! Gimme that first rounder!

Thanks Frank for helping avoid a useless win courtesy of Morris

Really hope we’re bad enough that the FO goes into fire sale by January

Pretty simple, if we had made our foul shots we win the game.

We are 18-34 from 3. So, you know, the cookie crumbles both ways, or whatever…

Lmao what a great way for Harris to end the game

@107 I can’t agree with that. You didn’t want to win this one? Morris was en fuego and kept the offense from looking uglier than it was.

Well Frank shot horribly but at least he got a lot of steals and shut down Spencer Dinwiddie.

I’m sorry, I wanna like Frank, but he was 1-5 from 3, 3-11 overall. I don’t care how good his D is, he’s a net negative when he shoots like that.

Frank was busy tonight but he definitely needs to get a shot or he’s not going to stay in the NBA.

Wally all spicy and shit! “That’s what coaches do, they say positive thin-” “Not all coaches do that.” STARE.

Well Frank shot horribly but at least he got a lot of steals and shut down Spencer Dinwiddie.

Shit down the legendary Spencer Dinwiddie to the tune of 30 points on 17 shots?

Shit down the legendary Spencer Dinwiddie to the tune of 30 points on 17 shots?

Shit down is right. See, your problem is that you don’t see all the miraculous stuff Frank does that doesn’t end up in the box score. In fact, we actually won this game by 26 points. Just not in the box score.

Listen the key is that Frank took 11 shots. Maybe next year he can start making them.

And he wasn’t hesitating either! They still look random as all get out but it’s something. Pretty sure this is basically the Fizdale approach to developing Frank: get him to do things he sucks at and then work on making him okay at those things.

Pretty sure this is basically the Fizdale approach to developing Frank: get him to do things he sucks at and then work on making him okay at those things.

That’s the way he’s developing the team too. First he gets us to play the games. Then at some point in the future we’ll get okay at it.

Man, watching Marcus Morris heroball them to a close loss at home to a Kyrie-less Nets team is about as un- fun as it gets.

Please tell me that they’re at least smart enough to trade Morris.

We’re just as likely to give him the max…

This was a pretty dispiriting game because all the kids pretty much played like butt. We almost got willed to a marginal win by the one-and-done veterans but I guess we avoided that, so yay?

This gon’ be a long season.

The really depressing part is how poorly coached they are and how primitive and aesthetically insulting the offensive scheme is.

And the Dallas pick is going to suck next year, The Knicks got taken to the cleaners, what a shock.

The day after the Mills/Perry presser, Alan Hahn said something that still resonates with me. I’m paraphrasing. Fizdale was brought in to babysit superstars. He’s not a strategic coach.
So here we are with a mishmash of temporary mercenary vets, two draftees that have considerable upside, and a few draftees ( and one free agent) that appear to have the potential to be rotation pieces. Our coaching staff has shown no ability to create a coherent and cohesive plan to exploit our assets.

Mitch didn’t look good. In fact, he should look across the court at Jarrett Allen for some lessons about how to gear down a bit and still be effective. Allen is a good young player. Allen also easily won a tip against Mitch, which I found surprising.

Frank committed one really dumb foul against Dinwiddie, a touch foul at the end of the first half not realizing the Knicks were in the penalty. But he only had three fouls overall and Spencer went to the line 14 times. So it wasn’t just Frank getting burned.

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