The Knicks head to Brooklyn to take on the Nets in part one of a rough back-to-back affair, with the Nets tonight and then the Sixers tomorrow night. Both the Nets and the Sixers have been on crazy hot streaks, with the Nets seemingly poised to take over the top spot in the Eastern Conference, except for the Sixers continuing to win just as much as them, so they never quite get the top spot.
The most amazing thing about the Nets is that they’re doing all of this without Kevin Durant, as James Harden has absolutely taken over the Nets and made them his team very quickly. Durant has now become this astonishing, like, luxury for the Nets. They’re playing really well and they can still flip the switch and add Kevin freakin’ Durant to the squad! It’s really remarkable. Meanwhile, the Sixes lost the previous odds-on favorite for MVP, Joel Embiid, to a knee injury and then they went out and beat the Spurs by something like 245 points o something like that.
These are two tough games for the Knicks.
Now, the bright side of things. One, the Nets just barely edged out the shitty Pistons (granted, Jerami Grant played and, as I noted about the Thunder, it’s shocking bow different some of these teams play when their best player is missing. It’s like they fall apart), so it’s not like they’re invincible and two, the Sixers are still playing without Joel Embiid, after all.
The Knicks will be underdogs in both of these games, but I just have a funny feeling that they’ll find a way to at least split these two games. It’d be awesome if they got that first win tonight and then play with house money tomorrow night, all loosey-goosey (instead of having to worry about dropping below .500).
Let’s go beat up one of the best teams in the NBA, Knicks!
355 replies on “2020-21 Game Thread: Knicks @ Nets”
Harden has been incredible.
What if we had traded Mitch, Frank and four #1s for him?
Harden
Bullock
RJ
Randle
Noel
Would that make us a contender?
Strat, we get your point. You want us to consider an Andre Drummond trade as part of a grand scheme to get Lonzo Ball and change our mind based on this expanded viewpoint.
Here’s the thing, though… this Ball idea is a total figment of your imagination.
Andre Drummond is not the key ingredient to us swinging a trade for Lonzo Ball. He’s just the latest in a long line of “seasoned veterans” than Thibs would rather have than a young kid.
Frank’s breakout game tonight.
I’m ready!
Whenever something stupid might happen, there’s always people trying to spin it as the first step in a series of really smart things that turn out great in the end.
Smart doesn’t come after stupid. More stupid comes after stupid.
reality and what we discuss are not always part of the same single set…
i don’t think ball will be available this year either, the pels are only 2 games out of the play-in…i also don’t think ball will stay in new orleans for next season – he’s gotta go somewhere, why not the knicks…
i have a pretty strong feeling though that even as a restricted free agent, it’ll take some kind of sign and trade deal to get him on a new team’s roster…
Watching the Nets sweat tonight would be a Win! If we try to play it cool and “let’s the more talented team win” we’ll be fucked hard.
We should play like hungry stray dogs against groomed purebred champions to have a chance.
Harden is just now finding the best role for his career going forward, so yeah, I don’t think he would want to go back to a role where he has to carry the team offense. He’s much more dangerous when him being on fire means all your scrubs are suddenly shooting open 3s and getting layups all game long, plus his inevitable 20+ points every night.
I expect Harden to shave his beard after Frank’s D on him tonight!
Doesn’t it just feel like they’ll surprise us and get at least one (maybe even both!) of these? They just have that air about them. Part of it is Thibs playing each game like it is Game 7, but still.
Let’s go Knicks!!!
PS: Didn’t read the news today, why are people talking about Drummond to the Knicks? Does he come with a sweetener?
If they play Top D they’ll have their chance on both games. If they pull their Bucks2ndHalf we’ll go to bed early…
It’s finally happening, IQ starting tonight.
“It’s finally happening, IQ starting tonight.”
And he’ll have to guard Harden or Kyrie.
Have fun rook!
if ever we needed to emphasize our 90’s style basketball – now would be the time…although, since elf started not playing so much – our offensive rating is creeping up…
but, yeah, i hate when we foul like crazy and send the other team to the line all night long, but – for tonight, if we do an excessive amount of bumping and grinding on the nyets – oh well…
whatever, put harden and irving on the line 20 times each, let’s see em get a rhythm going with that…
ha – this is the game you tell frank – no cheap touch fouls, get your money’s worth on them six tonight…
Wow, they’re actually starting Quickley. That’s awesome!
#And he’ll have to guard Harden or Kyrie.#
I’m giving him 6min on the 1stQ max and pray to prove me wrong!
nyets by eight and a half, sounds about right…i’m hoping that this “primetime” game doesn’t lead to a bunch of hero ball by julius, RJ and quik…
we’re gonna get more “nationally” televised (espn, NBAtv) games the rest of the season – let’s see how we react…
Why don’t they start the damn game already?
That’s better.
Butter Stumps holds onto the rebound!!
That call was heinous
Randle dumb shot
Sweet Quick floater…
Nice start.
Is that mike breen …
Well, at least we showed up to play tonight. Hope it lasts.
Good start, that shot by IQ was cray cray
So far, so good. Stop the count!
Who needs D if all 3s are going in!!!???
IQ playing on offense like Frank. Hot potato.
The Nerlin Wall
RJ 1 million % shoots better going left to right
Nerlens with the NO NO NO Geico commercial.
That was a pass to Noel. Had to be
RJ with the floater to nowhere
RJ has difficulty playing against rim protectors. This could be an off night for him.
Noel!!!
Fair to say RJ’s floater isn’t on the level of Quick’s
The Nets can score 7 points in like 5 seconds
Should I?…..Naah, too easy
Kyrie seems offended … ratcheting up the defense … one would think IQ could take advantage of such aggressive play and draw some fouls. Seems afraid this far.
Announcers thought he was gesturing at refs. I think he was gesturing at Nerlens
All of a sudden RJ with the short arm…
This game is dead without Clyde. Doris is asleep at the wheel
Doris is praising the Nets stars too much for my taste
Quick really needs needs attack DeAndre on drives. I like the floater, but DeAndre can’t really defend the rim anymore, no need to settle.
We are making Jeff Green look like a good player.
This is a good team… But we look like a decent team ourselves.
RJ needs to develop his shot enough to just shoot 3s whenever his defender sags that much
Yeah the Knicks aren’t gonna be able to win a shootout and right now they have no clue how to defend the Nets.
I’d like RJ to keep attacking … would be nice if got a call once in awhile …
Kyrie may have the fastest jets I’ve seen on a basketball player.
Yikes, what a handle by Kyrie.
If Jeff Green is gonna go off we have no chance
Didn’t realize Taj could dunk
Quick is ridic
Randle looked like he rushed a shot just to get a 2 for 1… we haven’t even played that bad… kinda annoying. We play shitty stretches just a bit too long…
Green has punished us in the past, he simply hates the Knicks…
We have no chance if we can’t stop Nets’ role players…
I didn’t know the Nets built around Jeff Green.
that’s a keeper right there…
Being that this is a sure L on paper, good start! RJ’s gotta pick it up, though…
Pretty scary that Harden isn’t even trying to score and they put up 35 in the first quarter
Who needs Blake when you already have Jeff fucking Green?
This lineup scares me
5 becomes 10. Boom
That was a travel, Brown
Any chance RJ is trying to impress his godfather? It’s not working.
The game’s over. Isn’t it?
Dreadful
I might have to switch over to Monday Night Raw.
obi should be allowed to call timeout in that situation
Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the horror show…
Wow this got ugly very fast
lmao
This is the Thibs “I Surrender” lineup.
is there 1 thing that Obi does well? Just 1?
Frank literally does nothing.
This 2nd unit without IQ has no chance to score.
Yes. He can raise his hands really high.
What’s that play where the other team’s player cuts to the basket and catches a pass. Can we try that?
Definitely a game where the starters will need to play 40+ mins to even sniff competitiveness
I appreciate Taj, but it’s pretty obvious what a difference no Mitch makes on D
From Vorkunov:
Obi Toppin has airballed 7 of his 20 corner threes this year.
Unbelievable.
Toppin looks way out of his league out there, so much for the “readiest rookie”…
He, Burks and Frank totally derailed this game for us.
Obi might have just given us the worst 5 minutes of basketball an NBA player has ever played…blow-by’s, fouls on 3’s, airballed 3’s put-back to nowhere…he makes me long for Knox.
Kyrie schmoozing Thibs for a free meal?
Burks!
Frank’s magic from 3 is dissipating…
Looking forward to Frank going back to DNP-CD once Rose returns.
If you’d rather see Frank all things considered that’s understandable, but we can retire the idea that he’s genuinely better than Bullock.
There we go Julius. Let’s not give up just yet.
Doris, please shut up.
What we are seeing now is why Thibs has been reluctant to put Quickley in the starting lineup. He was critical for the bench unit scoring before we had Rose. But Rose and Payton are out now. So either the starting unit or the bench unit will be trash depending on where Quickley plays because we have no PGs. Quick is no PG, but at least he can create for himself in whichever unit he plays.
You’re right he stinks. Games like this are extremely good for us to get all this shit out of our systems
Why is Randle settling for bullshit fadeaway one on one with harden
RJ got a call !
Noel is an excellent shot blocker at the rim but to me he seems much worse defending the pick n roll compared to Mitch.
When was that ever an idea?
The idea was that he could eventually be in that role. There’s no way he’s better than Bullock now.
Bullock was similarly terrible at Frank’s age. He’s probably a best case for Frank down the road.
I think Quick has done as well as you could expect vs Kyrie. Tough cover. Green is killing us.
Maybe the Nets should trade Durant and start Green…
Must be a lot of fun to play with this version of Harden. Even makes scrubs like Jeff Green look good.
The Nets team TS is probably like 65%
You can hope to contain Harden and Kyrie, but you can’t contain Jeff Green 😀
What if we had traded for Harden and our lineup was Harden, Bullock, RJ, Randle and Mitch?
That would be a helluva team.
Over/Under on 29.5 pt differential?
It would be alot easier to move on from this game if we didn’t have to play in Philly tomorrow night.
These kinds of shellackings are good in one respect: they disabuse management of the idea that they’re one or two franchise-crippling trades away from relevance
Obi seems very confused by the game of basketball
Can one of our guys steam roll the high screener one or two times. Let’s have some fun …
Our first unit has been pretty good. The second unit has killed us so far.
Mike Vorkunov
@MikeVorkunov
Toppin has taken 20 corner 3s this season for the Knicks. He’s made 3 and airballed 7 of them so far.
Shocking that we’re only down 12…
Too many layups. Drawing some fouls so that’s a positive. Good way to keep it close.
Starters are gonna have to play the whole 2nd half basically
Embiid is out, so that helps!
All things considered being down 12 is encouraging. Let’s see if they can cut this to single digits and make a game out of it in the end.
#Obi seems very confused by the game of basketball#
LoL
Harden finished the quarter with his best Obi impersonation 😀
Again, we have no PG in the 2nd unit. We have no PG in the 1st unit either, but at least Quick can create his own shot. So even though we lack playmaking, we have a few guys in the starting lineup that put the ball on the floor and create something decent for themselves or occasionally find an open guy. The 2nd unit is a nightmare as constructed. That was why Quick was on the bench for so long. They needed someone that could score or create something in that unit. If Rose was in the 2nd unit tonight it would look a lot better. It wouldn’t be good, but it wouldn’t be horrible.
Thibs has to decide whether to sacrifice this game to have non exhausted starters tomorrow night.
I think we know which way he’ll go
If we tighten some screws in D we may proceed a semi-comeback!
If the Nets tho turn it up we re going for an early blowout.
RJ should talk to his godfather and ask him to let us play too!!!
By the way, for all you Frank haters, he has played 15, 7, and 5 minutes (so far tonight) over the last 3 games. So for all the horrors, he has basically had less than 1 bad game of minutes. Good defensive role players have 10-15 game periods where the play poorly on offense. 27 minutes is meaningless. He’s simply useless in the role of trying to initiate the offense.
Towards the beginning of the season I was rather forgiving re: our low 3PA because I thought it was largely a personnel issue, but in light of Randle and Barrett’s improvement, Quickley’s emergence, and Bullock making himself useful we should probably shoot some more damn threes.
Just squandering opportunities. We could be right in this and they are royally fucking up
There’s no doubt he suffers from Thibs’ stated bias in favor of good players
Amen
RJ’s second 3 pointer would have been huge, lead would have been 7
Yes… and it was followed up with a Randle pass attempt to Noel off the iron….
I’d rather see Knox getting Obi’s minutes.
Knicks seem to be playing the passing lanes too aggressive and trying too much to deny passes off the ball. I think with Brooklyn you just need to play straight up D and force them to score one on one all game long and cut off the easy passes for wide open layups and 3pters.
Way too many god dam layups.
Never
Thought I’d say it but me too…
Quickly with two missed free throws today. Wtf
When RJ has been able to get thru the screen he’s been able to disrupt Harris’ shot, forced him to miss the rim on a layup and on a 3pter so far.
It’s funny when James hardens teammate complains about that call
lol IQ got DeAndre Jordan big mad
I agree. Quickley should start from now on because our first unit looks so much better with him in it. We need DRose back to help solidify the 2nd unit.
Guys rotating sagging off joe Harris. How dumb can you be?
Might want to stick with Harris, he’s an ok shooter
Every single damn time the Knicks start to get close to cutting the lead to single digits the Nets hit a 3pter.
Yeah, i think it’s a first for him
I was thinking that but didn’t have the guts to say it.
Well we ARE playing a team with two certain hall of famers on the court. We have a first-time all-star and the next Paul Pierce shooting 2-8 from the field.
He did it last game too.
Let Barrett go at Harris every time
How the fuck are you supposed to play defense against this team when KD returns????
Doris is on the Nets payroll, right?
The only way to beat them is a shootout. The %s are gonna have to go against their big guns simultaneously…
Right.
Oh, didn’t noticed it
Hurts that Barrett isn’t hitting the open 3s tonight. Sorta aiming on that last one
This game looks like a carbon copy of the previous matchup with the Nets,
a decent start in the first, they blew the game open in the second and then a long garbage time with some fake semi comebacks until the end.
The only way to beat them is to score 140 points and be perfect on offense,
we simply don’t have enough talent to go blow for blow against them.
Let this one go and keep your energy for tomorrow night.
We need Mitch ASAP and against top tier teams even Rose and Payton are missed.
If you put Kyrie on our team we’d be 2nd or 3rd in the East
This is very likely a finals team we’re playing, so don’t sweat it
Frank’s first contribution there he shut down shamet
brickathon
I get it IQ… take ur shots. But the quicker you miss em the quicker the nets go up 30
Still in this game…
Isn’t the whole point of Frank that he should just lock down Harden, Kyrie, Harris, or … someone?
Keeping our distance but somehow hanging around
Can you believe we played them even this quarter?
Still only 12 pt down !? :O
Yea I think playing with quickly there for a bit was completely ideal … could just focus on D. Stand in corner on O
There really is no quit in this team. I mean, the Nets will hit a 3 whenever they need to, but it’s not like we’re not trying.
Burks playing abysmally. He’s not even moving when his teammates get in trouble on offense. Just stands there. And his D is pathetic. I normally like the guy. Not this game.
just looking at the box score – we only have 13 assists so far, nyets have 26…
wow, nyets D is really shutting us down, we’re shooting like 38% from the field…
the bright lights ain’t helping us shoot…
Thibs has had it with Obi
Please keep insulting him..
They have no shot of winning if Obi plays another minute
Bad misses here.
Still grindin’…
It’s amazing
No kidding! That worked like a charm.
I was actually thinking taking those two foul shots might wake him up and make him realize he’s in an actual professional basketball game. And so they did.
Agreed. That’s the difference this year. Love to root for this group.
No Obi means better basketball.
We’re cutting them with that serrated knife that isn’t quite a steak knife but a bit more than a butter knife … will it be enough or just some nuisance scrapes. There is some blood in the water
Nice to put a little scare in them,
the effort is always there, this team never quit and that’s good.
Unfortunately Nash is gonna put Kyrie back in to seal it but still a good effort
The Nets have made a habit of letting teams back into blowouts, then doing just enough to hold on for the win.
I would love for the Knicks to steal this game.
I hate Kyrie but he is impossible to guard.
All about getting stops here…
Frank can play defense
RJ at the 4 lineup!
I wouldn’t be shocked if Knox ends up having a longer NBA career than Toppin.
RJ is 10-10 on FTs !? Wow!
Burks!
Definitely some good defense by Frank, fouls aside. Having said that if we want to have a prayer, gonna need to go back to Quickley.
My goodness … eat me
Gotta love this team.
Creating that space getting into Jordan’s body. I fucking love it
STILL GRINDIN’!!!
At the very least, this is a moral victory.
Let’s go!
Yes I do 🙂
They’re close shooting 39% vs 59%, that’s something…
Let’s get this W 🙂
+1
The defensive intensity has been off the charts in the last few minutes
RJ attacking DeAndre is a great play, please more of this and less Burks iso
Thibs has Burks running the point and Frank on the wing. This is a good adjustment.
Frank is a big part of this comeback.
20 year old wing muscling DeAndre Jordan out of the way is pretty fucking impressive
It’s the Frank effect!
Randle even getting a break here. He’s gonna get the attention when he’s back. He needs to make the right play
I’d like to see Randle at the five replacing Taj right now
Yes!
Nets strugle without Jeff Green 😀
Frank’s defense has had a significant impact on this little run despite some questionable foul calls. He’s disrupting both guards at times. This is why you keep praying he eventually hits 3s at good clip over time. It’s because he can help impact games on defense.
Thank God Frank fouled out, IQ please.
How you going to foul out in 16 minutes?
Frank’s 3pt% regressing to the mean…
Frank is a complete fucking stiff. I don’t want to hear anybody pretend that this guy can play in the NBA ever again.
I think Frank played really well
Buy a clue. The only reason they are back in the game is his defense.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up here, but man, this D keeps them in it.
Still can’t find the strings
Frank just cannot catch a break.
We haven’t really missed Mitch in that many games because Nerlens has been so good but we miss him badly tonight
Randle has become such a beast
Randle, IQ and RJ need to take every shot the rest of the game.
Doris gave all kind of love to Frank after he fouled out. Said his presence raised the defensive intensity of the whole team.
I’ll give him that. Although shooting 0-5 isn’t going to cut it…
FrankAnon
You tend to get a lot more breaks if you have talent
RJ back iron. It’s right there
He did. These haters don’t understand how he was disrupting the Nets offense. Thibs did. That’s why he stayed with him instead of pulling him this time like he has in the past. He was impacting the game. It sucks that he missed all his 3 point attempts, but that’s the nature of 3 point shooting for a guy that’s about a 33%-35% 3 point shooter now. He’s going to have some sh$t nights. But you keep plugging away.
Randle IQ RJ and Mitch is a foundation we can definitely build on
that’s gold tnfh 🙂
Yes, hail the guy who fouled out in 16 mins while going scoreless on 0 for 5 shooting.
Bullock, Burks and then Barrett have missed wide open shots in the last few minutes.
The reason the Frankophiles are kind of insufferable is because they insist that everyone who doesn’t love their shitty player doesn’t know how to watch basketball or something
Choke city for Burks.
Bricking too many 3s
Alec has got to hit those shots.
One 3 down the stretch….
We’ll see how much Coach Thibs values Frank’s D when Rose and Payton are back. My guess is ‘not much’.
Fake comeback was fun but I’m expecting a blowout tomorrow night in Philly unfortunately.
LOL
I meant the calls against his nearly perfect defense.
Shit, maybe if he took 19 shots, he’d have made at least 6… like Quickley.
Fun game, too bad Alec Burks isn’t good
If you can’t see Frank’s contribution tonight you should just watch the games staring at the boxscore
I wish Randle would have gone to the basket more, like that pass-out to Frank was unselfish but he’s gotta take command there.
I don’t think Frank is terribly good. But it was clear he was giving Kyrie trouble really for the first time tonight.
Problem in this game is Kyrie and Harden put up superstar numbers.
I can’t wait until Frank is no longer on this team so we don’t have to read about his intangibles or whatever anymore.
Man, this team has no quit.
I love the effort
Does 8 second count restart after
Timeout ?
The Nets know that we’re for real now. I love it.
You kidding… we are gonna be getting Ligue 1 updates
Once again, is anyone here even remotely suggesting that Frank is anything more than a scrappy backup wing at this point?
Bullock’s defense has been outstanding today
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say that Frank’s offense makes him overall a crap NBA player. But he totally shut down whoever he was guarding that last quarter. The problem is the Nets have two superstar guards and Frank could only guard one. The guy Frank wasn’t guarding scored at will.
I’m not a Frankophile, but I admire good defenders.
Ugh now they advance the ball ?!?! How the fuck does that happen
I even said Frank played good defense tonight! That’s just not gonna keep you in the NBA if you literally cannot do anything else on a basketball court, and exaggerating the hell out of its importance doesn’t make you smarter than people who know a terrible player when they see one.
Challenge
kind of annoying the Nets went from trapped on their own baseline all the way to the other end of the court just by calling two time outs.
That’s a jump ball.
Nah that was a foul.
LOL
not a foul
On balance, Frank played very good D but was a complete stiff on O. He was certainly a factor in the comeback so there’s no reason to bash him.
big nothing from the bench tonight, noel with the goose egg…
No way
Frank’s in his fourth year in the league and he has not added a single fucking thing to his game. He’s the same shitty player today that he was the first day he stepped onto the court.
All ball
Kyrie is 13 for 18 and literally fouled out Frank but yes by all means he shut him down in the 4th quarter. Its a 3pt game and Frank in 16 mins went 0 for 5 and fouled out, kinda a problem.
Sometimes it’s nice to see a game played like it’s game 7 of the finals…
Unreal
that was a shitty call. come on, fix it.
Coaching is so important. this team is disciplined, even at their young age.
love to see this kind of D
Come on. No foul
You know who else stepped up defensively during the comeback? Bullock, Randle, Burks and RJ plus they actually contributed too by you know scoring pts.
yes!
That was completely phucked up
jump ball
Why any two players
I am watching on a tiny phone screen lol.
No quit.
Wow. this team
Refs even got the jump ball wrong.
Nets will foul to prevent the 3 point shot.
Bet they go to Burks, but I think that is a mistake
Pretty impressive how they never just committed the automatic foul you don’t see that very often
Yeah. I’m watching. IQ for 3?
IQ get fouled shooting a 3pter please.
My sleeping neighbors better hope we don’t send this game to OT.
Randle blew it.
wtf
God awful
Shoot the fucking ball.
lol classic knicks
FUCK
Refs blew the game.
Randle is going after the ref, I think.
Love this team.
no f’n way
Heady vet play by Obi getting in Randle’s way before he got suspended
Well that was some bullshit. Weird play to call but Kyrie clearly got a piece.
That sucks. If Thibs won the last challenge does he to have another?
I mean, I guess not. But two terrible calls against the Knicks there.
And now the 2min report will say that Randle was right…
Frank was so bad that he had the highest /- of any Knick.
If Frank had 7 fouls to give we would have won. Definitely.
Cmon ref if Kyrie doesn’t get the ball you think Randle is just gonna not shoot it? Terrible
scott foster hates puppies
Odds of hitting the 3 with 5 seconds to go aren’t great but the refs absolutely blew that
Don’t blame that shit on Randle.
Nice to see Obi restrain Randle despite a suspension being in his own interest
And what should’ve gone down in history as the “Frank Ntilikina game” has been wasted.
Frank played well, but only on D. And saying he was the main force (or was it the only force?) behind the comeback is too much, don’t you think?
Love Randle’s passion, he’s a great Knick
Grand theft basketball, ouch.
Thibs is an all time great coach. It’s almost mind boggling what he’s getting out of this team so far. This is Red Holzman and Pat Riley level Knicks coaching. There’s not a lot of skill on this team and they also had no PG tonight. Yet they gave the Nets all they could handle down the stretch. They out executed a team with Irving and Harden at the guards down the stretch. It’s impossible, but they play so ridiculously hard and smart on defense and just never quit. I can’t wait until we get some more talent and these kids develop to see what he can do with a good team.
Proud of everyone on the team. What fight! And Obi gets credit for preventing Randle from getting suspended — 1 thing he does well
man.. we had our most important young player take over the 4th quarter on both ends of the court .. including locking up harden and getting a block on the same possession….
and we’re still talking about frank…..
this is why we can’t have nice things…
Refs blew the call leading to the jump ball. Then they blew the call moving the jump ball to mid court and allowing anyone to jump. Then they blew the call against Randle to end the game.
At least they were consistent.
Refs fucked up so bad the NBA is going to need to let teams have an additional challenge
Some strong Tim Donaghy vibes in the final 30 seconds
Last fun win at BK was when Kidd hit a late 3pter and was fouled in the process. Think Melo mightve scored over 40 that game too.
Good point
Wish we had Haliburton.
Love this team, fun loss, great defense in the fourth quarter.
We’re not in Nets’ class, but it stinks to be hosed like that.
Randle with another monster game,
it was nice to watch RJ going 10-10 on FT, good game by Bullock,
IQ with a very bad 6-19 night,
Frank was instrumental to the comeback with his defense and was tortured by the refs, but alas is 0-9 in the last three games and that wont cut it when Rose and Payton are back.
We really need Mitch and after this tense game I hope they’ll have enough energy left for tomorrow.
It’s so weird that you don’t maintain your challenge if you win it. Thibs couldn’t challenge that last call that would’ve been overturned in 10 seconds because he successfully challenged the other shitty call.
I wonder what happens first: Strat turning on Thibs for not recognizing Frank’s greatness or Strat turning on Frank for not impressing Thibs enough to play regularly.
Or option 3: total and complete cognitive dissonance
Sweat the nets
Check
Yeah, RJ is fortunate to play alongside the great Frank! 😉
Healthy Mitch we win this one, but the Nets don’t have their second best player either. That team is going to be absurd if everyone can stay healthy
Who said that? Not me!
Games like tonight is why I hope the Knicks make the playoffs this year, super fun and intense plus it has to do wonders for guys like RJ and IQ (plus Mitch when he returns) to play in games like this. Same for Randle who has never played in a playoff game either.
Good point, isn’t that how football works?
No, i don’t think it was you. But someone said, and because of that people started saying what Frank did in reality, and although he played well, he wasn’t the main force. Hell, he fouled out and no one noticed his absence.
He was essentially Nerlens Noel at the PG spot. Zero offense.
I’m really sick of the Frankophiles on this board claiming that Frank WASN’T behind the Kennedy assassination when he OBVIOUSLY WAS. OPEN YOUR EYES, SHEEPLE.
They all played great defense during that stretch, but the Nets offense is basically Harden and Irving controlling things. Frank was disrupting both of them at times and it was messing up their offense. He was so overzealous (which happens with him when he’s amped up on defense) that he fouled a lot, but some of them were “no respect” calls that some other players might have gotten away with.
I don’t care what other people here think. Thibs understood what was going on and that’s why he stayed with him. If he’s not giving you anything on offense you can’t stay with him unless he impacting the game defensively. Tonight he was. Thibs is handling it correctly. We just have to get him on the court with a PG and he’s got to hit some of those open 3s because he’s useless trying to initiate the offense and especially useless if the 3 isn’t dropping at all. The latter is the key to his future.
Nets only flaw is lack of focus in blowouts. That won’t happen in the playoffs.
A savvy point guard like Rubio would help this team a lot.
Lo plus La = Lola
Lola here’s an apple
Frank sucks offensively
and
Coach benches him constantly
but
Coach puts Frank to close the game
and
Team makes a comeback
What really sucks is Randle made the smart decision to not heave the ball at the basket. He did the right thing and got punished for it. Credit to Irving for the good hands, but damn that’s frustrating not to get a fair shot at it.
I’ve never seen a defense shut down that many inbounds plays in a row.
The key to Frank’s future is finding a team in Europe that is willing to pay him 7 figures per year.
frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank frank
embrace the frank…
i don’t think thibs wants him…
Nets almost got Franked.
Well, they did.
LOL
We tried to compete the Nets offensively and got raped for 3 quarters.
When Thibs woke up and decided to play serious D we got ourselves a chance.
And guess what?
Thibs values Frank as a Defender!
Wow!
What a surprise!
RJ and Randle with monster games and we’re talking about Frank. Sometimes i doubt the assessment that we’re the smartest Knicks forum of all. 😛
I’m surprised the Nets took “only” 29 three pointers (hitting 41%),
that’s around the Knicks’ average for the year.
We’re starting to shoot more of it (42 today, 35 at OKC) but maybe it’s only a reflection of Rose and Payton missing games.
We all love RJ and Randle.
There’s no controversy there.
Bullock with a very good game also, 50% from 3P land and 100% on 2P, with 6 Rbs and superb defense. Better defense than Frank’s, imho.
I think we should offer him 4 years/$100
It was nice to see … just too many open misses… two that Barrett missed have been relative gimmies for him lately too. Burks was just laying them. Frank couldn’t stay luke warm and toppin still can’t hit the rim…
Quickly heaved a few too many early in the clock
Mavs were out rebounded 46-33 in a loss to the Clippers despite having some 7’ 6” guy at center.
Sweet
#RJ and Randle with monster games and we’re talking about Frank. Sometimes i doubt the assessment that we’re the smartest Knicks forum of all. :P#
Trying to find the missing links between the numbers and the video and read between the lines of the box score and the body language of the players ain’t always obvious or easy to get but i think we collectively give it a decent try here!
I saw the score was close and snuck a few minutes of watching despite being at work. But it was a Chinese broadcast. I couldn’t tell what happened when Randle went up and came down without shooting since I couldn’t understand the announcers. It looked like they just called a travel, but it was so wierd looking that can’t be all there was to it. Can someone please enlighten me on what happened?
I can see two more guys like Knox and Toppin on our roster next year.
Sweet.
Kyrie hit the ball as Randle was shooting, which should have negated the travel call. We wuz robbed.
Is that true if you don’t bobble the ball and then come down with it?
Thanks
I don’t know what counts as a bobble but he definitely lost it for a split second while he was in the air. You can pretty clearly see him try to adjust in the replays.
The game was lost in Frank’s pseudofouls!!! lol
I’m actually kind of excited to see the team with Mitch back- I think they’ve really improved offensively since the Rose trade. Hopefully, the improved offense will balance out the tough schedule.
Even if Randle didn’t lose control of the ball after Kyrie got a piece of it, it still would be a jump ball once he came down. We were Scott Fostered.
I love this team.
I missed the game but it looks like we took them to the wire and played our hearts out, which is all we can ask for. I wish I had seen it, even if it was a loss in the end.