After their excellent win against the Hornets yesterday and the Heat’s resounding loss to the Bucks, the Knicks only have to win today to get the #4 seed, home court in the first round of the playoffs and the Atlanta Hawks instead of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Luckily, fate had one last piece of magic pixie dust in store for the Knicks, as the Celtics, locked into the #7 seed and thus, the play-in game (Ha ha!), are resting literally their top seven guys, including all their starters.
With the Knicks of old, the concept of the trap game might scare you, but this is Thibs. Every game is Game 7, so they are going to demolish the Celtics and get that #4 seed and then we will see what kind of crazy lineup the Hawks will use against the Rockets once that game also becomes meaningless.
Let’s go, bring it home, Knicks!
256 replies on “2020-21 Game Thread: PLAYOFFS BOUND Knicks vs. Payton Pritchard and Five Guys Off the Street (Probably Named Sully) For the #4 Seed!”
Take No Prisoners
You know, we were a bit lucky that Devonte missed that shot yesterday, but he never should have had that opportunity. That was such a clear and obvious foul that caused Burks to lose that ball out of bounds. Still, did anyone think that MIL would smoke the Heat so thoroughly last night?
Let’s go Amazin’ Knicks! Get that 4th seed! I want to see Knox, Pinson, Harper, and Pelle get some burn!
Go New York Go New York Go!
Frank made an excellent effort to contest Graham at the last second. Distracted him enough that he was wide left by a foot.
Here’s hoping that the Knicks get enough of a lead that Thibs plays Obi a full 10 minutes.
Quick-Quick!
Hoping that Kevin Knox gets to play the entire 4th quarter.
Mil w/o a “destroy everyone” mentality would have been pathetic so I’m happy for them for not taken the “easy” way out and also happy for us for having our chance to the 4th seed.
Mil losing on purpose to Mia would have been…”bad karma”
Just beware the possibility of The Luke Kornet Game.
If we win today, we will have finished as high as could possibly been imagined. I mean, could you ever realisticaly think that we would be ahead of the Sixers, Bucks or Nets?
A few months ago in a clear heavy struck of optimism i had said that IF ALL WENT North we could finish 5th.
4th? Not even me!!!
Metallica’s Seek and Destroy should be on repeat on MSG right now!
The Luke Kornet game is definitely happening, I’m sure of it. We still win anyway.
Obadiah! Go Knicks!
the season ain’t done yet, at least four more games after today, but, how amazing to see a player like julius randle suddenly wake up after six or so years in the league to realize he can nearly single handily will a team in to the playoffs…
go ju!!!
Still trying to wrap my head around the fact with a win today the Knicks will finish 4th and have homecourt in the 1st rd of the playoffs, its really unfathomable when we go back to December and I was one of the most optimistic people cause I thought a realistic best case scenario was 30 wins and possibly the 10th seed.
When we were capped out and asset poor, we turned Porzingis into cap space and assets that ultimately netted us Julius Randle, Reggie Bullock, Immanuel Quickley, and Derrick Rose… and we still have two first round picks ahead us… and Strat still wants to beat this drum.
This was our Herschel Walker trade.
Now it’s the time for those expensive beers you always wanted to check out!
Playoffs deserve Quality Beers!
I feel so good for Clyde and Breen. Watching this franchise every night, they’ve suffered more than all of us put together. Here we go!
Yeah
Happy for Clyde and Mike too
They’re true knicks junkies
They deserve better
Clyde wearing green to jinx the Celtics. “I still hate them,” he says. Love it.
There are no guarantees in life. Let’s win.
Let’s Do it!
I remember when I was worried we wouldn’t shoot enough threes this year
Put Payton in a rocket to the moon.
Why is Elf out there
We can’t have this bullshit from Payton in the playoffs.
Knicks defense better be alert cause the Celtics are gonna put up 50 threes today.
for all the hills to die on…why thibs is picking the elf hill is strange
Luke Kornet is no Kevin Knox
Payton is the Celtics’ secret sixth man.
RJ with the pointless blown lay-up to open the game.
Clyde has gotten increasingly brutal when it comes to Payton, and it’s hilarious
At least Eldrid is making clear he should see no court time in the playoffs. I’m not sure what has been worse today, his offense of his defense.
The Knicks are +5 with Payton on the court today…
Love watching Julius shoot comfortable jumpers with time facing the basket.
Think of Elf as the team mascot. The team gets a lift every time he leaves the game.
Payton should try the ice bucket challenge right now
Feels like a preseason game.
Given every blown assignment, missed shot, and turnovers, we’d be up by over 10 by now without Elf. Obi must be getting furious — his potential for 10 minutes of court time is dropping.
Is it my bad eye test, or do the Knicks often have problems picking up the man rolling to the basket?
In a funny way, the Knicks seem to require intensity to play well…
Being the favourites to win don’t help these knicks
Maybe the Knicks are tanking to play the Bucks.
They seem unaware of the significance of this game focusing on the opposition instead.
I hate these kinds of games…
What’s going on? Can’t hit a shot!
No one told me Tacko was going to play. This is like Christmas.
That was a pretty pathetic 1st quarter.
We need fire and desire!!!
embarrassing
I don’t know if Waters and Edwards are so small or it’s just an effect of playing next to Tacko.
Without Payton now to start the 2nd we should start to get a lead.
This game is another example that we can’t keep the foot off the pedal.
We need to be 100% focused even to beat a G-league team.
Luckily Thibs will scold them enough to right the ship…
Let’s Get Serious!
This is annoying.
Thibs switch it up!! Put in our second unit and put all the starters on the bench for the rest of the game . Be a competitor! Show some guts
Rose over Tacko. Classic
Obi!!! Coming into his own. He is super quick on his cuts.
Still gotta shake off the last of that Elf dust before we get that pixie dust going.
Celtics scrubs getting alot of respect from the refs.
thibs should go with a mix of anyone who wants to play hard…half these guys are sleeping
Offense looks so much better with burks handling the ball
Shoot the open 3
Side note, Aaron Judge is still pretty awesome.
Five things I like about Obi Toppin’s game.
1. He has improved on defense. He is no longer a sieve.
2. He is grabbing contested rebounds with fervor.
3. He has great hands. He catches virtually every pass.
4. He has improved his 3. He now gets hard close outs.
5. He is punishing close outs.
This is very annoying, if predictable
Crowd seems more lifeless than the players.
absolutely no defense…
Burks or Bullock? I think Burks, if we can only keep one of them.
Burks: “I got this.”
One player showed up today, burks.
Alec “cool as a cucumber” Burks
3 and D rest of the game
2 minutes of Frank would wake this team up. Lol.
RJ!
RJ too strong
This is more like it!
This is much more like it. Obi may yet have the opportunity to explode for 13 points.
Noel is awesome
Clyde, “Another brick! Pritchard has built a house with a five car garage.” LOL
Nice stretch there.
If the PG rotation for the playoffs isn’t Burks/Rose, we riot.
Finally!
My urge to vomik is slightly lower…
Cross court passes always dangerous
As soon as they start playing hard defense again the game changes completely. Noel blocking shots and keeping the ball in play is a very underrated quality.
This is more like it
Crazy moment in Premier League today: Liverpool keeper comes up for a corner kick in injury time and heads in the game winner. Never seen that happen before
Bullurks 7-8 and 6-6 from three. We are going to miss those guys next year.
One day, one of those blocks by Nerlens is gonna get embedded in the floor.
Yeah D-Mar. That was AMAZING. They needed the goal badly to keep their Champions league bid alive. Just awesome.
I hope we can resign the Bu-Bu Gang at a reasonable price…
Burks playing the point is our secret weapon.
As much as I hate Liverpool and the keeper who scored (Alisson), that was one of those magical moments.
Just star burks over elf on the second half, elf should be the backup
Alas, Jordan Montgomery is not… 🙁
I thought the Wiz were poised to ascend to 7th but Westbrook and Beal are laying bricks down in Washington today. Hope they pull it together bc they’re a tough matchup for the Celts.
Wow, that giant guy on Boston is so interesting. Whereas Boban and Bol and Bradley and Nevitt, and Mureson and all those other abnormally (7’5″+) tall centers always looked so awkward and weird, this guy looks and moves like a regular player, he’s just super-duper-sized. (Is the jury still out on his ability to impact a 21st century basketball game, or is he merely a throw-away game body in this league?)
each game…payton finds new ways to embarrass himself
Payton getting himself in playoff shape )-:
Payton is truly amazing. He either does absolutely nothing with the ball (he’s handed it back to Randle 3 times on 2 possessions) or he does the dumbest thing possible, like attack a 7 footer.
Knicks inexplicably (Payton is playing) giving up their 1st half lead
The only way we lose this game is if Payton plays the whole 2nd half
Elf is playing criminally badly. But he’s out to start the second half. Thibs will start him in the playoffs. Just get used to it.
There are no words for Elfrid Payton. And to think he was always bad but not this bad. Maybe related, offense on fire to start this 2nd half …
Even Barrett knows that one is funny.
at some point…even the team has to question the logic of payton on the court…is thibs watching a different game?
Payton needs a hug
What does thibs see in Payton! He can’t shoot, play defense , pass or penetrate. Wtf
Serious question, when was the last game Payton shot decently from the floor?
RJ with the long prayer
this is a perfect example of how you have to look at opportunity cost when it comes to Payton. The Celts were cold AF to start the 2nd half. It’s not enough to say he was plus or minus whatever. You have to consider where we could have been if we had come out strong.
That might have been RJ’s furthest make ever.
He’s 0-4, 1 assist, 2 turnovers so far today.
he really does.
We survived The Plague minutes and now we can win this game…
He’s so bad that I’m starting to think it’s a comedy act that the whole team is playing with us…
11 points on 4 possessions since since Rose replaced Payton. Imagine starting a half like that!
That’s a great blooper from Breen, and response by Clyde
Two broadcasting treasures
Come on Hubert, it’s just a coincidence! 😉
No, it’s not….
I really didn’t like leaving Jabari so open on that 3…
Celtics have been playing zone for the last few possessions since Fall came back in. Stevens need to adjust because Knicks were getting open 3s by having Fall’s man set a screen on the perimeter.
Anybody watching this game on ESPN should be banned…
Until Fall can play defense outside of the lane, he is not a rotation player.
RJ is a bull. Give it a few more years once his body fills out, he’s gonna be a load to guard in the paint
Noel’s running around like a madman out there. I’m liking his energy.
Had my Easter Sunday with the goddaughters today, so only now i’m starting to watch. How are we doing?
Greg Anthony!? how did Mike Breen get that trivia question wrong?? I listened to him broadcast those games!
16 point lead, niceee.
Burks looks like he should be playing upright bass in a jazz combo.
RJ goofed a breakaway at the end of the quarter. He was not sure whether to pass, attack the rim or put up a shot, so he traveled.
Frankie Smokes baby!
A few seconds of Elite D!
He had Taco Bell on his mind.
6 seconds of Frank is greater than 6 minutes of Payton.
Finally IQ hit a shot…
Taj just rung Tacko’s bell…
Jesus that’s the weirdest thing to write and yet its 100% correct and I don’t even know why…
Burks is groooovy
I’m almost able to breathe again…
Can the Knicks get to garbage time? I doubt Thibs will put in Knox before 2:00 remaining, unless they are up over 25.
Does anyone know a good recipe for roast crow?
I’m still waiting for our 3pt defense to revert to the mean…
No but I have a great dessert recipe for humble pie
Luke Kornet is on the Celtics now? Thought he was on the Bulls
This is not the Immanuel Quickley game…
Clyde being happy is the best thing that can possibly happen, I don’t even care about the wins
Clyde likes Waters’ fluidity.
I see glimpses of Larry Nance Sr, the dunk king who beat Dr J, in Obi.
There will be no garbage time. This is a nail biter.
Waters is raining on our parade
Some of the Knicks want another overtime…
Celtics scrubs are better than the starters 😛
The starters on some bullshit right now, come on
one thing I’ve learned this season is to never complain about how many minutes these guys get. All that whining about Randle and Barrett playing 42 mins in February turned out to be pretty pointless.
If your horses can run, and they want to run, let ‘em run.
Don’t play with our hearts knickerbockers
This is not what I was hoping for…
I’m getting panic attacks
5 minutes to the playoffs.
Rose is obviously hurt.
We could use some Frankie Smokes on the Waters guy!
No way Stevens wins the challenge
He hurt his shoulder yesterday and was grimacing
Lose the Alec Burks at PG thing, Thibs. It’s not going to work.
What the hell are they doing??
Kornet is our 6th man
Noel!!!!
Nerlens the savior
Noel is a winner.
LOL
And Frank comes in.
My heart is racing.
I’m too old for this
Exciting till the last min!
This league pass was definitely worth its money!
Never in doubt.
YASSSSSS
This was part of the plan, to practice one possession end of games for the playoffs 😀
We’re gonna file that under “a win is a win” and never talk about it again.
HOME COURT IN THE PLAYOFFS!
I’ll take it. 4-seed, home court, beating the Celtics.
Clyde said “The Knicks giving their fans what they wanted” and my son deadpans “A heart attack?”
Home court advantage… just amazing! :)))
Jesus fucking hell!
This gives me zero confidence against trae young. We’re fucked
Seriously that would have been one of the most excruciating losses ever…
Yup!
We definitely didn’t make it easy, did we?
Anyone who didn’t see us getting the 4th seed at the beginning of the season is obviously sane
A win is a win and I don’t want to talk about this last two games anymore…
I guess if ATL manages to lose to HOU & MIA wins against DET, then we’re 5th.
Thank you Romeo Langford for that inexplicable foul
that was a perfect wrap to this regular season….
Who wants Elf’s jersey?
The refs clearly hate Frank. Why I don’t know, but no one in the league gets called for more BS fouls than him unless they are guarding MJ, James, or someone like that. Even Van Gundy said that one was ridiculous. He can’t breath the wrong way without getting called.
Thank goodness they didn’t blow this one, but you could sort of see them take their foot off the gas defensively for awhile and you just can’t do that.
No, seeding is already set, we’re 4th, ATL 5th, MIA 6th, no matter what.
MIA can’t get us and ATL has the tie breaker against the Heat.
Noel, man. What a game.
Nerlens again the unsung hero…his blocks were cataclysmic.
Funny how the conversation reverts to a guy who played 10 seconds…
Wiz came back. Boston vs Washington is gonna be a helluva play in game. We might get Lakers v Warriors, too.
So who had 41 in the preseason thread?
Yeah, second game in row where Nerlens had huge plays down the stretch.
More had the inverse.
Noel.
I hope he’s a Knick next season. I really, really, really want him back.
#So who had 41 in the preseason thread?#
1 troll, 1 comedian and 1 madman!
Wins by the Lakers and Blazers tonight would ensure our pick is either 19th or 20th. A Lakers win, though, would give them home court in a potential finals matchup with us. Not sure which way to root on that one.
Hawks are more talented than the Knicks but they’re awful defensively, Knicks in 6.
Bring on Clint Capela! The Noel/Mitch tag team is gonna take down Clint!!
Turned it off at the half. Not the final score I expected.
No such thing as a bad win.
Hubert,
You think we’re making the finals?
LOL. Not sure I expected to read that this season 😉
Toppin’s gonna dunk all over Gallinari. Danilo can’t guard Obi!
Any team in the top 6 is a formidable challenge, so having home court vs. the Hawks is about as good of a situation as we could have hoped for. It will help to be able to rest, practice, and to study them, so hooray for the play-in!
***The refs clearly hate Frank.***
The refs, like just about everybody else in the world, don’t give a shit about Frank Ntilikina.
I have a spot ready to host us for a playoff game viewing. It’s the same bar (Eastpoint) we used for the last meet up.
that’s some funny shit…and, damn if if ain’t been true near all year…
Funny and true
jinx, geo
jinx rama 🙂
Atlanta offensive potential is scary and with McMillan they got better on defense.
Young, Collins, Bogdanovic, Lou Williams, Gallinari, Hunter (back from injury), Huerter, Snell (56,9% 3PT… for the season!) plus Capela that always kills us.
It will not be easy, we’ll need to play much, much better than the last three games.
In Thibs we trust.
Guys, we get to sit around and chill while watching a play in double header featuring Boston v Washington and (potentially) LA v Golden State. How great is that?
What a doubleheader that will be. This tournament is going nowhere.
I don’t really have words to describe how I feel about 4th. It’s unreal. Not only unpredictable, but totally laughable, even borderline insane. Mind blowing.
I don’t know what happens for them from here, but it doesn’t seem impossible they will win the first round. It doesn’t seem impossible they could win the second round. I’m on cloud 9 whether they win anything (so long as they don’t straight up choke and embarrass themselves), but the idea that they could be in the ECF….wha? huh? Inconceivable.
Congrats to all of us! Finally some playoff basketball, and without having to mortgage the future to do so.
I swear, losing that fucking game might have been the end of me. Between the hatred of the Celts and thinking of their diehards mocking us, the fact that it was their scrubbiest scrubs, the blowing of a 21 point lead, the loss of two spots in the standings, the consequence of playing the Bucks instead of the Hawks, losing home court advantage, and capping off a magically scrumptious meal of a season with a flaming turd for dessert, I still can’t express how fucking disturbing that last quarter was. It would have taken half the shine off of this year.
Nighmares Ranked
Imagine losing today at the end…
Imagine that DGraham 3 goin in…
Imagine having Fizdale this season!
This! 🙂
+1
I don’t think I would watch much of the playoffs we lost for similar reasons lol. I kept some faith after the Lakers loss because there was still hope, but if we lost to the scrubs of my both most hated teams ever in this fashion I would be so incredibly angry.
We got the match-up we wanted and the position we wanted, now to get out of this mini funk and get back to solid intensity in games.
Had em the whole way! Seriously, though, it was nice to see RJ with a better shooting game. He’d had some clunkers.
Who had under 22 wins projected at the start of the year?
On night like this watching Steph Curry and Draymond Green play together is such a pleasure…
I should mention that I played in an fullcourt pickup game outdoors this am for the first time in two years, shook off the rust had a game winner to boot,. Not bad for 63!
doesn’t it feel like the knicks simply play to their competition, or – did those celtics “scubs” play a decent game with effort?
we’ve had a few games where we were able to dribble out the ball, just seems like every game since december has been a scrum with the game in the balance every fourth quarter…it’s a bit exhausting, can’t imagine what a thrilling ride this season has been for the locker room…
I might be wildly overestimating how many people care about basketball in NY right now, but with the city roaring back to life this spring we could get a real Rally Around The Knicks movement.
That other shoe that you all have been waiting to drop almost hit the floor with two minutes left in the season. But still no thud. Amazing.
So, what is still do be determined? Who poor Phoenix and Utah have to face after dueling to the finish in the west? Who would you rather face in the first round, Lakers, Warriors or anybody else on the western bracket?
Honestly, the Knicks might have the most winnable match-up in the entire playoffs in round one. Crazy.
One of ther best things about this season is keeping the Nets off the back page…it’s still a Knicks town for sure.
Honestly, I felt queasy about this game going in to it. When a bunch of scrubs can play freely and try to make an impression on their coach/FO with nothing to lose, that’s always a dangerous game. Even NBA scrubs are good enough to beat a good team if they get confident and the good team presses a bit. So all in all it was a fine win, but just so painful to watch.
when the knicks are good it’s always rally around the knicks in this town… we captivated the nation when we simply had a winning streak with a no name pg off the scrap heap running the show…
I guess so… but for real, how many people from the linsanity days even still live in NY? Hard to guess the makeup of this town right now. Maybe no one cares?
No one wants to play the Knicks and I don’t blame them. We leave black and blue marks.
****Hard to guess the makeup of this town right now. Maybe no one cares?****
Maybe Kyrie Irving is the emotional leader of New York now…
Knicks in 5.
Payton will make young miserable.
If the Nets win a championship they will gain lots of fair weather fans. If they make the finals, they will still have some gain but that won’t last. If they lose before then, it’s a huge win for the Knicks.
18 here
I watched the game on DVR (so to speak) this morning after I got up. In the fourth quarter, the Knicks looked tired as Boston made its run, and I realized the second game of a back to back was affecting them. It was the second game of a back to back for Boston too, but I realized that since they were resting all their starters it basically wasn’t the second game of a back to back for all the guys they had on the floor. And they looked much fresher than the Knicks.
I figured the Knicks would have a bottom 5 offense and maybe a league average defense in the best case scenario, and would play at a 25-30 win pace.
Instead it’s an elite defense, and an offense that still ranked fairly low, 23rd overall. I underestimated Thibs’ ability to get this team to play defense. Going from the #23 defense to #3 in a year is an impressive achievement, you have to hand it to the guy.
Coach of the year for thibs?
If by ‘young’ you mean Z-Man’s son, then yes, likely…
Missed the second half to go eat in a restaurant for the first time in like 14 months. I cannot believe we’re going to host a playoff series.
Checked our first two game threads of the season out of curiosity.
It’s really amazing how some comments feel like December was yesterday while others are completely erased from memory.
What’s also fun is the amount of crow-preordering comments!
I thought maybe, maybe if things broke right for us we could win like 34 games and get the last play in spot. I couldn’t even imagine a scenario where we got the fucking 4 seed aside from half the league dying of covid.
“Sarcasm can be Prophetic”
The Preseason Game Threads are even better!
*Early Bird
December 11, 2020 at 5:58 pm
Also, this is definitely a “Let’s keep Randle all season because we can make the playoffs” lineup.*
last year you kind of got the idea that the roster wasn’t as terrible as our record from the previous few seasons…randle and elf (maybe our two most promising signings), looked terrible, we all thought mitch needed more time on the court, i hardly remember reggie playing, we knew knox and frank were suspect picks signings – still i thought the previous, whatever many coaches since woodson sucked, really bad…
our roster has steadily improved over time, first with character, then with talent…i figured with the players we had, whom had been successful role players elsewhere, RJ getting a little better and thibs on the sideline we would win at least 27, things go right we get to 33 wins…6 games below .500 was our ceiling, reference expectations for the season…we had a lot of really tough spots on our schedule…up until the memphis game we seemed to be keeping right on track with that narrative…
sixteen and four since then…forty one wins, and except for maybe a handful – the rest have all come with extreme raised rates of stressful viewing, oddly enough, i’m beginning to anticipate positive outcomes…there are many times that for stretches in a game we’re able to defend well enough to slow and frustrate opponents, and we’re beginning to cash in on the cheapest scoring in nba history – the 3 pointshot, with the bonus of having a player shooting a 40 foot jumpshot…it’s good to have one of those on your team these days…
That was me, too. The wild thing about this season is even those of us who expected Thibs to get the most out of this team had no idea what the most was. I never imagined getting the best possible season from Julius Randle and RJ Barrett would mean this. And I thought Derrick Rose was washed. Now they’re the three best players on a top 4 team in the East. Remarkable. Never knew they had it in them.
Point taken. I guess I notice some things that no one else cares about when it comes to certain players. Usually, the stars get calls and rookies have to earn some respect. Frank has a reputation around the league as a defender but is constantly getting called for things regular players would never get called for. It’s hard to be a top defender if the refs won’t let you breath.
It’s going to bite us in the ass in a big game eventually. Then we’ll see if people care or just vent that Frank got called for a critical foul that he shouldn’t have been called for when he comes in for defense at the end.
Our win total was always contingent on whether RJ improved (some improvement seemed very likely) and whether our rookies would be productive in their first year. Over and above that Thibs figured to be worth a few games. What no one saw coming was Randle’s huge leap as a 3 point shooter and playmaker and RJ turning into a spot up sniper on his 3s. That changed a lot of things.
That’s part of the game. We are so conditioned to not expect our young players to get better because our development has been horrible for years that we all underrated what a good coaching staff can do for development. This is one of those occasions where we all learned something and should just be happy we were wrong.
there are some crazy 3pt shooting %s around the league… but no where near as many than this team:
Alec Burks – .406
Reggie Bulllock – .407
Julius Randle – .411 (!)
RJ Barrett – .401 (!!)
Derrick Rose – .411 (!!!)
i’m not sure how much this is repeatable for next year… the league has generally had 20 to 30 40%+ 3pt shooters over the last 20 years… this year there were over 50…
the defense was a big reason to this surprising season… i think the 3pt shooting had a lot to do with it also… not complaining tho..
https://nypost.com/2021/05/16/elfrid-payton-hits-bottom-with-knicks-starting-job-in-danger/
We caught a ton of breaks this season:
– Burks and Rose the only players missing games for COVID
– Mitch being the only player missing a significant number of games due to injury
– Randle and RJ staying injury free
– Numerous games where the opponent was missing a key player or players
– Ja missing a bunny at MSG which would have continued a difficult losing streak
– Graham missing a 3 for Charlotte that would have put us in the 6th seed
But you know what? After years of suffering, we Knicks fans deserve it!
I have to flex a bit, because I did predict .500 or better in the poll. But you know what they say about a broken clock. Anyway, I say it around here periodically and it’s usually crickets but the thing about sports are the statistical anomalies. Most of the time the outcome is predictable but we watch because of shit like this. The unexpected does happen…
So the Lakers are facing the Warriors in the play-in game after all… God please let them be eliminated by a Steph Curry masterclass, I’ve never wanted anything basketball-related more
Rationalizations for why Frank Ntilikina sucks:
The refs have a conspiracy going against him
If all 70 refs in the league hate you so much that they conspire to sabotage the ten seconds you play every night then that’s on you. (I’m sure the refs in Turkey will be much kinder to him next year.)
Juiced ball?
Could be. And Ntilikina shot 0.479! It was on only 48 attempts though
Frank has gotten very few minutes and has done some productive things. I hope that he helps us tame Trae. If he can do that, I’ll be very happy.