I was waiting for the Pacers to announce their starting lineup. Their new coach is even cagier than Thibs.
The Knicks open the season in Indiana, a team that finished with the #4 seed last year, despite playing without possibly their best player in the bubble.
The Knicks’ starting lineup is:
Elfrid Payton
Reggie Bull-LOCK
RJ Barrett
Julius Randle
Mitchell Robinson
Bullock is a weird choice over Burks, and I fear that it was sort of like, “Oh man, that Cleveland game was so good!” hangover, but at least Mitch is starting, thank goodness. He did everything they asked of him in the preseason, so to not start him would have been way uncool.
The Pacers starting lineep is:
Malcolm Brogdon
Victor Oladipo
TJ Warren
Domantas Sabonis
Myles Turner
It’s probably not good when each of the five starters for the other team could make a reasonable case for being better than anyone on the Knicks, but hey, at least their bench is not as good as their starters (although the Holiday brothers sure can shoot it).
The Knicks played the Pacers well last year, with one game being lost on a missed free throw by Randle, so I think that the Knicks can hang with the Pacers in this one. Maybe not win, but I think the Pacers will know that they were in a fight. And hey, maybe the Knicks COULD pull off the upset. Again, they did beat the Pacers once last year. It’s certainly possible that they could do so again.
Hopefully Immanuel Quickley plays well enough tonight to really start pushing the issue as to whether he should start going forward.
Hopefully Mitch and Noel form a dominant interior presence.
Hopefully Barrett has a good game.
Hopefully the Knicks look good, overall.
Welcome to the 2020-21 season, everyone! Let’s go, Knicks!
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