2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ Bulls

The Knicks head to Chicago for a matchup against the Chicago DeRozan/LeVines.

The Bulls are extremely shorthanded, with Tony Bradley being pretty much their only center, but the Knicks will be without Mitchell Robinson, as he’s dealing with a concussion from his scary smack to the face in last night’s game. Luckily, Nerlens Noel will play and there’s a chance Taj Gibson will be good to go against his old team.

The Knicks really need to make a statement win tonight in this tough seven game stretch.

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Let’s go, Knicks!

240 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ Bulls”

Isaiah Stewart was as angry as I’ve seen an NBA player since maybe the malice in the palace, they really couldn’t get him off the floor

I won’t say this is as bad as the Rockets’ first quarter, but it’s trying. And lots of time left to take first place…

Randle is just giving possessions away. Over and over.

Can’t win if you can’t even get a shot off.

Kemba is doing absolutely nothing on either end. At least Fournier made a couple of plays.

Z-man:
Seems like it was a hard hammer blow with his wrist/side hand.

That’s what it looked like to me….very intentional. Should get suspended for taking a punch at a guy’s face.

Z-man:
Kemba is doing absolutely nothing on either end. At least Fournier made a couple of plays.

Kemba given only one job … pass to Randle posting up at 3 point line… I can’t stand it

I’m not watching the game being at work at the moment, but per the box score Burks and Quickley are in together again. Giving what Thibs has said about it being important how lineups okay together it seems like he is seriously checking this line up out.

KJG:
Poor pistons melting down. God I hate the Lakers

Maybe the Lakers are suddenly fighting hard to defend LeBron because Stewart had the gall to hit Lebrons fist and elbow with his head.

Noel our only center (Burks actually came in for him earlier!). Three fouls.

And it’s Sims time! One M!

The defense has been pretty good, only one instance of leaving a good shooter wide open by my count. Gotta get easier looks than we’re getting on offense.

Z-man:
I think Nerlens should not have been put back in…

Yea that was stupid … reminds me of myself betting bad odds because I have a feeling… I had an 0-for betting NFL today FYI … I’m the worst

Four guards and Sims is the current lineup? Thibs is being flexible and interesting. I’d love to be able to see what that looks like.

The extra staggered lineup is taking some juice outta my fandom. Its just not as exciting to watch … especially since it’s not working yet

I’ll be watching Succession in 10 minutes.

Somehow the Knicks are more annoying to watch than this year’s Yankees.

I haven’t found this terribly frustrating because I think it’s the best we’ve looked on defense in a while. On offense…well, congratulations to everyone who thought we were taking too many 3s.

They gonna do a Noah night every time the Knicks visit? Talk about salt in the wound.

iq has clearly improved defensively this year. jericho looks like a cat chasing a laser pointer out there.

There is just NO ball movement from the starters. Toss it in to Randle, he can’t get a shot so he tosses it back out, whoever gets it tosses it back in to Randle, he takes a bad shot. Meanwhile Fournier is wide open.

Of course Fournier won’t actually shoot anymore, so maybe it’s for the best.

You guys think this blows up big time … like there’s already rumblings about minutes and roles … do we think shit hits the fan pre all star break …

KevinR: RJ having a solid defensive game at least.

Thanx, it’s good to know. I was surprised hearing the broadcast saying it was the first points.

Wally Mode Unlocked: “Shooting 35% and only down by 6. Defense and Rose looking good. We got this.”

Saw a shocking stat earlier on twitter-apparently the Lakers have been outscored in the 3rd quarter by more points than any team in the NBA.

New rule proposal: every time a Knicks’ player miss a technical free throw he’ll get a knee to the groin.

cybersoze:
Oh man, i start with a pass from Julius to the… referee!?

I remember back in my 40-something league days having a very bad half and making that same pass, so humiliating.

KJG:
You guys think this blows up big time … like there’s already rumblings about minutes and roles … do we think shit hits the fan pre all star break …

No.

Oh good, they’re showing the LeBron bit next.

KJG:
You guys think this blows up big time … like there’s already rumblings about minutes and roles … do we think shit hits the fan pre all star break …

Are the players complaining about it or the fans/media (like us)?

Z-man: I remember back in my 40-something league days having a very bad half and making that same pass, so humiliating.

Well, at least he ended the half making the last shot. If that isn’t the first time this season, it’s close.

Things I would trade RJ Barrett for:

1. A conditional 2074 second round pick
2. Any third round pick
3. Frank Ntilikina
4. Frank Gorshin
5. A can of franks and beans
6. $100 worth of Dogecoin
7. Some Alf pogs
8. A scratched DVD copy of “Sex And The City 2”
9. A pair of JD and the Straight Shot tickets
10. Syphillis

RJ playing like ass, but he’s won some games for us in his short career. I still have hope. But maybe he shouldn’t be shouting so much at E4 to clear out so he and Randle can play catch and then toss bricks.

JK47:
Things I would trade RJ Barrett for:

1. A conditional 2074 second round pick
2. Any third round pick
3. Frank Ntilikina
4. Frank Gorshin
5. A can of franks and beans
6. $100 worth of Dogecoin
7. Some Alf pogs
8. A scratched DVD copy of “Sex And The City 2”
9. A pair of JD and the Straight Shot tickets
10. Syphillis

I agree with all unless #10 is a drug-resistant strain…

New rule proposal: every time a Knicks’ player miss a technical free throw he’ll get a knee to the groin.

🙂

More important: I’m confused now as to which is the “cool” sports book. Jesse Pinkman’s or Leon Black’s. It’s a dilemma.

I’ll admit I don’t track player stats much, but, if RJ already has bad “advanced” stats, and he’s playing even worse at the moment than ever – just how much is he hurting the team right now being out on the court…

Randle scored this time, but it was a bad, low percentage shot, 8 out of 10 times it’s a wasted possession…

I like the way Randle is playing for the most part, and not just because the shots are going in

You watch Randle spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning, and not a single Knick moves to try and get open. Just standing around slack-jawed. I mean he made the shot, but that was ugly on multiple fronts.

Edit: Although somehow we’re a point ahead…?

Looks like we exorcised our curse of the third quarter lethargy and gave it to Chicago

Yes. First team finally doing what we keep saying they should do.

Any difference if Vucevic was out there?

Is MSG Go failing for anyone else besides me? the frustration is making me want to bing my bong.

KB Apprentice:
Yes. First team finally doing what we keep saying they should do.

Any difference if Vucevic was out there?

Well we could use Mitch and Taj…

Sunday night game … I remember my disappointment that I was back to school on Monday … poor young me, could only moderately enjoy a 4th quarter …

Z-man: Well we could use Mitch and Taj…

For sure, but that 3rd Q looked like Kemba and Julius finally watched some tape, or at least the message finally landed. I think we’re only gonna get that in spurts from them. I know we’re not (supposed to be) about armchair psychology, but Kemba does not strike me as the most focused guy over the course of a season.

We kick all the good vibes away in a matter of seconds with two dumb turnovers
(and a bad last minute of the third)…

We have as much blocks (9) than assists, not a good sign for our ball movement…

It’s a punch in the gut when a guy who hasn’t made a 3 pointer this season and a guy who’s a 23% 3 point shooter make back to back 3’s.

What – what – what is going on with the two-man play with Randle? It didn’t work in the first quarter, and twice now they toss it back to Randle with four seconds left and he couldn’t get anything off. It’s literally madness.

Raven:
What – what – what is going on with the two-man play with Randle? It didn’t work in the first quarter, and twice now they toss it back to Randle with four seconds left and he couldn’t get anything off. It’s literally madness.

Yeah, I saw the same. And both times he’s out beyond the 3 pt line. It looks like it’s a team rule or something.

Now even when Randle plays well the rest of the team wastes it by being ass… this is just straight up not fun to watch.

Not a terrible loss hopefully we can get the lakers with Lebron getting suspended most likely;

That was the right shot from IQ. Just no bueno.

EDIT: Kind of surprised Kemba didn’t get back in. It’s not like DRose was crushing it tonight. Must have been for D, but Kemba and Randle had it going a bit.

Not the worst loss of the season, but would be nice to have a bigger cushion with our win-loss record. Those Magic losses are killers.

This would be a perfectly good moral victory if we didn’t lose two games to the Magic

This was a winnable game. Too many players shot like shit (Fournier, Barrett, Rose, Quickley).

Good-Julius was here most of the time but we wasted his performance.

Bad start for the heavy stretch.

Losing to a pretty good team on the road is not that big of a deal. RJ is still absolutely killing our offense though

I felt like there were a few blow bys … not giving up 3s but then there’s no resistance at rim.

cybersoze:
A foul losing by 7 with 6 seconds !?

Frustration? And then Quickly decides to go in for the uncontested layup with less than one second left. Whatever, I guess.

It may be time to start putting together a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C, for the trade deadline because the problem is not shooting. When this many guys are struggling to be as efficient as they have been in the past, the problem is the personnel fit and offensive system. And we clearly took a step back on defense. The off season moves set us back.

Those random 3s by White and Jones were the turning point. I don’t know why Kemba was sitting in the fourth, was playing really well and probably could’ve given more than Rose did those last minutes.

When is Barrett gonna get out of his funk? We really need a consistent second scorer (honestly just one at this point)

TheClashFan: Frustration? And then Quickly decides to go in for the uncontested layup with less than one second left. Whatever, I guess.

Yeah, probably frustration. I watched since the last 3 min of the 1st half and we played OK. Just not the result we wanted.

SoNiceWeShowItTwice: I don’t know why Kemba was sitting in the fourth, was playing really well and probably could’ve given more than Rose did those last minutes.

Maybe minutes restriction. The first time he didn’t play one of the back to back, and this time he played both.

I’m pretty sure it’s hard to win in the professional basketball league when two of your starters go 3-19.

Hopefully this game is a step in the right direction the starters didnt look as disjointed as the last few weeks. RJ and Evan need to pick it up shooting wise

Clyde’s suit:
Has anyone seen the promising version of RJ ?The kids offense is MIA…

First seven games RJ played pretty well.

KevinR:
Hopefully this game is a step in the right direction the starters didnt look as disjointed as the last few weeks. RJ and Evan need to pick it up shooting wise

Agree on this. Seeing Kemba and Julius work things out was a good sign. I wish we had some of those comparatively easy buckets in the fourth.

Also, Obi played another strong game. Would have liked to see him a bit more next to Julius.

Raven: I’m pretty sure it’s hard to win in the professional basketball league when two of your starters go 3-19.

And 2 of the 3 main guys from the bench, played 55 mins and shot 7-22.

KevinR: Hopefully this game is a step in the right direction the starters didnt look as disjointed as the last few weeks. RJ and Evan need to pick it up shooting wise

I got that vibe from the game too. Let’s hope it’s for real.

Or you can say our two forwards went for a combined 43 points and 25 rebounds.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics…

Loved Randle’s inside and then outside game tonight vs the constant step backs and threes, excellent game by him. RJ on the other hand is playing way below league average and is still a starter. Even if he’s starting Thibs should have Fournied him in the critical part of the 4th. Also didn’t bring back Kemba when he had a groove. Coach didn’t play the players who had it going in the 4th. Loss is on RJ and Thibs

This game has me thinking that RJ is hurt. It’s more than just a shooting slump. The guy can’t even make lightly contested layups anymore, much less three pointers.

He is absolutely killing us, and if the losing continues he should be benched for Burks.

***I’m pretty sure it’s hard to win in the professional basketball league when two of your starters go 3-19.***

You’d think so, yet Steph and Draymond combined to go 3-13 with 5 turnovers tonight and the Warriors still led by 20 points from the 1st quarter basically to the end. (How? They still played their customary great team defense and had their customary 31 assists.)

if we can stay around .500 through january, we should be fine to avoid the play-in thing…

honestly, anything less than a first round victory – would seem like a disappointment considering the expectations built over the summer…

i can be both patient and prudent when it comes to knicks’ basketball…record and fast forward when necessary is the way to go…julius and kemba looked much better together tonight…it seems like a month ago since RJ flexed after finishing at the rim, he had 15 rebounds against the bulls, that’s something…

it’s gonna be really hard to win without either RJ, kemba, or rose getting 20 points that game…quik, burks, evian seem to be that third scoring threat…obi, nerlens, mitch, taj are like found money if they get buckets or shoot free throws…

When this many guys are struggling to be as efficient as they have been in the past, the problem is the personnel fit and offensive system. And we clearly took a step back on defense. The off season moves set us back.

set us back from what?

getting bounced in the first round, having a “hot” streak to end the year…we’re a mediocre team at the moment, .500 may be generous for our play to date…

got to bet that they’ll get things worked out at some point and rack up a bunch of wins over a three to four week period…we did improve our roster this off-season (kemba, evian), it’s not crazy to think RJ, obi, and quik would improve this year…burks, rose, taj, nerlens are solid vets…thibs has won a couple of awards now for his job…

kemba absolutely should have got more run at the end…

What’s the worst case scenario? Finish with the 7th best record in the east but lose the two play in games, one of them to Charlotte? (Just wondering because, given what I read here, whatever it is it’s probably going to happen:)

geo: set us back from what?
getting bounced in the first round, having a “hot” streak to end the year…we’re a mediocre team at the moment, .500 may be generous for our play to date…

Exactly this. For the people that think that if Leon didn’t bet on offense, we’d be much better, go check how Reggie and Elfrid are doing in their play time. Which in Elfrid’s case is a tiny tiny sample, only 83 mins across 6 games. He somehow has managed to lower his 3PAr from .158 to .033, taken from only ONE 3PA in the season. :O And a missed one.

Donnie Walsh: What’s the worst case scenario? Finish with the 7th best record in the east but lose the two play in games, one of them to Charlotte? (Just wondering because, given what I read here, whatever it is it’s probably going to happen:)

That’s close, but i think i’d be even more disappointed if we missed the play-in altogether.

On the poll, i followed my heart (Knicks), and there’s only 3 votes there. So, it’s me, swift :P, and who else? It’s you Brian, still believing in the 56 wins? 😉

Some bits from the Knicks Film School newsletter, to brighten our Knicks mood a little:

Good morning! Well that was quite a weekend. We saw some good, some bad, and some ugly. It resulted in one win, one loss and one recent MVP candidate who might just be back on track.

On the whole, the Knicks came out of the weekend feeling slightly better about themselves than when they went in.
The roller coaster ride that has been the search for chemistry with the starting five reached its nadir on Saturday against the glorified G-League Rockets, but may have reached a crescendo in the second half against Chicago, when Julius Randle had a throw back to last season’s role as the offensive be all, end all.
Another bright spot is the defense, which has been the 12th ranked unit in basketball over their last nine games. There are still issues (some open corner threes in the early fourth were their downfall last night), but on the whole, that side of the floor has gotten better as well.
But for a team that had lofty expectations coming into the season and especially after a 5-1 start, the reality continues to set in that this season is going to feature some tough sledding.

To read the whole thing: https://knicksfilmschool.substack.com/p/lost-and-found

The good news, I guess, is that as of now, the Charlotte pick would convey to us. Albeit in a draft that so far seems to be less impressive than the last one.

Alan: The good news, I guess, is that as of now, the Charlotte pick would convey to us. Albeit in a draft that so far seems to be less impressive than the last one.

Or maybe that’s a chance to incinerate yet another pick and set lots of KB’s threads on fire. 😛

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