The Knicks host the Dallas Mavericks and our old friend Kristaps Porzingis (and I guess our other old friend, Tim Hardaway Jr.) as the Knicks have the perfect opportunity to get the double whammy – 1. Win a game against a legit good team, which they haven’t done since they beat the Hawks in mid-February (back when the Hawks were playing terribly and had a losing record) and 2. Hurt the Mavericks’ playoff positioning, which would help the Knicks because they get the Mavericks’ first round pick this year.
Hopefully the Knicks pull this one out! And hopefully RJ Barrret, Reggie Bullock and Derrick Rose get to play tonight!
Let’s go get back over .500, Knicks!
207 replies on “2020-21 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Mavericks – Can The Knicks Pull the Double Whammy?”
Huh, I had no idea there was pre-existing info about his hip. Regardless hopefully the treatment he got took care of the issue, though the history of professional athletes and hip injuries is not encouraging.
I held on to my Poku stock through some very tough times and am finally feeling good about that, so c’mon Killian, make me a millionaire in 2021 NBA Draft Takes currency.
Am I missing something about Poku? He seems really bad, his numbers look like what the eye test tells us Obi’s numbers should look like, but even worse.
poku’s numbers are awful and he’s had plenty of legit guppy in the shark tank moments, but more recently he’s also done some eye popping things on the plus side. i think when you come in at 18 and you’re a 7 foot 130lb point guard you get a different sort of grading curve
1. Win a game against a legit good team
RJ, D-Rose and Bullock are all game time decisions,
they’ll warm up and then who knows…
I’m waiting to decide if stick for the game and lose same sleep or go to bed… 🙂
Let’s go Knicks!
None of them will likely be at peak performance, but it’ll be good to at least have them out there.
Yeah! So I’m better go to make some coffee… 😀
“It’s the Thibs defenders that won’t even concede it’s perhaps suboptimal that the guy is coaching his third straight team with a wildly disproportionate number of players among the league leaders in minutes.”
Randle is 2nd in the NBA at 37.1 min/g, RJ is 25th at 34.2 min/g. Nobody else on the Knicks averages as much as 28 min/g. The Knicks have 2 players in the Top 25 in min/g then nobody else even in the Top 100. This is wildly disproportionate among the league leaders in minutes?
I want to see Obi push KP around some.
good luck with that….
***The real question is whether the typical coach pulls his players at the exact second the game is almost certainly over. The answer is, no, they don’t.***
With an eye on the clock, I wanted to see how little time I could spend finding an example of this. The exercise took roughly 40 seconds of my life.
April 17th, 2017 (half a decade AFTER Thib’s hubris with Rose):
Greg Popovich, coach of the 61 win Spurs and inventor of the minutes limit for otherwise healthy players, facing the Grizzlies in Game 2 of the first round plays oft-injured forward Kawhi Leonard 40+ minutes, despite being up 94-79 with a play-stoppage at 1:14.
The Spurs go on to win the game 96-82 to take a 2-0 lead in the series. They go on to lose to the Warriors in the WCF in a series where Leonard misses 3 games due to a reactivated injury.
I didn’t read much Spursblogger in 2017, so I have no idea if the world was holding Popovich’s negligent minutes allotment against him and huffing and puffing about how insane he is with his abusive rostations. But seeing as that Pop can seemingly do no wrong, and Thibs can, I’m going to guess that nobody gave a shit then, just as nobody should give a shit about Thibs and Rose now.
I was including his Minnesota and Chicago stints, and indeed, it’s not normal to regularly have different players on this leaderboard. The 2017-2018 Wolves had 3 in the top 15. Luol Deng lead the league in both 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, and other Bulls were regularly in the top 15 or so.
It’s just not a pattern you see with any other coach who, again, was constantly switching personnel during this time.
Why is Rebecca acting like Elfrid is the key to defending Luka tonight? If this is the strategy, I’m concerned…
Elf takes it at KP, KP swats it as if it’s a gnat.
The difference between RJ shooting off the catch/uncontested and shooting while under any kind of defensive duress is wild (anecdotally)
They’re like too amped up or something.
We may not score well as a franchise by many other metrics but I’m confident no other fanbase could make 1,500 fans sound like a packed house for the purpose of heckling Kristaps Porzingis
RJ needs to find that sweet spot between looking for contact and taking the ball to hoop for something other than contact… He could pass too of course.
This would be a good game to get Randle some run at the 5. Get KP out of the paint and running around. He’s not good in space.
Loudest 2000 fans ever chanting “KP sucks”
No matter what I think of him,
re-watching KP’s injury made me cringe…
No ball movement. Doesn’t look so good
Again no pass. Just shootin
Randle can’t buy a bucket
RJ should do more of that elbow jumper thing
Is Luka out, like, for the season?
Never mind.
Interesting how early Luka comes out.
He hits that 15footer with ease when he’s open in rhythm .. it’s like an Instagram practice video.
How is that not a travel on Doncic?
AIRBALL!!!!!
Randle has missed the last seven shots,
I hope he gets some minutes on the bench…
Since Luka returned to the game, the Knicks are pressuring him as soon as he crosses mid-court. The first few times, they threw him off balance. The last time, he blew by Burks fir the layup & one. He airballed the FT.
Obi! More of that
Nice move from Obi there. Rare dribble drive.
His three point shot looked terrible though.
Best stretch of the season for Obi on offense. Defense is still an adventure.
Obi seems like a different person
The Obi Toppin game. Remember this night my friends
Starting now, we’re doing great, nice
Holy shit Obi!!!!
OBI! oBI! OBI!
It may be premature to declare that Obi has no future in the NBA
Obiiii
A star is born!
OBIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!
Ohme, ohmy, Ohbi!
What the fuk is going on!!!!????
Wouldn’t trade Obi straight-up for KP
did obi find his balls or something?
If this is what Obi can do we may owe him an apology haha
I had the final four on for a minute but I switched back in time for that sweet Obi putback
I think Obi’s scored 9 of the last 11 Knick points…?
Great offensive sequence for Toppin,
he finally showed the things we’re expecting from him,
I hope this help his confidence…
If he’s useful on offense we could live with his shaky defense, it’s an acceptable trade off…
I think Obi’s scored 9 of the last 12 Knick points…?
I am so happy we do not have that guy signed to a max contract
KP is great also 😀
Amen to that
I fear the moment the starters will come back…
I missed the entire Obi stretch… I was busy doing literally nothing
Obi even got a steal.
Best stretch of the season for him. Even if you put aside the three point play as a lucky layup, he has scored on a outback dunk, a nifty drive and a jumper.
This.
Can’t have Obi play more than his allotted 7 minutes…
Ladies and gents, tommy Thibs
He really didn’t *have* to take Toppin out of the game there, did he?
Dribble dribble dribble shoot!
Play bad defense
Dribble dribble dribble shoot!
Play bad defense
Randle’s coming back down to Earth.
And the starters are letting the lead slip away
Randle 1-10. KP 1-9. Interesting competition.
But at least the scrub is out of the game…
That lead went away in like 30 seconds
Randle, RJ and Rose are 3-22 and we’re somehow still winning
You know I’d like to flip out early tonight. Same thing happening every game
At least Randle is playmaking
I hate this..
Why the fuck put Randle back in when he’s playing like shit and stop Toppin’s momentum?
I think it’s a legit question and has nothing to do with “hating” Thibs…
This is god dam joke … I’ll say it again … aside from the awful awful play from these jokers. Our number 1 momentum killer is god dam coach
Glass half full: really nice transition D by Quickley at the end there
Are we back to acknowledging that Thibs has flaws or is Team Kool Aid going to tell us we’re not true Knicks fans again?
That halftime felt like the bell at the end of a round when the old vet is getting pounded to oblivion on the ropes.
But, Starters. You do you, Tom.
The unit that has to play with ball movement does and is playing well…so let’s take them out and put the plodders back in … game grinds to a freaking halt and they got nothing going on. Its a tale of two teams at this point. You know when our starters come back in .. cause it blows to watch
Oof, that was a really bad end of half
I was told that if you play well, Thibs will play you.
I truly truly truly truly truly hate our offensive game plan. We need somebody to do Thibs like Steve Kerr did Mark Jackson in a few years because this team’s strategy on that end is bottom tier.
And now we get to see Elfrid Payton again!!
It is laughable or tiresome to think that way … I must be a faux fan
thibs has been pretty consistent with his rotations… he doesn’t deviate from the usual minutes distribution until the 4th quarter where he plays whoever has played the best (sometimes)….
that may or not be folly but i wouldn’t expect anything different….
People do realize Payton and Bullock never re-entered after being subbed out in the 1st quarter. IQ played the entire 2nd quarter, Rose and Burks each played 13 mins. The bench had a huge part in building the lead and also helped blow it too.
What’s the definition of insanity again?
Porzingis totally outplaying Randle, he’s shooting 20% and Randle shooting 9%
The Knicks attempted 24 3pters in the 1st half, 5 more than Dallas attempted.
I know Randle is a big reason why this team is .500, but if he continues to be cold at the start of the 3rd you gotta pull him. I know we’re in the thick of competing for playoff positioning, but at some point you gotta roll the dice a bit with Obi esp if he’s playing well.
He took out Toppin when he was finally showing some moxie and confidence, which was ridiculous. He’s clueless about development.
also … we’re sort of seeing what happens when randle’s 3s aren’t falling…. shootting midrange fadeaways is REALLY hard to sustain efficiently because you’re only going to hit them in the low 40s and you’re actively avoiding contact…. it’s really a move you goto when the shotclock is winding down and you’re out of options… but the fact that he’s going to it so much is really worrisome….
but even more worrisome is that we’re going to him anyway and putting him in that position… the offense has needed a lot of work and we’re witnessing the cap on the upside of this team….
Raptors are 50 pts up on the Warriors in the 3rd for 99-49, and 37-7 in the quarter !? :O
hurr durr thibs terrible coach!!!
so tedious
While this is true, I think it’s just more poignant that Randle came back in and continued to be ice cold and that RJ missed shots too in that stretch.
Some starters some bench , either way , momentum was murdered.
Again, I’m not a Thibs hater, and I’m not discussing starters vs bench,
but I want an answer: why sub Toppin for Randle when he’s showing something (and Randle was 1-8 at the time, 1-11 now). He was earning his minutes for the first time in his career…
I still think it’s a legitimate question.
imperfect =/= terrible, c’mon man
Because Randle is far and away the best player on the team so he’s going to play his normal amount of minutes no matter what and rightfully so.
Shit, I missed “the Obi half.” Otherwise known as the Randle fell back to earth half.
Too early for a challenge
Someone is REALLY in a fog
Sit Randle
No rush to extend Randle
There are several folks saying that he’s terrible. Find me one who says he’s perfect…
I strongly disagree, but at least it’s an answer… 🙂
1….2….3 says Thibs
Those Villanova guys…
Payton just missed the rim on a corner 3 by a foot and a half.
payton shooting a 3 is just painful to watch
I’m not seeing anyone saying he’s terrible, just criticizing him killing the momentum by mechanically putting the starters back in even though the bench and Toppin were doing well. Why do you construe that as people saying he’s terrible? Thibs has done good things for us but he’s hardly a sacred cow.
Put the best team in, please
How could Payton spend his entire basketball life as a point guard and have the complete inability to shoot a jump shot
In many ways I think Thibs is a brilliant coach. And when I watch, in real time, his in-game decisions (and his offensive [sic] sets), I literally want to chew off one of my arms.
These things can both be true.
Ok, GS is sitting Curry and Green, but that game is a joke…
If This game stays close I am fearful…
Samples:
Do you need more?
“Well, if we just put some more elbow grease into it, the offense will get better. The magic’s in the work.”
Hardaway is balling. Ready for a 3rd stint, guys?
Neither of those imply that he is a terrible overall coach, just that he is bad at those specific things.
Dribble dribble dribble shoot is back
Cancel the season. I can’t watch this the rest of the way
No Obi the entire 3rd quarter
Our four best players look terrible, but we’re only down by 6.
if it wasnt for kp we’d be down 20+…
This is the worst Randle has looked in a long time
He’s been getting first 4 or 5 of 4th… clockwork
Randle gunning for one of the uglier triple doubles in a while haha
It’s this. Z-Man, it’s not that people think Thibs is a terrible coach (well maybe some). It’s that he’s almost inexplicably brilliant at some things, and (small sample size, I don’t hold much credence to previous stints) very, very bad at other things. That’s especially frustrating, because one assumes brilliance at one aspect of the job should carry through to others. When it doesn’t, cognitive dissonance sets in and makes us all a bit crazy.
Good catch!
This just reminded me – it’s a thing for players to know not just their role but in what situations they can expect to see the field/court. Akin to relief pitchers knowing when/how they’ll take the mound in a game.
Obi needs to keep running and jumping … let the athlete be an athlete
Quickley needs to spend some time at the end of the bench and think about his game
One big positive from this year is that, by and large, even when they’ve played like shit they still manage to stay in these games. I’ll be happy to credit that to Thibs and his staff.
Toppin is getting some more burn now, which is good. Would have been nice if he could have kept playing earlier while he was hot, but he’s in there in a close game. This could bode well for him going forward.
But mostly relegated to the corner…
Sorry, it doesn’t come across that way. It sounds much more like several folks would be thrilled if he was fired after this game.
Wow… one bad play and toppin is out… literally one thing when the rest of the team fucking blows
I have no idea what the closing lineup should be tonight.
Our offense is offensive
the amount of times quickley jumps to pass is staggering….
Maybe the Thibs learning curve is just really quick. He did his thing… and now we’ve plateaued
Oddly enough IQ is in there a lot this game even though other options exist for Thibs. And he’s shooting worth shit. Maybe it’s those 5 rebounds…
Just need one good 2-3 minute stretch to take the lead.
I feel like I’ve seen this before – the 2nd of the back-to-back Wiz games
Amen … he’s been horrendous thus far
We should probably close with Burks, Bullock
, Taj, Randle and RJ.
It’s not going to matter.
Its amazing we are still in this.
Ooh, what a feed by Luka to Powell.
Sorry guys – someone on the Mavs must’ve scooped this comment and fed it to Carlisle. Didn’t mean for Dallas to follow this advice.
The refs are not calling fouls in either direction. The Knicks need to up the intensity on defense and play through contact on offense.
Randle RJ and Rose 7-37. It’s amazing we’re not down 25.
Knicks worst habit has been building. It just showed. Maybe we’ve gotten the shaft on a lot of calls but now our identify is like we get the shaft … it’s our chip… and we complain … coach on down. Whine, complain, don’t get back on D , wide open 3. That one on Randle
We should only let Burks shoot for the rest of the game.
God damn it Luka
And now merc it up down the stretch, Beautiful.
Game, blouses. There was about 5 mins of this game that was fun
No chance now
Ah to have lost 6 more games in 2017-2018…
Would’ve been nice if the front office added some help at the trade deadline. Considering the utter garbage that guys like Fournier and Oladipo were traded for Knicks could’ve helped the current roster for this season without damaging the future.
Randle, RJ, IQ and Rose are 9-47. But Payton must have cost us this game.
Luka is just unfair lol. Who hits that shot?
Don’t forget guys… we lost to the Timberpups just 2 days ago!!!
Maybe the fact that we’re not very good is finally catching up to us?
Luka did get fouled but I think we will get the ball back
Wait, they’re leaving Doncic and KP in? They’re not emptying the bench?
Play an intramural zone and we are stumped
Randle has been beyond awful this game.
I’m thinking Thibs should institute a strict Fortnite training regime with our young guys so they can get on more of a Luka-like trajectory
Trae is a nice player, but the Hawks are going to regret that trade forever.
I am starting to fear that IQ was just on a hot streak. He looks overmatched recently.
i’m pretty sure we are legit ok with mitch and good randle…
its just without him.. and this version of randle… we arent good,,
I’m a little sad we didn’t get Brogdon, though as many here have noted it may never have been actually on the table. This team + Mitch + a point guard who can shoot and defend could actually make some noise. Subtracting Payton mintues for Brogdon minutes would make a pretty huge difference.
At least this wasn’t the most devastating loss of the season 🙂
FIRE THIBS !!!!
The offense sucks!
He wore the team out!
Well played, sir haha.
I find that I’m not all that upset about the loss. It was ugly and we played like crap, but our roster has some real limitations and you’re going to get nights like this, but they don’t negate all the hard work and progress made in the rest of the season. Obi showing some flashes was also really encouraging – for that little stretch there he didn’t just belong, he was thriving.
Dallas is way better than us (just to be the first tell this obvious truth).
But still, Randle rightfully lead us to a well deserved loss.
Barrett and Rose were terrible,
IQ is in a week long shooting slump.
We can’t live with Burke’s pixie dust every single game.
We’re lucky we didn’t make stupid things at the trading deadline (like trading a first rounder) to go all in with this team.
We’re finally playing as was expected at the start of the season, but it’s april, usually we were talking draft picks, this year we’re talking play-in games. It’s an improvement.
LOL 😀
Atlanta and New Orleans are playing without Young, Collins, Gallinari, Zion, Ingram, Adams, Hart…
Injuries or load management?
We’re finishing 10th.
Not if Chicago continues to struggle. Our floor can very well be 9th place.
With how bad the Pacers are playing plus the fact the Knicks own the tiebreaker against them the Knicks floor might actually be 8th.
I know everyone feels lousy about that loss, so here’s a really funny fact to lift your spirits.
‘Soon after he arrived in Congress, Gaetz became the only lawmaker in Washington to vote against a 2017 bill giving the federal government more power and resources to fight human trafficking.’
This UConn game is pretty good, despite the refs attempts to ruin it
The evidence is piling up that Quickley is what I’ve been recently saying he is. He has a different skillset, but at this stage he’s kind of like the Knicks version of Hardaway Jr. He’s a streaky shooter, but part of that is his poor shot selection. He’s the anti-Frank. Frank’s mental makeup is to be passive in shot creation and to not shoot in borderline situations. Quick is the opposite. His default is to use his handle to probe around trying to create a shot for himself and to shoot anything that’s even close to reasonable. That’s adding to his volatility. That’s why Thibs doesn’t fully trust him yet. Also, since he’s not a PG you really can’t start him unless you play him with Payton and put Bullock on the bench. That doesn’t make much sense to me. There’s nothing wrong with being a 6th man. He’s got plenty of time to improve his skills and decision making, Even Hardaway’s decision making is a lot better than it used to be.
One thing I’m noticing about the offense overall is that imo as a team we are dribbling too much trying to create shots. That’s not the way to get good shots. It seems to me that both the players and the ball are moving less effectively lately. That’s probably why we are taking tougher shots and being less efficient. Part of that may be defensive adjustments to some of what we are doing (I’m not sharp enough to see that much clearly), but I can see that the offense is not flowing as well. It may be time to get back to the basics of just keeping the ball moving and players not standing around as much.
The trades Chicago made may or may not have made sense long term, but I think they probably made the team better this year. They may have enough time to make make a late run.
Anyone still think finishing with 32 wins is out of the question?
Obi was fun.
The game terrible except for that brief run by Obi. It’s incredibly easy to like and root for the guy, but it’s always more fun when you have hope that he can turn this season around and start contributing positively. We need someone new to step up.
This should be of interest to us but he’ll probably choose a contender.
We will have more clarity on this after tonight’s game. After watching last night’s game, I resent Pillsberry even more for not getting Jalen Brunson in the KP deal.
Yeah, that would have been nice.
I don’t think a win tonight would tell us very much. A loss would be extremely telling, but even to get to 32 wins we have to win 8 games and you would think this would be one of them.
A lot depends on whether the teams below us are going to go all out to make the top 10.
On-paper wins: 2
DET, HOU
Probable losses: 12
BKN, BOS, LAL, DAL, ATL, PHX, DEN, PHX, LAC, LAL, SAS, BOS
Competitive: 9
MEM, TOR, NO, NO, CHA, TOR, CHI, MEM, CHA
If we go 5-4 in the competitive games and win both vs. DET and HOU, our record will depend on how many wins we get out of the 12 probable losses. If we go 3-9, that would be 34 wins. I can’t see us doing much better than that.
I didn’t think we needed a new thread since they’ll be a game tonight, but let me know if y’all would prefer a new thread before tonight’s game thread.
Falling asleep during halftime was a huge Win for me! Unfortunately i watched the 2nd half when i woke up so… let’s call it a tie
imo new thread not necessary
Yeah, but DSJ could jump out of the building!
what’s up with julius? he seems to be having more frequent poor games…
is there something physically wrong with him, are teams just better planning for him, or is he just putting too much pressure on himself and forcing things…
That schedule looks tougher than I’m comfortable with, especially without Mitch and the way we’ve been playing lately. We need someone to step up.
Who was that guy yesterday wearing knicks #1?
Geo, I’ll start by saying I don’t know, but my sense is the answers to your questions are ‘yes.’ We know he was hurt, and while he may be fully recovered from that his hard play this deep into the season would make me surprised if he wasn’t dinged up. Of course teams are focusing on him more (who else?), and it does seem like he’s pressing and not playing as much in the flow as he was earlier.
Having said that, everyone’s entitled to a complete clunker. So let’s see how he responds.
And I just saw this. For all you folks getting your shots, keep social distancing and wearing masks…
The Mavericks were without coach Rick Carlisle, who tested positive for COVID-19 in the morning. After the positive test, Carlisle stayed behind at the team hotel. He met virtually with reporters about an hour before the game to announce the positive test while revealing publicly for the first time that he has been fully vaccinated since February.
If Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua from Baylor makes the NBA, Clyde is going to be an unhappy camper
I would move ATL into the competitive tier and perhaps even LAL depending on how long LeBron and UniBrow are out. I haven’t peeped the Hawks lately, but they’re a .500 team more or less like we are.
It’s a bit concerning, but let’s see what comes of it. Initially, it was said the vaccines wouldn’t prevent exposure but definitely keep you from getting seriously sick or dying (which is huge). Also, I have read recently that recent studies are now claiming the vaccines can possibly prevent spread of infection. There’s still a lot more data to gather, access and refine, and I think more info on the effectiveness of the vaccines will be flushed out further as more people get their 2nd doses.
My wife and I got our second shots last weekend.
wow, went from feeling a little winterish outside to here comes summertime in a week’s time…
glad we get a chance to bounce back tonight, given how poorly it seems we’ve been playing the last month or so though – this could be the most disappointing loss of the season tonight 🙂
Isn’t the 95% efficacy of the vaccine as it relates to preventing infection? So, though it’s unlucky for Carlisle, it’s within the expected outcome bandwidth, yes? Because I believe Pfizer and are 95% effective at preventing infection and 100% effective at preventing hospitalization. (So, in the NBA, with roughly 500 players and coaches in the league, doesn’t it make statistical sense that, even fully vaccinated, 25 of them would be susceptible to infection given the data? (I’m asking the statisticians, because, though that’s how I interpreted the reports, I ain’t no statistician.))
Carlisle is coaching tonight, it was a false positive.
So upthread i commented on our offense and Z-man thought I meant Thibs is a terrible coach. Here’s how I feel about Thibs, the coach:
1) Tom Thibodeau is the perfect coach for these Knicks because he brings accountability, toughness, teamwork, and defense. You cannot build from the ground up without all four of these principles.
2) There is nobody we could have hired in his place that would have done a better job. I wanted Ime Udoka to get the job, and a lot of people wanted Kenny Atkinson to get the job. We were all wrong.
3) Tom Thibodeau will not coach the championship contending version of the Knicks if this is what his offense will look like despite the personnel. Easy buckets do not exist and you can’t blame it on the lack of point guard play because of what our principles seem to be on that end. We pass the ball around the perimeter until one of our guys has a look he likes, and then it’s up to that player to make the right play. We do nothing off ball, we don’t try to get Julius Randle the ball as a roll man, and everything is dependent on one guy being able to break down a defense. If we get that one guy who can break down a defense, that will absolutely raise this floor and ceiling on this team. Once you go up against playoff teams though, they tend to take that guy away (look at what happened to Milwaukee, or even the Thibs specific 2011 Bulls) and your team falls apart. We will eventually need a coach who can build off of Thibs’ work because I do not believe we can trust Tim Thibodeau to build an offense that brings the best out of his players.
TGHR thanks for clarifying. I largely agree, although I think the offense is limited somewhat by our mix of players. But yeah, if he doesn’t adapt as the personnel improves, he will wear out his welcome. I’m just tired of the repetitive nature of certain aspects of the narrative. I had said that Thibs is like the opposite of D’Antoni but very similar in some ways. That’s not a compliment.
gonzaga has more offball movement than the knicks… and they know how to break a zone…
i have no idea why suggs isn’t consensus #1…
man what a shot….