From Peter Bolle:
If the Knicks plan to make a serious and upward move in the Eastern Conference standings, Friday night’s game began the favorable stretch for them to do so.
And their furious comeback in a 133-129 overtime victory over the Grizzlies at the Garden might just serve as the springboard.
Leading scorers Julius Randle and RJ Barrett were mostly invisible for three quarters, but the duo combined for 23 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Knicks overcame a late 13-point hole. Their frantic comeback enabled the Knicks to win the first of an 11-game stretch in which they will play nine times in front of their home fans.
Randle didn’t manage his first field goal until 3:16 remained in the third quarter, but he finished with 15 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his fifth triple-double of the season.
Barrett managed just five points through three quarters, but he netted 15 the rest of the way, including a game-tying drive late in regulation and a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:15 remaining in overtime.
Alec Burks scored nine of his 19 points in the extra session, Immanuel Quickley finished with 20 points and Derrick Rose added 19 points off the bench for the Knicks (26-27), who had lost five of their previous six games to fall to the eighth playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
That was one hell of a win. That was the sort of statement win that we’ve been hoping to see from the Knicks for literally months now and they pulled it off with a remarkable comeback late in the fourth and then an excellent fourth quarter.
One of the most important things in the game to me was Immanuel Quickley having such a good time. He’s been in such a shooting slump lately and as a result, Thibs has been giving him very few minutes (just 13 minutes in the last Knicks game) and so seeing him play well and get 31 minutes was outstanding.
RJ, of course, was also extremely clutch in this one (while the Grizzlies choked like crazy on their free throws late in the game). Best win the Knicks have had since….hmmm….let’s say when they kicked the Celtics’ ass in Boston back on…January 17th?? Dang, it’s been a while. They also had a good win against Golden State a week after that Boston game, maybe that should be the pick. In any event, the important thing is that it was a hell of a win and the Knicks have a chance to get back to .500 on Sunday and truly put the Toronto Raptors out commission. The Pacers won, though, which means that they remain tied with the Knicks in the loss column (but the Bulls lost, dropping them two games behind the Knicks in the loss column). Remaining in at least 8th is huge. It’d be nice to get to the 6th seed (Berman had a good bit the other day where he explained the play-in tournament to Rose, who had no idea how it worked as he said he stopped paying attention to basketball during the Bubble since Detroit was out of it and Rose was, like, “Okay, so we’ll just get the sixth seed then”), but they need that seventh or eighth seed. No one wants to play back-to-back “win or go home” games.
As an aside, the Charlotte Hornets continue to play well after the losses of LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward, and the Bell thing makes sense, since Terry Rozier has been so good, but it’s shocking how much they are not missing Hayward. However, I was seeing how Jalen McDaniels starts for them at power forward. How in the world are you naming your two sons Jalen and Jaden? Come on, Will McDaniels! It’s not even like they’re twins and you’re looking for cutesy matching names!
88 replies on “NY Post: Knicks complete furious rally for impressive OT win over Grizzlies”
brain twister, okay, some though in to it – I think the mcdaniels really loved the name jalen, but, thought it might be a little weird to name a second child that exact name, so they settled on jaden…
yeah, no doubt Jaden either has or will have to resolve that small family issue…
Great win or, to say the truth, great fourth and overtime after a terrible quarter (the first) and two so-so ones, we never lead in regulation after the 3-1 at the start and Memphis gave us a big hand (13 missed FTs!) but for once we used the help well…
RJ was really quiet and out of the game until the fourth, then exploded and was spectacular in the clutch, the three Fts were huge (remember he tied the game with a three in the last minute even in the game with the Celtics).
I’m so glad IQ played well and Toppin showed signs of life, Randle looks gassed and will need some rest, Burks didn’t shoot well but hit nearly all the important shots.
Charlotte’s playing well, but the Bucks were without the full starting five tonight and It’s a pity that Minnesota blew the game vs Boston.
Between Covid, injuries and rest management now the first question when reading NBA’s game scores is “who are they missing”?
It’s not even funny…
It really is amazing, right? I see scores and I think, “Huh?” and then I see who’s missing and it all makes sense, or in the alternative, I’ll sometimes be surprised by games like the Rockets/Mavericks where the Mavs weren’t resting guys. The Rockets, by the way, only lost by three to the Suns while playing without John Wall, so the Mavericks can feel better about that loss, I think. The Rockets have a surprisingly spry team of misfit toys now that Wood is back.
Are the players receiving the vaccine shots yet? I know that baseball players are getting it.
Wizards beat the Warriors on a Beal four-point play. Wow.
Some teams did it (Hawks, Portland, NOLA I’m sure) other are slower due to state priorities or more players unwilling to do it.
The majority of players with specific conditions that make them more vulnerable to Covid did at least the first shot.
When 85% of a team’s players and personnel are “fully vaccinated” (two weeks after the second shot, or the only one for J&J vaccine) they are allowed “relaxed” protocol rules.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31084470/memo-fully-vaccinated-nba-players-receive-expanded-benefits
Is anyone noticing any commonalities between these recent games where Obi actually looks like an NBA player? Is it who he’s sharing the floor with? The nature of the opposing second unit? Just him recovering his confidence?
I still get a little bit of a struck by lightning sensation when Obi does something good. Not seeing any pattern. He came flying in for a weak side rebound slam that was amazing but that was more on the defense. He had a great transition dunk off a clever pass from Rose.
I do think he is starting to see more seams and small opportunities in the defense but it’s slow going and his three point shot still looks like an eephus pitch.
He had a few good defensive boards too on a night where we had trouble in that dept.
It was a very good win, and it’s highly important to follow it with a win against the Raptors, that pretty much can make them switch to tanking (they have 1 win more than the 5th draft slot, so they must decide now or they’ll be in lottery hell at season’s end).
I’m not totally sure, and didn’t went to check it, but i think he plays better when the starters are playing worse, and specially when it’s Randle having a bad game. So i’m leaning to think he shines more when he has more opportunities, because when Randle is playing at all-star level, Obi gets minutes but he’s never featured on offense.
I think it’s time for the what is RJ’s ceiling debate.
1) Best player on contender
2) 2nd best player on contender
3) 2021 Julius Randle (pre ASB)
I don’t think RJ will be the number 1 on a contender, unless it’s with another player of his level, like the Billups+Hamilton’s Pistons from 2002-03 to 2007-08 that in a 6 year span had 50+54+54+64+53+59 wins and went to 4 EC Finals and 2 NBA Finals (1 title). I’d love if that happens, so who knows if he’ll be the best player. 😉
All thing considered i think he’ll be the 2nd best player and that we’ll get a superstar to play here.
Paul Pierce, obviously.
Whatever it is more of that please. They have got to get him to a point where he can at least take up some slack for Randle while he gets through his injury/funk.
Didn’t realize that the 3 previous games the Grizz beat Philly, Miami and Atlanta, all on the road.
So they were riding pretty high coming into MSG, which makes our win all the more impressive.
I don’t know what his ceiling is, but his floor is very solid starter on a very good team. The issue is that he will surely command a max deal and the Knicks will surely give it to him. He still has a ways to go before being worth that much but he has done all that could be asked for this year. Then there’s the question of position…is he a big power 2 or a standard 3? He’s played 80% of his minutes at the 2 this year, but I suppose it will depend on how the draft goes and what FAs are targeted. I’d like to see him evolve in the Jimmy Butler direction…a 2 who sort of evolves into a 3.
Obi looks to pass the ball as soon as he receives it. It appears that he is afraid or unwilling to dribble. IIRC, earlier in the season he dribbled more and made an occasional deft pass.
Credit to Thibs for his minutes’ allocation last night:
IQ: 31
Obi :15
Payton 15
Frank: . 5
Obi seems to play best with Rose. I’d guess that’s because Rose picks up the pace a little and when he attacks the basket actually looks for Obi. I think Obi would look way better if we played at a much faster pace and he could get out in transition more, but we really don’t have that kind of team. I’m not really sure what he does well other than being very athletic.
I can’t decide if Randle’s post all-star game play is the result of him falling back into some bad habits with shot selection and trying to do too much, defenses focusing on him trying to force someone else to beat them, or a combination of the two. When he gets 11 assists it suggests defenses are really locking down on him and he’s passing out of the tough spots and double teams, but I am also seeing too much dribbling and hero ball at times.
All indications are that Obi is a tireless worker. Obi will be busting his ass to become a better player during the off-season, count on it. He will also hopefully have the Vegas summer league and a full preseason to build on. I think the speed/size of the NBA game blindsided him and playing for Thibs and behind Randle didn’t help. Maybe he has a hard ceiling because of his defensive and ball-handling issues, but he can probably shoot and score better than he has this year. Having a decent PG wouldn’t hurt his cause either.
I agree and expecially expect Obi to get better on threes, a lot of NCAA rookies need some time to adjust to the different distance and Toppin isn’t a “natural” shooter.
Toppin has played better in the last few games and Randle really needs some rest…
Speaking of Randle, I think the injury is still bothering him (and the huge amount of minutes he played didn’t help).
Right now his best role on offense is to play decoy to collapse defense and setup the others, taking threes he can’t pass on and save his energy for some bully ball close to the basket over smaller/lighter defenders.
randle’s have been having some issues at the rim… at least more than what he has been used to in his career… as those rim attempts are coming from mostly isolation opportunities and there’s obviously a lot of resistance when that happens…
so he’s sort of adapted to fight it by going midrange…. and that little foul line fadeaway…. if i had to guess that’s been happening for at least a couple months only that the last month it has been masked by red hot 3pt shooting… players like randle generally go through this during their careers where they depend on perimeter shots more than their inside scoring but 26/27 is a bit early for this to happen to randle… we’ll just have to see if this is a recurring thing or if he snaps out of it eventually…
Randle’s body language doesn’t seem right out there. Someone said sulking. That isn’t the vibe I get. It’s more of a tired or hurt or a weary grinding kind of feeling. He doesn’t have the same ebullience he had earlier in the year – a little world weary for sure.
He definitely feels a lot more like 2020 Randle lately but the passing is still there.
Exactly. He doesn’t seem physically right, like he’s pushing through something.
agree that randle seems to be laboring of late.
but also, wrt his rim attempts, i think there’s maybe an inherent trade off at play. randle is a good passer, but he not a savant. he has solid body control, but it’s not elite. last year his biggest weakness besides 3pt shooting came when he would commit to a forceful drive without much ability to renegotiate, yes typically whirling, leading to not so nice ast/tov ratios. it seems like his biggest adjustment this year has come from aborting these attempts very early and passing out when the double team starts to appear or the lane looms crowded. even his impressive last second passes seem to come as a jump pass kick out from mid range after starting a slower spin from farther out.
one downside to this is that he often does seem to pass out of situations where he could have actually made it to the rim in good position. this is kind of like those rollers who learn to kick out to the corner three so well they sometimes pass up easy dunks. the other downside is that he doesn’t always have the momentum to get all the way to the rim and so turns many of his keeps into mid-rangers instead. this is a recipe for efficiency volatility, especially given how well he was shooting in the first half.
combine that with always playing with a no shoot center and playing the slowest pace in the league, and he ends up with a shot distribution that puts a huge burden on really strong shooting. for most of this year he’d been providing that.
I loved that closing lineup. I hope we see more of it.
“How in the world are you naming your two sons Jalen and Jaden? Come on, Will McDaniels”
it’s mcdaniels, not mcdonalds. the rhymes are Darryl’s but the burgers are Ronalds.
One can only hope Thibs has realized that in crunch time, playing 4 v 5 on offense is not a great idea, especially when your primary ball handler (Randle) is not the PG.
Even though Quickley didn’t score much in 4Q and OT, just his presence opens up the floor. It’s so obvious. I just don’t get why Thibs doesn’t get it.
I’ll tell you this much though – he doesn’t trust Quickley’s defense even in the slightest. Did he match up against Morant at all? Instead he had RJ and Burks pretty much matched up on Ja.
The passing and the 3 point shooting. He just can’t score inside the arc at all post all star break.
I think he likes Quickley’s talent and potential, but he doesn’t truly trust him on either side of the ball yet.
The Met’s lack of run support for DeGrom is appalling.
I think his assist totals are telling us he has made adjustments since last year, but it’s also telling us that when he goes inside there’s not much there for him because the defenses are focusing on him. That’s why he’s kicking it out or looking for an open player. Opponents. know we don’t have a lot of offensive firepower. They want someone else to beat them. Fortunately, we’ve been hitting 3s (especially RJ) because we are getting pretty good looks. There’s still not a lot of space in there for him to operate effectively. I can deal with all that. Hopefully we’ll fix that for next year, What I can’t deal with is our PF dribbling for 15 seconds in ISO and then putting up mid range trash. Hurting a little or not, take out the trash please.
RJ’s 3 point shooting improvement is really really amazing and unexpected. I think in our wildest dreams we thought he might shoot 35% this year. But the kid is up to 38.2 and is only getting better as the year goes on.
Although I guess we should remember that the difference between 32% that he shot last year and 38.2% that he’s shooting this year is literally 1 made 3 pointer every 3 games.
2019-20 per game: 1.1 3PM, 3.5 3PA
2020-21 per game: 1.4 3PM, 3.6 3PA
Are there any accountants or tax people here?
I have a basic question about the government stimulus checks.
I received a $1200 stimulus check in 2020 based on my 2019 income which was very low because I retired early that year. I did not work the entire year of 2020. So my income is very low again for that year. It appears the $1200 I received in 2020 is not part of my gross income for 2020, but does it go somewhere on my Federal Income Tax filing?
I’m trying to do my taxes by myself and I can’t find an answer to that very basic question. Most of the information is related more complex situations where people’s incomes changed from year to year etc.. I don’t know whether to put it on the form and if so where. Thanks
A point a game difference is pretty big. RJ’s become a really solid shooter with his feet set and space. Eventually teams will stop giving him wide open looks- I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t happened already- so he’s going to have to be quicker to set his feet and get the shot up. I thought he got the game-tying late three up pretty quickly against a decent contest so hopefully that’s a leap he can make without too much issue.
I didn’t know Toronto was playing tonight! Even better!
Most amazing part of last night was RJ making all 3 ft’s to tie the game. That really showed his mental toughness.
Raptors are resting Siakam tonight, I assume he will play tomorrow though.
@Deeefense
Check this out
From the NYTimes article:
“Is My Stimulus Payment Taxable? And Other Tax Questions”
#The federal government issued two rounds of payments in 2020 — the first starting in early April and the second in late December. If you got the full amount in both rounds, and your income and family circumstances haven’t changed, you’re all set. You don’t need to include information about the payments on your 2020 tax return, the Internal Revenue Service says.
“If they don’t owe you any more money, you don’t have to do anything,” said Kathy Pickering, chief tax officer at the tax preparation company H&R Block.#
Before this season started my mindset was pretty much that the most important thing, by far, was going to be Barrett and whether he could show some meaningful star potential. I’m honestly convinced at this point, he’s showing what I wanted which was a clear roadmap towards him becoming a star.
Since he’s not a obvious incredible athlete like Zion or others, seeing the path to stardom was harder as he would have to make many small improvements everywhere to compensate, and honestly I didn’t expect him to do it, but it definitely looks like the real thing. He still needs to figure out how to get to the line and defend consistently well, but we really can’t ask much more when pretty much every number has improved massively and the attitude / dedication is good too.
I know we always want more and staying .500 for so long has brought hope that the rebuild might be faster, but as long as the key aspect of it is going well, I’m happy.
Toronto scored 47 in the first and 40 in the second vs. Cleveland. Wtf?
This Raptors season certainly will go down as one of the weirdest ever. Positive point differential, in the weakest conference, and yet well below .500. The Heat are 6th with 7 more wins and a lower point differential. They must be absolutely crashing all sorts of prediction models
At least the Trent Jr. trade seems like a marvelous piece of business so far, if you only watch this one game
Yeah, Trent Jr. getting nuts
I know every one here is happy with Quickley, but, man, Malachi Flynn has been really really good since he’s been given starters’ minutes. I don’t know who he is, really, but I heard his name dropped a lot here when discussing the #27 pick. He can play.
Flynn was very hyped by Toronto fans after the preseason, but since they hype every young player they ever had I didn’t pay much attention. He’s got talent for sure.
Flynn was one of the many guys ranked significantly higher than IQ in most draft mocks and models. He looked really good in preseason. Having Lowry and VanVleet ahead of him doesn’t help his cause.
Flynn is like Tre Jones. He was only going to play in an emergency as they developed him for the future.
And yeah, man, that Trent trade was so smart and I’m not even a big Trent fan.
It’d be awesome if Masai was the Knicks president. Luckily, Rose is doing pretty well so far otherwise, so it’s not as painful to not have Masai or Morey.
It’s still pretty painful to not have Masai
I still don’t get why Portland did it, it was so nonsense to me. I think Powell is very good, but he’s 5 years older and doesn’t move the needle at all. Even if they didn’t want to pay GTJr, what are they going to do when Powell simply refuses his option and goes somewhere else? Then again Portland is one of the teams I still think is sneakily really bad ran, just carried to decent results because of Lillard.
Portland is in win-now mode. I think they believe they have a puncher’s chance of coming out of the West if they are fully healthy. Powell makes more sense to them in that scenario. Do they actually have a puncher’s chance? Eh…
Yeah, Powell is a good enough player that I sort of see it from their perspective. Sort of.
No Harden, but still, both KD and Irving played and the Lakers kicked the Nets’ ass tonight. Weird.
Now I’m more worried about Monday. How did that Laker team kick the Nets ass? It’s this weird bunch of supporting actors.
But that’s really the issue with Portland always, isn’t it? They might have a chance, they did get the WCF that one year, and of course you can’t rebuild with Lillard on your team. But at the same time they keep making this weird moves that barely move anything, the young players who could provide surplus value are either shipped or benched, all while keeping a coach who clearly has run out of ideas. I guess there’s some merit to a small market team being Indiana west, but they really should have traded McCollum like 4 years ago before they wasted so much of Lillard’s prime.
You give Masai their team 5 years ago, and I’m pretty sure they would be much, much better.
That’s true for most of the league…
That’s also true, yeah, but I used Masai as an example because Toronto and Portland were in similar positions, good enough to compete, cap screwed and constantly losing in the playoffs.
Everything Toronto did, gathering assets, developing players in the G-League and then swinging for a big trade is everything the Blazers haven’t done. How can you still not even have a G-League affiliate when it’s proven to be specially helpful for teams in smaller markets?
Thanks!
(sorry for the very off topic everyone)
I think Olshey has done a pretty good job. He drafted Lillard among some mid-lottery flotsam crud, and drafting McCollum and trading for Nurkic were good moves. He hasn’t done anything that has blatantly hurt the Blazers, as far as I know. Saying that Lillard has bailed him out of being exposed as a bad gm is kind of unfair, seeing as obtaining Lillard, a true game changing star almost 10 years later, was his first move as GM.
Woj:
Johnson sure looked decent against us the other night.
Yeah, they keep making smart moves, and i think as of now (with all the moves, not this particular one) they’re the clear favorite to win the title this year.
So, with a backcourt rotation of VanVleet, Trent Jr and Flynn, this almost guarantees that they won’t even try to keep Lowry, right? Should we give him a bloated 1+1, preferably with team option?
We should still draft the best PG we can get, but this way he could grow slowly behind Lowry and DRose.
Drummond looked good last night, and that’s without LeBron and AD. That is a monstrous front line if healthy.
I always knew Trent was going to breakout like this. He’s also a free agent this year.
Idk about his defense, but it seems like he could be a worthwhile target this offseason along with Ball.
Trent has had some good games, but let’s see what he does when teams start game-planning for him.
Trent Jr is RFA, so unless we overpay (which i totally disagree), they’ll match.
Seems like TOR is not tanking, which i think is an ill advised move. But as they’re in our division, it’s better for us, long term.
OKC is much smarter about tanking, is 1-9 in the last 10 (TOR is 4-6), and is now 7th (TOR is 8th). Two more stupid wins from WAS and CLE, and OKC will be 5th with a 40% chance of being in the Top4 and adding a great prospect (exactly what TOR needs, given Lowry’s time is coming to an end).
Well, but even with TOR not switching to tank mode, and although if we lose tonight i don’t think they can catch us in the standings, if we win there’s only one way for TOR to do it, they’d need to go .666 in the last 18 and we’d need to go .333. I don’t think those are likely by itself, let alone both at the same time.
All this words to say if we win tonight, there’s not a chance we won’t be in the play-in.
Not sure if TOR is tanking or not, but CLE’s defensive effort last night was disgraceful.
PS I’m going to the game tonight, hoping for a win!
That’s great, man. Enjoy, and if you’re pictured on the screen, let us know on the game thread. 😉
My guess is that they’re not, they’re just so short-staffed that they’re effectively tanking by default.
I think Z-man should start a loud “We want Frank” chant several times. We’d probably at least get to hear him!
🙂
How ’bout “DOLAN SUCKS!”???
LOL!
That chant is only for when the game is over, as by that time it won’t matter if they throw you out! 😀
You might get manhandled by security and kicked out.
Lakers shot 55% from 3 and Brooklyn is the only playoff team they’ve beaten since LeBron went down. We’re favored by 3.5/4 points tomorrow night. The burden is on us to prove that we can pull it off in a back-to-back, but this game would be very winnable.
Man – Wiseman out prob for season with meniscus tear. Early yet in his career but it looks like a disastrous pick for the Warriors so far – he looks completely lost, and mismatched with their current roster. I honestly still can’t believe they passed up Lamelo for a center.
This top three is cursed! Edwards better watch his knees!
Seemingly off-topic, but wait…
So I partially come here to warn everyone not to watch Thunder Force. Terrible movie, horribly written, not funny, derivative without being clever about it.
However, and very minor subplot spoiler alert but you deserve it after I warned you — there’s a crab man, and it’s kind of funny watching him unable to lift a martini glass, and then later he gets his claws torn off. And then there’s a scene on a couch where he has little tiny pincers growing back and I was actually angry they ripped off Deadpool because, it felt, they simply didn’t have the energy or brains to come up with their own funny stuff.
But then I thought, “Nerlens, maybe you have CLAWS.”
https://streamable.com/gyxhlc
amazing
There has not been so perfect a player for their offense since Luka. LaMelo would fit perfectly as Curry plays more off-ball action as he ages. They fucked up that pick bad, like Bagley over Doncic bad.
Not the first time, but that’s another story…
Woof, this Nuggets collapse down the stretch…
Boston went on a 31-3 run to go up by 13 in Denver.
Unbelievable
I had no opinion on what they should have done at the time, but they were probably thinking in terms of making one last 2-3 year run with Curry, Thompson, and Green like the original championship team that had Barnes and Bogut. Wiseman would become the new Bogut and Obre or Wiggins would become the new Barnes. Of course they could have brought in La Melo and shifted Thompson to SF.
I think they are going to try to trade Wiggins in the off season. He’s probably having his best season and he’s still young. I don’t watch any Warrior basketball, but I heard he’s defending fairly well this year and he’s been a bit more efficient. So while still a disastrous contract, it’s less disastrous now, lol
Maybe they can work something out with Dallas for Porzingis where Porzingis’s injury risk is offset by the larger overpay for Wiggins. They can argue other compensation. KP being available and GS being interested was the rumor floating around.
I was counting on Denver knocking off Boston. What an insane run. That was a bummer. I don’t think we have a great chance of finishing ahead of Boston anyway, but you never know with injuries and a couple of breaks here or there.
Raptors not going full tank tonight, Lowry playing. No FVV and OG though.
If we win tonight, I think I we might be able to take a deep breath. They are on a B2B and we have been better at home. This is a chance to land a KO punch.
there must be some sort of witchcraft behind what masai is doing….