Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson, who have been the keys to the Knicks in the playoffs so far, will move into the starting lineup tonight as the Knicks headed to Atlanta for Game 3 against the Hawks!
Great job by Thibs adjusting. Hopefully Rose gets Randle heavily involved right away.
It’s all happening, people!
Let’s go, take control of the series, Knicks!!
298 replies on “2021 NBA Playoffs Game Thread: Knicks @ Hawks, Game 3 – Thibs Finally Made The Move!”
Thank heaven Thibs finally surrender to reality and stopped giving advantage to the other team…
Noel was trying his ankle before the start and can be on a minutes restriction.
Now let’s go get them… Let’s go Knicks!!!
ojala!
Thibs feelin it!
Let’s get it on!
Obadiah!
Let’s go Knicks!
Now its time for chips and cola offering to the Gods! We got this one!
Let’s Do it!
Obadiah!
Let’s go Knicks!
Fired up like a mfer!
Who will breakthrough this game? I’m thinking Burks/RJ, IQ and Randle owe us a big game
Prediction: Knicks eke this one out
Prediction: RJ with a monster game.
If Julius can shoot some threes Atlanta’s defensive scheme will become useless.
Even with Taj starting, I expect Noel to get playing time. I am fine with that. Noel has made real contributions defensively and even a few on offense. Just don’t ask him to catch the ball on offense.
I hope that starting Rose means that Payton will not get in the game (other than garbage time). I certainly do not want to see him opposite Trae Young. I also do not want him playing when Young sits, because that has been when the Knicks have dominated.
i have a confession, wednesday i intentionally hung around work just so i could get home and turn the game on during the 4th…i blame it all on donnie, he led me down this dank path of minimizing my emotional knick fan stress…
since learning that not only does donnie not watch much tv, but – owns no cell phone – i do though feel very justified in doing what donnie does…
with 20 children ages 40 to new born – donnie is living right…this season i have become a firm believer in DWDD..
that’s right domain wall displacement detection is the key to a happy life…
It’s gonna be weird not having to wait until the 7 minute mark or so for the game to really start
It was a foregone conclusion.
Noel will help the second unit dominate inside. I think this is a great move. Rose’s ability to score will open it up for Randle.
Let’s go Knicks!!!
As Macri noted in his newsletter today, Thibs’ willingness to take Rose out of the bench unit also speaks to how much confidence he has in our two rookies, who, along with Burks, will have to provide the scoring when the starters are out.
I am terrified that Thibs is stubborn and uses Elf as the first PG off the bench. That’s just paranoia and anxiety, right? No chance. Right? Right? :-0
Unfortunately, don’t think Elf gets benched, my bet is it’ll depend on how the game goes…if we start out well, he’ll likely get in, if we fall behind, he won’t
Starting Lineup is badass
Can’t wait!
I think it’s very possible that Thibs goes with a 9-man rotation today.
A few bench questions.
1. Does Thibs use 9, 10 or 11 tonight?
2. If 10, does Frank play in front of Payton?
3. If Frank plays, is he a wing (my preference)?
4. If Frank is a wing, does Burks run point?
Let’s get home court advantage again!
Let’s go Knicks!
Clock malfunction! Atlanta sucks!
Get your &$# together ATL
***Prediction: Knicks eke this one out***
Prediction: Knicks eke this one out, but Z-Man passes out with 2:20 to go in regulation.
This clock thing is a Russian hack
Technical difficulties at Wylie E. Groves High School Arena.
This is beyond a sham.
Brick, brick, brick
Maybe the rims are broken, too.
That was shockingly shitty defense by Hunter, fouling Randle.
RJ is beginning to piss me off.
RJ Barrett with his best Payton impersonation…
Rose is schooling the Hawks.
But Young isn’t too shabby, either.
Taj!!
True. He needs some Z-man positivity. Let’s send it.
A starting pg who can shoot? A starting center who can catch passes? What sorcery is this?
Keep forcing trae LEFT
Aren’t these two teams supposed to be pretty good on defense?
Looking forward to the second unit coming in and building us a lead.
The only shots either teams are missing are the wide open ones.
Fix the D and get this baby!
Taj’s offense might just force Capela to stay home on D and not soft double Randle.
Please, no Payton tonight.
Imagine if we didn’t have Rose in right now
Rose is lighting it up beautifully on O, but he CANNOT stay with Trae. At all.
We might need someone who’s a bit more Quickley…
It’s just shocking how easy everything has been for both teams around the rim. Just no protection on either end.
My God Randle and RJ with 4 wide open 3s and none of them came close to going in.
RJ and J.R. off to a slow start again.
We need our wings to fly high…
Fantastic start for Rose and Gibson, still waiting for the others to show up…
Randle and Barrett with the short arm, every shot is on the front of the rim…
With Gallo at 5, the Knicks should attack the rim.
I am officially done with doris burke…brutal
Eye test says when these two start the game by shooting threes, they suck. When they start by driving to the hoop, they’re better.
Part of the defensive problem was Taj not sliding fast enough. Like the Noel sub
That was flagrant!
Flagrant foul should be called on Huerter for throwing Noel to the ground. That was not a basketball play.
If Bullocks last game was flagrant, then that’s flagrant
Only if it was a Knick that did it.
How in the world was that Gallo post up something that McMillan actively wanted?
RJ is killing us.
Take a second to imagine this with Payton instead of Rose…
this team’s lack of on court awareness is so frustrating. Nate Mc Millan can play the worst defensive lineups in the world and not be penalized bc the players on the court won’t exploit it.
That was hilarious. I think not even Gallo thought it could lead to anything good.
This is why we miss Mitch. They are using Capella to double. If Mitch was in the game those would be drives and stuffs. Now it’s a drive into a crowd.
Flagrant was called.
The Hawks sure aren’t succeeding due to the playcalling.
I’m shocked they called it a flagrant to be honest. We don’t get that kind of stuff.
Gallo has the height, but that far from the basket it was dumb to think he could push RJ around
It was such a dumb foul by Huerter. No reason at all to do that.
Randle is terrible right now.
Agree. But I would rather see them drive hard into that crowd. Draw a foul or even get the offensive foul, but claim some space.
Randle is atrocious
Starting to worry about Randle
This might be the worst quarter of basketball I’ve ever seen.
Next home game everyone needs to be silent for Randle
After how bad they looked in Game 2 to start I shouldn’t care about this start but holy shit the Knicks offense right now is beyond garbage.
Randle missed the rim from a foot away.
Whoever said it above might be right. This series could be all about getting/keeping Taj on the floor.
Playing like garbage right now.
The inevitable Randle extension next season is looking a hell of a lot more questionable with each game in the playoffs so far… 2019 Julius is back in full force.
Burks at point. Bullock & IQ are wings as Rose goes to the bench.
rose and free throws are keeping us in the game
Noel has figured out how to play these refs much better. Kudos to him
Frank for 14.6 seconds.
That is a dead squirrel on Gallo’s head.
Noel being six for six from the line is amazing.
Both teams will foul out tonight
Thibs had IQ/Frank as offense/defense to close the quarter.
Amazingly free throws are keeping the Knicks in this game.
The Hawks are d-u-m dumb.
Thank you, Trae 😀
BANG!
JR!
Motherfucker,!!!
That was a closing!!!!
So, so dumb.
That was one hell of a final second of the quarter! Six-point swing!
Yay Randle!
Maybe a little too much handwringing on our part. 😉
Score looks okay from here.
Randle makes his first shot at the buzzer. The Hawks seem to want the Knicks to win.
Gallo MVP again.
There is a reason you rarely see a team double the inbounder to leave a shooter open for three. Randle makes ‘em pay.
Momentum…turning….
Some ugly basketball and in the end we’re up by 2, unbelievable…
RJ needs to wake up,
comparisons between he and Ja Morant look sillier with every new playoff game…
Can you imagine a Thibs team ever being THAT dumb? No way.
What is the attendance of this game? I can barely hear the crowd.
Well, I guess if you’re the Hawks you’d rather shit the bed in the last minute of the 1st quarter than in the last minute of the 4th quarter. But, man, that was a total team collapse there. They led 27-21 with 40 seconds left in the quarter, and walk off the floor trailing 31-29.
RJ must have the playoff yips.
The ball movement without a PG on the floor is not great.
Nobody wants to fucking shoot apparently.
it’s like nobody wants to take a shot
The 2nd unit misses DRose
Gotta run up the lead in these non-Trae minutes.
If the Hawks lose most of the blame will be on Gallo’s hair….
Love IQ. Emerging master of the bullshit foul
IQ is there for you.
IQ with a circus shot… and missed the FT…
It’s amazing how terrible the offense can be but we’re still up because no Elfrid
I adore that Quickley still can pull that move off.
Quickly is totally out of control. Thank god for wild bank shots.
Teams are combining for a record breaking number of dumb plays and silly turnovers…
What in the world is going on with the Knicks offense.
Thibs should stagger Rose and Randle a bit. They need one creator on the floor.
Just wasting offensive possessions.
Some Keystone Cops shit here.
The men’s intramural tournament at the Yerba Buena Athletic Center is going very well.
no floor general
Where would they be without Noel tonight? He’s a warrior.
Nerlens Noel, offensive juggernaut
Put Lou or Trae on screens and good things will happen.
Eminently winnable game if we stop playing like headless chickens…
The good thing is Rose is getting a decent break right now.
This is worse offense than anything during those classic Knicks Heat playoff slugfests.
I feel like Clyde refers to a half dozen different kinds of play as “the old foot trick,” to the point where I’m not even sure what he means anymore.
If you told me that Noel would make 7 free throws In the first half, I would have scoffed. If you told me that he would do it on 8 shots, I would have assumed you were heavily medicated.
My take on their respective awful play – The Knicks just don’t have a lot of offensive players. The Hawks are plain ol’ dumb.
Ugly game Up 1p
I’ll take it!
We need someone else besides rose to get hot ,…offense is so hard
Game is terrible, referees are terrible too.
What’s the German word for when you are watching Doris Burke but could be watching Clyde
Don’t like the last couple of possessions.
Also, quite by accident, but have had way too much to drink
We suck.
Wtf sequence man…
Is it a new rule that you don’t need to have ball possession to call a timeout?
Don’t care they’re only down 6 this has been an embarrassing performance so far.
we can’t possibly shoot 30 percent the whole game…………can we?
This is just so fucking terrible.
RJ needs to either wake up or sit on the bench, he’s missed every open shot so far. Only Rose and Gibson seem like they want to go play hard.
We’re shooting that high of a percentage?
No one on the Hawks can shoot but Trae and they’re up six. That is annoying. That 31-footer was rough.
Just awful offense. Barrett and everyone else bricking, bouncing balls off our feet, can’t throw it in the ocean.
but we’ve never been *this* bad. we’re totally flummoxed by the simplest defensive adjustment in the world.
Yeah, watching this without Clyde is a lot less enjoyable
Schadenburke.
How to stop the lob:
1. put pressure on the ball (not recommend against Trae Young 1 on 1).
2. Keep a body on lob targets in the paint.
3. Block the lob on the catch.
How not to stop the lob:
1. Watch and do none of the above.
rj is a zero out there…real disappointed in his effort
The offense is a fucking mess, maybe we need Elfrid out there
Randle is more nervous than our rookies are. Wtf.
Our “stars” are 1-12…
This is what’s annoying, the Hawks are doing NOTHING special on defense, they’re just trying hard and moving. It’s been self inflicted shit, just terrible misses.
A game like this is really tough on all us people who had a hard time believing 2021 Randle was real
this reminds me of the infamous game 3 in Indiana that spooked Mike Woodson. We are just shitting the bed on every level, including the coaching. Thibs and Randle are having a “who can show up less” contest.
RJ should be benched.
I thought it was verfremclydeseffekt, which is the alienation you feel when you don’t see the game and your man at the same time.
Let’s hope they wake up in the 2nd half like in game 2
Where the fuck did that alley oop to Capela come from. Jesus.
Crowd is loud now
what a trainwreck
This sucks
Only positive is Knicks will only be down 2-1 after this game and not facing a sweep on Sunday like they should be.
Well, if they’re not willing to try hard in a decisive game, I’m not willing to watch this bullshit.
He knows I mean “monster” in a good way, right?
The shot chart the Knicks have generated this series is just dreadful.
Hubert don’t do anything crazy not worth it
If I was Thibs I would walk in that locker room and call Randle and RJ out. If they’re going to play like shit than lose with them on the bench for all I care.
On both offense and defense.
Randle and RJ 1–14. I don’t think that’s very good
Dissapointing
Hawks don’t give us many open shots but we’re also playing without rhythm and confidence
We need… Something
Thibs magic please!
Ten periods of playoffs basketball with crowds in the stands:
Randle is shooting 12-48 (5-16 3PT)
Barrett is shooting 11-34 (3-13 3PT)
We can win this serie and maybe even this game, but I’ll keep my expectations low for next year… better to be surprised than disappointed.
Sorry Hubert, it’s time
But seriously, just change bars or something. Hope you’re doing alright
Hubert I hate to say this but we need you to get hit by a scooter again
Haha! No we don’t. Classic.
Monica calling it out exactly.
RJ, Julius: Take the ball to the goal, and make them foul you!
I don’t know what’s worse right now the Knicks or Yankees offense.
we were down 13..14 game 2 right…
Can we try passing the ball in the 2nd half perchance?
Julius costing himself money. This showing is not an all nba player, it’s barely even starter much less all star. He can’t have three games in a row like this
hahaha.
The only thing I’ll say is if we somehow do a game 2 repeat and get the lead down to 2 or something by the 4th quarter, we’re gonna be all inside the Hawks’ heads
Just fed two stray cats
Let’s see if it’ll work…
They passed the ball fine in the 1st half, at times passed too much cause they were reluctant to take open 3pters.
RJ can score
What is Julius doing??
Just me watching the 2nd half? 😀
Are we watching the same game?
Bring in Frank.
It was a joke, after the first 3 he made
Without Rose we’d be down 30
I don’t know if it’s just me, but i find Doris Burke annoying when we’re losing. She raves too much the team that is winning.
Rose’s playing alone… non-Rose Knicks are 9-40…
If Randle shoots 10%, there are no adjustments that bring the Knicks back. Randle has to be better for the Knicks to have a chance.
Sorry Cyber, my irony-detector is always off when we lose badly 🙂
Julius being a regular season, empty arena mirage would be a disaster.
Without checking Basketball Reference, I’m going to say that no team has ever won a playoff series with it’s top two scorers playing this badly.
I liked more the reality where Julius makes his FGs and Noel misses his FTs, but now we’re on the alternative reality… 🙁
That’s what Julius should be doing. Go at these F***ers!
Well deserved (at least for this serie) chants of “Overrated” from the Hawks fans…
And again, Julius. Thank you. Do it again.
Randle and RJ are now 2-19. Wow.
Can we get back from this hole? (thinking hard… then head explodes)
Felt the same, unfortunately …
Best I can do guys is walk across 7th Avenue South with my eyes closed and see what happens.
Maybe Julius is overrated at the moment, but i’d sign him to that max extension all the same
YES, Julius. Thank you. Drive … it … again!
If the next step in Randle’s evolution is learning how to perform in a playoff atmosphere, then so be it.
It would suck to lose the series because he stunk up the joint on offense. But it’s a bit to soon for me to hit him with the “oh he can’t perform in the playoffs” moniker. Not after one season, and with the season being a wildly overachieving success.
I just lost the satellite signal. Can I get a little play by play please?
Play by play: we’re down by… 14 at the end of the 3rd
It’s rough seeing them down so much to such a dumb opponent. That Bogo foul was insane.
The Hawks are whooping our ass in the shooting dept, but somehow we’re just one good run away…
Knicks are down by 14 after 3Q. They have only made up 1 point with Trae Young in the bench.
We’re optimally set up to make a run and steal a game, crushing Atlanta’s confidence for the rest of the series.
Thank goodness for Lou Will’s “Run down the shot clock and then just chuck an ugly three” play call to end the third.
Thanks, guys. The signal came back even if our team didn’t.
Play-by-play
Knicks: terrible offense
Hawks: Dumb offense but not godawful
They really need to make the three line deeper.
Isn’t that our play?
Can Obi give a spark? He did nothing in the first half.
20 field goals in 3 quarters has to be close to a playoff record low.
Yes, that’s clearly McMillan stealing from Thibs…
We’re back to Payton starting next game at this rate
Yeah, that’s one casualty of starting Rose. Obi does less well without him.
I like that the Knicks are searching for threes. It’s smart.
Hawks 14-22 from three…
That’s outrageous for it to be that slippery under the basket. Get your shit together, Atlanta.
Going to need Rose to score 30 this quarter to win.
Just want them to get it to single digits here. Get the Hawks nervous.
Imagine if the Knicks let Toppin play above the rim.
We need to add some offense in the offseason.
The pass was amazing also
Credit that foul on Noel to McMillan whining this week.
My issue with Quickley is that he telegraphs his moves sometimes.
Disgusting performances from Randall and Barrett
How many runs away are we now? 🙁
I can’t figure out why they all seem so hesitant to shoot when they’ve got a look. It’s been like that all night.
The Knicks are so lucky that the Hawks are taking some terrible shots.
Hawks will win any game that they’d shoot 60% from 3.
Hopefully RJ and Randle stay stapled to the bench.
Can Vildoza play PF?
This is what it feels like lose House Money.
That Trae miss and then that Bogo make were the only good shots the Hawks have taken in four minutes.
Disgusting defense
Sorry everyone but the Hawks are not good. This is more an indictment of our squad at the moment … an extremely predictable set of individual players and plays right now … and bad shooting … granted our predictability is leading to contested difficult shots
No need to have the starters in down 15 with 2 to go,
let the end of the bench taste playoffs basketball and try to avoid injuries…
P.S.
… or stupid things that can lead to suspensions…
Trae Young is a sore winner.
I would like to pick Young up and pile drive him into the court.
This Hawks team is bush league.
Absolutely.
This is an extra level of pathetic down the stretch
I may hate Trae Young more than I hated Reggie Miller in the 90’s.
He’s just an asshole.
Learning experience, I think the closer we got in the second half was -11.
You need to have selective memory in the playoffs,
forget this game and go get the next one.
We can’t play worse than this, let’s come back to the Garden tied…
Randle and RJ have been embarrassingly bad this series
Well, the plan was to steal a game in Atlanta, so let’s try to do better on the next one.
They shot 60% from 3 and still only scored 105, they’re not even good, they’re gonna get obliterated by the Sixers if they get there. This game was lost by Julius Randle and well, I guess RJ tried his hardest to help him too. Even just decent shooting and the series is 2-1 for us.
Yes and we need to remember this when we talk about next season…
this team needs to add reliable offensive talent.
With decent shooting this series is 3-0 for us, Randle and Barrett were 12-38 in game-1…
They’re costing us the series.
I hate them like crazy, but did we dance it up on our victories over them. I can’t remember exactly, but … maybe?
Hopefully they find a gym to go take 500 shots at next couple of days.
They should be shooting right now as the crowd files out. And RJ should be running laps.
This is what bothers me the most. Keep telling myself they are going back to the team we liked so much in the regular season any minute now, and it never happens. They look like they’re in some kind of mental block, the plays are astonishingly bad. It’s baffling.
Randle needs a new game plan. The Hawks aren’t letting him get to his spots comfortably and he isn’t bringing anything else.
Rj… I don’t even know what’s going on with RJ
Both are missing 3s they’ve hit all season. Randle at C is the nuclear option, but maybe they need to go to it. ATL seems to dumb to really exploit it and the Trae/Capela PnR gets 100 lobs (give or take) a game anyways
We keep talking about maybe maxing Julius. Is there any other max player who has played this badly in three consecutive playoff games?
I hear Paul George is bad in the playoffs, but probably not this bad
Then you get to see Doncic right after our shitshow…
His max extension isn’t really max money, it’s just the max we’re allowed to give him. Before he made his 2 incentives, the extension was 4/$106M, i don’t know if it was reviewed after it.
Whoever said this feels like the Roy Hibbert series hit the nail on the head, except Roy Hibbert was actually good at defense
Hahn and Monica saying we should just lay off Trae the whole game. Give him the threes and negate all the easy alley-pop assists and floaters. “He’s gonna beat you off the dribble, anyway. Why let him get all the other guys in rhythm? Make Trae hit those threes and keep the offense stagnant.” I may agree with this.
Knicks outscored the Hawks by 22 at the line, too.
The Clippers might as well just fly home tonight.
Rose and Taj not starting and closing the game for us works well all year
Noel was amazing from the line tonight. He hit almost half of our free throws.
Absent a big turnaround, no way Julius should be maxed.
If the refs continue to allow Trae’s taunting I fear that it may lead to an ugly incident. Aren’t there rules against it?
I’m talking about this: (quoted from CBS) “He can accept a typical veteran extension and guarantee himself over $126 million to stay in New York, or he can ride out next season and go for the jackpot. He will be eligible for a max contract starting at 30 percent of the cap in the summer of 2022. With a projected cap of $115.8 million, that would start him off at around $34.7 million for the 2022-23 season. The Knicks could give him five total seasons with eight percent annual raises, while other teams could give him four total seasons with five percent annual raises. In total, that means another team could give him a projected four-year, $149.4 million deal, while the Knicks could give him a five-year, $201.5 million deal.”
Those decisions next year are gonna be interesting.
But — I’m not abandoning our guys. They stunk up the joint all three games thus far (IMO) and were lucky to steal the Wednesday game. Let’s get back on track. Re-set.
Our “shooters” (RJ, Randle, Quick, Buttock, and Burks, not counting Rose here) were 11 for 48. That’s (checks magic wristwatch) 23% from the field. Simple as that.
Looking at the box score, we lost the second quarter big, but won or tied the other quarters. We just couldn’t get a scoring run against them at any time
just 3 games so far…hard work normally triumphs, even over nerves…
yeah, reggie started looking a little scary towards the end of the game…trae might want to direct some of that stuff in a different direction…
If you cannot score, you cannot win. Simple math.
We need to win Sunday.
Randle, 4 years and $30M, who says no
I’m risking a completely naive question. Feel free to laugh at me.
Multiple times each game, the Hawks run a simple play in which Trae passes to someone at the top of the key who in turn tosses an easy alley oop.
Why in the entire season with our Knicks have I never ever seen us complete that simple play? I mean what is Thibs coaching on offense?
Cyber & KB App, you’re both right on Randle’s extension.
If he signs this summer the extension will be for 4Yr/106M and will kick in in the 2022-23 season,
so he’ll play 2021-22 at the expected 20M and the total will be 5Yr/126M.
Otherwise he’ll play next season at 20M and then he can sign a new contract for the max (5 years with us, 4 for other teams) with a much higher starting point.
Honestly, this summer extension can be somewhat “reasonable” (4 years at 26,5M avg) , the “new FA” contract will be madness (Knicks average 40M and change, other teams average over 37M…).
I don’t think anyone will offer that.
I’m a little drunk and a lot disappointed.
All the faith I had started to build in Randle and RJ has evaporated.
Also, I’m in a mood. Go Boston.
Thx. So if Randle flames out in these playoffs, does he sign the summer deal and lock in with the Knicks for less, or does he play next season out hoping to earn the “MaxMax?”
Tricky. I suspect Randle signs over the summer, but I’m curious to see what happens, and how the performance in these playoffs affects the numbers.
Anyone here want to do a meet up for Game 4?
Wish the Knicks had Jayson Tatum.
If RJ Barrett becomes 90% of Tatum, I’ll be really happy…
Spartan eye test
Hawks played more physical than us at the start
They contested most of our shots
We let them more times to have easy shots
After they got a double digit lead they cooled a bit and managed to retain it without much effort
Hitting their 3s was critical
So far in this series they seem as the better team but not very special also
A few adjustments can beat them easily as we saw on the previous game
Tighter D, more paintball, best possible rotations
Fuck this one and Let’s get the next one
Bright spot: Elf out of rotation completely
Dass Experiment
I truly don’t know if the use of Ntilikina or even Vildoza(!) could have a catalytic impact defensively but i wouldn’t mind trying it by giving them 10-15min of Rose/IQ/RJ total minutes.
Or K. Leonard… who along w/George are 20-25 from the field against the Mavs.
Defense not the operative word in this Clips-Mavs game
Speaking of RJ (and even Randle), Kobe wasn’t all that good in his first two playoffs from an offensive perspective in ’97 and ’98. Even in ’99 when he upped his PPG he needed a lot of shots to get his #s. Yes, Shaq arriving in 2000 made a huge impact, but Kobe still needed some time to develop his playoff muscles.
It’ll be a disappointment if the Knicks lose to the Hawks b/c they both continued to struggle, but in the long term it will help their development.