2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks Host the Pacers For a Rematch

The Knicks host the Pacers as they try to get revenge for a pretty rough beatdown where Myles Turner shot like Reggie Miller.

Let’s hope that that does not happen this time around. I am confident that the Knicks will not get beat like that again, but will they find another way to lose? Hopefully not.

Noel is out again, but so is Chris Duarte for Indiana.

HOW IS 56 WINS LOOKING? Not great, but really, a couple of wins in a row and it will be right back to looking good!

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Let’s go, Knicks!

248 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks Host the Pacers For a Rematch”

Repost:

RJ’s usage is 22.7. Julius’s is 28.2. Both are al,most the same as they were last year; in fact both are slightly down from last year. There’s nothing there to suggest that RJ is in any way being held back by Julius. RJ is missing wide-open 3’s on his own. That mostly accounts for the offensive decline. RJ is guarding tougher players now and has less help from the guys on the court with him. That accounts for the bad defensive metrics.

I have faith in RJ because he’s 21. He’s a smart, dedicated guy who should figure things out. But his current problems are about him, not Julius. And let’s not forget that other than the quirkiest stat of all (3pt shooting), his numbers were just so-so overall last year.

On paper the hardest game of the 3-game set,
please guys show us some progress, not perfection just enough progress to win this game…

Let’s Go Knicks!

I hate that we are playing the Pacers, especially because I think this Pacer team is better than their record.

Kemba PnR numbers may be good, but I’d ask how much of that is him pulling up immediately after the pick and hitting 48% of his 3s? I don’t know, but based on Mitch & Kemba’s numbers I’m guessing most of it isn’t going to the hoop.

Kemba started looking for Mitch more last game, and went to the hoop more in general, we need to see more of that Kemba.

i’m gonna take a chance and commit to watching the whole game…we’ll see how it goes…

as least the violin produces one of the less oppressive versions of “the song”…

Kemba looks a lot better than he did at the beginning of the season, even if ironically his numbers were better at that point due to being red hot from 3.

clyde a big fan of feeding the hot hand – why is somewhere other than kemba shooting the ball???

As far as I can see, nothing has been fixed on either side, but I’m in a grumpy mood tonight.

Process is better than result for now,
they’re trying on offense but only Kemba can score,
everyone else is building a brick house.

Sooner or later those shots will fall (fingers crossed)…

At least two bad defensive plays by Barrett…

Kemba looking to attack is an improvement. The ball movement looks better too, Knicks need to knock down shots

Barrett looks like a shell of himself,
not only he is bricking everything, bad defense and bad turnovers too…

We can’t buy a fucking three…

Time to start hitting some shot from deep…

Starters with the short leash tonight…

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say if we continue to miss wide open shots, we probably won’t win

A ton of open looks bricked furiously,
we’re in a terrible shooting slump…

More energy, more ball movement but we need to start hitting something…

Clank-tastic, but I really liked the ball movement. Everything was working on O except the actual putting of ball in hoop (discounting our to-the-rim point guards).

Unfortunately I won’t be getting back the last 30 mins of my life I spent watching that God awful 1st quarter.

IQ broke the spell!

Toppin shot a decent 3-ball in SL and preseason but he’s now 2-18 in real games this year…

Great to have Good Quickley back. Obi might want to stop taking 3s entirely for a while.

Thibs sure is sticking with this group for a while, huh? No complaints from me. Helluva lob there.

I have faith in Randle’s ability to make this sound incredibly stupid soon, but it’s not a great sign that I’m bummed to see him check back in for Obi.

Thanks Mitch for the defense pal… but can we work in a pump fake on offense … maybe a few in succession

Seems like Randle is making a bit more of an effort to get to the rim with predictably good results

thenoblefacehumper:
I have faith in Randle’s ability to make this sound incredibly stupid soon, but it’s not a great sign that I’m bummed to see him check back in for Obi.

Obi is the positive surprise of the year. He showed some signs in the playoffs, but it was hard to be confident that would carry over. Now I’m starting to look forward to him playing too.

Randle HAS to play off some kind of motion to be effective. And to be fair, it does take time to get to know your dance partner’s tendencies.

d-mar: Does Mitch ever head fake?

He did it last game, and i’m on record on the thread asking if it was the first time. 😛

cybersoze: He did it last game, and i’m on record on the thread asking if it was the first time. 😛

Are you sure he didn’t just pull a muscle and it looked like a head fake? 🙂

I think we could get more out of Frank than we are getting out of RJ right now. 🙁

The starters flat out suck. Can we send them all down to the G-League for awhile.

The RJ highs and lows are insane. He pretty much goes back and forth between “budding superstar” and “unplayable.”

DRed:
Getting blocked by Taj Gibson must be so embarrassing

Right? For a ground-bound, short, old guy, he sure blocks an awful lot of shots.

Barrett in a 26-97 (7-36) slump since his last good game.
The problem is that he isn’t doing nothing else, it’s like playing 4 vs 5… with bad defense

Somebody tell Randle his contract is locked in, he doesn’t need to score all the points.

Hopefully Knicks can have a 3rd quarter vs the Pacers similar to the 3rd quarter of Game 2 in the 2013 playoffs.

Derrick Rose has to be in the lead for 6th man of the year so far. Maybe I’m missing someone, but this team is a lot better when he’s on the court.

kevin5318: I will pay to have this stupid sportsbook ad removed from MSG

We need a poll on this, asking how much more time will the ad be shown in Knicks games.
Options: 1) For one million years more; 2) For all eternity; 3) For all eternity and beyond;

FWIW, Cam Reddish, who got off to a decent start this season, is now ALSO currently 14 for his last 58. Those Dukies ride or die together, I guess

you know that thing where you’re watching a show and a character does something so cringey you literally have to hit pause to wait out the proxy shame? i am feeling
that for rj.

I must say that I didn’t yell at the screen much so far. Discounting the last two minutes, which were a shitshow, that first half had the Knicks playing the right way. Except for the shooting, of course. I’m sad they bricked most everything, but the style of play is better on the nerves.

Mitch intimidating TJ into not shooting and then somehow blocking him anyway

that was such a weird play dred, after it happened I was still wondering what happened, even after the slo-mo view it was like – really???

thenoblefacehumper:
I have faith in Randle’s ability to make this sound incredibly stupid soon, but it’s not a great sign that I’m bummed to see him check back in for Obi.

The other way of looking at it is that Obi is better than expected…

Yeah the process is good just need to make our shots. Feel like we havent had a 3 point parade in months

Max: Barrett in a 26-97 (7-36) slump since his last good game.

It looks even worse in percentage: 3P .194, 2P .311

As long JR Smith is in school and on the golf course than means RJ isn’t hanging out with him late at night. So he’ll be alright.

inconsistent play…who knows what’s going on…forget about his age, give him some time…he’s important to our season’s success…not sure why he stopped attacking the rim…

if he’s injured, he needs to sit…

we have a deep team, especially with quik and burks playing better…

How many more games do we have to see this to be confident that Nerlens + Bullock + Payton > Mitch + Kemba + Fournier?

I’d pull the whole starting lineup. Kemba foolishly sagged off of Brogdan, Julius threw a terrible pass, then the entire defense breaks down. Total BS.

This team is sucking the joy out of watching basketball… we’re close but it just feels like a fluke because it’s just Walker being super hot shooting and nothing else outside of thr bench pretty much.

Thibs has to be going crazy watching this team. He should have stuck with what got him here. DEEEFENSE.

I remember reading something about Thibs being softer this year. I think he needs to shitcan that.

One night the second unit isn’t gonna have it and it’s just gonna be a really sad second half

MISS E. Fournier Driving Layup
J. Randle Bad Pass TURNOVER (3 TO)
MISS J. Randle 25′ 3PT
MISS E. Fournier 24′ 3PT
MISS K. Walker 20′ Jump Shot

that’s not really that bad I guess just not making shots

Second unit needs to do their thing before Brogdon goes on an inevitable scoring binge in the 4th quarter

Julius, come on now.

His turnovers are maddening because they rarely if ever come on high risk/high reward plays.

I have a stats issue I never gave much thought to.

I see examples of players trying to tip the ball in because they can’t actually grab the offensive rebound. Usually it’s a very difficult or close to impossible shot, but it’s better than conceding the rebound. In the boxscore they get credited with a missed shot and a rebound. That’s not really an accurate appraisal of what happened. I wonder what would happen to the rebounding and shooting efficiency stats if we just counted them as “tip” attempts and didn’t count them as shots and rebounds. A couple of players might see a noticeable change in their numbers while others would see no change.

The bench mob went in and we get close…
The same shit over and over and over…

BTW Randle is 5-14 with 5 of our 8 turnovers…

P.S.
DRed just beat me 🙂

It’s only 5 pt, easy peasy for our 2nd team, they’re used to get back from double digits. LOL

thibs needs to send obi to the table to check in at the 7:00 minute mark of the 1st and 3rd…he looks exhausted…

it’s funny, he should probably be on paternity leave right now…

How the fuck do you even come close to fouling a guy shooting a fade away 3pter with .7 left on the shot clock.

The difference between the bench and starters is huge. I bet the bench beats the starters in practice scrimmages.

The Obi 3 is in the pantheon of Knicks player shots I know for a fact are not going in. In there with 2nd half of 2012-2013 Jason Kidd 3s, 2013-2014 Raymond Felton runners, things of that nature.

The bench better open a solid lead or the starters will blow this.

thenoblefacehumper:
The Obi 3 is in the pantheon of Knicks player shots I know for a fact are not going in. In there with 2nd half of 2012-2013 Jason Kidd 3s, 2013-2014 Raymond Felton runners, things of that nature.

Frank’s contested layups 😉

thenoblefacehumper:
The Obi 3 is in the pantheon of Knicks player shots I know for a fact are not going in. In there with 2nd half of 2012-2013 Jason Kidd 3s, 2013-2014 Raymond Felton runners, things of that nature.

Felt the same way every time Greg Anthony took a 3pter his first couple of seasons.

Every time the Knicks gain momentum late in the game its guaranteed the other team will immediately hit a 3pter

Obi probably should keep taking 3s because it’s something he would really need if he’s going to be a good pro, but it definitely sucks in the short term

Credit where it’s due, small lineup and all the defense has been great in the 4th

DRed:
wish IQ had more in his bag inside the arc

Yeah! If he could learn to finish at the rim and pull up he’d be some player.

Let’s face it, our Deeefense sucks!: Let’s face it, our Deeefense sucks!
November 15, 2021 at 9:39 pm
DRed:
wish IQ had more in his bag inside the arc

Yeah! If he could learn to finish at the rim and pull up he’d be some player.

That’s the main reason he was available at #25

This is some old school Knicks defense.

Yeah, reminds me of the good ol’ 2020-2021 team.

That was a nice game after the bench came in the 3rd.

I find it hilarious how the Knicks managed to give up two uncontested corner 3PTAs in that last real possession out of the timeout.

Offense was crummy but the defense was pretty good! Also Quickley is having himself a nice little run.

RJ and Randle still mostly stunk out the joint but a win is a win!

Gotta hand it to Thibs to being flexible with his rotations in the 2nd half. Rose and Quickley closing out the game.

Also, the defense was impeccable. Guys were flying around, closing out on shooters. Great game!

Now let’s take the next “easy” games seriously, or else we’re going to get burned.

30% of Kemba’s layups this season happened this game.

20% happened in the first 2:30 of the game.

Rebecca’s gotta lay off the beer…

oh but that was some funny shit right there…hahahahahahaha…

I also think that nights like tonight make me feel even more confident that choosing Burks over Bullock was a prudent move.

All 5 starters once again in the negative plus/minus-wise. RJ & Randle so close to zero.

Ugly offense but a win is a win and the defense was great in the second half. Randle was bad but he battled and there was a tip to Taj for the rebound at the end that was huge. RJ hit the 3 at the end and hopefully that is a confidence booster. IQ was great. I honestly think maybe we should start him and rose. I watched the pacers feed and their commentators said IQ and rose are our two best guards which I found interesting.

Probably can’t bench Fournier bc of the contract but I would have no issue benching Kemba. He’s getting paid 8 million in a two year salary. He shouldn’t have some sort of lock on the starting spot. Rose is better and IQ brings the energy that we need.

Randle played 9 minutes took 1 shot in the 4th quarter and the knicks outscored the Pacers by 11

It’s politically tough to move Burks into the starting lineup when Fournier was the marquee signing and you are paying him 8 million more than Burks.

thibs referenced dice noticing quik at a georgia/kentucky game…

before thibs had taken the knicks job…he said dice told him that quik reminded him of some of the guards they coached while they were with the bulls…

can anyone think of who dice and thibs thought quik reminded them of?

geo:
thibs referenced dice noticing quik at a georgia/kentucky game…

before thibs had taken the knicks job…he said dice told him that quik reminded him of some of the guards they coached while they were with the bulls…

can anyone think of who dice and thibs thought quik reminded them of?

Kirk Heinrich? Korver?

Being quite honest, our best player is Derrick Rose. He’s the only one who consistently gets people involved, drives to the rim and creates good shots it’s concerning still because there’s no way he’ll be able to keep this level of effort at age 33 on bad knees, but just as it was last season the team plays much better when he’s on. Maybe we should just start him already and give Kemba the chance to play against bench lineups as a pure scorer.

Otto Porter having a nice season for only 2.3 mill. Would have been nice if we could’ve got him in the offseason considering our wing defense is RJ Barett and Burks on occasion

***you watching the game donnie?***

No, I didn’t see it. But I caught a few minutes of the Hawks game, and was reading the game thread here, so thought I’d point out that Reddish has been equally woeful of late (not that that is much solace for the RJ Barrett Stan Account, but it is kind of remarkable that those two, who were #1 and #2 respectively in their high school recruiting class, have gone through the exact same peak and valley thus far in this very short season).

***Otto Porter having a nice season for only 2.3 mill. Would have been nice if we could’ve got him in the offseason considering our wing defense is RJ Barett and Burks on occasion***

I think that if you plugged pretty much anybody on the current Knicks roster into the Otto Porter role in Golden State, they’d be be looking pretty good right now, too. (Well, maybe anybody except Randle, that is, who, per the game thread, doesn’t move the ball, which is the only requisite skill to thriving as a Warrior these days).

Also, a quick observation per League Pass: the Timberwolves execution is terrible. Like, Fisher/Hornacek/Fizdale bad, from the little I’ve seen.

One odd but impressive stat from last night: Pacers scored 0 fast break points.

I know the Pacers missed 3’s they made the first time against us but it seemed like we defended the 3-pt line better (except at the end of the half.)

this’ll get lost on the changeover to the new thread, but my quick observations from last night:

1) in spite of scoring only 92 points, I thought the offense looked pretty good last night – just missed a bunch of shots. I really appreciated that the O did not devolve into Randle iso in the 4th, although I was kinda disappointed they didn’t involve Quickley in the action more down the stretch, considering he was basically the Human Torch up to that point.

2) Defense really really much better last night. Alec Burks really played hard last night, as did pretty much everyone. Looked like last year’s defense.

3) Taj Gibson man… I do not understand how that guy was literally jobless last season before we picked him up at the minimum. Especially in a world where Mason Plumlee got like $10MM/year.

4) Julius missed a bunch of shots, but I thought played really unselfishly. Still thinks he needs to pull the trigger when he’s open for 3, especially when he’s the outlet on a trap and there’s no one around. It’s great (Really Great) when he plays the Draymond Green role, but when you’re wide open from 3, shoot the freaking ball!!

5) Quickley – he’s great already, but in 2 years, watch out. He’s still playing a million miles an hour all the time, which is fine coming off the bench, but if he ever learns to vary his pace a la Chris Paul, he’s going to be a serious handful. And I think his defense has been really good.

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