2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Lakers

The Knicks host the Lebron-less Lakers tonight at the Garden. Annoyingly, they were very close to being without Anthony Davis, as well, who woke up today with flu-like symptoms but will play through it (hopefully he is not as good as normal).

On the Knicks’ side of things, Rose, Taj and Mitch are all out. Thibs suggests that he will play IQ and Burks as the backup point guard, so I guess Grimes will get some burn, perhaps?

HOW IS 56 WINS LOOKING?

Bette before Anthony Davis said he was going to play, but I am still confident.

As pat of our all poll content…

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Let’s go, Knicks!

244 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Lakers”

Of course it should have been higher, it wasn’t only intentional, if you look closely at the replays Lebron is looking at what he’s doing to be sure it’s right in the face.

ptmilo: congratulations to vincoug on your new pet mouse [redacted]!

LOL. Sometimes i’m on the computer, and my mouse looks alive also. 😀

should have been at least 2 games…i’m surprised with tonight’s game on TNT that he got suspended at all…

I hardly ever watch pregame shows, but Kenny Smith is talking complete gibberish about the Knicks.

I have no fucking clue what he’s talking about.

dang, the game is blacked out for me…oh well, maybe it’s a sign from god, do something else…

Julius reads Knickerblogger and is taking it to the rack more

lol thanks guys. Guess I’m gonna take a quick drive down to Patterson Park.

to get a snake for your mouse…

BingBongHits: Is it my broadband connection or is this game taking place in slow motion?

Specially when Julius brings the ball up the court, right?

That corner 3 RJ missed is the kind of shot he should not be taking unless there is time pressure. Last year he was more selective. This year he’s taking more shots I would consider lower quality unforced shots. That’s part of why he’s struggling at times. I’m sure defenses are probably doing a better job of taking away the real easy stuff, but you can’t settle.

Everyone of us who pine for Randle to cut the isos, attack the rim and take threes when free is ecstatic…

E, all merc’d out:
What “big moments” did Melo have in a Knicks uniform?

People can hate on Melo but he had a bunch of big games and shots as a Knick. Biggest 2 moments I would think would be his 62 pt game and the Easter 3pters vs the Bulls.

The Lakers sans LeBron are awful (which is not good news for them), but some seriously encouraging signs here, most notably Randle going to the rim multiple times in the first quarter.

I straight up did not recognize Quickley with his new hairstyle.

KevinR:
Does feel like we officially broke out of that funk from before the Chicago game

We finally had a couple of two full day breaks between games which meant they could have some full practice sessions. I think that helped them work on stuff they needed.

KevinR:
Toppins release is so inconsistent

He’s been taught to start the motion before he gets the ball … it’s very deliberate … I imagine timing is off …. A lot

We’re gonna end up with a top 10 offense based off 30 games of not missing anything offsetting the other 50 being terrible offensive games

Of course I miss our first good 1st quarter in like a month. Stupid mouse.

BigBlueAL: the Easter 3pters vs the Bulls.

I’m not a Melo fan but that’s one of my favorite memories as a Knicks fan. I was at that game and it’s by far the best Knicks game I’ve ever seen in person. It’s the 2nd best game in any sport I’ve ever watched in person behind game 3 of the 2015 World Series.

Owen:
Calling Melo beloved in NYC. Nah.

From what I can tell, he is if you’re of a certain age. Just about any Knicks fan I’ve talked with that’s like under the age of 30 loves Melo.

From what I can tell, he is if you’re of a certain age. Just about any Knicks fan I’ve talked with that’s like under the age of 30 loves Melo.

Not true, we’ve talked

The Lakers without AD and LeBron is a different team. From an entertainment point of view it’s too bad LeBron is out and AD’s playing with the flu. But the Knicks need wins in this tough Eastern Conference.

IQ is probably the better penetrator between him and Burks would rather him be the main handler

thenoblefacehumper: Not true, we’ve talked

lol touche.

This Lakers team is terrible. Ever since Lebron left Miami his teams have let him have a huge say in the roster. They should stop doing that, he’s a terrible GM.

Burks makes some of the nuttiest shots I’ve ever seen

Evan Fournier is a good basketball player and eventually good basketball players start to play basketball good

DudeInKnicksTown:
If AD has the flu, shouldn’t he be wearing a mask out there?

(Sorry guys)

Seriously…AD breathing all over Randall. He’ll be out sick in a week.

So, the young Knicks fans, like you Noble, don’t hate this guy on the broadcast that i won’t say the name? 😀

How many times do we have to hear “Four second left” when Randle has the ball?

That should just never happen.

They went back to their ugly iso plays,
cut the hot Fournier out of the game and let the Lakers back in…

15-2 run by the Lakers, and it’s not because they’ve been red-hot shooting. It’s because the Knicks went straight back to Bad Julius (which is a team-wide term, just led by JR).

There’s just something really annoying about watching this team, the wavering effort on defense, the 5 minute long stretches where no one makes a single pass before jacking a shot or going iso, Randle alternating more than Jekyll and Hyde, it’s almost like the antithesis of that run to finish last season. It’s baffling that a NBA team still can’t solve the simplest of zones being played by a mediocre defensive team, and yet here we are. Melo, Bradley and Jordan were washed up 3 years ago and we still can’t get to the rim against these dudes.

Everything about this team is just fragile and shaky: Our centers’ knees & back, our PG’s ankles, our Superstar’s ego, our lead in any game, and our collective sanity.

So, the young Knicks fans, like you Noble, don’t hate this guy on the broadcast that i won’t say the name? 😀

You’ll be happy to know he’s such a mediocre announcer I’ve simply come to my hate by other means

Dudes, I know that sucked, but we are winning by 12.

(Now we have a cushion for our awful 3rd quarter.)

I don’t want this close late because Lakers “stars” will start playing more aggressively and they’ll get the calls… fact

d-mar: (Now we have a cushion for our awful 3rd quarter.)

The Lakers are 3rd worst in the league in 3rd quarters. Not today. 😉

Dudes, I know that sucked, but we are winning by 12.

(Now we have a cushion for our awful 3rd quarter.)

Yeah, right…

The Knicks shooters went into a coma and LA’s offense came to life as soon as LA decided to play deeefense.

Fascinated by the psychology of “This really doesn’t work so I’m going back to doing it and keep doing it over and over.”

I’m confident that we’ll pull back ahead when our bench comes in but man this was an ugly 12 minutes

cybersoze:
Stay cool, we’re going to win this.

I’m thinking you are right. We’re hanging in there. Showing some grit. AD is gonna tire out. Bench will save us!

I’m not putting myself through this bull shit so I’ll check the final score … this year kinda sucks , not to be a complete cynic but yea … it’s not any fun …

Love Quickley, don’t love that he regularly takes an extra dribble and sidestep for no reason when he’s wide open from 3

We’re really losing to Westbrook shooting the ball in 2021, seriously, fuck this team.

Westbrook shooting the ball well in the 3rd juuuuuust might save us in the 4th?

That Melo three was like a field goal hitting the upright.

I cannot believe we are going to lose this game. Also, that Wayne Ellington is still in the NBA.

Also, TNFH, Miller is so mediocre. Perfect word.

Hopefully LA used up so much energy getting back into the game we can outfinish them down the stretch, but I’d feel a lot better about that with Rose. We have too many knuckleheads on this team.

The Knicks seem to get stripped a lot when a guy is holding the ball.

I just tried to tune into this game. Apparently, since I live in the Lakers’ media market, the game is unavailable on both league pass and TNT, even though I don’t get the Laker’s game broadcast on my TV package. But what league pass IS offering is a Randle Cam, which is just Randle as he plays the game in real time. It was kind of interesting for a minute, but now it’s just annoying.

Randle Cam?

We should use that at Gitmo. I don’t think it would break any international laws and would be twice as effective as our usual methods.

well, I’m watching folks dig through the remains of Troy, and figuring out the time of the Trojan War (around 1,200 b.c.e.)…

and the reason why I’m watching this is because, like donnie – freaking spectrum (which I think was either crappy direct tv or charter communications at one time) bought broadcast rights to every pro team (except the football ones) in the area…

***Burks can’t stay in front of Russ.***

Burks is out there too? I thought it was just Fournier running up and down the court alone. Good to know.

This game has been pretty annoying but given the way this season has gone you have to be happy with literally any win without Rose…or in general for that matter

thenoblefacehumper:
This game has been pretty annoying but given the way this season has gone you have to be happy with literally any win without Rose…or in general for that matter

Like I said after the 1 point victory in Chicago, no such thing as a bad win.

You have to build a big lead to blow it.

Is this Knicks season going to be better or worse than Matrix Resurrections? Going to take the over but just by a smidge.

I am just glad we probably wont have to deal with the Melo triumphant return narrative for a few days

It’s too hard to watch like this. There’s no way to know what happens on any given play except by whether Fournier looks happy or not when he trots back down the court.

[edited to add: I don’t usually watch games with audio, but I tried, hoping some commentary would help make sense, but nope, it is a muted one-man cam]

Owen:
Is this Knicks season going to be better or worse than Matrix Resurrections? Going to take the over but just by a smidge.

I am just glad we probably wont have to deal with the Melo triumphant return narrative for a few days

It has been triumphant for the Knicks. He’s 3-14 (2-8)

I hate to say it, but all my favorite Knicks are out there right now, but they look tired. I’m not sure they should close.

EDIT: Oops. Spoke too soon. Randle back. Oof. Do they have 37 seconds left in them

Randle checks in and promptly takes one of the dumber shots one can take in an organized basketball game

I can barely take this game…it’s like the first game of the year, a complete heart attack.

Randle is totally unable to play a full game “the right way”.
He can do it for a quarter, maybe two, but after that he inevitably reverse to his iso obsession and put the team offense in a quagmire…

As I hoped, the Lakers had to play so hard to get back into the game, they couldn’t sustain it. But we did try to lose anyway. lol

KJG: Yep … 7 points is a lot different than 6 …

Yes, a two possessions game is way different that a three possessions game…

I’ll take it. They hung in there. Didn’t lose their cool. This will be good for their confidence.

Oof. Only saw the 4th, but box says E4, Toppin, IQ, Burks, even RJ, all had decent games. I like the look of that.

I guess I’d call that a gutty win…we never relinquished the lead even after the Lakers came all the way back. Everyone had a hand in it and everyone had not great moments.

Can we focus on the positives?

– Fournier was outstanding
– Burks played great
– RJ was decent
– Our defense in the 4th quarter was very good

Always good to beat the Lakers.

We did survive nicely when fouls forced our star to the bench…

Well we saw the Knicks we envisioned in our dreams that first quarter.

And Obi got 22 minutes, which was nice. IQ all the way back.

And a Grimes sighting, even if he didn’t do much. But he also didn’t screw up royally.

d-mar:
Can we focus on the positives?

– Fournier was outstanding
– Burks played great
– RJ was decent
– Our defense in the 4th quarter was very good

+IQ, new hair and all.

And we’re again tied for 6th with Bucks, Sixers and Celtics. Nice. 🙂
The next game doesn’t look winnable to me, with the we’re playing and being the Suns on the other side.

Kemba, IQ, and Burks all with pretty equal minutes… What are you up to, Thibs, you old hound dog?

The next game doesn’t look winnable to me, with the we’re playing and being the Suns on the other side.

First quarter Knicks, with Good Julius, can beat anybody.
Third quarter Knicks, with Bad Julius, can lose to anybody.

cybersoze:
And we’re again tied for 6th with Bucks, Sixers and Celtics. Nice. 🙂
The next game doesn’t look winnable to me, with the we’re playing and being the Suns on the other side.

It’s such a damn shame we lost those 2 games at home to Orlando.

12-6 would be a pretty sweet record

d-mar: It’s such a damn shame we lost those 2 games at home to Orlando.

12-6 would be a pretty sweet record

No..doubt.

I’m sticking with 50 wins, though. Long season. We’ll get there.

Happy Thanksgiving y’all. Hug your loved ones close.

On the Lakers side, that was a monster performance by Russ…and Bradley had an all-star stretch in the 2nd-3rd Qs.

hopefully NBAtv will have the game on tomorrow morning…

Spending the 3rd quarter making dinner seems like a good call on my part

:]

Nuggets have two starters named J. Green. Turns out, there are five in the league altogether. There are 3 M. Morrises in the league, 2 T. Youngs, 2 K. Martins, 2 K. Johnsons, 2 J. Johnsons, and 2 J. McDaniels.

You may now return to basking in the afterglow of victory.

quik looks about 3 years older and two inches taller…looks real good, probably a bunch more maintenance now though, if you got it though – let it flow…

I’m of two minds on the new IQ ‘do. On the one hand, the braids always seemed like they were either much too short or much too long. On the other, watching them fly around his head as he bounces and does his whole perpetual motion thing almost felt like watching a cartoon character with speed lines around him, and created the illusion that Quickley is faster and more athletic than he actually is. So I think he looks better now, but I may miss the floppy braids.

wow, just finished the evian post game, he has some fairly interesting ideas for an ideal power forward, sort of like an obi…also mentioned the need for lot’s of usage sharing amongst the three primary ball handlers in the starting five…very interesting…

although, i’m not so sure evian thinks julius’ best use in the offense is as a ball handler at all…

hmmm, i wonder if the reason he likes to bring the ball up so much, is to take a breather, not run around the front court a bunch, just hang out around the arc…

i wonder if his teammates think that…

This was a much needed win given the schedule we have coming up, but we struggled against an LA team that was missing James and had AD at less than 100% at home.I suspect we are going struggle during this stretch too.

I still think the defensive energy is better with Noel.

This was a critical win for us. It took a great game from Fornier, a decent game from RJ, some IQ heroics and solid minutes from Obi to get it done. I know the Lakers didn’t have LeBron, but we were missing Mitch, Taj, and Rose. Considering that the Lakers had AD, DeAndre and Dwight to throw at us, we survived Randle’s boneheadedness thanks to Obi and to some degree Burks.

Let’s hope we get Rose back for Friday or that one could get ugly. One of Taj or Mitch would help too, but obviously we don’t want to rush those guys back. It’s nice to know that we can lose a few games and still be in the neighborhood of .500 when the schedule softens up again.

Let’s hope we get Rose back for Friday or that one could get ugly. One of Taj or Mitch would help too, but obviously we don’t want to rush those guys back. It’s nice to know that we can lose a few games and still be in the neighborhood of .500 when the schedule softens up again.

Yes, please, just let them get healthy healthy before they return.

I thought it was a very fine win, even with Lebron being out.

Here’s a telling quote from the Lakers’ blog:

“If Vogel doesnt turn it around soon and consistently it might be time to promote Fizdale… hes solid.”

Z-man:
Here’s a telling quote from the Lakers’ blog:

“If Vogel doesnt turn it around soon and consistently it might be time to promote Fizdale… hes solid.”

LOL LOL LOL

Randle is barely even a net positive in these fourth quarters and he might not even be that. I’d rather have the ball in Quickley’s hands in the fourth.

Z-man:
Here’s a telling quote from the Lakers’ blog:

“If Vogel doesnt turn it around soon and consistently it might be time to promote Fizdale… hes solid.”

It’s amazing isn’t it. Laker fans are blaming their mediocre start on Vogel. I’ve seen that elsewhere too. It can’t be that their management put together a misfit team that doesn’t defend well despite having a good defensive coach.

Having lived in LA for 7 years I can say that Lakers fans are by far the most entitled, delusional and, for the most part, ignorant fans in the NBA. They’ve had so much success and so many times stars have gone to The Lakers that they’ve never really had to endure a true rebuild or sustained periods of being really bad. And because of that, they almost always assume when something is wrong that it’s the coaches fault. Guarantee you there are some Lakers fans right now who are like “But we got Lebron and AD and Westbrook and Melo! No way we aren’t gonna win a championship.”

I mean they didn’t have Lebron but Rose is literally our second best player and we’re also thin up front. The Lakers aren’t a good team but they aren’t bad either. It was a solid win and the first quarter was fire for sure. It does feel like we’re starting to turn a corner.

IQ has been awesome. Really happy with the way he is playing right now. Obi too.

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