2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ Clippers

The Knicks head to Los Angeles for probably their best chance at actually getting a win against a mediocre Clippers team (playing without their star players Kawhi Leonard and Paul George).

So I figure they win this one, but hopefully they don’t!

Elimination Number for Knicks/Hornets – 13
Elimination Number for Knicks/Hawks – 14

Let’s go out to the lobby!

100 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ Clippers”

i’m starting to feel a little bad for the guys on the team…thought we had a chance with the suns, the clippers ain’t no easy task to beat…

i’m fairly confident we may get at least a few more wins by the end of the season…

Looking at the standings and remaining games, it will be tough for us to finish behind the Spurs or the Kings, prob 50-50 with the Blazers. So where we are right now at #8 in the lottery seems like the most probable outcome, with both 7 and 9 possible. The odds for jumping up from 8 and 9 are pretty similar, so getting that 6 or 7 spot would be really nice.

The funny thing about the 6 spot in the lottery is that you’re probably not staying put. There is only an 8.6% chance of actually picking sixth, a 37.2% chance of moving into the top 4 and a 50.3 chance of picking 7 or 8. Maybe we should root for #9 just so we don’t have our guts ripped out again…

The 8th spot has tortured us for the past two decades I want any spot but that one. I think 7th is probably where we end up.

Z-man:
Sims is improving. Strong as hell.

Liking what I’m seeing from him. And IQ seems to be getting his mojo back

We don’t have a bad young core, add a high draft pick and we’re cooking.

That could have been Randle’s worst quarter of the season, and that’ saying somethng…

Hot take here but Mitchell Robinson is good and we should keep him

I hate to wish injury on a player but I wish Randle would pull a hammy or something

Why would Thibs tamper with success? Our kids were magnificent.

good thing we got Randle and Fournier back in there…real inspiring play from those two shlubs

Patrick Ewing must be rolling over in his grave watching the current Knicks centers trying to make a shot outside of 2 feet.

1. Im pretty sure RJ lost some weight in recent weeks and that coincides with his improved quickness getting to the basket.

2. I’m at the stage where I’d include a couple of 2nd round picks just to never see Randle play basketball again.

3. Clippers suck so far tonight. They are in a coma. Coach is going to given them hell at halftime.

We should draft the best free throw shooter available

mitch was especially painful to watch, broadcasters tried to jinx quik and reddish, didn’t work though…

quik having himself a game so far…reddish can definitely put the ball in the hoop, he gambled a couple of times really bad on defense…

what in the heck has gotten in to RJ, he used to be terrible in the first half of games…

“Patrick Ewing must be rolling over in his grave watching the current Knicks centers trying to make a shot outside of 2 feet.”

All our Cs are ridiculously limited. Maybe we can figure out a way to get Turner in the off season. The fantasies we had about Mitch being able to do more eventually are probably going to remain fantasies based on his FTs. He’s never going to stretch out to 3. That would take a miracle. He has no shooting skill.

Rag all you want on Mitch, but he’s got a double-double early in the third quarter.

RJ can play this well and I will still expect him to go 3-23 in the next game.

He’s balling though

Mitch is shooting free throws like someone who has never played basketball before

Cam is talented and smooth on offense. I think he’ll eventually become a plus player on offense, but the D and basketball IQ have to improve.

Breen with the ominous “a long way to go” before the commercial break.

He’s seen a few games….

“RJ can play this well and I will still expect him to go 3-23 in the next game.”

The reason that doesn’t bother me so much is that I think some of it experience and knowledge. Everyone is going to have “those” nights, but he doesn’t know when to back off. If you are getting great looks and they aren’t going in, so be it. If they are defending you really well stop throwing up trash.

man, it really takes some kind of effort to blow a 20 point lead in the second half…i wonder how it’ll happen this game…

don’t want RJ to be playing in garbage time — unfortunately don’t think this team can physically enter garbage time.

lmao.

As soon as the other team starts tightening up the D they fall apart. I’m not sure I’ve seen another team execute this poorly under defensive pressure unless they were all first and second year players. .

Sims grabs offensive rebs in the paint and doesn’t even look at the rim to go up with it instead he immediately looks to pass it out.

I’m kinda feeling sorry for thibs like when you watch a baby trying to put the square peg in the round hole and they get frustrated and start banging that shit harder and harder…like thibs riding Randle longer and longer…hoping for that same outcome as the baby…

This group will get the lead up to 17 and then the starters will come in and blow it

Deeefense!!:
1. Im pretty sure RJ lost some weight in recent weeks and that coincides with his improved quickness getting to the basket.

2. I’m at the stage where I’d include a couple of 2nd round picks just to never see Randle play basketball again.

3. Clippers suck so far tonight. They are in a coma.Coach is going to given them hell at halftime.

I met Tyronn Lue a couple weeks ago when he and Balmer came to one of men’s basketball games.

Balmer joined the team in the locker room after the win. We got it on our Twitter feed, Feb 16: https://mobile.twitter.com/AthleticsELAC

A couple of great moves by Reddish. He can do things that our other guys can’t.

I think it’s fair to say we could have done worse than Sims with the 58th pick…

Mitch 0-6 from the line is completely unacceptable. Meanwhile, Cam is pretty damn good at getting to the line and converting.

somebody…quick…pin thibs arms to his sides so he can’t motion to the bench to get the starters back in…

One thing I like doing is watching Cam Reddish shoot free throws. He’s 6-6 tonight, 90.4% on the year. It’s a sweet, sweet stroke.

CAM!!

Good thing we still had that incinerated pick.

This kid is soooo talented. If he ever figures it out. We can just hope, but if he does I wouldn’t mind watching Cam/RJ at the wings in 3-4 years.

Play: RJ Cam IQ Sims Mitch Deuce Grimes when he comes back

Don’t play: Randle Burks Fournier

But that’s just a pipe dream at this point.

I just want to point out Thibs took Barrett out with 6 minutes left in a blowout.

I will give him shit, but gotta note when he does something right.

Do we have anymore spare mid teens 1st rounders to incinerate on players with as much upside as Cam?

Can we do some kind of money raising project to buy Randle and Fournier out ourselves? lol

Tell you what, we limit Randle to less then 30 minutes, this team can beat anyone.

Lots of stats padding in this one but any game where RJ, Quick and Reddish play well is a good game

Knicks FO really looking like they nailed 3/4 picks so far with McBride’s case still pending.

Sims is a legit defensive force and easily an NBA-level player.

Rokas’s stock has skyrocketed over the last year. Even if he’s a dud when he jumps the pond, they got a lottery pick with a 2nd rounder.

Grimes looks like a strong role player at minimum. Plus he’s got some intriguing upside potential.

Also, Cam Reddish’s TS% on the Knicks climbed above 58% despite shooting sub-.260 from 3. This is from a sizable uptick in FTA (and, you know, not Knicksing the FTs) compared to his ATL stint. He’s still terrible overall, but that’s an encouraging sign for a player who is still only 22.

I woke up at 4 (not by choice, but because my body resents me for letting it age) to a text from a Clippers fan friend: “Your fuckin team only shows up against my team”

As Team Tank, that bummed me out. But looking at the box score, I could at least hang my hat on it being a win entirely on the back of the kids, which is something we’ve talked about in the past. It’s not great for the ping-pong balls, but it’s satisfying enough in its own right.

I was at work and couldn’t watch but I followed the score on ESPN. they certainly played the part of a good team, not the bad one their record suggests.

Fun with small sample sizes, from our friend Fred Katz:

The craziest Knicks stat of the night: Quickley, McBride, Barrett & Reddish played together for 12 total minutes against the Clippers. In those 12 minutes, they outscored LA 36-6.

Thibs attributed the defensive success to the switchability of that lineup.

I bet we see it again

How did Deuce look, btw? Other than the +/- (meaningless in any one game), his stats weren’t thrilling, but Thibs at least was forced to play him 18 minutes.

Deuce was very deferential for the most part, focusing on hounding Jackson on D and providing spacing on O as IQ ran the point. Of his 3 shots (all 3’s) one clanked, one rimmed out and one swished from straightaway. He was pretty relentless on defense and tried to go over every screen. Made some rookie mistakes with his hands which accounted for the 4 fouls. I think he’s still in “do nothing that’s gonna put me in the doghouse again” mode, in other words, he doesn’t look to be playing free like he does in the G-league. Since IQ, RJ and Reddish were cooking, his uber-conservative play on O was a non-issue.

Kids playing together is highly exciting!
If we play these guys and this way i don’t mind not tanking.
And i dont even care about the play in.
But if Thibs play the kids and they make the play in they’d deserve it as psych reward!
Let’s Go YoungKnicks!

At first it seemed weird that Mitch had a plus/minus of 0 because he was so dominant but then I remembered he was mostly on the floor with Randle. I wonder how much his FT shooting is gonna cost him in free agency, not one of his six attempts had a prayer of going in. Sims on the other hand shoots moon balls from the line and they clanked too. Sims is slow off his feet compared to Mitch but he’s a strong mfer and pursues and grabs rebounds really well, also is moving much better laterally on the perimeter and staying on his feet and not fouling. I’m pretty excited about him.

We should get a win from time to time, for the losing to not get in the player’s heads. This one was a good game to get the win. And playing the kids is all i ask, so last night was a success. And WAS won, so the distance to them is the same. If we were tanking right, we would lose tonight because it’s against a fellow tanker in our range, but who knows what we’ll do.

Breen pointed out that of the kiddie lineup with RJ, Sims, Deuce, Cam and IQ, the old man of the group wai Sims. That was pretty cool! Add Grimes, Obi, Rokas and possibly Mitch to that and that’s the best young core we’ve had in a looooong time…maybe since just pre-Melo trade? And we have 3 #1 picks in the next two years. But alas, those pick swaps…

The Infamous Cdiggy: I met Tyronn Lue a couple weeks ago when he and Balmer came to one of men’s basketball games.
Balmer joined the team in the locker room after the win. We got it on our Twitter feed, Feb 16: https://mobile.twitter.com/AthleticsELAC

They are trying to hire you, and you said no because you’re a Knicks fan, is that it? 😀
Jokes aside, it’s super cool to meet Balmer and Lue, what did you think of them?
Direct link to the tweet here: https://mobile.twitter.com/ElacBball/status/1494425035263537156

Z-man: Breen pointed out that of the kiddie lineup with RJ, Sims, Deuce, Cam and IQ, the old man of the group wai Sims. That was pretty cool! Add Grimes, Obi, Rokas and possibly Mitch to that and that’s the best young core we’ve had in a looooong time…maybe since just pre-Melo trade? And we have 3 #1 picks in the next two years. But alas, those pick swaps…

Yeah, i’d re-sign Mitch and if we don’t move up to the Top4, i’d pack this year’s pick and one of next year’s to get Jaden Ivey. Unless Leon knows for sure he’ll get Brunson, in that case i wouldn’t waste a pick trading up, but if we’re not sure we’ll get a good PG in free-agency, i’d waste one pick to get Ivey and solve the PG hole.
Also, i’d trade the vets i was able to, keeping DRose to mentor the PGs and that’s it. A young team to watch develop would be a good idea, for a change.

@Brian: although the Knicks won while Hornets and Hawks didn’t play, there’s an update on the elimination numbers watch.

Elimination Number for Knicks/Hornets – 13
Elimination Number for Knicks/Nets – 13
Elimination Number for Knicks/Hawks – 14

Oh yeah, felt great writing this comment! 😀

It’s going to be really interesting to see what, if anything, Thibs learns and takes away from yesterday’s game. The two biggest ones, IMHO, being that 1. Julius Randle is not the answer (at least currently, if ever going forward), and 2. play the kids,

I presume he’ll roll out the normal starting lineup, but hopefully he’ll keep all of the ‘starters’ to under 30 minutes as he did last night, with the understandable exception of RJ.

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