2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ Only Team Dumber Than the Knicks, as the Inevitable Winning Streak Begins

The Knicks head to Sacramento to take on the moronic Kings for the start of a winning streak. Blech.

Also, fuck you, Atlanta (to be fair, maybe the Pistons aren’t that bad anymore).

Let’s go to the go-go.

124 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ Only Team Dumber Than the Knicks, as the Inevitable Winning Streak Begins”

“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I hate to pick on Randle because it’s so much fun to pick on Randle for almost everything, but even when he’s a willing passer, he almost never hits the open man in the pocket. Meaning the defense can recover while the receiver reaches and collects the ball, and then there’s no shot available.

this could get ugly…where was that podcast thingy somebody mentioned earlier?

Fournier’s got that clever defensive trick where he follows along behind his man, trying to make his opponent wonder if there’s a lost puppy following him so he misses the shot.

Cool stat I just read, Embiid tonight had his 10th game of 40+ pts this season becoming the first center to have 10 games with 40+ pts in a season since Ewing had 11 games with 40+ pts in the 1989-90 season.

thibs…pounding the Randle sq peg in the Randle round hole…fucking insanity…

BigBlueAL:
Cool stat I just read, Embiid tonight had his 10th game of 40+ pts this season becoming the first center to have 10 games with 40+ pts in a season since Ewing had 11 games with 40+ pts in the 1989-90 season.

Tht’s surprising, with Robinson, Shaq, Hakeem all playing after that…

We didn’t tank hard enough last night, so going to Randle consistently is going to make up for it. Youngins need to learn how to tank properly.

Early Bird:
We didn’t tank hard enough last night, so going to Randle consistently is going to make up for it. Youngins need to learn how to tank properly.

He had 14 shots in the first quarter, so I’m thinking 50 attempts is doable

So we’re much better than the Clippers, but much worse than the Kings.

Funny game.

everybody got the tank memo tonight….laser printer musta been out of toner last night

What’s the over-under on Thibs’ systolic blood pressure right now? 210.5?

Jokic was shooting FTs like Mitch down the stretch. That team around him is like one of the early LeBron Cavs squads right now. The Nuggets are a disaster when he sits.

It’s kinda shocking we’re only down 15…that was as putrid of a first half as I’ve watched all year.

Again, if we can get good games from RJ and IQ, losing is not a big deal.

(In a way it’s the perfect tank, young guys play well and your former star solidifies the loss)

Haha by duration I have consumed way more KB (Knickerblogger) than KB (Knicks basketball) so I am loving this shit and thankful that I don’t have to watch this shit team play shit ball for $100M a year

Randle looked like he was gonna turn the ball over 5 times on that coast to coast

So if we win this, how many games back of the 10th seed are we?

(Just checking to see if Brian is awake)

d-mar:
Barnes has been strangely passive tonight

And why are they not doing with Sabonis what they did in the first?

This is not good today starts my fantasy basketball semifinals and the team I’m facing has Randle.

We needed this version of Randle like 40 games ago when wins were important

holy shit I made and ate a bacon & artichoke pizza and decided to see how bad we were losing before I went to bed

breen” they just have to play smart for 4 minutes”….said it like that was a fifty fifty proposition…

We’re gonna lose that challenge, Randle hit him on the follow-through. His physicality tonight has been scary, I’m sure some of the Kings will have bruises tomorrow…

Raven:
Quickley is back. That’s a nice thing.

It’s more than a nice thing, it’s huge for this franchise. He becomes a really valuable trade chip if he keeps playing like this (not that I want to see him go, but for the right player…)

DRed:
holy shit I made and ate a bacon & artichoke pizza and decided to see how bad we were losing before I went to bed

Our offense in the 2nd half has been a runaway freight train, with Randle as locomotive

Z-man:
Wow, that was a stupid ejection by Sabonis…

What did Sabonis do? I can only check the game cast and it says that Sabonis managed to foul Quickley and get two
Technicals in the process?

Knick fan not in NJ: What did Sabonis do?I can only check the game cast and it says that Sabonis managed to foul Quickley and get two
Technicals in the process?

He got angry about the foul call and then bumped the ref after his first tech

That HBO movie “Winning Time” about the 2021-2022 Knicks should be pretty good

My interweb device has just informed me that Miles McBride has thrown a basketball into a basket

Thank you Knicks for not making me feel stupid for staying up after that atrocious first half…

RJ with 29 pts on 11 for 21 shooting along with 8 rebs plus 6 asts and it doesn’t even feel that surprising.

we’re 2 and oh in our last two games…clyde said this could be our turning point…he must be high…

Taj is the unsung hero of this game…the OG took over on the defensive end…

Bizarro night ends with Julius Randle holding back Gentry from going after the refs

Randle also with the assist keeping Gentry from getting fined for going after the ref after time ran out.

Good to see Quick playing well again. I was legitimately starting to worry that playing out of position and the rule changes we’re screwing him up. I had him penciled in as our future 6th man. It’s still in pencil but I put the eraser back in the draw.

I like McBride but I think we are seeing why Thibs was sending him down to G League for game experience and not in a rush to play him at the NBA level. Hopefully he’ll be ready to take a bigger role next year.

pepper:
we’re 2 and oh in our last two games…clyde said this could be our turning point…he must be high…

It’s the point in the season we turn a high lotto pick into a low lotto pick

Randle & RJ with very pedestrian TS%s of .721 & .637 compared to IQ’s .910.

I know most here would prefer we lose, but imo there are significant upsides to our veterans playing well and winning games. We have a number of vets on this team we might want to move as part of a deal. If they finish off the season well, it will be easier to move them. This team was never bad enough to get a top 5 pick. We are underperforming our talent.

The other thing that’s clear is that when Randle is efficient it makes a huge difference. Not that I want to keep him. He’s one of the players I am praying finishes the season well so we can move him. But imo if we can put a an efficient player in that slot, it’s worth a lot of extra wins given how bad he was this year. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a very high usage player because RJ is breaking out and hopefully we’ll add a PG that can do something. We just need a quality player that plays both sides, moves the ball etc.. These wins and big games from guys like Randle and hopefully Fournier may have an off season upside.

I’ve already mentally prepared myself that we’ll be 9th in the lottery (i turned to believe in the 20% chance to get to Top4 from that spot), so at least it was a great 2nd half and you guys had fun. 😉
Good to see monster games from Randle (more trade value), RJ and Quick. And even better to see a 82.6% from the FT line. Also Thibs now plays Deuce more time, 20 mins is very good for his development, so i guess there’s no complains about Thibs, right?
Did Randle play small ball C? Our Cs (Taj, Sims, Mitch) only account for 39 mins. Any news on Mitch?

Glass half-empty view of the box score (no way in hell was I staying up late to watch Knicks-Kings):

* Bad tank loss, since it was to one of the teams we’re chasing.
* Cam got hurt right when he was starting to establish himself
* Win can’t be solely — or even primarily — credited to Team Play the Kids, which emboldens Thibs’ usual BS (see also lots of Taj minutes)
* Mitch got sick (though hopefully that’s just a minor thing)
* Deuce still not doing much on offense

Glass half-full view:

* If we want Randle gone in the offseason, he has to play well enough for other teams (say, Portland) to want him
* Randle at center was effective (albeit against the Kings), and it’s something that should be happening more the rest of the way if only to make more room for Cam and Obi (when both are healthy).
* RJ had one of his good games, and, as a rarity, on a night when Randle also had it going. (Macri had some stat about how unusual it is for them both to play well in the same game, which is another reason to get Julius the hell out of here.)
* IQ played very well
* Sounds like Deuce was hellacious on defense in the second half.

So… LarryDavidIsJewishButLovesPalestinianChickenDotGif?

Wow. Nuts. This was not in the top 1000 outcomes I would have expected when I went to sleep at halftime.

Randle was very frisky yesterday so I am not that surprised.

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