The Knicks host the putrid Portland Trailblazers, who have conveniently discovered a number of injuries to their better players in time to try to get into the best draft position (what a weird idea).
We all knew that Thibs wasn’t getting fired, but now we know he’s definitely not getting fired. Ah well, I guess Johnnie Bryant can take over next season, as Kenny Payne is now getting a huge college basketball coaching assignment at Louisville. Good for him.
Hey! Ho! Let’s go!
57 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Someone We Can’t Complain About Them Beating”
My excitement level for this game is….on the charts
A game they can’t lose, let’s hope some of the youngsters will play well…
i’m very confident in our ability to lose to the blazers, at home…we tend to play to the level of competition…we can totally lose this game – go knicks?
Here i am. Let’s win this, because we all know Leon prefers lower picks to higher picks. 😀
Deuce on the loose
Oh, i was missing the end of quarter fadeaway. Thanks, Julius!
The Young Bucks lineup warm my heart…
Every once in a while we break out the best knicks transition offense since Mike D was coaching
Obiiiiiiiiiii
I get the feeling we’d regret selling low on Obi Toppin
Obi’s dunk was too cool, Randle’s back in.
I hate Psycho.
Another bright spot of the season: RJ improved a lot.
Statistically he actually hasn’t because he puts up too many clunker games and his 3 point shooting has regressed from last season, but there’s a lot to be hopeful about. I’m still bullish on RJ.
It’s one of those games that I’d like to lose for the tank, but also it’s kind of concerning if we actually do manage to lose.
One frustrating thing about Randle is he rarely takes advantage of mismatches. Whether or not he plays well is completely dependent on 1) whether his jumper is falling and 2) how much stupid shit he does.
This matchup should theoretically be great for him–the Blazers simply do not play anyone who should be able to guard someone with Randle’s skillset right now. Yet he’s playing badly because it doesn’t matter who’s guarding you when you’re just taking fadeaway long twos and the like.
He started being a little smarter towards the end of the half and actually taking advantage of being guarded by the likes of Trendon Watford. Would like to see more of that, both this game and in general.
I’ll take this year’s RJ who defends the opposing team’s best player, increased his assists, and upped his usage. Last year’s RJ just had some fluky shooting.
Really. I kind of got the opposite feeling watching the game today. When he was in the game most of the time he did very little on offense. He made one good cut and was rewarded with a basket and he got the alley pop of course. It was fun to watch the alley pop, but my overall feeling was he’s not a volume scorer and is unlikely to become one. Career backup is much more likely.
that Randle foray was another classic
The Blazers may not win another game this season
It’s pretty hilarious that Evan Fournier is going to become the Knicks’ all time single season leader in threes made in a season that made like 95% of the fanbase hate him. I maintain he’s our least bad 2021 offseason signing, and also if we insist on playing a fake point guard (which we shouldn’t, to be clear) he’d be better at that than Burks.
Josh Hart could play on my team any time…
Yeah, I’m 100% fine with this win for that very reason. You simply cannot lose to these guys.
Man, that hook shot by Eubanks filled me with nostalgia…
No but you can abstrusely lose to them….
clyde appreciated that hook shot
A classic wtf Julius right there….
Elleby, next stop Elleby…
RJ seems to have worked out whatever was going on with him starting out games incredibly poorly…
it kind of seems like quik is having an easier time seeing the whole court…
quik may just turn out to be one of those guys that through force of will actually can become an NBA level starting point guard…
(that was a Twilight Zone reference)
I mean Burks not seeing a wide open Randle OR Fournier while taking one his patented doomed layups is exhibit A in why it’s dumb to pretend he’s a point guard
We’ve talked about it often it over the years, but having Clyde and Breen as our announcers is such a luxury. Their chemistry is just amazing.
I asked my daughter which Knick would she be most upset if he was no longer on the team and she said Clyde
I hear you Z-Man… that was a great basketball moment 🙂
dang…that last close up of thibs…somebody ought tell him to ease up on the hair dye…
100%
How about now?
Thibs can’t let Obi close out this game? Cmon man
I was definitely losing the faith in Quickley a bit but it looks like it really was just a matter of good shots not falling. Good to have that guy back.
He’s doing better this half, for sure
Deuce made basket alert
Deuce tres
Jalen movin and groovin in Brooklyn.
I want that dude
Missed the game. Just tuning in to the thread to say: +1 on all TNFH’s comments (as usual). Wait. Maybe I’m a bot 😉
Quickley was eventually gonna start hitting his shots hes been a shooter all his life. 18 pts on 5 shots lovely to see,
I’m about 20 minutes behind on the broadcast, just saw Monica in the studio, whatever it is she’s wearing, that shit looks hella comfortable…
I always wondered what it might be like to wear a kaftan… those look super comfortable…
The end of Nets-Mavs was a real treat
Hornets beating the Hawks was ideal, since the Hawks were further ahead of the Knicks.
Missed the game myself, a few box score thoughts:
Julius looks like a classic Julius bad game. True?
Mitch with 5 blocks?!
Zero Taj, Jericho with all the backup C minutes!
Obi 13 points in 14 minutes. Not enough minutes, but nice to see.
Deuce makes his one shot! (although he was 4-4 in FTs, so he obviously took at least 2 more shots)
Also 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals in 20 minutes. And no turnovers.
Deuce is playing a “do no harm” brand of basketball, deferring on nearly every possession. Hard to get into a groove that way. His defense is relentless, he gets overpowered sometimes by big guards like Dunn and Hart but he gives 110% on every possession. Not saying he’s the answer to any important question, but he’s definitely my kind of player.
Yeah, I’m getting to the point that I’d be okay with a Rose/IQ PG rotation as long as Rose manages to play 50 games. When IQ’s shot fall is falling he might be our best player.
That’s sort of true for Julius, RJ, Fournier, Burks…I think it’s more accurate to say that when his shot is falling he’s a very dynamic young guard with star potential. But like with lots of young players, it’s all about consistency. He’s a notoriously hard worker and still has lots of room for growth beyond the shot, so it’s hard to put a ceiling on him.
Look I know we really can’t complain about tonight’s win but my god is a team with LeBron freakin’ James really gonna force us to 12th?! Blech
The Warriors have 30 points with 1:48 left in the first half
Fell asleep midway through the 3rd quarter, but from the part i watched and checking the box score, there’s little to complain about. Thibs now plays the young guys that are available. The only one he’s not managing well is Obi, i don’t care if he’s a future backup, just play the kid 20+ minutes to evaluate what we have in him. Maybe by playing Randle 28 mins (it’s only 6 mins less), or even by playing RJ a sane 32 mins (8 mins less) and trying a lineup featuring Obi at SF with Randle and a C on the court. But yeah, we’re getting almost everything that we’ve asked for, so i’m cool with this for now.
I say for now, because if we somehow win the next 2 games, both at MSG against WAS and UTA, and ATL loses their next 2, at home with MEM and NOP, the following game is ATL @ NYK. By that time we’ll be again in full win now mode, and if we win against ATL we’ll be in that mode until the end of the season. Sorry, Brian, but this is a scenario that has a good chance of happening, so i thought i might as well bring the bad news now for us to prepare ourselves. 😛
On the bright side, the Spurs are trying to get to the play-in and that will force NOP and LAL to keep winning games… if they can, of course. 😛
LAL doesn’t look like they’ll win a lot of games, they’re playing poorly and they have one of the worst schedules. I’m predicting Pop will manage to get to the play-in and LAL will be 11th. Probably CDiggy’s colleagues have turned the talk to other sports, and don’t talk about basketball nowadays. LOL
I won’t. Please get us a PG, Leon. Quick is a very good SG, that can play PG if needed, but he’s not a PG. He’s exactly like Lou Williams, that can also handle the PG position although he’s not a PG, and we should be developing him that way. Either way, if they want to keep insisting in the PG-Quick experiment, fine, but bring a starting PG here. We can’t depend on a injury prone (DRose) and a experiment (Quick).
We should definitely have another PG, but the value of being even passable as a PG compared to a SG is huge. And with RJ, Cam, Grimes, & Deuce, not to mention the vets, I don’t know if we can assemble a rotation with IQ at SG and get all our players minutes. Deuce needs to step up his play or we need to move one of our wings.