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2022-23 Game Thread: Knicks vs the Not so Foxy Kings

Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but the Knicks will host the Sacramento Kings tonight with the Kings playing without their star player, De’Aaron Fox.

However, the Kings are still a pretty good team without Fox, and either way, they still score a lot of points, so this will still be a very nice statement game for the Knicks to show off their new defense on the Kings.

My prediction of 49 wins is looking more on point!

Let’s go, Knicks!

191 replies on “2022-23 Game Thread: Knicks vs the Not so Foxy Kings”

Deuce-Deuce!!

Well I’m three for three, so I’ll just say we’re gonna lose this game.

Let’s Go Knicks!

It’s super annoying that the Kings have made an absolute comedy of errors, many of which extremely serious, in team building and have still stumbled into a better team than we have

Yep, the Invisible Sixth Man has become the Invisible Hatchet Man.

I will take a W though, especially if Grimes and IQ both put up 25.

MITCH!

Brunson may be the man that realizes we have one of the most athletic tall people in the world on our team.

Also, so happy they called that 3 second. I think it was actually on Sabonis. He took a mini vacation. I was watching him thinking, man he has some balls. Basically dared the ref.

I love the new rules

Smart of Brown to realize immediately that we’re going to pound the interior with Sabonis at center

Brunson calling his own number a little too much…Mitch is destroying them inside, give him the ball

At first i didn’t recognize Huerter with this strange Kings jersey. Or maybe it’s the headband. 😀

God, I love watching IQ catch and shoot threes.

EDIT: catch and *make* threes 😉

There’s a lot more off-ball movement. Sometimes guys running into the same zone, but it’s good to see the cuts

When I have a sec I’m gonna pull up Randle’s numbers head-to-head against Sabonis. It feels like they’re Wilt numbers.

Yes, the Knicks are 10-13 from 2, because the Kings have no interior D! Thus what I assumed our strategy would be instead of Brunson trying to prove something to Mitchell

I’m starting to believe in the new (old?) Randle. Don’t let me down again, big fellow.

Guys, ISM is back and IQ is looking like Lou Will with better defense, it’s looking rosy right now!

It’s me or we’re switching less in these last games

We don’t have to with Deuce and Grimes

Deeefense looks pretty good again. Let’s hope these guys don’t get hot from 3 and we should come out of this with another win.

Would be nice if the Knicks could acquire another backup 3/4 when they inevitably trade Cam/Fournier/Rose.

Our whole team would foul out in 10minutes if they just kept going to Sabonis in the post

I’d like the next foul on Sabonis to be an old-school Oak/Mase foul so he knows what a hard foul really feels like

Truly horrific reffing but it’s nice to be up 14 despite that

Very good first half but we have three players with 3 fouls already (Randle, Mitch, I-Hart) and with this refs I’m worried…

RJ’s defense is still bad, but it’s good that he’s playing better on offense, i was getting depressed watching him play lately.

TNFH asked awhile back if there was version of Randle actually worth keeping- I think we have our answer.

“Knicks up big. Randle’s trade value rising. What’s not to love?”

They’ll probably trade him for Kuzma and give Kuzma 4 years at 100m.

Barrett’s played three years of competent defense but he’s been bad all year and he’s genuinely awful right now.

Two nice Mitch lobs since he got hurt but I’m still partial to bringing in one of our other centers

RJ saying he’s sorry: “I took a nap and didn’t hear the alarm, but now I’m here”…

RJ is such a rollercoaster from play to play. Back to back gorgeous alley oop assists to Mitch after finally playing good D on Murray.

Randle beating the double twice in a row, even if it’s stupidly at the top of the key, is great to see.

The double killed him past years and he’ll definitely start seeing more

Watching Randle run the offense effectively on that Randle to RJ to Mitch dunk felt like I was watching a real NBA team..

The Kings really need Fox because they absolutely cannot play defense lol

The Kings really need Fox because they absolutely cannot play defense lol

Yeah, they’re 100% offense. But even without Fox, they normally score better than this, so this is still a very nice display by the Knicks defense.

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*sigh* I know Randle got mauled but he did force the issue a bit with the bully ball. Maybe he thought Sabonis was doing the same on the other end. Can’t get yourself tossed like that though…

As I said, we need a good old-fashioned Oak foul on Sabonis. He’s been dirty inside all night

Whatever, they’re up big, so it’s not a huge deal. But yes, terrible, terrible decision by Randle.

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You heard Randle a couple possessions pre ejection call “TRAVEL OH MY GOD” on a Sabonis layup. I think Randle was frustrated about the very inconsistent calls down low all game rather than the last no call.

He was also saying he got touched on his air ball 3

Stupidest Knicks ejection since Ewing got ejected in the 2nd quarter of Game 2 vs the Nets in the 1994 playoffs.

Stupidest Knicks ejection since Ewing got ejected in the 2nd quarter of Game 2 vs the Nets in the 1994 playoffs.

But Oak’s 25pt, 24boards tho…

@cyber

He drove across the lane to put up a shot from close, maybe got pushed a little by Sabonis, fell and had his head stepped in after the play. Suspicion is he was upset at the unequal calls, with Sabonis getting away with a lot of borderline play

Cyber, Randle got knocked down and rammed his head into a Kings’ legs, but as others have mentioned he was working himself up into a lather for much of the game. After he got knocked down he yelled at one of the refs despite the ref clearly warning him, got the first T, then walked away and started yelling at another ref and got the second.

He got in a ref’s face, got the T, then appeared to walk away, but I guess he kept mouthing.

The Knicks were up 15 at the time. Silly meltdown.

Someone needs to tell the Knicks that the 3-man weave behind the arc hasn’t worked since Hoosiers

You can’t get ejected when you’re playing so well and your team is winning, it’s so selfish…

Thanks guys, Randle is an emotional player, but i think a 2nd technical is stupid and i hope he’s thinking the same by now.

we’ve all justly been hating on RJ but let’s give him some credit for fixing his FT stroke

You can’t get ejected when you’re playing so well and your team is winning, it’s so selfish…

I think “selfish” suggests intent. I don’t think he was thinking. Which is a problem, in and of itself, but I wouldn’t call the guy selfish over it.

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we’ve all justly been hating on RJ but let’s give him some credit for fixing his FT stroke

It’s a huge improvement. He deserves all the plaudits for it.

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I’m really impressed by how the Knicks have responded to adversity this quarter.

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The Knicks are playing great defense, but at the same time, I have no idea what the Kings’ offensive philosophy has been this quarter.

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The face Monk had when facing Mitch again after the block was hilarious

Too, too funny.

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Good win given the circumstances,
the kids held the fort with a lot of energy and effort.

Let’s hope JB’s injury isn’t serious.

I legit can’t believe these two teams combined to take 73 threes…and made 18 of them.

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Lot of continuing positive indicators in this game, but it all depends on whether it’s a sprain or break with Brunson

Very nice win. Obviously Brunson’s injury status is huge but the Knicks are beginning to look like a legitimate playoff team.

If Brunson can’t go I really wouldn’t be surprised to see D Rose start against Chicago- Thibs loves keeping his rotations intact.

I’m glad they were able to hold it together after Randle lost his cool. Hopefully he’ll learn from that.

At halftime I looked at Randle’s stats and thought, “Damn, that’s like a good game’s worth already!” I didn’t expect him to take me literally…

RIP Paul Silas. He was one tough player!

Kudos to Thibs who defied most knee-jerk-reaction fans and benched Cam and Rose in favor of Grimes and Deuce. Elevating Sims to the rotation instead of Cam and Rose (or Forgotnier) was also very telling. There should be a floating neon sign floating a foot over Thibs head when he’s coaching that says “Play defense or sit”.

Brunson took a physical licking today. He deserves at least couple of days to recover – no matter what the story with his foot is. I hope it’s not serious. Same with Mitch.

Randle is playing like COVID-season Randle. The constant bashing he takes pisses me off and I’m glad he’s sending a big STFU to all those who’ve said his name in vain. He’s a playing with violence and energy. He tries to physically dominate on the floor and he’s succeeding.

I’ll say it yet again, Mitch is elite.

The Hartenstein-Sims front court can work well. They occupy somewhat different spots on the floor. It needs work but I think it has a shot of being an excellent option.

Scottie Barnes may be a HOFer one day but he hasn’t been anything special thus far this year.

I keep waiting for Miami and Toronto to get it together but neither look good right now. Sixth seed is in play.

Went to a concert. Came back and wha?

Bad: Randle ejected? Brunson hurt? Yikes.

Good: Solid win?; Another opponent held under 100.

Well, the reffing was awful in the first quarter and I see that continued.

I hope Mitch stays healthy all year

Hope Brunson is okay. I do wonder if his 25% usage is sustainable- he has to work so hard to get his shots that I’m not surprised he’s getting banged up.

When you see difference it made inserting an elite 3&D role player like Grimes to winning, – it makes me wonder how good this team would be if we had another 3&D All-NBA defender with a 50/40/90 offensive efficiency instead of RJ. With Julius and Jalen, we dont need what RJ offers. Its both duplicative and inneficient.

I’m talking about trading RJ for Mikal Bridges.

Having two 3pt snipers (Bridges/Grimes) on the corners and Mitch/Hart rolling towards rim opens up a ton of space for Julius and Jalen to do their thing. Villanova please stand up. More importantly, the Defense becomes top three in the league and Thibs is reincarnated. That’s a 2nd round team this year and everyone is very young.

Think if structured this way plus a 1RP, – it probably works for Suns too.
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2jspo9wt

I’m starting to think Brunson plays a little too physically. He’s very solid, but it’s just as matter of time before he has more serious injury or just wears down as the season goes along.

The good news is we have a couple of days off for him to recover. Hopefully he doesn’t miss too much time. He’s a tough kid.

It will be interesting to see who starts at PG assuming he’s out. Thibs might start Rose just to keep the rest of the rotation the same.

It’s a bummer because we were just getting healthy and starting to play well and now Obi and Brunson may be out for awhile.

Strat, I was thinking the same. He’s taking big hits every game, Walt & Breen mention it all the time too.

Also, we don’t have any 4.0 BPMs but we have Randle & Brunson at 3 plus Mitch a smidge below.

We’re also tied for 6th in point differential among east teams.

The Invisible Tomy Harding is part of it, but we’ve been beating the last few teams by wide margins. It’s not like we’re eking out victory.

Director NYC,

That’s an interesting trade to think about because I’m not sure what I would do. Short term it would make us better and keep us young. I’m not sure it works for the Suns because they want to win this year.

Early Bird,

There’s a lot to be happy about right now. We were waiting and hoping for the defense to show up once Grimes and Mitch got healthy and it has. This is not a bad team and it’s very young. Just remember this when we have our next bad streak (and we will). 😂

Watched the… Pelicans game. I’m a believer.

And it made me think, all the Knicks really need to do is 1) win the lottery before a transcendental draft; 2) trade their superstar at his peak for a mighty haul of excellent players and a plethora of picks; 3) win some other trades too; 4) hit on all their 1st and 2nd round draft picks; 5) sign a bunch of undrafted guys and have them be major contributors; 6) hire a young coach from the Steve Kerr coaching tree; 6) avoid free agency altogether. Voila.

I’m guessing that DRose will be back in the rotation in come capacity if Brunson is unavailable. Especially because we’ll be in Chicago for a few days. It would probably mean a lot for him to play.

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