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2022-23 Game Thread: At Least Seven Knicks @ the Spurs

The Knicks, well, at least seven of them (okay, at least eight) head to San Antonio to take on the San Antonio Spurs.

With RJ Barrett out and Jalen Brunson a game time decision, it will be fascinating to see how Thibs avoids using either Cam Reddish or Evan Fournier.

When you combine the Knicks’ road prowess with the Spurs sucking, this should finally be a respite from their four-game losing streak.

Let’s go, Knicks!

112 replies on “2022-23 Game Thread: At Least Seven Knicks @ the Spurs”

Brunson out for sure. Alan leading with his Vince Lombardi speech. All will be revealed.

Deuce ex machina!

I’m not quitting on you, little man.

Yet.

Miles gets the start…

Randle playing like cold garbage so far.

IQ on fire. I love his 15/1 assists/turnovers from yesterday. Not a bad ratio…

Thibs must have threatened to take away Randle’s Playstation during the time out. Now he’s en fuego…

Grimes getting fouled on his way to the basket twice so far.

It’d be nice if the defense showed up.

“Fournier looks in shock to be out there…”

Wouldn’t surprise me if Thibs said nothing before the game.

EDIT: Also nice that his teammates give him his very first touch as a prayer-three just before the shot clock expires.

I know advanced stats like him but Hart seems so useless all the time

“I know advanced stats like him but Hart seems so useless all the time”

And, again, what’s the logic from Thibs? Spurs scoring everything in the paint, and coach calls for Hart instead of Sims?

It’s one thing to lose because the ISM didn’t show up. It’s another to get beat in the paint.

Rose is cooked, Hart is useless. Think it’s time to cut bait

Love how Quickley played 51 minutes last game and Thibs looks to play him the full 48 this game. Unless it too goes into overtime, in which case it’ll be more.

Fournier could always play basketball, it’s sort of confusing why he was in the doghouse for so long. But Thibs gonna Thibs

I did not realize Fournier was higher on the depth chart than Reddish.

Excited to have Evan out there. At least he is very likable with the no defense.

Ah, the endless Randle isolations. Feels like the last four minutes of the last game…

Randle…rally killer….

Only suspense is if thibs breaks the glass and uses Cam…I would put him in harts spot on 2nd unit

Most likely thing with Cam is that he in fact asked for a trade as reported and the Knicks said yeah we’ll trade you and are sitting him so he doesn’t get yet another owie and screw everything up.

Offense reverts to iso-Julius b/c no one knows how to distribute or move without the ball. Usual problem we have without Brunson.

IQ had a great start, then disappeared. Stay assertive.

Grimes obvs did not read our labor-intensive thread all about him.

Mitch? Paging Mitchell Robinson? Please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Grimes has a 1.5 FTr. He’s gotten into the paint whenver he drives, missed that one step back. Just needs to hit his 3s.

Randle has been great so far. Too much iso, but he’s scoring/getting to the line at will before the stupid 2 for 1, which I blame on Thibs more.

I am digging Sochan’s one-handed foul shots. I want to practice putting on his head, but love those foul shots.

If you think Randle’s doing great, just keep your eyes peeled on him while the team is on D.

No, it’s easy. Because he just stands there. Like on that Sochan back-door.

I’m at work and can’t watch, but from the box score, I guess we are seeing how much we need Brunson.

Alan has now begun the excuses and the list of all the people we’re missing … so ….

We should be crushing these guys.

This game sucks so I’m gonna just go back on Twitter and read some more about Andrew Tate getting arrested

Yeah, I don’t love Randle, but he’s got 29 through Q3 on nearly 50% shooting with 8 boards and 5 assists. I don’t think he’s our problem tonight.

Man, Obi really got hurt at an inopportune time. I mean there’s no good time, but he would be playing a lot.

Well if nothing else, Randle might crack .600 TS% tonight. That’s of great import to dozens of people!

i deserve to root for a winning team
i deserve to root for a winning team
i deserve to root for a winning team
i deserve to root for a winning team
i deserve to root for a winning team
i deserve to root for a winning team

Knicks once won 15 games in a row missing 2 starters in John Starks and Charles Smith. Dunno why that came to my mind right now.

Mitch is our best player and looked like an absolute bum tonight. I think that was a bigger problem than missing Brunson & RJ.

Perhaps a rewatch would change my mind but that was my impression.

*** Knicks once won 15 games in a row missing 2 starters***

That streak would have come to an early end if they’d played the 2022 knicks.

IQ — solid growth game.

Randle — gotta give credit for a monster game.

Grimes — did not get today’s memo (1-10 in 37 minutes).

Max — prolly still pissed about the Dallas game.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Mitch. I actually didn’t see him out there, so …

You know that Seinfeld episode where Jerry talks about how everything evens out? We’re now 18-18 – we beat some good teams without their best player and tonight we lost to a shitty team without 2 of our starters. And it might happen again on Saturday.

It all evens out….

Scariest post of the night:

Early Birdsays:
December 29, 2022 at 21:27
In a week I bet we’ll find out Mitch had been playing hurt since this game.

*** i deserve to root for a winning team ***

You don’t choose your team, your team chooses you. (Or am I confusing this with wand selection on diagonal alley?)

Perhaps a rewatch

if your not busy after that EB, i’m planning on sticking needles underneath my fingernails, you know, for like entertainment purposes – if you want in on some of that misery too…

i’ll be honest donnie – earlier today i had the very clear thought of skipping watching the game, checking the score later and only watching if we won…

yeah, i need to do better on following through on some of my more prudent thoughts, as rare and far between as they may come…

In no way do I intend to rewatch this game… just hypothetically speaking maybe the eyetest lied to me. If I do decide to, Geo you can fly here on my dime and stick me with needles yourself.

KBA, as little Raven would say, I call cap.

Randle scored 39, but I bet he gave up 50 with his “I will only stroll at a languid pace or stand as still as a post” on D. And he totally destroyed any offensive flow with his unending isolations.

On the other hand, Thibs has IQ playing an average of 47 minutes the last two games. That’s sustainable.

“Randle scored 39, but I bet he gave up 50 with his “I will only stroll at a languid pace or stand as still as a post” on D. And he totally destroyed any offensive flow with his unending isolations.”

Randle scores 41 points on 27 shots, and has 11 rebounds and 7 assists but gets thrown under the bus while Mitch goes for a donut with 6 rebounds in 28 minutes and gets referred to as our best player…

smh

It’s possible that Randle can be a soul destroyer and for Mitch to suck, too.

And DRose. And Hart was pretty pointless. And Grimes was 1-10.

Glad for Evan though. Even if I had to close my eyes for the half of the time he was out there on D.

Geo,

Ever since JK47 introduced me to the world of podcasts, only to fucking abandon me there, I’ve been on a lonely search for something to listen to. Via Nice White Parents, I stumbled onto another serial production called Shit Town.

Shit Town is about a misfit polymath from rural Alabama who lives in his mothers basement and writes manifestos about how shitty the shit town is that he lives in. The guy is an antiquarian horologist by trade and also a chemist and an architect and an engineer and is fabulously wealthy. The guy hates his shit town so much that he rails on to anybody who will listen to him about how shitty it is. Meanwhile, everybody who listened to him asks him the obvious question: if you hate your shit town so much, why don’t you just leave?

But he doesn’t leave. He just complains and complains…

He is the quintessential knickerblogger.

@Raven — I’m with you a lot of the time, but I can’t really fault Julius tonight. Even if Randle’s D was terrible (and I’m not yet convinced it was bc I’m still rinsing my eyes with saline solution), isn’t D the *main* thing Grimes, Deuce, Mitch, and a bit of IQ are supposed to do? Randle alone did not give up 122 points to these spurs-jokers. He had plenty of help.

I mean the Mavs scored 120 on 3 Dec and it was a wake up call? Last game the Mavs (with Luka!) needed OT to score 126 against these exact same Knicks. I mean WTF tonight? 122 against Romeo and Johnson?

In a certain strand of the multiverse this game goes down as the night on which it became clear Thibs had lost the team.

i’m sorry donnie…i was mewling again, wasn’t i…

i’m okay now…still not watching the rockets game live – i don’t care if we’re leading by 20 going in to the fourth – just not gonna do it…

There is a certain logic to blaming our European fans. I’m pretty sure Cyber skipped both the Dallas and San Antonio games. And Max skipped tonight, I think.

Regardless, let’s get Houston. We cannot abide going 0 for Texas.

oh, just like i washed down the mavs game with watching Black Adam…gonna finish watching the Samaritan…

amazingly enough – despite the full blown B movie treatment, it probably did a better job at a comic book movie than Black Adam…i did like hawkman though…

i love that stallone made himself near invincible…that way he didn’t have to move too fast in the action sequences…

makes me think of how painful it was watching jeff bridges grapple in The Old Man…at times it hurt watching him walk…

probably my favorite B movie type comic book film was woody harrelson in Defendor…

If you watch the Sochan dunk it absolutely makes me think Randle was solely responsible for giving up 50 points. He definitely didn’t, but holy #%$ that was bad.

I’m beginning to think Hart might just not be very good. Also, Deuce needs to be in guy’s shirts every second he’s on the floor- at less than max effort his defense can’t make up for the lack of offense. And Rose looks cooked. And finally, did djphan and E fly to San Antonio and put something in Grimes water bottle? Not a good night to lay an egg.

I don’t know what the heck is up with Hart. He definitely has been a disappointment so far. Man, when Mitch has a bad game on defense, the whole defense sort of collapses. To be fair, Thibs basically built the defense around Mitch, so it makes a certain amount of sense, but boy, it’s striking. I hope Mitch just ate a bunch of bad tacos or something like that and isn’t actually hurt. He was so bad. And when he’s bad, the rest of the defense is pretty useless.

By Post Author

Also, once again, I think we really need to think about the problem with Deuce’s size. He gives so much energy. It’s amazing how much energy he has. But he’s so fucking small, and he doesn’t play like a small guy on defense (meaning that he doesn’t only guard 1s) and he just gives up so much size it is absurd. Romeo Langford isn’t exactly Wilt Chamberlain out there, but he has four inches on Deuce, and those four inches make a huge difference when you’re taking a jumpshot over a guy four inches shorter than you.

By Post Author

Also, with RJ hurt, Brunson ailing and Rose totally finished, why in the world aren’t the Knicks at least trying to sign someone to fill out the back of the roster who might actually be able to get some minutes? Why are Svi and Arcidiacono even on the team if they’re never going to play and they’re not trade bait and/or sunk costs?

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How weird is it, by the way, that Tomas Satoransky is done with the NBA? He had a lot of injuries the last couple of seasons, but when he played, he played well. I find it hard to believe that teams couldn’t find a rotation spot for him.

By Post Author

MSG code system

Code 0 offender is not to be admitted to the building at a given event

Code 1 is designated for VIPs

Code 2 is described as “we know you’re in the building at all times.” Rarely approached.

Code 3 is described as security needing to have “a conversation with [the] person letting them know they know they’re in the building.”

Code 4 is stated as the need for “a conversation letting them know what they did is not tolerated and not accepted.”

Code 5 is described as a permanent ban

oh yes, i am entertained…

Also, with RJ hurt, Brunson ailing and Rose totally finished, why in the world aren’t the Knicks at least trying to sign someone to fill out the back of the roster who might actually be able to get some minutes? Why are Svi and Arcidiacono even on the team if they’re never going to play and they’re not trade bait and/or sunk costs?

“They’re great in practice. Games are really just warm-ups for practice.”
-Tom Thibodeau

This team is just too boring to keep entertaining with any consistency. I have a half-eaten, five-day-old bowl of cereal that deserves WAY more scrutiny than Thibs’ clearly moronic 9-man rotations.

“They’re great in practice. Games are really just warm-ups for practice.”

I really think it has something to do with Thibs having a very specific way of doing things, and it doesn’t respond well to plug-and-play guys. But, like, every other team in the NBA routinely has plug-and-play guys during the season (the Nets seem to go through dozens)! How hard can it possibly be?

By Post Author

It’s weird how the issue with Thibs has been with his in-game coaching and not his ability to teach the kids. We all assumed the opposite would be true.

There is a certain logic to blaming our European fans. I’m pretty sure Cyber skipped both the Dallas and San Antonio games. And Max skipped tonight, I think.

Hey KBA, thanks for the shoutout. I actually watched the 1st quarter last night, so in time to watch that end of quarter blunder. And then i fell asleep. Looks like it was for the best, but i still thought we would turn the game around. So today i did what i always do, and started by reading the game thread without knowing the score. That way i went through all the emotions of the game too. Maybe i’m to blame, because i watched only the beginning of the Bulls game, and didn’t watch Sixers and Mavs games. I’m having a rough end of the year, maybe i’ll be more active next year.

You know that Seinfeld episode where Jerry talks about how everything evens out? We’re now 18-18 – we beat some good teams without their best player and tonight we lost to a shitty team without 2 of our starters. And it might happen again on Saturday.

It all evens out….

Great call, D-Mar. I was actually thinking of that episode while watching last night.

Knicks, I dub thee, Even Steven.

And bravo, fellas, on a great game thread. This blog’s artistic peak happens when the Knicks are at their worst. One of my favorite bits of this season has been Noble and Z-Man passively aggressive subtweeting each other every time Mitch plays well or not well.

Hey Cyber,

You know I’m just playing, of course, and complimenting your deft contributions to the discourse. Most important is for you (and every KB-er) to live well, first. Then we can all tilt at our windmills. Sending you as much cyber-strength as I can muster through the internet’s tubes as we close out 2022.

“Knicks, I dub thee, Even Steven.”

Any chance Randle can use the $20 he thought he lost as down payment on a bus ticket out of town?

How much longer does Thibs have on his contract? His poor rotation management is killing this team

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