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2022-23 Game Thread: Knicks @ Lakers – Three Was Enough Company!

The Knicks play the Lakers tonight while I see “Sunday in the Park With George” at the Pasadena Playhouse.

I hope that watching the Knicks play the Lakers is the more entertaining experience. Time to cut this losing shit out!

How is my 49 win prediction looking? 9-4 is still very possible! A win tonight would sure help, though!

Let’s go, Knicks!

155 replies on “2022-23 Game Thread: Knicks @ Lakers – Three Was Enough Company!”

Lots of Knick jerseys here!

Mannn i feel like a lil kid watching our guys live! Let’s get this dub!!!

Well. at least we have Breen

Edit:BBA got there first

Looks like we are doubling AD tonight

Russell is hot to start. Not like he’s being left open, he’s just feelin it.

Boban has one of the most surprising active career arcs around.

Russell hitting some tough shots, it’s true.

Grimes another baseline drive to nowhere

Grimes another baseline drive to nowhere

He really needs to adjust on those, seems like teams know it’s coming.

I don’t want Julius to force things too much, but other than AD, there’s no big on the Lakers that can D him. He should eat today. And he’s hitting his FTs so far

What are Randle’s numbers like in the last six minutes. JVG made it sound sure. Haven’t seen the splits.

Just viewed highlights from 10 years ago of Allan Houston scoring 53 in LA. H20 would be a perfect fit for this current team.

Normally you wouldn’t want RJ in for Grimes, but Quentin hasn’t played well so far.

How the hell does RJ miss that

Agree on Grimes. But if there were a stat for the combo of shots blocked and bunnies missed RJ would lap the field.

Our defensive rebounding really picked up and we had a few huge steals that led to transition buckets.

Randle was magisterial

Unbelievable. Three-on-two fast break and Barrett STILL doesn’t pass.

Nice recovery… good D against the Lakers bench and Julius is cooking

Randle on pace for 72 despite the continuing terrible end of quarter plays

I feel like this is a matchup where Toppin can give some good bench minutes to spell Randle

I’ll say this… RJ is persistent. He sees any way to get into the lane, he’s gonna drive and put up a shot no matter what… Lol

For as much as we rag on his athleticism and quickness RJ can get to the rim almost at will. Finishing unfortunately is another story…

I think that was Barrett’s first pass (out of bounds…).

Ewing only averaged 25+ and 10+ per game twice, happened in back to back seasons. But then the next 4 seasons he averaged 24 and 10.

Hmm… maybe Barrett SHOULDN’T pass…

Those were some clanks.

I did like watching Obi walk into a top-of-the-arc three earlier.

We should just get a lead every game in the first couple minutes and play keep away for the last 40min using the offensive boards

It’s so clear we need a 3pt shooter…why the fuck can’t Fournier get a few minutes?

When RJ shoots a 3, it’s like one of those halftime contests where some random dude shoots for $100 and you know it’s not going in.

Breen: “Kind of a subdued crowd, don’t you think?”

Diggy, get on the bullhorn! We’ll hear you!

Don’t like to slam the refs, but that was a five-point turnaround bad call.

Refs have not been helpful

Cmon Julius. Pass the ball after you get that board

Mitch looks dinged up to me

A lot of back n forth in the latter half of Q2. Good that the K’s kept answering when Russell/AD starting cooking again. IQ is that dude…

Deuce down to 13.5 stls/36

Of course they called the loose ball foul before Randle is about to dunk after screwing up the continuation call on IQ

It’s almost amazing how this team can score given how stagnant the offense can be. I think you gotta credit Thibs for designing a functional offense for a team that can’t routinely break guys down off the dribble.

Mikal has been playing like he’s more than worth it since the trade

The refs def fucked up that IQ call. That absolutely was continuation. What Breen say about it?

I’m sorry cdiggy, I CAN’T HEAR YOU.

(Both announcers agreed it was a blown call.)

I’m sure I’ve seen worse calls, but the IQ continuation was blatantly obvious

I thought they called the foul on the hip check Russell gave him before the shooting motion started .

A Laker fan behind me said #9 on the Knicks sucks.

I… could not refute her.

Mitch might have to sit the majority of the 2nd half like he did vs Sacramento.

Randle incredibly annoying, despite the shooting… He closes out on no one, and boxes out on no one…

I’m going to enjoy going to bed when this is over. I’m exhausted.

Was about to say something nice about RJ, a bunch of decent plays, but then he fucked it up again.

I think Randle sometimes just closes his eyes and keeps them closed while he has the ball. Some of his passes are inexplicable.

Reaves blows by Barrett, but that’s understandable because Reaves was a finalist for the US Olympics 100 m dash… or something…

This is actually a pretty decent back n forth game. We do need some better offensive execution though if we’re gonna win this.

I know this Laker PA dude has been on the mic for 40 years but he does nothing for me lol

Good Barrett sighting… he’s actually playing out of his mind these last few minutes. At least on offense…

Obi and Deuce doing what we’ve been hoping they’d do.

iHart is 0-2 but plus 22, and it’s richly deserved.

RJ’s dogged determination to drive has helped a bit more than hurt tonight.

The Lakers fans are subdued. Got one behind me who actually said she’s happy to see me so happy after that miracle Barrett 3.

WTF???

Flaky-ass Angelinos… lmao

Said fan just called AD’s brow a “union-brow”.

She’s unintentionally hilarious

I know Randle has been great offensively but trying to take AD off the dribble there… nah

We were two pieces away, and one of those pieces was Josh Hart

Tonight, RJ was good enough… But still the weak link

And obviously, without Brunson our IQ (excepting IQ) is sub-100

We don’t win without him, but RJ still ended up with a pretty inefficient night. He really needs to hit his 3s.

RJ is improving going to the basket, but he’s still bad from 3 and shoots way too many of them. Either he needs to learn how to shoot better and defend at a consistently high level or we have to move on/move him to the bench.

Deuce had a good game, but he’s not a PG.

I think we should add another traditional backup PG. If Quick is the backup PG, when Brunson is hurt we either have to play him too many minutes or the bench unit is not as effective and we get too much Randle handling the ball.

Huge win. We really needed this to stay with the Nets and keep that gap with Miami. I knew the Nets were still good longer term, but the coach must be doing a fabulous job because even with all those new pieces they are playing well already.

I can’t believe Lakers coach allowed RJ to go to the basket on his left all night. This is the only thing he can do acceptably, and this is the only reason he scored 30 points on 27 (!) shots. We need more “defenses” like this to make The Sloth look better. I will be damned if they don’t try to trade him this off season.

Team defense was very good at times, especially in the fourth quarter, except Randle and The Sloth, as per usual. McBride and both Harts were very good. I think it is fair to say that the bench got this much needed win for us, no matter how ugly it was. Anything is welcome until Brunson comes back.

Watching from the stands, it seems that RJ can do one thing and one thing well: get into the paint and get up a shot. You wish he has the touch and athleticism of a Kyrie who is just an uber-elite layup artist. I understand the frustration with his disregard of passing off the drive because imagine how much the Knicks offense would blossom with a big wing who can tilt the defense by driving & kicking.

We are up 4, we have the ball with a full 24 seconds on the clock, and there are only 36 seconds remaining in the game. JVG who was calling the game for ESPN says the Knicks need to take time off the clock. That makes sense. Well, what does RJ do? As soon as he gets the ball he drives straight to the basket and misses the shot.

I just want to say how much I love Josh Hart.

I’m absurdly irrationally attached to him.

When Brunson is back, it would be really nice if RJ missed a few games just so we could get another look at what Grimes can do with more usage. We need to learn more about him. I like the way we are doing things now between Hart and Grimes, but Hart is the superior player for now.

I hate to be this ridiculous, but the future of this team is probably dependent on getting rid of RJ. Even on a night when he scored 30 points he wasn’t efficient and the worst part of it is that he probably thinks he had a great game.

“I just want to say how much I love Josh Hart.

I’m absurdly irrationally attached to him.”

It’s not irrational. It’s perfectly rational. I love him too. I’m a big fan of guys that do things other than scoring that contribute to winning. You need your 3 scorers, but after that you want pack as much non scoring punch as possible into your role players. He does everything else really well, at the most important times, and remains efficient on that low usage. IMO he’s a dream role player.

There are players that are winners and make the so-called “winning plays.” Josh Hart is one of them. As of The Sloth, it is a mystery for me why Thibs is still starting him. My guess is that a) the Knicks still hope they can get something out of their 3rd pick, and b) they hope to add some value and make it easier to include him in a trade. I am not sure this is a good strategy, but I don’t know what the alternative would be either.

Game ball goes to Alan.

Awww. And I slept through almost all of it before being woken up for new meds!

Part of RJ’s second half success was because L.A. switched AD onto Randle making the path to the paint much easier. He was still inefficient but the Knicks have to have RJ out there a lot with Brunson out as Randle and Quick are the only two other guys who can create anything.

This is how important tonight’s win was. Knicks are 6th with twelve games to go. Thirteen games to go for the Heat. If we go .500 the rest of the way, we get to 46 wins. Heat will have to go 10-3 to catch up. If we do just a bit better, we can easily get the 5th seat.

I hate the fact that we have 2 games left with the Heat. The most likely outcome would be to split, but that’s no certainty. You want those H2H matchups when you are the one chasing, not when you are the one leading.

People wonder why the Knicks gave such a big contract to The Sloth right after they were ready to trade him (with multiple picks!) for Donovan Mitchel. I think that was a simple and smart trade-flexibility move. It will be easier to match salaries if an A-star becomes available this summer (or during the 23-24 season) without depleting the entire team as they did in the Carmelo Anthony trade.

I’ve been thinking that for a while, RJs best NBA skill is salary matching. Whoever came up with the sloth, that feels incredibly accurate watching him plod about.

That said, I still think he figures out the interior scoring, it’s just going to take a lot of skill he doesn’t currently have. The NBA is easy for fast players who get to the basket for open layups. Stronger players don’t get clean looks and need to build a repertoire of finishing moves and floaters.

I worry more about his outside shooting. Other than empty arena RJ, which looks like as much of a thing as empty arena Randle, RJ has shot 32%, 34%, and now 32% again. He shot 31% in college. You’re not a viable wing in this league if you’re shooting 33% from 3 on your career.

Yeah, very nice to wake up to a win. 😉 And especially after reading the game thread, when you guys started saying we were clueless at the end of games, i thought to myself “here we go, another close game that ends with an L”. Phew, it was great that we managed to pull it off, because the Nets are looking solid and i want the 5th seed. 🙂

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