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2022-23 Game Thread – Knicks @ Cavaliers – Weirdest Time of the Season

We’re at a really weird point in the season where, with Julius Randle’s injury, these last two weeks of the season are just kind of…meaningless, really.

The Knicks are pretty much locked into the #5 seed, so they don’t have to worry about losing their playoff positioning, but they also can’t get to #4, so these games are all, well, like I said, meaningless. Without Randle, these games aren’t going to be what the Knicks will look like during the playoffs, so they’re just sort of…there.

Still, of course, they DO need to win at least one or two games in these remaining five games to keep their #5 seed (although I don’t even know if that’s the case, as the Nets are struggling a lot), so there’s not no drama, but there’s very little drama.

Hurry back healthy, Julius!

How’s 49 wins looking? Still possible!

Let’s go, Knicks!

207 replies on “2022-23 Game Thread – Knicks @ Cavaliers – Weirdest Time of the Season”

Pretty bold to assert that these games aren’t what the Knicks will look like in the playoffs, Brian…I for one don’t expect Randle back unless we make it to the second round.

I totally disagree with the theory that Obi is limited to 3P because opponent’s defense has figured him out.

I’m eager to watch the adjustments we’ll make without Julius…

Let’s Go Knicks!

RJ with the early airball…

Edit: …and the blocked shot. Oh, RJ.

Second blocked shot for RJ. Kobe assist for Mitch.

But he hit a three…

They’re not gonna shoot this way all night and the Bench Mob is coming, I’m not worried… 🙂

If Mitchell plays like this against the Knicks in the playoffs Stephen A Smith is going to be unbearable.

Will the Cavs keep hitting at 78%?

I’m kind of liking the Jethro Tull throwback bits…

WOW. The defense doesn’t even seem that bad on either end?

Hey, could go for 7 games of this.

42 points in the first quarter? Who needs Mr. First Quarter, eh…

There will be no defense played tonight. Wow

Most points in the NBA in a quarter all season

Getting ahead of myself but a 40-50 piece for Brunson in a likely playoff preview would have to be pretty good for the all-NBA case

Jesus, the giant caveman is Lopez…

Gained a bit of weight there on the Cleveland bench…

I know some of us try to limit the cursing here, but this fucking game…

idk if we keep running iq into the right corner on the pnr intentionally or he is ad libbing but it’s not a great idea

Tuning in to find Brunson with a career high 31 in a half (so far). Off to the races …

Damn, if this is any indication of how the playoff series will go… what the hell is this offensive efficiency.

Jalen is just so smooth when he’s on the zone like this, incredible footwork and intelligence on the court. Just beautiful to watch.

Incredible first half,
funny thing the defenses weren’t “that” bad,
but the shooting was phenomenal…

I don’t think defenses were that bad, there were a lot of shots that went in regardless of being heavily contested.

Edit: And to prove that we, europeans, are always in tune, Max said the same thing. 🙂

Like others have said, the defense isn’t even bad, it’s just that everything is going in. A terrific game and I’m so excited for this series

Knicks swept Cleveland in the 1st rd of the 1996 playoffs, final scores for Games 2 and 3 were 84-80 and 81-76!

The nice thing about this game is it’s kind of playing with house money. A win would be nice but a loss wouldn’t mean that much either.

RJ RJ RJ
Toppin getting blocked
Robinson shooting?

3rd quarter blues are back baby

RJ botches another fastbreak

Did Barrett just blow ANOTHER fast break?

They just blocked Mitch twice and Obi once in about two minutes. That’s nutty.

Breen just said that Obi and Barrett had to be restrained from each other during the time out?????

Hey Brunson, when RJ calls for the ball, just pretend you can’t hear over the crowd noise. Thanks.

Can Fournier really be that much worse than playing RJ right now? What the fuck is he doing?

RJ’s drives to the rim often remind me of my own in pick up games. I know I am supposed to take the ball to the rim in theory but don’t really know how to in practice.

Breen just said that Obi and Barrett had to be restrained from each other during the time out?????

What?!!? :-O

If I never saw RJ’s face again the very thought that I might see it someday would still make me sick. I can’t stand watching this moron play anymore. Please get him the fuck out of NY.

Breen just said that Obi and Barrett had to be restrained from each other during the time out?????

Yeah, i saw it just before the start of the commercials.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and Obi will beat the shit out of him and put him out for the season. I’ve just had it.

Jethro Tull not in the R&R HOF might be the worst snub of all time in any field of entertainment…

All due respect to Julius, we’re way more fun to watch without him

Sample size? 😛

They showed the tiff just now during the break. Looked like Obi said something that made Barrett furious.

I’m betting it was “RJ, everyone on Knickerblogger says you suck.”

Obi easily could be perfect from the field without that blocked dunk and the miss on that easy layup off his post move. I love the guy.

RJ, GIVE HIM THE F-ING BALL!

“Jethro Tull not in the R&R HOF might be the worst snub of all time in any field of entertainment…”

That’s terrible, but are you sure it’s as bad as playing RJ over Hart or Quick.

The Hartenstein we were promised coming alive has been a really nice development

Something like
“Ehi RJ, you didn’t make a single positive basketball thing in the entire quarter?”

When your team extends you to an unreasonably large contract, you must kinda think they are happy with your production.

Otherwise how do you explain RJs shocking lack of self-awareness?

“Looked like Obi said something that made Barrett furious.”

Obi: “JHart would have had an assist to me on that fast break. Open your f-ing eyes, RJ”

PS — Only IQ giving me a bit of pause tonight. Lotta loner moves that aren’t working (yet).

Barrett is a selfish moron…I cannot imagine anyone on the team likes him…except thibs

RJ takes “sucks” to Dyson vacuum levels. If I was Thibs I’d only play him in garbage time. He’s too bad to be a rotation player on a playoff team.

Good things do not happen when RJ Barrett is involved in a basketball play. It’s remarkable how consistently he makes bad things happen

That was insanely stupid of RJ to save a Cavs shot that was going out of bounds and go out of bounds himself.

Priority number one for the offseason is getting out of RJ’s contract asap. This is just unacceptable production. Any league average SF would be less detrimental to this team.

I am legitimately entertaining the thought that we might be better off with Fournier

Edit: great minds

It’s a shame because every one of RJ’s teammates are playing well except him

I only started watching in the second half, but I don’t like how IQ is playing

Beautiful passing from Hart – getting to see more of his value game by game

Also, I seem to be 2 minutes behind everyone….

It is fucking awesome that they’re playing Locomotive Breath at every time out of a game like this…

I hate to call myself a prophet and I’m sure we aren’t much better than even money to hang on and win this, but us hanging 115 points on the best defensive team in the NBA on their home court in under 40 minutes is a supremely Ewing-theoretical development.

I’m starting to fall in love with I-Hart, but I don’t want to make his hot girlfriend jealous

So why did it take us like 70 games to get Good Hartenstein?

Whatever, he’s here now!

I agree on Fournier. You know he’s going to be an issue on defense and he’s not the long term solution, but he’s not going to do dumb shit that hurts the team. He’s mostly going to make good decisions, help spacing, and he’ll also have the occasional hot night and be more efficient than RJ. It’s really not even that close.

RJ coming alive. We should start playing him only at the end of games. 😀

Your guys hate for RJ and calling for Fournier to play ahead of him is a bit too much.

I-Hart was probably hurting a bit in the beginning of the season and maybe it took awhile for Thibs to use him more, but boy what a difference.

Come to think of it, dribbling and shot-hunting is what Brunson does a lot of …

I can’t stand the continuing over helping on drives leaving guys wide open from 3pt when you have a double digit lead.

IQ’s fast break defense on two sequences there was like magic

So was that three. Is that Hahn trying to coin Brunson burner?

>>>>IQ’s fast break defense on sequences there was like magic

Yeah, that really has been remarkable

What a turn or events those missed FTs were. Up 14 you take some of the heart out of them. Terrible misses.

As well as things have gone, I’m getting that familiar late-game-collapsey feeling in my gut.

Edit: Never mind, forgot that a healthy Brunson is our best guard since Walt Frazier.

Well who knew. We need Barrett back out there doing dumb-ass stuff in order to win this game. Maybe he keeps the Cavs in stitches so they can’t concentrate?

IQ having a rare poor game defensively. Constantly leaving his man wide open overhelping and getting beat off the dribble more often than usual.

I really wasn’t expecting that our defense would suffer instead of our offense with Randle out.

We were up 119 to 107…Barrett made two bonehead plays…that is what almost changed the game…not Brunson ft’s

Loved Hartenstein’s play in the fourth quarter. So glad he is working out, he’s a fun player when he has it going

For being such a good defensive team Cleveland has very poor perimeter defense.

Allen’s absence was huge and post-ASG Okoro has been useful,
but without our leading scorer this is a great win.

Brunson with a superb performance and the Hart Foundation has been magnificent.

Great win guys!

The most encouraging thing is how good this team could be if we had a two way plus SF.

Hahaha. Loved Brunson just answering “No… no!” to the question if they thought about the playoffs or making a statement.

Both Harts are having a huge impact on winning. They play so hard and make so many of those extra effort plays that make a difference. I love both.

All season long we’ve taken haymakers from the opposition and never backed down

Love this team!

Hartenstein was amazing down the stretch, Mitch also played a very good game.

Running out of things to say about Jalen Brunson, the guy is just a special talent, what a transformative effect he’s had on this team.

Given that Quick and RJ had bad games (and Mitchell on fire) to win going away without Randle is pretty impressive. Brunson and the two-headed center carried the day. Both Mitch and iHart were dominant.

On other league related news, maybe it’s time we consider Mikal Bridges might just be the new Kawhi Leonard? I hate how he’s pricing himself out of any chance we could have of getting him on a trade.

At least we have an answer to the question: What would have happened if we DIDN’T make the all-in Donovan Mitchell trade…

Brunson outplayed Mitchell. IHart’s passing and interior D was incredible. Totally sent a message tonight. Way to go guys.

Knicks gave up 16 points to Miami and 14 points to Cleveland in the 4th quarter.

That’s just huge.

deuce is not jj reddick. he had some big dunks in college and posterized someone in the gleague.

That was just hugely entertaining. Can’t wait to relive it with Max tomorrow morning. Almost everyone did things to love. And even the hate was so palpable it made its way to the bench!

Clean up those missed FTs and this would almost qualify as a “beat down”

Our two-headed center with 15 points, 22 rebounds, and five blocks.

I am wondering how much better iHart can get. He’s only 24 and 40% of his career minutes have come this year. Is there a Marc Gasol lite in there somewhere?

Brunson and 4 Knicks draft picks, that’s pretty cool. Only 3 mercs played all night

Great team win. Defense picked up after that ridiculous first quarter and we started disrupting their offense with doubling, blizzing, showing and recovering, etc. Mitchell is a hell of a scorer but Brunson was right up there with him tonight.

The Sloth made several helpful plays for them (not the Knicks!) but it wasn’t enough. Haha! Summer is not far away.

I think as good as Hartenstein has been on defense, he’s more of an effort type defender that disrupts things by going the extra mile, while Marc was a legitimate star defender, DPOY level player, so yeah, it might be too optimistic for Hartenstein in the future to get in this conversation, but I’m convinced that he can be a difference maker when he’s healthy and getting consistent minutes. Very smart player, rarely makes bad mistakes, is skilled enough to be useful on offense and strong enough to keep up defensively. He definitely could be a plus starter.

Iowa – South Carolina going to be a very fun fourth quarter I predict.

Also, apropos of nothing, was watching the game with my dad who was asking how German Hartenstein was and I told him he was Afro-German and Black and that caused a somewhat hilarious amount of confusion.

Gasol was a big-time all-NBA player in his prime and a DPoY. I do wonder if he would be as effective in today’s game where bigs have to get up and down the court and guard the perimeter more than ever. But he was a nobody at age 24, never averaged double-digit rebounds or 2 blocks per 36 and didn’t start shooting 3’s until he was 32. His teams were always in the bottom 5 in pace. Still, that’s way too high of a bar for the purpose of this comparison.

I just wonder if Hart has another level to get to with experience, coaching, and hard work. He’s got a great package of length, athleticism, touch, smarts, and court vision.

Apparently Obi and RJ were yuckin’ it up after the game so hopefully it’s all good. Maybe something that needed to be said was said.

Y’all really don’t remember the Deuce dunk a week ago? Came right down the lane, threw it down with two hands. I think it was in his big 18-point game.

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