Knicks Morning News (2023.04.27)

In a 180° turnaround of the 2021 Hawks series*, the Knicks disintegrated the Donovan Mitchell’s Cavs, dominating the clinching game wire to wire despite the absence of Grimes and the injury that took away a possessed Randle for half the game.

It’s joy, it’s bliss, it’s a forgotten feeling, it’s an emotion 10 years in the waiting…
Let’s rejoice, let’s walk for a couple of days with a big dumb smile on our faces.
For once, let’s be happy to be Knicks fans.

Welcome to a sleep deprived, Grappa filled, jumbo edition of “My stupid recap”.

THOUGHTS:

– We won the season series 7-2.
We kept them under-100 points 4 times in 5 playoffs games and destroyed them under the boards.
I don’t know how this can imply “good fortune”, after the J-Hart trade we were simply better than them.
The world was ready to clown us because we didn’t trade for Spida, and now we’re showing the world two huge middle fingers.
It’s a fullfilling sensation.

– The Cavs never lead in the game and, despite the fear induced by our deeply rooted PTSD, they never really threatened (6 points were the 4th quarter closest margin).Our guys were poised and collected for most of the game and kept the crowd out of it. Great performance.

– Once agains our depth made the difference. Obi started the 3rd for the injured Randle and scored 12 points in the quarter. IQ scored as many points as the entire Cavs’ bench, I-Hart gave his customary useful minutes.
It must be a strenght even against the hobbled Heat.

– Thibs did run dozens of circles around Bickerstaff and he had a near perfect series. After Julius’ injury he shortened the rotation, squeezed every minute from the Villanova Connection and perfectly rode Mitch’s monster game (21 2nd half minutes).
Now Eric Spoelstra looms on the horizont and I hope our coach will keep it going. It’ll not be easy.

– When it was clear we were going to end up in the 5th spot, I thought we would have been happy for the Cavs’ buyout of notoriuos Knicks Killer Kevin Love.
They would have been much better, and a worst matchup, if they kept him because with Allen and Mobley not a threat from outside they did let us keep Mitch and I-Hart protecting the paint and gobbling rebounds.
Now we will meet Love in the next round where him and Bam will give our centers a totally different look and I must admit I’m not feeling relaxed about it.

– The Cavs will learn, maybe. Maybe they’ll change coach, maybe they’ll trade Allen or whatever. They’re young but were media darlings and were erased by a much more maligned team, so they need to improve and they don’t have many avenues to do it (their cap isn’t good, they gave away picks, their bench is hollow). I’m curious.

– Daily rant (sorry).
Thinking about the Cavs made me think about the regular season in general.
I think load management, injuries and trades are making regular season numbers unreliable.
I’m aware of every opposing player that miss a game against the Knicks, because I watch all their games.
I don’t watch all the league games (albeit I watch a lot of them), I read most but not all the boxscores and I’m sure I don’t always remember who was missing in a game that didn’t involve the Knicks.

Playing, for instance, the tanking Blazers and winning 157-101 or 120-80 (both real scores) can do marvel for your numbers but it means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Or, as another example, we’re not the same team after the J-Hart trade. Same as the Nets after shedding KD and Kyrie and so on.

So, I wasn’t impressed at all because the Cavs were, according to the yearly stats, the best defense and the second best net-rating team.

I watched them playing with us, I watched them sneaking out wins against lower teams and I thought they were a good match for us.
Overrated, young, depthless and a bit soft. If only we wouldn’t have been DOOMED… 😀

Anyway, my suggestion is: don’t take regular season’s numbers too seriously. Context is everything.

End of rant.

PLAYS OF THE GAME:

4th 3:51 Immanuel Quickley misses driving floating jump shot
4th 3:47 Mitchell Robinson offensive rebound
4th 3:47 Mitchell Robinson makes dunk (NY 98 CLE 86)
4th 3:36 Evan Mobley bad pass (Jalen Brunson steals)
4th 3:18 RJ Barrett misses driving layup
4th 3:14 Mitchell Robinson offensive rebound
4th 3:14 Mitchell Robinson makes tip shot (NY 100 CLE 86)

Lot of plays to remember but I want to reward Mitch. In a moment where every Knick was clunking shots and the Cavs appeared poised for a last try, he cleaned the offensive glass and scored 4 huge points that bring down the shutter on Clevaland last hopes…

STATS OF THE GAME:

NY 48 CLE 30. Total Rebounds.
NY 17 CLE 4. Offensive Rebounds.

It was clobbering time under the glass. They were soft. We weren’t.

NY 20 CLE 8. Fastbreak point (what?!!?).
18. Knicks’ largest lead
0. Cavs largest lead (lead? which lead?)

They weren’t ready. We were.

GRADES

Brunson A-
Little General set the tone of the game with 12 1st quarter points to , then his shot went cold (2-11 in the 2nd half, 0-4 in the 4th quarter) but he was a calming presence when needed.
I love Geo’s Gregory Hines/Fred Astaire comp for his footwork 🙂
His slipping & sliding layup between Cavs’ Twin Towers was a masterpiece and had another dunk too!

Hart A-
Only 4 points but he played 47 minutes of high energy defense and brought down 12 rebounds.
I don’t think a cardboard marked “23rd pick” would have done the same, but I’m probably wrong… 😉
Since his trade we’ve been a different team.

Randle A-
Shook off a bad shooting start and play some of his most dominant minutes before getting injured. Point-Bully Randle (6 assists) feasted on every missmatch, bruised his defenders, scared the hell out of the Cavs’ frontcourt.
Let’s hope he can play against the Heat, we’ll need his physicality.

Funny bit: in his 4:27 of the 2nd he was -4.

Barrett A-
He played so well that I didn’t notice his 4 turnovers. Efficient, focused, always in control and ready to pass (his teammates blew a couple of assists).
His first two games were awful but he reacted very well after that, rekindling the flame of our tortured hopes.
He’s not afraid of the moment and, for those who believes in it (like me) he has the clutch gene, he needs to reliably find the balance between oversized self esteem and level headed self awareness. He won’t be 23 until after the Finals.

Side note:
he was 7-8 from the field in the first 3 quarters… then Rama jinxed him and he went 0-5 in the 4th (I’m not making it up). Rama!!! 😉

Robinson A+
Under the circumstances the best game of his life (13 points, 18 rebounds, 11 of which on offense, 3 blocks). His Clint Capela imitation after Game-3 was on point, the Cavs were soft, they can be smacked around and he definitively did it.
Between his incredible 11 offensive boards there are two with which he basically closed the game in a 33 seconds span.
We’ll need this Monster Mitch against Bam.

Quickley B+
Ties the entire Cavs’ bench with 19 points. Hot start when the Knicks were building their lead in the 1st half, went ice cold in the 2nd (1-8, albeit the only made was huge) but was money from the line (6-6, all in the 4th).

Toppin A
Another guy who doesn’t look afraid of the moment, all his 12 points came in the 3rd quarter, where the team needed to mantain his composure after Ju went down.
He had a strong series, giving us exactly what we need (and it wasn’t by no means obvious) and showing he’s not only a dunker.

Hartenstein B+
A little less playing time but Mitch was playing great and wasn’t in foul trouble, he did well without shining as in other games. One of the best backup bigs in the league and he has margin of improvements.

Thibs A+
He was probably one inch away from being fired after the 10-13 start, some hard-to-believe meltdowns and a few close home losses, and I still think it’s not perfect, but this year he has done things that were unthinkable 12 months ago, not only for his new flexibility, but because this year, for the most part, he really held everyone accountable**.
Bizarro Bearded Thibs is a much better coach and I happily take the loss on him, you can’t always have it right.
And won’t say anything more because today is a day for unabashed celebrations, not for rational arguments… 😉

Brian Cronin A+
The real MVP.
From the moment he understood his role he couldn’t be stopped.
His game thread intros willed the Knicks to win and were invaluable in bringing the Basketball Gods to our side.
Great job Brian, keep it rolling!

* there’s one huge difference between that Knicks team and this year Cavs.
For us it was a surprising dream season, with a short-on-talent team, expected to be lottery bound, that overachieved in a one-of-a-kind season.
The Cavs instead went all-in for Spida last summer, feeling closer to contention, and while they’re young and will improve and yadda yadda, their playoffs flop is in my opinion worse.

** To me “talking accountability but not doing it”, was one of the three main reasons because last year was a disaster.

Breaking News:

Jericho Sims underwent right shoulder surgery,
so he’ll be out for the season.

@KFNINJ

The operation was done to repair a torn labrum and cuff tendon.

I’ve no idea about when or how the injury occurred.

Does anyone?

He (Sims) is expected back in time for the start of training camp.

RJ is a maddening player, the most maddening game-to-game and quarter-to-quarter I’ve ever cheered for, and he had a disappointing season.

While we knew he has some weak spots (lack of athleticism and of a reliable shooting come to mind), everybody was expecting a jump to “semi-star” (or to “above average starter”) status* , instead he gave us dozens of sleepwalking first halves, long stretches of matador defense, disengaged behaviour, worse-than-ever shooting slumps, hailstorms of dumb turnovers and bad decisions.

For instance he was widely considered an average to above-average defender, while this year his defense has been close to non-existent, until the playoffs.

His progress more or less stalled, I thought the failure was mostly “mental” and I didn’t change my opinion on that.

I’m very happy with his last 3 games (but at the same time I remember the first 2**) and I hope he’s finding the right balance to display his full potential, he’s still 22.

With his lack of fear for the spotlight and his “clutch” gene, he “only” needs a good shooting coach that help him stop with the everyday tweaking of his form, an intensive course from JB about “how to use the glass properly” and someone to help him coming to terms with his place in the NBA world.
If he does that he’ll be worth his contract.

At the same time I find the criticism toward him, especially when done during game threads (when the reactions are “naturally irrational” and everything’s a hot take) at least for the most part “acceptable” or/and understandable.
I can only talk for myself but I’ve never read “hate”, only frustration.

Maturity and accountability will help. Will see.

* Even people who deprecated the idea of extending him was in the “let him prove it one more year” camp, not in the “trade him for a couple of 2nd rounder”.

** Zach Lowe talked about him before Game-3 and at the time it wasn’t for good reasons.

@Reese Bobby
Kudos for The Life Of Brian reference, great movie.

Everybody brace for the sequel: “Life Of Brian (Cronin) – The DOOMED“