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Knicks Morning News (2023.05.01)

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  • Heat’s Kevin Love pokes fun at Aaron Rodgers after incredible passes in Game 1 – Fox News
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 6:59:00 AM

    Heat’s Kevin Love pokes fun at Aaron Rodgers after incredible passes in Game 1  Fox News

  • Curry dominant in Game 7 win with 50. Heat beat Knicks in Game 1 – WQKT
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 6:58:07 AM

    Curry dominant in Game 7 win with 50. Heat beat Knicks in Game 1  WQKT

  • ABC Makes A ‘Big Yikes’ Blunder In Introducing Knicks-Heat Halftime Show – Yahoo News
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 6:56:37 AM

    ABC Makes A ‘Big Yikes’ Blunder In Introducing Knicks-Heat Halftime Show  Yahoo News

  • Do Miami Heat need Jimmy Butler caution vs. New York Knicks? – South Florida Sun Sentinel
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 6:11:33 AM

    Do Miami Heat need Jimmy Butler caution vs. New York Knicks?  South Florida Sun Sentinel

  • Marv Albert Praises ‘Exciting’ Knicks, ‘Clutch’ Jalen Brunson Deal – Sports Illustrated
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 6:00:00 AM

    Marv Albert Praises ‘Exciting’ Knicks, ‘Clutch’ Jalen Brunson Deal  Sports Illustrated

  • Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian attends New York Knicks vs Miami Heat game – Sportskeeda
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 2:52:00 AM

    Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian attends New York Knicks vs Miami Heat game  Sportskeeda

  • New York Knicks without Julius Randle for series opener vs. Heat – South Florida Sun Sentinel
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 1:43:28 AM

    New York Knicks without Julius Randle for series opener vs. Heat  South Florida Sun Sentinel

  • Knicks: Jimmy Butler’s injury draws honest reaction from Josh Hart – ClutchPoints
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 12:35:00 AM

    Knicks: Jimmy Butler’s injury draws honest reaction from Josh Hart  ClutchPoints

  • Knicks’ Julius Randle’s Game 2 status and beyond still unclear – New York Post
    [news.google.com] — Monday, May 1, 2023 12:23:00 AM

    Knicks’ Julius Randle’s Game 2 status and beyond still unclear  New York Post

  • Knicks’ Obi Toppin thrives in starting role with Julius Randle injured – New York Post
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 11:39:00 PM

    Knicks’ Obi Toppin thrives in starting role with Julius Randle injured  New York Post

  • Heat: Kyle Lowry smashes Michael Jordan record vs. Knicks – ClutchPoints
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 11:26:00 PM

    Heat: Kyle Lowry smashes Michael Jordan record vs. Knicks  ClutchPoints

  • NBA playoffs: Heat rise to the occasion, Knicks make curious decisions and other takeaways from Game 1 – Yahoo Sports
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 9:39:00 PM

    NBA playoffs: Heat rise to the occasion, Knicks make curious decisions and other takeaways from Game 1  Yahoo Sports

  • ESPN apologizes for using pre-9/11 stock footage of New York City during Heat-Knicks game – Yahoo Sports
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 8:44:00 PM

    ESPN apologizes for using pre-9/11 stock footage of New York City during Heat-Knicks game  Yahoo Sports

  • Knicks’ Julius Randle misses Game 1 vs. Heat due to ankle sprain – The Athletic
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 8:17:35 PM

    Knicks’ Julius Randle misses Game 1 vs. Heat due to ankle sprain  The Athletic

  • Kevin Love had trash talk for Aaron Rodgers at Knicks game – Larry Brown Sports
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 7:19:03 PM

    Kevin Love had trash talk for Aaron Rodgers at Knicks game  Larry Brown Sports

  • NBA Playoff Odds 2023: Knicks vs. Cavs, 76ers vs. Nets Series Betting Prices Revealed – Bleacher Report
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 7:12:02 PM

    NBA Playoff Odds 2023: Knicks vs. Cavs, 76ers vs. Nets Series Betting Prices Revealed  Bleacher Report

  • Knicks Absorb First Blow in Throwback Battle With Miami Heat – The New York Times
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 7:10:03 PM

    Knicks Absorb First Blow in Throwback Battle With Miami Heat  The New York TimesNBA playoffs: Heat star Jimmy Butler rolls ankle in Game 1 win over Knicks  Yahoo SportsESPN apologizes for using pre-9/11 stock footage of New York City during Heat-Knicks game  Yahoo Sports

  • ABC airs NYC footage with Twin Towers during Knicks-Heat game – New York Post
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 6:56:00 PM

    ABC airs NYC footage with Twin Towers during Knicks-Heat game  New York Post

  • Knicks: Stephen A. Smith feeling blue after brutal Game 1 loss to Heat – ClutchPoints
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 6:34:54 PM

    Knicks: Stephen A. Smith feeling blue after brutal Game 1 loss to Heat  ClutchPoints

  • Knicks-Heat broadcast shows New York City stock footage with Twin Towers; ESPN apologizes – Fox News
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 6:04:00 PM

    Knicks-Heat broadcast shows New York City stock footage with Twin Towers; ESPN apologizes  Fox News

  • Miami Heat vs New York Knicks Apr 30, 2023 Game Summary – NBA.com
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 6:03:13 PM

    Miami Heat vs New York Knicks Apr 30, 2023 Game Summary  NBA.com

  • Aaron Rodgers sits courtside for the Knicks’ playoff game after Jets trade – Daily Mail
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 4:11:11 PM

    Aaron Rodgers sits courtside for the Knicks’ playoff game after Jets trade  Daily Mail

  • Underdogs again, disrespected Miami Heat quiet Garden with Game 1 upset at New York Knicks | Opinion – Miami Herald
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 4:10:00 PM

    Underdogs again, disrespected Miami Heat quiet Garden with Game 1 upset at New York Knicks | Opinion  Miami HeraldMiami Heat at New York Knicks Game 1 odds, picks and predictions  USA TODAY Sportsbook WireKnicks-Heat Game 1 live updates: Score, news, more from NBA Playoffs  New York Post

  • Jets’ Aaron Rodgers singing Rangers song, going to Knicks game … – ClutchPoints
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 2:43:37 PM

    Jets’ Aaron Rodgers singing Rangers song, going to Knicks game …  ClutchPoints

  • Look: Knicks Fans React to Aaron Rodgers on Jumbotron for Playoff … – Sports Illustrated
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 2:21:20 PM

    Look: Knicks Fans React to Aaron Rodgers on Jumbotron for Playoff …  Sports Illustrated

  • Miami Heat vs New York Knicks Apr 30, 2023 Box Scores – NBA.com
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 1:23:45 PM

    Miami Heat vs New York Knicks Apr 30, 2023 Box Scores  NBA.com

  • NBA picks, best bets: Why Kings can beat Warriors in a low-scoring Game 7; Knicks handle Game 1 business – CBS Sports
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 12:55:00 PM

    NBA picks, best bets: Why Kings can beat Warriors in a low-scoring Game 7; Knicks handle Game 1 business  CBS Sports

  • Brawls and Buzzer Beaters: Most Memorable Playoff Moments Between Miami Heat, New York Knicks – NBC 6 South Florida
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 12:48:17 PM

    Brawls and Buzzer Beaters: Most Memorable Playoff Moments Between Miami Heat, New York Knicks  NBC 6 South Florida

  • Report: Knicks interest in Karl-Anthony Towns trade ‘would be mutual’ – Sports Illustrated
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 11:56:13 AM

    Report: Knicks interest in Karl-Anthony Towns trade ‘would be mutual’  Sports Illustrated

  • UPDATE: Bam Adebayo’s Injury Status For Heat-Knicks Game – Sports Illustrated
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 10:43:10 AM

    UPDATE: Bam Adebayo’s Injury Status For Heat-Knicks Game  Sports Illustrated

  • Knicks Rumors: 2 NBA Trades Send OG Anunoby To New York – NBA Analysis Network
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 10:14:23 AM

    Knicks Rumors: 2 NBA Trades Send OG Anunoby To New York  NBA Analysis Network

  • NBA playoffs: Predictions, second-round picks with experts split on Knicks-Heat and Suns-Nuggets – CBS Sports
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 10:09:00 AM

    NBA playoffs: Predictions, second-round picks with experts split on Knicks-Heat and Suns-Nuggets  CBS Sports

  • New York Knicks’ Josh Hart breaks into song during playoff game – TODAY
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 9:14:10 AM

    New York Knicks’ Josh Hart breaks into song during playoff game  TODAY

  • How to watch New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat: Live stream, TV channel, start time for Sunday’s NBA game – CBS Sports
    [news.google.com] — Sunday, April 30, 2023 9:00:22 AM

    How to watch New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat: Live stream, TV channel, start time for Sunday’s NBA game  CBS Sports

  • 75 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2023.05.01)”

    It’s a holiday In Italy, I’m short on time 🙂

    – You know who the real loser is this year? The 82-games regular season.*
    Time to short it (between 58 and 66) and, if the owners want to protect home games income and TV contracts, play additional “Tournament Only” games for Adam Silver’s new toy (fuck the “hybrid” games).

    – Three pointers rule the League.
    We badly need to start hitting threes or they’re gonna kill us with zone and funneling (Obi and J-Hart 15 3FG combined). Where’s IQ? Where’s Grimes? Where’s Brunson? Where’s Fournier (I’m joking but not that much)?

    – Spo did own Thibs after the break. Bickerstaff’s not here anymore so it time to show our new adjustments.

    – From the 2nd quarter on we were killed on hustle/energy/focus plays. It was a bad feeling.

    – 12-20 FTs (60%… Miami 23-29). Do I need to say more?

    – I don’t like “no-pass iso” Brunson. I don’t like him going 0-7 on threes or losing 5 TOs. But I’m sure he’ll rebound.

    – RJ had a great first half, he hit the first two buckets of the 3rd, then… 2-11, bad decisions, dumb turnovers, lot of frustration. They get to his mind and he lost it… Let’s hope it was a twitch and not a full reverse.

    – With Mitch hobbling, why play I-Hart only 6 minutes in the second half? He had a good impact in the first…

    – I need to elaborate and explain me better, but to keep it short, I didn’t miss Julius in the first half. I did miss Good Julius in the second half. I never miss Bad-Julius.
    Obi was okay though.

    – Experience matters in the playoffs (see Sacramento), try to learn from every loss and get ready for the next game.

    – Re: Gentleman’s sweep.
    I’m with @ThisChicanery on the original meaning, but the recent use has bastardized it and made it “wide” to include all 4-1 series. It makes no sense but it’s a lost battle.

    Let’s go get them in Game-2 and always keep in mind that we’re doomed (and this is a great season, well over the expectations).

    * The same is true for the NHL.
    Hockey is much more a “lucky” game, we knew a hot goalie can change everything, but the record-setting Boston losing to Florida? The juggernaut defending-champion Colorado doing the same with Seattle?
    I love the playoffs being a crapshoot, it’s part of sports’s appeal, but why endure such a grind before?

    Great points Max!

    My friend from Miami doesn’t think coaches are important either but he also thinks Spoelstra is the exception to the rule. They made some good adjustments. But we couldn’t hit a shot.

    Not going to apologize for unleashing Playoff Gabe. I was only doing my best to help. Will have to do better.

    I want to rewatch what we did after Butler got injured. We definitely didn’t attack him on offense and I think we left Hart on him on defense even though he couldn’t do anything. Really bad coaching and highlights our frustrations with Thibs.

    @Max
    Totally agreed on iso-Brunson. Thought it was very reminiscent of game 2 against Cleveland.

    Yeah I had a bad feeling about game one and about this series and facing Miami in general. They aren’t going to be phased at all by not having home court advantages. Butler is a beast in the playoffs. They have a ton of experience. Spoelstra is an amazing coach. Their regular season record is misleading because they dealt with a ton of injuries. This is a team that was one game away from the Finals last year and went to the Finals in 2020.

    We’re still in it. But Tuesday is the most important game of the season (duh).

    We can win without hitting 3’s but can we win that way without Randle? We need him badly. His physicality is huge for us. As is his rebounding. And you have him on the court and Miami has to double him and Brunson.

    They did such a good job of doubling and tripling Brunson but waiting to do that until he reached the paint. They dared us to hit 3’s. And we aren’t great at that. We need Grimes and IQ to step up badly. But if we had (healthy) Randle, it would be harder for them to employ this strategy.

    This could get ugly quick if we don’t win Tuesday. I still think on paper we are the better team but a lot of people said Cleveland was the better team than us and look where that got them.

    I’m trying to keep it all in perspective. Even if we lose in 5 games, this season will be a huge success. But now that we’ve won round, I want another one! And I feel like mentally for dudes like Randle, RJ, IQ…winning one more round would be huge for us.

    Barrette playing hero ball in the last few minutes killed them. They got it down to 3 a couple times, and were able to get stops, but then RJ went back to being stupid.

    With Butler at a minimum impaired by his ankle injury, I’d start Grimes in place of JHart and hope he can get into a shooting groove. We’re not going to thwart the Heat from building a wall when JB penetrates unless we can shoot better than 20% from 3. In that regard, hopefully, IQ finds his mojo.

    Also, I think we can’t read TOO much into Miami, Lakers and Golden State winning in the first round as far a the regular season being “meaningless.”

    Golden State are the defending champs and their core has SO much playoff experience. Just the type of team to pull off a first round upset against a good regular season team that makes the playoffs for the first time.

    Lakers also dealt with a lot of injuries. But they still got Lebron and AD and also are a completely revamped team since the trade deadline. This new Lakers iteration if healthy would have been a top 3 team in the West.

    And the Heat. Like I said above…also dealt with a ton of injuries, Butler is about as clutch in the playoffs as they come. Great coach. Great system. Lots of veterans who have battled in the playoffs plenty. They’re basically built for the playoffs.

    “Downtown Doogie Brown says:
    April 30, 2023 at 14:38
    I’m watching the game intently, so have not read this game thread. Did we acquire a new player at the end of the regular season? Who is this Barrett guy? He’s pretty decent, eh?”

    This aged well. Not.

    In RJ’s defense, without Randle and with Brunson strangely passive, and IQ awol, there was nobody else to create shots. He’s just not good enough to carry the team by himself at the last minutes of a playoffs game.

    If Butler doesn’t play tomorrow, I could easily see a scenario where we take our foot off the gas and guys like Vincent, Lowry and Love keep it close. That would be nerve wracking to say the least.

    Hope I’m wrong tho!

    but then RJ went back to being stupid.

    That seems to be a recurring theme.

    When it happens enough, you have to start assuming that’s the norm and the good games are accidental or matchup related.

    Let’s see what happens when Randle is back. Then they’ll split the dumb shots and plays where they drive into a brick wall. It will be less noticeable. 🙂

    The tale of two halves has been a thing all year for RJ. It feels like sloppy analysis to say that hot streaks lead to overconfidence. He had plenty of bad first halves too. I don’t know, it’s just the mystery of RJ. If he puts it together there is a very good to great player to be unlocked. But it just doesn’t seem to want to happen.

    One can tilt one’s head and think we’re not in all that bad a place for being one down. We shot abysmally, even for us. Our all-star was out. We were winning until we started making repeated forced and unforced errors.

    Those are all things that can change, making these upcoming games very winnable. The question is whether they actually do change.

    I guess there’s also the danger of Spo throwing some new clever wrinkle at the team, causing their little heads to explode.

    (1) Butler was able to move around pretty easily, it wasn’t like Randle leaving the court. I’d be surprised if he didn’t play.

    (2) We really don’t have shooters. Our starting wings yesterday were RJ Barrett & Josh Hart. A shoulder injury to Grimes, our best shooter, is not great. IQ is notoriously streaky. Obi’s defense is unplayable during crunchtime.

    It could just be Randle & Brunson, and Randle is neither healthy nor a knockdown shooter.

    Yeah, but if we’d just shot 32% from three, which still sucks and is below our season average of 35.4%, we would have won that game by 113-108 (everything else being equal, of course…).

    We definitely didn’t hunt Butler after his injury. Macri’s newsletter recapped all of the relevant plays during that period and concluded that they were all defensible in a vacuum but collectively felt like a lost opportunity. I agree, but we also haven’t really hunted mismatches all season for whatever reason.

    Unfortunately I’m not feeling great about the whole “we won’t shoot 20% again” thing because as EB said we’re not giving minutes to some of the best shooters on the roster. There are good reasons for that–I shudder to think of what havoc Butler could wreak on all of our non-Josh Hart players, and Evan Fournier is Evan Fournier–but it makes the offensive math problem harder to solve.

    That said, I still like our chances IF Randle is mostly healthy starting Tuesday. The Heat are asking a lot of guys who aren’t all that talented and Randle should be a much needed release valve for Brunson, who the Heat could basically sell out on without fear in game 1.

    On the subject of potential release valves for Brunson, I don’t think we’re winning another series with Immanuel Quickley being mostly bad. Love the guy, but he’s gotta get it together and soon.

    ***the Warriors, Lakers and Heat are making a mockery of the NBA regular season.***

    What about the Suns, then? They are also in the quarter-finals, but ended the season only 1 game ahead of the Warriors (and 2 ahead of the Lakers). One game is a statistical irrelevance over an 82 game season.

    The regular season is and has always been a content mill. Back in the day, it was designed to sell tickets. Then it was for commercial break ad revenue. Now it’s designed to enable sound bytes, viral highlights and WWE-style angles.

    Professional sports is facing a big problem in the attention economy.

    But who cares? The Knicks are in the ECSF. We’re not even in “wait ’til next year” form yet. Enjoy the ride.

    Jowles, I feel like everything is facing a big problem in the attention economy. There’s too much stuff asking for my attention all the time. Everything in our country is so extra all the time. Even entertainment has now become exhausting.

    IQ is losing a lot of money in the playoffs so far.

    True, however you’d hope that this extended playoff experience shows him what he needs to develop to get to that next level for him. The consequence of him dropping those 30 and 40-burgers during the season is that there’s more tape out there on him and teams like the Heat will gameplan to take him off his offensive rhythm.

    IQ is losing a lot of money in the playoffs so far.

    The good thing for him is that he’s not even an RFA until next season. He can just take the QO and play out next season if they don’t back up the money truck for him, extension-wise.

    RJ showed out enough that his contract is no longer going to be perceived as a massive overpay. Given that he’s 22 years old and just had 4 straight games on national TV where he played at or near all-star level (he ended the game poorly but it only was a game because of how well he played in the first 3.5 quarters), I think he has rehabilitated his value, either for trade purposes or for keeping him.

    It might still be smoke and mirrors (which suggests that we should try to trade him before he turns into a pumpkin) but that in and of itself is a reason to celebrate beyond whether we win this series or not.

    re: tomorrow, if we lose it’s pretty much over, whereas if we win I don’t think we can take much away from that, similar to CLE winning game 2. I agree with whoever said that the goal right now should be to be 2-2 after 4 games. If we’re down 1-3 after 4 games, that would really suck.

    A lot just depends on Randle’s health, but we definitely can’t get too far behind before he gets back to his normal self.

    As far as NBA brats who turned out better than their notable fathers (i.e. not random guys who rode pine for a few years like Mel Booker, Jellybean Bryant, and Rick Brunson but actual impact players in the league) the list is just Steph and Klay, right?

    Well, shit.

    @TommyBeer
    Oh boy.

    Knicks announce Jalen Brunson (sore right ankle) and Julius Randle (sprained left ankle) are questionable for Game 2 tomorrow.

    Wow we pretty much dodged the injury bug all season and now it’s hitting us at the worst possible time.

    I think Miami should be extra cautious with Butler and rest him tomorrow

    As far as NBA brats who turned out better than their notable fathers (i.e. not random guys who rode pine for a few years like Mel Booker, Jellybean Bryant, and Rick Brunson but actual impact players in the league) the list is just Steph and Klay, right?

    Might depend on who you count as notable, there’s a pretty long list of father/son pairs. But of course most of them do suck.

    Mike Bibby over Henry Bibby stands out a bit

    Cole over Greg Anthony maybe?

    Seems a little unfair to Domantas who never really had a chance despite a great effort

    As far as NBA brats who turned out better than their notable fathers (i.e. not random guys who rode pine for a few years like Mel Booker, Jellybean Bryant, and Rick Brunson but actual impact players in the league) the list is just Steph and Klay, right?

    There’s also arguably Seth Curry. Did Mike Dunleavy Sr have a significant enough playing career to qualify?

    “It might still be smoke and mirrors (which suggests that we should try to trade (RJ) before he turns into a pumpkin) but that in and of itself is a reason to celebrate beyond whether we win this series or not.”

    We need to trade Randle in the off season, too. He is only good every other season, and next season will be the bad version of him. Who can we get for Randle and RJ?

    Wow! We seriously went from “this is the most fun I’ve had as a Knick fan in 24 years” to “I now have no desire to even watch us play Game 2 in playoff series” in less than 24 hours.

    At least we have no draft pick and can likely count on the Mavs either being good or strategically tanking until the pick they owe us turns into Luka Doncic’s beer farts.

    Once again I submit Pagliacci’s Maxim: “Any thing good that appears to happen is only a setup for an even more crushing disappointment.”

    Pagliacci’s Maxim

    Even if Brunson and Randle are out I’m still watching every second of Game 2 which the Knicks are going to win.

    Both Obi and IQ are scoring 34 points each and Mitch will get 100 rebounds.

    Plus Deuce.

    There’s also arguably Seth Curry.

    It’s crazy how similar his career has been to Seth, value-wise. Dell played a lot more than Seth, but Seth is so darn efficient. I bet if Dell played in the modern NBA, though, he’d have had a better career.

    They have to say these things because of the rules. I doubt Brunson is seriously questionable, and for Randle, questionable is almost a bit of an ugprade, right? This isn’t a big deal. I mean, the Knicks are screwed, but these particular injury designations are basically meaningless (you start throwing around stuff like doubtful, and then I’d be worried).

    Even if we go down 0-2, I’m not gonna sound the alarm. The Heat aren’t actually that good. That said, being down 0-2 due to injury luck would absolutely blow and give only a moderate chance of winning the series

    The Doom is inevitable. You don’t know how or when, but the Doom comes for us all.

    Embiid out for Game 1. Looks like a Celtics-Lakers final that I’ll avoid like the Elfrid Payton…

    It is likely that at least one of them, probably both JB and JR, will play tomorrow. It is very worrisome, however, that neither of them is 100%. Tomorrow is a must win game for us, while Miami is playing with house money.

    I love the playoffs being a crapshoot, it’s part of sports’s appeal, but why endure such a grind before?

    It’s just a money grab. American network executives would lose their shit if at least half the league didn’t have a chance to be champion.

    One of the reasons I gravitated towards association football was because it was so god damn fair and reasonable.

    This could get ugly quick if we don’t win Tuesday.

    Miami is not a real home court advantage. I wouldn’t jump off a bridge if we lose tomorrow. And I definitely wouldn’t rush Randle back out of false desperation.

    This is going 7 games. We just need to win one of the next two.

    I could easily see, for example, the series going like this:

    Miami wins two at the Garden.
    Randle comes back.
    Teams split in Miami.
    Knicks win Games 5 & 6
    Game 7

    I guess there’s also the danger of Spo throwing some new clever wrinkle at the team, causing their little heads to explode.

    Spo takes risks that leave his own team very exposed. He counts on one of two things:

    1. His opponent lacks the personnel to punish his risks.
    2. The coach on the other sideline is too stubborn and inflexible to want to punish his risks.

    In game 1, it was both, and it was infuriating.

    This is what I have always said about Thibs, by the way: he’s the perfect coach to get us to the mezzanine.

    Well this is the mezzanine. I expect him to be able to get us here because he’s very good. But I’m concerned that this is his final level.

    If Eric Spoelstra had Evan Fournier, by the way, there’s no way that guy would have to shake off 4 months of cobwebs to make an impact in this series.

    That’s why we finished three games better than the Heat, btw. We’re not better than them, we’re the same. Thibs just went to his playoff rotation in December, while Spoelstra spent the whole year experimenting with shit so that he has a plan b, c, d, e when shit hits the fan.

    I could easily see, for example, the series going like this:

    Miami wins two at the Garden.
    Randle comes back.
    Teams split in Miami.
    Knicks win Games 5 & 6
    Game 7

    It don’t see that being easy at all! If lose tomorrow and split in Miami, we will be down 1-3. Only 13 teams have come back from that in the history of the playoffs. There is an even worse interpretation: we split in Miami while having lost game 3 and gone down 0-3. Nobody has ever come back from that.

    Why do people keep insisting the Heat aren’t very good? Bc they’re the 8th seed?

    They went to the conference finals last year and the finals two years ago. They have one of the best two way players in the league and one of the best coaches in the league. They dealt with a lot of injuries this year in a year when the league had a lot of parity. They are a good team.

    Celtics shooting 74% and only up 3 points

    Philly went 11 for 21 from distance in the first two quarters. Had we shot a mediocre 11 for 34 yesterday, we would have won the game.😢

    Both teams are shooting the fuck out of the ball but Philly’s taken and hit more 3s and Boston has 9 more TOs.

    Paul Reed swishing 4 free throws in the final minute like he’s shooting in his driveway before his mom calls him in for dinner is something to behold.

    And Ewing Theory going to get rennamed

    It never should have been named that in the first place. We were never better without Patrick Ewing. Only an idiot Celtics fan like Bill Simmons would come up with such a stupid idea.

    Good for Harden indeed. His rep has always been dumb.

    And B Ball Paul always balls.

    And agree about Ewing Theory!

    Lol. Boston. Philly still has the best player in the series.

    I never thought of Doc Rivers as a great playoff coach. But Mazzulla isn’t looking so good either.

    Lol Boston.

    I don’t think the Heat are very good because they have one extremely good player and then a bunch of guys who are notional shooters. I don’t really care about prior pedigree beyond Jimmy—who certainly knows how to win—and maybe Lowry.

    If we make it past Miami the eastern conference is ours for the taking…

    Devils beat the Rangers, Mets split with Atlanta, and Boston loses. Not a bad day.

    Well at least one thing is normal in these playoffs, Chris Paul is injured

    *** being down 0-2 due to injury luck would absolutely blow and give only a moderate chance of winning the series***

    By “injury luck”, do you mean Randle and Brunson’s ankles, or do you mean Butler’s ankle and Herro’s hand?

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