Knicks Morning News (2023.05.03)

Just to make it clear: we have some banged up guys, but lose on our turf to Bam, old men Lowry & Love and a bunch of fighting scrubs would have been embarrassing as hell*.

That said, winning is the only meaningful things in the playoffs, no matter who’s playing or not, so I’m really happy that we won.

– Man, did we get lucky with the refs this time! I agree that the call on Bam’s foul was right “in the spirit of the rule” but everyone thought the basket would’ve been disallowed and that was a big 4 points swing.
And then there was the 24-second violation that wasn’t, 2 points erased: wasn’t it challengeable?
Sometimes (always?) it’s better be lucky than good…

– Thibs did talk about “refs letting too much contact go” after Game-1 and Spo was whining about them after this one. Brace youself for the Heat shooting 40 FTs in Game-3.

– Spo is a genius. To have this bunch of UDFA compete on this stage, at this level, is beyond “good work” (and he has zero COTY!).
I don’t think Thibs did egregiuos mistakes in this game, we had our chronic issues against the zone and some headaches with 3-point defense, it’s just that the other coach is better.

– I agree with Hubert.
While we had a good season this is a rare opportunity and we need to pounce, home court advantage in the 2nd round doesn’t happen easily.
So it doesn’t matter if we’re DOOMED, we need to steal one down in South Beach.

– Three full days of rest are good for both teams. And whilst our wounded heal, Thibs needs to find some counters (in all honesty our idiosyncrasy at targeting defensive weak links is annoying, just as our frequent brain freeze against zones).

– We won the rebounds game (50-34), but had less PiP (38-34 Heat). Miami tried to limit our raids in the paint and force us to bomb from distance, but this time we did shoot a sound 40% from 3 and the plan failed (barely).

– The Little General is clearly banged up, but luckily he got hot at the right moment (9-13 FG, 5 threes, 23 points in the 2nd half) after a cold start (1-6 1st half). Only 2 assists is very unusual though.

– Julius, another wounded, played very well (25/12/8 6-6 FTs) but he just can’t help himself, he’s ticketed to at least three dumb plays every game.
Curiously he didn’t take a shot in the entire 4th quarter but did many little things.
We’re clearly better with Good Julius, especially when Obi goes full Sue Storm (10 minutes, no points, 0-2 FG, 1 rebound, -8).

– RJ did his classic Jeckill & Hide act. Brilliant in the 1st half (19 points, 6-10 FG, 4-6 3FG) a non entity in the 2nd (5 points, 2-7 FG) and benched the last 7 minutes (probably for defensive issues), when the Knicks went from down-6 to win by-6.
Anyway I’m okay with playoffs-RJ so far (maybe I have a low bar?).

– Early bad omen, Mitch committed his first dumb foul after one minute on a Bam and-1, and fouls hounded him all game long. Zero blocks is unusual but he’s clearly not 100% and Miami’s defense at times challenge him to do something with the ball, not his main strenght (I-Hart is more apted to do it).

– The Hart Foundation is one of the main reasons we won this game. Both weren’t perfect but they matched the Heat’s intensity and their relentless energy was a key in the 4th.
J-Hart did everything but shoot well (4-11 FG, 3 missed FTs balanced by 11 rebounds and 9 assists), I-Hart touched an inappropriate amount of balls (9 rebounds, 4 offensive) and was useful directing traffic in the high-post and placing stonewalling screens.

– IQ is losing a lot of money, he had some moments (2 heavy baskets in the 4th) but again was often hesitant and his long range shot is way off. We desperately need him to step up. And then re-sign him with a discount 😉

– I think Grimes is still bothered by the shoulder injury (always a bad issue for a shooter) and his confidence seems shaken. But he was on the floor the entire 4th quarter and did a silent good work on defense.

– Daily Rant:
We lack a reliable knockdown shooter. Not necessarily an Allan Houston, but a Trent Tucker, a Hubert Davis, someone that give you that “it’s going in” sense when the ball’s flying.
Our closest is Fournier, but now he lives in Siberia.
And oh by the way, there’s no chance in the world that Eric Spoelstra would let an established player rot on the bench for months when he can be useful in the postseason, no matter his other deficiencies. You keep everyone involved, try any lineup, prepare for any emergency. That’s what the 82-games regular season is for, at least for good teams.

*
It doesn’t matter because in the playoffs the only thing that matters is win, but a lot of people tends to forget that on top of missing Butler, the Heat are missing 34.9 min/game-20.1 pts/game Herro (1st in minutes, 3rd in scoring) and 26.3 min/game-10.7 pts/game Oladipo (7th in minutes, 6th in scoring).
Again, I don’t give a fuck but, if you add that to Butler, they’re filling 55 pts/game (the number are higher with Playoffs-Jimmy) and 95 min/game with the Haywood Highsmiths and the Cody Zellers of the world…