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2023 Playoffs Round 2 Game Thread: The One Foot in the Grave Knicks vs. Heat, Game 5

In his classic song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” Bob Dylan wrote:

When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You’re invisible now, you’ve got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel, ah how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

The Knicks ain’t got nothing heading into a Game 5 at home down 3-1, so they have nothing to lose in this game, so the Knicks really just have to leave it all out there on the court tonight. I bet we see Randle and Brunson both play 40-plus minutes, as the Knicks will try to see if they can match the intensity of the Heat with their own intensity. All season long, the Knicks have had a drive that exceeded their opponents, so it is very disappointing to see that that hasn’t been the case in the second round against the Heat (it definitely was the case against the Cavaliers in the first round. The Cavs must feel like such bums seeing the Knicks get outworked like this, “Holy shit, then how fucking much did we slack off if the team that pantsed us is getting pantsed themselves? And with the guy we fucking just cut for no reason!” That makes me happy, at least.

In the 1997 playoffs, the Knicks held a 3-1 lead heading into a road Game 5 (just like the Heat tonight), and the Heat won that Game 5 before the series was mysteriously called after Game 5, so if the Heat could pull that off, why can’t the Knicks? Look for Isiah Hartenstein to pick up Gabe Vincent at the end of a Knick blowout tonight and throw him to the ground, and then hopefully Bam Adebayo just leaves the bench and shuffles around aimlessly, not even headed towards the fight, and Udonis Haslem keeps the guys next to him from leaving the bench, but doesn’t bother to do so with the, you know, good players on the team (still smarting about that, Buck Williams! It’s no good for you to know not to leave the bench if you can’t stop your teammates from doing so!).

So, in other words, this series is not over. But it is over, of course. However, while the Knicks have no direction in this series, they are home, so having no direction home is not that much of a problem, so that takes us back to the fact that they have nothing left to lose, and, well, it sure would feel great if they could get a win tonight (but they won’t).

But hey, as a complete unknown to the Knicks, I’ll still give them a meaningless Let’s Go, Knicks!

358 replies on “2023 Playoffs Round 2 Game Thread: The One Foot in the Grave Knicks vs. Heat, Game 5”

(Crickets) Let’s hope there’s more chatter in the Garden than here tonight!

Let’s Go Doomed Knicks!

And kudos to Julius for his 3rd team All-NBA…
… even if we know better who was our best player this year 😉

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.

I say with the Knicks bricking a 3.

But seriously, we’ve got this.

It’s been an incredibly fun season, hopefully it’ll last at least a couple of more days.

Congrats to Julius. Unfortunate for Brunson who happens to play at the stacked guard position.

Fox is an interesting choice.

I don’t think I can take another game with super confident Jimmy Butler smirking his way up and down the court. Especially at MSG

Cmon Knicks make a stand!

This is the last season to use positions for the All-NBA, right? So, well, this will also be Julius’ final All-NBA selection. But seriously, big congrats to him for making the team! That really is a heck of an honor.

Also, Jaylen Brown made second team, which means Boston has to pay him, which is nice to see.

I really want to kick the Heat’s teeth in at least once when Butler is healthy

This is the last season to use positions for the All-NBA, right?

Yep.

Why in the hell does TNT show an ad for Trump’s town hall on CNN tonight?

Randle’s a pretty good passer and he gets double teamed a lot I don’t understand why he’s so bad at passing out of a double team

Mitch passing out instead of going up would actually be a smart adjustment with how he shoots FTs.

Grimes’ lead fastbreak…

Randle’s offensive foul…

Shaking my head…

No defensive board…

Mitch’s offensive foul…

Grimes’ offensive foul…

Our tactical adjustment is “play harder”…

Sigh…

At the moment I’m only reading the ESPN play by play. Does this look as fugly as it reads? My gahd.

One comment then I’ll be quiet for the rest of the game lol

I hate the fact that Grimes has to be aggressive and put pressure outside of the offense, as opposed to being run off screens and having plays where he can make the defense make a decision. I understand he shot 38% from 3 during the season, but just having him on the floor and doing nothing isn’t gonna make the defense respect the shooter. Especially when he’s the only off ball shooter out there

At the moment I’m only reading the ESPN play by play. Does this look as fugly as it reads? My gahd.

It’s worse than that, play by play doesn’t describe stupidity…

Well I was going to predict another pathetic game where we turn the ball over ridiculous number of times in the first quarter get down six or seven by halftime and never actually threatened the heat while pulling Within five or three every now and then but then I didn’t do it cuz I promise to be positive

Hart needs to pull that

Definitely offense on Grimes, but Miami does worse than that on nearly every play

In utter disbelief that we’re still “hiding” Brunson on Strus

So far, looks just like every other game in this series: 50/50 balls and ref calls all going MIA’s way, Knicks look tentative and afraid to shoot, no fast breaks, no box outs, missing point black shots, endless frustration, etc. #ItsAHardKnicksLife

They really do want it more and it’s getting more pathetic

The reffing has been just awful this whole series

Making the leg kick look natural is the next NBA cheat code

That bs would make me embarrassed to be a Heat fan.

Also embarrassed to be a Knick fan.

Love a “natural shooting motion” where you kick your back foot forward during the shot

“Well, we’re only behind by ___ points, maybe we could cut it to ____ and get back into it.”

Been like this the entire series.

Lmao over by the time I get in my car to go home. Hope the crowd is booing these losers and we lose by 30 so they can’t justify not firing Thibs. I’m not even sure he wants to win at this point.

credit to miami for playing hard and playing pretty smart but we also look just completely out of gas

At this point Randle should not be allowed to shoot 3s

If you’re wondering why Grimes played 40min last game, it’s because he’s our best player. Which says a lot about the rest of our roster right now

The Rangers fired Gallant because his disordered thinking and line combinations sucked the energy out of his team. Thibs’ regular season adjustment worked out, but his team looks lost in every possible way.

There’s no way Thibs gets fired after this season whatever you think of this series. He crushed expectations and Bickerstaff

Oh wow, running them off the floor with our young guys is working? Too little too late, Thibs.

Randle is the most empty calories All-NBA player I’ve ever seen but who would we replace him with lol

For a minute and fifty seconds we’ve looked like the deeper, more athletic team I thought we were

3rd Team All-NBA and Mitch out,
paint open, faster pace, Knicks’ 13-0 run…

Brunson with a stupid shot and the dumb bitching instead of coming back on defense…

Obi is great when we run, not looking as good in the half court… Not that we were doing anything with Randle anyway

thought that was a goaltend on bam

It’s close, but i don’t think it was

We should run the Randle/Obi lineup. Mitch has done nothing for us all series, and why not

Those of you criticizing Obi’s play, I beg you to look at Randle’s playoff numbers.

Before tonight he’d shot the lowest percentage of any playoff guy with over 100 FGA since 1970 and tonight he’s 1-7.

Yep, Brunson is absolutely balling

Strange to have a point guard like him finally

Randle doesn’t want it as much as the other guys.

Watching this series makes you realize just how soft Allen and Mobley are.

Randle’s first end-of-quarter three?

Can’t believe they almost scored with 0.6 seconds left…

Randle & Mitch seem hobbled we should really go smaller and play Obi more

I love Brunson running back on that play while Randle celebrated. Also love that that is not a travel. Big shot!!!

Watching this series makes you realize just how soft Allen and Mobley are.

All of CLE actually. MIA plays at a whole other level if aggressiveness.

Can’t believe they almost scored with 0.6 seconds left…

This is the self inflicted errors i was talking about last thread. We can’t let a full court pass happen with so little time remaining.

Julius’ shot was so surprising everyone stopped and they nearly score…

julius needs to wake up for the second half or else this pattern of ‘hoping the other team miss their open shots thing’ probably wont be good enough to keep the season alive….

I’ll be honest after the 1st quarter I had come to grips with the season ending in pretty embarrassing fashion, glad the Knicks bounced back in the 2nd quarter and showed some pride.

Miami misses all their 3’s and are losing by 3 points.

When we miss all our 3’s it’s game over

I’m still thinking about the flagrant foul. To call it badly in the flow of the game is one thing, to go review it from every angle and upgrade it to a flagrant is beyond me. Jimmy clearly landed on Hart’s space and not the other way around because he landed way inside the 3P line, and his space was outside (he was shooting a 3P).

TNT showed a breakdown of 10 of Miami’s 2nd chance points and Julius was dogging it in all 5 instances. Like, really dogging it.

Julius is obviously not healthy, I don’t think he decided hey it’s the playoffs I’m just not going to play hard.

Like Julius is not a good defender and he sometimes sleeps but Randle is a terrific defensive rebounder and he had 2 boards in the first half.

Miami misses all their 3’s and are losing by 3 points.

Wild. It’s almost like 3P shooting isn’t the reason we’re down 3-1.

If Randle can’t play, then um, why is Randle playing?

If Randle CAN play, then, um, why isn’t he playing?

As frustrating as Randle can be we really do need another guy who gets serious defensive attention. When he’s reading and reacting properly we’re at our best.

That sequence was what I expected the series to look like

We’re now playing very well and even smart, attacking closeouts and moving the ball…

Very athletic move by Randle, for what that’s worth.

Nice series of plays. Great ball movement.

Hilarious Kevin Love fouling Mitch thinking he’d be shooting FTs 😀

First time since 1st quarter of game 1 that Knicks have seemed like themselves. If we can keep this up and pull out a win tonight, there will be huge pressure on MIA Friday, and we’ll have renewed confidence to steal one there.

Their scrubs are missing shots and Randle is making them in the same game, finally it had to happen!

This is what Ive been saying. We’re flat out better than this team. We should be winning.

KLove has been wide open and he’s 0-7 from three.

Contra DJPhan i guess the “let Miami miss all their open 3s” strategy is working like gangbusters.

Maybe that’s the adjustment we really needed 🙃

Butler doesn’t look right, if he’s struggling physically this could get very interesting on Friday.

Melo is 1800 overrated like you?

Feeling frisky with an 18 point lead.

We have finally hit some shots

Any time Randle encounters a zone he turns the ball over

And yeah butler looks gimpy. He normally would go up on that ORB he passed out a couple possessions earlier

It’s amazing how much Lowry is allowed to get away with on defense.

JFC what is up with the Knicks and sprained ankles this postseason.

Good TO there by Thibs. Now let’s see if we can come out with a good play.

Is it just me or does Randle shoot better in movement than when set.

Did I mention how much I love Julius Randle?

(I feel confused…)

RJ is doing stuff.

That Randle defense on Martin was poor

Who the hell is Caleb Martin anyway

JULIUS!

I love it.

He seemed to come alive in the second half of game 4. This is a good sign.

That Randle fast break was one of the worst fast breaks I’ve ever seen…

Randle is perhaps the worst fast break ball handling forward I’ve seen…perhaps rj is close

Well, it was fun to believe again for a while, but now we’re clearly doomed in the 4th with Butler taking over shooting 15 free throws.

The Canadian Guy is doing thing…

We’re missing too many FTs…

Caleb Martin?

And I still can’t believe Zeller was the 4th pick in his draft (but it was the Bennett draft, so…)

Lowry and iHart have one thing in common — they have both never, ever actually fouled someone in a basketball game.

First 5 minutes of the 4th quarter are huge, gotta keep the lead at double digits.

Never mind.

Man they got to rest randle and jalen at some point they look gassed

Points of turnovers are killing us even though we’re winning. They’d be down 30 without that.

Grimes has been doing well, but did something happen to JHart to have him only go for 6 minutes? (I missed the first quarter…)

Lowry is in. Put Deuce on him, coach

I’m firmly in cyber’s camp on this.

Hart can’t shoot, fouled quickly and kinda played like garbage. Moreso Grimes and RJ have been unbenchable so far

This is beginning to eerily look like Heat Bucks Game 5.

At least it’s breaking the Indiana series vibes.

this box and 1 defense is a problem… and we got lucky last couple possessions to get free throws… brunson’s not having much luck against this…

They’re still giving the Heat their all. They’re doomed, but they’re fighting. I like it.

I think the Heat got away with a couple of traveling violations…

The next two minutes are the game.

I could’ve sworn Heat players traveled like 5 different times those last 2 possessions.

You don’t get points if you don’t get shots, gents…

Mitchell Robinson is doing a great job not starting his shooting motion when he knows they’re going to foul him.

Grimes needs a breather. That was at least partially on everyone for taking the full 8 to get over halfcourt

The fact that we can’t seem to punish DUNCAN FUCKING ROBINSON being on the court on defense is the most aggravating shit ever.

Make this motherfucker defend every single play, please.

i mean duncan robinson’s pretty trash but leaving him wide open is not a good strategy…

Regardless of how this series turns out, RJ’s value is soaring since the playoffs started.

Mitch helping, like, 10 feet off of Lowry sucked. Randle’s piss poor effort on a subsequent defensive rebound that led to a Robinson 3 sucked.

Jalen Brunson rocks.

RJ’s a 16 game player, you just have to survive his regular season performance so you can get to the 16 games

Good job Mitch!

Fuck Miami

Edit: every Duncan Robinson’s basket is on Brian… 🙂

It can’t be that fucking hard to just not leave Duncan Robinson alone

I legit don’t get how the Heat aren’t doing everything they can to get the ball out of Brunson’s hands.

Maybe it was me at the beginning of the thread, and not Brian. But the team can adjust to a player that is making his shots, no? Gotta defend him better.

I’m officially giving up on this game, I can’t take this shit.

one of the all time great Kobe assists

And pretty heady play to draw the foul

Brunson’s played too many minutes. Take him out for a breather.

What the fuck does Bam have to do to get called for an illegal screen? Pull out a gun and shoot somebody?

Fuck these dirty playing shitbags

Julius didn’t even think about taking a charge there, and that would have been an easy turnover for most defenders.

Bam with the obvious moving screen to no call to injury pipeline

What the fuck is Barrett doing just holding the ball over and over so the defense can set? It’s maddening!!!

There was an ad earlier about all the emotions one playoff game provides. I’m comfortable saying I don’t need all those emotions.

So the refs never call fouls on scrums except with 30 seconds left in the fucking game?

BS call once again

Edit: Ok, it was a foul, but they don’t call the same fouls against the Heat.

Butler did a fucking Ultimate Warrior splash on Grimes but it was a jump ball.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a foul on a floor ball short of kicking someone’s head

Does Mitch get a Kobe assist for that free throw!!!!

YES YES fuck YES!

That was awesome

I’m going to go lie in a dark room and listen to some whale song

Spo stuck with shitty Duncan Robinson way too long. The Heat had no sense of urgency. They’re way too confident in just wrapping this up at home. It’d be amazing to beat them there.

Nice heart and guts win, nice way to say goodbye to the home crowd, they won’t celebrate on our turf, honor is safe.

Now let’s play with the same intensity (and less turnovers) in Miami and let’s see what happens…

I’m going to go lie in a dark room and listen to some whale song

+1

What a win! Brought to you by the law firm of Brunson & Grimes LLP. Didn’t post this game thread bc they were doing great. So won’t be posting next either haha. Randle finally showing some grit out there too, maybe being punched in the eye is what he needed to wake up

I’m going to go lie in a dark room and listen to some whale song

there it is…man, just how crazy difficult is it to beat the miami heat right now…

50/50 balls finally started going our way…I guess that’s the thibs adjustment- brunson and grimes play all 48…

okay, it worked, good job thibs…

physically mitch looks like he’s hanging on by a thread…

I dunno about the Heat having a lack of urgency tonight, Butler played 43 mins and played entire 4th quarter.

It’s hard to believe we could have 18 to 12 TOs and still win this game.

RJ is quietly playing well on offense. doing it in the playoffs is helping his market value if we go in that direction.

Play of the game: Grimes limping and still managing to steal the ball away from Jimmy

RJ is quietly playing well on offense.

RJ is quietly playing well on both sides of the floor.

Play of the game: Grimes limping and still managing to steal the ball away from Jimmy

YES. And after getting destroyed by yet another goddamn illegal screen that the refs refuse to call because Spo has Jedi mind tricked them.

Brunson played 48 minutes and had 1 turnover

What else can you say about the dude?

Never quit! The first quarter was one of the same, but second and third quarters were all Knicks. We had a 19-point cushion to rely on when things started unraveling at the end of the third quarter, and stress and inexperience settled in again. For once, we can say they did not outplay us. Yes, they missed many threes, they came back to reality of being one of the worst shooting teams in the league, but this was the result of us pressing them and stressing them out, making them feel they have to make those shots. This is what they were doing to us all series.

Brunson was an unbelievable leader, Grimes was great, RJ continued playing like a 15-year veteran, and even Mitch decided to finally show up to play tonight. No complains about Julius as he had to be Odyssey’s Polyphemus this game.

We took care of rebounding this time, but non-existent bench, turnovers, and second chance points continue to plague us. Lack of experience and composure. Hay, we lived to play another day! Lets effing go!

I had my annual physical this morning. I feel like I should call the doctor and redo it all tomorrow after that game.

Reese Bobby, but only a little bitsays:
May 10, 2023 at 20:27
Before tonight he’d shot the lowest percentage of any playoff guy with over 100 FGA since 1970 and tonight he’s 1-7.

Finished with 24 points on 7-13 shooting, remarkably. Haters furious.

“Play of the game: Grimes limping and still managing to steal the ball away from Jimmy”

That play is almost always called a foul…reaching in with your right arm when your man is going right…but maybe it was a makeup non-call after he got hammered on that screen.

dunno about the Heat having a lack of urgency tonight, Butler played 43 mins and played entire 4th quarter

They were walking the ball up the court on offense down five with, like, a minute and a half left. It was weird. They also let Duncan Robinson make plays. It was so weird.

Jim Jackson is actually fun to listen to.

+1 Hubie – I’ve enjoyed this crew, especially after game 1

And Tastycakes returns to the blog and posts the comment of the thread. I thought I’d chill with the Thin Man after that game, but even that is too stressful after what we just went through

Can we now table the discussion on what constitutes a gentleman’s sweep?

Not sure how well RJ is playing on defense. Seriously. I look forward to the Twitter recaps. But he had four really smart heady plays and I couldnt believe it. Fouls drawn, getting to the rim for the Kobe assist, making both his free throws was super intelligent.

Loving it

Oh and yeah, the screens, the grabbing, the choppy bullshit. The Heat get away with a lot

Pagliacci, I demand a retraction about Brunson. He’s easily top 10 in the league, and considering age, consistency, and leadership, I think top 7. Add in contract and he’s top 5.

E, I enjoy the hell out of you being wrong about Grimes game after game

Not enough is being said about Grimes, who had a huge impact on this game.
The maul-Mitch tactic was on full display. Someone needs to work on that.
I wasn’t sure the Knicks would be able to overcome those 3 offensive fouls early in Q1.
Congrats to Julius on his 3rd team all-NBA selection.
That 5-second violation by RJ was brutal and unacceptable.
Only 2 more wins to the conference finals.

And I’ve got crow pie in the oven about Barrett. It smells delicious….

This felt… OK. Finally there were times when we had them on their heels. Pressure on them to win game 6, and if we do I’m at peace with any game 7 outcome. Fuck those turds, I still hate them for ’97 and always will.

Great win! No matter what we showed some pride and heart and made this respectable. And unlike game two we win with butler playing and there were moments when we were fully in control.

Maybe a light has come on and we can still win this thing. BELIEVE MUTHAFUCKAS!!!!!

Knicks could really use a healthy IQ on Friday.

If we had a healthy IQ playing at his best, we might have already won this series. When he’s playing well, this is a different team. The bench is killer good with a healthy Grimes starting, IQ playing his best, and Hart on the bench. IQ picked a bad time to kind of slump and then get hurt, but he’s young. Hopefully he’s close enough to ready to get up some shots tomorrow.

I hope jalen and quentin can play another 48 friday…

julius actually made some adjustments this game, during the game…it’s like he had his head in the game a little better…

jalen brunson’s team can very well compete in a series with anyone else’s team…

no more questions on jalen…he has answered them all this season…

he needs an NBA championship in his bio, that’s about it…

Damn Randle’s right eye looks bad. Hope swelling goes down by Friday.

It one game. Just one fucking game! If we get it, we forget the past, and we have the dirty Heat where we want them, at MSG for game 7. It’s one fucking Friday game!

“They also let Duncan Robinson make plays. It was so weird.”

Duncan Robinson almost won the game for them. Spo was just rolling with the hot hand. Makes perfect sense to me.

Agree with Z-man – DRobinson shot 5 of 10 from 3. He’s the reason they came back.

Stephen A can scream tomorrow that the Knicks have some rough riders.

This game showed that we are slowly figuring out what playoff basketball is all about. We got almost nothing from JHart and Obi, and IQ was out. So our Big 3 played like a Big 3, Mitch stepped up at the FT line, and Grimes and iHart both gave us a lift. That’s how you win a game in the playoff meat grinder.

But that won’t be enough to win on Friday. We still need to clean up some things. That’s what growth looks like. RJ is 22. Grimes is 23. IQ is 23. Mitch is 25. iHart is 25. Obi is 25. Brunson is 26. And our two geezers, Julius and JHart are 28 and have virtually no playoff experience.

Whatever happens on Friday, I couldn’t be more proud of how these kids have played in these 10 playoff games.

Duncan Robinson can hit open threes. If he tries to create at all, he’s useless. It’s like letting Steve Novak try to create shots.

“Damn Randle’s right eye looks bad. Hope swelling goes down by Friday.”

Won’t affect his vision at all either way.

“Duncan Robinson can hit open threes. If he tries to create at all, he’s useless. It’s like letting Steve Novak try to create shots.”

I don’t think the plan was to have him create…just like it isn’t our plan to have Quentin Grimes create. He was a net positive, shot them back into the game, and rimmed out a huge 3 that could have won the game for them. Spo was smart to keep him in, I don’t see how that could be disputed.

I loved the 48 minutes for Brunson & Grimes. It’s not the most creative adjustment, but I’m happy to give Thibs credit for doing something different.

I hate to say it but they might have to do it again Friday.

I don’t think the plan was to have him create…just like it isn’t our plan to have Quentin Grimes create. He was a net positive, shot them back into the game, and rimmed out a huge 3 that could have won the game for them. Spo was smart to keep him in, I don’t see how that could be disputed.

Max Strus could have missed the shot just as well. Robinson was 3 of 8 in the fourth, including one for his last five. Say thank you for the shots earlier in the quarter and use Strus. I was thrilled that Spo kept him in for the Knicks’ sake.

Whatever happens on Friday, I couldn’t be more proud of how these kids have played in these 10 playoff games.

I guess it’s possible they stand pat in the off season if the right deal is not available, but no matter what happens from here I think they are going to be motivated to upgrade at least one starting position.

Let’s assume Brunson is safe.

You can make a case for upgrading or at least changing the skill profile of every other position. It’s complicated by the fact that you have project the upside of several of our young players, all who are very likable.

Very weird box score all around. Our entire bench scores 8 points. 48 and 48 minutes, even after Grimes breaks his leg. Love 0-7 from three. Grimes led the team with 2 blocks. Mitch and iHart having almost as many offensive rebounds as the entire Miami team (9-11). JHart was minus 11.

aside from one completely bonehead 5 sec call at the end there… RJ played a wonderful game on both sides… i don’t know what happened to butler but he got sonned so many times in that second half by basically the whole team which culminated in a crazy steal by grimes…

it’s kind of crazy to talk about but RJ has been basically playing the randle role in the offense as the second option…. and delivering… so when randle gives you anything like RJ did… our offense looks normal…

and this is the most normal it looked the entire playoffs… and when our offense looks normal… the heat look rather normal… not much talk about rejuvenated love and lowry tonight…

this was a bad game from butler.. so it’s going to be tough to beat the heat at home if they get anything close to playoff jimmy which we actually have not seen in any of these games…. but this game was awesome and all i ever want are memorable playoff games… and it’s good that the team went through this.. they never had to dig deep like this and come out of it but they did and that’s the quintessential playoff experience…. so they at least have that now….

Key sequence when lead got down to two: iHart dunk off the RJ rim shot, immediately followed by loose ball foul on Butler with Knicks in bonus. RJ saw Butler coming on the long rebound off the 3-pt miss, threw his body into position and was ready to sell the contact. Two free throws, six point lead.

On the five second violation, RJ had an opportunity early on the clock to get it to Brunson and should have taken it; after that, nothing really there and you don’t want to just toss it up for grabs and get a fast break going the other way. The corner is the toughest inbounds spot. How many people saw the last possession of the Hawks’ season vs. Boston when they tried four times to inbound from that same spot and couldn’t do it? Three times the Hawks’ in-bounder threw the ball off the Boston defender with the clock approaching five and the fourth time De’Andre Hunter just threw it away. Hilarious.

The Garden crowd was awesome, but on Friday, the Heat fan will also be pretty vocal.

this was a bad game from butler.. so it’s going to be tough to beat the heat at home if they get anything close to playoff jimmy which we actually have not seen in any of these games

Yeah, Butler looked like ass in the fourth. For his sake, I almost hope he’s hurt. It would be utterly beautiful if “Playoff Jimmy” fell short Friday, as well (the Knicks are doomed, so he won’t, but it would be beautiful).

RJ’s postseason has probably doubled, if not tripled, his trade value. It might be just a 10-game illusion, but the dude has been rock solid since the first 2 games. Just to put it into perspective, his TS% is .564, while Brunson’s is .566 and Mitch is at .578.

Not that we should trade him, but in terms of trade value, his salary seems more in line with a guy like John Collins than the albatross it was going in to the playoffs. Not sure he’s at Wiggins-level yet but this is a major step in that direction. And still only 22.

He is now officially a good problem to have.

I would also say that yesterday was the best complete game of Randle’s 14-game playoff career. Maybe that’s the start of better things in the future for him. Maybe even tomorrow?

Growth mindset. JB was a rock and the boys delivered. RJ, Grimes, iHart, Mitch, even Randle. If we can only add IQ to this mix, we have something special.

Josh Hart has been unplayable in this series.

And this is why you wait til all the evidence has been collected before you do obnoxious premature victory dances every time the guy makes a good play. Because the “Josh Hart is very good but we paid way too much to acquire him” camp of djphan & myself is currently doing a game-winning touchdown dance in the endzone.

For perspective:

Caleb Martin cost $6MM. Max Strus cost the league minimum. The two of them are playing circles around Hart, who cost a first round pick and is probably going to be paid a very stupid sum of money.

I love the guy, he’s a great swiss army knife. But we overpaid badly, and y’all got some big ass L necklaces around your necks.

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