Doomed game thread.

https://knickerblogger.net/2023/05/10/2023-playoffs-round-2-game-thread-the-one-foot-in-the-grave-knicks-vs-heat-game-5/

SGA first. Imagine what he’d be if he could play three-on-three.

There were 2 fastbreaks for points off the above plays for 4 points.

The above plays cover the 8pt differential right there.

Hey, maybe Justin Verlander won’t be terrible

(watches 10 minutes, turns off Mets game)

It’s really not self inflicted.

It’s not a complete coincidence that the whole team got dumb at once.

And it’s not random that they’re all shooting poorly.

It’s bc the players are confused. The Heat are prepared for what we do, and we don’t know what to do next.

RJ & Grimes letting the ball bounce off their hands out of bounds and Randle making a lazy backwards pass instead of a handoff that Vincent stole were 100% self-inflicted & avoidable.

This isn’t a game plan issue. These are unforced errors.

Mitch dropping a 4Q OReb out of bounds. Grimes making a lazy pass that gets picked in transition.

These are dumb TOs that have basically nothing to do with Miami or Thibs.

I’d rather keep Mitch.

I think one of either Randle or Mitch is going to be traded in the off season

I love Mitch. A lot. But I think we should trade him for OG.

We have to be able to play 5 out basketball in the playoffs, and we can do it with OG and Hart.

All NBA coaches have their issues, though.

Indeed.

I like Thibs. I just want to talk about his issues when his issues are killing us.

That hurts spacing and if he gets an OREB all you have to do is foul him.

The spacing has been terrible in this series and the lane has gone back to being a mosh pit. The contrast with the Heat’s perpetually open lane is stark and obvious.

Fixing this for good is item 1 on the offseason to-do list.

How much of that is due to an effort differential and how much is due to half our team being less than 100% fit after recent injuries is anyone’s guess.

It’s due almost entirely to the fact that these are playoff games.

But we aren’t going to beat this team tonight unless we outwork them.

I get where this is coming from entirely, but I don’t think we should cast this as some sort of Thibsian failure of willpower or work ethic when it really isn’t that at all. The magic isn’t always in the work and the answer isn’t always to just work harder.