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2023-24 Game Thread – Knicks vs. Celtics – OPENING NIGHT, PEOPLE (and the HOME OPENER)

Okay, everybody, it’s time for the 2023-24 NBA season to really begin (yes, it technically started last night, but it doesn’t really begin until the Knicks play a game).

The Knicks host the Celtics in a game that could be a major statement for the Knicks this season to show that they’re ready to hang with the big dogs. During the preseason, perhaps because of their first game being against each other, both teams sat their stars for one of their two meetings, so there was no real sense of what they would look like against each other.

It’ll be a fascinating matchup either way, though, and our first chance to see what the Knicks rotation will look like in a real game, and also to see what the new look Celtics will look like.

Hopefully the Knicks kick their ass, especially since I predicted 53 wins, and thus I need them to win a lot of games.

Let’s go, Knicks!

For opening night, I have a poll for you all…

What would be the best result that you would still consider to be a disappointment for the Knicks this season?

View Results

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370 replies on “2023-24 Game Thread – Knicks vs. Celtics – OPENING NIGHT, PEOPLE (and the HOME OPENER)”

I was a little worried that the lack of new acquisitions would make me a little less excited for the season.

Nope. I’m counting down the minutes.

Quick Quick!

Damn, this Celtic team should be very good. Hopefully we’ll catch them off guard tonight.

Brunson playing his only defensive card. Works though.

Feels like the Knicks didn’t have much of a preseason…

kp missing layups – the more things change etc

(oh i’m way behind on the stream)

That might’ve been the worst 5 minute stretch of offense to start the season in NBA history.

Well, they haven’t figured out how to stop the offensive rebounding. Unfortunately Orebs don’t matter if you always miss the follow-up

Games on espn…so no league pass

I still used to get the Knicks studio feed in the drop down. Not tonight, though.

Anyway, I skipped preseason, so — Has Julius made a basket yet with the new(ish) hair? Just asking 😉

I think it’s fair to say that Grimes isn’t tall enough to take Tatum on D.

Randle 0-7, Brunson 0-3. I hate to say it, but right now RJ is our best player (2-5).

God it hurt to type that.

The fact that we’re shooting 26% and are only down 8 is… something?

Down by 11 now. Never mind.

So far everybody on the team has played horribly. Other than that we’re doing pretty good

Turns out Tatum is really good at basketball

RJ on pace for getting blocked 650 times this season

Welp, a team that completely outclassed us last season improved far more in the offseason than we did. They aren’t the only ones, either.

My belated record prediction: 40-42 and Quickley leaves for nothing.

DDV must have spent the offseason practicing reverse layups with Randle

‘Did someone predict KP’s 30, right?’

That was me, but he’s on track for 60 at the moment.

I can’t wait for Breen’s memoir where he trashes everyone he ever worked with other than Clyde (and possibly JVG)

You know what we could use right now?

An Obi leak out between the legs jam!

Never mind.

Is DDV on one of those contracts where we can send him down to the G league for awhile?

IQ took “break the glass in case of emergency” a little too seriously…

Some funny lines tonight. 🙂

You know what we could use right now?

An Obi leak out between the legs jam!

Never mind.

We’ll have to settle for those Marcus Camby highlights they are running.

In all seriousness Celtics defensively are good as fuck, gonna be the separator between them and the Bucks I think.

The previous Quick Lovefest thread is clearly manifesting itself in his play.

IQ looks ready to play and get paid

Doris may be a pioneer but she is only one tier below Mark Jackson in how much she annoys me

Edit: the duplicative comments – oh yes – discord can eff off it’s still amazing to say the same thing right after someone else

We’re playing bad and are only trailing by 9, i’m starting to think we’ll win this one.

We’re playing bad and are only trailing by 9, i’m starting to think we’ll win this one.

We need Jalen Brickson to start making some shots.

I think what NBA broadcasts need is more ads. I mean it’s not like people watch basketball for the basketball.

argh

Man, we are REFUSING to shoot threes. Over and over. It’s embarrassing.

Celtics fire up 3s any chance they get, Knicks constantly pump fake and pass up quick open looks at 3s.

victor ducking to get under doors?

mitch’s freethrow adjustment seems to have worked wonders /s

Julius 1-9. Not counting that block.

Bring on the back-up 4.

Oh, never mind.

Changes in habits can be disturbing so it’s reassuring that we’re still the worst fastbreak in the league…

Another thing didn’t change: we don’t quit.

This is still a game (at least until the next Celtics’ 3-point barrage).

Randle’s bullfighter defense is in midseason form.

Really, all things considered, happy to only be down 5.

Strat you were right about KP. Until he gets injured again.

Injuries are part of how it all turns out and he was high risk. You have to wonder how good he would have been if he didn’t miss all that development time and the injuries didn’t take away a little of his athleticism. At least he’s finally on a team that’s using him correctly where he’s also not being asked to do more than he’s capable of doing.

I too am amazed we are only down 5. Boston is very good.

It’s morning here and I have to work now, so I can’t watch the second half. My fingers are crossed for the Knicks.

“Alan, you wanted to know what needed to happen to win under 40…”

Play against the Celtics all 82 games?

Oh hell yea

Anytime RJ doesn’t get his shot blocked feels like a miracle

JK you lit a fire under our boy

Did we just not take three straight three pointers in that one sequence before a late, hasty one that clanked by Julius?

Being good at drawing fouls could be helpful for us this year. We were decent last year as well, just need to shoot better from the line.

The refs are keeping the Knicks in this one late in the quarter.

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Incineration Alert, part deux — Cam Thomas has 27 halfway through the third.

DDV is good at the whole “wave your arms around a lot and make it look like you’re doing something” brand of defense

We could be winning by double digits if we hit all of our free throws. 😛

I can’t stress enough how shitty of an in-game coach Mazzula is.

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I guess technically Joe Mazzulla *is* still the Celtics coach.

He’s had his normal infuriating moments, but RJ absolutely came to play. Oh, and Quickley should never, ever see fewer than 30 minutes.

Close them out.

RJ is maddeningly frustrating to watch but he always comes to play and never gives up on a game.

RJ has done some immensely stupid things but this quarter has been fire – but he should still never ever be given a minute over IQ

But yeah, magical few minutes here

KP slid like 8 feet with that flop.

Also, why is RJ taking tech FTs when Quickley is on the floor?

The ONLY thing the Knicks have done right in this game is not trade Quickley, and somehow this is still a game.

I hate that weave dribbling shit that Quickley does, but then he had the nice bank floater 🥴

And now the three!

Wow, Brown is dumb. Good thing they’re paying him $90 million a year.

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The best part is that it’s impossible to know which of the many great Quick plays the comments above are all about.

Shit, Grimes just went over his formal quota max of five shots a game. He keeps putting it in that circular thing so the other team gets the ball out of bounds afterward.

I love that the Celtics made all of these moves and then said, “But our shitty coach? Him we’ll just keep.”

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Just freaking awesome. Great D, great passing, clutch shots … No quit, just Quickley! (And Hart, and iHart, and Grimes…)

Not extending Quickley may cost this organization a lot of money. He’s the best two-way player on the team and these morons still think he should be coming off the bench.

One of my favorite things about these threads is Brian’s utter disgust of Mazzulla.

Randle has had a terrible game, but he still has 11 boards, 7 assists, no TOs, and good defense.

“What are you supposed to do???”

How about not hit the guy in the head.

Knicks know they can’t win games just by grabbing rebounds, right? Throwing it in the circle thing is important too

Jokes on djphan for thinking Randles midrange shooting would regress instead of his ft shooting

Mazzulla end of game coaching, “Just let Jrue, Derrick and Jayson do what they feel like.” And it works!

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All game we’ve gone very long stretches with no FGs we went 3:39 to 0:14 between FGs. That’s very bad …

The free throw shit was a problem all last year too. This is not the first game this has been a problem. I don’t know how NBA players are shitty at free throws.

Mazzulla was lucky that Pritchard hit those free throws. Why call time here? It’s a two possession game!

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The free throw shit was a problem all last year too. This is not the first game this has been a problem. I don’t know how NBA players are shitty at free throws.

This. All the time. This.

Why did Thibs call timeout when he could have kept Pritchard in the game on defense and reserve a timeout if the Knicks had hit a three?

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We looked a lot like the same team. Rebounds. Bad shooting. Giving up open 3s.

Don’t understand that last lineup. Hart? No Grimes? Julius? No Dante? Why did we not have shooters in when it was a clear 3 and foul situation?

We looked a lot like the same team. Rebounds. Bad shooting. Giving up open 3s.

Agreed, which means they’ll likely still beat almost all of the bad teams and hang in there with the good ones and occasionally steal wins. I’m feeling okay with 53 wins still.

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Tough loss but but not bad in the scheme of things. Knicks shot 53% from the line and Brunson and Randle had bad games and we were right there. An annoying loss, but an encouraging one if you squint.

That may be the best game KP has ever played. He was impactful on both sides of the ball and very good and very clutch down the stretch. He rarely puts it all together like that and especially not at that level down the stretch.

Some of our shooting problems were probably due to their defense, but the missed free throws really cost us. No excuse for that. It sucks to lose a winnable game, but it was against the best starting 5 in the league and we didn’t exactly play our best basketball.

gonna be a lot of whining and second guessing about minutes and lineups this season…

not panicking yet… but the julius watch is on… he’s the canary for our whole season….

On the bright side, that was a really close game even though Randle and Brunson played horribly.

Quickley and RJ were very good. If we could just hit an average amount of free throws, we might win a few games.

As for the Celtics, once Porzingis gets injured, that will be the end of them.

It says so, so much (and not anything good) that you can seriously guard Julius Randle with Jrue Holiday.

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Also, oh my god, Dallas, just blow this fucking team up and get a new coach. What is the upside of this current Dallas team? Play-in game? You have one of the best players in the game, just blow the rest of the team and start over again around Luka.

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Our two “stars” shot 13-42 from the floor and 1-6 from the line,
Tatum and KP shot 21-37 from the floor and 14-16 from the line.

Our “non stars” kept us in the game (well, except DDV 🙂 )

DDV’s first game is just as inexplicable as his signing in the first place (without another deal). He was just sort of occasionally there.

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Lot of close games,
MIA barely survive the Pistons and the Cavs did the same with BRK.
Toronto beat Minny and Charlotte ambushed the Hawks (fuck Trae Young: 4-19).

Rusty but gritty. Very winnable with a slightly less shitty start and an average # of FTs made. Love IQ having a chip on his shoulder. C’s starting 5 is scary but the bench is their achilles. Knicks stayed cool and never let the game get away from them. They should build confidence off this.

Is Hardaway Jr. Dallas’ 2nd best player? Because that’s sad.

He’s their 2nd best player who believes the earth is round

We aren’t getting that pick, are we?

DDV’s first game is just as inexplicable as his signing in the first place (without another deal). He was just sort of occasionally there.

He’s useless.

It says so, so much (and not anything good) that you can seriously guard Julius Randle with Jrue Holiday.

It’s not good, but Jrue Holiday can just kinda do that. There’s a reason he’s the best defensive guard in the league over the last decade

We aren’t getting that pick, are we?

I’d be very surprised at this point.

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It’s not good, but Jrue Holiday can just kinda do that. There’s a reason he’s the best defensive guard in the league over the last decade

True, Holiday is a special player. But boy, it looked so bad to see Holiday sonning him repeatedly.

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IQ would make way too much sense for San Antonio, right? That would be the offer sheet that would worry me.

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The Pacers, Hornets and Magic all had nice results tonight. I’m not sure the East is going to be weaker than the West this season.

Celtics really need to keep Derrick White and/or Jrue Holiday on the court at all times this season. The other players are all kind of stupid (Brown and, to a much lesser extent, Tatum) or incompetent (Pritchard) when it comes to running an offense.

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We probably should have won that game but we didn’t. Kinda frustrating, but it’s a long season. I wish Boston good luck playing Kristaps 38 minutes a night.

DDV might look good on a team like Golden State that ddgenerates lots of open looks with great ball movement and the gravity created by other great 3 point shooters, but I’m not sure he’s the best fit for this ugly ass offense where nobody ever passes the ball. It’s only game one so I’ll reserve judgment but he looked bad in the preseason and bad tonight.

I’m not a Jaylen Brown hater. I think he’s very good, but that contract is ugly. I had to double check the boxscore to make sure he even played tonight.

I agree with JK47 on DDV and the difference between this team and GS.

I’m still searching for a reason we added DDV. I think it’s as simple as Brunson and Hart wanted him here. He’s going to have good games. That’s inevitable. But we have a surplus at that position and he doesn’t do anything that we didn’t already get from younger better players. It made no sense and may end up with a younger better player being moved.

Most encouraging thing to me was RJ looking solid defensively. He was truly awful last year until the playoffs and even average defense from him should make a difference.

And I actually think Brunson was worse than Randle tonight- way too many no pass, pound the ball possessions.

I shouldn’t do this to myself, but every time I look at an SGA box score I think “we could have actually fucking drafted that dude”

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