Knicks Morning News (2023.11.19)

New York @ Charlotte (this time for real!) W 122-108 Record 8-5

The second stop in our “Crush The Rag Dolls” B2B went as smooth as the first.
For the second straight game we never trailed, maybe it’s a team record, anyway it looks like we mastered the art of beating lesser competition without breaking a sweat and it makes those kind of games tasty but a tad boring*.

Next: The last stop of the road trip, in Minnesota against the 9-3 Wolves.

Thoughts:

– We’re in a nice position record wise but maybe if you look closer there’s a trend. I’ll watch carefully for another couple of weeks** before writing about it. 😛

– Grimes’ better learn and eat some swagger sandwiches while healing his wrist (no brace yesterday), politness is nice but some brass is better on a basketball floor.

– I agree with Ess-Dog and Owen, RJ’s shooting form looked a little different. Are we over analyzing it?

– “No lead is safe in today’s NBA” and Clifford*** never conceded defeat so 8-men plus a sprinkle of Deuce, no garbage to collect for our end-of-the-bench guys.

– Championship or bust, chase for a star, bring everything down… I don’t know what’s better but it’s a sunny sunday and life’s too hard to refuse some comfy mezzanine time… at least for today.

* With my new schedule I can only watch (and recap) games in the weekend. I won’t complain with victories but I’d like a bit more competitive games 😉

** 3 games against stronger teams (MIN, MIA, PHO), then another nice chance to stomp over the have-nots (Charlotte and Detroit), then a visit to Canada and then… it depends on the Silver Cup!

*** The same Clifford who’s Thibs close friend (they worked together as assistants in NY and HOU) and gave him a sterling feedback about Fournier before the Knicks signed Papillon.

Play(s) Of The Game:
Our go-to play did work again: land in Charlotte and put 5 players on the floor.

Stats Of The Game:
0. Charlotte largest lead (booo-ring).

GRADES:

Brunson A
A 26-points 1st half (6-9 2FG, 4-5 3FG) to put the game on the right track, clerical work in the 2nd (6 assists).

Randle B-
Brunson’s opposite, better in the 2nd (4-5 2FG, 1-1 3FG) when he run over weaker defenders. 8 assists (yeah!) 4 turnovers (oh!) and single-digit rebounds in 4 of the last 5 games (unusual).
Small alert: he’s shooting 67.1% from the line.

Barrett C-
Shades of Old-RJ (please, don’t tinker with your shot!) but he gets a pass coming from migraines.
Italian announcers shocked me with this: according to Cleaning The Glass, before yesterday’s game he was 2nd overall in on-off net differential between players with at least 20 MPG.
And somehow he had the best +/- of the team yesterday (+15).

Robinson A
11 Offensive boards. ’nuff said.

Quickley C+
When your team dominates and you have a negative +/- you know it’s not your best day. It happens. Outside shot was off (0-5 3FG) but energy wasn’t.

Hart A-
Step by step is coming back (6 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl).
Sometimes he takes the three, sometimes he passes it, I love him but sometimes I want to strangle him.

Hartenstein C+
7 rebounds in 15 minutes for our backup center, a normal day at the office.

Donte DiVincenzo A+
He played so well I had to use his full name. Career high in points (25) and 3-pointers made (7), plus 3 steals, a block and a ton of bravado****. He’s ready to take Shy-Grimes’ spot in the starting lineup, but I’m not sure our malleable coach is ready to do it and he could be right weighting the balance between starters and Bench Mob.

McBride B+
He took (and buried) his shots, bit his opponents, then went back to the doghouse with his well deserve cookie.
When he’ll like to break free he could be a well paid superstar overseas (see Larkin, Shane).

Thibs A
No mistakes and timely timeouts when the guys started wandering too much. In games likes this there’s not much more to do.

**** Final Four MVP, part time starter with the Bucks and the Warriors, I watched him play dozens of times so nothing he does surprise me.

Besides, we’ve had a really easy schedule, right?

Taking away (not counting) Knicks games:

Combined record of the teams we beat: 22-40
(ATL 6-4, CLE 5-5, LAC 3-6, CHA 3-7, SA 3-9, WAS 2-9)

Combined record of the teams that beat us: 26-18
(BOS 8-2, MILW 8-4, CLE 5-5, NOP 5-7)

So far we’ve done exactly what we should have and we did it while looking good, so thumbs up to Thibs and the guys, but it’s really too early to say anything about our spot in the League’s totem pole.

Now i’m going to read the game thread to have a “feel” of the game.

Drink some Red Bull first or you can fell asleep again 😉

Edit:
Winning easily is very tasty against Boston, the Lakers, Miami… 😀