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2023-24 Game Thread: Knicks @ Celtics (In-Season Tournament Runner-up Stage Opener, which is oddlly a thing)

Man, the quirks of the NBA In-Season Tournament sure are, well, you know, quirky!

The Knicks have to go to Boston for an extra game against the Celtics because both teams lost in the knockout stage of the In-Season Tournament.

How fun.

In any event, this is a chance for the Knicks to make a huge statement against one of the best teams in the East. The Pacers kicked Boston’s ass in the Tournament, so it’s not like these Celtics are unbeatable (granted, now Porzingis is back after missing four games. KP miss time? That’s unpossible!), so the Knicks really need to win this bad boy to a quiet their narrative this season.

Singing out in glee on the way to 53!

Let’s go, Knicks!

78 replies on “2023-24 Game Thread: Knicks @ Celtics (In-Season Tournament Runner-up Stage Opener, which is oddlly a thing)”

Im glad Thibs didn’t repeat his Elfrid mistake with Grimes and benched him for DiVo

Gonna be one of those games…

Might need to make myself a big ol’ martini if I’m going to watch endless threes.

God that was such a fucking stupid play by Randle there on that fast break.

Celtics announcers keep laughing when Randle has the ball…they say he has no interest in passing….

Celtics commentator: “Brunson’s footwork is elite, just like his dad’s was.”

(Viewers around the country proceed to google “Brunson dad” and discover he’s the son of Rick “Baryshnikov” Brunson, ex-New York Knick player and current Knicks City Dancer consultant.)

Why is IQ taking a 3 with like 5 secs left on the clock? He’s been off lately

Where’s the super cut of Knicks ending quarters by giving away easy points? Maybe a film session of only that?

This is brutal for djphan’s bit where he pretends I bet a lot of money that Grimes wouldn’t get Fournier’d

I know Mitch just horrifically bricked two FTs, then stupidly fouled a 3pt shooter, then bungled a pass pass right in his hands, but we don’t care about his flaws.

Mitch Robinson is our third best scorer at 5-5 with 10 pts, and 6 rebounds. You think he’s the problem, reconsider.

Right, Mitch is great! Never mind that his opposing starting C has 19 points at the half! Or that we just watched him be the primary reason for a defining Celtics’ run! He’s perfect!

Okay then, fuck you. I’ve recently said Mitch struggles against centers like KP. So, you know, fuck you.

iq with 11 minutes is just plain dumb…freakin thibs needs to wake up… he’s the problem…

“Okay then, fuck you. I’ve recently said Mitch struggles against centers like KP. So, you know, fuck you.”

Wait, you mean the kind of C’s that we’re going to have to play if we want to get out of the second round? Okay!

PS I love you too Raven!

Clyde, “I don’t know where Brunson was going, but left him uncontested.” Haha

“mitch getting x rays on his foot”

Did one of the bricks he heaved up from th FT line land on it?

Milwaukee redux.

I don’t care if the National writers say nice things about the Knicks if they defend like this.

This is a really frustrating game, it seems that most of the difference has been hot shooting, and we’ve had to constantly press to get back into it which has left us vulnerable in transition. The reffing also hasn’t helped—we’ve been getting mauled.

Hey guys what’s happening in this game?

My TV is glitching or something, it’s just showing a replay of the Bucks game from Tuesday.

No answers for this green juggernaut. We’re being out-shot, out-hustled, and out-smarted.

What ever happened to good ol’ man-to-man D, with just plain ol’ fashioned hedging and switching?

“My TV is glitching or something, it’s just showing a replay of the Bucks game from Tuesday”

My KB is glitching or something, it’s just showing a replay of all of pagliacci’s previous posts…

Just turned it on. Doesn’t appear anyone can guard Horford.

Or Brown. Although that was a bullshit poster.

Can’t wait to hear about Brown being suspended for ten games. Although they probably wouldn’t miss him.

I don’t think this is one of those games where you can blame Thibs for Brunson being in. It was a freak foul shot thing.

I think games like this expose our defense a little. Our perimeter defense is not that good, but Mitch covers up some of the mistakes in the middle. Against these stretch 5s, not only is it tough on Mitch, it leaves the paint open and exposes the problems on the perimeter.

This team played very good defense at the start of the season, then they became selective, it started getting worse and worse. Tonight, they played D in the second part of Q1, and the first seven minutes of Q4. This is embarrassing. Second game in a row. You are not gonna win games against good teams like that. Period.

Our record against good teams is not great. We can beat up on the cupcakes pretty good, and haven’t let bad teams steal games from us, but the good teams beat us consistently. We had the one miracle comeback win against Miami and besides that it’s been a while since we have beaten a tough opponent.

The schedule is not getting easier. Unless bring it on D, they are up for more embarrassments. It is sad that, while their offense has gotten clearly better this year, their D took such a dive.

Someone can fact check this but I feel like in these 5 losses to Milwaukee and Boston we haven’t even held a lead for more than a few minutes. It’s mostly been soul-crushing end-to-end dominance. The only exception was the first IST game in Milwaukee that we almost pulled out after mostly trailing.

Grimes is a better fit with the bench unit…

He did well but our starters did badly and gave up a lot of points. I don’t know if that was related to no Grimes, or it was just Boston being Boston. I guess time will tell.

The Celts and Bucks are two of the most all-innest of the all-in teams. When at full strength, they are two of the best 3 teams in the NBA until someone shows otherwise. It is hardly a disgrace to lose to them on their home courts. So the only thing to take away from these two games is that we are not as good as the Bucks or Celts, probably by a significant margin.

But we kind of already knew that, didn’t we?

We have 12 games between now and January 1. It wouldn’t be a shock if we go 4-8 and are 16-17 by then. Anything below that and it might be time to start worrying about being a play-in team. Anything above that will be somewhat of a positive, being that the toughest part of the schedule will be behind us.

I’m taking the over, but not feeling confident about it.

I think games like this expose our defense a little. Our perimeter defense is not that good, but Mitch covers up some of the mistakes in the middle. Against these stretch 5s, not only is it tough on Mitch, it leaves the paint open and exposes the problems on the perimeter.

Yeah, that’s it, exactly. It’s painful as fuck to watch, and it must drive Thibs, in particular, crazy. He can’t be used to having a group of defenders like this. You know what it reminds me a lot of? The 2011-12 Knicks vs. the 2012-13 Knicks, where Tyson Chandler was his awesome self in both seasons, but in 2011-12, he was playing with a bunch of good defenders and in 2012-13, he was not, so they went from a top five defense to the 18th best defense. 2012 Tyson Chandler is a better defender than 2023 Mitchell Robinson, but they have that similar “quarterbacking” defense skill (you know, directing the offense into defenders), only they just don’t have the personnel right now for it to work.

OG really would be the perfect guy to add for that very reason. It would transform things. Mitch is good enough (and iHart is a wonderful backup) that the team is still pretty good on defense, but boy, a guy like OG would be transformative.

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