[ESPN] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 16:47:00 GMT
- Celtics’ Porzingis (calf) set for return vs. Knicks
- Kristaps Porzingis reports good news after Celtics beat Knicks
- Celtics’ Kristaps Porzingis returns from calf injury to face Knicks
- Kristaps Porzingis return comes right as Boston Celtics need him for crucial stretch
- Kristaps Porzingis to officially return to Celtics lineup on Friday
[New York Post] – Sat, 09 Dec 2023 03:29:00 GMT
- Knicks smoked by Celtics as Jalen Brunson limps off in closing seconds
- Knicks’ Jalen Brunson injures ankle in garbage time vs. Celtics
- Jalen Brunson Hurt In Garbage Time – New York Knicks Injury Tracker
- Jalen Brunson injured in garbage time, but Tom Thibodeau has no regrets
[CBS Sports] – Sat, 09 Dec 2023 04:49:21 GMT
- Celtics’ Jaylen Brown calls out ‘overemotional ref’ after ejection in win over Knicks: ‘That was bulls–t’
- Jaylen Brown EJECTED after arguing foul call in 4th quarter vs. Knicks | NBA on ESPN
- WATCH: Jaylen Brown’s Horrific Ejection For Complaining
- Derrick White on MVP chants: ‘We’ve got the best fans in the league’
- Jaylen Brown Heated After Being Ejected From the Bench
[New York Post] – Sat, 09 Dec 2023 06:51:39 GMT
- Knicks’ Quentin Grimes has solid night after demotion to second unit
- DiVincenzo Replacing Grimes In Knicks’ Starting Lineup
- Quentin Grimes teammates blame themselves, Thibodeau asks for more
- Quentin Grimes struggles spark Knicks starting lineup debate: ‘We got to get him to play better’
- Knicks will start Donte DiVincenzo against Celtics, move Quentin Grimes to bench
[The Athletic] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 10:10:32 GMT
- What Im hearing about Knicks on NBA trade market
- Knicks Notes: Trade Rumors, Towns, Quickley, Grades
- Knicks unbothered by trade pressure: ‘First we were never gonna be good. Now we’re good and now we’re not good enough’
- NBA Trade Rumors: Bulls’ LaVine, DeRozan Haven’t Drawn ‘Serious Interest’ from Knicks
- Should New York Knicks Reconsider Trading for a Star?
[ESPN] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 06:47:11 GMT
Celtics 133-123 Knicks (Dec 8, 2023) Box Score
[New York Post] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 20:30:00 GMT
Knicks-loving lawyer banned from Madison Square Garden drops lawsuit, can attend games
[OddsChecker] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 19:50:00 GMT
- New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics Prediction, Pick Against the Spread, and Latest Odds
- KNICKS at CELTICS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | December 8, 2023
- New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics Prediction, Odds and Picks
- Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks: Live Stream, TV Channel, Start Time | 12/8/2023
- New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics Dec 8, 2023 Game Summary
[Bleacher Report] – Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:28:31 GMT
- NBA Rumors: Knicks’ Immanuel Quickley Monitored By Teams as Possible Trade Target
- Two teams reportedly want to ‘swipe’ star PG from Knicks
- Knicks Rumors: 2 Teams Poised to Swipe Immanuel Quickley, Exec Says
- Knicks Extension Offer To Immanual Quickley Was Not Fully Guaranteed
- Knicks Rumors: Immanuel Quickley Was Offered Non-Guaranteed Contract, No Incentives
[New York Post] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 20:15:00 GMT
- Knicks push back on scathing ‘middle’ critique: ‘Do very well for ourselves’
- Knicks’ roster construction reportedly causing frustration from those close to the organization
- The Knicks Merely Being Solid Is No Mans Land
- Chris Russo says NBA star Reggie Brown is better than anyone on the Knicks
- Do the Knicks have enough? Old School dudes say No!
[Pickswise] – Fri, 08 Dec 2023 11:56:00 GMT
NBA Parlay Picks & Predictions for Friday at +1066 odds, 12/8
69 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2023.12.09)”
Fell asleep, but it looks like it was for the best. Not only the game went sideways, but the game thread too. We used to be funny even when losing, you know?
139.5 pts per game allowed in these last two contests, is kind of insane. If someone had ask me at the beginning of the season to bet on it, i’d bet all my money that it wouldn’t happen. We need to defend a lot better than this if we don’t want to be a 1st round exit.
There’s only one thing that don’t add up about 2023-24 Mitch vs 2022-23 Mitch, we have the exact same starting 5. Or had, until yesterday.
In compliance with the Swifty Mandate my contribution today is to say THIS IS THE BEST TEAM IN THE EAST except for the two teams we haven’t even been able to get a lead against in 5 games, the two teams that would definitely beat us, and the 4 teams who are just us good as us.
Reasons for optimism:
1. None of those teams have what we do: the highly protected first round picks of Detroit & Washington, the two worst teams in the NBA. When we trade these for a superstar, we will leapfrog everyone.
2. Internal improvement. QUENTIN GRIMES & RJ BARRETT ARE YOUNG. YOUNG PLAYERS GET BETTER. (Well, I guess technically they have young players, too, but either only ours will improve or ours will improve at a higher rate for no reason at all… not gonna lie, I never really understood that one, BUT I AM ON BOARD!)
Don’t panic. Don’t be negative. And whatever you do, DO NOT SUGGEST THIS TEAM CAN’T WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP.
Just wait til we beat the Utah Jazz at home. You’ll see.
I didn’t catch the game because by the time I got home and settled in after picking my daughter up for the weekend, it was mid 3rd and we were down double digits, so I said screw it and watched a movie with the 11 year old boss lol. What I wanna know is..how do we feel about the SG switch? I see Grimes got active with the 2nd unit while DDV had a low offensive output. More important than that for me is- how did DDV do defensively with the starters? Like..how did White get his 30? Did it look like we needed Grimes’ grit and physicality with the starters? Or did DDV look just fine running and cutting and playing defense? Looking at the box score, I like the effect it had on Grimes. I think Thibs should keep this lineup and use whomever is playing better between Grimes and DDV as a closer, because I don’t wanna see that spot get juggled. I’d rather a trade for the better than to see Grimes get hot and Thibs switch them again.
But my point is that 2023 Mitch has picked up some of Chandler’s “quarterbacking” skills, which is covering up a lot of the poor defense in a way he didn’t last year, when Mitch was probably doing too much solo work (Mitch’s blocks are down a third, and yet his overall defense has been greatly improved – Chandler’s blocks were also pretty pedestrian when his defense was at his peak). Their defense was really bad last season (#19th), so the fact that they are currently 10th despite a number of bad defenders out there is a testament to what Mitch (and iHart, he’s very important to this) are doing out there with Thibs’ scheme.
However, ultimately, the two-headed monster (and Thibs’ defensive schemes, which I tend to assume are probably really well drawn up) are being dragged down by the other defenders simply not being enough, like Chandler between 2011-12 and 2012-13. It’s no surprise that the two recent defensive breakdowns have been against teams who employ stretch fives, thus dragging Mitch and iHart away from controlling the paint, and leaving the paint in the hands of the Knicks’ lesser defenders.
A guy like OG would be transformative.
Divo only took six shots, so it didn’t make much difference offensively. The way to beat the Knicks defense is to pull Mitch away from the rim with a stretch 5. Then things fall completely apart. One of the things I liked about young Mitch is that he was able to switch pretty well. Thibs doesn’t want that, so I don’t know what the answer is.
We’re above average in all of the Four Factors on both sides of the ball, except for eFG%. We’re 24th in offensive eFG%, 21st in defensive eFG%. That’s not a strong foundation for a basketball team. We’re bad at making baskets, and preventing the other team from making baskets, but we’re good at everything else.
What we really need is some guys who can make some goddamn baskets. And it wouldn’t hurt to have some more guys who could stop the other team from making baskets. There’s only so much you can paper those two things over.
The good news is that Toronto is not playing well again. That makes it more likely Masai will decide to rebuild before the deadline rather than paying these guys. The bad news is that Toronto and NY are not exactly on good terms and we’d be dealing with an Ainge-like thief looking to rob us in a trade. He also may just decide to send him out west or keep him and just trade Siakam who is older. I agree though. It doesn’t seem likely we can do a star trade now. That doesn’t mean we can’t upgrade the roster.
But I think Thibs’ decision to do that is probably overall correct, it’s just that it requires the other guys to step up a bit, and they haven’t done it very often, which has got to be driving him crazy.
The fact that he took those six shots is important, though. If he had passed up 4 or 5 of them like Grimes usually does it would have wasted a lot of possessions.
6 shots is all it takes to fill that role.
trying to imagine how much we would have to outbid someone like the pacers to get toronto to trade og to us. thinking quick, jalen, 3 unprotected firsts, clyde and breen, three weeks of the sphere exterior showing nothing but bargnani knick highlights, letter of recommendation to ohtani from dice yashimoto, and a 12 minute jd and straight shots cameo video performing you oughta know amid a montage of masai at the championship parade
We can give up on making any deals with Toronto lol
Unless we can kinda finagle our way into a 3 or 4 teamer. If we can replace Grimes with OG somehow..we won’t need to make a hasty superstar trade. A starting 5 of Mitch/Randle/OG/RJ/Brunson makes a really strong team when you add it to the current bench unit. BUT..guys would have to iso less and spread the shots around more.
It was mostly against Brunson. He’s small, he’s slow, and he’s just not good at defense other than drawing charges. He couldn’t stop an unlit match from burning down a building.
The Celtics basically run the East All-Stars out there so (1) they’re going to hit shots that would be reasonably well defended against other teams and (2) Brunson always gets left in a matchup he can’t handle. So he gets matched up against Derrick White with his 2.3 OBPM and 93rd %tile offensive EPM. That’s where you want him, but it’s still a huge mismatch.
More generally, and perhaps the bigger issue, is that I’m not sure the players know who should rotate to the rim when Mitch is away.
I agree that Toronto would not likely trade OG to us unless it we offer a huge overpay. I think Jerami Grant is a very similar player. He can defend 3 or 4 and has become a solid 3 pt shooter. I think he will be available at the trade deadline, and we have done business with Portland recently. I think he would be a good target. Anyone else agree?
Right?! How can that possibly be, though?
For some reason, I’d never heard this expression before. It made me laugh and took away just a little bit of the sting from losing to the Celtics…again.
Jalen “The Unlit Match” Brunson
Thanks, Early Bird!
Yes…agree on Grant…only seen snippets of their games (Billups isn’t long for the sidelines)…but he is worth a shot…
nice
yep…with every game..brunson gets more exposed defensively..but its not like anyone else on our squad is killing it on the defensive end…
We are still top 10 on both sides of the ball so far this season. The last two games have been ugly, but overall we have been fine.
Yeah, i agree that we’re a bad defensive team when we don’t have our Cs patrolling the paint. Maybe that’s where a bit more size would help a little.
But probably not OG. We’re suing the Raps, i think we’re the last team they’d make a trade with.
We lost to the Celts for the same reason we lost to the Bucks. Their starting lineup is better than ours at pretty much every position, and in most cases, on both ends. Throw in that by himself, Horford is better than any of our bench players and voila…a loss.
The only way for us to beat those teams is for them to be cold and us to be hot. One of our guys, most likely Brunson or IQ, needs to go nuclear while the rest of the team plays at least okay, while Tatum has one of his 6-24 kind of games and the rest of the team is sort of off.
There are some other teams that have us outmatched at 3 or 4 of the starting positions…MIN, for example, and our chances against them are also pretty lousy. Then there are the teams with transcendent players with decent supporting casts: LAL, DAL, PHX, DEN, PHI, and you can probably include OKC, IND, GSW, and MIA in that group…that we don’t really have an answer for.
The best news for the Knicks is that most of the teams that we really don’t match up well with are in the West. I think our chances for one of the 4-6 seeds in the East are pretty good. ORL should fade, MIA, CLE and ATL have some issues. IND is formidable if Hali continues to play at this level…but I’m still a bit skeptical about whether what they have going right now is sustainable. If we were in the WC I think we’d be battling for a play-in spot.
Clearly we need more offensive firepower and better wing defenders to get to the point where we can compete with those upper echelon teams. It doesn’t help that most of these teams (e.g. BOS, MIL, MIA, IND, PHI, DEN, OKC) have a C that can do more than hang out in the dunker’s spot or set screens, like our two-headed combo. That can work if you have four consistent perimeter threats who are also pretty good defenders. We don’t have that. Neither does TOR, ATL, CLE, or BKN. So we can pile up wins against those teams and the ones obviously below them. But we’re just not going to go anywhere beyond the first round this year unless we do something before the trade deadline that changes the calculus, or stand pat and get lucky with a first round opponent being compromised in some way, either inexperience or injury.
Derrick White is very underrated. He was often brought up as the poster child for dramatic inflation in the price for decent role players, but in my opinion he is more than that. He’s among the most underpaid vets in the NBA right now.
Brogdon winning sixth man of the year last year when he wasn’t even the best sixth man on his own team (White was) really irked me.
Well, if this doesn’t happen, we’re in big trouble.
There are a few non superstar players I’d like to see the team pursue:
OG
Mikal
Advija
Paul George
DeAndre Hunter
Of that list, the first 2 are impossible IMO until they’re free agents, and PG’s age/injury history/contract demands are troublesome. So that leaves Advija and Hunter- who I’m sure Atlanta and Washington would want too much for. Regardless, Leon has to try to upgrade somewhere before the trade deadline to give guys time to jell. But looking over the landscape right now..I don’t see any good moves unless we go all in for a true superstar- and one isn’t available unless you really want and trust Kawhi and can pry him out of LA. Or maybe Zion..but do we really want him replacing Randle right now? Hell..is he even still a superstar?
“Well, if this doesn’t happen, we’re in big trouble.”
I guess sort of. But all of us knew going into the season that teams around us were improving more than we were, given that DDV over Obi is hardly a game-changing move. What has been helping our cause is that ATL, TOR, and MIA..i.e. teams that are similarly flawed, are as “searching for consistency” as we are.
I mentioned this in the last thread:
of those 12 games, there’s not a single gimmee. We should beat the Jazz in Utah, but who knows? We just beat TOR but beating them twice in a row is a tall order. The Nets are a team we should beat, but they also have ways to beat us, especially if they get hot from 3. The Pacers and Magic are hot, so beating either of them on the road is at best 50-50.
And the games we should expect to lose are: @PHX, @LAC, @LAL, MIL, MIL, @OKC, and MIN. Maybe we win one of those, but that’s probably it.
So assuming Brunson’s ankle thing is just a tweak, 6-6 seems like a high-water mark, and 4-8 is not a disaster. I’d probably sign up for 5-7.
Then maybe we can run off a 12-6 streak and create a little space going into the trade deadline. After that, it all depends on whether we stand pat or not.
Zion likes cheesecake.
Randle likes jumping up in the air and throwing the ball to the other team.
Pretty clear choice.
A funny development for veterans of the Knickerblogger Wars circa 2020 or so is there is a former Knick point guard who is deeply offensively challenged, but has become such a good defensive weapon he’s worth playing anyway.
His name of course is Dennis Smith Jr.
Really happy for the guy, and not just because I’ve seen him around Brooklyn a few times.
Am I the only one who doesn’t OG Anunoby as a clear solution to all of our problems? He’s definitely better than his box score numbers indicate and of course we’d benefit from adding him in a vacuum, but it’d be more of a large incremental improvement than a game changer and all indications are it would come at a game changer price tag.
Feels like our biggest need is a high-level shotmaker. Trading 3 picks and god knows what else for OG Anunoby would make getting one of those guys a lot harder…and post-trade our biggest need would remain a high-level shotmaker.
Trading multiple assets for Zion Williamson would someday be on the list of the top-5 dumbest trades a Knicks front office ever made. Considering how high the bar is to get on that list, that’s quite a feat.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t OG Anunoby as a clear solution to all of our problems?”
No.
OG or Jerami Grant would fit nicely into our rotation. I don’t think either would be the final piece of the puzzle, but would get us one step closer to being a contender. No sophistry intended, who is the clear solution to our problems?
We’re averaging a 142 DRTG the last 2 games. So worrying about defense seems a little justified.
On the other hand, our offense has been performing around last year’s level once they got over their early season rim allergy.
I was thinking that about Smith the day Bridges went off. He is on the list of guys who have far surpassed what I expected of them based on a sample of their first 2-3 years. It’s amazing he is still in the league let alone thriving.
Knicks are now Top 10 in both offense and defensive ratings, granted they’re 10th in both but still I believe only the Celtics and Thunder are Top 10 in both.
Knicks are of course 0-5 vs Bucks and Celtics but they’re 12-4 against everyone else and 10-1 vs the rest of the East. It’s pretty obvious they’re not in that top tier which we all knew but still they’re on pace to finish in the 4/5 range just like last season and I still believe should get to the 2nd rd where as bad as its looked this season vs the Top 2 I still feel they could put up a decent series and not get swept.
Remember on opening night the Knicks had a 6 pt lead with 4 mins left vs Boston and got totally screwed by the refs down the stretch. They also almost stole the 1st game at Milwaukee thanks to Brunson who gave them a brief 2 pt lead with barely a minute left in the game.
As I mentioned I know the Knicks aren’t anywhere near the Celtics or Bucks tier but it’s also not as wide as this past week has looked either.
lol none of these games are gimmies. It’s the NBA.
Not for nothing but 6 of our 9 losses so far are against the bucks or Celtics, the two best teams in the east. 5 of those were on the road fyi.
That doesn’t bode well for us getting past the second round but it does mean we can reasonably expect to win more games this season.
OG is a fine player and would definitely fit like a glove, but he would cost so much it isn’t even worth thinking about unless he goes UFA. I wonder if there’s a chance he gets traded somewhere else as a rental and then decides to test the market. But beyond that, a) he’s not coming and b) he’s only a part of the solution to our problems.
Jerami Grant is probably a better answer if we want to go the win-now but not all-in route. But who does he replace in the rotation?
Meanwhile, Kyrie is getting an MRI on his right ankle area because Dwight Powell fell on it about as hard as one possibly could, the video is ugly…
If it’s serious, that could kick the Dallas pick out another year…and maybe between that and Cuban selling a majority share of the team, Luka starts to get some wanderlust…
I think Grimes is the most likely player to get bumped if we make a trade to bolster the roster. If OG reaches free agency, could we realistically create enough cap space to go after him? I don’t think so.
Considering what it would cost to acquire Zion Williamson, we really shouldn’t be comparing him to Julius Randle. Zion is a “give every asset that we own” kind of trade, and given the guy’s poor fitness, one dimensional game, and dodgy intangibles, that’s not a guy I’m eager to acquire at luxury prices. We signed Randle as a market value FA, and he came with nowhere near the exorbitant opportunity cost that hangs on Zion.
I get the idea of rolling the dice on him in the hopes he stops being a soft and perennially out of shape player, but the opportunity cost is just too high. At this point I question Zion’s ceiling. He will never have any kind of shooting ability to speak of and I would be shocked if he ever plays much defense so it’s hard for me to see Zion getting much past 4-6 BPM even in his best seasons.
He was overhyped.
It’s hard to sugarcoat 2-9 vs teams over .500. They really need to start beating some good teams to shut that narrative up. Luckily, one of those two wins was that amazing comeback against Miami. That was a wonderful win.
@cyber & @Cronin,
Following up on yesterday’s discussion, I think Spotrac is projecting the cap raise conservatively. If it’s higher, then we might squeeze in under the lux tax next year with IQ & iHart.
Spotrac has the cap going up $6M and I believe the max it can go up is $13.6M. So if the lux tax also goes higher than the Spotrac projections indicate, the Knicks could be fine.
Looks like it’s finally dawning on a number of posters that the big consolidation trade for a superstar isn’t coming, because 1) we’ve diluted our war chest by incinerating picks and giving up future value for average role players and 2) none of the stars we’d actually want are even likely to shake loose within our short window.
Do we really think that someone like OG Anunoby, a negative BPM guy who will cost a near-superstar price, will move the needle here?
The ceiling of the mezzanine is here and it hits hard. At this point we might as well roll the dice on Zion getting it together, stranger things have happened. If it doesn’t work it’ll at least accelerate the realization that we need to blow this up and start over.
Ohtani to the Dodgers for 10 years/$700 million. Wow.
At least with Ohtani in the NL now Judge and Soto can alternate winning AL MVP for the rest of the decade.
Phew. I thought the Toronto thing was done. Happy to have him in a different league.
Agreed. I bet Toronto gets Bellinger now, but, well, obviously, significant difference between the two.
lol the trade season hasn’t even started yet and we know for sure a big trade can’t happen.
Sure, guys.
Looks like it’s finally dawning on a number of posters….
If you want to be taken seriously and not a troll, suggest you not start a comment like that.
$70 million a year. Whoa.
As for OG:
I was pushing for OG 18 months ago because, before RJ’s extension and the lawsuit, there was a conceivable trade. (RJ, Frontier, 3 picks) Today there is not. Doesn’t matter whether he’d solve the problem: it’s never gonna happen.
Also, $70 million a year….
Hi BE, you have to give credit where credit is due – it got your attention didn’t it?
For those of you whom have played online video games, that include a chat feature:
There will be people all day, every day whom show up simply to piss on everyone else’s day.
It’s some kind of compulsion. Misery loves company, perhaps. I doubt there is much free will in their actions at all.
Reports that some of Ohtani’s money will be deferred to reduce the cap hit and all. Be curious how much.
Crazy though, the guy is already on his 2nd TJ surgery, and only pitched like 3.5 years on the last one. The Dodgers might be lucky if he pitches for half of the 10 years. He’ll be a mighty expensive DH.
But, I guess the marketing value for the Dodgers will be through the room. Not the mezzanine…the roof!
If you can buy the greatest baseball player ever for only 15% more than it costs to buy the 4th best player on the current Boston Celtics, that’s a bargain, I don’t care the price.
I’m not much of a baseball fan anymore, but were the Angels unable to compete financially? Did the Yanks consider him at all?
Looks like Kyrie escaped serious injury…only a bruised heel, whatever that is.
Cup time…
I’ve been thinking alot about Derozan on this team lately. If the defensive difference between RJ and Derozan is truly negligible, then maybe that is the best move to make right now. We could certainly do with a more reliable scorer and secondary playmaker. I don’t wanna give up on RJ just yet, but I can’t be mad at that move at all if it happens. He’d be a 3rd option more likely to sacrifice a few shots so the offense can flow than RJ is. It would mean that Randle has to continue to attack the paint like he has and Brunson would have to do so even more to make up for losing RJ’s rim pressure. You know what? I’d say do it if it’s there. Probably wouldn’t take extra picks either unless you throw Fournier in the deal.
I just want RJ to play better.
Not sure who I am rooting for I. The IST. I like Lebron. I like Halliburton. Hard to decide.
Obviously I should be rooting for Obi.
Let’s go Indy. Good to see McConnell doing his business to other people. Obi looks good too.
For a second there Adam Silver must have considered the possibility that his In Season Tournament idea may have just ended LeBron James’s career.
Sometimes I forget that Anthony Davis is an all-time great. Not tonight.
The Lakers made it more of a playoff style game instead of a regular season track meet. Anthony Davis was great on both sides.
Cam has found a productive role. He’s playing excellent defense and doesn’t have to score with guys like James, Davis, Reaves, and Russell on the team. He’s focusing on D and only taking good shots instead of trying to be a star.
IMO it was no shock the Pacers got tight from 3 in a game like this. They are young. Obi played well.
$500k is a nice bonus for Cam.
Talk about a dream ending for Silver and the NBA, the Lakers go undefeated, LeBron wins MVP and they were dominant to the point no one can complain about refereeing or anything. Having LeBron lifting the first cup and hyping it up is by far the best outcome for the league.
LeBron had a good point in his speech too, how it gives the young guys on his team a chance to test themselves in high stakes games before the actual playoffs and I think this is the niche the tournament will ultimately occupy. I’m hopeful other stars are seeing one of the greatest to ever do it lifting this trophy and are thinking that they too want it.
I’m on the positive side of neutral about it, in the sense that if it never happened again I wouldn’t really miss it. But objectively it has been a rousing success on all fronts. So congrats to Adam Silver for pulling it off largely without a hitch. And kudos to the Lakers and Indiana, they both played their asses off.
Kudos to Anthony Davis for playing like he’d even notice $500,000 getting deposited into his bank account.
And kudos to the rest of the Lakers and the Pacers for avoiding season-ending injuries.
The league office can sleep easy tonight.
(Lakers overshadow the Dodgers once again today!)