The Knicks kick off a post-Mitchell Robinson era tonight with a game against those dreaded IP thieves, the Toronto Raptors. Jericho Sims will be taking Mitch’s spot in the starting rotation, as Thibs clearly has some strict views about roles, and he prefers iHart to remain in his bench role. Of course, iHart will get most of the minutes at center in Mitch’s absence, so starting really doesn’t matter much beyond Thibs wanting some consistency at the start of the game to the way the Knicks normally play.
In possibly even bigger bad news for the Knicks, IQ will miss tonight’s game with knee inflammation. Knee inflammation is one of those weird deals which could mean nothing, or it could mean a lot. There really isn’t any way to tell one way or the other.
Luckily, the Raptors aren’t really a team where Mitch was all that necessary to defeat, so I think that the Knicks should still pull this one out, as the Raptors are a terrible shooting team, but the difficulty level is obviously higher now with no Mitch and no IQ.
Let’s go, Knicks!
141 replies on “2023-24 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Raptors (Jericho Sims, Knicks Starter, Opener, which is oddlly a thing)”
Let’s Go Knicks!
Well, the Raptors suck. So we should win, but we love to make easy things difficult.
Curious to see if Sims or Deuce improved at all
And Hali has 8 assists at the end of the first quarter.
Sims with the switch. We might seem more defensive looks. We’ve already incorporated a bit more this season and Sims is better in switch
Gooooo Knicks! 🏀
Wally…
Monday night Knicks! Let’s go!
Sims chasing these long, fast wings around the perimeter is actually not a bad idea. Problem is then Randle just stands there so Poetl scores easily.
And then Randle… oh never mind.
Sims on the offensive glass. Thank you.
Sims still sucks in drop
Nowhere to hide Jalen
Randle is cookin’ so far…
Good Julius in the house. Barnes has no answer for him.
I see Barnes’ ego has come to terms with reality. His ego was really inflated when he visited MSG on his rookie season.
Oh Grimes, you can’t miss those
If history is any indication we’ll have a spirited discussion about how much Julius Randle sucks tomorrow
Brunson is really off
‘If history is any indication we’ll have a spirited discussion about how much Julius Randle sucks tomorrow’
I triple-dare you to just focus on his defense, like that blow-by.
Randle gets no respect from the refs…
…or that one, four feet away and hands-down on the Barnes three…
The Knicks defense is missing in action. They are walking to the rim with little resistance, getting open looks, and getting OREBs. Good thing we are hitting 3s.
If the discussion tomorrow is about how Julius Randle’s transition defense sucks, I will be an enthusiastic participant
Good to see we’ve really tightened up the defense
Forget Top 10, by the end of this month the defense might not even be Top 20.
Good ball movement by the Raps
On pace to allow 140 pts again !? 🙁
Well, Mitch can’t do that…
Deuceeeee
Quentin Grimes can shoot two point shots AND three point shots! Who knew?
The rumors of the death of Grimes’s career were premature. 😉
Grimes reborned
Quentin Grimes, Sixth Man of the Year!
Dick not getting calls
There’s got to be some way to rephrase that
Grimes from out of the NBA to most improved Knick in 2 games. 😉
When he tries to trash talk our team, they should tell him “Don’t be a Dick” 😀
Grimes going to steal IQ’s 6MOY?
Wally is back to “when i played…”
Just give it to Grimes and get out of the way!
It’s Freaky Friday for Grimes and Donte.
Grimes is shooting everything he touches, good…
Trivia gotta be Camby?
I can’t watch this team play defense at the moment, it makes me switch channels I get so dumbfounded and frustrated by how awful they look defensively right now.
Don’t know why, but when i heard the question i instinctively said Kurt Thomas. But you’re probably right, Camby makes a lot of sense.
Randle will score 50+ today and I’ll crap on him all game long.
But at least I didn’t crap on Sims like many earlier! He’s doing fine. Kind of a perfect team to actually get some run — not tall (to him), they run around but so can he.
So glad he never got much run earlier so he’d be fresh for this. God forbid he’d get five minutes toward the end of games…
Mitch playing on a broken ankle would certainly explain why he hadn’t been that great the last few weeks
I didn’t crap on him, i was just surprised with Thibs’ choice because i think iHart deserves to be the starter. I know he works very well with the backups, but you work to be a starter and when the opportunity comes, you don’t get it, i don’t think it’s fair.
Sims (who played 25 total minutes before this game) isn’t the target of the comments… someone else is… 😉
P.S. Cyber beat me to it 🙂
With IQ out, RJ may be our best free throw shooter
I’ve gotta say it: Wally is killin’ me.
On the other hand, “Barrett, step-back three” are words almost certainly followed by “Raptors with the rebound…”
Knicks 9/16 from 3.
Raptors 5/22 from 3.
Raptors 12 OREBs and Knicks matador defense keeping it close.
Randle with a good offensive half, but his defense make me mad…
Grimes 13 points in 13 minutes, DDV 0 shots but 5 assists…
Well, now they’re on pace to 120 pts, a little better.
I was thinking maybe Cartwright, but it certainly could be Camby
Mase is a possibility…
David Lee?
Isaiah Roby is on our G-League squad, maybe he gets a call-up?
Julius Randle just low-fived an empty chair.
But he is playing kind of good, offensively…
Let’s talk about this matador move on OG’s dunk…
Randle is so scared of fouling/getting posterized that he moved out of perfect charge position
Brunson just doesn’t look right…
Knicks due for another stupid home loss.
With the upcoming schedule we really need to win this game (and the one in Utah)… wake up guys!
Brunson took a knee to his left thigh
Beautiful fast break. Nice pass Julius
Best fast break of the season.
Damn, Kanter….
Huh, Kanter with the boards off the bench. Good question.
I always forget about Kanter. He was one of the answers a couple games ago too. Makes sense as an answer though
Christ, Brunson needs to improve on D. Gets caught in space, Schroeder goes to the rim, Sims covers, kick out for 3. All because Brunson is standing watching OG for some reason.
Real question: did Thibs start Sims over IHart? I didn’t catch that.
If so, I think that’s a real slap in the face to IHart. He has deserved the chance to play with the starters. Instead Sims gets more minutes than him coming out of the freezer? These are the types of things that I think players find disrespectful about Thibs and are sure signs of his orthodoxy.
Sims started last season when Mitch was out. It worked better.
Love him or hate him…we fucking need him
Dumb tech on a beautiful play
Nasty Julius!!
Wow what a drive from Randle
Everything about Brunson tonight screams that he’s hobbled so I’m trying to be forgiving about his defense.
But it’s hard to watch.
Don’t agree that it works better. First team needs ball movement
I know that’s a by-the-rule technical but it’s a really stupid rule.
How did it work better?
Hartenstein looking like Charles Smith under the basket there
I can’t watch the second half. Can someone please post the trivia answer?
Enes Kanter (Freedom)
Freedom kanter
Thanks. That is a surprise
Won’t show up in the box but Deuce created that TO
They run the break like us
Some big 3s by RJ tonight. Not asking for much more than that!
RJ carrying the bench unit without IQ.
On the other hand, Deuce got hung up on that screen anyone could see coming and let the open 3 happen
Hart’s been great this game. Most everyone else has forgotten how to play D.
Perimeter defense has been poor. Transition defense has been poor. Obviously we’re missing two important defensive players but sheesh.
JFC this defense is so soft
I take it back!
J-Hart doing all the things we need…
Hart is balling out there. Great floor game from him
Josh Hart could teach a class on how to finish in traffic
Hart has some serious skills that make me think we should try to incorporate him a little more in the half court. He’s never gonna be a high-usage guy, but it feels like there’s more to unlock with him.
This lineup is killing it!
Loved that Grimes after missing the layup as soon as he got the ball back fired up a 3pter and buried it.
I don’t have any numbers on that, but they both seemed to fit better with the different units. If nothing else, Thibs thought it did.
Lack of defense and TOs matter
My God stop going so fucking low under screens.
Brunson is broken right now
I mean he’s got 19 pts on 11 FGA.
You know, I watch NBA games for the chance to see referees review plays. The last few minutes have been a masterclass of refs stopping play to review calls.
How was that not a foul on Barnes???
Yeah, he’s still been great but Brunson has done a bunch of bad things you don’t normally see from him: bad TOs and an airball. Broken was too much, but he seems off even as he’s had a great game.
Grimes unconscious
Brunson is clearly less than 100% but this is a gritty performance.
I don’t think Grimes is getting Fournier’d anytime soon*
*this is not me saying I would be willing to risk financial ruin on the matter
Pissed off Grimes is a different player 🙂
Grimes made a shot with the starters!
These calls…
J-Hart hates Toronto.
What a sequence!!!
I’m still on the fence about the DDV signing, but no ambivalence about Hart at all
JHart gets the game ball tonight.
Go off, short kings of America
OK sorry but I gotta be a dick right now, Hart is alright but he’s no Cam Whitmore..
This is one of our rare lineups with a lot of above average playmakers on the floor and it shows.
Brunson with a new career high 7 TOs
What are these refs doing right now.
I like this challenge
It WAS a foul, but also, are we not playing at home?
iHart really can’t do dumb shit like that.
Game they were supposed to win but still considering the circumstances and upcoming schedule this was a pretty big win.
“OK sorry but I gotta be a dick right now…”
Uncle Grady?
Damn, so LaVine wasn’t just not helping the Bulls win, he was apparently making them worse.
Sims-iHart combo: 16 rebounds, 8 offensive. Not bad!
Also, our bench was 9-11 from 3…
I’ve been saying that for awhile.
I’d like to say it’s all bad defense, but the gap between his boxscore stats and on/off over the long term is so huge, it has to be more than defense. The Heat is probably the only team that could add him and figure out a way to make him add noticeable value. 🙂
Randle had another great boxscore night, but imo he gave back most of that value on the defensive end.
I’ll make it easier. It was a good signing because he’s a pretty good player and the contract is fair. However, it was not what we needed and it created some minutes issues that will have to be resolved eventually. The resolution may not be to the liking of many of us.
Not exactly a good win but I guess we’ll take it.
DiVincenzo:
3 points on 2 FG attempts 18:44 minutes
Grimes:
19 points on 11 FG attempts 26.52 minutes
RJ, Randle, and Brunson 54 FG attempts and 17 FT attempts
It’s almost as if being used as a spacer for high usage players impacts your FG attempts. 🙂
Quentin Grimes interviews like he shoots. Super-quick.
“Not exactly a good win but I guess we’ll take it.”
I thought it was a terrific win. We beat a desperate team that we just humiliated on their home court last week, and on a day when we found out our starting C is out for more than two months. Not to mention that Brunson looks hobbled and the guy who strat (wrongly) thinks is our second best player was a late scratch.
We also had our most assists in a single game this year, and we won in large part because:
-Randle was a beast
-RJ scored efficiently (for him)
-Grimes looked like the idealized version of Grimes
-Hart played the winner position pretty darn well
I also think the Raptors are better on paper than their record suggests. Their starting 5 is very strong, but their bench is shaky. Obviously they need a better PG than Schroder.
OTOH Gradey Dick looks like a very questionable pick and the clock is ticking on Siakam and OG (who was very impressive tonight.) The only guy they have signed long term is Poeltl, and that looks like an overpay. Masai has his work cut out for him.
If you think it’s the Randle I still disagree. We won tonight because Grimes and Hart were terrific on offense AND good on defense. Randle was terrible on defense. He gave up close to as much on defense as his efficient scoring added on offense.
Best game of the season for Zion tonight. Scored at will against the elite Minnesota defense.
“If you think it’s the Randle I still disagree.”
And you’re still wrong.
“I’ll make it easier. It was a good signing because he’s a pretty good player and the contract is fair.”
doing stuff around the house…need to go back and re-watch…only really saw the last few minutes of the game…
it was an important win, every win against sub .500 teams will be extremely important…mainly because we can’t really depend on beating plus .500 teams right now…
daniel what’shisname…no thank you, we are now firmly in the g-men’s tommy cutlets era…
draft defense, tag barkley again, run tommy back out there next season and see what happens, most likely – 10 win season, i sez…