The Knicks start a mini-road trip that just got TREMEDNDOUSLY easier with Luka Doncic missing tonight’s game against Dallas, and Ja Morant being out for the year ahead of the Memphis game (what a weird, weird season for Ja Morant and the Grizzlies).
While Kyrie Irving is obviously also a good player, well, come on, now.
The Knicks should definitely take this one, allowing them to rub it in the Mavericks’ faces about their insanely stupid handling of Jalen Brunson, driving the star point guard right into the Knicks’ welcoming arms. He was asking to sign a below market deal to stay with Dallas, and they said no because they wanted to be able to trade him! How stupid can you get?! I love it so, so much. It makes me so happy to see Dallas screw themselves over and sending Brunson to the Knicks instead for nothing. So, so happy.
Okay, the 53 win tracker is back on! Are the Knicks on pace for 53 wins? Not right this second, but after a few more wins in this winning streak, I think it will be!
Let’s go, Knicks!
129 replies on “2023-24 Game Thread – Knicks @ Mavericks (Luka-Less Opener, which is not a thing)”
Did I read correctly that this is Jalen’s first game back in Dallas since the trade?
Yes, Raven. Should be fun.
That article you linked to, though, read like it was written by AI. My favorite non-sensical bit before giving up: “his efficiency has dropped from 48/41/80 shooting splits to 47/39/77 in 2023-24.” (Michael Porter) I mean, technically lower, but “most disappointing player” is more than a stretch…
That’s funny, rama, I was wondering the same thing!
I guess that makes me a Skynet disinformation spreader. For which I apologize.
Always enjoyable watching the Celtics get their asses kicked
The key point works – Mikal is seen as a disappointment this season, and that could be helpful to us. Though I agree with the let the cake bake crew: it’s a bit early to go for what could be the last big piece. A few more games should expose more weaknesses.
Clearly the Bucks T-shirt vendors got their shit together
good Kyrie going on right now unfortunately
I hate Kyrie. I really do.
Good timeout here.
He’ll cool off.
I hope.
Ewing effect in full swing. Dallas came to play.
Can’t stop Kyrie and when the other guys shoot and miss can’t get a defensive rebound. Not a great first 4 mins for the Knicks.
I blame the 13-0 January talk.
I love you Clyde. But that elbow was not inadvertant. Randle put Powell on notice with the rough stuff.
Clyde to Powell: “Don’t play defense with your face!” Ha ha!
Knicks have gone back to not giving a shit about covering the 3pt line.
I have no empirical data to back this up, but it always seems teams missing their stars rise to the occasion.
And it may also be the psychological effect on the Knicks knowing Luka is out.
Haven’t said this in awhile, this is embarrassing.
Have we gotten a stop this entire quarter? Doesn’t feel like it
Any chance Randle gonna wake up soon?
The 3s will start falling
If my math is right, Dallas failed to score in only 4 possessions. 13-18, 2 ORBs, 1 TO.
Well. At least the Yankees got Stroman.
Jesus.
Nice to see Deuce keep shooting confidently
Knicks might be too in their feelings from the IQ article
Dallas 71% overall shooting only exceeded by their 78% from three
Maybe the Knicks looked at the Celtics’ first half performance tonight and said, “Hold our beers.”
5 stops this whole quarter.
Oof da
Ok well that sucked
Is 80% from three good?
might not be our night
Well, we were bound for a trap game eventually where the opponents just shoot the lights out…
44 points is…bad?
Jesus, the Mavericks just aren’t missing.
Looks like Dallas should be playing Milwaukee tonight, and the Knicks and Celtics should be playing a consolation game.
if this keeps up at least we’ll get all our missing posters back tomorrow
Why do I feel strangely confident about this game, though?
DAL 8-10 for 3pt, Kyrie with a 4pt play, a half court 3 at the buzzer. May just be one of those nights.
They can’t keep shooting 80% from 3.
Keep hitting the boards hard and trim the deficit down to like 10 by half.
Haha Clash Fan I was thinking the same thing. Big first quarter leads almost always evaporate
Clean it up boys
Big 1st quarter lead turned into gigantic 3rd quarter lead in Milwaukee. But there’s still time!
Precious, lol
Ah, that’s what they mean about Precious. Scramble for the ball, gets it, then throws it backwards over his head while sitting down right to a Mav.
Precious just attempted a no look behind the head pass from the ground if I’m not mistaken
The best thing about that Precious pass is that there’s no way if would have hit his target even if it hadn’t been intercepted.
It’s about time the Knicks start playing real defense.
Cut Precious some slack he’s actually playing pretty well
Grimes doesn’t seem to have it tonight
Well, as terrible as it’s been we’re still close enough, so there’s a chance… but it’s been ugly to watch.
Yeah, Precious has been good. That doesn’t make that pass any less funny though.
Not helping that our two stars are 3-13
Had some chances to get back in this but just can’t get anything going on either end.
So many brain dead mistakes… Thibs needs to lay it on these guys at the half.
So many unforced errors
Grant might be concussed
Randle going MMA on the Mavs
Randle’s just going to send the whole Mavs team to the locker room, one by one. Then we’ll win.
What the fuck is Randle doing for gods sake
Clyde again: “Williams playing defense with his face!” 🤣
Take #30 out
We should have known that THJ and Kyrie were bound to kill the Knicks.
Get within 12, do the most stupid shit ever, concede points on the other end, rinse and repeat… what a frustrating game.
I’m trying really hard to not be mean to Julius, but he’s making it really hard…
OG isn’t doing a bad job guarding Kyrie it’s the other guys that are killing us.
They were down only 10 when Randle had those two offensive fouls.
Lots of bad low-percentage iso attempts going on here from Brundle
It feels like they collectively left their brains in New York…
Can’t decide if the blown alley-oop going in or the THJr end of quarter 3 is more emblematic of how the night has gone
Fair to say this game won’t be in I-Hart’s highlight reel. Maybe we can cool down with the trade Mitch clamoring.
It’s not why we’re losing but these refs are horrendous
Rough whistle for us tonight
a lot of bad performances this evening…the proverbial “zen slap”…
but the refs suck as usual…the standard is very low now to become a ref…the adam silver era…
The fix is in.
Let’s see how they deal with a little adversity
That was the most annoying half in a while…
Randle is shitting the bed in front of his home town crowd.
Well at least we’re not down 62 points…
18 fouls called on the Knicks, 9 on the Mavs.
We’re battling…
Man, it would suck to be rooting for the Blazers right now…
They’ve been doing a good job forcing switches to get OG off Kyrie and to make Randle & Brunson play defense, which they still can’t do.
Randle is the weirdest player.
Randle with the heat checkiest of heat check shots but he’s earned it this quarter.
sort of back!
I’m glad I didn’t say anything bad about Julius..
Randle giveth now
Julius with a 3rd quarter explosion and then the stupid heat check
Just arrived. Yikes! Did we anger the gods with our careless talk of championships and grammar?
Go Knicks!
Aaand were not back again
Kyrie really got it cooking
Kyrie is still Kyrie…
Kyrie’s bag is too deep for the world to be flat
Why did Thibs take OG out. Kyrie explodes again right as he sits on the bench.
Fuck Uncle Drew.
Kyrie is still infuriating to watch.
Fuck these refs
OG 1-4, iHart 1-2, Deuce 1-4, Hart 1-4, Grimes 1-3 after 3 quarters.
WTF?! Dallas D can’t be *that good.
Wish Randle had the ball to bleed the last seconds off instead of getting the pass with seconds left
We knew Kyrie would get his but fucking Tim Hardaway is destroying us
Clyde now going with “Nobly,” in honor of his favorite Knickerblogger poster
Eye test says Thibs finally had a chance to teach his offense to the new guys.
This is starting to feel like an ol’ fashioned country ass whuppin’
E loosening up his typing fingers…
Losing to a random THJ explosion is always going to be one of the most annoying feelings in the NBA.
Still kinda hanging around but it’s hard to win when you never get stops
Obvious and one on I-Hart
Refs have been god awful
OMG
payback for the luka game last yr…
da big Ragu…
oh…never mind…can’t get a rebound…
Ummmmmmm
Down by 1…
Hey d-mar, Doogie’s going to ream you for this spelling error:
We knew Kyrie would get his but fucking
Oh come on……
Rough no rebound on that one
Where’s the rebounding?
who the fuck is josh green?
Could’ve used Mitch there
That was an infuriating possession.
Pain.
One rebound…..
Fighting till the end
Damn
Looked like Randle could have had that rebound underneath but it got swatted out of his hand. Such a bummer.
EDIT: Gave up 44pts in Q1? Did I hear that right? Sheesh.
I would classify this as a heat check loss
I would classify this as a heat check loss
🙂
Mavs hit their threes. The refs helped them maintain. They fought through it well but couldn’t quite get there. Good second half effort.
Well, I guess we know who will be back to comment tomorrow…
Not a good game, but it’s important to note that even when they’re not playing well, they still always battle back. They never give up. That’s great to see, even if the loss overall was a very bad one.
You jinxed them, Brian. This is your fault.
Which of these things do not belong? Celtics, Blazers, Knicks.
(Shai 11-15 in 20 minutes. If OKC wins 55 games (-4 off their current pace) he’s got to be the MVP, right?)