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Game Thread 2023-24 Knicks vs. Pistons (OAKAAK Opener, which is not a thing)

The Knicks definitely need an easy game on their schedule, and luckily, their recent trade partner, the Detroit Pistons, are in town tonight for just such a game.

The Pistons visit MSG with former Knicks Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier and technically Malachi Flynn (who was only briefly a Knicks, but, well, as the title notes, Once a Knick, Always a Knick).

Let’s hope the Knicks just kick the Pistons’ ass so easily that Brunson, DDV and iHart get to rest a lot in the fourth quarter.

Let’s go, Knicks!

198 replies on “Game Thread 2023-24 Knicks vs. Pistons (OAKAAK Opener, which is not a thing)”

Fournier to Leon Rose: “I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”

My pre-draft Thompson twin skepticism probably won’t age well but they do need to learn to shoot the ball

There’s ball movement and then there’s Hart, Precious, iHart just passing the ball because they know they can’t shoot. We have a lot of the latter right now.

The four commercials aired during that break were for Bayer, Mira-Lax, Afrin, and Alka Seltzer. Apparently Knicks fans have a lot of ailments.

Too bad we haven’t recently acquired any good shooters who could start in place of Precious in a game like this.

Also too bad we don’t have any good wing defenders who can shoot better than Hart.

7 minutes into the first quarter is a bit early to be complaining about our roster, dontcha think?

When Jericho Sims is doing good things he’s just really fun to watch.

Hart has his limitations that can’t be dismissed, but we really do need that dude.

Definitely starting to get worried Thibs is crestfallen with Precious at Bogey’s expense.

Lack of numeracy in these broadcasts bugs me so much.

They just showed Achiuwa’s numbers in the bench compared to his numbers as a starter. On a rate basis, his bench production was slightly higher across the border, but Wally goes on and on about how his production increased. His minutes almost tripled!

There’s Bogey. I mean, Thibs can’t hold a grudge against the only NBA player who kinda physically resembles him.

Annoying end to the half after they could have gone up 7 on Burks’ missed free throw.

I mean it’s cool and all that Precious has turned out to be a good rebounding big man who can occasionally get a putback but dude does not need to be playing 45 MPG

Also two tip-outs on quasi-rebounds for Bogey. Can’t jump, but I guess offensive rebound tips to the three-point line is a thing…

Alexis Brocks still does some dumb stuff, but you know, I kinda feel like we needed a shameless gunner (within reason).

It’s Alan Hahn on color tonight!

lol I tune them out at times, but I stand corrected.

People forget that Tracy Morgan once called Sarah Palin “great masturbation material” on TNT

Watching Fournier burn Burks on a drive to the basket gave me double PTSD and some kind of bizarre time warp thing. I’m not even sure there’s a word for it.

Thibs sent Fournier to Siberia because his defense was so bad, but somehow doesn’t have his team systematically attack him now that he is defending his players.

It’s amazing how little respect Brunson gets from the refs. Probably the least friendly whistle for a star in the NBA.

Sadly I just don’t think this iteration of the team can really blow anyone out. Until the calvary gets back I’ll take any win that doesn’t involve an injury.

It feels like every team is hitting half of their 3s against the Knicks during this bad stretch.

Sadly I just don’t think this iteration of the team can really blow anyone out. Until the calvary gets back I’ll take any win that doesn’t involve an injury.

Yeah, we’re 2-6 and running the league’s only two-center offense. We shouldn’t even be taking a W tonight for granted.

“Alexis Brocks still does some dumb stuff”

At least he doesn’t spell names incorrectly on purpose, thus making himself look dumb for absolutely no reason when it isn’t actually the case.

These games aren’t that fun to watch anymore, one of OG or Randle need to return ASAP.

Precious really is an intriguing defender, I can’t entirely fault Thibs for wanting him out there all the damn time

Knicks had a few opportunities to pull away this game and keep letting Detroit back in. Hope they don’t regret this at the end.

Old Knicks helping current Knicks by beating Indiana on the road. Up 7 with 24 seconds to go.

And of course just as I write that he does some things

The “Alex Burcs is washed” take is having a good night. Holy hell does that guy look like shit

It’d be one thing if Burks had lost his athleticism, but it’s weird that he forgot how to dribble

I love Sims, but Bogey really needs to stop passing to him like that’s a good idea.

Of course “Alex Burcs” is washed, because he doesn’t exist…….at least not as an NBA player.

I just tune in expecting to be up 20 and I see Bobo foul Grimes to tie it up. Umm. What have you guys been doing ?

The two new additions have added little to no positive on this team so far. Burks looks totally washed and Bogdanovic can only be of value if he is hot from outside when Randle returns. But I don’t have much hope for Randle playing close to what he was. The only hope is that OG will come back sooner than later and will make a difference because our defense is not good. If we continue like this, we may soon be fighting for a play-in spot. Let’s hope Thibs will figure out something. Tough schedule coming up and things don’t look good.

After Duren got that offensive rebound, we’ll be lucky if Bogey plays another minute for the rest of his Knicks career

This trade with Detroit trade is looking like a Yankees trade of the last 2 years

Smells like the Josh Donaldson trade

Smells like the Josh Donaldson trade

At least none of the incoming players is an a-hole.

Brunson has been cold from 3 for a while now

Grimes is who I thought he was, Bojan & Burks have been worse than I thought. No idea why he was wide open on one of those 3s….

That block was the first time I noticed iHart in the second half.

This game is making me nauseous.

Small sample size alert – this game confirms that the Detroit trade is one of the worst in Knicks history

The three nova boys are not perfect but very good. Without them, we would be down by 30. The problem is that there is very little beyond those three.

Hahaha. Grimes had the Hollywood screenplay bucket, but then … chaos and … Hart. My god. This should not be so tough. Haha.

Josh Hart heard you were talkin shit

I think if we say “hustle-bunny” three times …. 😉

No, it’s definitely “Doogie.” I know how to spell my own nickname, and so do you. Spelling it incorrectly on purpose makes you just look like a dumbass (or a 15-year-old boy, or both), similar to how spelling Alec Burks’ name incorrectly makes you look.

Well if you believe in the breaks evening out, this kinda makes up for the Houston game…

Crazy ending and I’ll take the gritty win, but it simply should not have been that difficult.

This Pistons team is going to be good in a few years.

Cunningham, Duren, Ivy and Grimes will be a nice core going forward after adding another top lottery pick.

They need to get better defensively (Grimes will help) and learn how to win but there’s more talent there to develop than their record indicates.

Don’t love such a chaotic finish, especially needing to get that to beat the pistons, but happy they fought and got the dub.

Survived the Grimes revenge game at least.

Dookie, you don’t even talk about basketball here, you solely come on to make grammar and spelling corrections, which is maybe the lamest and most irritating shtick in Knickerblogger history.

Fuck off, troll.

At least we didn’t go to overtime with the Pels in town tomorrow. Let’s see if we can put together a nice little home stand!

15-year-old boy

Doobie I’ll have you know I had perfectly good Melo trade takes posting here as a 15-year-old boy.

That’s abjectly false. I talk about basketball here all the time. Maybe learn to read. You can fuck off yourself.

And it’s “Doogie,” not “Dookie.” LOL

I looked— you haven’t had a basketball take here in days. Lots of grammar takes though!

Was that an uncalled foul on DDV at the end? I don’t think they showed any other angles, but if felt like Ausar never had control of the ball?

I looked— you haven’t had a basketball take here in days. Lots of grammar takes though!

Rudely conveyed grammar takes is why we come here, surely.

I wish we had a mute button.

I’m sure you did, TNFH. And it’s “Doogie,” not “Doobie,” and it should have had a comma after it. But you already knew that, too. (Well, maybe you only knew one of those two things. 🙂 )

Ok fuck the Burcks Bogey trade. I want Malachi Flynn back

Haha. Truth. Leon may have gotten too cute for his own good with our last trade. When do I get to see Bobo just effortlessly pouring in threes? Ever again?

Objectively (and as a basketball referee) that was a good no call. Thompson never had control of the ball the contact was incidental

That was actually a good no call on the Donte steal. He got the ball cleanly, then they collided after. Great effort by Donte.

Basketballlllllllllllllllllll.

I also haven’t corrected anyone’s grammar in days, either, because I haven’t been on here over the course of the weekend. I’m not sure what you’ve been looking at. 🙂

DiVo got a hand on it and stripped before any contact was initiated, the rest of the contact was incidental—two guys running into each other. So I think that was the basis for the no-call.

Edit: What d-mar and Hubert said.

I felt the same way about the no-call, but we will hear about it for the next 24 hours as if it’s payback for the Houston call. Honestly the only angle they have shown so far is half blocked, and I don’t think what we can see shows there was a foul.

Objectively (and as a basketball referee) that was a good no call. Thompson never had control of the ball the contact was incidental

Seeing it from a good angle it’s pretty clear, but the live broadcast angle they kept showing instead was unintelligible

Totally fine with what happened tonight. We were due. Although I don’t think that was a foul, improbably.

Pelicans have been struggling lately so hopefully Knicks can come out tomorrow and put together a performance like they did vs Philly.

Josh Hart was a huge part of this win, but he’s playing with a bad knee. He’s on record saying it’s probably going to have to be “managed” all season. He’s been playing a LOT of minutes lately (42 tonight). That’s not going to help. I hope he’s not the next Thibs casualty. If that happens, just fire the guy for an inability to think beyond today. Hart is too “game” to ask for a game off.

“This dookie is making me want to smoke a doobie…”

Go for it! And enjoy. 🙂

We somehow survived the Quentin Grimes Revenge Game + Malachi Flynn Revenge Game + Cade Cunningham having one of the best shooting nights of his career

Seeing it from a good angle it’s pretty clear, but the live broadcast angle they kept showing instead was unintelligible

I’m trying to find a better angle, on the broadcast the ref is blocking the exact spot where the ball is/where Donte and Ausar Thompson collided, because of course.

not sure if you remember doogie, there was this:

here at KB we are all sitting together at one big table, eating, drinking, smoking, relaxing, whatevering

thing going on…and, consistently interjecting critiques of others is going to generate one of two behaviors:

1). try to ignore the unnecessary/unwanted critiques

2). lash out at the individual whom is critiquing

seriously, if you wanna burn any kind of relationship – continue with unnecessary and unwanted criticism…

hopefully you understand now…

it’s nothing personal doogie – it’s your behavior…

Donte gets possession of the ball first and then Thompson runs into him, it’s a fine no foul. Good makeup for that atrocious pass

Josh Hart was a huge part of this win, but he’s playing with a bad knee. He’s on record saying it’s probably going to have to be “managed” all season. He’s been playing a LOT of minutes lately (42 tonight). That’s not going to help. I hope he’s not the next Thibs casualty. If that happens, just fire the guy for an inability to think beyond today. Hart is too “game” to ask for a game off.

He’s averaging 43 mpg in the 3 games since the all star break.

In fairness, if he had averaged 34 mpg we might be 0-3 instead of 2-1.

Will be very interesting to see how many he plays tomorrow, what with Thibs being insane and all.

from the live broadcast it looked liked donte tackled him…

seeing as how no foul was called, I’m totally at peace with how the game ended…

Grimes looked great. Gotta give him his props.

Glad I never boarded the “Cade sucks” train. He might not wind up being a superstar but the kid can play.

I’m slowly coming around to thinking DDV is improved on a sustainable basis. After a better look at his full career, I think that one bad year was clearly impacted by injury. If you draw a line through that year, he looks more like a guy that’s been improving steadily than a pretty good player having a career year.

My stab at it is it was a good no call, but it’s often called. So I understand the Pistons being mad.

Now that the Knicks got this win I can appreciate the Pacers home loss to Toronto much more.

Thx, Marechal. From that it looks correct as a no call (but I’m surprised it went our way bc Knicks).

And gotta love Donte. He totally screws up the pass but then he will not be denied possession. I want him on my team.

Grimes looked great. Gotta give him his props.

Great trade for the Pistons. They brought in a good young player that will help on the defensive end for two old guys that weren’t part of their future and added two 2nd rounders on top of it. They should be ecstatic. They need more talent, but they are positioned to add another very good young player this year. If you are a Pistons fan, there’s still a long road to being good, but it appears they are finally doing some smart things.

I think the steal when Fontecchio had the ball earlier in the possession was closer to a foul than Donte’s play. And those get called more often.

There’s still a long way to go but I cannot fathom why the media was praising us so heavily at the deadline. The measured takes of Ben R, gkhenman, Strat, and others have proven to be far more on point than the bullshit the pundits were peddling.

And a lot of it, frankly, has to do with the early Thibs-Bojan relationship. Thibs doesn’t seem to trust him yet. And I’m not blaming Thibs because he might be right. But neither of these two guys seem like good fits.

Will be very interesting to see how many he plays tomorrow, what with Thibs being insane and all.

I was very in favor of the Thibs hiring and have supported him almost every step of the way, but he’s starting to lose me.

Things like Robinson and Grimes coming back after they went to locker room hurt (both times the injury was serious enough to miss a lot of time) and some of these minutes distributions that may have contributed to an injury being worse (OG). The times the game is over and he’s still got starters in late. The man is insane.

I saw a quote from Michael Malone today talking about the Nuggets playoff positioning. He basically said he’d love to be the top seed, but he’s way more interested in his key players being healthy and rested going into the playoffs than winning a few extra games now.

I’m not making conclusions about the trade until at least OG is back. If Grimes and Flynn were still Knicks, maybe our bench unit once again struggles to create offense and we lose the game.

There’s still a long way to go but I cannot fathom why the media was praising us so heavily at the deadline.

I don’t want to make too sweeping of a negative statement about the basketball media because there are some brilliant guys out there, but there are also a lot of people that don’t know much beyond basic boxscore points, rebounds, and assists. It’s like defense, fitting the pieces together well, and other contributions to winning don’t exist.

Let’s just hope our new players have a good stretch run and playoffs and we can turn them into something good next year.

They also copy each other’s homework. When you get an overwhelming consensus like we had it could just be because all the second-tier guys were just regurgitating Lowe, Pelton, et al.

But you’re right, it really doesn’t seem like anyone considered fit. The two positions Bojan can play are occupied by the NBA’s leaders in minutes played over the last month, and Thibs seems unwilling to deviate from a Precious-Hartenstein combo right now.

If Grimes and Flynn were still Knicks, maybe our bench unit once again struggles to create offense and we lose the game.

Grimes and Flynn outscored Bojan and Burks 22 to 20 and our entire bench had just 24 points.

Grimes earned our indifference. And OG made him superfluous before the injury. But seeing him hit that layup did cause some emotions. Plays like that were so rare when he was here.

I wish he had worked out.

We’re 3 wins out of the play in if we’re not grinding out these games we’re fucked. That’s what happens when 3 of your 4 best players are hurt. Mike Malone has the best player in the NBA on his roster and his team is 1.5 games back from the 1 seed.

Grimes and Flynn had 22 points. Our entire bench scored 24.

Well, I’m convinced now, huge mistake trading those 2 budding stars

Well, I’m convinced now, huge mistake trading those 2 budding stars

I trust you know that is not even close to what I was suggesting.

Grimes earned our indifference.

I don’t know, man. He had a couple bad months after being an integral part of our best season in 10 years. And he’s 23 years old. If this is what we’re going to get from Bojan and Burks, I’d rather have Grimes.

Of course we could get much more from them eventually. I’m not jumping the gun here and saying it was a bad trade. I’m just saying maybe everyone else jumped the gun when they declared this trade an overwhelming success before a single game was played. We probably should have chilled and waited before running those victory laps because early returns are underwhelming.

“My stab at it is it was a good no call, but it’s often called. So I understand the Pistons being mad.”

Yeah, I get the point made above but I wonder if a foul had been called and it was challenged whether the call would have been upheld or reversed. I also wonder if the call will be affirmed in the last 2-minute report.

We’re 3 wins out of the play in if we’re not grinding out these games we’re fucked. That’s what happens when 3 of your 4 best players are hurt. Mike Malone has the best player in the NBA on his roster and his team is 1.5 games back from the 1 seed.

Couldn’t agree more. People don’t seem to understand how difficult our position is right now. Play those players fewer minutes, and you loose more games. It’s as simple as that! We are literally fighting to get a playoff spot right now, we have good chances, but it is far from certain we will succeed.

Those same people who chastise Thibs and, even tonight, (when Hart literally won the game for us!) refer to Hart as “the next Thibs injury”, are the same people who will be screaming “fire Thibs” if he plays our top players fewer minutes and we end up not making the playoffs.

The measured takes of Ben R, gkhenman, Strat,

Gkhenman has been positive, I think, Hubie. You’re thinking of me, the first person to post a (slightly) negative assessment. Followed by Ben with a much more negative assessment and Strat.

Could still work out, but it was a win-now trade that may not get us more wins, in a year when our second-best player may not return (or return in a significantly diminished state) for the playoffs. Hope he does, and that Bojan gives us something in the playoffs.

People don’t seem to understand how difficult our position is right now. Play those players fewer minutes, and you loose more games. It’s as simple as that!

Of course it is precisely that line of thinking that put us in this difficult position. And when Josh Hart pulls up lame after averaging 45 mins a night you’ll say we have to play Bojan 45 mins or we’ll lose.

Pennywise, pound foolish.

Grimes and Flynn outscored Bojan and Burks 22 to 20 and our entire bench had just 24 points.

I scanned their game logs from the past two months and I might be wrong, but it doesn’t look like Grimes and Flynn ever combined to score 22 points or more as Knicks.

Of course it is precisely that line of thinking that put us in this difficult position. And when Josh Hart pulls up lame after averaging 45 mins a night you’ll say we have to play Bojan 45 mins or we’ll lose.

Pennywise, pound foolish.

I am not in the mood to get into a back and forth about this as I find the frustration with Thibs minutes use quite immature. Just one comment. With all his faults – those may include minutes use but on very-very few occasions — Thibs is the best thing that happened to this team in a quarter of a century. This is my view. Now, with Brunson, Randle, Hart et co. playing 9 minutes less, we would have at the very best 26-28 wins, not 35. We’d be standing next to the Hawks right now. I may even be generous with those numbers. I repeat that those same people would be chanting “fire Thibs.” Typical fan behavior. There are Heat fans who call for Spo to be fired, Spurs fans for Pop to be fired, and so on.

Let’s agree to disagree.

I scanned their game logs from the past two months and I might be wrong, but it doesn’t look like Grimes and Flynn ever combined to score 22 points or more as Knicks.

This has to do with lack of minutes for them, mostly Flynn. Tonight they combined 35:55 playing time to score their 22pts.

On January 25, they scored 21pts in 26:44. Flynn played 3:49 and scored 2pts.

On January 5, they scored 19pts in a combined 24:59. Grimes scored 19pts, Flynn scored 0 in his 1:22.

On December 23, they scored a combined 29pts in the same game. Grimes 19pts for the Knicks and Flynn 10pts for the Raptors. They played a combined 43:25.

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