The Knicks head into Denver with the chance to pull off one of the most unlikely achievements most any East Coast team can pull off, a 4-0 West Coast road trip. It is very rare unless you’re, like, the Jordan Bulls. The Lebron Heat never did it (they did have a 3-0 streak once, though), the 1992-93 and 1993-94 Knicks never did it (they did have a 3-0 streak, though) and this year’s Celtics never did it, and the Knicks can pull it off tonight by a simple matter of just beating, you know, the defending NBA champions in their home arena, without OG Anunoby, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson.
But you know what, we all know that they absolutely can do it, and it is because there are many NBA teams out there, including the defending champions, who clearly don’t always give a fuck. That’s really why West Coast trips are so rarely perfect, because even the best teams take their foot off of the gas when they’re traveling on the road for a week or so. Very rarely can teams A. always give a fuck or B. be so good that they can win while not giving a fuck (the 72-10 Chicago Bulls didn’t even do it, but they also had a weird ass schedule where they had two 6-game West Coast road trips. That’s moronic).
The Knicks, under Thibs, always give a fuck, and they will definitely be giving a fuck tonight, and they will give the Nuggets their all. The Nuggets have some pride on the line from getting their ass kicked by the Knicks earlier in the Garden, so they might be up for it, but you just watch, the Knicks are going to give it their all tonight, and with the Nuggets not having an answer for Brunson, and iHart being about as good of a possible Jokic defender as you can expect (which isn’t saying a lot, but still), the Knicks can definitely win this game, and heck, I’m going with them winning this game and getting this perfect West Coast trip, and possibly even the #2 seed!
Let’s do this thing, Knicks!
Let’s go, Knicks!
145 replies on “2023-24 Game Thread Knicks @ Warriors: West Coast Sweep Opener, which I’m hoping is a thing”
Jesus, Brian, I don’t even know what to say after that introduction.
Um, Bogey Bogey!
Deuce starting again!
huh, that’s a little surprising
Yeah, the Hart-Aaron Gordon matchup is one to watch.
Deuce Deuce!
I did not think he’d start again. Kudos to Thibs for sticking with strong results, which I guess shouldn’t really deserve kudos. I wonder how quick Precious comes in after Gordon dunks multiple times in the first 2 minutes
who is guarding MPJ?
Is the altitude getting to the MSG camera guy?
iHart trying to be the joker
iHart is pretty good, but he’s um, not Jokic.
Despite giving up height at every position, we’re mostly getting killed in transition and not from size. The MPJ dunk on Donte is the notable exception
Murray is beating Deuce pretty bad.
jokic has 4 assists already
our PG is pretty good too
Trying to play Hart & Deuce 48 at altitude will be interesting
5 assists already for Brunson.
Deuce/iHart are blowing up the Jokic/Murray pnr on D pretty nicely.
Wow they called that foul when Hart was almost on the other side of the court. Jesus.
Deuce!!
love to see deuce get to the rim
Deuce with the blowby against their top perimeter defenders is nice to see
Precious better than Jokic.
Edit: Just wanted to see what it felt to write that. Felt weird.
I think Sims might be the better option here
It seems impossible to spin and then take a step forward like Gordon did without traveling.
Denver is out-rebounding the Knicks 12-4. They are too big for that lineup.
ok…just watched the rangers win a meaningless road game against the best team in the league…now tuning in to watch another meaningless regular season road game…so tedious watching these meaningless games…
What a great quarter by Brunson. 8 points in 3-6 shooting and 6 assists, no turnovers.
The Knicks really need to win the non-Jokic minutes. Denver has been pretty bad when he sits. Come on Detroit guys.
I’ll admit it’s quite possible Bojan did not miss that wide open 3 bc of Thibs.
Can’t believe Thibs made Bojan brick another wide open 3
First time Bogie has played the 3 for us I think
Deuce is an entirely different player offensively than he was a year ago. I guess young players getting better is a fairly normal thing, it just didn’t happen around here for a while.
Thibs terrifying Bogey into an 0-2.
weird to look at the team and not see Josh Hart out there
If Bogey is constantly worried about being yanked he sure does not play like it
iHart playing a great game so far
John Calipari is an incredible choke artist, Kentucky just took an L to a 14 seed
Was about to compliment Burks twice now and he made a bad TO both times
Burks does so much stupid shit. Jesus.
The Bogeyman count is now 0-3.
Mitch will likely never throw a pass like the one IHart threw to Burks there. Love Deuce taking the charge.
So far so good. Stupid challenge also.
No idea what they expected on that challenge
Edit: I thought it was blindingly obvious before the challenge but assumed I missed something, maybe he turned at the last second. No, it was a blindingly obvious charge.
That seemed like a poor challenge even before the replays.
Deuce learning many things from Brunson, including taking charges.
I’ll just point out we’re leading by 1 in Denver against the champs.
We’re fouling a lot but good!
Probably Burks’ best shift as a 2024 Knick…
Knicks +7 on non-Jokic minutes. Good job.
Dumb foul there…
Challenge: I’m guessing Sugar Ray and Randle?
I LOVE the way we are playing!
no idea on the trivia answer
David Lee & Randle
Jesus Hartenstein
The Reddit iHart = Jokic guy is smiling somewhere
iHart is pricing his way out of NY…
I-Hart is not outplaying Jokic, but Jokic is not outplaying him by much either.
Monica is good!
Every time this Tullamore Dew commercial comes on I think of
a hammered Jimmy McNulty turning down a shot of it bc it’s “protestant whisky”.
If Jared Jeffries is a college scout for the Nuggets aren’t there other games he should be at right now?
Jeffrightened looks great
Jesus that jokic pass was insane
Ihart may never throw a pass like that one from Jokic in his career
My goodness, Jokic.
I don’t know what is more surprising, Green still being relevant in the NBA or Hubie still commentating
He scouts like he played.
Holy shit that iHart pass.
He & Brunson are really developing something special.
DEUCE
“I feel good when Deuce McBride has the ball” is not something I ever thought I would say
Who was supposed to have Porter on that one?
Bad end to the half, I think they blow us out after the break
Jokic is unreal. Always where he needs to be.
Not a great ending and my guess is we run out of gas in the second half, but I’ll sign up for that effort any day.
almost really got away from us in the last two minutes
Brunson has 1 FTA in the half. It’s pretty annoying.
Jokic is one rebound off a triple double already
Burks gave us a nice lift, hopefully he’s turning a corner…
Solid 1st half but goddammit guys – hit your friggin’ 3s!! Some awful bricks there in the last few mins. Oh, and get some damn rebounds too!
Meanwhile, check out the BKN-MIL game…
Jamal Murray is pretty good…
The Nuggets are a lot bigger than us. We could really use Randle and OG tonight.
Jokic and Murray going off together makes it really damn hard.
Orlando is gonna finish 2nd since looks like they’re apparently going undefeated rest of the season…
I can’t stop laughing at Harden trying to block Kawhi. I must have watched it 20 times already.
Giannis literally just took 5 steps without dribbling and none of the refs called traveling
And he passes to Lillard for a 3. Brutal for the Nets.
They just said we had the 2nd lowest rebounding half since 1997.
There is justice in the world
Jokic is unfair. I don’t think there’s ever been this much distance between the best and second best players in the NBA.
This game is totally on the verge of a blowout and I have no problem with it.
Intellectually I know Jokic isn’t the best basketball player I’ve ever seen but sometimes I think he is
We’re going to be in fifth place after this. Murray is too good (and we don’t have someone big enough who can defend him well)
I don’t think it’s wrong to say Jokic is the best offensive player ever.
Based on this game, Michael Porter Jr. Is the best player ever he’s making every single shot
Sorry Pags MPJ missed a three. He’s 10-11.
When Jokic has the ball, you just wait for something bad to happen (to your team)
Randle leading the Knicks in assists 3x is pretty surprising
Bojan may very well just suck.
Thibs forgot to tell Bojan not to pass to opposing players.
Yet another day when he has more turnovers than made FGs.
Detroit killing the Knicks. That was one weak sauce pass by Bogey. I’m not convinced it would have reached his teammate if there were no Nuggets on the court.
Then Burks does something inexplicable with the ball.
Then Burks does something ELSE inexplicable with the ball…
don’t think we’re going to win this one folks
The Burks & Bojan Circus is in town…
I suppose that beating the defending champs while missing our starting front line is a tall order…
Then Burks does something ELSE inexplicable with the ball…
…then Burks hits a three.
Stay in your lane, Alec.
never say die!
Deuce didn’t hear no bell
Deuce!
The reverse Cronin
The best player by far in the NBA goes out and we go on a run, who would have thunk it?
Another good push in non-Jokic minutes (+7 in 2:08), and it’s a 5 point game.
The Knicks are +14 in 7 non-Jokic minutes overall.
Maybe someone forgot to tell them they can stop tanking now.
I’d really like to know what’s going on with Randle and whether he’s made any contact progress. With the Knicks, no news is usually bad news.
Holy shit Bogey hit a shot
Good decision by Thibs to let Bogey hit that 3
Maybe Malone will rest Jokic for the whole fourth quarter?
Motor city…
Holy fuck Burks did too
Pretty sweet fingerroll too
Heeee’s back!!!!
What a GREAT trade!
I like that little rap!
Thibs would play Jokic 48 mins per game if he coached Denver with that bench lol
pathetic closeout by thibs on that bogey three
The Knicks are must watch TV.
Jokic will end up playing more than any non-Deuce Knick.
Leon knew these guys played well at high altitude
“pathetic closeout by thibs on that bogey three”
we have a winner!
Thibs on the phone yelling at Leon to get Harden to block Bojan next time
Bogey giveth and he mostly taketh away
Ihart has to take that to the hole..
Of course Bojan is +7, 2nd only to Jericho Sims at +8.
We need to keep Mitch specifically for this matchup (and I guess Embiid)
Should be a tech on Murray
This is by far the best Knicks Burks 2.0 game, he looks like the guy we traded for.
But he’s still done a lot of dumb shit.
I am with Monica on the review clock.
Like her so much
hence…the journeyman…
Burks and Bojan don’t come across as what you would call “savvy” basketball players
Jesus Jokic
we should ask him not to do that
And on the day everyone finally said his name correctly for Doogie.
When Jokic does something human like missing a shot it’s almost shocking.
The look of disbelief on his face that it didn’t go in
This is a moral victory as long as iHart isn’t on the injury report on Saturday
If writing “Burks” correctly makes him play well, we should all do that.
That’ll be all for me on Bojan Island. Wonder how long Noble sticks around.
I’m writing this one off as an auto loss.
We tried. We fought, we never gave up, but they are the NBA champions for a reason. Jokic was insane, Murray was getting lose on the pick and roll time after time, and their offensive execution was at times impressive. We just couldn’t stop them tonight. This was obvious from the start. Even the rims were on their side. They got so many lucky bounds, it was maddening! Their only ‘weakness’ was their bench and this is when we were making our runs on them. Then the Joker was coming back on the floor and…
We sorely missed OG on defense and Randle on the boards where we got killed. This was glaring all night long. We might have a chance with those two on the floor. We are not so far behind the Nuggets, and this is a very-very good thing to say.
MPJ was basically shooting warm ups over the 6″ shorter Donte and we couldn’t grab boards. We didn’t have the size tonight and it showed.
This is correct. With OG on the floor, however, the 13-16 would have been 3-16
So Oakland beats Kentucky in round 1 because Dillingham and Sheppard crap the bed while some Gohlke guy goes off by going 10-20 from three.
Leon Rose and crew need to draft a 6′ 8 wing