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2023-24 Game Thread: Knicks @ Heat, April Opener, which is not a thing

The Knicks head to Miami to take on the Miami Heat in a relatively big game for the Knicks.

If the Knicks want to win 50 games, they really need to win tonight. If the Knicks want to knock the Heat out of any possibility of passing them in the standings (which is highly unlikely to happen) then they really need to win tonight. If the Knicks want a realistic shot at the #3 seed, they really need to win tonight. If the Knicks want the Heat to not be there at the #5 seed in a theoretical 4/5 first round matchup, they really need to win tonight.

I think the Knicks will end up with the #4 seed at worst (and possibly the #3 seed), but it obviously be very helpful if they started winning some of these games. So let’s hope that they win tonight.

Let’s go, Knicks!

149 replies on “2023-24 Game Thread: Knicks @ Heat, April Opener, which is not a thing”

I think the Knicks will end up with the #4 seed at worst

I will feel that way after we win tonight.

If we lose, I think the floor could drop out.

I just have to say Robbie Avila on Indiana State is very fun to watch and the Knicks should look into him.

Incredibly generous whistle for the legendary Nikola Jovic right off the bat

Knicks defensive intensity has picked up right where they left off in the 4th quarter vs OKC.

I’mma guess the league’s crackdown on calling fouls won’t apply to Jimmy Butler.

I may try and sit this one out. This is looking like a lot like the last two games so far.

Wait, Mitch is in the game? I thought Thibs was on trial for his murder…

It’s never too early to start working on his next injury!

Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂

This is a foul on Jacquez and the foul on Brunson last game wasn’t??

No one in the history of this website has ever been more right about anything than Ben R was about the Detroit trade

No one in the history of this website has ever been more right about anything than Ben R was about the Detroit trade

Ben and Rama!

I guess we were due for a wire-to-wire blowout loss instead of a close heartbreaker…

Kevin Love must hate the Knicks, right? I bet he’ll have his best game of the season.

No one in the history of this website has ever been more wrong about anything than when Hubert IV said “Bojan’s such a good shooter people might start clamoring for him to play over Randle.”

My current theory is that nobody watches Detroit games so they fabricated Boj’s stats and nobody could say they were wrong

At least Breen is echoing my Bojan off the bench theory. Still think that one’s got some legs.

My current theory is that nobody watches Detroit games so they fabricated Boj’s stats and nobody could say they were wrong

💯

I would also like to recognize Ben R and Rama for being right when the entirety of the professional NBA commentariat was dead wrong. The DET trade was a fatal blunder the second it was made and they nailed it.

We gave up picks to bring in the worst rotation player in the NBA to play out of position as our backup PG. It’s an Isiah level move.

Heat announcer is saying about Bogey “he can really score”. He isn’t aware of how Bogey is playing for the Knicks, probably.

Non-Brunson minutes a draw so far, largely due to Bogey. All is forgiven if he can win us a game against the Heat.

I really wish I had been less right because we could really use at least one of Burks or Bojan to be a reliable option off the bench.

I don’t know how we didn’t make a move for one of the many solid backup PGs that were available. And then we doubled down by not trying to find anyone in the buyout market.

Heat announcer had to say “McBride with the 3P and the Knicks fans erupt” 🙂

Non-Brunson minutes a draw so far, largely due to Bogey

Burks just checked in all like, “Hold my beer.”

Precious and Mitch are owing us 2 pts each. You can’t miss that close to the basket.

Maybe Bogey’ll go on a tear and at least be the shooter we thought we were getting. The defending I’m afraid is not improving, but when he is scoring well he isn’t completely useless.

Looking at the playoff seeding I think 6th is the best spot. You are getting either Cleveland or Orlando in the 1st round and then not Boston in the 2nd. 2nd or 3rd gives you the risk of an all of a sudden healthy Philly or an always dangerous Miami matchup. 4th or 5th gets you Boston in the 2nd round.

I still want to win as many games as possible but as long as we don’t slip to 7th it doesn’t matter too much.

I should never underestimate this teams ability to come back, but this feels like a pretty sure loss

You just can’t run out a lineup of Precious, Deuce, Hart, DDV and Brunson against them. Unless they go ice cold, there is no way to keep up.

Guys I really think the bottom fell out on this season. Like we might be in the middle of a 6 game losing streak and headed for the play in game.

Time to bring in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because we’re Free Fallin’

I’m beginning to wonder if Hart’s comments after the OKC game is a sign of frustration from the players about OG and Randle’s situations.

Any bets on whether/when OG and Randle will be back? This losing streak will definitely rattle the coach and FO…might they push the envelope? Or are they secretly planning to nab that 6th seed?

Time to bring in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because we’re Free Fallin’

Sorry EB, but that was a solo Petty album sans the Heartbreakers… but I feel you.

Any bets on whether/when OG and Randle will be back?

Next season

Any time I look at a Toronto box score all I notice is what an awful basketball team they are especially defensively.

We should hang a banner from the rafters that says

JANUARY 2024
WE WERE GOOD

Sorry EB, but that was a solo Petty album sans the Heartbreakers… but I feel you.

Then why does my heart feel so broken?

Like I said at the beginning of the game, if we’re gonna get unconscious Scary Terry tonight, we’re pretty much done.

Is Thibs job on the line? He has one more season left and if he can’t be trusted to manage the roster he is given should he be here long term?

They should try Toppin for a few minutes. We can’t play this small of a lineup all game.

The Kings game on Thursday feels like a loss to me.

Then we’re at Chicago the next night. Then at Milwaukee. Then at Chicago. Then at Boston.

I imagine we’ll split the Bulls away games and we’ll win the last two home games vs Brooklyn and Chicago.

That would put us on 47 wins, which is likely either 5th, 6th, or 7th.

This relatively manageable deficit feels like 30 in this game. Really annoying the guys we brought in for these kinds of slogs can’t do shit.

Kings have been struggling lately and don’t have Huerter and Monk. I’d be pretty disappointed if the Knicks don’t win on Thursday.

These last games have been painful but to me they look mostly a result of 3PT variance.

Heat are shooting 52% from 3 on high volume.

OKC shot 40% to the Knicks 30%.

Even the Spurs outshot the Knicks.

It happens, but it’s really annoying.

I can’t check now, but I think the Knicks are also shooting poorly at the rim.

Thibs will get a contract extension this summer.

They shouldn’t rush to an extension for him. In fact they should check in on Jay Wright. Thibs may very well put a ceiling limit on this team.

The NBA referee retirement plan is fully invested in the Knicks under 45 win total

Hubs, I had 2-6 as our median outcome. Given how bad we have looked these past 3 games, losing out is entirely plausible without reinforcements on the way.
It always concerns me when others start agreeing with my over the top doon & gloom…

You are seeing what Josh Harts issue is

He plays a lot of minutes and the other team doesn’t have to worry about him on offense

Josh Hart on offense especially against strong defensive teams looks like Ben Simmons

I’m despondent right now Pags but 2-6 seems impossible to me.

We have a minimum of 3 wins. The Kings game will be the difference between 4-4 or 3-5.

And maybe if I keep doing this we’ll finish this comeback and win.

To be honest I didn’t expect Brunson to just get destroyed against Terry Rozier all game.

Josh Hart wouldn’t be playing 40 minutes a night if we were healthy, probably closer to 20-25.

Josh Hart wouldn’t be playing 40 minutes a night if we were healthy, probably closer to 20-25.

He is in Thibs circle of trust so even if the team was fully healthy he would be playing 30 + minutes.

You gotta give these guys a lot of credit for being willing to take a third gut wrenching loss in a row instead of packing it in

For your sanity just pretend that Deuce was part of the Detroit trade, which is at least kinda sorta true

My God…. listening to the to the homer play by play on the Heat network, he actually called “Ouch!” when Deuce just banged that corner 3…. lol

So … tuning in for misery and finding only four points down. That’s … good?

You gotta give these guys a lot of credit for being willing to take a third gut wrenching loss in a row instead of packing it in

If the bench showed up and helped Brunson they would’ve beat SA and OKC so that’s on them.

Inadvertently by Adebayo happens a lot… maybe it’s not inadvertently!

What’s up with Precious at center right now? To be clear of it’s an iHart load management thing I fully support it.

Wait Devo has 28 and he’s on the bench?

EDIT: Ah. There’s the misery. Right on time.

This does feel like a 3rd straight gut wrencher

Nah, we’ll win this one.

Take that back Noble

Seriously no good vibes. They ruin our comebacks.

Knicks have no one else with any significant gravity … they desperately need Randle

Thankfully I learned not to believe the past 2 games and tonight it paid off

No matter who the opponent is, how often do we hear “… his best performance as a member of the ….”

Rozier somehow much more effective when he doesn’t square up to the basket

Hopefully OG is enjoying his time off as he gets ready to demand max money from the Knicks this offseason while his team mates play 40 minutes a night

Watching the defense the past 3 games OG’s agent must be licking his chops.

Precious tries his ass off, but if he’s on the court in crunch time, you are probably going to regret it more often than not.

Also is it possible for the Knicks to to get more than one wing who is 6’7-6’8, playing all these smaller players won’t work against taller people

This team seems burned out. Maybe not mentally – as they keep fighting – but definitely physically. Tank is empty and without OG or Randall I predict a quick first round exit. Hope they prove me wrong but feels like air is leaking fast from this balloon.

“Who was the primary defender on Rozier?”

It was usually Deuce, but I’ve seen Rozier go nuclear like that before, in which case it hardly matters. When guys like him get it going, they are tough to stop. On that last 3, Deuce defended him very well.

I’m not taking about Rozier, in general the loss of OG looks more obvious when you have 6’5 guys playing small forward

I’d be pretty disappointed if the Knicks don’t win on Thursday.

Honestly that’s why it feels like a loss to me. Give me three gut punches in a row and I expect a 4th.

Plus losing at home to a team we just beat on the west coast trip feels very knicksy to me.

If there’s one thing this team has shown the last 2 seasons is resiliency which is why I’m kinda expecting sweeping the upcoming back to back. Especially since Sacramento right now is not in great shape and the Bulls just aren’t that good.

You’re right, Al, and that’s why I really thought they’d win tonight. Since they didn’t, I’m wondering if that’s all been used up. I know Terry was unconscious but I expected us to show more fight from the start and am now a little concerned since we didn’t.

Embiid can get back on the court, but OG is just way to hurt to help his team

Knicks were uncertain and apprehensive offensively in the first half, and bad on defense especially in the first quarter. This is where we lost the game. We started the second 15 points behind, but we turned things around, played well and spent a lot of energy for the comeback. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. There was too much iso-Brunson which was annoying. He had a bad game. The Heat frustrated him. He is exhausted and has lost his automatic midrange touch yet was still trying to do it all by himself.

Bogey finally had an overall good game. Achiuwa was kept on the floor because of his mobility on defense, he is trying hard, but he is obviously not a winning player. Thibs is just getting the most of what he has. Not many options available. We give it all we have. I am not complaining. We are what we are until we get help from Randle and OG, if we ever get there.

I mean the game was tied with 4 mins left, they were 1.8 secs away from beating OKC and lost in OT to the Spurs. I’d be more worried if they were legit playing bad and getting whooped.

But I honestly do feel that the team is getting frustrated and tired of constantly getting asked about OG and Randle. I don’t think that would manifest itself while the actual games are being played but it’s gotta be getting to the point where it’s just human nature for the players to start wondering and questioning if they will return since the regular season is almost over.

Bojan was a useful player tonight, maybe he’s rounding into form….or maybe not. We desperately need his minutes.

OTOH, Burks gave us 3 minutes of suck.

But I honestly do feel that the team is getting frustrated and tired of constantly getting asked about OG and Randle. I don’t think that would manifest itself while the actual games are being played but it’s gotta be getting to the point where it’s just human nature for the players to start wondering and questioning if they will return since the regular season is almost over.

This is what I was thinking while watching them playing kind of scared in the first half.

I just am feeling this way because of Hart’s response after the OKC game. After tough losses like they’ve had recently they gotta be frustrated knowing that all 3 games, well at least definitely the Spurs and OKC games, would’ve been wins if OG and Randle played. Hell if just one of them had played they would’ve won those games.

To me this stretch is the perfect scenario for just human nature to takeover and frustration of not being 100% healthy as a team start kicking in.

Deuce, DDV and Bogey played well, the rest of the team (including our superstar) basically played like shit.

And yet we were tied with 4 minutes left.

Not sure how this is some referendum on our team going forward.

Josh Hart played 46 minutes tonight, he didn’t attempt a 3 and only took 3 shots, when you see people complain about how Hart kills a team on offense look at this game.

If I’m an opposing coach why would I even defend him?

We were shit from the start tonight. Absolutely terrible straight out the gate.

Fake comeback #19 was cool and all but there’s real ship-be-sinkin’ vibes emanating from the team
right now.

Watching the game I had the thought that Bogey is a bit like Kevin Love. They both don’t defend very well but give scoring off the bench. Bogey seems to score in more ways than Love does and had some nice defensive moments tonight. I’m wondering if having to focus on learning and playing in the Knicks scheme meant Bogey wasn’t shooting relaxedly at first. I hope he’s coming around.

One difference of course is that the Heat acquired Love as a free agent instead of trading a player for him.

Embiid played 29 minutes in his first game back. What the fuck is Thibs doing?! Oh wait…

Let’s see if he makes it through the playoffs.

Yeah, this one was rough. I mean, at the same time, you can’t dismiss the fact that they were able to tie it. Their ability to never give up is awesome, but, at the same time, yes, you obviously want them to win some of these games.

I’m still confident overall (more of a shot at the other teams in the East, honestly), but boy, they really needed this one.

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