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The Knicks will play two games?kind of?on Christmas Day – Posting and Toasting
11/21/2024 11:00:00
Knicks Suns Basketball – Idaho State Journal
11/21/2024 08:19:15
Brunson and Towns Shine as Knicks Defeat Suns – FootBoom
11/21/2024 08:14:20
Highlights: Josh Hart (19 PTS | 11 REB) | Knicks vs. Suns – NBA.com
11/21/2024 06:48:17
Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks Slam Dimmed Phoenix Suns to Win 4th Straight – Sports Illustrated
11/21/2024 07:11:42
Suns lose 5th straight, head into much-needed 5-day break without games – Arizona Sports
11/21/2024 07:00:21
WATCH: Devin Booker reacts to Suns? 138-122 blowout loss to Knicks – Burn City Sports
11/21/2024 07:29:30
Knicks on the Court: November 21 vs. Wizards Photo Gallery – NBA.com
11/21/2024 06:57:19
Knicks receive positive injury updates on Precious Achiuwa, Mitchell Robinson – New York Post
11/21/2024 07:21:00
Double-doubles by Towns, Brunson help Knicks roll past Suns – Newsday
11/21/2024 06:51:00
Highlights: Karl-Anthony Towns (34 PTS) | Knicks vs. Suns – NBA.com
11/21/2024 06:48:17
Jalen Brunson leads offensive clinic as Knicks dismantle Suns for fourth straight win – New York Post
11/21/2024 05:49:00
Instant Analysis: Knicks Win 4th Straight Game With A Dominant Display Against Suns – Fadeaway World
11/21/2024 06:07:15
Knicks 138, Suns 122: “Brunson-Towns combining for 70 is something I can get used to.” – Posting and Toasting
11/21/2024 06:07:07
Jalen Brunson is hotter than Suns in Knicks’ 16-point win – Reuters
11/21/2024 05:56:19
New York Knicks Roll Past Banged-Up Suns, 138-122 – Athlon Sports
11/21/2024 05:32:49
Game Recap: Knicks swarm Suns, handing them fifth straight loss, 138-122 – Bright Side Of The Sun
11/21/2024 05:31:01
Jalen Brunson torches Suns once again in Knicks’ 138-122 win – sny.tv
11/21/2024 05:33:01
New York Knicks vs. Phoenix Suns Box Score, Summary, and Team Stats – November 20, 2024 Gametracker – CBS Sports
11/21/2024 05:29:16
Initial takeaways from Suns? 138-122 blowout loss to Knicks – Burn City Sports
11/21/2024 05:39:48
30 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.11.21)”
Nice showing last night, both by the Knicks and you guys who stayed up late.
Meanwhile Sixer Schadenfreude is the gift that keeps on giving. 2-12 with the 27th SRS, yet people still take them seriously.
“When Philly gets healthy” is the new “when RJ becomes consistent.” I just hope it doesn’t end up with the Sixers landing their Tim Duncan. Embiid as David Robinson fits too well and I don’t have the stomach for it.
Thibodeau, a spokesman against load management, said the secret to health is consistent conditioning.
“There’s a value of being in great shape all the time,” Thibodeau said. “So, you have to do all the things you can to prepare yourself to endure a long season. I think when you look at the players that have been durable, it’s usually the ones that are in unbelievable shape, who stay in shape year-round and prepare themselves for what they’re going to go through.”
Max, i can’t watch the games out west, it’s too late for me, so I miss your recaps. 😉
Did OG hurt his left arm last night?
That would be a problem.
https://x.com/KnicksFanTv/status/1859456405163417876
But reading the game thread was already a lot of fun… 😀
“Defense looking a lot better”
“Knicks off the ball defenders are totally clueless”
“Some solid exterior defense there from Towns”
“No defense! It’s like watching an all star game…”
“That was a highlight team defensive possession”
“No big lead is safe enough for the Knicks defense…”
“Safe to say this has been the best half of defense so far this season?”
“KAT on D…no bueno”
…all these comments in the same thread! 😀
Like everyone here, I’m thoroughly enjoying our play on offense right now. I am also not drawing any conclusions beyond the reality that we are beating teams that it would be highly embarrassing to lose to, although increasingly convincingly. Obviously Utah falls into that category as well, although they have a lot of talent and can beat anyone on any given night. Then we have Denver and Dallas. I’d sign up for 2 of 3 right now.
But even if we lose 2 of the next 3, which I think is more likely, for me, the season doesn’t really start until we face some top teams who are healthy and gelled while we are also healthy and gelled. This is the time for chemistry-building, and that is going very well. The only thing that would change my thinking right now is is we beat both of DEN and DAL. I’m sure those teams are looking forward to those games and will have answers for KAT and Brunson that the teams we are beating right now don’t have. They also have offenses that will shred our shitty D unless we work out some kinks.
The defense looked really good for short stretches. It’s the best we’ve been rotating on defense all season. Some really strong possessions that burnt a lot of the shot clock. Booker was able to bail them out of some of those, and there was still a lot of poor defense, but it was the first time getting a glimpse of what the defense could be.
It was also kind of a blowout, so they may have taken their foot off the pedal at times. If we shoot like this, we won’t need to play too much defense.
It really is amazing how much better KAT is on offense than Julius — or, at least, how much easier his points come. I didn’t look at the trade as a wash, because clearly KAT was better and more versatile. But I didn’t think the gap was quite this large. The question is no longer whether it was an upgrade over Julius, but whether the quantum leap in our overall offense from playing KAT at the 5 will outweigh the challenges our defense will face with KAT at the 5 instead of a classic Thibs rim protector type.
After this next 3-game ordeal, we have a very soft strech that will be crucial in terms of piling up needed wins and securing a foothold in the standings:
@CHA
vs. NOP
vs. ORL w/o Banchero
vs. CHA
vs. DET
@ TOR
@ MIN
@ NOP
vs. TOR
vs. SAS
@ ORL possibly w/ Banchero
@ WAS
@ WAS again
vs. UTA on New Year’s Day
There’s also those pesky ISM games, but if we stay healthy but aren’t somewhere around 10 games over .500 by then I’d be very disappointed.
“I like that we won but I don’t like how our D looks.
I don’t disagree, per se, but come on, they totally didn’t even take this game seriously, they were so sure they were kicking their asses (and they were right). If their D fails in a tougher game, I’ll be concerned, but not in a laugher like this.”
We don’t have our shit together enough to be able to consider any game a “laugher.” I mean, we lost to the Bulls.
“Did OG hurt his left arm last night?
That would be a problem.
https://x.com/KnicksFanTv/status/1859456405163417876.”
Didn’t he keep playing after that?
One of the issues with being all in is that these kinds of wins mean much less to me than they did previously. I remember back in the ’90s when it seemed like the only games that really counted were those against teams like the Bulls, Cavs, Pacers, etc.
Right now I still have the shitty aftertaste of our humiliating losses to Boston, Cleveland, and Indiana in my mouth. Until we play those guys again, I’m not going to get giddy over whupping either the dregs or teams missing superstars.
I will, however, love to see us take a game from one of Denver or Dallas…that would go a long way in giving me confidence that we will fare better when those teams come back around.
KAT now up to 6.9 BPM for the season… Randle’s highest career mark was 3.8.
I don’t think we’ll get the full picture of our defense until we see Mitch back, or at least Precious, so I’m holding my opinions on it. It’s not looking good, but there’s potential to be much better once everyone settles down.
FWIW, our starting unit seems to have played better defense than the 2nd unit for once. It was Sims, Payne, and the mixed lineups that struggled. One game, but those are the guys we need to lock it down.
So this is a negative take after a fairly delirious win, so with a grain of salt. But about halfway through the fourth, I was like, where’s Mikal and OG? It boiled down to JB and KAT taking turns punishing the Suns, which normally I’d be totally down with (and it was fun to watch). But first, I kept thinking I’d be miffed if I was OG or Mikal (flashbacks to pickup games with narcissists), and second they got off to that great start because of impeccable ball movement and all five guys scoring at will, not two guys scoring at will.
We were good enough to maintain the lead after that by sending our two offensive juggernauts to do their thing again and again. but basically the Suns were playing us even then. Better teams could shut Jalen and/or KAT down, and we lose that game. It’s a dangerous practice.
I mean, sure. But there is something to be said about knowing there’s a Knicks game on TV and tuning in knowing that there’s a good chance they’re going to win and getting to watch them smack a team down like they did in the first quarter. 5 years ago I’d look at the schedule and see us going up against a barely 500 team and be hesitant to watch cause I thought we’d possibly get blown out. Or I’d watch a game thinking they got this only to watch them get down by 20 by the 2nd quarter. I like going to bed happy on a regular basis because my team won the game.
And then when we do go up against the Celtics or whoever, there isn’t some huge fear we’re going to get embarrassed (although that can still happen). I actually think we might beat them!
So yeah, a lot of the games are meaningless, but I’m not hanging my hopes on us eeking out a January win against Detroit off the back of Frank finally hitting a few 3’s or some other false hope bullshit.
There’s a lot to love about the way KAT is playing. He’s a legit MVP candidate right now, at least on the offensive end. He’s punishing mismatches, blowing by bigs, scoring efficiently from everywhere, and making heady plays. His defense is as bad as advertised but his rebounding on the defensive end is as good as it gets, mitigating at least some of that.
But imho, we got him for games like the two coming up in Denver and Dallas. Denver has Jokic and a bunch of guys who will get to the rim. Dallas has multiple bigs to throw at him and Doncic and Kyrie will be targeting him. He has to stay out of foul trouble and do something special in the fourth quarter for me to get all that excited about him at this point. Last January after acquiring OG we beat Minny, crushed healthy versions of Denver and Philly, and were destroying Miami when Randle went down. I need to see KAT be the centerpiece of a run like that before I get too worked up about his gaudy stats.
Wowsers. You never realize how important Achiuwa is to this roster until you give up 122 to the KD & Beal-less Suns.
Offense was great though! I’m trying not to read too much into this win streak because we haven’t played good teams, as even Phoenix was a bad team last night because of health. But we seem to be able to find ways to score from all over. Brunson’s stats are proof of that. Still at 25ppg with his usual shooting splits..but right now he’s at a career high 7.2 apg!! Even Hart is at 6! The ball is moving and it’s great to see. If we can manage to shoot another 5-10 threes a game..we might be able to average 120 a game right along with Boston and maybe GS
On a side note, I was again impressed with the play of Sims on both ends but especially at the rim and in space on D. I wonder whether that game where Huk played 30 minutes lit a fire under him.
His TOV% is a crazy 27.3%…is that all do to illegal screens? He has set some bone-crushers in the last couple of games, Bub Carrington is probably still hurting.
That’s Sir Carlton Carrington to you, sir.
It’s hard to believe that we are still dead last in pace. Seems like we’ve been running and gunning a lot more than in the past.
He also never shoots the ball. If we fed him the ball more out of PnR the number would look better… it’d still be really bad though.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the defense last night. I thought they were able to tighten it up when the Suns were threatening. Most of the night, though, the Suns were shooting 3s every other possession because they were so far behind (I think it was the most 3PAs by an opponent since the opening game against Boston).
Shams:
Dallas game just got a bit easier.
If anyone missed my post last night, our 16 first quarter fast break points would’ve been our 3rd highest total of the season for an entire game.
Only our games against Detroit and Milwaukee were higher. We also had 16 in our 2nd game against Brooklyn.
We should sweep this road trip.
Honestly I’m scared shitless by our defense rn.
I’m not panicking until at least one of Mitch and Precious comes back, but as of now if shots don’t fall we’re doomed. We couldn’t stop a team of 5 Kendrick Perkins.
Edit: Dallas has multiple bigs to throw at him and Doncic’s replacement and Kyrie will be targeting him.
Has Jokic rejoined the team? I think he’s been out for a while.
We’re #2 in offensive rating, mainly built off being #2 in eFG% and #4 in TOV%. That’s a pretty nice recipe. When we win, it’s because we bludgeon teams with ruthless offensive efficiency and don’t turn the ball over. Seems preferable to “miss but very often get the offensive rebound.”
We also have a 10-5 Pythag, which would project to a 54-win season. We’re starting to reliably beat the cupcakes we’re supposed to beat.
Somebody who is wise at this blog (I don’t remember who) suggested recently that the team should switch up the defensive strategy and go for more steals. We’re 29th in defensive TOV% and also low in defensive eFG%. We’re not good at stopping teams from scoring anyway, so might as well gamble and go for more turnovers and end possessions that way. We won’t, but we should.
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