Knicks Morning News (2025.01.04)

My hot takes from last night:
-While our starting 5’s are somewhat comparable, OKC is the better team. They are also very well coached. That was a brilliant defensive game plan in the 4th quarter, and the Knicks had no answer for it. We are comparable offensively, but on defense there is a significant gap.
-This is the first game to expose things that we need to address, hopefully between now and the trade deadline.
-The good news is that we can see next Friday how “hot” these takes are, i.e. how relevant the homecourt/refs/3pt variance/bad bounces thing was determinative. If we lose in similar fashion, meaning that it’s close for 3 quarters and then we get run off the court like we did last night, that would not be a good sign. OTOH, if we throw some new wrinkles at them and the shots start falling and we win by hook or by crook, that will be encouraging.

Raven, I’m not buying that. Let’s ignore the fact that in our 24 wins, many of them were over in the 4th and either the starters were coasting or we had our scrubs in. In competitive games, opponents level up and have their starters on the court playing at maximum intensity and taking away stuff that might have worked earlier in the game. This is especially true for the best teams that have excellent defenses (e.g. OKC).

Clyde has often said that he would not go for steals early in games because he wanted to lure opponents into thinking that a certain move would work. This might be unique to him, but I think it captures how the defensive intensity ramps up as the clock ticks down.

This couldn’t have been more apparent last night. The moves that worked for Brunson earlier in the game stopped working because they aggressively trapped him and forced the ball where they wanted it to go. After dominating in the post earlier in the game, Mikal was nowhere to be found. OG is virtually useless off the dribble. Josh Hart’s 3pt shot is always there, but most teams will live and die with that shot. Passes to KAT were either unavailable or when he caught them he was blitzed and had to move the ball vs. a swarming D that, other than leaving Hart a late contest away.

And the goal isn’t even to stop us as much as to slow us down enough to take advantage of our shortcomings on defense. I wouldn’t say that SGA or J-Dub scored at will, but OKC’s offensive looks were waaaaay better than ours down the stretch. When we are short of answers on both ends, we wind up losing the tit-for-tat battle.

You can bet that opponents are going to look at that game film and try to copy the same formula. It might not work because we are very, very good on offense. But the Celts and Cavs will surely play us the same way (they probably would have done so anyway, it’s not rocket science.)

“I know many here think the Knicks need a statement win to prove they’re a championship contender but I already think they’re a championship contender so last night was just an annoying loss cause it was a game they should’ve won regardless of the opponent.”

I don’t think “championship contender” is a useful way to characterize the Knicks. I agree that we fall into that category, but there’s still a pecking order.

I don’t get where the “we should have won” stuff comes from. We were soundly beaten in every aspect of the game in the 4th quarter. Any objective observer would come to that conclusion. We didn’t just miss 3’s or commit turnovers. We were funneled into bad shots, our driving lanes were taken away, and our turnovers were forced, not careless brainfarts. Their offense consistently generated better looks than ours did. Sure, it helped that Wiggins had a career night, but he was lining up the seams on the ball. Not to mention that they were the guys on the tail end of a B2B.

As I said, if we do a similar number on them (and like all teams, they will be fired up to play at MSG) I’ll be less concerned.

pt, on thing I haven’t mentioned is that the physicality of the game was reminiscent of the ’90s, and that worked against us in this particular game. Specifically, Dort was taking ridiculous liberties with Brunson, there was one play off the ball where he seemed to be hanging onto Brunson’s arm preventing him from breaking free. KAT was being mauled off of his spots by shorter defenders and bumped on the catch. I truly can’t believe how much they are letting go this year in general, and in this game specifically.

Many folks on the spectrum are the last to know. They think they are perfectly normal and the rest of the world just doesn’t get them. They are oblivious to social cues. Sound familiar?

A quick google search revealed the following:

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents with a wide range of signs and symptoms that can vary in severity and individual expression. Some common characteristics include:

Social Communication Difficulties:
Difficulty making eye contact
Reduced interest in social interactions
Challenges understanding and using social cues
Delayed or absent language development
Repetitive use of language, such as echolalia (repeating words or phrases)

Repetitive Behaviors and Restricted Interests:
Insistence on routines and resistance to change
Repetitive movements, such as hand flapping or rocking
Intense focus on specific objects or activities
Unusual sensory sensitivities to sounds, textures, or tastes

“Agree with Milo that the real issue in the 4th quarter was defense . The offense wasn’t pretty by any means, but neither team was scoring at will, really. I think the defensive lapses were mainly due to physical and mental fatigue, since most of the mistakes were, like, botching a simple PnR coverage.”

Respectfully, I just don’t see it this way. We have the #2 offense in the NBA, yet were held to 107 points, and 41 points in the second half. It’s a given that our defense is just okay at best, so it is not useful to pin this on our D.

Again, we were held to 41 points in the second half, so the game evolved into a defensive struggle, and we are not going to win those kinds of games against the better 2-way teams, not with the likes of JB and KAT on the floor. Who were the weak links defensively for the Thunder? Who could we isolate and attack, whether in iso or in PnR? I sure didn’t see anyone. KAT didn’t have a single open look from 3 all game. Neither did Payne. Brunson went 0-5, mainly on contested looks. Hart had more attempts than KAT, Brunson, Payne and Shamet combined. How is that not on the offense?

If we actually do pull those kinds of games out against the likes of the Celts, Cavs, or Thunder, it’s probably because they are missing good looks or getting a bad whistle.