Boy, did we need that. A bit of a perfect storm: Kings were without Sabonis (though we of course were without Brunson), they’re bad defensively, and all of our shots were falling. But a win is a win, and a dominant win was just what the doctor ordered after so much of the recent turmoil.

Plus, Josh Hart’s willingness to fire away from three felt huge. 4-of-6 is not what we should expect, but the issue has always been much less about his accuracy than his reluctance to shoot it from there. When he has his head on right and doesn’t hesitate when teams leave him open, it changes so much for this offense. Even against much better defenses than we faced in Sacramento.

Deucesanity!!!!

Mitch a plus 26 in 15 minutes.

Watched a bit but I was squatting like Jowles yesterday and the eyelids got very heavy

Plus, Josh Hart’s willingness to fire away from three felt huge. 4-of-6 is not what we should expect, but the issue has always been much less about his accuracy than his reluctance to shoot it from there. When he has his head on right and doesn’t hesitate when teams leave him open, it changes so much for this offense. Even against much better defenses than we faced in Sacramento.

I think that’s another reason why we should try the KAT-Mitch frontcourt, because then if Hart misses the open 3Ps, we have Mitch ready to grab the OREB.

A bit of a perfect storm: Kings were without Sabonis (though we of course were without Brunson), they’re bad defensively, and all of our shots were falling.

We also caught them on a B2B off an OT loss.

To me, the big takeaway was that the ball and players were moving around in ways that made sense and we were getting open looks based on that movement instead of ISO creations.

Assists: OG-8; Bridges-8; Deuce-7 (total 34)

When was the last time you saw numbers like that from both OG and Bridges?

I’ve been saying that part of the problem with the offense lately has been the lack of movement. Part of that is Thibs, but a big part of is Brunson.

Brunson often scores by dribbling around for most of the possession and creating for himself. Other times he dribbles for most of the possession and makes a pass later in the clock and we get into rushed creation mode. Once we get into that mode we are doomed.

The other thing that helped a lot was the defense was better with Mitch and/or Deuce on the court. When we are getting stops we get in transition quicker and can get some good looks before the defense is set.

It’s pretty obvious we have to trade Brunson and Towns if we want to play good defense and a decent brand of basketball. 😉

How about this?

Brunson for Quickley and 3 first rounders.

Towns and 2 first rounders for Giannis.

1 first rounder and anything else we can scrap together for Walker Kessler. 😉

When was the last time you saw numbers like that from both OG and Bridges?

Never in the NBA, 8asts is a career high for OG. His previous high was 6.

Mitch also had 4 steals in 16 minutes.

Oddly (?), our bench (29 points in only 79 minutes) still played much less and did less than theirs in our blowout (36 points in 94 minutes).

Strat, before we totally crap on Brunson regarding ball movement, because Knickerblogger has the memory of a squished gnat, here from Macri this morning:

‘Over the first 53 games, they had as many 30-assist games as they did in the last three seasons combined.
But over the last 10 games, they haven’t reached the 30-assist mark a single time, ranking 27th in the league in dime-dropping over that stretch.
That stagnation came to abrupt halt last night, as New York assisted on 34 of 45 made field goals.’

So while I’m not a big fan of the Brunson over-dribble, apparently we did this multiple times earlier in the season, even if nobody can remember it. We just have to make it a constant.

#27plustowin

Yeah, drawing any conclusions about ball movement from last night’s game is kind of silly IMO. I mean, freaking Mikal Bridges dunked in traffic!

Valanciunas and LaVine are probably a worse defensive pairing than KAT & Brunson by a significant margin. It’d be embarrassing if we didn’t destroy their defense.

Nice to wake up to some good news for a change. OG had 8 assists??

Knicks defensive rating up to 14th, nothing to brag about but not long ago it had dropped to 21st.

BBA breaks the site for the second day in a row. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem that difficult to do these days.

I think Knickerblogger is in waiting for playoffs mode.

That doesn’t bode well for the next five weeks or so.

Pretty much. Not much more to say – this isn’t the days of Isaiah or Phil or Mills where the failures were so obvious that we needed an outlet for our collective grief. This is a competent team with good players. So the only real question is, what can we accomplish in the playoffs?

Goals until then:

Keep sharing the ball and develop a non-Jalencentric offense that can thrive without him and persist when he returns

Figure out team defense, where everyone is on a string again and we have reason to believe we can compete with the top tier

Get Mitch back in game-shape so he can give us 25 mpg in the playoffs

Avoid other significant injuries

Anything else?

Hart needs to be told to shoot open 3’s without hesitation or grab a seat next to Thibs. Either he can make them or he can’t.

Thank God we did not trade for Valencuinas. He would be unplayable for us.

So while I’m not a big fan of the Brunson over-dribble, apparently we did this multiple times earlier in the season, even if nobody can remember it. We just have to make it a constant.

I realize that, but when we get away from it, it’s often because Brunson starts playing hero ball.

It’s one thing to move the ball around, set picks, have players cut etc.. and then ask Brunson to bail out a possession if nothing good happens. He’s far and away our best option in that situation. I’s another thing for Brunson to bring up the ball, decide early in the clock that he’s going to score, dribble around and create a tough shot. If that’s going to be our offense, we have to stop complaining about OG, Mikal and Towns having nights where they disappear. We are also not going to beat the very best teams that way.

Hoping these guys continue to display trust in each other and themselves. Otherwise they’re going to get embarrassed in short order. April is the cruelest month.

Knicks defensive rating up to 14th, nothing to brag about but not long ago it had dropped to 21st.

The PJ Tucker difference. Best signing of all-time.

The PJ Tucker difference. Best signing of all-time.

He has a big presence in the locker room.

So maybe the best news will be Brunson missing a lot of time, is that it? That and from now on we only play against the Kings without Sabonis (how can one make a case based on this game!?). Now we have the Blazers, so the idea that “Brunson is a problem” will still be there for the taking.

And our schedule will be easy in the next 11 games, but then we have the following 6 games before the season finale against the Nets:
@Cavs
@Hawks (they’re our kryptonite)
Suns
Celtics
@Pistons
Cavs

Of course, i don’t want to face these teams without Brunson, but i sure would like to see if the “Brunson is a problem” would stand this stretch.

Brunson is the problem is an oversimplification of the problem, but I do think it could be potentially good for him to miss a stretch of games for the team to learn how to play without him and also for him to get back to sharing/caring better on offense.

But I also don’t want him to miss TOO much. If after 2 weeks he has to sit out more, that is potentially a bad sign.

2 seasons ago Randle had a high ankle sprain and had to miss the last few weeks of the season. He came back for the playoffs but was nowhere near 100 percent. So we definitely don’t want that situation again.

Hopefully it is just 2 weeks and he can come back for the last handful of games.

The problem as I see it is that Brunson and KAT together are the problem and we’re gonna have to trade KAT to eliminate the problem. Or Brunson if Giannis is on the other end of that. KAT has been our only “center” we’ve had for most of the season. Thuslee, a much harder problem to mitigate.

I had this lamb shoulder in white beans thing (they called is sofrito) at a Greek joint in Astoria called Ambrosia yesterday. I’m doing my part sacrificing animals and shit.

Brunson is not the problem. Brunson overdribbling is “a” problem, which is vastly exacerbated by our wing nuts getting all passive and watching Brunson and just standing around, which leaves Brunson overdribbling until he has to hoist something or pass with two seconds left.

The interesting thing about this stretch is to see if we can leave the ‘passive wing nut’ thing behind, so that when Brunson comes back we can stay in active mode. Again, we had lots of 30+ assist games earlier, when Brunson was playing heavy minutes.

If that can happen, and Mitch stays healthy and continues to deliver impactful minutes (like last night), we are formidable.

I had this lamb shoulder in white beans thing (they called is sofrito) at a Greek joint in Astoria called Ambrosia yesterday. I’m doing my part sacrificing animals and shit.

Looks good… 😉
https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/XbXJq5YtmVK0IQ7pjwCnsA/o.jpg

Ambrosia: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ambrosia-garden-new-york

The interesting thing about this stretch is to see if we can leave the ‘passive wing nut’ thing behind, so that when Brunson comes back we can stay in active mode.

Exactly. This is the problem for me. Now how much of that is Brunson not trusting them and them not trusting Brunson will get them the ball, that i don’t know.

But yeah, let’s hope the injury is a blessing in disguise. The schedule is good, so that will probably help the cause.

The main issue for Brunson appears to be playing with the non-Sims/non-Mitch backup centers. Out of his most common 2-man pairings, Achiuwa & Huk are the only negative net ratings, and they’re massive negatives.

Brunson & Achiuwa:
Net rating -4.8 with league average offense and worst in the league defense.

Brunson & Hukporti:
Net -10 with ~25th ranked offense and last in the league defense

Brunson & Jericho Sims
Net +7.35 with 2nd in league offense and 1pt better than average defense.

These probably aren’t statistically significant, but as a point of entry for inquiry it may be interesting. The most used lineups with Brunson & the two backup centers feature the rest of the non-KAT starting lineup… not that the starting lineup with KAT is particularly praiseworthy but is at least a net positive.

The main issue for Brunson appears to be playing with the non-Sims/non-Mitch backup centers

So stagger Brunson and KAT. When Brunson sits, you play McBride and then when KAT sits you play Mitch with Brunson?

I love how Sims has no basketball skills or acumen and yet is somehow the inexplicable secret sauce.

We have to stagger Brunson and KAT as much as possible. Everyone else in the rotation has to be a plus defender, sorry Kolek. Then Brunson and KAT have to be utilized better defensively, ie. more switching less drop and over helping. Every man has to carry his own weight. Then we go as far as we go.

Staggering KAT and Brunson is what we’re already doing. The problem is that the Brunson only minutes have largely sucked.

Hopefully, Mitch fixes the issue. I excluded him because he’s barely played, not because the Brunson/Mitch minutes have been particularly good.

Knicks defense was good against the Sixers in the playoffs last year, with Brunson and without a good rim worker for most of it. Especially considering Embiid couldn’t be stopped by anyone, regardless. They contained him well enough, holding him to low efficiency most games. There may be an April gear, even with Brunson and Towns.

Geo, the dish was excellent. The best part was when the exceedingly handsome and undeniably charming server brought over some orange cake soaked in syrup with a dollop of sour yogurt on top.

Brunson is the problem is an oversimplification of the problem

Oversimplifying other posters’ statements is a big part of what we do around here, glad you caught that.

Anyway, obviously the clutch Brunson man-on-man drive is a big part of our repertoire, but that doesn’t mean the pick-and-roll or screening for movement shooters can’t be as well, right?

Call me crazy, but I think the more of these “plays” (as I think they’re called) we have in our back pocket the better off we’ll be. Maybe we’ll even see some brand new ones in the playoffs?

well now clarence and cyber, you have got my FULL attention…

that’s a nice spot…clarence, how come though they ain’t got that gyro rotisserie spit device thing, i love staring at that, almost better then the meal, the anticipation i get just from the juicy sight of it is exquisite…delicious salty meat stuff with some sweet dressing…

seeing how you are both the partnering up types, i’ll share was doing some practice co-habitation stuff the last couple of weeks…

it’s a little weird at times, like that mtv thing: when things get real…

it did take me a couple of years to get used to having a dog in the house, all the time…thank goodness the dog is devilishly cute and sweet…

i’ve had a few dogs over my lifetime – previously the record holder for staying in the house was about 3 months, maybe…the desire for solitude can be strong…truth is though, somehow when i was younger i had even less patience than i do now…

I’m in Delray with my son doing the spring break thing. Last night we wound up at a bar called the Standard where I had 40 years on the next youngest person. Tonight it’s live band karaoke. As long as there’s no mirrors, I feel like I fit right in!

Ha! I meant cyber but my brain could really glide into some spring break right about now.

Geo, it was date with my mate night. I coulda hit the truck across the street and been ecstatic. Good to hear you’re practicing, I jumped in and discovered that my misophonia was not just because my older brother could be a prick. That’s a hard one to navigate.

Speaking of, Cyber, you ever get out to the Serralves in Porto? That place is so beautiful. Great food town.

I like to do Enya when I have to do Karaoke.

I hope that whomever you are practicing co-habitation with—whether that be human or dog—appreciates your purty toes from the pedicure!!!

it was her treat doogie…she has me even putting on some satin jammies…i’ve watched soooo many police and spy shows/movies, endless genre for that kind of stuff…i fear i may develop the stench of domestication…

i like things wild…

my friend still works so, basically sit in the house cleaning up, gaming, waiting on her to return, like a fucking dog…

that kind of slipped out, leaving it in though…probably biggest current challenge, trust and effective communication – how can i get what i want…it’s hard to get over on someone who you’re super close with, someone who knows you well, for a long time, you have to be a patient negotiator…nothing is ever free…

debating on whether to do the finger nails, i lack courage in some areas, so, maybe when we go back in the future…

yeah man, thinking i might be moving in to the salon and spa stage of life…

Nets over Cavs by 13 at the half.

Speaking of, Cyber, you ever get out to the Serralves in Porto? That place is so beautiful. Great food town.

You’ve been in Porto, Clarence? Serralves is wonderful. 🙂

I have. A film I did some work on was shown there in conjunction with an exhibition and it was awesome. Except for one guy in the audience who was a dick. The museum is one of my favorites tho.

I love that city. When the fog rolls in over the Douro and the city turns into a fey wonderland…

There is almost no place that Clarence hasn’t touched. Double negative intended. 🙂

So much for the Nets being up 13 over the Cavs at the half.

Ha.

🙂

Haliburton just made one of the best shots of the season

That’s one of craziest game winning shots I’ve ever seen.

I’m glad you liked it, Clarence. If you come my way again in the future, let me know. 😉

Speaking of movies, we just had our yearly movie festival. It’s called Fantasporto, and it comes from the words fantasy and Porto so it’s about sci-fi and horror, but there’s also other genres of the same type, like crime, mistery and thriller.

At this point have no idea who I prefer to finish 6th.

At this point have no idea who I prefer to finish 6th.

It’s all about the Knicks. If we are at our best, we can sweep any of them. If we are at our worst, and we have shown how horribly bad our defense can be, we can be an embarrassing first round exit.

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