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2024-25 Game Thread: Knicks @ Nets – It’s Beginning to go Down

The NBA regular season comes to an end with a meaningless game in Brooklyn.

But hey, the playoffs are about to start, so it’s beginning to do down!

Let’s go, Knicks!

The Dylan tune is “Murder Most Foul,” off of his most recent album.

76 replies on “2024-25 Game Thread: Knicks @ Nets – It’s Beginning to go Down”

Brian, just a quick note of appreciation for all the game threads…and for the spicy Dylan references.

pt tell the truth you only came back just to wish me a happy birthday but cryptically embedded it in a uncharacteristically long post although the use of the shift button suggests it might be doogie pretending to be you…

pt with a good breakdown of the Pistons/Knicks at the end of the last thread. To me, it’s two things. OG in Cade’s grill all game long, ball-denial effort for 40 minutes; and Mikal doesn’t give Beasley an inch in the corners all game long. Maybe also block out Duren now and again.

You do that and let Harris and Hardaway try to win the game for them. Not going to happen.

Put Hart on the bench and start Shamet in the playoffs…

(For those not watching at home, he’s 4-4 from three for 14 points in 13 minutes…)

Random thought:
A good comp for Bridges, or at worst a player to pattern himself after on this roster, is Eddie Jones. He didn’t have the defensive consistency this season that Jones had, but he kinda played like him. If we can can get anything near Eddie Jones out of Bridges, it’ll make the 5 picks feel better

Kolek not exactly proving he’s the point guard of the future.

Nets are shooting unconscious, but the Nets’ back of bench scrubs might be better than ours…

I like how Deuce has started dunking the ball on fast breaks and the like to avoid getting embarrassingly rejected…

This game is…what it is, so I’ll try to add a little to pt’s excellent post from the previous thread that everyone should read lest it die on the vine of a Sunday daily news thread into sleepy game thread.

Incredible stat regarding KAT’s lack of 3PA: our team 3PAr is slightly higher with Mitch on the floor (.375) than with KAT on the floor (.368). The 3PA Mitch creates with offensive rebounds more than cancel out the 3PA KAT, who is one of the best shooters in the NBA, actually takes.

This obviously comes from a very small sample size and their minutes together might complicate the picture a bit, but it’s still absolutely insane and speaks to a bigger issue. Our 3PAr with KAT off the floor is .404, so on the season season we shoot substantially more 3s with our best 3PT shooter on the bench.

I mean, this is just utterly indefensible. Maybe it has something to do with KAT’s thumb injury, but there was no point this season in which he was shooting the number of 3s we need him to for this team construction to cohere.

Not sure how much precedent there is for a team and/or player making drastic changes to a shot profile from the regular season to the playoffs, but it’s not something I want to pin my hopes on.

Have any bench guys besides Shamet looked surprisingly good? Or surprisingly awful?

Precious looked great for a while, then did sucky things. Cam’s shooting well. Miles has been adequate. Our rookies have pretty much stunk up the place, although they’ve hustled nicely (and gotten various rebounds, to no avail in terms of shooting afterward).

Precious doing Josh Hart end-to-end runs is really not a good thing.

He scored 12 points in the first quarter. He’s now 6-15 for, you guessed it, 12 points.

clyde (reference jalen’s and KAT’s solid season performance):

You made your name, now earn your fame.

yes sir indeed…

so far so good on this PJ Tucker experiment…looks like a guy that hasn’t played in a game for a long time, but not really that “washed”…

By the way, the Eddie Jones comparison to Mikal is eerily identical in most stats. Some odd differences are that Mikal is way better with eFG% (.561 vs. .505) and TS% (.595 vs .554), yet Eddie kicks butt in BPM (3.1 vs. 0.7).

Did I mention end-to-end Precious runs are not a good thing?

I loved Eddie Jones, Raven. He was a bit more of a terror defensively- but the way he adjusted to roles throughout his career looks similar to Bridges this season. Even Bridges’ build reminds me of Jones- though Bridges isn’t as sculpted. He’s just Krueger-armed and skinny. Whereas Jones was built the same way but with a more defined upper body

Just some thoughts on PT’s KAT and Hart stats.

Hart was shooting around 40% from 3 for the first 30 games or so. So teams weren’t sagging off him as much and he wasn’t as gun shy as he became later when he started slumping badly soon after that hot start. Hart had no impact on Towns other than to perhaps make it easier for everyone to get inside because he was shooting well.

They started putting smaller men on Towns to try to limit or cover his 3s better late in the season as Hart’s shooting deteriorated badly and he became gun shy.

IMO that’s when Thibs should have adjusted the starting lineup.

And to be clear, there’s no law that says you have to use the same starting lineup or minutes distribution against everyone. You can change when they make an effective change in how they are guarding you and you see a better alternative.

You you may have a situation where against some teams you start/play Towns/Mitch a lot, some teams where it’s Towns/Deuce and sometimes you can just stay with Towns/Hart. It should be game to game like it is in the playoffs. You look at matchups. You can’t look at season stats because each team has different size players, different strengths and weaknesses and will defend you differently.

McCullar seems to have an NBA-ready body (got five rebounds early), but doesn’t seem to have much offensively, at least that he’s shown this game. Passed up some jumpers, forced things inside that didn’t work. Only points are foul shots.

Happy birthday, Z-Man! (Hope you’re enjoying your 40 minutes of Landry Shamet)

Last time Knicks played the Pistons in the playoffs they also won 51 games during the regular season…

Happy Regular Season, everyone! A strange one, but lots more good than bad.

And Happy Birthday, Z-Man!

McCullar only got 4 points (1-4) but snatched 8 rebounds and had a bunch of hustle plays that didn’t show up in the box score.

To respond to Milo’s post from the earlier thread, I really see the lack of KAT 3s as being on Thibs. Sure the player bears responsibility, but it’s the coach’s job to get the most out of his players, and that means maximizing strengths. He just hasn’t. And while Jalen should see the problem and try to address it, he gets caught up in putting everything on his own shoulders – which works a lot, but maybe we wouldn’t need all those crunch time heroics if KAT were shooting 4 more 3s per game.

As said, I give Thibs a pass for much of the regular season, as there were too many injuries to get the full team clicking. But if we don’t see KAT bombing away in the playoffs, and we’re still exposed at the other end, it tells me that he’s just another Mike Woodson – unaware of what makes his team successful.

Thank god we got this one, didn’t wanna end the season with 4 straight meaningless losses

McCullar only got 4 points (1-4) but snatched 8 rebounds and had a bunch of hustle plays that didn’t show up in the box score.

Didn’t see the game, but that’s going to be quintessential McCullar. He’s Josh Hart without the burst.

He should be able to make adjustments attacking the basket once he gets used to NBA competition. Hopefully, he’ll unlock his passing after the adjustment too.

If Milo says he “still like us in the series” against the Pistons, then i’m optimistic.

KAT is slow and has a low release point. We can probably feed him another shot a game, but there’s a limit on how many good looks he’ll get.

I suspect there’s also some cross-contamination on the team-level 3pt data as he’s more likely to get paired with non-shooters like Hart or Precious that negate his impact.

Last season we won 50 games. This year we won 51.

And people on this blog act like we aren’t making progress.

Last season we won 50 games. This year we won 51.

And people on this blog act like we aren’t making progress.

LOL! Next season i’ll bet 52 wins. 😉 😛

Good analysis by pt, but this section worries me:

1. during the season mikal was the primary cade matchup. it never looked great for us, and cade mostly got where he wanted. in the most recent game, we put deuce on him for pretty much the entire game. pretty confident this was just thibs making a reciprocal tariff self harm threat against a team he knew we were likely to meet in the postseason, and hopeful it’s a prelude to putting OG (who didn’t play) on him in the series. although it’s sad to say, bridges best use on defense this series is probably sticking to beasley/th2.

To me it’s looked like Thibs hasn’t been willing to move OG off the PF spot very often. This should change in the playoffs, but there is a distinct disadvantage to playing Mikal against a bigger player or playing the 6’4″ Hart there.

Tobias Harris isn’t great but he’s not completely washed and would have a 4″ advantage over Hart, with his touch that could be trouble.

So, my things to watch:

(1) Does Thibs move OG off of the PF spot defensively?

(2) Does Hart’s athleticism and tenacity compensate for the height disadvantage?

Thanks for the good wishes, guys! Big breakfast w/ Bloody Mary’s Knicks, Masters, Mets, family…life is good at 67!

Happy BD Z-man! Another ring around the sun. Hopefully a little closer to another ring.

On a related note, the play that really sold on Deuce was his college highlight against Cade where he stonewalls him at half court and then swipes it from him.

He followed that play up with another steal, this time jumping the passing lane as they kicked it back out to Cade.

This all happened within 20 seconds, just beating the first half buzzer.

Thanks for the good wishes, guys! Big breakfast w/ Bloody Mary’s Knicks (sort of!), Masters, Mets, family…life is good at 67!

I’m trying to figure out which games have implications today. I guess I will flip through the channels and look for players I’ve heard of…

Moving to Nola on Tuesday for a few months. Lucali tonight. Need good pizza before I’m out or I’ma be a salty bizzatch. May the long play rope a dope Thibs rise from the chitter chatter pitter patter of the regular season and reveal the Kraken that was promised. Callin on you Jobu.

Great post from PT for those who missed it.

I would put OG on Cade but maybe that is too easy?

I’m trying to figure out which games have implications today. I guess I will flip through the channels and look for players I’ve heard of…

Clips/Warriors. Warriors to the play in if they lose.

For 5 mill a year Kris Dunn is a nice player for the Clippers. Elite defender.

I think you HAVE to put OG on Cade. Full court. And I wonder if why we didn’t see that last game was to ‘spring’ it on them next weekend.

Thibs playing three-dimensional checkers as hard as he can.

You do that and cover Beasley in the corner like a wet blanket (7-11 from three today) and who gives a fuck if Harris backs Hart down low over and over. Put Mitch in and shut that bitch down. Game over.

Stat of the game – PJ Tucker was a (-18) in an eight point win today.

Did Rory just choke? from birdie to par. Seemed like a very makeable shot. Pressure,pressure.

Rory hit two shots that many amateurs could have hit better. These were slam-dunk shots for any decent pro. Then he missed three short putts in the last 4 holes.

One thing I will never take for granted is the duo of Clyde and Breen. They are consistently great and this last game they were like two buddies chilling on the couch. We are blessed.

Last season we won 50 games. This year we won 51.

And people on this blog act like we aren’t making progress.

That’s factorial

GS-Memphis is a tasty play in matchup out west, I’m glad the Clippers pulled that out in OT

I like how Breen violently agitates against overtime. And Clyde made massive fun of him for being an old man when he complained about the noise at Barclay’s.

When you write Rory on a Knicks blog, the only thing I can come up with is Rory Sparrow. Am I close?

You are off by four inches Donnie.

Meant the golfer who won the Masters to complete the career grand slam today, almost blowing up in epic fashion in the process.

Okay, now I’m drunk. Really an epic birthday. Except alas my wife reminded me that it’s Palm Sunday. And as OG would say, congrats Rory, well deserved!

Here’s what I will say about Rory, who I have rooted for and been bitterly disappointed by.

I could feel his anxiety. On the unforced double bogey on #1. On maybe the absolute WORST golf shot I have ever seen by a great golfer on #13. On a shitty putt after a great shot on #15. On a lousy putt on #16 after a great tee shot. On a terrible shot on #18 after a great drive. On a shitty putt on #18 after a great bunker shot.

But with all the terrible yippy shots, he hit six of the greatest shots under monumental pressure I have ever seen. The approach on 15. The tee shot on 16. The approach on 17. The drive on 18. The second drive on 18. The approach in sudden death on 18. He could have folded at so many points in this tournament, but kept believing and grinding.

There’s a lesson for all of us in what Rory did today.

I would also compare Rory to Greg Norman, who was every bit as talented as Rory but had his guts ripped out like Rory did yet didn’t have the resiliency to recover like Rory did today.

I’ve been thinking about the playoffs in the Western conference. The Warriors obviously wanted to win their last regular season game be sure of being in the playoffs. But if they win their first play-in game, they play Houston instead of the Lakers. That may actually be better for them.

I don’t think you’d ever want to risk missing the playoffs entirely, but, yeah, at the same time, boy, the Rockets sure do seem like a tempting team to face in the early rounds.

Good for Julius, Donte, and the Timberwolves to somehow manage to snare that sixth seed!

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I agree about the Timberwolves. And I think the Lakers would probably prefer to play Golden State than Minnesota, but aren’t getting what they want. Of course, I have no sympathy for them

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