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Knicks 133-120 Grizzlies (Nov 11, 2025) Game Recap – ESPN
Game Thread: Knicks vs. Grizzlies, Nov. 11, 2025 – Posting & Toasting
Knicks’ Mike Brown: OG Anunoby ‘is an All-Star,’ deserves to be in Defensive Player of the Year consideration – SNY
Knicks 133, Grizzlies 120: Scenes from bears hibernating early in NY – Posting & Toasting
As NBA trade market shifts, Guerschon Yabusele’s Knicks role draws intrigue – New York Daily News
Knicks continue offensive onslaught vs. Grizzlies, but defense still a work in progress: ‘We’ve got to finish games better’ – SNY
Remembering Knicks Star Michael Ray Richardson: The Rise, Fall & Redemption of ‘Sugar’ – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks vs Magic – Recap & Reaction | POSTGAME SHOW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
The Magic: Too Big, Too Fast, Too Much! | Rare Character | Frank Dobbins III of Uproxx – Knick of Time
MAGIC at KNICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | November 12, 2025 – NBA
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90 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.11.13)”
Now, is it clear that the Magic are a much different team with an actual point guard out there? Yes, Suggs definitely changes things, but they still don’t impress me much.
They just succeed in a different way than the Knicks do. It’s fine for what it is, but I think the Knicks (and Cavs, for that matter) are built for more sustained success this season.
They’re just thugs. Sometimes (not often) their shots go in.
I want nothing to do with them in the playoffs, though. They take a pound of flesh out of every team who beats them. The Cavs in ‘24, Celtics in ‘25 both showed up for their second round series in bad physical shape.
My $.02 on Brown’s gaffe:
I’m less upset about the fact that Brunson got injured with 2 minutes left and more about the fact that it happened in Brunson’s 37th minute.
When Brown emptied the bench, I wasn’t thinking “finally”. It actually felt a little uneasy watching the team surrender with 2 mins to go. So I can’t honestly sit here and say I wish he’d surrendered sooner.
But here’s the thing: Brown’s whole approach to this game was stupid (and I called it out on the game thread before the injury so this is not some hindsight BS):
– Knicks were on the second night of a B2B
– Magic are dirty
– Magic clearly came in well rested with a plan to physically pound the Knicks tonight
– Knicks clearly showed they were exhausted and not particularly up for this fight
– It’s November 12th
And against that backdrop, Brown decided to ride the starters (and Brunson in particular) heavily. The split between Brunson and Clarkson was on pace to be 39-9!
I would be far more forgiving of Brown if Brunson got injured with the same score at the same time but the split between Brunson and Clarkson was on pace for 28-20 instead. This is the exact kind of stuff Clarkson is here for.
Whereas Thibs had a rigid thought process, this looked to me like the total absence of a thought process.
I did not get to watch the game. Is Brunson’s injury serious?
Brian, are you trying to jinx us? 😛
He was reportedly in a walking boot after the game, but that’s a standard precaution for any ankle injury. I don’t think it’s a significant injury.
Watching the 4th quarter, i think it’s clear our shots not going in as being the issue, the rest would be a hard fought battle if the shots were going in. 3rd game in 4 days can clearly make the shots be erratic and not go in. I think i saw Brunson missing a layup (!?) and KAT missing a dunk (!?!?).
Let’s not overreact to this, because if it was the Hornets that wouldn’t mean they’re better than us, while if it is the Magic we tend to analyze it that way.
It’s either that or they are our kryptonite and then we should hope not to meet them in the playoffs. 😉
It’s an interesting and important question (although not really answerable to my eye test) whether we went away from what was working in previous games because Brunson was single-teamed and he wanted to force the issue, or if their defense just squashed our ability to move the ball easily. I suspect it was a little of both, they were demons in the passing lanes. Their length and physicality were also problems, but they played 48 minutes of non-stop, in-your-face defense where just getting the ball to another teammate was constantly problematic.
We, on the other hand, did not do that.
I don’t get into superficial stuff calling other teams “thugs” because they play a physical brand of basketball. In fact, I don’t think Orlando is all that physical. None of Banchero, Franz, Carter Jr., Issac, Goga, Black, and da Silva are all that physical, just mostly very long and athletic. None of them have a rep for being dirty, except maybe Isaac from time to time. Goga is clumsy, so he might hurt guys by accident. But it was their length that killed us, not their physicality.
They do have three rotation players who are very physical: Suggs, Bane, and to a lesser degree, Jones.
Beyond being physical, Jalen Suggs is just an excellent defensive player. He moves his feet exceptionally well and anticipates where the guy he is guarding is going to go by getting all up in his jersey. He seems to have Brunson’s number, at least, better than most. I would compare him to guys like Caruso, Dyson, Draymond, Dort, Ausar, etc. in that way. We could use a guy like that.
Bane and Jones don’t have the length to be anything but physical. Bane has those t-rex arms and Jones is tiny. Those guys are physical like FVV and Lowry were physical. Good for them.
Now that they are waking up (especially Bane) they are gonna give lots of teams problems with their length and physicality, more the former than the latter.
Oh, one guy who is both physical and dirty is Mo Wagner, but he is out indefinitely with ACL recovery. If he’s back for the playoffs, that will help them tenderize whoever they play.
I have a hard time telling whether Brunson and Hart are badly hurt. They both tend to draw so much contact, then lie on the floor and wince for long periods of time. I usually expect them to pop back up.
Could be fun to watch Deuce start in his place a bit…
I think it was Fred Katz who said in some podcast that the problem with the Magic defense this year was they weren’t fouling enough AKA the Magic weren’t being as physical as last season.
They basically dared refs to have them all foul out and by setting the physical tone early to establish a high baseline for what refs considered a foul.
Other notes on Orlando (we play them again on 11/22):
-Banchero is getting an MRI on his groin, so he might be out for a bit
–A disconnect between Coach Mosely and Banchero was recently reported.
If both Brunson and Banchero are out, it will be hard to take much away from this next game. That said, if Banchero is disgruntled, Orlando might actually play better without him. And while I wouldn’t say the same for Brunson, he does cast a long shadow on our rotation, especially when he goes all mano-a-mano like he did last night. So playing without him for a couple of games might be an opportunity for others to step up, like they sort of did last year.
Pursuant to the GOAT discussion a few days back, did all the Kobe stans check out Jokic’s line last night? 55 on 78% shooting (18-23 including 5-6 from 3) 14-16 FTs plus 12 rebounds and 6 assists.
His 6 games in November makes pinball stats look meager:
35.8/12.1/11 in 33.2 mpg Ts% .830 ORtg/DRtg = 158/106
Yesterday was a good test of our new offense against a higher level and more physical defense. Even though we came out very flat (probably due to the B2B) and lost, I think the offense was passable. It was too Brunson centric again, but we were a little more energetic in the second half and able to put up 65 points.
The failure was the defense.
Orlando does not have a particularly good offense. They didn’t go on some random lucky 3 point barrage last night. They turned the ball over 15 times. Yet they still scored 124 points on us with the same 62 in the second half when we were playing with more energy. And that was on a night Mitch was in the lineup. Every time we made a little run, the defense could not get a stop. You have a problem when you can’t stop a team like Orlando while one of their best offensive players is out.
If Brunson misses a few games, who is the backup PG?
The only other real PG we have is Kolek and imo he’s not ready to start. Anyone else mentioned is NOT a real PG capable of running the team. It’s going to be PG by committee between Mikal, Deuce and Hart with some Kolek thrown into the mix and Clarkson creating more for himself. That’s not ideal. We have no real backup PG.
Thank God we fired thibs the discourse would be so bad today otherwise
They should run kolek out there at PG for a few games and see what happens
they may not have a choice but to start kolek at some point whether they want to or not the problem is that mike brown will have a built-in excuse assuming that we (likely) lose those games to good teams (“we were missing brunson”)
I’m guessing that Kolek would get eaten alive by the same tactics opponents use to pressure Brunson. OTOH, I am quite worried that Clarkson will physically break down if he gets ramped up to starter’s minutes. If Brunson misses any significant time, Deuce is really gonna have to step up. Honestly, I might even bring Dink up for a look-see.
Alternatively, maybe Leon makes a trade for a backup…
dink pate is a lot of things but being a point guard is none of them
Knicks won games last year when Brunson, Deuce and Payne were all out and the only PGs left were Wright and Kolek. They’ll be fine if Brunson is out a bit, obviously hope there are no more injuries while he’s out though.
but the reason they were ok in those games was much more because of wright than kolek wright is no longer on our squad i just checked
It was bad lick running into the Magic for their IST tuneup game. Writ it off as a scheduled loss and move on.
Wright sucks yet the Knicks were able to win games with him starting. Deuce, Clarkson and Kolek playing PG is more than enough to win games while Brunson is out. They went 9-6 last season when he missed the 15 games in a row with a sprained ankle, no reason the current group couldn’t match that record if not do better.
But hopefully it’ll only be a few games not 15.
He sucks but he was a competent PG who had experience and is probably better than Kolek. He also is a MUCH better defender than Kolek or Brunson. So while we lost Brunson’s scoring, the defense of the starting 5 improved when Wright started and he was competent enough to bring the ball up the court and get us into our offense so the other 4 dudes could score. That’s why we were able to win games while he started.
Kolek is nowhere near as competent or experienced now as Wright. I mean, sure, let him start and get some experience but simply saying “wright sucks” doesn’t really mean anything.
Wright only started after Deuce and Payne also got hurt. Deuce and Clarkson with some Kolek mixed in is much better than just having Wright and Kolek.
Most of those 9 teams we beat were tanking, though.
Then again Cleveland won by 14 in Miami last night without Mitchell, Mobley, and Garland.
I’m optimistic Brian is correct. Brunson always seems to have magic recoveries whenever we think he might be out a while.
Even without Brunson we’re a competitive team, just not a contender. Probably something like play-in level.
You can’t take too much away from losing on a back to back, third game in four days.
But it also should not just be dismissed as a schedule loss because Orlando is a team we could face in the playoffs.
The only thing for me is that it does sort of reinforce my compeltely insane theory that with BRown we might have upgraded our offense for the regular season and it’s going to look better overall because we’ll beat up on teams more than we did under Thibs but we might also have traded for a team that is more vulnerable in the playoffs to tough teams like Orlando. Basically, Thibs knew how to throw rock very well and sometimes in the playoffs it’s a rock fight.
We grinded out some gritty playoff wins against Cleveland, Philly, and Detroit. We also pulled off a great upset over Boston when theiroffense got cold. I’m worried we could be susceptible to going cold like Boston did against an Orlando or Detroit type team and not remember how to win a drag em out rock fight.
hubs thought this take was one of the dumbest ones ever made on the blog (sorry not sorry!) but I still stand by it as a possibility and we won’t really know that until the playoffs.
Or maybe we were just tired.
Not so fast, my friend.
I disagreed with questioning “whether we still have that fight in us to come back when we are down like we did under thibs”:
https://knickerblogger.net/2025/11/2025-26-game-thread-knicks-vs-timberwolves/#comment-984493
The point you’re making today is one I agree with. If all Mike Brown does is throw paper, we’re no better off than we were with Thibs throwing rock.
But I’m firmly in the “not taking anything away from this game” camp. If 50 games into the season we can only win one way, I’ll be concerned.
Clarkson is the guard on the roster with the most Brunson-like skills (which is a very different thing from having Brunson level skills), so I wouldn’t be surprised if he started, but I concur in being wary of pushing him past the 22-24 minute range. So Deuce would feature heavily regardless of whether he gets the starting nod.
I’d also be fine with seeing if Kolek could hold his own, we do need to gather data on the guy anyway. He definitely showed some stuff in the preseason, but ultimately if a guy who turns 25 before the playoffs can’t give us spot starts, we do have to wonder if he’s the best use of a roster spot. Now would be as good a time as any for him to prove his mettle.
Don’t shoot me for suggesting it but it might make sense to call the Kings about Russell Westbrook at some point this year. He’s averaging 19/8/7.5 per 36 and he’s on a one year vet min deal. Seems like the perfect ring chaser to me, if he’ll buy in.
payne played 21 minutes in our 121-105 win against the hawks in atlanta on april 5 when wright started
Westbrook provides real bang for the buck, too, bc he can keep two guys fresh for the price of one: he’s a backup PG and a backup Josh Hart.
Thinking about what Z-man said I actually think the Knicks even without Brunson would still be an easy Top 6 team in the East winning in the mid to high 40s.
Couldn’t watch.
As someone who grew up with the Riley Knicks, I always view “thug” as a term of endearment….
Yeah, I still think most of the East sucks this year. So I agree with that assessment of where a Brunson-less Knicks team would rank.
But come, the guy clearly just turned his ankle. I wouldn’t be shocked if he has to take off a game or two, but there’s no way that that was a major injury.
but we already lost to the heat once *with* brunson and now we have to play them twice more over the next four days
Hard disagree. Let’s not take Jalen for granted. Best thing to happen to this franchise since the frozen envelope.
thinking about what z-man said…….
it was definitely bad lick ill writ it off fo sho
The difference between Brown or Thibs making this mistake and playing the starters down 15 with 2-3 minutes left on a back to back is zero. JB on between his 32nd and 37th minute was in there for stat padding only. Game was over.
Brown is responsible. Period. Leon, media and fans can give him a pass for his first dumb mistake because he’s human, its November and the injury does not appear to be terrible.
However, if it was a season ending injury (i.e. Randle), then we would ALL be furious that this one year championship window was closed in November as a result of a poor risk management.
I think the East is better than it has been characterized.
depends on whose characterization of the east was being used initially
Feels that way to me too. Wonder what the East vs West record is so far.
Here is a comparison of the interconference win percentages for the Western Conference:
2025-26 Season (Current): 56.0%
2024-25 Season (Entire): 55.1%
The Western Conference’s current win percentage of 56.0% (a 28-22 record) is slightly higher than its final win percentage of 55.1% (a 249-203 record) from the entire 2024-25 season
The Hornets are amazingly shitty, and they’re not even in the bottom three worst teams in the Eastern Conference this season!
The big thing in the East is that the Pistons look like they might be taking “The Leap.” That would suck.
I love Westbrook and would not be opposed to him coming off the bench but it would be hilarious to watch Westbrook and Clarkson trade off turns on offense clanking shots. Mitch would get so many offensive rebounds.
I love Brunson and he’s the main reason the Knicks have a puncher’s chance at winning a championship this season but Knicks went 11-6 without him last season. KAT, OG and Bridges is still a pretty good Big 3.
So Bam (toe) and Herro (ankle) were out yesterday, let’s hope those problems linger… but they’re traveling with the team…
Bam and Herro have already been ruled out for tomorrow.
thankfully youtube tv spared me from viewing last night’s sports debacle…
less than enthused about watching any replay/highlights…
am curious to hear the post game interviews though…
yes
Sorry if this was covered already, but what did Brownie say at the postgame presser? Was he blaming the b2b and/or the refs, or was he focusing on something else?
I agree. People were too focused on the decline of Boston and Indiana and not the improvement of teams with some young players, players drafted in the last draft, injuries that held teams back last year etc..
just watched the knicks post game…
wally said the magic beat us up, said detroit will do the same…
it’s true, we’re a finesse type team…that’s the strategy for playing against us…
monica said the knicks didn’t compete with energy in the first half…
MB mentioned rebounds and poor transition defense, players focused on officiating…
MB also got a chance to use the word sprays a couple more times in public…everytime he does, i hear little john yelling skeet skeet skeet…
questioned his own minutes distribution and timing, that was surprising…
Only a Grade 1 sprain for Brunson, out tomorrow then re-evaluated daily. I’d sit him until the game at Orlando next Saturday, he’d get 10 days rest and only miss 3 games.
I hear those Orlando players are thugs. Maybe bring him back against the panty-waisted Mavs, he can go mano a mano with the guy I REALLY don’t want to see headline another article, point guard Cooper Flagg.
That’s smart. Hope they do exactly that.
Thank god Brunson is gonna be ok.
First thought, that was a purposeful trip that injured him.
2nd; Hard to win a game like that when the refs were allowing anything and everything orlando was doing. Travels, hard fouls, you name it. Felt like the game 2 of Detroit last year. That plus dummy turnovers (some of which were hand checks but whatever) is the game right there.
3rd; Bridges seems to enjoy PG and initiates very well, let him run it so we can keep Duce off the ball.
Did not see last night’s game. Did some dumb fun stuff with some friends. Saw the Aurora borealis two nights ago. Geo can probably give you some recs for treating any PTSD you’ve suffered during the game/seeing Brunson get injured.
duce duce lil duce coupe i got the duce duce in the trunk of my car
DirectorNYC and others, the East does have a losing record against the West so far this season, but the West has mostly played the dregs if the East so you can’t conclude from that the the East is a lot weaker. See this article for details.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6774816/2025/11/04/nba-eastern-conference-parity-nba-cup/
It’s too long to quote, but here’s part of it.
wow awash in competence is the name of my latest band!
AL MVP GOES TO JUDGE
Jeter will always be my favorite Yankee ever but Judge is the greatest player I’ve ever rooted for. I’ve never wanted a player to win a championship more than Judge, I really hope the Yankees can finally win another championship with Judge cause he really deserves it.
And I really hope Judge gets traded to the Dodgers. He really deserves it.
I really hope for lent you go back to staying away from Knickerblogger again.
My quick synopsis of the East:
-Cream of the crop: Knicks, Cleveland, Orlando, Detroit. Pretty certain one of these 4 will represent the East in the finals.
-Mosh pit of meh: Miami, Philly, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago, Toronto, Boston. Good enough to beat anyone on any given night, probably within a stones throw of .500.
-Possibly better than terrible, but not yet: Indiana, Charlotte
-Top of the Lottery: Washington, Brooklyn
Without Brunson, we probably fall into that second tier, maybe towards the top of it, maybe not.
I wonder how the MVP voting would have gone if they didn’t segregate the awards by league. (Since they both have identical rules and play each other freely now, seems like an obvious adjustment, no?).
The last 0.4 seconds of the 3rd Q in the TOR-CLE game is taking forever.
The Raps are better than a lot of people think they are.
That’s a really attention seeking thing to say.
Had Judge wanted to play in LA, I’m quite sure he could have talked the Dogers into making a competitive bid when he was a UFA a couple of years ago. Cashman isn’t trading him for any package (save Ohtani) and he’s a 5/10 vet who has the right to veto any trade he doesn’t like.
“I really hope for lent you go back to staying away from Knickerblogger again.”
Not counting me, that’s two posters in the last week that had very unkind things to say about a particular poster.
Look in the mirror, dude.
I don’t think it would have been close this year as Judge beat him substantially in offensive categories and Ohtani only pitched 47 innings this season with a 1-1 record. Ohtani also plays strictly as a DH when not pitching.
In years where he starts a full slate and has comprable offensive starts, he clearly has more value.
https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/baseball/versus-finder.cgi?player_id2=judge-001aar&year_min=2025&player_id1=otani-000sho&seasons_type=forall&request=1&utm_source=br&utm_id=ohtansh01&utm_medium=sr_xsite&utm_campaign=2023_01_wdgt_player_comparison
I’m less of a baseball fan than I used to be, and am not an advanced baseball statistics aficionado, but I think that a strong case could be made for either Judge or Ohtani. I’d be fine with either choice.
But I’m impressed with the voters that Judge got it over Raleigh, who had a very compelling story but the stats clearly did not measure up. Not that I cared all that much, but it seems like the right decision.
Why is ESPN screwing around with the format of their NBA box scores?
I hate the new format. They used to put FGM-FGA first, now they put pointz in the first column and you have to scroll way over to see it. Awful.
Hahahahaha. That’s funny, Bob.
So what are the starting lineup options for Friday?
OG, Kat, and Mikal are 100% starting, so who fills the other two spots?
Realistic possibilities:
-Mitch and Deuce
-Mitch and Clarkson
-Hart and Deuce
-Hart and Clarkson
-Clarkson and Shamet
(I don’t there a realistic chance of Kolek starting, but hey, you never know!)
Since Miami will be smallish without Bam, I would tend to go smaller. Probably go Deuce for sure, and then either Hart or Clarkson.
But if I had to bet, it would be Mitch and Deuce plus the other 3 starters, with Brown having an itchy trigger finger for subs.
“I hate the new format. They used to put FGM-FGA first, now they put pointz in the first column and you have to scroll way over to see it. Awful.”
I also hate fishing around for MPG, which is now all the way to the right. That made total sense as the first column.
Actually it was an accurate statement; if you really want Judge to win a World Series, you want him to get traded bc it’s not happening in NY.
Why is it funny?
Judge’s bWAR was 9.7 to Ohtani’s 7.7 or including his value added from pitching. fWAR has it closer at 10.1 to 9.4, but Othani’s scant pitching contribution during 14 games couldn’t make up for the difference in offensive production in the other 140 odd games.
It must be nice the see the future that clearly. It was nothing but a BS statement. Had he thought he “deserved” to go to the Dodgers, I’m quite sure he could have arranged it. But I’m sure you know his mind and his desires better than he does, lol.
Jalen Johnson with a huge triple-double tonight, cue the Hubs whinging (I say that with love!)
Also, don’t look now, but the new-look Suns have won 5 straight. The fit is so much better this year.
Who needs to see the future? The last 15 years are clear enough.
Trusting Hal and Cashman was the biggest mistake of Judge’s career. He deserves better. He deserves the Dodgers.
“Only” doing something that nobody else does for 47 innings is just, you know, funny is all. If Ohtani didn’t exist and Judge pitched one inning as a starting pitcher minds would be blown.
But my question wasn’t about who had a better statistical season, my question was about how the MVP voting would have gone down if Ohtani, Judge, and Raleigh were all vying for the same award. It’s obviously not just an bWAR discussion, otherwise Judge would have been unanimous as well.
count me as someone else who hates the new format for the nba box scores on espn theyve fooled with them twice in the past week now after using the same great format for years and years i see this all the time where format of things are changed on sports sites as change for changes sake and invariably make the things that were working well suddenly bad and borderline unusable
jalen johnson not only had a triple double he also added seven steals for good measure
espn also disspelled with player positions in the box scores
Who had the last legit quadruple-double (you know, steals or blocks, not turnovers)?
david robinson with 34 10 10 with 10 blocks back in 94 there have only been four of them in nba history wemby had 25 15 8 with 9 blocks in a game last season
larry bird missed one by 1 steal he was asked if he wanted to get one by his coach he sat out saying hed already caused enough damage