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2025-26 Game Thread: Knicks @ Pelicans

Knicks head to New Orleans to keep the good times going!

Let’s end 2025 on a high note with wins tonight and tomorrow night!

Let’s go, Knicks!

More than 58 will feel real great!

161 replies on “2025-26 Game Thread: Knicks @ Pelicans”

With Mitch out, and us playing against a dreadful opponent, I hope to see Huk get some run out there. Let this be The Huk Game!

Don’t get Diawara starting over Deuce, but hopefully it’s to ease Deuce back into shape.

Kolek is questionable for Monday’s game against the Pelicans with right ankle soreness.

This is a new injury for Kolek, though it does sound minor. While Kolek is in jeopardy of missing this contest, the Knicks could be getting Miles McBride back from his left ankle sprain — McBride is listed as probable.

Kolek injury

marechal I think that’s part of it, but it also might be that he likes Diawara’s defensive length to start the game on a short leash.

Brown has been keeping the 2nd unit as the 2nd unit all season when it comes to injury, putting a 3rd stringer in the starting lineup instead

kolek was questionable at one point in the late afternoon but should be active as he was taken off the injury report just before 7:00

New Orleans is horrible. Zion makes them just bad.
Probing question. Where would Zion be in this Knick lineup? OG or Zion at the 4? Hart to the bench?

I still don’t think Diawara will replace Bernie Williams as my favorite #51 but he now officially has my attention

It truly is remarkable no matter what the starting lineup is the Knicks defense is guaranteed to start the game not giving a fuck.

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I can’t wait to see Diawara next year. He has a chance to be pretty special on both sides in a few years.

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We need OG to work with Diawara on layups.

If this 2026 it would already be a contender for post of the year. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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Don’t get Diawara starting over Deuce, but hopefully it’s to ease Deuce back into shape.

I’m an idiot.

Somewhere Thibs is thinking – “I really should have put that Diawara kid in with 2 minutes left in a blowout instead of 1”

I mean if Diawara gets 30 we have to schedule an emergency KB meetup ASAP in which all have 30 drinks

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You know, I tried watching the Kings play the Lakers yesterday, but gave up for two reasons. One, the Kings weren’t competitive after the first quarter or so and it wasn’t a fun game to watch. Two, the Lakers announcers were so difficult to listen to. All they did was talk about how great the individual Lakers were and they barely called the game. The individuals Kings seemed not to exist from their point of view. It was so arrogant of them. I bring this up because now I’m listening to the Pels’ announcers and they are so much better. They do call the game snd they manage to talk about both teams and they have done their homework too.

Here’s a thought. Guard the guy with 21 points in the first quarter, maybe.

“Yabu rehab game??”

Zeroes across the board, except for, you know, the turnover.

Can’t really blame him, though, with that much weight, he needs a running start…

I told someone literally earlier today that I wouldn’t trade Yabu/Dadiet/the WAS picks for Bey because I didn’t think he was worth the picks. Didn’t know he was surveilling me.

Absolutely embarrassing defense. We may still win this game but that was simply a lack of effort

Ok I think giving up 41 first-quarter points trumps any good things that happened on offense.

Knicks rarely get blowouts as they seem to toggle their effort to a level just sufficient to win in the 4th quarter.

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Knicks defensive rating was borderline Top 10 after the Cup run but right now it’s trending in the wrong direction and might not even be in the Top 15 after this debacle tonight.

Yabu didn’t “keep it alive” — Yabu bobbled an easy rebound and OG grabbed and jammed it.

The power of the Dark Side is growing in me…

Oh shit Jokic might’ve fucked up his knee tonight.

He had 21 / 5/ 8 in the first half…

If Knicks aren’t going to bother playing defense tonight they also can’t be missing a ton of wide ass open 3s.

Hukporti was bleeding everywhere. I wonder why they’re not showing what happened. That was a lot of blood.

Knicks deserve to be down 20 at halftime after that don’t give a shit 1st half performance but instead they’re only down 3 and will probably win the game. This is not your 90’s NBA!

Brown read this morning’s thread about not being different enough from Thibs, decided to empty the bench by halftime

Well if it’s any consolation the Thunder just gave up 74 points to the Hawks in the first half.

Brown better challenge their collective manhood at halftime…that was brutal defending across the board….

It would probably be a good idea to not sit Mitch the next time they plat Zion. He just killed KAT on switches.

Just watched the replay of the Jokic injury, he got his ankle stomped on and his leg did something funky when he tried to move, so not a non-contact injury but looked just as bad, like something popped but maybe just a hyperextension.

I was kinda surprised they sat Mitch because he’s from Louisiana…you would think he’d want to play there.

Knicks finally start showing some effort on defense but now can’t score if their life depended on it.

“lol jemison is such a throwback knick. it’s like they threw anthony bonner out there.”

Definitely better looking than Ken Bannister…

Brunson has been terrible tonight

(And usually when one of us says that he bails us out down the stretch 🤞)

Knicks deserve to lose this one. Didn’t take the opponent seriously and the worst defense of the year. Figures when they actually tried, they couldn’t score. Brunson also playing a very bad game – taking a lot of bad shots.

But this game was lost when you gave 41 points to the fucking Pelicans in the first quarter.

3pt variance hasn’t been our friend tonight…

It actually has. We are 44% vs the Pels 38%. We are getting out rebounded by 12.

It is kinda cool to see the version of Zion that cares about basketball. He ought to consider doing that more often.

OG can dunk, but only just barely. Throwing an alley oop to him has to be below the rim to work…

Would be a fucking waste to come all the way back and grab the lead only to blow it down the stretch.

Brunson yelling at Yabu means enjoy your minutes, Jelly, that’s it for the season

Yabusele closing this game shows how Brown has completely given up on any pretense of defense.

I kept waiting for Jordan Poole to do something stupid. Glad he saved it for the end of the game

It’s very, very nice having a guy teams feel like they have to hard double at the end of games.

Deuce Deuce!

We’re really pushing our luck with these wins

Great teams win these games. It’s not luck when you consistently close teams out at the end

I agree, d-mar. Winning on the road when you are tired, banged up, and road weary against young, hungry, athletic teams often looks like this.

Last 5 minutes Brunson is consistenbtly un-fucking-believable. If Jokic is out for an extended period there may only be one guy between him and the MVP…

we did fine but it’s always surprising how rarely we are able to get kat involved when jalen is hard doubled late

Yeah thru the Cup Final I believe only OKC had played in less Clutch games than the Knicks who basically won almost every game by double digits. Now the Knicks are only playing in Clutch games but they’re figuring out ways to win while always having a key player or 2 out.

Probably not the worst win of the season, but certainly in the running for most infuriating.

…these guys annoy the hell outta of me lol. There really is no quit in them, but I could use a few more blowouts than these nailbiters

Knicks on a 3 game winning streak despite having allowed 124, 125 and 125 pts past 3 games. These aren’t my childhood Knicks teams that’s for sure.

Defense was a problem, but most teams in the league lose this game, and the Knicks didn’t.

McCullar 3-6 from three and 13 points on 7 shots vs. Atlanta.
Diawara 4-4 from 3 and 18 points on 9 shots vs. the Pels.

Who knew?

My bad TNFH my childhood teams were coached by Stu Jackson and John MacLeod! It was a weird 2 year gap bridging Pitino and Pat Riley, wish I remembered the Pitino seasons.

Last 5 minutes Brunson is consistenbtly un-fucking-believable. If Jokic is out for an extended period there may only be one guy between him and the MVP…

If he misses any of those shots down the stretch we lose the game. The guy is an absolute assassin

If Jokic is out for an extended period there may only be one guy between him and the MVP…

I seriously doubt the guy 25th in the NBA in BPM and 20th in VORP is finishing 2nd in MVP voting.

Those crazy 12-deep substitutions in the first half generated tons of confusion and made things seem worse than they actually were. We have a much-much deeper roster this season compared to last year, and the coach obviously feels confident enough that we could get the W anyway or we could even afford an L for the sake of learning more about our depth in real game situations. I trust the coaching staff know what they are doing. The team settled down the last quarter and a half or so as we went back to more ‘conservative’ or ‘traditional’ lineups.

Our schedule has been very helpful so far as it allowed us to adapt to the new system without having to face top teams. This is about to change in the next several weeks. Then we will really know where we are.

MVP voters famously use BPM and VORP when choosing who wins.

Interestingly enough when discussing year end awards on the Hoop Collective podcast, Mac Mahon and Bontemps often bring them up. Windhorst, not so much.

Those crazy 12-deep substitutions in the first half generated tons of confusion and made things seem worse than they actually were.

great point rough…

just looked over the boxscore – big smile seeing all those names listed as having played…gotta imagine that’s gonna be a pretty raucous flight in to san antonio…lots of extra energy in their next practice…

MB ain’t just serving up wins, he’s also passing out hope…

felt like impending doom was always right around the corner last season with how hard thibs squeezed the starters and main bench contributors…

genuinely excited now to see what more tyler the creator, kool mo d, and mccullar junior (keeps playing well and he’ll get a nickname too) can do…

I remember when no matter how big our lead was I was waiting for the other team to go on a run and beat us down the stretch. Now, as long as we are close I expect us to win down the stretch. It’s going to be different against the best teams, but this team has “winning” figured out. Brown keeps them fresh, they tighten up the D late and they make shots.

Let’s not give McCullar a nickname. Like Drew Bledsoe.

Defense is fine. Nobody is overmatched. Except against Zion who is slim and a beast. Angry attitude btw. Steroids? Other teams are gonna make shots. Trey Murphy is good.

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