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Knicks 124, Spurs 113: Mitch, Clarkson, and Kolek earn their bonuses in NBA Cup win – Posting & Toasting
Game Thread: Knicks vs. Spurs, Dec. 16, 2025 – Posting & Toasting
New York beats San Antonio for NBA Cup championship: Live updates and analysis – The Athletic – The New York Times
Knicks’ bench unit steps up to help secure NBA Cup clinching victory – SNY
Knicks capture 2025 NBA Cup title with dramatic 124-113 win over Spurs – SNY
Knicks win NBA Cup vs. Spurs: Bench fuels New York to first trophy since 1973 – CBS Sports
Knicks’ Josh Hart Would Buy New Watch With NBA Cup Prize Money, ‘I Got Robbed in Sept’ – BleacherReport
The Putback with Ian Begley: Knicks win NBA Cup with Iman Shumpert – Begley Putback
The Run.down Knicks vs Spurs NBA Cup Postgame Show – The Strickland
Knicks Nightcap Dec 17th – Knick of Time
Knicks Win The NBA Cup! | CP The Fanchise Reacts – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks/Pacers Preview w/ Caitlin Cooper of Basketball, She Wrote | PREGAME POD | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
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72 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.12.18)”
Everybody excited to inevitably get The Kevin McCullar Game?
Also, OG would have to play at least 20 minutes for the game to count for his postseason awards eligibility right? But Mikal could play, like, a minute and it would count for his games played streak? Or am I wrong on one or both of those things?
You are right about Mikal and the streak. You are very close to being right about OG, in that he is allowed to play 2 games of his 65 below 20 minutes but above 15.
Thanks, Bernie. So either OG plays more than token minutes tonight, just to guard against another injury stint excluding him for All-Defense consideration, or he sits in the hope that getting time off will make him more likely to stay healthy enough to qualify.
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG J. Hart Ques
SF Mikal Bridges
PF O. Anunoby Ques
C K. Towns Ques
MAY NOT PLAY
F O. Anunoby Ques
F J. Hart Ques
C M. Robinson Ques
C K. Towns Ques
G M. McBride Out
G L. Shamet Out
mikal could get on the court for one play or not even a full play and then a timeout could be called to get him off the floor and it would still count towards his streak im not sure that we see mccullar but i sure hope so and if so then yes i am a little excited about it same for evbu and jemison
Mikal only played 32 minutes on Tuesday. Josh played 29. I think both guys play closer to 30 minutes than 10 tonight (assuming Josh doesn’t have a knee issue).
I think they take advantage of the fact that the Pacers start Jay Huff at Center to rest KAT and Mitch, knowing they will be needed against Embiid/Drumond on Friday.
jay huff is actually playing really well but even so probably still not enough to worry about as mentioned yesterday we shouldnt lose this game but even if we do ill be ok with it because trading it for the cup win was well worth it (to me)
I’m totally fine throwing away this game and just letting Huk, Jemison, Tosan, etc. run wild, and whatever happens, happens. The only bad aspect of it would be that it would disrupt the run of Kolek-O-Vision (h/t ptmilo), since we’ve seen that Tyler needs competent guys on the court with him to play well. Or maybe he’s become so confident in the last few weeks that he carves up the Pacers on his own?
Further to the Mitch conversation, I watched a bunch of video of his plays in the second half, and it should put to rest all argument about trading him or getting “80% of the value at 20% of the cost.” It’s a real issue that he isn’t healthy enough to play 30mpg every game and gets injured often; definitely not ideal. But man, we went from 5 down to 3 up in a minute, and every play was Mitch. O boards, putbacks, steals, blocks, contests…all against Wemby. Not to mention it opened lanes for drivers, contrary to expectations, because Wemby couldn’t leave him. Pick your poison: go for the block and see Mitch get the rebound, or block out Mitch and allow the shot in the paint.
Might he be injured when we need him in the playoffs? Absolutely. But it’s just wrong to think we can replace him with Nick Richards or whatever cromulent backup and still have as high a ceiling.
Re-posting from late yesterday to put to rest any thoughts that I have swapped souls with E, I think we can all agree on the following positive takeaways:
-It was a blast to watch! Must-see Knicks TV. Then again, I watch everything, from summer league to preseason. Still, this was special, no doubt about it.
-Mike Brown deserves credit for deciding to go all-in on the game, even if an argument can be made that it was unnecessarily risky. He’s trying to built trust, community, confidence, vibes…and to put the Thibs stuff that much further into the rear-view mirror. Clearly it was a great win from a team-building/locker room perspective.
-It was a great win for the fan base and the credibility of the franchise. The pundits and bloggers were all over it. NBA fans of all persuasions got to see the in the most positive light they have been seen in since the Ewing era, maybe even since the Clyde-Willis era.
-The Legend of Jalen Brunson continues to grow, and his performance, in the tournament, on the podium, and in the media frenzy that followed, was first class. He’s certainly the greatest Knicks captain since Willis, and anything that bestows grace upon him is something we can all get behind. As OG would deadpan, Congrats Jalen, well deserved.
-It was great to see OG, Mitch and Kolek have magnificent games against a formidable opponent. We might disagree on what that means going forward, but it was still beautiful. Maybe it’s not Linsanity, but the Kolek hype is definitely a fun thing.
Given that Brunson & Mikal aren’t listed as questionable, I’m thinking they get full run or close to it. They need to if we want any semblance of a situation we can evaluate these players as every other non-injured, non-starter is an abjectly terrible shooter. They can rest tomorrow if need be.
McCullar (1-1) & Diawara (2-6) are the only non-injured, non-starters who have a 3p% over .300. It’d be nice to field at least one person who can shoot.
From Macri’s newsletter today:
We’ll be praying for his availability as long as we have him, but there are good reasons to take the good with the bad. The good is really, really, really good in ways that are not replicable by literally anyone else in the league, and to be literal, in league history.
Not interested in seeing what Nick Richards can do in his stead to save Dolan some money.
rama, there is no doubt that the Mitch who utterly dominates the offensive glass and does a solid job as a rim-protecting big is exceptional value at $12M AAV, even with the FT issues, and replacing him with a “better” option at backup C.
That said, I don’t think this particular game told us anything we didn’t already know. Wemby was very compromised…on a minutes restriction and in his second game back from injury, and dealing with a terrible loss, and it’s possible that he just ran out of gas. He’s also kind of a good matchup for Mitch because the positive difference in strength is greater than the negative difference in length. We’ll know a lot more about Mitch vs. Wemby in the next meeting on 12/31. Just like we’ll learn a lot more about him in our next meeting with the Celts after he was a -14 in 16 minutes. Again, we only have 30 games of data since Mazz first went to that strategy, and hardly anyone has followed suit (Toronto did in the IST QFs and Mitch was a -6 in 16 minutes and 2-8 from the line.)
No one is suggesting that we’d have a higher ceiling by replacing Mitch with Nick Richards, because Nick Richards stinks. And we all agree that we need that ceiling to stay high in this year of all years. However, the concerns about Mitch’s health, FT shooting, and contract situation are very real. There’s the high ceiling, and the very real low floor, both in these upcoming playoffs and in the future.
Bottom line: The theoretical ceiling of a healthy and available Mitch come playoff time is currently worth the risk of him being neutralized by Misses Robinson in a critical time, or of him being injured, or losing him for nothing, or going into the second apron to keep him. But the risk is very real and very ugly, especially if it leads to a KAT-Yabu-Huk rotation at C.
my only interest in nick richards would be as mitch injury insurance hes on the end of the bench in phoenix now so unless its because of climate he might rather be on the knicks
by the way chris boucher is getting very little run in boston is he still any good?
speaking of phoenix why cant khaman maluach get any run
I think Boucher could help us as a non-rotation bench piece. Don’t know how to pry him loose from Boston, though, they probably think the same thing.
it struck me the other day that now that we are actually quite good and no longer flying under the radar other teams are going to be even less inclined than usual to facilitate trades with us that could even conceivably help us out in any way
I could see PHX trading Richards for Yabu, which I think I would do. But I’d rather wait to see if Yabu plays better as he rounds into shape, as opposed to having a round shape.
the yabu thing is one of those conundrums whereby if he gets better we might keep him just to have him get bad again soon afterwards and if he doesnt get better we wont be able to get rid of him anyway
Speaking of Boston, is anyone other than me concerned that if (or should I say when?) Tatum comes back fully healthy, they will be the #1 threat to us in the EC playoffs? They seem to be looking to make moves.
“the yabu thing is one of those conundrums whereby if he gets better we might keep him just to have him get bad again soon afterwards and if he doesnt get better we wont be able to get rid of him anyway”
Thankfully there are a lot of games between now and Feb 5 to find out which direction he is headed in, starting with tonight. The good news is that we seem to be fine without him for now.
yep the idea of boston playing well enough to get into the playoffs (as they have been all season) and then getting tatum back in time to gel and coalesce as a team just in time to build momentum at the end of the season is definitely worrisome it would kind of be how the pacers improved over the course of the season last year and then came together as the playoffs really got going
I’ll come in partly just to slow the serial posting by Doogie, and also to note the usual from me, which is that I’m very excited to see Huk get some run tonight, NOT just because he’s my secret good buddy, but because I suspect there’s a perfectly cromulent back-up to Mitch in there (and a replacement for Yabu as a big), and I’m very curious why Brown is not seeing that.
If I’m wrong so be it, but I’d love some more data. Seems an agile, seven-foot rim protector who is willing to dive to the floor for a steal and fast break opportunity should get more than one minute of playing time.
Raven, many of us have been very harsh towards Doogie when he goes off the rails, deservedly so. But for me, (who some might describe as prone to serial posting) it’s always about what he says than about how much he says. I think his posting today is perfectly fine. One day at a time! Just my two cents.
I’m totally with you on Huk. If he can show that he is a solid #3 C, in effect making Yabu at worst a situational 4 more than anything else, it would do much to mitigate any concerns about Mitch, at least for this year.
I appreciated that Mike Brown shouted him out, even though he played less than two minutes. He had a great verticality play, something that I’ve seen him do pretty regularly in his recent (probably too paltry) minutes. He’s a tough rebounder in traffic and he’s a pretty good FT shooter.e also has great end-to-end speed. What he needs more than anything else is reps, reps, reps…and he should get plenty of them in the next month or so before the deadline.
Boston will be good enough that the Knicks will probably avoid a matchup in the first round.
I increasingly see a risk of a Knicks vs Cavs first round. The Cavs are a disaster right now, but if they get everyone back for the playoffs, it’s not an ideal first round matchup.
Fair enough, Z-Man, probably doesn’t help that there’s no punctuation. Fingers on a blackboard for someone who used to work in editing.
Here, I don’t even know what Fantasy Basketball is, but this from a fantasy league piece in ESPN about a guy from tonight:
“Huff leads the NBA in blocked shots (yes, we are aware that Victor Wembanyama averages more per game, but he just missed a month) and over the past 30 days he is averaging 33.4 fantasy points.
Plenty of centers are not averaging that many fantasy points in the past 30 days, including Jalen Duren, Rudy Gobert, Jaren Jackson Jr., Joel Embiid and Nikola Vucevic, among myriad others. He is a legit 7-foot-1 and since becoming Indiana’s starting center he averages 3.6 BPG and 2.3 3PG while shooting 50% from the floor. He doesn’t score or rebound much, but he blocks everything.”
The only teams Knicks should be worried about are whoever they’ll be facing from the West in the NBA Finals!
“Fair enough, Z-Man, probably doesn’t help that there’s no punctuation. Fingers on a blackboard for someone who used to work in editing.”
There’s a delicious irony to this in that it resembles the old Doogie’s go-to justification for his most annoying tendencies. But yeah, ptmilo should have exclusive rights to the ee cummings thing.
If Boston gets Tatum back before the playoffs, they will be good, but they won’t be as good as they were with a healthy Holiday, Horford and KP. And that assumes Tatum is 100% which probably won’t be the case until next year. If we can’t beat them and teams like the Cavs, we don’t deserve to be in the finals.
I’m more worried about healthy Pistons and Magic teams.
Of course the Knicks should be able to beat anyone in the East. But I’d much rather a 70-30 matchup in the first round than a 60-40 matchup.
Ultimately it appears Leon has to decide whether he wants to pay Mitch to be a backup C with minutes limitations or move on.
However, right now, IMO, it’s very unlikely we are going to find a more impactful and complimentary backup C than Mitch. Since we are all in this year, I think it would be a bad idea to trade him unless it was part of a bigger deal that moved us forward.
The cap issues are over my pay grade (which is $0.00 haha).
I said at the start of the year Mitch was critical to us having a chance and I still believe that. We need a healthy productive Mitch or we aren’t going anywhere.
If Huk develops or we can improve the 3rd string without giving up anything meaningful that’s great news. But It’s going to be tough to replace what Mitch gives us even at less than 100%.
I really don’t like the idea of sitting guys tonight if they’re healthy. Indiana’s an easy W if you show up, and I doubt we need the rest that badly.
I say Yes and Yes, Alan.
Admittedly, the Cup Final was the first game I got to (more or less) watch this year. Him giving big time minutes off the bench in two-PG/three G lineups against a good and athletic Spurs team told me a lot.
He gives you something that we’ve been trying to approximate for a while: a true backup PG. Duece is a PG in name only, and Clarkson is a shoot-first backup G that happens to be a decent passer. It’ll be a good problem to figure out once Duece (and Shamet) get back: Kolek doesn’t necessarily make anyone redundant because he plays differently than those other bench Gs.
I have not seen many Knick games this year, so I cannot remember Huk actually passing the ball outside of after a rebound, but that dive to the floor, get the ball, and make the pass that got Raven all excited had me thinking perhaps we have the makings of an 80/20 iHart.
Before Huk got hurt last year he showed a decent ability as a roll man (something the Knicks don’t do anymore because…reasons…) and also a decent baby tear drop. I can’t remember either one this year so far, but he’s hardly been on the floor.
Hux has definitely looked better to me this year, both in a raw physical sense (looks leaner) and on the court (the leanness seems to be facilitating some increased mobility/switchability).
Unfortunately his offensive game still makes Mitch look like Wilt Chamberlain. I’m glad we have him though and would love to see what he could do in extended minutes if/when we’re resting guys, so maybe tonight.
This.
The Knicks have played TWO whole games in the last EIGHT days and they are in desperate need of some rest? WTF?
You need to manage the center position because of Mitch and the b2b issue, but healthy players should play. Nicked up players should be managed normally.
it’s these younger generations Bob, they’re just a bunch of pussies, what are gonna do…
hey, we need to hang live together somewhere just so we can talk shit about people…it would be a blast…
To be fair it’s more of a Gertrude Stein stream of consciousness, but ok. Don’t forget that djphan mastered his own way of making a point…when he was able to handle criticism of said point…not always possible…
Problem is the Knicks need rest because their opponents have had way more rest than them. Tomorrow Knicks will be playing their 3rd game in 4 days while Philly will be playing their 1st game in 5 days. That’s where the unfairness lies.
Also I want Mitch ready and rested to wreck Embiid in a vicious revenge game (not to mention swatting away those pesky guards they have…). If he plays today he’ll likely miss the Sixers.
It kind of looked like KAT got dinged up in the last game. Can’t say.
Yeah, Raven, I’m shocked that he was able to go back into the game in crunch time, maybe it was just some weird funny bone in his knee kind of thing…
Yeah I think right before halftime KAT banged his knee. Philly plays Saturday so I wonder if Embiid or PG sit out the Knicks game.
Luckily Yabu has been “rested” against his former team. Brown playing 3D chess.
Raven, my man, there’s a real chance that you’re dreaming about Huk at night because I don’t think these are real memories. This dude might be the worst offensive player I’ve ever seen.
You must have averted your eyes during Chris Dudley’s 16 year NBA career with his .429 TS% for a seven footer 🙂
Hukporti’s big problem, other than his microscopic usage, is that he sets a moving screen on every other play and gets called for it.
Rest Mitch and — if he’s hurt — rest KAT but if Brunson, Mikal, OG, and Hart are healthy I see no reason they can’t all play 28-32 mins both nights.
Sometimes Mike Brown goes so far the other way of Thibs that it seems intentional (i.e. a command from above). He often pulls the starters way too early, like against Orlando when Josh had to give his baby to Mitch. And giving the healthy guys off tonight seems like that, too.
Forfeiting an easy win against the Pacers to avoid a schedule loss against the Sixers doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
If we have to rest guys, then we should bank the easy W tonight. Going 1-1 would be a disappointment but 0-2 would be a disaster.
Agree with you, EB, that moving pick thing is a curse.
I’m gun-shy about leaving links here, but if you go to Youtube and copy and paste this:
Ariel Hukporti – All Points in the 24/25 NBA Regular Season for The New York Knicks
It’s a bit long, but early on you’ll see all kinds of moves, from rolls to feisty layups to teardrops. Hubert, I don’t know what YOU’VE been watching, but it clearly was some other dude.
Huk is a second year player who hasn’t gotten a whole lot of minutes. The question is, can he be coached up? Mitch was a foul machine his first year so were a lot of novice Bigs.. I already saw an improvement in a screening the last time he got big minutes.
That’s not a problem for the Knicks. These guys are used to normally playing every other day. They’ve played 2 in their last 8 and Indy has played 2 in their last 10 days.
Both teams are operating with much more rest than usual. When does too much rest equal staleness?
I think there’s a lot of emotion and disruption to the normal routine by being in Vegas with all the hoopla of the cup. In addition, KAT and Josh were hobbling around and should definitely be rested unless they’re 100%. I think OG, Brunson and Mikal should all be good to go but that’s up to them and coach.
Tbf chess is normally played in three dimensions. Also four, unless I’m missing something (sorry, Spock).
Raven, I also remember a handful of nice little moves from Huk. He even dropped a floater (poor choice of words) a couple games ago. He has touch, and other than rebounding is better than Mitch on that end. But saying “other than rebounding ” when it comes to Mitch is like saying “other than scoring” when it comes to Jordan…
I got it Bob 👍
we can start a YouTube channel: Revenge of the Geriatrics
we’ll go around to public places and confront the last couple of generations’ worth of feckless humanity…
it’ll be a blast just ragging on young strangers mercilessly…gear up on plenty of pepper spray and ben-gay and just go at it…
make and leave our mark on the moment…
pretty sure this is a solid plan Bob, are you down for it?
Some of the usage issue with Hukporti boils down to a few things out of his control:
(1) As a team, we rarely hit the rollman.
Mitch would rarely score if it weren’t the absurd number of offensive rebounds he collects. He’s been assisted on only 46.4% of his makes and he’s definitely not out there iso-ing anymore. Part of that is his hands, the other part is that Jalen shoots first and almost never throws alley-oops.
(2) Huk often plays without floor spacers
I feel remiss to bring it up for the 3rd time in 3 days, but our 3rd string has zero shooters. Everyone with more than a handful of shots is under .300 from deep, and the guys with few shots also suck at shooting. When spacing collapses as much as it should for that group, you’re going to have a bad time. So basically, it’s hard to squeeze the ball inside to him.
(3) I thought I had a 3rd thing but I forgot it
…
Tiger balm geo. You can’t say gay in Florida.
+1
It’s not so much that the schedule has run them ragged, but the Cup (god damn right I’ll capitalize it) final itself was an extremely physical game in which we got at least a momentary injury scare for basically the entire starting lineup. The emotional hangover aspect strikes me as very real too.
Plus, we might be able to eke one out against the Pacers anyway.
Towns, Hart, and Mitch are all OUT tonight.
The Ariel Hukporti Game?
yep, hopefully huk starts tonight…
The Tosan Evbuomwan Game?
Is Doogie actually James Edwards? They spell and punctuate similarly…
It would be hysterical if we had banned the NYT Knicks reporter…
Alan, did you re-post that first Bluesky? I swear it had more mistakes in it…
Mitch was never gonna play and I think KAT and Hart both got nicked in the game so no complaints. We’ve got more than enough to win this with that.
Doogie: livin’ rent free in all our heads…barely kicks in on utilities…probably should be some kind of tax for that…
Pacers got blown out by the Wizards last game, so definitely winnable with the guys we’re playing.
I fully believe that all the guys listed on the injury report are legitimately injured or recovering, even if they could play through it without too much trouble.
It’s actually pretty normal to sit starters for a few times during the season. Thibs wouldn’t, but Thibs should not be the standard when it comes to managing minutes.
Not sure why I feel the need to respond to this one point out of all the points made above but Chris Dudley truly was the worst offensive players I can remember seeing in the NBA, at least who had a long career. Total agreement there.
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG J. Clarkson
SF Mikal Bridges
PF OG Anunoby
C G. Yabusele
MAY NOT PLAY
F Josh Hart Out
G M. McBride Out
C M. Robinson Out
G L. Shamet Out
C K. Towns Out
we can win with this lineup actually very excited to see what yabu and clarkson can both do with extended minutes
I did clean up at least one Edwards typo, yes.
I totally approve. If they are banged up this is definitely a time to rest them. But it does seem like that is most of our rebounding.
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