News & Blogs
The Knicks need to get ’90s tough … or else they are done – The New York Times
Knicks Bulletin: ‘It builds a confidence going into a series’ – Posting & Toasting
Guerschon Yabusele on amending Knicks contract to facilitate Bulls trade: ‘The passion is more than just the money’ – SNY
Pistons 126, Knicks 111: “Kinda contentious” – Posting & Toasting
Jose Alvarado immediately impacts Knicks in debut win over Celtics – SNY
Knicks’ Jordan Clarkson: Drops out of rotation – CBS Sports
EXTENDED: ROCKETS at KNICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | February 21, 2026 – NBA
The Run.down Knicks vs Bulls Postgame Show – The Strickland
Knicks vs Rockets – Recap & Reaction | POSTGAME SHOW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Brunson & Towns Lead Knicks 4th Quarter Comeback Over Rockets! | Post Game Show | EP 697 – Knicks Fan TV
YT News
42 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.02.22)”
Boy, I’m still glowing after that win as I watch USA/Canada play hockey.
What a great win! This team always seems to pull off great wins right after awful losses, just to fuck with our heads.
That’s why I think they’ll be fine in the playoffs. They don’t back down. They lose horribly, and then win amazingly. That is useful in the playoffs.
BC it sounds like KAT was a pivotal part of the win, and the press suggests that he took some leadership on the bench. Did it feel that way?
And yes, enjoying the hockey game. That 5-on-3 penalty kill was epic!
I have to say that, although i (almost) never give up on the Knicks, after OG passing a 3P to get to a more guaranteed 2P, and missing, ball in the air near the rim, Mitch comes to make a putback dunk but somehow the ball hits the back rim and comes flying back to the 3P line (i think) where a Rockets player gets it easily and they come to our side and score again with a few seconds left in the 3rd, i thought “this is a sign, we’re not winning this” and i turned it off.
So great i’m a bad sign-reader !! LOL
Great win, and let’s keep up the fight for the 2nd/3rd seed, being 4th would be a worse outcome imho, i just want to face the Pistons in the ECF*.
*And at the same time, i’m praying they don’t get there to not have to face them at all 😉 😛
This morning, i’ve put it back where i had left and watched the 4th. KAT was great, i just can’t tell about the leadership as i fast-forwarded the timeouts. Let’s hope KAT can build on this, we need good KAT if we are to stand a chance at making the Finals.
PS: In the game thread there was even a “fire Mike Brown” comment, so it is indeed a good read for any of you that have the time. LOLOL
He was definitely pivotal to the win. And apparently he got loud with the team before the fourth, so….I guess his leadership was helpful? That stuff often seems kind of uncertain to me.
KAT had a good game and, more importantly, played the way we need him to play. Not a huge scoring night but got his 20 and rebounds, made some good passes. Played good defense and, most importantly, got dudes down in the paint and played some post game!
The key for this team is going to be putting egos aside. We have an extremely talented roster but there are obvious and exploitable flaws on all of them. On any given night depending on match up and who has it going any one of our core guys could sit down the stretch. OG is probably the only guy who will always close out. Brunson too although even with him if deuce comes back healthy I could see a situation where if Brunson is cold and getting hunted on D, brown could go with Alvarado and deuce. Sometimes KAT might sit in favor of Mitch. Maybe Sochan could close out and hart or Mikal sits.
So putting aside the egos is going to be key. Cause if they all buy in, Brown has ALOT of different looks he can throw at teams.
We gotta keep winning cause I think getting the second seed is important but at the same time I hope Brown continues to try different line ups and close out units.
This USA/Canada game is going to give me a fucking heart attack.
Inside the nba, Shaq and Barkley, had a very good discussion about KAT.
Nice=soft.
But if KAT could change is mentality, a big like that, with those skills + some meanness, instead of victim mentality, this team is hard to beat.
Alas, I’m not sure KAT has it. He even got docile with Shaq, Who was trying to provoke, and KaT kissed up instead.
KAT needs to play hard. Too much lallygagging. He hangs back, trails plays, sits on the three when he should be crashing and he initiates contact seeking fouls rather than buckets.
That’s where the bitching makes no sense.
I hope he can get a little mad.
Brunson has that, but he doesn’t have the physical gifts. He can’t do it alone.
Too many of our toughest dogs are under 6’4.
Every time I watch hockey I wonder why I don’t more often but maybe the scarcity keeps it special.
It might not be the way to go every game, but against physical teams like Houston and Detroit, instead of doubling down and trying to match their style, the Knicks need to play 5 out and impose theirs. They haven’t done much of it lately (only in KAT lineups, when they do it) outside of the 4th quarter yesterday. More of that please.
Yes, it was an unexpected and very enjoyable turn of events, and I will take this W, but I wouldn’t make it look more that what it was. It was as much a Rockets choke job as it was us taking advantage of that. After a good Knicks start, the Rockets made adjustments and we were stuck in the mud and looked hopeless for two and a half quarters. Yes, those were gutsy decisions by the coach to finish with Alvarado, bench Hart and Bridges, speed up the game, and so on. Don’t forget, however, that for most of the time he was either experimenting (?!) or looking totally lost as per his usual — I don’t know which.
In sum, the team once again did not convince us. Let’s hope they get another victory tonight against the Bulls in order to make last night’s finish count more.
I think a big key last night was the team was all about getting KAT touches and shots right out of the chute. He scored a bunch early, and I think that allowed him to settle into the game. What do I know, I’m no sports psychologist, but it sure seemed that way. And vice versa, when the ball doesn’t find him in the first quarter he kind of checks out.
I haven’t looked at the numbers/tape yet, but based on my recollection what I loved about KAT’s game last night was how simple he kept it. He posted up smaller players successfully and shot 3s. There was very little in the way of “start a hopeless drive from the top of the key that results in a missed shot or turnover, topped off by not getting back on defense because you’re complaining about a non-call.”
I still don’t know exactly how to discern whether his middling season is the result of legit decline or bad decision making, and my guess is the former could feed the latter, but last night gave me some hope the skillset is still mostly there and we just need to get his head on straight.
I still don’t really get what his claimed grievances are with his role, because it seems to me that he’s got wide latitude to post up smaller guys if he wants to try it. I’m sure the PPP on those isn’t elite (I know his general post up PPP is bad, but who knows if that changes with the mismatch), but it’s probably better than the play described above, which we get from him way more often. The problem is he tends to prefer the Kevin Durant cosplay thing, and I can’t blame Brown for not calling more of those plays.
Anyway, if he keeps his shot selection to 3s and shots relatively near the basket he can probably get a relatively easy 20-25 on good efficiency fairly often. It seems the issue is him accepting that kind of role, as opposed to the Kevin Durant cosplay.
What an incredible ice hockey game.
Top level sporting event.
Amazing we won.
Jack motherfucking Hughes!
Great postgame speech from Jack. Presidential timber right there.
They had Miracle on last night and yeah, I haven’t been this excited about a sporting event in a while.
It was awesome, but I won’t front, I get just as excited when the Knicks or Yankees have a cool regular season win. 🙂
46 years BC!!!
I’d be more excited if the Knicks won, sure, but it’s sort of same zip code. Same state maybe.
Great Tommy Beer tweet.
Jose has had two games where he had five steals, four assists, and multiple threes off the bench in the last two weeks.
That has only happened once in the past twenty years for the Knicks.
This 100%. On the nights where Hart, Bridges, and even the captain don’t have it, you have to bench them much sooner before things get out of hand. KAT seems to have a shorter hook than them because yes his defense can be really bad at times but the wings needs to be held accountable too, especially since we have playable replacements in Shamet, Diawara, and Alvarado (Deuce coming back will add even more depth).
I don’t know why people worry about size, it’s not like teams post up anymore. Rebounding? Sure, but that’s more of an effort thing at this point
So what I’ve learned from the Jeremy Sochan Experience from way too small a sample size.
Moves around the basketball court decently, hard to say yet about his defense, but holy grail is his shot broken. No big surprise as he’s 28.7% from three for his career, 25% so far this year. I think if/when he comes in he should be stashed at the dunker’s spot, not the corner, where he’s playing now. Which I guess means no playing with Mitch.
I still like it as a flyer, and who knows over the summer maybe our shot doctors can fix him a bit. But for now it’s looking like he needs to be used in a very calculated manner to avoid his having to take jump shots.
SoNice,
You forget that size matters when defending big people. One reason Kevin Durant is a first vote Hall of Famer, outside of his being incredibly accurate (with a great handle), is he can get his shot off against almost anyone because he’s (something akin to) seven feet tall. Having a 6’3″ guy on a 6’7″ guy is similarly problematic (see Jalen on Amen).
That’s one of many things I love about Mitch. He just looms over everyone else, including other big centers (other than Wemby). I don’t know how he does that, but it’s like he warps space.
Also really enjoying his increase in driving to the basket. Even when it doesn’t work, it’s a total thrill ride.
KAT dunking the crap out of the ball in the 4th to fire up the crowd and start the comeback was the turning point, I think. Not soft at all.
Is FVV coming back this season? Huston is pretty loaded and he can get them over the top!
We almost never continue to watch Knicks telecasts after the game is over, and I wish that we had followed suit last night, as well. I hated Shaq’s stupid comments to KAT, and I hated even more that KAT pretty much proved Shaq to be 100 percent correct with his timid, almost overly deferential comments. Wish that I hadn’t seen it nor heard about it—leave the guy alone, *especially* after he led probably our biggest comeback of the season over a really, really good team.
Clarkson looked great last night.
As did Dadiet, Huk, Kolek, and McCullar.
It was pretty interesting see Houston go with a no guard lineup for so much of the game. It looked good until it didn’t.
Durant was a plus 15 somehow despite the 10-26 outing and four turnovers
Pretty sure Durant had a good +/- because he was out there for a large part of the almost-decisive third quarter. (I have mixed feelings about the guy, but Durant still playing 38 minutes at the age of 37 after that whole Achilles thing is a little bit impressive.)
So likely no Mitch on a back-to-back, but the Bulls (also back-to-back) started Yabu at center for over 24 minutes last night, so maybe KAT will do okay?
I will note that Yabu was 12-9-8, not too shabby a box score, although -13, third-worst on the team (lost fairly badly to the Pistons).
Huk-Huk!
Sounds like a prime opportunity to unleash the Sochanimal
Mitch is definitely listed as Out.
Cavs lost to OKC, so we’re all alone in 3rd. For the moment.
Dadiet, Kolek, McCullar and Jemison all played (well) last night at Westchester. It is wise to get the playing time if they aren’t currently in the rotation.
Kolek with 19 and 13 assists (and 5 turnovers…). Dadiet scored 28 points on 17 shots (6-13 from three). I have yet to see a glimmer of that when he’s playing with the big boys…
Kolek made it to the “big boy” game and said that he was ready to play. I’m pretty sure he’s done that in the past.
To be fair Raven, Deuce used to put up great numbers in G League and look awful when he got a few reps in the big league. Not saying it’s comparable but the kid is only like 21 years old. I’m not ready to give up on him
Clank’s season is kind of coming apart at the seams, shocker, but IQ is gonna scrub his name from all those Worst Contracts in The NBA lists Quickley.
Hahaha well played
Losing to the Bulls would be the logical next step for this tea. Not sure how it’s possible but feels like a certainty.
JollyRoger, I was thinking the same thing as I typed. Funny that I had much greater (unreasonable) expectations that Deuce would pay off once he got some run. But like you, I’m not suggesting giving up on Dadiet, even if he has Knox’s forehead.
Also didn’t realize that a couple games ago Jarred McCain led the Thunder in scoring with 22. That’s just not fair.
So I’m on the west coast at a conference and have a few tree hours now and turned on the Celtics playing the Lakers. I can’t figure out who to root for. Of course I don’t like either team, but I probably hate the Lakers more. On the other hand, Boston is competing in the standings with us. It’s a dilemma.
It’s not that much of a dilemma. Root for the team that we are *not* battling in the standings, everything else being equal.
That would be good, but the Lakers just don’t look as good as Boston does. I don’t think the East is weak anymore.