News & Blogs
What if you could pick exactly how the Knicks will win the title? – Posting & Toasting
Knicks Eastern Conference Finals Primer: Cleveland Cavaliers – Posting & Toasting
Knicks vs. Cavaliers preview and prediction for 2026 Eastern Conference Finals – SNY
Why Stephen A. expects Knicks-Cavs ‘to be a nail-biter of a series’ – ESPN
Knicks Notes: Rust vs. rest, MSG impact, challenging Donovan Mitchell and James Harden – SNY
Knicks’ conference finals ticket prices run rampant as NBA Finals pursuit continues – The New York Times
Knicks Vs Cavs ECF Preview – Knick of Time
OG Anunoby’s status for ECF, Knicks-Cavs series preview | The Putback with Ian Begley – Begley Putback
Knicks vs Cavs ECF Game 1 Preview Show: Key Matchups, X Factor & Predictions – Knicks Fan TV
Pod Strickland Episode 595: Cavalier Confrontation – The Strickland
Knicks vs Cavs Is the Moment New York Has Been Waiting For – Hot Hand Theory
KFS After School | PLAYOFF PREVIEW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
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104 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.05.19)”
Expected Lineup
PG James Harden
SG D. Mitchell
SF Max Strus
PF Evan Mobley
C Jarrett Allen
MAY NOT PLAY
C L. Nance Ques
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Josh Hart
SF Mikal Bridges
PF O. Anunoby Prob
C K. Towns
MAY NOT PLAY
F O. Anunoby Prob
Friend selling tix to tonight’s game:
Sec 216, Row 3, Seat 14 – 15
$800/per obo.
Also, if anyone happens to be in LA June I’m selling some tix I bought and can’t go (taking a bath, thanks FIFA):
June 12 8p USA v Paraguay Sec 305 Row 8 Seats 1-4 Paid $2,295 per ticket // selling for $1,500 per ticket obo
That was a fantastic game last night.
Knicks can beat the Spurs. Not confident they have a shot against the Thunder.
I come away from last night’s Spurs win thinking this:
Wemby played a great game. Probably his best…and SGA had a pedestrian game by his standards…and the Spurs just got it done in OKC.
Can Wemby keep doing that on a game to game basis, in the pressure-cooker environment of the WCF? We’ll see.
And calling out SGA after the game about the MVP?
I’m excited to see what comes next.
Knicks tonight need to go hard at a tired and flawed Cavs team.
If they are out of sync, then their D needs to be off the charts.
Give the Cavs no hope.
Fortunately, we employ the one player in the NBA who can outduel Wemby: Mikal Bridges.
Still love you, Jan 2024 Knicks, but I-Hart’s annual disappearance in the playoffs is making it easier to fall in love with the new girlfriend.
OKC looked rusty to me. It’s a real thing and it worries me for tonight. Still, Knicks in six.
I don’t understand why OKC thinks putting Caruso on Wemby is a smart strategy, at this point you gotta have Chet or iHart guard him one on one.
I’m feeling the same way, and I’m giddy about it.
This isn’t overconfidence. I know the Spurs will be favored against us, and I know it will be hard to beat them.
But this is the key… I don’t think the Spurs are as ready as beating the Thunder would indicate… I think they just match up incredibly well against them… and against us I think their inexperience will be more of a factor than it is against OKC… I think their guards in particular will be prone to shooting slumps if you can guard Wemby at least somewhat capably.
God bless Alex Caruso and Jalen Williams for what they’re able to do against him, but it’s insane that’s what they have to go to. It’s like watching Embiid against Boston. Where are the bigs? I expect Mitch and even KAT to be able to guard him enough to make his life challenging. KAT’s guarded Jokic and Durant well in the playoffs.
There is, of course, the frightening possibility that Wemby has already ascended and no one can stop him. I didn’t watch the Minnesota series. Did he make a mess out of Gobert, too?
Well, BBA, they’ve already clearly decided that iHart is unplayable whenever Wemby is on the floor, because they have to go five-out at all times to have even a prayer of scoring against him.
Which — putting the cart waaaaaay before the horse — has me wondering what kind of rotation tweaks Brown would make if we make the Finals and the Spurs are there. If Hart regains his shooting stroke in this series, maybe everything stays as is. But if not, Deuce or Shamet may have to come into games really quickly.
Rust lasts maybe a half, at most. By the 4Q and OT these guys are back.
It was Wemby that made SGA look mortal, not rust. That image of him laughing at the MVP was some legendary shit.
Funny to think that the Cup Championship could’ve very well predicted the NBA Finals.
It was not rust. It was this:
Alan, that may make sense for OKC, I don’t really know their roster. But if I’m Mike Brown I’d lean more into offensive rebounding than five out. IIRC that was a big factor in our two wins vs them. When you have the bigs to body Wemby on the glass, it makes their guards rebound, and I don’t think they’re very good at that. Although Dylan Harper having 11 last night could change that math. That guy is 20 years old! How is he doing this!? (Carter Bryant is 20, too, and he looks like he might be OG Anunoby by the time he’s 23. They are such an impressive team, I wish I didn’t irrationally hate them.)
He’s going to be admired and hated as no superstar in history if he continues with this. I can’t believe he didn’t get suspended after that elbow to Reed, and this stuff together with laughing at his opponents will het old pretty quickly.
I don’t know, I much prefer Wemby than a foul merchant like SGA, who is so talented that he didn’t need to do that at all.
I think the Spurs’ strategy will continue to be to let the non-core OKC players to try to beat them while making it as difficult as possible for SGA and JDub to do anything. Caruso almost did that last night. He won’t do that again but others might.
Spurs won while shooting 30% from deep. OKC shot 37%. They were so good.
It’s hilarious how much Wemby hates Chet (and owns him).
Some fun bets to consider:
Karl Anthony Towns is +4000 for NBA finals MVP.
And Mitch is +25000!
I feel like those are both worth a punt.
The Mitch one seems crazy but if the Knicks win it’s probably going to be because he played great defense and dominated the boards.
In Knicks news, I kind of hope they watch the ending of Game 1 last year, remember Haliburton’s choke sign, and get amped up for their best chance to get to the finals.
The other thing is OKC will be able to guard KAT with Williams and Caruso. That may suck against Wemby but I think it would be very effective against KAT.
And I think this is the problem that OKC will face this series: they can’t really play a true 5 out style.
Seasonal 3P% of the 5 players with the most minutes played last night:
SGA: 38%
Chet: 36%
J-Dub: 30%
Ajay Mitchell: 35%
Caruso: 29%
It’s pretty bad! The Spurs will continue to live with most of these guys shooting from deep.
I got OG finals mvp at +55000 a couple months ago as a fun homer bet, Hubert. Fingers crossed!
That Towns bet might be worth an additional punt, though.
There’s no way that OKC will exercise their club option on I-Hart, is there?
I wonder if he ends up on the Lakers. Or the Celtics (ugh).
You never like to lose game one at home but here’s what had to happen:
OKC was out rebounded by 21.
Shai had a negative two standard deviation performance.
Dort, I-Hart and Chet (other than a big block) played horribly.
J-Will had an awful last possession with the lead and threw up an off balance prayer with 11 seconds left of the shot clock that led to the fast break Wemby tying 3 in OT.
OTOH… Wemby looked like the spawn of early 60’s Wilt and Russell whith a Crisper transplant of a Steph gene or two.
All this Knicks vs Spurs/OKC talk is completely dismissing the Cavs, similar to how we dismissed Indy before game 1 started last year… let’s deal with the Cavs. Hopefully those 2 losses at home last year are ringing in our guys’ ears and unlike us, they’re focused on the job at hand
Thank you. We’re better than them and should win, but it’s entirely possible Mobley keeps shooting like, well, Wemby, Harden gets everyone in foul trouble, OG isn’t quite himself, etc., etc. Horse, then cart.
Well the good thing about the Cavs is that they’re an extremely known commodity and a perfect litmus test. We know how good they are, and how they play in the playoffs. They’re not likely to throw a One Weird Trick at you that’s going to catch you by surprise, and they don’t have a potential breakout star who might emerge at just the wrong time. Their entire rotation is established players, most of whom have been playing together for several years now.
We should get a good sense of whether the Game Four Versus Atlanta And Beyond New York Knicks are a real phenomenon or just a team that matched up well with their first couple of opponents.
I spent the whole day yesterday trying to convince you guys that the Cavs will pose significant problems for the Knicks’ offense!
That said, I really feel that if the Knicks defend home court in the first two games, the series is over.
No one is dismissing the Cavs. They are capable of beating the regular season Knicks for sure. The Knicks of the past 7 games will be significant favs, but still have to do it. Understood.
Last nights game was a classic and a wonderful display of the sport, worthy of high praise and discussion.
Hello, Horse. Cart, hope to see you in a li’l bit.
The Pistons are actually a One Weird Trick kind of team. The trick is to foul so many times that the refs can’t call them all, and call that “defense.” They got pretty far with that one trick, but FT/FGA killed them in one or two games and that was that.
The Mets are becoming accidentally watchable, because they are being forced to Play The Kids now that pretty much every veteran on the roster is hurt and/or terrible. Today they called up two fringy prospects who may or may not stick as major leaguers but who are at least more intriguing than the retread no-hope journeymen that had been stinking up the major league roster.
LHP Zach Thornton is a soft-tossing lefty with very low velocity who has risen through the minors with an elite control tool and plus breaking pitches. He is the kind of pitcher you used to see all the time in the 80’s but has now gone extinct, so now he’s kind of an oddball prospect. You could make an argument that he has an 80 control tool. He has done nothing but consistently get hitters out in the minor leagues and is basically a finished product, so might as well see what you have with him.
Nick Morabito has fourth outfielder ceiling and realistically probably fifth outfielder ceiling, as he is a slappy singles hitter with a plus glove and plus speed. He strikes out more than you’d like to see from a player of this type, so he’s never going to make it as a starter and is probably never going to crack 1 WAR.
Guys like this aren’t going to turn the major league club around, but they do make the team more watchable to me. I’m the kind of maniac who has been following guys like Thornton and Morabito for years. You look at the Mets now and the players are mostly guys who came up through the farm system. It’s less annoying watching those guys lose. YMMV of course.
It’s a good question. At 1 year, $28M, is he an asset you can trade or a salary you have to dump? I don’t know, but I think someone would be willing to trade for him. He’s only overpriced for one year.
The Celtics should have the full MLE, and I would hate for him to end up there.
Can they do it to PG KAT as well? I’m not so sure.
JK,
I was saying something similar about the Cavs/Pistons to my brother the other day. He asked me who I preferred to face in the ECF and I said Cleveland, not because they seem markedly easier to beat but because they play a pretty vanilla brand of basketball that will allow us to better ascertain whether the Knicks are for real. Detroit, by contrast, plays a very gimmicky brand of basketball that doesn’t really tell you much about the teams in wins or losses. And aesthetically I just have a preference, as all should, for honest, ethical basketball, which Cleveland mostly plays, James Harden excepted.
Plus HCA. Wemby acolytes abound.
I only watched the 2nd half and OTs. OKC missed a million easy layups and at least one completely open floater. I guess we’ll see in game 2.
The strategy that SA uses vs OKC has a high variance probabaility of outcome. Wemby leaves whomever he’s guarding on every drive by SGA and forces OKC to make threes.
OKC playing small guarantee themselves to be exposed to offensive rebounding. Wemby had a bunch of simple tip ins over the head of JWill. He had 24 rebounds. That’s not him having a great game. Its OKC conceeding rebounds to trade off for a 35% 3 point shooter.
No rebounds. No rings.
OKC playing small 5 out ball is fools gold and won’t get it done.
Think OKC must play iHart where he feasts on rebounds of Wemby leaving him to go contest SGAs mid range shots. Play both their seven footers. Dominate inside out. Other than Wemby, SAS are are all a bunch of 6’6” wings.
It was effective on Jokic, so I suspect they can.
There’s no question in my mind SA is the better matchup. They have less guys to cover KAT than Atlanta did! If they have to use either Castle on him it frees up Brunson, and if they have to use Wemby on him it frees up everything . That leaves Julian Champagnie, Devin Vassell, and Keldon Johnson to deal with KAT. If they have to use Kornet or Barnes or Carter, we get someone to cheat off of.
Spurs won because when Wendy’s head got crushed into the ground diving for a loose ball he didn’t LeBron around on the floor he got up and demanded a challenge because he wanted to beat the opponent. It’s nice to have a psychopath back in charge of the league. Tough motherfucker who wants to dominate through the game.
I’m feeling nervous about CLE because the indicators are so overwhelmingly positive. Last time that happened was last year, and we know what happened in G1.
Some smart analysts are saying that we didn’t really solve ghost coverage on Hart yet, since PHI/ATL didn’t really have the capacity to do it. I’m worried that the old thermal exhaust port was just painted over instead of having been closed.
That said, we should win the series. If we win tonight I’ll feel much more confident.
Shit post, Pags.
You have one job. And if you don’t do it, I’ll have Claude do it for you.
What’s my job, Hubie? Remember, I am reformed!
think it was a 7 – 4 split on the last series with philly…
was watching nba today yesterday and of the 3 people on set 2 picked the cavs…
the 3rd picked the knicks, but only cuz they have family in new york and didn’t want to get a bunch of crap for picking against the knicks…
I think this slam dunk of the cavs is mostly just hopeful thinking…
the cavs are coming to win…
that’s the vibe I’m getting for sure…and, i love it…
You’re a mush. Write the post or I’ll put you in the cooler.
The Spurs would likely hand us one Luke Kornet game that we’d have to watch out for.
After thinking about this for more than five minutes, I regret to inform everyone that we are absolutely cooked.
The vibe around this series is already completely wrong. Everyone thinks we’re winning. Everyone. That alone should probably be enough to just fast-forward to the part where something deeply stupid happens in Game 1 and we spend the next 48 hours pretending we didn’t see it coming. We had the same level of confidence last year, and that went great for us.
The thing that’s bothering me the most is that I don’t think we actually fixed anything structurally. The whole “teams will just ignore Josh Hart” problem didn’t go away. It just…wasn’t used. Philly and Atlanta didn’t have the personnel or discipline to fully commit to it. Cleveland absolutely does, and if they decide to just park a guy in the paint and treat Hart like a Make-A-Wish participant from 3, we’re right back to the same clogged offense we’ve seen before. The thermal exhaust port is still there. We just painted over it and decided it was fine.
Then there’s OG Anunoby, who we are apparently just assuming has a fully healed hamstring now because…time passed? That’s not how hamstrings work! Those things linger, and the way OG has to play—cutting, defending, absorbing contact—is basically a worst-case stress test for re-injury. I’d set the over/under on his games played at 2.5, and my money’s on the under.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers are just in a different class. They won 65 games last year and just beat a legit top-seeded Detroit team. All we’ve done is beat an overrated Hawks team that got hot against tanking teams, and a Sixers team that surely would have smoked us if Joel Embiid had been healthy.
I also don’t buy this version of Karl-Anthony Towns holding up over a full series. We’ve seen this movie before. He looks incredible for stretches, everyone talks themselves into it, and then someone with length and discipline shows up and it gets a lot harder very quickly. We all saw how hopeless he was against Kuminga. And Evan Mobley is basically the worst possible matchup for him. If there was a lab somewhere trying to design a “ruin KAT’s night” prototype, this is what they’d come up with.
And on top of that, Cleveland now has Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, which is just a deeply annoying combination of shot-making and foul generation. Harden has apparently decided he’s good in the playoffs now, which is a fun new development for everyone involved, and he is absolutely going to spend 20 possessions a game dragging Jalen Brunson and KAT into actions until someone picks up two fouls in six minutes. That’s just going to happen.
At some point we also have to acknowledge that they probably just have the three best players in the series. Mitchell, Harden, and Mobley versus Brunson and…a collection of guys we hope play above their heads again. That’s not usually how this goes.
Also we haven’t played in forever. We are 100% going to come out flat. Feels like one of those series where we drop the first two at home, everyone panics, we “adjust,” win a game or two to make it interesting, and then reality reasserts itself.
I hope I’m wrong. I would love to be wrong. But this has all the markings of a series where we talk ourselves into it beforehand and then spend two weeks asking how we didn’t see it.
Cavs in 6.
Finally! I have reached the lofty heights I reached as dogrufus a lifetime ago, when catrufus emerged to honor me with parody.
I’m tickled!
I very much like Reformed Pags more than Proper Pags, but I’m good with a game-day Proper Pags if it makes Hubert feel better and it doesn’t become a thread clogger…
Oh wait, was Proper Pags just Hubert painting outside the lines…?
Yes, with AI. If I’d really written that post it would have been way better!
Unfortunately I’m far too reformed to be doing that stuff, even upon request.
Hubert is HAL.
I’ve fed chatgpt enough content that he knows all of you now, and over lent I worked with it to come up with images of us all based on our writing, and then I instructed it to recreate DaVinci’s Last Supper with us instead of Jesus and the apostles.
The images of us individually were great, but it was surprisingly difficult (impossible, really) to get all 12 people in the picture and in the correct position.
Here’s one of the drafts… see if you can guess any of the posters:
https://chatgpt.com/s/m_6a0ca8abb4cc81918d3f606445c4143a
Actually that was a prior draft that had glitches and doubles… this was the last one I came up with:
https://chatgpt.com/s/m_6a0cac2976e48191b267b2eb5da00a8f
Ha. I fed Chad (as my 88 year old dad calls ChatGPT) my 15 year old me as an aspiring novelist manuscript and now I have a book. Another half assed success.
I absolutely love how much Wembanyama hates OKC and isn’t shy at all about letting them know it. After we had to endure like 4 straight finals of LeBron and Curry led teams being all respectful and buddy buddy, I’m down for some sports animosity and a psychopath mvp level player who doesn’t give a fuck, specially since he’s super likeable off the court.
I don’t think people are saying the Cavs are going to be an easy out, current NBA has so much variance that anything can happen really, but based on what both teams have shown the Knicks are a better team and should win. I’ll still be nervous as hell watching it though.
that is so crazy hubie…I love it 😍
grew up on asimov’s idea of humanoid AI stuff…
was pretty sure for a long time they were coming to help us…
and then well, along came arthur c clarke with a much different take on possibilities…
and, we got HAL…
and yeah, more and more it seems, HAL ain’t coming to participate, HAL is coming to dominate…
Hubert, Lady Raven responds:
Wow. That’s a depressing image. Angry old white guys (some of whom appear to be duplicates of each other) yelling at one very sad looking black man. Maybe he should have chosen something a little brighter as a model, like a Renoir boating party. But go Knicks.
The name of that sad black man? Pagliacci
I’d say I’m the guy in flip flops, but we’re all in flip flops. How Californian of us.
.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t make it in.
The Spurs/Thunder series is far from over, but it’s becoming pretty clear why the Spurs have been such a tough matchup for the Thunder this year. The Thunder shoots 3s, but Shai is more of a mid range and go to the basket type player and shooting lots of 3s is not really the Thunder’s overall strength. The Spurs have a great defender to put on Shai (Castle) and even if he shakes him then you have Wemby roaming around the basket making it difficult from mid range or to get to the basket. I love OKC’s style, but I think the way to beat the Spurs is to have excellent 3 point shooting from multiple positions. You can’t go near Wemby. OKC is going to have to make an adjustment. They were very lucky to even be in the game. If Caruso wasn’t on fire forget about it.
It’s funny you mention that, Raven. Because this was the first rendition:
https://chatgpt.com/s/m_6a0ca755df108191ba0c33cecc58d09f
The Christ like figure in the middle is geo (who else would be our Jesus?).
So I said “why do you think we’re all white?”, and it did its usual BS thing… “you’re absolutely right, blah blah blah” and then it came back with Geo as black.
I said “why not Donnie Walsh”? And I swear to god it tells me something like “Donnie Walsh is definitely an old white man. He lives in Malibu, drives a Tesla, and talks about baseball all the time.” (Donnie is the old man in the cap to the far right.)
Regarding the whole yelling at Jesus thing, no matter how many ways I prompted it to recreate the image faithfully, it was incapable of putting the apostles in the correct positions. Except for Bartholomew (on the far left, in the Knicks jersey) and Thomas (next to geo, pointing the finger), both of which are my favorite depictions in the image because they perfectly nail my image of each poster.
Don’t worry, Doogie. I didn’t make the cut, either.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but after watching last night’s game I felt a bit deflated for a few hours. OKC and the Spurs are so damn good it made the Knicks/Cavs series feel like we are playing for the bronze.
I know the consensus has been that Atlanta and Philadelphia were soft matchups, but I don’t agree. I think both are good teams, but the Knicks played GREAT.
I think the Cavs are very good and we are going to have to continue playing great for this to be a relatively easy series. If we are not playing at that top level, this is going to be tough. And if we do get by the Cavs, we are going to have remain at that level to have any chance against either the Spurs or Thunder.
Hamstrings only linger when treated improperly and incomplete. It assists the ilio-psoas for hip flexion. The hamstrings overload when the ilio-psoas cannot apply full momentum/force through the range of motion. Rehab the i-p and the hamstrings heal just as fast as any other muscle.
Strat, that is odd because when I watched the game last night I didn’t come away thinking those two teams are so much better than us. They looked about as good as I thought they would but certainly both looked beatable.
Speaking to the debate the other day about what is a successful season, I think the clear answer is that making the finals is a successful season and losing in the ECF is not.
OKC and SAS are a clear tier or two above the entire East. They are juggernauts in both present and future value.
I’ve written enough about OKC, but the Spurs ended the season 30-4. Their three best players range in age from 20 to 22. They have an assload of resources to improve. Wemby is already the clear best player in the league, and has a real shot at being the best player in the history of basketball.
Beating them in the finals would be one of the greatest upsets in NBA history, rivaling the 2016 Cavs’ upset of the 73-9 Warriors.
These teams only looked beatable because they’re each the only teams capable of beating the other. If we get to the finals, I’ll be shocked to win more than 1 game.
This is still Reformed Pags instead of Proper Pags talking, these teams are just that much better than the rest of the league.
I think you are underrating the impact of the elite defense played by both teams relative to me.
that’s right doctor bob…OG’s hammy is just fine…
nothing can stop us, we’re all the way up…
definitely old man harden ain’t holding us back…
black or white, why i gotta look so weary…
I’m tellin’ ya baby – I am born again everything is gonna work out just fine…
it ain’t like I’m just laying around in bed, getting high and playing video games all day…no sir, that’s old geo…
new geo is raring and ready to go…just gotta finish a few more challenges in the game and I’m there…
dang, all that piss and vinegar still didn’t help me not to forget my horse back in annesburg (just ribbed a train)…
looks like I’m walking out of the grizzlies east area…no worries, just a 10 minute walk to go back and get my horse…
I know one looks ahead at one’s own peril, but damn, we annihilated two playoff teams once we figured out how to play right. Like, NBA record-setting annihilation, something neither OKC nor the Spurs have done.
Besides beating these punks tonight, what most interests me is how sustainable ‘playing right’ will be for us. Because if it is now just plug-and-play, I like our chances against anyone.
If all Chat takes away from it’s time here with me is that I live in Malibu and drive a Tesla, then, well, Chat is missing out on one of the finer subplots of this site.
I am choosing to believe until proven otherwise that the Knicks from game 4 against the Hawks is the Knicks we will see.
Certainly the Cavs will have to work to solve that team, and the Cavs are poor defenders at the guard position. I think the Knicks can spread the floor and make this very hard on the Cavs. Mitchell will do Mitchell stuff, but Harden looks tired. I think his impact is inflated.
It’s going to be fun.
The beige ball cap without a logo symbolizes the indifference and lack of prolonged affiliation to any one team. His expression is blank, showing his lack of investment in the current situation.
In a room full of men passionately gesticulating, Donnie uses his hand only to rest his head, again showing that he’s there to observe listlessly.
They literally staggered Gobert’s minutes to make sure he wasn’t on the court at the same time as Wemby, that’s how much Wemby devoured his soul.
Did Zach Lowe forget that the Knicks played the Cavs 3 years ago in the playoffs( that was so weird. Why is he pushing the narrative that this is the Donovan Mitchell-Brunson rematch from Jazz/Cavs days?
To your point, Brian, Lowe just mentioned on his pod that letting Wemby cover centers who can’t shoot (and he named iHart and Gobert) completely unviable, so maybe that doesn’t bode well for our Mitch.
I feel like offensive rebounds might actually be a soft underbelly. Instead of pulling it back bc Wemby is there, go ahead and rush your shot sometimes bc if he contests it there’s no one there to box out Mitch. But that’s only if he doesn’t swat it to the third row
OMG Carlos Mendoza has AJ Ewing out of the lineup today against a LHP, playing the recently called up Nick Morabito instead.
FIRE THIS MAN.
Forget what I said about the Mets being accidentally watchable. They’re platooning their blue chip prospect with a guy who has a 5th outfielder ceiling.
If you don’t think Ewing can hit LHP, leave him in AAA until he learns to hit LHP because HE’S NOT GONNA LEARN IT IF YOU PLATOON HIM.
You cannot play Hartenstein against Wemby, it’s a death sentence. He covers so much space by himself that he effectively shrinks the court, if you play a non-shooter against him every lane is gone. Wemby is an anti-space machine, his presence makes sure some shots you want to take are effectively gone.
OKC had the right idea, stick Caruso on him to bother him as much as possible and try to create as much spacing as possible on the court so he’s never free to roam around… the problem is that the Spurs have other great defenders like Castle and Bryant so it’s still hard to score effectively against them anyway.
KAT is one of the very few matchups that can really bother Wemby because he simply can’t ever leave KAT to roam around.
Less than 150 minutes… don’t worry about me, i’m fine!
https://c.tenor.com/BdOPn7l0H0wAAAAC/tenor.gif
What I’m wondering is if you can’t play Hartenstein and you can’t play Gobert, does that mean you can’t play Mitch, too? Bc I could have sworn I watched Mitch give Wemby a lot of trouble.
I’ll be at the game a few rows behind the Knicks bench tonight. They better fucking win.
I think the issue is not that you can’t play a traditional center. It’s that you can’t play a traditional center and then rely on dribble penetration/short mid range like SGA, JDub and Mitchell.
The only way to defend Wemby is to have a big that he can’t move pick him up outside the paint. Both Mitch and KAT fit that bill better than iHart.
“To your point, Brian, Lowe just mentioned on his pod that letting Wemby cover centers who can’t shoot (and he named iHart and Gobert) completely unviable, so maybe that doesn’t bode well for our Mitch.”
Zach gets it (as usual).
Wemby is so elite defensively inside I wish I had a better vocabulary because I can’t decribe it well within my limitations.
If we both get to the finals, I think Towns is the best you can do.
If they want to put Wemby on Hart more power to them, but you can’t go inside. He’s going to be a nightmare for Brunson mid range also if we get to the finals and he’s roaming inside. I think you almost have to play 5 out to beat that team.
Seems like you must have to have an offensive player serve as a blocker to keep Wemby from roving when players attack the paint. Just have somebody glued to him at all times. Seems like Josh Hart would be perfect for that role.
Mitch had 10 ORebs in 18 mins in the Cup Final. We had 23 as a team. 18 in our win against them at the Garden.
We only had 10 the time we lost to them, but both Mitch and Hart missed that game.
I don’t know as much as Lowe but this feels like it might be the soft underbelly of the dragon, and I think five out is what they want you to play bc they can get all their guards on the court. And not only do we have Mitch and Hart, but now Jordan Clarkson is suddenly Steven Adams on the offensive glass.
Cavs first, though.
Looks like your huckleberry’s right here Hubie:
The other thing about IHart and Wemby is that IHart also couldn’t see the floor against Embiid in 2024, to the point that Thibs had to rely on OG and Precious guarding him.
He also didn’t have a good time with Myles Turner.
iHart seems like a better team defender than 1-on-1 defender against elite centers.
Funny that in building to defeat the KP Celtics, the Knicks in a way became a good match up for the Wemby Spurs.
Let’s hope we see that matchup.
Last note on a team other than the Cavs…
There’s a stat going around that the Spurs are 38-3 when Wemby plays 15 mins or more.
It’s actually 38-4 bc they’re not counting the cup final. But more importantly it includes a 1-2 mark against the Knicks, and that one was the Julian champagnie game, which they only won by 2, and we were missing Mitch & Hart against a full strength squad.
Mitch is going to be unbelievably important against the Cavs and Spurs, which is so damn stressful. I don’t even care about the hack-a-Mitch; I’m just worried about how many minutes he’ll have to play and if he can hold up playing more than he’s used to at 110% effort.
The vibes outside MSG are immaculate.
Kidd fired in Dallas. LOL Bet he wishes he came here. (Not saying *I* wish he did.)
Ujiri’s first big move.
“Harden looks tired. I think his impact is inflated.”
There’s a joke about his physique in there somewhere.
OG not cleared yet.
Fuck me, that’s an ominous sign. Hopefully it’s just gamesmanship.
If he’s out, the forces of Proper Pags grow stronger…
He’s been listed as Probable all day. That *almost* always translates to “he’s playing” in NBA injury report parlance. We shall see.
Remember the last round? We don’ need no stinkin’ OG.
We could sure use him, though…
He looks to be cleared now.
Yep, just double checked.
I’m glad OG (appears to be) playing tonight…if that hammy is no bueno best to find out now and move to Plan B ASAP
kidd gets 40 million to sit around for the next 4 years…no bad.