The Knicks host the Utah Jazz in one of those weird matinee games that get played every so often. Luckily, the Knicks no longer have JR Smith on the team, who literally would be hungover for matinee games, which is just so insane and yet, hey, the guy has a championship ring, so I guess it all balances out.
The Knicks are coming off a very impressive win against Chicago where we got to see the Joakim Noah we all expected to see in Year 1 of his contract instead of the sleepwalking Noah we saw through the first four games. Derrick Rose, as well, started to dish the ball, ending up with more assists against the Bulls than he had in his first four games combined. Let’s just hope that this wasn’t some “Giving a crap when it’s against your old team” thing. Them playing like they did on Friday would dramatically change the chances of this team being good this year. A win against Utah today would bring them to .500, which would be nice.
Gordon Hayward returns for Utah today, but we can hope that he’s rusty in his first game back. Lance Thomas also returns for the Knicks today, but we can hope that he’s not rusty!
Finally, congrats to longtime poster Z-Man for competing in his first (and as he said, last) marathon today at the age of 58. Go you!
Let’s go, Knicks!