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2022-23 Game Thread: Knicks @ Celtics

HUGE GAME!

The Knicks are on the road against the hated Boston Celtics. The Celtics are without their best defensive player in Marcus Smart, but the Knicks are without their best defensive player, as well, so that’s fair enough.

Luckily, the Knicks are on the road tonight.

Let’s go, Knicks!

291 replies on “2022-23 Game Thread: Knicks @ Celtics”

What I’m looking forward to most is the Celtics PA guy –

“Jayson Tatum…threeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

Ugggh. We’ve got to defend the perimeter better. And we need to get some rebounds.

RJ’s airball sandwiched between Tatum’s and Horford’s threes…
Not a good start…

Hey guys, what’s the franchise record for 3pt allowed? Asking for a friend.

Sometimes I wonder if it’d be mathematically preferable to just concede a dunk every possession, because at least that caps them at 100% TS.

I just figured out the problem. Thib’s gave those fancy scouting reports on where to funnel the Boston players taking 3s to his players upside down. 🙂

Strat, tell the Celtics the benefits of post moves, whatever makes them stop shooting 3Ps. 😛

Can’t complain about not being totally down and out after that shooting barrage. What exactly would RJ Barrett say he does here?

I’d like to see the same fouls called against Horford….

Nice work keeping our composure during the hailstorm of threes, keep it close guys!

What exactly would RJ Barrett say he does here?

He is that friend that’s always there, but when he isn’t nobody notices. 😀

RJ’s walking like a zombie…

P.S. Maybe the dunk will wake him up… (good pass I-Hart)

I really want to stop shitting on Barrett…

… But he won’t help me…

“Can’t complain about not being totally down and out after that shooting barrage.”

This is a fairly optimistic take on a first quarter that has us on pace to lose by 32!

Can’t even say it was outlier shooting on their part; they didn’t even exceed their TS% for the season.

By the way, can anyone help a noob out and advise on the proper way to quote folks?

Could get used to these Hart outlets, pair pretty well with Obi’s propensity for getting out in transition

Deuce has been great! The comeback was all about him coming in and changing the dynamic.

Well, sort of. Maybe.

RJ does make some insanely air-head plays. He plays like he took massive bong hits before the game.

@pagliacci, it’s like this:
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IQ in full Sweet Lou 2.0 mode….

Hauser killed us the last time and we didn’t learn a bit…

This is another night where Brunson’s size is a negative. IQ clearly better tonight. But Brunson is smart, so with luck he figures it out.

Well, in the 1st the Celtics thought this would be easy, and we’re making this a game. 🙂

Could get used to these Hart outlets, pair pretty well with Obi’s propensity for getting out in transition

This is what I thought would happen when we signed him. No idea why it took this long.

Well this has been unexpected and fun.

Plus it’s an interesting lineup. Kudos to Thibs for giving Obi some run, especially after Randle went off in the first.

Celtics pretty stupid to keep firing up 3’s when they’ve got 2 guys in Tatum and Brown who can post up and draw fouls.

Considering the way this game started, I’m glad this is still a watchable game. It had the makings of a disaster.

He plays like he took massive bong hits before the game.

That could explain why he often looks sleepy and moves like a comatose zombie…

One way to look at this is that since the 10-25 early in the 1st quarter, we went 48-35. How about that? 🙂

Pretty good 2nd quarter. I strangely feel we have a higher chance of winning this game than I would if we were up by 20.

Still pretty sure we lose though. I don’t know if it’s just 30 years of fan PTSD talking, but I always feel like any game against a good team is like playing an old sports video game on the highest difficulty, where the AI just sets its FG% to 100 at some point.

Love what Sims brings but the drop off from Mitch to Sims in terms of rim protection is enormous.

Love what Sims brings but the drop off from Mitch to Sims in terms of rim protection is enormous.

Yeah, the defense is a wreck right now. Thank god the offense is so hot.

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It’s RJ vs. Brunson as to who’s going to win this game.

Brunson’s trying to help the Knicks win.

Look, everyone had child stretches. But when a teammate is lighting them up, you don’t think about yourself, you get that guy every opportunity to make plays. But RJ wants his 20.

We would be so, so much better with OG.

Guys, the whole problem with RJ is that we’ve never tried using him in his ideal role: tank commander.

Just tell Dolan he’s our developing superstar while you collect assets and lose games until you draft this Wemby or the next, preferably while wearing one of those super life-like face masks from the Mission: Impossible series made in the image of Isiah Thomas.

Why would you trade Randle. He, IQ and Brunson are keepers.

Sims is no Mitch, but I do love him. Crazy hops, and such quick feet.

Sims is no Mitch, but I do love him. Crazy hops, and such quick feet.

I love him as Mitch’s backup. He’s just no Mitch, but that doesn’t change that he’s still a player that I love.

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Sims has altered a TON of shots tonight. He’s also gone block-hunting, so especially as the other Knicks don’t block out it’s probably about even.

“Look, everyone had child stretches. But when a teammate is lighting them up, you don’t think about yourself, you get that guy every opportunity to make plays. But RJ wants his 20.

We would be so, so much better with OG.”

It’s a very serious flaw/problem with him and has been for awhile. He single handedly loses games because of it .

It is crazy how quick these teams are scoring. Can you imagine a Knick/Celtic game 30 years ago being 91-85 at the end of the third?!

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“It is crazy how quick these teams are scoring. Can you imagine a Knick/Celtic game 30 years ago being 91-85 at the end of the third?!”

In the late 60’s it was a typical score…

I definitely think Sims is a 3rd string C. He can do a lot for that role but he makes a ton of mistakes too.

If he can sort those out he’d be a pretty good backup.

In the late 60’s it was a typical score…

True, the Big O’s stats in particular definitely had some major pace inflation.

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Hopefully this dry spell to start the fourth by the Celtics will make the difference in the end. This is so exciting. The Knicks have really stepped up their offense for these national games. I love that the rest of the country is seeing them do well.

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Deuce looks like he’s shooting with a trebuchet

His existence as a rotation player is kind of infuriating to me.

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I definitely think Sims is a 3rd string C. He can do a lot for that role but he makes a ton of mistakes too.

If he can sort those out he’d be a pretty good backup.

Yep. But I think he has a lot of potential. He’s still raw. I like that Thibs has him on the bench when Mitch and Hart are healthy.

I never used to think anyone could break Wilts 100pt game, but with some of the team and individual totals getting put up this year I’m starting to think someone will. Not this year or next but eventually. If Kobe played in this era his 81pt game might’ve been 100.

I don’t know why the disrespect from knuckleheads like Chuck annoys me, but it is gratifying to show out on national TV for a change. (As Z-man or Brian said earlier)

Couldn’t help but notice that when Sims rolls to basket it’s a rather meager roll but they typically let him go free… there is not even the thought to pass to him despite often being open or with significant size advantage … we are giving up 2 to 6 points of scoring opportunities because of it … maybe only 2 if Celtics get wise to it…

His existence as a rotation player is kind of infuriating to me.

Not me. I’ve seen some progress for McBride, how ever miniscule, offensively. I see him inches away from doing something good. His defense has been a difference maker. His YTD 3pt% is 26.7% but in January it’s been 41.7%.

And some folks complain that Thibs doesn’t play kids. SMH

That wasn’t offensive interference?

Whatever, we never get calls, so I’ll take it

Hart is looking much more spry the last few games. Let’s hope it was an injury getting better and not just noise.

Julius can carry you for a lot of the game, but you need someone else to step up in the waning minutes.

Edit: or not….

That is a WEAK fucking call Tatum just got … just cause he lowers his pu$$y ass shoulder. Guy needs a slap

It’s the unforced errors that always kill us.

Edit: and yet we only have 7 vs. 12 by the Celts.

Starters failing as a unit… you can’t expect to hit your shot every possession… UNLESS you’re the team playing the Knicks… it’s that simple …

That said, Time Lord should have taken a timeout there 100% (unless they were out).

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Oh, awesome. The scoreboard at Yahoo.com had us up by 2 at the end of regulation, but it’s an error and we’re going to OT where our chance to win is about 0.0%. Have we won an OT this year?

Even when we\ve won we’ve somehow lost, lmao

Iso iso iso iso iso iso iso… look, an iso…

Like, obviously isos have an important role on an NBA team, but, yeah, every fucking play down the stretch, with guys who aren’t exactly superstars? Dumb.

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If Clyde was announcing the word “stagnant” would have been used multiple times in the last 2 minutes

You realize there is very little chance we win this game if we continue with the us scheme… it lets the opposition chip away as we put up bad shot after bad shot… now we’ve given them the chance to cover the 8.5

Sims with a great block…of Williams’ forearm…

Hahaha, yeah, you’re totally right on the replay. Too funny.

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We need OG. Only Jayson Tatum has been able to stop Jayson Tatum tonight.

Would you trade RJ for OG straight up? I would.

Would you trade RJ for OG straight up? I would.

Huh? Of course you would. That’s not even really a question.

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With one exception we spend the last 5 minutes of regulation with JB and Julius taking turn going 1 vs 5.

And Grimes dented the rim on the only good shot we took…

Sorry guys, this actually making me feel unhappy and I’m turning the game off to go do some dishes.

To all those who continue watching, best wishes for an unlikely win.

Even if we win… I’m gonna be upset

No way. If they pull this out, I’ll be pumped.

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Man tatum gets a foul every time someone looks at him and the refs won’t even give us a clear and-1

Man tatum gets a foul every time someone looks at him and the refs won’t even give us a clear and-1

Bad call, but not a clearly bad call. It was a tough call. They just made the wrong call.

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Honestly, I think the Knicks are running a much cleaner offense in OT than the Celtics. The Celtics actually look harried on offense. The Celtics are the ones playing hero ball. That Brogdon three? Some of these Tatum “I’m shooting the ball no matter what” plays? The lazy passes? I’m surprised to see it.

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RJ … didn’t think he was breathing here in overtime … talk about being phased out… glad he was ready to hit that

See? That was a real play call and they got an instant basket. The Knicks are very lucky that the Celtics haven’t been smarter on offense.

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>>So sims boxes out his man but no one else boxes out theirs

Yeah, it was obvious on that play that Sims took a couple players out of range and Julius didn’t step to the rebound fast enough

My blood pressure is through the roof! Huge misses at the stripe and it wasn’t us.

Unless we’re out of TOs IQ should’ve been in on D instead of Brunson for the previous play… guess it worked out tho

Fantastic win!

Kudos to Julius and RJ for their clutch free throws, dunce cap to Brown.

FUCK THE CELTICS!

Nothing fills my soul with joy quite like beating the Celtics in OT off a Brunson block

The Celtics fans should really be questioning Joe Mazzulla’s handling of the offense in overtime. He let it get to literally a deficit before he started to pay attention. A timeout earlier would have been highly beneficial for the Celtics, like after the Randle three. They had a clear opportunity to take hold of this game. Instead, he let them basically just play a streetball offense, like the game didn’t even matter. That was some shitty coaching. The Knicks, meanwhile, were running a solid offense. They just were missing shots…until they didn’t miss. The Knick offense in OT was much better than its closing offense.

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I was so agitated I started vacuuming my apartment after regulation ended and now it’s like 2/3 done and I don’t want to finish

Bulls lose to the Hornets. Washington tied for last play-in spot. I doubt they make the playoffs… but we get their pick if they can pickup 2 wins from the play-in.

Man, what a fun win. I’m so happy that Randle is playing like this, I absolutely did not think he had it in him to bounce back from last season, but it feels great to be proven wrong.

Specially satisfying to win with Kyrie Jr. of all people choking the game away at the line after a super soft foul.

This was a great way to start a killer stretch.

Up next: @Nets, Lakers, Heat, Clippers, 76ers

Watching those stupid Celtic fans grimace was incredibly satisfying. Gotta love “every other year Julius.”

We went 2:35 without scoring to end regulation. 8-0 Celts run. Completely brutal.

Pagliacci, can I send you money to always keep your dishes clean?

Apparently Mazzulla straight up does not believe in timeouts, basically ever. Truly one of the strangest hills for a coach to die on, but yeah.

Thinking of Knick comps for my constant emotional swings when it comes to RJ, I think he has become the modern day version of John Starks.

It feels so much better to win when you were already mentally prepared for an OT loss.

No game tomorrow means I’m going to feel like this all day tomorrow and parlay the joy straight into a big day of racing at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. 🙂

Apparently Mazzulla straight up does not believe in timeouts, basically ever. Truly one of the strangest hills for a coach to die on, but yeah.

I think coaches typically overuse timeouts, but, yeah, come the fuck on, Mazzula. Just like how obviously Timelord should have taken a timeout at the end of regulation. What’s the higher chance of a score there? Williams with a couple of seconds at the free throw line or a play drawn up out of timeout?

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Yo.

Season was looking bleak with Mitch going down and we lose some games and then we just pull out two wins in tight games against two really good teams, one on the road.

That was fucking awesome!

“Thinking of Knick comps for my constant emotional swings when it comes to RJ, I think he has become the modern day version of John Starks.”

Not bad…

Best. Win. Of. The. Season.

Dude, Randle is an all-star. Period. Same for Brunson.

Randle and Brunson doing that on national tv has to help both their cases. May be tough for either to make the cut, and I can’t imagine both. But man, did they ball out.

Let’s not discount the HUGE 4 FTs in overtime by Julius and RJ. That was refreshing!

I can’t see how Randle doesn’t make the all-star team after that game.

I would imagine that the votes are already in though, no?

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Let’s not discount the HUGE 4 FTs in overtime by Julius and RJ. That was refreshing!

Definitely. And RJ looked calm as fuck shooting his free throws. Unlike shaky knees Brown. What’s funny is that Brown never struck me as a free throw choker before.

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Kudos to the bench too. Even though it went into OT, the bench gave us a cushion and allowed the starters to rest.

What’s kind of positive is that Brunson didn’t have a great game, at least by his standards. He could definitely do better. And Julius had his typical 2/3 unforced errors and only 9 boards, so it wasn’t his best either. I am not being critical, just noting that we could be better.

The biggest jump would come if RJ could be the best version of himself 80% of the time. That still wouldn’t be a star, but it would be good enough.

>>Man that would have been a fun game with Clyde and Breen

Indeed it would. But I liked making Reggie praise us on national TV.

Pagliacci, can I send you money to always keep your dishes clean?

Early Bird, the dirty dishes were the key! Without them, I’d have probably kept watching. 😛

If anyone needs me I’ll be reading the thread for this game on various Celtics forums, masturbating furiously.

Kudos to the bench too. Even though it went into OT, the bench gave us a cushion and allowed the starters to rest.

The key to the win was definitely the Celtics going ice cold to start the fourth. That allowed the Knicks to build a big enough lead to get to overtime.

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How many people thought we were going to win this game when it went to OT? Like 5%? I certainly didn’t.

Honestly Oakman, I didn’t expect it but I never gave up hope. As Julius said, the team has been through a bunch of these nailbiters and hopefully has learned to play until the final buzzer. So even when we were down 5 and the Celts had the ball I was not talking myself into a loss.

Putting aside that it’s the Celts, this game kind of balances out that loss to TOR, where we were a good call and then good look away from a win.

I’ll say this about Deuce. When he goes in for Brunson, there is no hiding his +/- behing other players on the floor with him. When he gets a +11, that’s a really big deal. He must be doing something right!

Thibs really should have gone with Quick over Grimes or Barrett and Hart over Sims in the fourth. Also- Brunson pounding the ball late with leads just kills the offense- that has to stop. Still, best win of the year.

Agree that Brunson was overdribbling there at the end. I know he wanted to take time out of the clock but starting our offense with under ten seconds left just isn’t a great idea when it’s so likely to be an iso that the defense can load up, and it’s either a turnover, wildly contested shot or a last-second pass-out for an overhurried three.

I know, I know, we won. Thank goodness.

There are definitely times when this team goes into “prevent offense” in th 4th when they are ahead and it’s really annoying because that only works if you have reliable superstars who can take difficult shots under pressure, which we don’t really have. It’s a big reason why we choke away leads so often but unfortunately there’s not much of a solution available on the roster outside of hoping Randle, Brunson or RJ are making those shots.

Bruno, totally agree, but I do think there’s a solution, which is if you want to whittle down the clock, don’t iso-prevent, pass the ball around. Otherwise it’s like dribbling toward the sideline when you’re double-teamed — the clock becomes a sixth defender, cutting options out as it ticks toward zero.

It’d make more sense if Brunson was a straight line driver but given how herky jerky (and time consuming) his drives can be he really needs to start the action a couple seconds earlier.

Maybe the most heartening thing was the second unit really playing well for the second game in a row. IQ looks close to breaking out into a second half like he had last year. He was really, really good tonight and needed and deserved to be out there late. Hart has been moving better, Obi’s coming around, and RJ while frustrating, is starting to carry over his solid play with the starters to the bench. That’s huge because it makes Deuce’s lack of offense less conspicuous. With the two center lineup there was too much need for scoring for Deuce’s defense to pay dividends. The Knicks winning the bench minutes won them the last two games.

Yes.
That’s The bingbong Shit!
Very Proud of our mfkrs!

Fell asleep very early due to brutal working hrs but watched it a few hrs after it ended wo knowing the final score.

Vintage SportsFanPsychedelia

More of this Please!

The morning after a gutty win over the Celts is always a nice thing! Just read some articles, watched some postgame crying by Mazzulla and Brown, and now going to listen to KFS postgame pod in the car. All is right with the world!

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