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Game Thread

2022-23 Game Thread – Knicks vs. Heat

This really isn’t that big of a deal. I’d like to see the Knicks win, of course, but they’ll probably get the #5 seed even if they lose.

But, well, come on, you really want a win here.

How’s 49 wins looking? Well, I really need a win here for 49 wins to still be in play.

Let’s go, Knicks!

144 replies on “2022-23 Game Thread – Knicks vs. Heat”

I have no earthly clue what will happen but it’s nice to be playing legitimately meaningful games in late March

Grimes is a god.

Barrett dribbles like my grandmother. And she’s been dead for decades.

Man, RJ is really something. It’s like the play is over the instant the ball touches his hands

Can I start the completely unfounded rumor that RJ Barrett has a drinking problem? Because I’m working on one big-ass vodka martini and I feel like I could go out there on the court and at least not play worse than he’s doing.

Happy Birthday Clyde!

Not turning the ball over is the bedrock of our offense. So this shit ain’t gonna work

Happy Birthday Clyde!

Meanwhile the Knicks’ offense is a heartfelt tribute to the Keystone Cops…

“Not turning the ball over is the bedrock of our offense. So this shit ain’t gonna work”

Playing RJ is the bedrock of our ability to stay under 50 wins and not be battling for 2nd or 3rd seed.

Is now a bad time to restart the Grimes has a higher ceiling than RJ discussion?

Tonight’s game is a chance to see where we are, and, if we get the W, solidify our fifth place in the standings. Nothing more than that. The most important thing is to play a solid game, particularly on defense. Even if we lose, we can still be a pain for anyone we meet in the playoffs. Conversely, even if we win tonight but don’t play well, this will continue generating concerns about a possible playoff embarrassment.

As of our Sloth, he is at his best tonight. Lol! Slow as a turtle and cannot throw the ball in the ocean. Oh well. Nihil novi. Summer is close.

Ball gets passed to RJ
Painfully slow dribble to basket
Four pump fakes on which nobody bites
Heavily contested layup attempt
Brick
Mitch gets hand on rebound but knocks ball out of bounds

I swear this sequence has already happened 57 times in this game

Lately it really feels like good opposing defenses can easily handle our alleged top 5 offense, while our defense is completely ineffective against even the worst offenses in the league once they step up intensity.

Pricing in the traditional evaporation of the Thibs intensity differential, I think we’ll lose to any of the top 4 seeds in 5 or less, and would likely lose in 6 to MIA or TOR.

“Is now a bad time to restart the Grimes has a higher ceiling than RJ discussion?”

Do we need to have a discussion?

Is now a bad time to restart the Grimes has a higher ceiling than RJ discussion?

It is, because a fairer comparison is probably RJ’s ceiling vs. current Grimes.

Seven turnovers in the first quarter and 0-6 from the line, and somehow we’re only down by 4. Thank you ISM for showing up in that first quarter.

Surely NYK can play better than that.

Barrett, Randle and Brunson a combined 1-11 with 4 TOs and we missed all our free throws… pathetic performance…
And we’re only down 4, because Miami stinks…

Jesus, watching Barrett run around the perimeter chasing the ball reminds me of dreams where I’m running through streets filled with glue…

I don’t think the Knicks have yet scored on a possession in which RJ Barrett has touched the basketball

“It is, because a fairer comparison is probably RJ’s ceiling vs. current Grimes.”

I’d rather have Frank. I’d get good defense and he’d never shoot. 🙂

Clyde: “Need another time out to get them out of the doldrums.”

Take
Out
RJ

It’s not complicated.

As awkward as NYK offense is, iso-heavy, bad shooting, etc., they always find ways to score enough points. If we play D and keep it a low scoring game, we have a good chance.

The game is infuriating. But the Knicks City Dancers are world champions.

Seems like the Knicks let themselves get psyched out by all the hype for this game. It’s not a good sign for the Knicks competence in possible playoff games.

I wish we could rerun this season with a plus SF just to see how much better we’d be without RJ. Intuitively, I think it might be worth between 4-8 wins depending on how good he was and I’m not even considering the legit all star caliber players. I’m just thinking about solid two way players like OGA.

Anyone remember how Jeff Van Gundy was constantly talking about mental toughness? He seemed to care about that trait more than any particular basketball skill, and I’ve only lately come to understand why.

Our defense sucks and our offense lacks resiliency because our starting front line sorely lacks mental toughness.

Randle falls to pieces at the first sign of double teams, ball pressure, or big game situations.

RJ is a one-trick pony whose one trick is barely league average.

Mitch is good within his limited skill set, but his whining about his role on the offense when it only takes a foul to relegate him to 40% TS coincided with our momentum this season grinding to a halt.

Our Drtg over the last 10 games would be tied for 29th over the full season, and during that span we’ve been without our worst offensive player.

We can’t guard anyone, and there is no plausible pathway to improvement on that end with our current core. I’m starting to hope that we keep Quickley, sell high on Brunson/Randle/Hart, and tear it all down.

Disclaimer: Our first child was just born last week and I’ve slept about 4 hours total since, so I reserve the right to disavow any or all of this rant at any moment.

Holy cow, Pagliacci, are you E just trying to get past the five-post rule?

Edit: Just saw your disclaimer, I take it back and you’re allowed an enormous amount of venting.

Can we just rest Brunson until the playoffs? He looks awful and I’m starting to worry that Thibs has Derrick Rosed him.

Nice of us to revive Duncan Robinson’s NBA career though.

I’m all for being overly frustrated during game threads cause I’m pretty good at that but some prognostications after 15 mins tonight have been a bit out there.

Eggzactly…robinson hasn’t sniffed the floor all year…but against the funnel he is superman

“but some prognostications after 15 mins tonight have been a bit out there.”

I vote for a 20 minute time limit or 10 bad RJ plays whichever comes first. So really, that’s about a 5 minute time limit.

Zeller looks like the guys I played with at the central queens Y back in the day…just needs those old school knee pads…

J-Hart with great ideas but poor execution,
Very good shift for I-Hart so far…

Just looked at the box score. Outside of Grimes, none of our starters have more than two points.

Indestructible Randle just got destructed.

I make fun of him, but that’s not good.

Dallas looks good tonight. They look like want to win and move up in the playoffs. We’ll see how it ends, but right now they are clearly not tanking.

Mitchell and Garland both sprained their ankles last night, Mitchell’s looked pretty bad although he played rest of the game. Hopefully they’ll rest on Friday..

Thanks for the congrats everyone! I’ll sleep when the Knicks are dead — watching this with the little man so that Lady Pagliacci can catch a few winks. Based on the contents of his last diaper he feels the same way about our Q1 effort as I did.

As hard as it’s been, all I could think about before I met him was worry and responsibility. Now that he’s here, the joy and pride have hit me like a ton of bricks, and in between bouts of crankiness I cry happy tears.

Ok, rant disavowed! Let’s win this, and I hope Randle’s injury is blunted by either his iron durability or a Ewing Theory-esque resurgence by Obi and the guys.

Nice finish to the quarter! Now let’s just banish RJ from the game and hope Randle is fine

The Bench Mob turned this game despite Barrett unrelentless efforts to drag us down…

But why did Grimes sit so much?

I just don’t think “good RJ” is lurking in there anywhere. He’s turrible slow, has the explosiveness of a pile of wet newspapers and lacks ball skills. I’m squinting as hard as I can here but I’m not seeing a winning player.

RJ has 2 games this season with 6 assists. Grimes has 4.

I have no idea how that’s possible given that RJ has a usage a billion times higher.

Bucks leading the pacers 119 to 102 and it’s still the third quarter.

In RJ’s defense, he can do well in certain circumstances, mostly when the other team doesn’t have good rim protection. But Miami has Bam and seems to be playing a lot of zone. Then Barrett needs to shoot from long and he’s not succeeding.

Randle limped off pretty badly. This could be the chance Obi has been waiting for.

Worst timing for a Knick to sprain their ankle vs Miami since Allan Houston in 2000 during Game 6.

Heat offense is to foul and then score while one of our guys hangs back crying to the refs

Missed most of the game.

Is Vincent too old for a Sumner or disqualified because he already killed us this year?

Can’t believe we are winning.

Grimes is more athletic than RJ but I wish he were slightly more athletic at the rim. Stroke seems to be coming around.

Fwiw I’m sitting near Leon Rose. He was shaking his head after halftime. Dolan just came to Leon’s seats which I haven’t seen before and was also looking concerned. Gotta think the Randle injury is serious.

Maybe we shouldn’t have kept our best player on the bench for most of the 3rd quarter

This game is not giving me confidence we can do well in the playoffs, to say the least.

Heat broadcast just showed LJ in the stands, Knicks could use him right now

Wow Thibs had Brunson ready to check in but he’s staying with the current lineup.

Obviously a long term Randle injury would suck but if he gets some rest and a few games off I don’t actually think it would be a terrible thing. The man plays too many minutes.

Our free throw shooting needs to be addressed. It’s been a problem all season.

How about Thibs rolling with this lineup the entire 4th quarter! Sometimes he makes good decisions….

I think the 5 seed is ours for the losing at this point. Good game. Good pickup for the bench coming through and letting Brunson get some more time on the bench.

No Randle, Brunson was not a factor, RJ was the usual RJ, abysmal FT shooting, many turnovers, but we still got the W! Solid D was the key with good resistance on the point of attack, quick recoveries and closeouts. Salute to Thibs for his in-game adjustments! Great statement Knicks win!

IQ had been his usual up and down unreliable player at the beginning of the season, had an epiphany sometime in early December right before the Texas trip, and has been improving ever since. He is becoming a star in front of our eyes. Nice thing to watch! Knicks had been waiting a lot of years for one of their own picks to develop so well.

Nice win at the end of the day, the defense really stepped up, IQ, both Harts and Grimes with big, big games. Our depth really showed up, while Miami’s role players are just dogshit. They simply can’t win a game unless Butler and Adebayo really step up, and they were both pretty bad tonight.

Now to hope Randle at least comes back for the playoffs.

Now to come up with a plan to be able to watch Yankees opening day tomorrow while at work….

If Randle can be 100% for the playoffs, I’d give him the rest of the season off. Just hope there isn’t ligament damage.

I am very, very excited to watch Immanuel Quickley in the playoffs.

I hope we some more of Grimes, IQ, and Hart on the floor at the same time. They were really disruptive.

@Owen: whatever it takes, man! Maybe IQ got hit hart on the head by a ball or something in practice. We were waiting four years for RJ to blossom, but it didn’t work quite well, as we see:) It turned out out to be IQ who made the leap.

I have big hopes for Grimes, too — he is only a sophomore. I have not given up on Deuce yet — he just needs to figure out his shooting.

These youngsters are the future of the franchise. I hope they don’t include them in any trade package.

Great win overall! I think the unsung hero was IHart who has really been coming on strong lately on both ends. I like him closing games, instead of Mitch.

Nice to get the win, but holy shit, the Heat looked like ass. Spo was ripping into his team in the post-game press conference. He was disgusted with their play. Very embarrassing.

But good for the Knicks! #5 seed is a very nice result.

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A little stunning that Giannis can go for 38/17/12 and not be the best player on his team this evening (Jrue going 51/8/8).

I pitched a song for an upcoming project involving Ice Spice. No, I had no idea who she was either.

Ice Spice is a rapper, but I’m afraid I’m also out of the age range to know anything more than this about her.

Great game to be at. Bought and proudly wore a Willis Reed jersey, while my boy wore his Clyde #10. The birthday thing got me choked up. Glad they got a win for the most lovable Knick of all time, now and forever.

@Raven: So who starts at the four next game?

Don’t know who will finish the game, but Sims 80% gets to start. Obi at 20%.

“I hope we some more of Grimes, IQ, and Hart on the floor at the same time. They were really disruptive.”

Anything that gets RJ off the court is good, but that threesome is especially interesting.

Congrats Pags! 😉 And very nice we got the W to guarantee the top6. I only watched a small part of the game, because… Zzzzz! 😀 But in the part i watched Quick was fouled and tried a moonshot over the backboard for the and-1, which he made. I must have thought that was a sign that the game was under control and fell asleep. 🙂

Let’s hope Randle’s injury is not serious and that he’ll be ready for the playoffs.

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