[New York Post] – Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:16:00 GMT
- Knicks put on show and blow out Raptors in Mitchell Robinson’s return
- Knicks 145-101 Raptors (Mar 27, 2024) Game Recap
- Raptors’ Jontay Porter at center of NBA investigation into gambling activity
- Deuce McBride ties Knicks record with hot shooting performance
- Knicks score most points since 1980 in 145-101 rout of Raptors, take East’s No. 3 seed
[sny.tv] – Wed, 27 Mar 2024 18:55:06 GMT
Mikal Bridges could be ideal final piece as Knicks chase a championship
[ESPN] – Thu, 28 Mar 2024 01:26:00 GMT
- Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson back from 50-game absence, scores 8 in win
- Mitchell Robinson injury update: Knicks center returns vs. Raptors after nearly four-month absence
- Knicks center Mitchell Robinson returns to court after 50-game absence
- Knicks Injury Update: Robinson closest to return, Randle might not be back
- All signs point to Knicks getting Mitchell Robinson back tonight vs. Raptors
[Posting and Toasting] – Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT
- Rokas Jokubaitis to play in Summer League looking for NBA team
- Knicks Draft-And-Stash Prospect Plans To Play Summer League
- Rokas Jokubaitis, ready to face two Euroleague teams
- Alessandro Luigi Maggi: Rokas Jokubaitis is e
- Knicks To Bring Over 2021 Draft-and-Stash Prospect
[New York Post] – Wed, 27 Mar 2024 08:16:00 GMT
Ex-Knicks RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley to sit again for reeling Raptors
[New York Post] – Thu, 28 Mar 2024 06:07:00 GMT
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson hits game threshold for MVP, All-NBA consideration
[New York Post] – Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:17:02 GMT
- Raptors’ Ochai Agbaji exits Knicks matchup after scary fall
- Toronto Raptors Ochai Agbaji leaves game vs. New York Knicks with right hip contusion
- Raptors’ Agbaji exits with right hip contusion vs. Knicks
- Ochai Agbaji Ruled Out Following Scary Fall in Raptors Game
- Raptors’ Ochai Agbaji: Leaves early with hip contusion
119 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.03.28)”
I’m eagerly awaiting Mitch’s appearance on the Roommates Show.
Knicks win. Everyone played. The universe is in a strange balance. Total eclipse due 8 April.
Miami vs Philly (with Embiid) for the 7 seed with the winner facing the Bucks and the loser facing the Celtics is the stuff of dreams.
KBA, your 50+ wins is looking very attainable!
Right? And without two of our main guys. What a strange trip.
“Right? And without two of our main guys. What a strange trip.”
Who ever thought we’d be riding the Deuce-DiVo wave into the playoffs?
Deuce has a .581 eFG% on 17% USG. It’s kind of insane.
For context, Donte has a .582 eFG% on 22% USG (also insane, but it shows how incredible Deuce’s shooting has been).
The only non-center ahead of Deuce in TS% is OG, by 0.05 and in half the minutes.
His TS% was .475 just last year, and below .400 the year before!
marechal, I was just looking at that on b-r, cray-cray…still not convinced that it is sustainable, but the kid looks supremely confident out there right now. Hopefully both he and DDV can carry this into the playoffs. We will probably learn something about these 2 from our upcoming games with OKC, MIA, MIL, and BOS.
Z-man: I also keep thinking of how sustainable Deuce’s shot is given that his form is very noisy. But he always shot well in college and the D-League. In his last two seasons, he rarely played sustained minutes. So I’m optimistic.
Some additional stats:
The Knicks are now #6 in SRS, #2 in the East, over 1 point ahead of the Bucks. They are in the same range as the Nuggets at #5.
They now are virtually top 10 in both offensive rating (tied for #10 with the Pelicans) and defensive rating (#8). They are just 0.2 away from a top 5 in DRTG, and given how they have by far the top defense of the league in March, I think it’s likely they finish in the top 5, potentially as high as #3 (their DRTG in March is a crazy 103.3). They are already top-5 in net rating.
Considering the injuries, this is really incredible.
When healthy, this team is a true contender. Maybe not this year given the Celtics’ insane run, but the Knicks are elite.
Another crazy Deuce stat line: in 12 March games he is playing 34 mpg and has a .648 TS% while shooting 46% from 3, 52% from 2 and 92% from the line.
Also, in his 10 games as a starter he played 43 mpg and has a .632 TS% and is averaging 18.9 pts and 4.7 asts on a 5:1 ast/TOV ratio.
His emergence makes losing IQ so much easier to swallow…
I mean that team was garbage but a good win nonetheless. Great game for Mitch to come back to. He looked pretty good. If he can give us an impactful 15 minutes of play in the playoffs it will be huge for us. It’s been so long since he’s been out I forgot just how freaking BIG Mitch is.
We’ve yet to see mitch WITH OG.
Now we just gotta get OG and Randle back.
I’ve been a big McBride fan since we drafted him. So glad he’s getting his shot and he’s stepping up. His emergence is huge for us, especially for a team that has gotten rid of all of their other young players with upside.
I said this before the game, too, but Thibs deserves much credit for uncharacteristically starting two PGs and two SGs, all under 6’5”. We’re 4-1 since going to this lineup.
We are going to start playing real NBA teams again soon, it should be interesting to see how this lineup works against them
Yeah I was thinking about Wemby setting a record for blocks tomorrow. The Spurs have won two in a row against Phoenix and Utah so they’ll likely be a more competitive opponent than the last three.
Meanwhile Lord Bubuza is going ape on yesterday’s thread right now. Apparently he can predict the lottery numbers but can’t tell when everyone has left a thread.
I have to admit I was way off on this team at the start of the season. I don’t think my rationale was off. I was expecting several young teams to improve significantly. Several did. But the Knicks improved way more than I expected.
When you draft or sign relatively young players, you hope someone (anyone?) breaks out and gives you an upside surprise that changes the trajectory of the team. I’d watch other teams get upside surprises like that all the time, but it felt like that rarely happened for us until Brunson.
Well, this year we are making up for it.
1. Brunson keeps getting better.
2. Hartenstein took a step forward and proved he could handle the job as a solid starter
3. Deuce is taking a huge step forward
4. DDV made a huge leap
Something/someone deserves credit for that besides just the hard work the players are putting in.
Z-Man, I just noticed that you got your old username with only one hyphen back for the game thread, but not today. How come? Lord Bubuza’s magic? Did the spell broke at midnight?
Never want to get too invested in wins over glorified G-League teams. But we’re also still playing shorthanded, so it evens out to some degree. I think if OG is back and able to play real minutes, we will be a very hard out in the playoffs. If Randle improbably returns at full health… that would be something. Speaking of which…
He’s had to do this because he basically had no choice, especially when he saw how easily teams were exploiting Precious at the 4. It’s still much more flexible than he’s been in past seasons, though. What I wonder is this: if one or both of our forwards is back, and it’s clear that the big lineup isn’t quite working, would Thibs be willing to play the four-guard lineup for stretches in games?
“Z-Man, I just noticed that you got your old username with only one hyphen back for the game thread, but not today. How come? Lord Bubuza’s magic? Did the spell broke at midnight?”
I noticed that too! There could be some magic involved, breaking whatever wicked spell banished me after the reboot. Let me try logging out then back in under the one-hyphen version…
it worked!
Wemby already setting records for grocery deliveries
Who ever thought we’d be riding the Deuce-DiVo wave into the playoffs?
it would be fun to go back in time and do a win prediction thread that included this future intel from laplace’s demon about the upcoming season:
miles mcbride and precious achiuwa will each play more minutes than rj barrett, immanuel quickley, mitchell robinson and quentin grimes, while jalen brunson and donte divincenzo will be the only knicks to start more than 50 games.
Hopefully we won’t have to know because OG will be back. Fingers crossed.
I think it’s a perfectly fine lineup for when they are shorthanded – the Knicks have a 125 ORTG and a 110 DRTG since starting Deuce, but only 2.5 games against real teams (I’m counting Brooklyn as a half real team). But I don’t think it can hang with bigger teams. It’s an awfully small lineup, as we saw against Denver. OKC is pretty big, especially if Shai plays.
So who are the dark horse teams in the play-in scenarios?
I kind of like Atlanta in that regard. When they get Trae and Jalen back they could have a decent 8-man playoff rotation. And in the west, any of the play-in survivors could present a challenge to whoever is the other top-2 team beyond the Nuggets.
Z-Man, I think the Heat and Philly make it through, now that they are saying Embiid might be back.
Either one of these teams facing Boston in round 1 would be fun, but I kind of want the Heat for that match up. Does KP survive a series against Bam? And Philly-Bucks would be a fun matchup.
Well, then: https://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/statement-on-minnesota-timberwolves-and-lynx-ownership
A-Rod’s group will not be taking a controlling interest in the T-Wolves, after all.
what the heck is going on with that? I swear A-Rods group has taken a controlling interest in the T-wolves like 3 times
“Z-Man, I think the Heat and Philly make it through, now that they are saying Embiid might be back.”
Yeah, probably but I could also see a) the Heat getting up to the 6 spot or b) the Heat falling into the play in and losing. I don’t like their team and think that Spo will really have his hands full
I agree but that’s also exactly what I thought last season
If I had just won over 60 million pounds, I think that I would have more fun things to do with my time than to get onto random NBA blogs and try to help other people get their hands on the same kind of cash.
Bill Simmons tweeted that there have been rumblings for months that A-Rod’s group was having trouble gathering together the remaining cash to complete the transaction.
I thought A-Rod’s group was already in charge.
I wonder what this means in terms of KAT. Their tax bills are already lofty, and Ant’s extension starts next year. Without financial certainty, they might really be willing to move KAT (I’m not saying he makes sense for the Knicks, but the CAA connections are too strong to ignore).
No KAT, please!
No Embiid, please!
No Spida, please!
lore is history’s most successful financial etch a sketch. he founded quidsi, sold quidsi to amazon, quidsi is shut down. he founded jet.com, sold jet.com to walmart, jet.com is shuttered. he bought the timberwolves on layaway, he reportedly raised the money to pay for the timberwolves on layaway, he does not own the timberwolves.
ps: i assume they are going to sue for specific performance here, which should be at least slightly entertaining
“No KAT, please!
No Embiid, please!
No Spida, please!”
Agree. We have a very good team right now! Other than “tinkering around the edges” (actually drafting a couple of guys, and maybe filling in the #10-15 roster slots with actual cromulent players that we would, you know, actually be willing to play in blowout and injury situations), leave the team alone, please!
Yes, I overused “actual” and “actually” there. Guilty as charged.
You know, we can sort of dismiss these ass kickings of terrible teams, but meanwhile our competitors (Bucks, Magic, Cavs) are experiencing some pretty bad losses that we would be losing our minds over on this site.
I think our only bad loss over the last few months was that Sixers game at MSG, but other than that we’ve taken care of business.
Can’t say that for most teams
Counterpoint: we trail our pythagorean W-L by 3 games, largely bc we stubbornly stuck with that two-center lineup for 6 weeks.
The Bucks are 3 games ahead of their expected W-L, the Magic are up 2, and the Cavs are even.
While I agree there is no need to make a Godfather offer for any player when you have a 50 ish win team with all its picks and a few spares, Rose would be stupid NOT to listen to offers for a player that would improve the team. Like anything, it depends on the price point.
If they just rolled next season with this exact same roster and improved the 10-12 spots on the roster with their 2 picks around 20 and a second, I would be perfectly fine. No need to do anything rash.
I am trying to figure out if the biggest pleasant surprise in the last 2 weeks is the play of Deuce or the coaching flexibility of Thibs.
No it’s Deuce as it seems more sustainable.
For me the only big moves I think we should consider are:
1. Mikal
2. Giannis (if he becomes available)
3. Devin Booker (as an alternative to #1)
People say Mikal won’t happen but The Nets are going nowhere and he is not good enough to be a franchise centerpiece. But he is basically another OG and would take our defense to the next level. Plus I feel like he’s the one guy that DDV would be cool being replaced in the starting line up with because of the NOVA connection.
Sorry not reply earlier englishknick as I spent most of the day on the M25, but good to hear that even though you are not insanely rich you continue to follow the KB posts. And particularly those that are grammatically sound.
A brief hijack…. yesterday Hubert asked my opinion of Gettleman. On the surface, my grade would be D- , but a piece I read this morning just shows how stupid John Mara is.
Joe Schoen has made it clear he assigns player value to their position played. He gave left tackle big bucks (deserved), one of the top 3 DLs in the league big bucks (deserved) and he refused to give an excellent RB and Safety big extension. Smart!
It came out today Schoen had a deal to move Barkley at the trade deadline and it was nixed by Mara, because he didn’t want the fan base to think they were giving up on the season.
Well John, the season was already over by the deadline. If he could have moved Barkley and McKinney (who he wasn’t going to resign) they might have moved up a few spots in this season’s draft as well as picked up some early day 2 picks.
Nice move you bleepin moron. Keep sticking your nose in the business of the people you hire.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/giants-owner-stopped-front-office-from-trading-star-running-back-at-deadline-last-season/ar-BB1kHue0?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=b2a3aa183df148919b85d4f64f9c404b&ei=5
No Booker, please!
“While I agree there is no need to make a Godfather offer for any player when you have a 50 ish win team with all its picks and a few spares, Rose would be stupid NOT to listen to offers for a player that would improve the team. Like anything, it depends on the price point.”
The price point for any of Embiid, Booker or KAT will be extremely high. Only Spida might come more cheaply, but only marginally, and I don’t think he’s a good fit with Brunson. So practically speaking, I’m a hard NO on all four.
And of course, these are the precise reasons if they are going to trade Bridges, it will be to Houston who can give them their unprotected picks back.
If I ever win 60 million pounds, I’ll be right back here posting about Deuce McBride from a nicer computer.
Those trades also would have probably landed us in the top 3 of the draft.
Hard to believe Dolan might be the best owner in NY right now.
OG or bust! Check
Mikal or bust!
Git-r-done
Interesting argument against a Laker conspiracy via free throw disparity by Zach Kram in The Ringer today. Second part of this multi-topic piece. Since it came up in an earlier thread…
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/3/28/24114310/doc-rivers-milwaukee-bucks-lebron-james-los-angeles-lakers
It really is an upside down world where I feel pretty ok about how the Knicks are being managed and coached. The Sphere was the best thing that could have happened to us.
Definitely no on Booker. Brunson is better, cheaper and more likable.
In a world of blind men, the one-eyed man is King!
Knicks in 3rd, Rangers in 1st.
Mets & Yankees tied for 1st for at least a few more hours. It’s a good time to be a NY sports fan.
That’s definitely the Thibs’ MO. His teams always give a shit, and, like, no other NBA team gives a shit all of the time.
That said, the Cavs just aren’t a very good team at all without Mitchell and Strus.
I wonder if the Nets would consider a package of Randle, Deuce, and picks for Mikal. It would probably benefit both teams.
“That said, the Cavs just aren’t a very good team at all without Mitchell and Strus.”
Strus played last night and had 19 points on 13 shots. They definitely had enough to beat the Hornets, and with playoff positioning on the line, they had more than enough motivation to win. That was a terrible loss.
Around the time of the Spida trade, some folks here were lamenting how the Cavs lapped us in the rebuilding process by committing to a short-term tank and building through the draft. Of course, it was assumed then that Evan Mobley was KG 2.0. Funny how the tables have turned…
And see, Z-Man, this is where I get stingy and think we don’t need to do a trade. Why would we give them a young, super cheap player who is killin’ it from 3 and plays lock down defense and a 2 time all NBA player PLUS picks for Mikal Bridges.
I was thinking more along the lines of Bojan and like 4 or 5 picks. Though I could be persuaded in Randle plus like 3 picks for Mikal. Slide OG over to the 4, Mikal plays the 3, keep DDV at the 2 and McBride off the bench.
But yeah if they want Randle and McBride plus multiple picks, no thanks.
We were 2 games off our pythag W-L when we went with Deuce as a starter and now we’re 3 off, despite only losing to Denver-probably because we blew out the last two teams we played.
It’s really almost kind of sad that they’re playing like this without Randle, as it really makes him look expendable. OG is the key.
Oh, you know I hate Bickerstaff, and think he needs to be fired. They’re just lost without Mitchell, though. I think they’re super soft, and I think any team would be licking their lips to face them in the playoffs, even with Mitchell.
Cavs really jumped the gun on Donovan, none of their other guys have taken the next step to support him and they’re out of picks to add another star.
What an odd thing to say. They’re 15-11 since Randle went down. Just cause they blew out a tanking Raptors and tanking Detroit team doesn’t mean they’re “better” without Randle.
As I’ve said before, Mikal would make an excellent backup for us.
Yeah, so much of their development turned on Mobley continuing to improve, and he just…didn’t.
“And see, Z-Man, this is where I get stingy and think we don’t need to do a trade. Why would we give them a young, super cheap player who is killin’ it from 3 and plays lock down defense and a 2 time all NBA player PLUS picks for Mikal Bridges.”
I agree that we don’t NEED to do a trade like this. But I don’t see a way to get Mikal (i.e. to beat other offers) without overpaying, at least for this year.
That’s the thing about Deuce’s stellar play of late. A month ago we’d be fine with his being a throw-in in a trade like this. Now he’s moving towards untouchable territory (not really, but you know…). I would just love to see us run iHart/Mitch, OG, Mikal, DiVo and Brunson out there with Josh Hart filling in gaps.
The Minnesota stuff just sounds like Taylor is being a dick.
Steve Cohen will eventually turn out to be the best owner in NY. The Mets aren’t going to be great this year but they have played it pretty smart since whiffing with the big expensive roster last year. They restocked the farm by eating a lot of the bad Scherzer and Verlander money, and brought in some intriguing buy-low type players as free agents that they might be able to flip later.
When the time is right Cohen will open the checkbook.
For all his flaws, Mara’s team won 2 championships and, unless I’m mistaken, no other current NY owner has won a single title, save Hal Steinbrener with a mostly legacy roster on a bloated salary. Mara is the best owner by default.
I don’t care to defend Glen Taylor and the only person involved I have anything resembling warm feelings for is, of course, A-Rod. But it sounds like A-Rod and Lore really did miss multiple payment deadlines, during which time the valuation of the team skyrocketed compared to their purchase price. Taylor exercising his right to terminate the contract due to the defaults seems like exactly what anyone would do under those circumstances.
Mobley is only 22 and he’s no RJ Barret. He’s gotten steadily and measurably better each year, now at 62% TS and 2.8 BPM averaging 18/12/4 with 2.7 stock per36. He’ll be fine.
Cavs are much like a shittier coached version of the team we used to be. Good defense, but offense severely limited by playing 2+ nonshooters most of the time. They’ve had their share of injuries but aren’t as deep as we are.
KG was also a defensive monster at that age but he put up 49% TS and still had quite a ways to go.
As a Yankees fan all I can say is thank God I still have the Knicks….
We are getting a lot of his rebounding and playmaking from J-Hart.
DDV and Brunson have upped their usage enough while remaining efficient to not collapse the offense.
Some of the matchups may be tougher than others defensively without Randle but I think Hart is the better defender. I’d obviously way rather have Randle back, but we’ve replaced most of his contribution well while avoiding the occasional really bad TOs.
yanks/astros playing on ESPN + at the moment…
always great to have a baseball game on in the background during the day…
edit: well, things would be even better if the yanks weren’t already down 4 to nothing in the second…
Yankees suck. Oh well.
We need Randle to run the 2nd unit if the Detroit boys can’t do it, the offense drops from something like 2nd to dead last in March. That said, Randle hasn’t been great at it either.
Maybe giving Brunson a rest from running 100% of the offense will be worth Randle’s other flaws.
It’s a cogent argument, but I’m not convinced.
It goes Dolan > Mara > Hal, in my opinion.
Cohen will be great for the Mets.
the yanks added joe girardi to the announcing booth with michael, paul, and merideth…
I liked joe as the manager, didn’t want to see him go…
not a big fan of boone…
The owner’s job is to hire the right guy and get out of the way and support his people.
When they hired Accorsi, they let him make the big trade for Eli and it worked out. The next guy did well his first half dozen years and he was replaced when he bollixed up 5 drafts in a row, Then came Gettleman who was a bad choice, but he fired him soon enough.
Let this guy do his job and stay away fro personnel matters. If he sucks, replace him but you pay him to shape the team with his vision…. let him do his job the way he sees fit..
As frustrated as fans are with Hal he’s the best owner in NY for the simple fact that the Yankees have never come close to being a laughingstock under his ownership.
After a rough start Yankees have taken the lead! It’s nice having a good offense again.
loasiaga is dealing…
hader hating on hitters and taking no prisoners out there…
ump has a pretty wide strike zone though…
totally controversial comment coming:
meredith > rebecca
That was a fun opening day win.
Soto is incredible.
I’ve lost all confidence in Clay Holmes, but that Soto play was awesome, and he’s clearly bringing some attitude to a team that seemed like it had been lobotomized last year.
I know the Yankees seemed a bit cheap not signing Snell or Monty but I’m pretty certain they’re gonna go all out and make Soto a Yankee for the rest of his career.
https://streamable.com/28a21w
leaving this here for y’all
Didn’t the Rangers win a championship under Dolan? The fact that the Rangers are good has to count in Dolan’s favor.
Love this team so much….
isaiah – I’m bright skinned
ha, that was funny jowles…
Josh Hart asking him to explain his blackness was so funny…
shoot, that is one honest and open team environment…
The Atlanta Hawks of all teams seems to be Boston’s kryptonite. Tied in the 3rd is surprising, even if they ultimately lose.
And the way the Bucks are playing, the Knicks might be the #2 seed before next week (is the #3 seed better? Philly or Miami in the first round is not ideal).
I won’t rub anyone’s nose in their own post but I was reading the pre-season predictions thread and few of the threads around that. Boy, were many of us very wrong.
I predicted 47-49 wins landing on 48. I’m thinking 50-52 now (yeah, looking for us to win 6-8 out of the final 10 games).
No matter what, kudos to Leon Rose. Executive of the millennium for the Knicks.
Oh, the Bucks are down to the Pelicans but … Giannis.
The Celtics one Achilles heel is allowing offensive rebounds. The Hawks had 15 against them Monday and 16 tonight.
There’s this one team in the Eastern Conference that actually excels at offensive rebounding.
Just sayin….
Maybe we should get Dejounte Murray just for the way he plays against Boston.
It’s hard to score more than 40 and not have a great game, but DJM is Alec Burks-like in his inability to pass.
17-43 is something.
Edit: and then, of course, his 18th FG is the most important one.
Celtics announcers are maaaad. They are kind of pathetic. So funny.
DeJounte with 47 points on 44 shots is…something?
I wonder if 26 missed shots is close to the record.
44 points on 44 shots!
Atlanta is 2-0 against the Celtics. It would be one of the funniest things ever if they got trae back and beat them in the first round
Imagine if Thibs had played KP 40 minutes in a meaningless game. Or Tatum 45 minutes.
I’m honestly not sure Trae makes them better.
Have you ever seen Trae play the Celtics in the playoffs before?
One thing no one’s ever done here is kill Thibs for leaving his starters in during overtime.
The key is not playing the same guys 45 minutes the next game. It’s not the random one off, it’s when he does it 4 times in 6 days.
I have not but I’ve heard E tell us how Dejounte did a few times 🙂
Ok two things:
1. Tatum played 40 minutes their last game, 45 today.
2. There is no way in hell that some people in this board wouldn’t go nuts if Thibs had played KP – the injured riddled center who completely changed their ceiling – 40 minutes in a game when the Celtics have an 11 game lead on the #1 seed. There would be 150 posts about this decision the next day.
Boston is playing for literally nothing at this point. Just to keep guys warm until the playoffs.
I guess the Hawks are playing for home court in their first play-in game.
And just like that, the Knicks are 1 game in the loss column away from the #2 seed.
2 games out of 2nd. Bucks tried to come back and played hack-a-Zion but it didn’t pay off as he hit 5-6 FTs in the 4th.
I don’t think so. I know I wouldn’t do it.
Thibs gets killed (and rightfully so) for leaving his players in long after the game is decided, for playing his players when they’re injured, and for when he puts certain players who are injury prone through extended multi-game stretches of consistent overuse.
Playing someone 40 mins once, in an overtime game no less, is not something I expect any of us would bat an eyelid over.
“And just like that, the Knicks are 1 game in the loss column away from the #2 seed.”
MIL clinched the tiebreaker, so we are effectively 2 games down in the loss column.
The way that the Bucks are playing, the tie-breaker probably won’t matter.
Boston has the 1 seed clinched. They have a 6 game lead on home court in the finals with 9 games left to play, they absolutely don’t need to play guys heavy minutes. This is Thibs keeping his starters in up 14 with 3 mintues left, it’s just silly.
Up 14 with 3 minutes left isn’t game-over.
Reggie Miller scores 8 points in 9 seconds
I’ve never seen an NBA team start coasting in March.
Thibs played iHart 40 mins in back-to-back games in January and he injured his achilles in the very next game and we never had the kind of threads you’re talking about.
the tournament is fun but these college teams are terrible, Iowa state is a 2 seed and they’re not going to score 30 points in the first half of this game
Hubert the Knicks had 3 days off between those games, you’re doing the thing you’re claiming nobody would do.
I think Thibs plays some guys too many minutes, but iHart is not one of them. Thibs either understands he’s fragile or is under orders that he’ll follow to not play him heavy minutes.
Since missing two weeks, Porzingis has played:
21 mins
28 mins
26 mins
0 mins (rested for load mgmt)
34 mins
40 mins (overtime game)
To suggest that we’d be killing Thibs for this kind of load management is disingenuous.
No, it was a back to back. 41 mins on Jan 17, 39 mins on Jan 18. Left the next game with an achilles injury on Jan 20.
This was the same stretch of games where he played OG (one of the most fragile players in the NBA) in 135 out of 144 possible minutes over four days
Yeah, it’s true. I am watching this game and fuck they are terrible.
Armando Bacot has some 90’s Knick energu I guess….
It’s not that Kristaps played 40 minutes, it’s that he played 40 minutes in a game that means nothing to the Celtics.
If playing 38 minutes and 40 minutes in games that count is wildly reckless, but Tatum playing 40 minutes followed by 46 minutes in games that don’t mean anything is fine I don’t get it.