From ess-dog’s lips to God’s ear, let’s see the Knicks massacre the Pacers. The Knicks have been waiting for a blowout these whole playoffs, let’s see them finally get one today.
I’m still confident in this Knicks team even if they lose this one today somehow, but, well, obviously, much better to head home up 3-1 than being tied, so just win this one, guys, okay?
Hopefully Alex Burps has two good halves this game.
Let’s go, Knicks!
303 replies on “2024 Playoff Thread: Knicks @ Pacers, Game 4, Mother’s Day Massacre Opener, which is hopefully a thing”
Moving this over…
Here are my 8 biggest developments:
1) Knicks fire Phil Jackson
2) Knicks sign Julius Randle
3) Dolan fires long-term albatross executive Steve Mills and hires Leon Rose, who hires Tom Thibodeau. (I think of this as all one big move)
4) Knicks assemble a very young rotational core of RJ, IQ, Mitch, Obi, and Grimes.
5) Knicks trade for Derrick Rose, who complements Randle and propels them to the unlikeliest of 4th seeds, ending a long playoff drought.
6) Knicks “miss out” on Donovan Mitchell.
7) Knicks sign Brunson and iHart and retain Mitch in free agency, leading to their first playoff series win in a decade.
7) Knicks sign DDV in free agency and trade for OG
LET’S GO KNICKS!
“7) Knicks sign DDV in free agency and trade for OG”
This should be #8. When realized that I had 9 instead of 8, I put the DDV signing and OG trade together, because these moves put together led to a move away from the established young core of RJ and IQ.
Precious starting again.
Z–Man, total cheating, that’s like eleven.
But for further discussion tomorrow. We have bigger fish to fry — like burning that TJ pest to a crisp!
lol, fair enough on both counts!
Sigh. I don’t think there is enough evidence in the world to get Thibs not to go back to multiple bigs.
I mean, this can’t be a bad sign for Brunson’s foot.
Draft got shook up a bit.
This was the team Phil Jackson assembled that he thought was going to contend:
PG Derrick Rose
SG Courtney Lee
SF Carmelo Anthony
PF Kristaps Porzingis
C Joakim Noah
The main bench pieces were Justin Holiday, Willy Hernangomez, Kyle O’Quinn and something called Mindaugus Kuzminskas.
We’ve come a long way, y’all
Not watching the lottery. What were the results?
Ah, here we are:
Not that this is a great year to have the top pick, but still, the Pistons can’t catch a damn break.
holy shit, the Hawks?!
Hawks got #1.
Nice to see Landry again…
Well, forget about beating the Spurs anytime ever
This is probably not the best year to get lucky because there isn’t much clarity at the top. But first dibs is always good!
“…all three decided in the final minute.”
I really should just tune in then and save — shorten — the stress.
Let’s Do it!
The Gollum memes write themselves
I can’t believe the Hawks got the number one… 😮
Haliburton’s playing, but back spasms, back bruise, and twisted ankle.
Now we just need a Sims hammer to TJ’s noggin…
Be glad you guys don’t get cicadageddon! I don’t even want to walk outside. It’s so loud it actually hurts your ears. I can’t imagine what it’s like in the woods. I’m in Nashville and it’s unbearable.
It looks like I’m going to have to watch this game with the volume off again. ESPN and TNT are hopelessly dumb.
I guess the Spurs only moved up one spot. Still, they have #4 and #8 this year. They’re probably gonna start getting real good real fast
All bullshit for the clicks and media.
Sounds like they’re building excuses for golden boy Hali. That’s a good sign.
Gooooo Knicks! 🏀
Almost 2 dunks for start
Houston would have been a top-4 team if they played in the East. That’s cool they got the #3 pick.
Point Precious
I was thinking they shouldn’t have Brunson bring the ball up. Save Jalen about 30,000 calories.
I don’t get the strategy of letting Haliburton shoot spot-up 3’s.
Haliburton becoming the best player in this series is a huge fucking problem.
Yeah I’d rather have Neismith shoot the open shot.
How can Haliburton be that wide open?
It’s ridiculous.
OG is a great defender, but can he be so critical to the overall defense that we suck on that side without him?
If he wasn’t would we be discussing the big contract he’s about to sign in the summer?
Brunson is playing like shit.
Brunson not sharp in these opening minutes
Sooner or later the Knicks are going to let go of the rope and I think it’s happening right now…
This is ugly. Indiana doing whatever they want.
Very annoyed, but confidence in the guys
Hard to win when the entire team is shooting 25%. Precious is our offensive engine right now. Not what you want to see.
Ok can they at least kick out whoever that is screaming at the top of their lungs?
Sims is NOT our offensive engine…
Keep cool, people. You don’t win a game in the 1st quarter.
I was on a plane and didn’t watch game 3, but it seems like Brunson shouldn’t be playing. He can barely move. Also pretty annoyed that the ref didn’t call a foul on the defender that went under him on that 3, hurting him more.
If this annoying scream was over Doris I’d enjoyed it
All my worst fears being realized in real time.
Thibs sticking with Precious at the 4? Check
Doing so long enough to get that terrible lineup played off the floor and piling up a deficit that loses us this game? Check
Haliburton’s alleged 3 injuries being no hindrance at all? Check
We were due for a blowout loss and it looks like this is it. Better win G5 or we become strong underdogs in the series.
“A rare miss here in the first”
Sims wrecks TJ! Highlight of the game by far…
The Knicks are injured, beat up and totally gassed. The Pacers are fresh and rolling.
Had to turn the sound off.
is 70-50-100 good?
Happy Mothers Day?
Sometimes you do.
Need to get Reggie Miller back on the telecast
Indy here talking shit to a team that can barely walk. Get a grip.
We were up 22 on the Sixers that one game yeah? Long way to go
Inauspicous start, might be time to get Brunson some rest
Pags, you don’t even have to post anymore. All your greatest hopes and dreams are being realized. Congrats.
We’ll see.
I should take Knicks moneyline right now. Lol
BTW the scheduling for this series kinda baffling. Five games in nine days? Would like it more if half our rotation wasn’t injured.
They’re hitting everything and we can’t buy a bucket. Won’t last. Things will revert to mean.
I feel like I just got hastily punched right in the face
Ok maybe this ain’t our day
Ok need some stops.
So Sims dunked the rebound here. If Carlisle is correct on the challenge, it should be two points for us yeah?
Brunson’s gonna need that leg amputated after this game.
This will burn one of Indy’s challenges at least. Will still be Knicks ball.
The over the top celebrating by the Pacers, especially by McConnell, will come back to haunt them
Shit. Even better.
I think it’s a jump ball.
Nice, the clown loses his challenge. This can be huge.
Starting Precious instead of Duece is certainly a choice when you look at the net rating it had during it’s time this year.
So Thibs can’t play the proper lineup and runs players into the ground
Ah we’re doing verticality again
man even doris thought that was a foul
Thibs should be challenging these calls
It’s only a jump ball if they can’t definitely determine possession.
Bring back Archie of ‘Nova to track blown whistles!
Looks like the refs made up for all of Carlisle’s 78 grievances in this one quarter.
Sheppard hipchecks Deuce in midar, “verticality”
watching this game with my mother who is adding commentary like ‘wow the Knicks are really down by a lot”
I’m not on the minutes police, but if I’m down 20+ at the half, I concede and play Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang, rest up for Monday.
I’d wager the lead is under 12 by halftime.
How come that is not a foul?
To Miles Turner’s point, I’d rather be up 20…
Any NBA team can come back from down 20 if their threes start falling.
It was kinda funny (sad) hearing Steve Javie stand up for the missed foul call on Brunson’s three, because refs are “human.”
Look forward to the day when the robots are blowing the whistles.
Indiana’s D is much improved…
5 points lost on terrible calls
Javie wasted everyone’s time with that “but reffing is really, really hard” nonsense.
Starting Precious also means you have to give Sims minutes and he’s not an NBA Player.
Siakam showing us why Thibs started Precious
I’m not liking iHart on defense
Or it’s the lineups Thibs plays
I’ll take down 14 at halftime at this point
The Hakws won the number 1 pick as a play-in team. Tanking isn’t the same
If we can get to 14, we’ll win this.
Agreed that Sims is a disaster.
Down three starters and our key bench scoring threat, there’s just no margin for error. The Nova trio has to be on top of their games, but a real slow start today.
I’m going to open my dip for my chips and see if that helps.
OG is going to hold Leon over a barrel in FA
If nobody can make a shot it don’t matter who is playing
that’s good thinking
Carlisle spitting into cup on media bench, delightful image
What was the other mother’s day massacre?
The shooting differential is what it is, but I’m furious that we can’t get a fucking rebound
I agree too, but it just shows that we’re severely limited and they’re not.
We need a corner man to throw in the towel to save ourselves for game 5.
Mother’s Day Massacre, indeed. I’m turning this off.
I’m not as big of a Breen fan as most; hearing him be a professional and act impartiallly excited about the Pacers is upsetting.
Losing iHart would be the knockout blow
We have to do the Nurse/Carlisle thing and be proactive about the refereeing after these two games.
Send in the Charlie Brown of Surrender!
We’d still be losing by 20 because we suck right now, but this is also definitely in the pantheon of top 10 worst refereed games I can remember.
They have played harder than us, with more energy and more confidence.
Margin of error is the same thing on my mind. If Jalen is 60-70% and can’t easily go off for 40 in his present physical condition, our only hope is for a couple other guys to go off. If everyone else is ice cold, it’s just not our day.
So far looks like losing OG was the final blow. But still a lot of game to play.
Well, we’re probably the only team in the playoffs without a lopsided game. Even if we lose this one, let’s win at home and all will be back to normal.
Checking in between flights to find we were outscored by 20 in Q1. That seems excessive? Bang bang?
Boarding. Go Knicks!!!!
I’ll never count this team out, but I more or less agree that it narrows our margin of error to almost nothing. If Jalen can’t go off for 40, then multiple other guys have to have outlier performances. Otherwise we’re not winning.
Are the Pacers hitting more than 100% of their 3s?
Suddenly calling fouls on beating up Jalen. Maybe there was a memo from Silver after the announcers kept pointing out the incredible number of missed calls.
The Pacers are only hitting 47% of their threes. We, on the other hands, are hitting 15%.
Fuck it, let’s see if Akhil Burke can keep us afloat.
It sure looks like it.
Woof
I am starting to really dislike Hali…
Might be time to dust off the guys at the end of the bench I’ve never heard of
Thibs gut check time.
Never concede a game, except for cases like right now
I’m glad I pre-grieved.
These clowns are still complaining with the refs. Classless team, they don’t even know how to behave when you’re with such a lead.
Haliburton’s theatrics are annoying. Cheesy frontrunner bullshit.
Here’s my early draft top ten:
ATL – Sarr
WAS – Castle
HOU – Topic
SAS – Dillingham
DET – Sheppard
CHA – Holland
POR – Buzelis
SAS – Riesacher
MEM – Williams
UTA – Knecht
He’s a clear cut dick. We are so injured and beat up this is like beating up Timmy from South Park and getting all cocky about what you are doing. He’s Cartman in a Pacer uniform. He’s a real dick.
Agree, he does that stupid head shake after every foul called on him
Going to take either Brunson or Divo going Supernova for this game to even have a shot at getting close.
Celtics beat either of these teams in five or less. Healthy Knicks team would put up a real fight, but we are a shell.
We should just sit the starters. They have no chance in this game.
Like I wouldn’t be that annoyed if Ant Edwards was taunting us up 25, because he’s an inherently cool person. But Hali is a geek.
Telling stat: JHart 2 rebounds. Maybe fatigued. Guarding Siakim…
Hali is going to have an above average career but he’s never going to win anything.
Sit everyone, esp Brunson. Game over. Worst loss of the season. Their defense can look great when they can load up on us with no credible offensive threat out there, both Brunson and Ragu off
The gesture HaliDickurton made when he was on the sideline after a Pacers three pointer is very offensive here in Italy, it basically means “shove this thing up your ass” and it easily earns you a broken nose.
I suppose the meaning is different in the US?
Anyway this is the first time in eons that we look so gassed and hopeless.
But we have two games at home.
This is like in D&D when you have to roll an intelligence check.
If you roll like 18 and pass the check, you sit Brunson, Hart, DDV and iHart for the remainder of the game.
If you roll a 5 and fail you play all of those guys 40+ minutes and lose by 36.
Yeah. The unappealing variety.
They can go as nuts as they want here, but it’s still just back to even after this game, and we have home court advantage…
The Pacers are packing the paint with Precious and Josh Hart on the floor and are playing super-super physical. More importantly, they are first to the loose balls, rebounds, recoveries, and so on. They look clearly the hungrier team. It looks like fatigue finally caught up with the Knicks. No lift, shots coming short, shooting 36% from the field and 15% (2-15) from distance. This does not seem to be just a bad shooting day. They looked just slightly better toward the end of the half, but my impression is that the tank is finally empty. It’ sad but it is what it is.
I am still proud of this team.
We’re still the worst team in history on inbounds plays…
The Celtics are gonna be licking their chops when they dispatch the Cavs in 5 and wait for this 7 game series to be over.
Looks like the guys are giving up. Give them 5 more minutes to get it together, and if they don’t waive the white flag.
Maybe it’s me, i changed to my football team and we’re also losing the game against our crosstown rivals. And they’re a lot worse than my team.
For fucks sake give these guys a rest already
High point of the game: I-Hart with the slam for a 2-0 lead.
Brunson is a shell of himself, can we spare him these meaningless minutes please?
Somebody regretting the thread title, I imagine
We’re down 37 and Brunson has played 31 of 33 minutes on an injured foot.
WTF is Thibs doing?
Clear the bench you sick fuck!
He’s either on the spectrum and incapable of changing no matter what the circumstances or he’s a masochist. There isn’t a 3rd option.
I expect a strong response on Tuesday.
Yeah Thibs rolled a five
Why the F are the starters still in this game?
Hopefully Thibs removes Brunson at end of 3rd
There’s no excuse for what Thibs is doing. None
Thibs. Get Brunson and Divo out already!
Deuce is not loose…
This is obscene.
Bench should be cleared with something like 7 minutes to go in the game, unless closer than 25. Even that’s conservative.
I mean … the team is running on fumes at this point.
He finally subbed for JB, but why is Divo still in this game?
That’s been true for weeks.
You can’t play the “even 1 minute of Alec Burks could cost us a game” card any more.
At least we get some Shake time…
Doris claiming that Donte has no sub on the bench.
Charlie Brown stans in shambles
Anyone still watching this game has problems
The bench should’ve been cleared at halftime
Not so much a game notes comment, but Neuman was eminently playable.
Thibs is a good coach, but if your Leon Rose you have to re-think giving him that extension.
I’m signing off.
I hope tonight’s game is a little more entertaining.
In the mean time I’m sending some water from Lourdes to OG. If that doesn’t work, Fatima is next.
if nba.com is accurate all we have on the bench left is Jeffries and whoever Mamadi Diakite is
I think if one team hits over 46% of their threes and the other team hits 12% of theirs on almost equal numbers, the outcome is going to be fairly easy to guess.
During the players poll when the players vote Thibs for the coach they would least like to play for – I assume this is what they’re talking about.
Yeah, no Charlie Brown on the roster right now. There is a Snoopy, however…
For those curious about those end-of-benchers, y’all might get to see DaQuan and Shake for the entire fourth. They were both in there at the end.
apparently Charlie Brown is concussed (seriously)
Greatest losing margin in playoffs 41 pts vs Bulls 1990-1991. Go scrubs and save the dignity of the team
Bo, Doogie just hung himself. Girlfriend is now cutting him down…
Damn it, you fixed it! Poor Doogie…
I hope my homeowners insurance covers that!
OG looking very comfortable on the bench as he asks for 35 million a year incoming. He’s like Kawhi in terms of will he be healthy in the playoffs to help your team? I know the Clippers are mad at the new Kawhi deal already.
These were the Pacers we saw during the IST.
Doesn’t really matter whether we lost by 10 or 30, it’ll have zero effect on the next game. 2 out of the next 3 at home, Knicks in 7
(But it would be nice if we could get off this every other fucking day schedule)
Good grief
Two days off after Game 5 D-Mar, but I’m also not sure without OG if they can win 2 out of 3. Precious is not a viable replacement.
Maybe, but this also isn’t the real Knick team
An imposed rest by a blow out isn’t the worst thing. Save the team from Thibs. Man in hindsight really needed game 3.
We simply don’t have healthy bodies and fatigue finally hits us. The afternoon start was such b.s. in fact compared to the first round the scheduling is pretty terrible. But TV time is more important than quality basketball.
Yeah it’s pretty annoying the Nugs/Timberwolves get a night game after the rest they’ve gotten so far in that series.
Also, why does the NBA need to rush the playoffs scheduling. Just shorten the damn regular season since that’s the big issue.
NBA needs to move to a 50 game season if you want the proper product
at least I got one laugh out of this game
Lucy apparently pulled the football away from Charlie Brown one too many times.
Y’all are missing the joy of watching Deuce shoot with no conscience.
Unfortunately, he’s also shooting like he’s unconscious.
How does Mamadi Diakite look out there?
Hopefully the quarter off and home cooking will get the boys back on track.
That tech might put Diakite in Thibs’ doghouse…
If Precious is playing in place of OG it won’t really matter
Without OG on the court they are a play in level team especially with Randle gone
Hear ye! hear ye! Let the great Thibs minutes allocation debate RECOMMENCE!
Extending Thibs should be the very first priority before doing anything this off season. No doubt about that.
While I hope we regroup and pull this series out, part of me wonders whether we’d be better off losing. This team has the feel of trying to get juice out of a lime that has been already squeezed.
I am still watching (sound’s been off since early in the 2nd) mostly to see if Shake deserves some run in the rest of the series.
Sadly, the answer appears to be no.
This team has given us so much to love, so many unforgettable moments, and this series is not over. Even if at the end of the day we don’t win the series, there is no reason to tear everything apart.
Don’t let your negative emotions after a bad game take over! THIS is the time you should be cheering LGK!
Rough- they would win this series easily if healthy, but the coach is Thibs who kind of comes with this type of stuff where players are never on the court in big moments.
Besides Brunson being hurt, we are missing 4 rotation players, and Thibs before this game played up to 8. That means Thibs went down to the 12th player on the roster. How much deeper can you go? This is the SECOND ROUND of the playoffs, not a time of experimentation. Thibs knows the players better than we do, knows the game better than we do, and there is a reason Shake was not playing.
Shake- he hasn’t seen major court time in a while of course he looks rusty.
Sigh.
Once you start down the narrative, etw, forever will it dominate your destiny.
Give yourself to the narrative, etw. It is the only way you can save your team. Yes, your thoughts betray you.
That was about the Thibs comment, by the way. I agree Shake was rusty. Which is kind of a gross combination of words. But he was also not good.
I just stared at the box score for a while looking for any tidbits of interest. And really, there’s not a single thing. Well Donte was -40 which is kind of funny. Otherwise, it’s flush it and let’s move on.
I agree with you. We would have easily won. We have had this minutes discussion at nauseum before. We ended up 2nd in the rankings. Had the starters been playing 6-8 minutes less, we would have most likely gotten 6-8 fewer wins at least. That would be play-in at best, if not lottery, plus there is no warranty that there would be no injuries. I am annoyed myself for the long minutes, but I am not willing to tear everything apart or destroy the coach who has changed the fate of this franchise.
We started the playoffs with every single player except Randle healthy and by game 4 of the EC SF we’re running out of bodies and the team is on fumes. This is not the way.
Available. Not healthy. Both Mitch and OG were dealing with injuries and literally (thank goodness Doogie’s dead) just back in the rotation, with lots of questions, which were all answered in the negative.
Knicks were only +950 to win the Larry O’B a few days ago.
They’re now +2900. (And that number tells me people in the know know OG won’t be back for awhile.)
Pacers are now favored to win the series — minus-132.
Easy to cheer and be a fan at good times. Tough to avoid scapegoating at bad times. I get it.
I just don’t know if you’d get better results or not switching coaches right now. Most of the coaches who would represent a clear upgrade from Thibs already have jobs. Who they gonna hire?
You know, I was only tense for like the first five minutes. I guess I should be thankful…
Throw the bag at Jay Wright. Let the Nova crew do some recruiting as well.
No surprise, they also realize how terrible Precious is.
I’m pretty sure it’s not hard to find a coach who would refuse to allow the team to shoot 18.9% from three on 37 shots. Thibs should absolutely be fired for allowing that percentage. What was he thinking.
(By the way, I don’t even think I’m on Team Thibs. I just hate irrational thinking and rewriting history to fit a narrative. Let everyone else do that. Not on this site.)
I am, however, very fond of Precipus, even if it was accidental.
It’s not about results for me any more. It’s about protecting Jalen Brunson. The risk of him being cut down in his prime is too high.
As we all know from past Knicks/Heat series, blowouts don’t carry over to the next game.
It sucks that they got killed today, but all it means is that the series is tied. Nothing more, nothing less.
I’m so sick of this bullshit. Same fucking story the second this team losses the same bullshit about Thibs and minutes comes out.
Joel Embiid injured Mitchell Robinson. He fucking left the game in a walking boot.
Because Jan was hurt bc someone dove into his leg.
Randall wa shirt bc someone tried to draw a charge last second when they shouldn’t have.
OG’s injury happened after he had a twenty minute rest from half time and had played like 22 minutes in the game.
Thibs has completely changed the culture of this team and all of you were riding high a few days ago off of that never quit attitude that he installed and now you wan to fire him.
Fuck all of you.
I mean if you can get Ty Lue to come to NY, sure (and even Ty played his big 3 like 35 minutes a game and they’re old and injury prone), but right now there’s probably something like a 0 percent chance Thibs is getting fired so there’s not a lot of point crying about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=izen0dPk4s4 some good discussion going on over here
And we should be up 3-1.
This team is a championship team when healthy and the FO and the coach can do things this off season to address this issue but fuck everyone who wants to fire Thibs. Go root for the fucking nets if you feel that way.
Jay Wright is the guy if they make a move, he lives in Jersey and has his Nova boys on the team already.
Even fully healthy Indiana could have a game like this against us. Quit abandoning ship the second things get tough.
I guess maybe start Deuce next game? I don’t know if there’s any other move we can make, unless it’s start Burks
Post-game quotes from our team they really are a no excuses group. Win or lose you know they’ll come out with a much better effort on Tuesday.
Funny, I watched the game with the italian comment and the two announcers did fight all game long about Thibs’ minutes.
Announcer 1 (former minor leagues player): “He’s killing his players! Who will play Game-7 if they get there? He’s crazy and he’s always been!”
Announcer 2 (former National team player) : “The Knicks are missing 2 starters and 2 important rotation players! Who is he supposed to play? They have no players left and the Pacers are the luckiest NBA team ever!”
I felt at home… 😀
At one point in this game we were down 37 points and Jalen Brunson had played 31 of 33 minutes on a injured foot. It’s fucking insane.
This lunatic has already contributed to Mitch and OG going down. It’s too god damn much already. This won’t stop until everyone on this team ends up like Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.
Thibs has been a Head Coach for 14 years. He isn’t going to change now.
LOL! Maybe they have a user here at KB, they sound familiar. 😀
It’s not a 50-50 thing. It is just two or three who have negativity and bitching in their DNA. I wish they get a shrink to help them or go root for someone else. We come here to celebrate a victory or commiserate a loss but we don’t need those sick attitudes.
Rough I think the site you’re looking for is pollyannabullshitblogger.net.
Round here when coach does something stupid like he did today we talk about it.
And fwiw there were nine posters commenting about stupid it was that Thibs was playing Brunson so much.
Hubs, sorry but that’s a bullshit argument. The Knicks weren’t down by 33 when the game started. Should Thibs have pulled Brunson when we were down 10-2 cause he should have known it wasn’t going to be our night?
Has a team never come out of halftime down by 20ish and come back?
Thibs pulled him and he didn’t play any of the 4th.
This is the exact loser attitude that would have had us face the pacers in the first round or worse yet lose a bunch of games when we were short handed and be a play in team or even miss the playoffs.
How did Thibs cause Mitch to go down?
The Hawks striking lotto gold in a year with (apparently) no clear #1 pick is pretty funny
Hmm, Jay Wright would probably be a relatively easy get. He has never coached in the NBA though, and sometimes great college coaches just don’t make that transition successfully.
Bucks lost cause their 2 best players were hurt, Clippers lost cause Kawhi was hurt, Philly had a less than 100% Embiid, Heat lost cause Butler was hurt. Yet Thibs is the only coach blamed when his players are hurt. Seriously you guys complaining about minutes and injuries need to STFU already its beyond fucking exhausting.
Hubert, I am not going to waste my brain cells on you. Sorry. Same BS over and over again.
Also really convenient to pick the exact minute when Brunson got pulled. He played 31 minutes total in the game.
Jay Wright is a terrible idea.
We’re gonna keep Thibs. It’s not even up for discussion.
We’re just going to need all the luck in the world for this to not end up like Chicago.
It is. These losers would rather we be a play in team so we could talk about draft picks. Just a few days ago they were talking about how gritty the team is and how they’ve given us great memories and now they all want to throw the coach under the bus. It’s disgusting. Mitch was hurt by Embiid and before than Leon tried to get an injury exception for him. Randle was hurt by dirty Miami. Bojan was hurt bc a player dove into him. OG was hurt midway through the third quarter.
Load management in the playoffs is fucking bullshit.
Exactly!
I cheated, checked the score a few minutes in to the second quarter…
no thank you…skipping the rest of that game…
let’s start deuce tuesday and take another shot at the pacers
That’s good bc you seem like the kinda guy who needs all of them just to brush your teeth.
OG was being worked like an iron- man in previous games. He isn’t built like that and some of those minutes should’ve went to Burks.
If you’re OG, do you ask for the max now?
Even with the injury concerns, someone will pay him that now, but if he wants to help the Knicks out, he’ll “settle” for $35 million.
Mitch wasn’t even playing heavy minutes, they just ran him out there to see what he could do and he had one good game but mostly limped around and looked ineffective. He played 20 MPG against Philly. He has been brittle since coming into the league. Not a whole lot you can do about that one.
OG is a bit of a different story, and I think he is the most damning case against Thibs. He’s never been particularly durable, and Thibs was playing him Wilt-in-1962 minutes. I mean maybe OG gets injured anyway but he is a player who does seem to need load management.
Since the trade Knicks are 26-5 this season when OG plays, 13-16 when he doesn’t! Granted all 29 games he missed so did Randle but still OG has made quite an impact and will get paid handsomely for it.
I missed the game, thank god. How in the world did Brunson play 31 minutes on a hurt foot in a game we were never within 20 after the first quarter? He was 2nd in minutes. That seems like total malpractice.
Thibs managed to keep Hart’s minutes below 25 but he couldn’t help but play Brunson almost regular minutes in a wire to wire blow out.
That is unforgivable.
Posters who commented on Thibs’ playing the starters too much today:
Hubert
cgreene
max
Tastycakes
Darules
Lil Penny
Bo nateman
MK in LA
JK47
Educate the weak
Announcers who commented on Thibs playing the starters too much today:
Mike Breen
Monica McNutt
Some Italian Guy
NBA Podcasters who have commented about Thibs playing his starters too much this postseason:
All of them
Who Rough and his brain cells says is talking about it:
“It is just two or three who have negativity and bitching in their DNA”
Brunson played the 2nd most minutes of anyone in the entire game. It’s almost like Thibs is doing it on purpose.
That’s absolutely crazy and there really needs to be a serious talk between Thibs and Leon about how he is managing these guys.
This is not okay.
Add Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith to the list. Barkley ripped Thibs a new one.
Joel Embiid was like half crippled and he played as many minutes as OG did in the first series, it’s the playoffs, they pay these guys to win games.
At this point I’d be looking to replace Mitch with an alternative who is more durable. Those rim runner defensive Cs are attainable. I’d be up for one who maybe isn’t quite as productive but who can at least stay healthy. Mitch really does have a hard time staying on the floor.
The 76ers had Embiid playing old man basketball, taking lots of jumpers. The Knicks were asking OG to play like Magic Johnson because Brunson was in the locker room injured.
Fred Katz, beloved here and well known as levelheaded, during the game:
https://x.com/fredkatz/status/1789766043021262900?s=61&t=rCQRO7yjlVQ7a4q4G8yX2A
Look, we didn’t lose the game because Thibs’ minutes were wrong, and I’m not accusing him about our injuries.
But can we at least agree that tonight it was unnecessarily dangerous to play a nicked JB so much with the game already well out of reach in the 3rd quarter?
This discussion is a bit premature at this point as the Indiana series is not over yet, but we should have definitely protected the rim better and rebounded better against them. Mitch hasn’t had a healthy season in his career, I think, and his contract is easily movable. I am sure that moving him will be an option this summer.
I agree with you, except the loaded word ‘dangerous.’ And you said this is not why we lost. He might have waved the white flag a few minutes earlier. We all have our concerns about Thibs approach, but you do know that this is not what has been causing nausea in this forum.
Thibs fails the marshmallow test every time. He is like a fucking child, he is incapable of ever choosing the long term gain over the short term one.
Playing players heavy minutes to win games in the playoffs is normal and if this was a close game none of us would be dragging Thibs for playing Brunson heavy minutes.
But this wasn’t a close game it was an absolute blow out and yet even in a game in which we trailed by 20 after one and 28 at halftime Thibs couldn’t help but play our injured superstar 31 minutes.
Unconscionable.
If we lose this series we need to fire him. End stop. This year’s rash of injuries are on him. Not all of them are his fault but his lack of forward thinking and flexibility took a couple unfortunate injuries and made it reverberate through our entire roster. This is on him.
Only 3 teams have advanced to the 2nd rd of the playoffs the last 2 seasons and the Knicks are one of them. But sure let’s fire Thibs cause he’s a huge problem…
Daron Holmes II should be one of the Knicks draft picks. I don’t know if teams would touch Robinsons contract, but Holmes is a nice backup plan who could allow the Knicks to play 5 out.
I still think we will win this series, but if we don’t it’ll be the first time that I’ll root for the Celtics, because the Pacers’ antics are unsufferable.
They’re lousy losers and classless winners, fuck them and all the state of Indiana.
I’m not going to get on Thibs about OG because, well, look at the results without him and Brunson was down when he was injured. He definitely should have sat JB in the middle of the third though.
We’re always going to have minutes arguments but this is the playoffs. The players want to win, and so does everyone else. The attitude is play as hard as you can as long as you can and rest during the off-season. You can’t play/coach worried about injuries in the playoffs.
Thibs has coached the most successful Knicks team since Jeff Van Gundy, he’s not getting fired because he played Brunson 31 minutes instead of 27 minutes
Not to mention from all indications Brunson absolutely loves Thibs. Not just Brunson but the rest of the Nova trio and iHart have all been hugely supportive of Thibs thru the media.
Barkley doesn’t know his head from his asshole so anything he says doesn’t matter. 😂
That applies to many. No need to specify 😂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YrES_3MDdNo&pp=ygUNRGFyb24gaG9sbWVzIA%3D%3D getting a skilled big like this could help big time
I really do hope we draft some depth this year instead of star chase. Or, use some of that capital we have to trade for some more depth. Ship out Bogey for a couple younger players with a pick or 2.
But what he’s been doing is not normal. The 48 minute games. The 46 mpg averages. There is no other coach in the modern era who’s done this.
And we’re still 2.5 rounds from the finish line!
No one thinks this.
We were getting blown out no matter what Thibs did.
But then Thibs did something incredibly stupid and the whole basketball world is talking about it.
It was like watching someone drive drunk and get home safe. It made me want to take the keys away.
Tatum minutes in these playoffs- 304
OG -320
Both in 8 games played
Yes I know the Knicks play much closer games compared to Boston, but Tatum is the only player on the Celtics who has played over 300 minutes
The only Non – Knick who has played more minutes than Brunson in these playoffs is Donovan Mitchell.
Tyrese Maxey averaged 45 minutes a game in the playoffs this year.
I think there are a couple things-most teams are deeper at this point in the playoffs, or else they wouldn’t be here. And most teams in the playoffs have some games where they win or lose by a lot, so even someone you’re going to be playing heavy minutes is going to get some relatively low minutes game. Every game we’ve played except for today was competitive until like the last 2 minutes.
I agree that Thibs has done well. I also agree that his players love him. But sometimes the coach needs to be the adult in the room. Players want to play and they want to compete. It is normal to not want to come out of the game or to shrug off injuries but it is on the coach to know what is best in both the short term and long term.
Thibs failed at managing minutes once players started going down in regular season and seems to have learned nothing.
He probably shouldn’t be fired but he does need a come to Jesus moment from upper management because this is a real problem. Playing an injured Brunson 31 minutes on one leg in a wire to wire blow out is absolutely not okay. This blowout was a gift and a chance to get our players rested and healthy but our starters actually played more minutes than Indiana so we squandered it.
If Brunson is 100% next game and the rest of our starters are well rested then no harm but if Brunson is limping around or our starters look gassed then that is a serious blunder and directly Thibs’s fault.
I went to google to see what he said but I got this instead. It’s from when the whole world was killing Thibs last year for playing an injured Julius Randle too much in a 27 point blowout in last year’s playoffs:
https://heavy.com/sports/nba/new-york-knicks/barkley-calls-out-thibodeau/amp/
It’s never gonna stop.
And for Christ’s sake stop starting Precious at the 4. It does not work, especially against a team like Indiana.
and people still don’t see a problem with it…
if it was a 5 point deficit how long should Brunson have played, given every minute over 26 is insanely reckless?
that murray shot at the buzzer was insane
It’s cool watching two teams at full health…
Murray isn’t healthy, it’s pretty stupid Denver is playing him.
Sure…but he also missed half the games due to injury and now broke down again when it matters most.
How will Leon price a super elite role player that fits perfectly with other current players but is clearly injury prone? An over pay would hamstring the whole team.
We’re pretty much getting to the salary cap not meaning a whole lot other than trying to mitigate luxury tax. I’m sure Leon will do well enough with the contracts though. He hasn’t shown that he won’t so far.
TWolves played Anthony Edwards almost 46 minutes I’m going to be sick. They need to think about next season
Since the 2020-21 season, OG has played a total of 15 regular season games more than Mitch Robinson, 208 vs 193. Less that four games per season.
Ant played 45 mins and was a +5. Wolves lost by 8….
They were up 2-1 in the series, and they were down double digits for most of the game. 45 minutes? That was criminal! What was Chris Finch thinking?
#fireChrisFinch
hm
I’ve seen people say OG is making money by getting hurt again but shouldnt he be losing money by showing how he cant stay healthy?
Congrats on the most insane take of the day. Yes, 31 instead of 27 minutes will be the difference between health and looking gassed. Because that’s what the difference is – you don’t pull your star at halftime even down 30. You see whether you can make a run in the third. They couldn’t, and Brunson was pulled. I would have pulled him a few minutes earlier, but come on, we’re talking about 5 minutes at absolute max. Who gives a shit what the media says? They’re idiots. You can’t even say Brunson wasn’t healthy enough to play, since he was hurt in game 3 and played well enough that we should have taken that game. Of course he played this game, and of course he was out there until it was clear there was no coming back today. Ok, a few minutes after it was clear. But that’s it.
I have no doubt they will find a way to resign him. They have his bird rights so it shouldn’t be a big blow on the salary cap. The big concern is not his contract but whether he can stay healthy when he is needed the most.
Durant got the max while everyone knew he would be missing the first year of his new contract. There is a major supply and demand issue for players as good as OG.
Agree on supply/demand but OG is not KD. However, OG is very very rare elite role player who clearly effects winning WHEN HEALTHY and he fits like a glove so, – I’m really not sure exactly how they will determine his value…but I don’t think he’s near a max level player.
OG + Thibs is a dangerous combination. He’s like the Thibsiest player in the world, but he’s brittle. It’s gonna be a cycle of OG playing great, OG playing too many minutes, OG getting hurt, OG getting rushed back and re-injuring himself, OG finally coming back healthy, OG playing too many minutes, OG getting hurt, OG getting rushed back and re-injuring himself, lather rinse repeat.
I don’t want to be pessimistic about this, but it’s hard to imagine all of that NOT happening.
There was no minutes cap if it was close. No one complained after game 3. If it was a competitive game playing Brunson 35+ minutes would have been fine. But it wasn’t a competitive game and never was. Somehow Indiana managed to keep all their players under 30 minutes even though this game was actually more vital for them to win and they are much less banged up. Yet, Thibs cannot seem to keep his injured superstar under 31 minutes even though it was never closer than 20, and often much worse than that, for the final 30+ minutes of the game.
I don’t expect Brunson to be 100% and don’t even think he would be 100% if he had completely sat out the game. But that is the point, if he is not 100% then there is no excuse for Thibs running him out there for 31 minutes in a wire-to-wire blowout.
And it wasn’t five minutes of overuse it was more like ten. Thibs played Brunson for over 21 minutes in the first half, which was too much, and then played him an additional 10 in the 3rd quarter, which was also too much. Seeing how the game was going and knowing Brunson was hurt he should have played more like 15 minutes in the first half and then been pulled after like 5 in the 3rd quarter. There is no way he should have played more than 20-24 minutes max in this game. I know that 7-10 minutes isn’t going to make a huge difference but it just illustrates Thibs’s disease. He can’t help himself and eventually, his teams will always break down, because they always have.
It’s a straight line. Thibs has a reputation for his players breaking down and getting injured. Then he moves to a new team and his players break down and get injured. You can point to many of the injuries as not his fault but there is a clear correlation between Thibs and injuries.
This has already happened twice in 4 months. But Anthony Edwards played 45 minutes once so it’s fine.
Nailed it.
My take is that there is a reasonable take in the middle of the Thibs argument, both as it pertains to Brunson, and in general. But blaming him for the OG injury is pretty fucking stupid.