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2024-25 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Rockets – Pick You Up Each Time You Fall

In honor of A Complete Unknown, and, well, almost every recurring feature I’ve ever done, the titles are now Dylan lyrical quotes. Tonight, the Knicks have to pick themselves up from where they fell against the Lakers, and specifically pick themselves up in the absence of OG Anunoby, who apparently only has a mild ankle sprain. Now, that’s certainly good news, but, well, I mean, come on, this is OG fucking Anunoby we’re talking here, a “mild” ankle sprain is still something we should be very concerned about the rest of the season.

Speaking of injuries, Mitchell Robinson was cleared for full contact practices finally, so he might actually be on the way back, just in time to become a star center for the Los Angeles Lakers, I assume.

Even with OG out, the Rockets are missing 3/5 of their starting lineup tonight, so the Knicks should still slurp down a win tonight.

Let’s go, Knicks!

58 could still be great!

195 replies on “2024-25 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Rockets – Pick You Up Each Time You Fall”

Now Precious is announced as starting instead of Deuce, just gonna wait until the game starts….

LOVING nbatv telling me about the 28 Jalen/Jaylens that have played since Jalen Rose. THIS IS JOURNALISM

LOVING nbatv telling me about the 28 Jalen/Jaylens that have played since Jalen Rose. THIS IS JOURNALISM

Drafting Jalens is optimal draft strategy.

Offensive players have enough advantages that the league needs to crack down on guys with the ball just shoving defenders off balance

KAT takes advantage of his height on offense but is totally lost out of position on defense. Huge gaps in the paint.

One of the reasons it would be good to play guys like Hukporti more is he’d be more likely to know what the fuck he’s doing

No surprise Knicks played entire 1st quarter with 2 bigs always on the floor and looked like shit.

HUK has a whole lot of potential and a whole lot to learn. Not exactly ready to be a regular rotation player yet.

It’s getting late early re: Shamet’s roster spot, IMO. Pure shooters who don’t make shots don’t add a lot.

If this continues I might not watch another Knicks game until after the All-Star break.

0-8 from 3. I would talk to the boys at halftime and tell them to make more of their 3s

Not that I expect the same level of acknowledgement as my incorrect predictions get but this game is unfolding exactly as I foresaw.

Started precious? Check.

Can’t score on them? Check.

Can’t get stops? Check.

On pace for a wire to wire blowout loss? Check.

I wish Thibs would understand that we have to start Deuce if one of the starters is hurt.

Bonus prediction: Every healthy starter gets 40m and we lose to TOR tomorrow too.

I need to start betting some games, NYK -7.5 was an absolutely ridiculous line on its face.

Can someone donate a new thumb to Towns? Our offense just does not function if he’s not a behemoth.

I need to start betting some games, NYK -7.5 was an absolutely ridiculous line on its face.

Yeah what a lost opportunity, you could cash out in the 2nd quarter and make a fortune.

When Josh Hart goes in for a layup and ends up on the ground, is it because he’s just uncoordinated?

Why do refs hate us?

Outside of Brunson and Bridges not many functional players on offense tonight

Towns was awful

The bench is hilariously bad. That start to the 2nd qtr was bad.

The bench is hilariously bad. That start to the 2nd qtr was bad.

The Hukporti/Precious front court was not great

Lucky to be down only five. What I saw in the first half are three Nova guys plus Deuce fighting. The rest are anywhere from poor to garbage.

Might as well be down 50.

Is there anything more Knicksy than Towns getting a laser-guided injury that nerfs his one superpower? If he can’t shoot and we’re starting Precious at the 4 our offense is cooked.

Uber athletic randoms are this team’s kryptonite.

A large chunk of the NBA consists of uber athletic randoms unfortunately. Wish we hadn’t incinerated all those draft picks…

The Hukporti/Precious front court was not great

Thibs loves his non spacing lineups

Shamet has been D and no 3 except for 1 game in the regular season? KAT was our sniper and ever since that finger no one can consistently make up for his 3p threat

I can’t watch tonight, but I’m checking box scores. I had the same thought as GKHenman, we’re probably seeing Hukporti because Sims is part of trade talks. But then Thibs put in Sims for ten seconds for defensive purposes at the end of the half, so I’m not sure what to think. Maybe Hukporri got minutes because Thibs wanted more offense off the bench in the absence of OG.

KAT was our sniper and ever since that finger no one can consistently make up for his 3p threat

It’s pretty much as though we traded him straight up for Vucevic, and this ain’t gonna get better until next season if ever

This is so ugly.

We need Towns at 100% when we don’t have OG. The spacing is not right.

Yeah we’re screwed, down 1 in the third quarter.

Pags we’re all begging you, stop with your super annoying shtick, it’s just fucking dumb.

let’s give tyler some run, see if he can become the creator…

cam is in a slump, oh well, next…

unfortunately, there is no next up for shamet right now…

How in the fuck did the ref not see Whitmore leave his feet? He’s standing right there!

And then Whitmore hits a 3. Brutal.

The insurmountable 4-10 point lead that we never really threaten for the whole game is something we should trademark at this point. There’s no other team in the NBA where they’re down a couple points and you just know they have no shot.

Down 4 and you refresh the box score 45 seconds later and they’re down 11, every time

Thibs still playing 2 non spacing bigs

Every time Bridges goes off the floor tonight its a negative

Josh Hart and brunson with some brain farts out there. Plus Kat doing a nerlen noels hands of stone impression = no bueno

Mikal’s consecutive games streak is truly mind-blowing. It shouldn’t be possible to be that durable in this sport.

Seriously, someone’s gotta do a study on role players performance at MSG, we’re losing to the trash Holiday brother who averages 4 ppg because he can’t miss all of a sudden.

How hard is it to play man to man defense and not leave shooters wide open..

I’m dizzy after that possession…

one of the funnier nba possessions I’ve ever seen, it was like tennis

The fact that Mikal had a +24 in an essentially tie game has to mean something

Somebody DM Mark Cuban and let him know the Luka trade would make sense if he had signed JB
edit that was a foul

Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds Inbounds

I wish players would throw the inbounds pass into the opponents back more often when the opponent guarding the ball is looking away.

I don’t know if we’ll have anything left tomorrow night, but that was some effort in the 4th quarter

Stole this win back from the Rockets, thank god the missed free throws didn’t come back to burn us.

The Captain to the rescue! Tough, physical game but the refs were absolute garbage yet again. I have to believe the betting in sports is causing the drop in quality because I’ve never seen it this bad.

Hell of a game.

Classic NBA action and intensity followed by an absolutely dreadful sludge-fest of reviews and fouls and bad refereeing for the last “90 seconds” (aka 10 minutes)

Like this Rockets team, would enjoy them more without Dillon Brooks. Amen Thompson is a special talent (though he can’t shoot 3s).

And Brunson, man, the hits just keep on coming…. what a performance.

Beating one of the best teams in the league when you shoot 23% from deep is pretty nice.

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve been able to say Knicks won because they have Brunson and the other team doesn’t.

i think that’s jalen’s 18th 40+ pt game as a knick, passing melo in only 2 1/2 yrs

Man, showed up for the last four minutes of that game, sounds like I didn’t miss much before that except a lot of angst, and also sounds like I might want to skip the thread. What a win.

Yeah pt, just read that only BK with 23 and Ewing with 30 are ahead of JB in 40 pt games.

That was a tough one to watch. I’m glad we won, but I’m starting to worry about Towns a bit.

I was worried that Payne might hoist up a quick three when they kept putting him in for free throw shooting during that last minute…

That was a tough one to watch. I’m glad we won, but I’m starting to worry about Towns a bit.

The Rockets have an elite defense and on the other end his defense will always be bad.

If the Knicks ever even think of trading Jalen for Curry, that would become the worst trade in NBA history!

if we lost tonight was positive we’d lose in toronto…

happier trip up north now…

maybe not such a warm reception up there, but good team trip now…

Rockets have a lot of quality players, it’s going to be interesting what happens when they have to let some of them go.

I “knew” having 1 of the 28 Jalen/Jaylens in the NBA would be a good omen.

Is he great…. Oh and espn says tonight’s 40+ breaks “a tie with Carmelo Anthony for third on the franchise list with his 18th 40-point game with the Knicks”

watching the magic to see why they are suddenly playing worse with banchero and wagner back..

defense, ball is sticking too much with them?

The Rockets have an elite defense and on the other end his defense will always be bad.

I don’t know if he’s playing through pain, and if so, if it’s temporary or until he gets off season surgery, but he’s not the same.

Wade knows whats going on

why though would nico harrison care about the growth of the league, salary guy…

only way that makes sense is if the idea originated with the owner…league value increases and ownership value increases…

who cares about some sidewalk graffiti and lost jersey sales…

KAT has a bone chip in his right thumb, it’s obviously bothering him. I assume it’s not something that will just get better by not playing so I actually give him credit for playing thru it.

Not that I expect the same level of acknowledgement as my incorrect predictions get but this game is unfolding exactly as I foresaw.

Started precious? Check.

Can’t score on them? Check.

Can’t get stops? Check.

Crushed it today, bro. I think you broke the record for most bad takes posted in one day

My husband who shouts at me for my loud hard bangs banged hard on that last Brunson three. We have reached relationship nirvana. For now.

Jalen Brunson is an MVP level player.

You all must recognize it without mincing your words.

I was out with some nice parents from my former school, all wonderful ladies somewhere near my age. We were at Dive Bar up on 96th and Amsterdam, and there were a million TVs with the game on. I have eyestrain from trying not to look up while they talked with me about how their kids were doing. (TNFH, some of the former students were in your age group and Tim Chalamet’s name came up) We were down when I left the bar.

When I finally turned on the radio in my car, it was 111-110 and Amen was on the line. Wasn’t feeling all that optimistic, but sounds like Jalen just took over. Definitely want to watch the replay of this one.

I skipped watching this game out of a vaguely Pagsian sense of doom and it seems like I missed some vintage Brunson

KAT has a bone chip in his right thumb, it’s obviously bothering him. I assume it’s not something that will just get better by not playing so I actually give him credit for playing thru it.

I understand there’s a chip. That’s a longer term issue to address. What I don’t understand is if he’s in pain now due to soft tissue damage that will mostly subside over the coming weeks or whether that chip will remain very painful even after the swelling and soft damage subsides.

When I spoke to a sports doctor it sounded like removing the chip was a 6-8 week thing and then he’d be 100% again. Maybe he should have had surgery and come back at 100% for the end of the season and playoffs instead of being in pain through it all and then having off season surgery.

“When I spoke to a sports doctor it sounded like removing the chip was a 6-8 week thing and then he’d be 100% again.”

This is a ridiculous statement for a doctor to make without seeing x-rays and other diagnostic info. He could have partially torn ligaments or other damage to his thumb that might bother him whether he has surgery or not. The bone chip might not even be a factor.

I still can’t believe Dallas lost their best player in franchise history…and then traded away Luka 3 years later

LOL

Believe or not I have 900 clinical hrs of training in structural integration and at one point was a manual therapist for a professional rugby team. If there’s no risk of further structural damage and the soft tissue allows for it, it might be that he’s learning to observe and play through the discomfort. He’s tough. We need him. I’ve been encouraged by seeing evidence of cupping on the Knicks with Donte last year and Towns this year. The medical team is significantly more holistic. More long term. Clearly Towns is showing up for his teammates at the moment and that speaks to the kind of captain Brunson is. Towns excels next to an alpha. Let’s get Mitch back and he can get some more time off here and there to allow the tissue to chill the fuck out.

Just got back from dinner…watched the replay…Brunson is a warrior…

The state of refereeing is abysmal…I haven’t seen it this bad in a long time…

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