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141 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.26)”
I will confess that the first two games left me so disheartened that I decided to spend the evening working on my Rod Serling book, periodically checking the score but not watching the game. Even when I saw the comeback that Deuce and KAT were engineering, I didn’t risk putting it on, waiting til after the W was secured before rewinding my DVR to see the fourth quarter.
On the one hand, I’m bummed my anxiety wouldn’t let me witness another absurd comeback live. On the other, this experience was probably healthier for me on the whole, and not just because I was productive.
But now I feel like I should just not watch the games at all, just to avoid jinxing the guys.
Sports are fun?
I fell asleep at the half… in the morning i was sure we’d lost the game, but instead of going to check the score and end my misery, i decided to “follow” the game by reading the game thread from where i stopped. It was beautiful, i thank you all !! 🧡💙
And I assume he is the one leaked it to the press, too.
Between this and the players only meeting that made all the adjustments before game 6, it shows the players are taking more steps to be proactive.
Maybe we should give challenge decisions to PJ Tucker while we’re at it.
Well at least these guys are fucking human.
We also got one of the worst Scott Foster games of all time.
I’m hoping that Nesmiths ankle heals fully and well and that the process is slow and painful. May it look like a morning bun on a chancleta today.
The ne-ne’s are like the 2025 Davises
I still can’t believe they called that travel on Towns
It was crazy. What was that KAT traveling violation? And all of the fouls? Crazy. I think they called moving screens on Knicks three consecutive possessions.
Game 2 is a blur, but I don’t think the Knicks got a fair whistle in any of their games? I’m not even saying a favorable whistle – just a fair one.
Yeah…foster was in rare form last night.. did his best to change the outcome…I hope he lost huge coin on it..
“I think at first, it kind of took [our group] a little bit to figure out what we were going to do offensively. But that unit was full of guys who have been in the league and who know how to play basketball,” Hart said of players such as Shamet and Wright, who haven’t played much this postseason. “It’s huge to have guys who stay ready. It doesn’t matter the situation. That’s exactly why you stay ready.”
“It’s an emotional game, it’s a long game. Things can happen, things can not go your way. You can easily crash out, or you can respond the right way,” Brunson said.
Lol Alan, I hear you. I watched with mostly dread last night until that awesome run in the second half.
It really sucks that we let that game 1 slip away. It would almost be less painful if they went on to sweep us, you could just concede that they were the better team anyway. Now all you can do is say that we might have been down 2-1 anyway if after winning game 1, Indy rebounded at MSG in game 2 and then beat us in Indy.
Seems like game 4 is kinda important now, sort of as expected going in, just would much rather have been up 2-1 than down.
So it’s a good thing to have your opponent deal with various different lineups, instead of the same one over and over? Who could have imagined it.
Absolutely monster win, with the season on the line, down 20 points, looking stuck in mud, and then our bench inspired us defensively and KaT goes full 1st team all NBA to start the 4th, just like we all scripted it lol.
Couple things I did notice rewatching — 1/ so many decisions on lineups were driven by foul trouble on Brunson and Deuce, so hard to fully gauge what we will do in game 4.
2/ Brunson needs to go out of his way to pass the ball to KaT early in the game. And his teammates need to look for Towns more when Brunson is in. He took 1 shot off an offensive rebound before subbing out in Q1. Then when Brunson was subbed back in, in the 4th, Towns never got/shot the ball again. Yes he needs to be more aggressive but his teammates need to hunt him getting the ball a bit more.
I wish someone had a picture of that last Josh Hart rebound like the awesome pic we got of OG dunking in Boston. That was some serious MF’ing hang time.
And perhaps fittingly, the sun is out in New York for the first time since Wednesday night.
“Thibodeau closed with the previous starting lineup (Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns), though he played them together for less than four minutes all night.”
Krazytown.
And credit where it’s due, poster edition: Z-Man with the funniest post of the night (in response to Donnie)
Eye-test alert: My big concern with playing Delon was that he wasn’t quick enough to stay in front of TJ. But in fact he totally stayed in front of TJ, in that he just kept directly in front of him out at the three-point line where TJ is not a danger, and never let him turn the corner. Makes me wonder why other Knicks can’t do that.
Also made me think about a piece written about the defrocking of OKC (which I don’t think we’ve even mentioned here, but seems pretty noteworthy), where the writer was saying it was just micro-adjustments like Ant going wider around screens to give himself more room to pull up without being immediately contested. Makes me wonder…
That was probably a bad sign. Also noteworthy that while trying seemingly every lineup imaginable he still never tried the 5 out lineup with Deuce instead of Hart. We’re likely never going to see that.
One thing that’s interesting is that Deuce only got 15 mins bc of foul trouble. If he gets more, does that mean Delon or Landry go back in the dungeon? The 9 man rotation was huge last night and it really needs to stay.
I wish I could be confident that Thibs sees these things but he only went to the winning lineup bc Jalen got 5 fouls and that’s exactly what happened in game 1, too. Without Jalen in foul trouble in game 2 we never tried it.
It’s Jalen fucking Brunson, so obviously don’t bench the guy, but we need a smarter stagger strategy.
To be fair, I don’t think Carlisle has spent much time game-planning for the Delon-Shamet combo. That said, I like the theory of it…Delon is a very good defensive player for a PG, possibly even elite. Shamet is an okay defender unless matched up with, say, Siakam, and he is a much more reliable shooter in theory than Payne. Maybe you lose a bit of offensive continuity out there with Delon, Deuce, and Shamet but you definitely get a bump on the defensive end.
It seems like the formula is Jalen with Mitch and 3 shooters or KAT with Deuce and 3 defensive wings.
The starting lineup from last night falls into the first category, so it’s not like we have to bring one of these guys off the bench.
I’d like to remind you, in my sloppiest finger paint, that it was only a year ago that you referred to him as “The Extender”.
Another strange factoid stumbled upon as I read:
“Siakam’s odd game; he scored 17 points but the Knicks were 21 points better than Indiana when the lanky forward was in the game.”
Frank said it on the game thread. I was pretty ready to chuck KAT into the sea, then comes that season-saving forth quarter. He’s so inconsistent and so careless with his fouls and TOs and so clueless on D that he’s often infuriating – but he’s also capable of being completely dominant. A confounding player.
Nesmith being even a little bit gimpy could be a real positive for us. He’s by far their best defensive option against Brunson, and their most reliable off-ball shooter. On the surface, Indy appears to have a deep bench, but it’s more that Carlisle goes deep into his bench…only TJ is a matchup problem for us. Obi and Mathurin can go off from time to time and are both uber-athletic, but we have bench guys to match up with them. Sheppard isn’t very good, and Bradley and Bryant are both terrible.
Obviously Game 4 is monumental. If we lose, it’s just a matter of when we get eliminated. If we win, Indy loses nearly all of the mojo they gained by stealing Game 1, and knows that we can beat them in Indy.
I expect it to have a Game 7 feel.
This is the second game in the playoffs where really poor officiating probably contributed to a win in a strange way. The first was when no fouls were called, so hack-a-Mitch didn’t work. Yesterday, way too many fouls were called, so the rotation was expanded with good results. If the officiating in either of those games was competent we still might have won them both, but nice to know we came thru in different circumstances.
Glad you got some work done, Alan! But I feel you – I’m in Florida watching with my mother as she recovers from shoulder surgery, and I’m genuinely worried about her health. These games are so stressful. Shame on me for making her a Knick fan. It’s been a lot of fun, though, in between horror show moments.
A huge highlight. He seemed to have jumped a good four feet into the air to get that board.
What a strange team. They’re like snorlax or something. So parasympathetic that they’ve removed all access to their fight or flight until the headsman has spit out his straw and is leaning into his swing.
As for Delon, I thought he was fine, but still not really an answer against McConnell. That guy is just a waterbug. Still roughly 32p/8rb/8a per36 last night. He’s a problem. If he could shoot the 3 he’d be a star.
For the record I explained to you why he was referred to as the extender while noting I don’t believe in that theory. I always assume incompetence over conspiracy.
The absolute worst was the foul by Bridges with 9 seconds left and IND trailing by four. After a night where Brunson had to fight through Rock-em-Sock-em robots to get the ball across the time line on every possession, to call a “touch” foul in that circumstance was a clear attempt to change the out come of the game by the officials. Wm. of Ockham says hello.
It’s crazy that iIn one quarter of basketball the narrative completely flipped on Thibs and KAT.
Have no idea what to expect in game 4. We thought the Knicks would be super pissed about blowing game 1 and come out with a vengeance in game 2 and look what happened.
This series has been horrific on the officiating end (game one and last night specifically).
I’m excited for the Tony Brothers Experience if we make it that far.
I’m going to just keep leaving little quotes here because really there’s nothing sensible that can be said about this team anymore. It is perhaps the most inexplicably unpredictable team I’ve ever spent time paying attention to.
“Brunson ranks first in offensive estimated plus-minus and literally dead last in defensive estimated plus-minus (147th out of 147 players).”
The Indiana bench is sneakily bad. TJ and Obi are the only positive guys. Sheppard is meh. Mathurin is unplayable.
In addition to the utterly BS decisions (Mikal non-goaltending, KAT’s traveling), the inconsistency is crazy. KAT and Brunson get pushed around all game, and most of the time get no calls.
1. I don’t trust anything we did lineup wise other than the change to the starting lineup because much of the rest was related to foul trouble. Regardless of the fact that we won, Thibs went back to the usual starting lineup to close. That tells me he still has no clue what the issues are or how best to try to mitigate them.
2. As expected Delon was an improvement over Payne. He’s not going to light the joint on fire if you need scoring, but he’s also not going to do anything crazy. He’s going to defend well and take the correct shots for him. That’s what we need. Payne is going to have his moments, but he’s more of an in and out sparkplug or get him off the court kind of player.
3. The variety of ways KAT was scoring in the 4th screams that when he disappears it’s not the way they are defending him. It’s that we are not getting him the ball, and when we do, he’s sometimes not being aggressive enough. If the guy is going to be a liability on defense, he has to be used properly on offense to more than offset it. That’s a little his fault, a little Brunson’s and a little Thib’s. But no matter how you slice it, we have to get him the ball more.
To me, this is one of the wonderful elements of being a stan. Among all the incredibly smart Knick fans on this site, no one could have predicted the narrative of these playoffs. Last night, I all but gave up watching, but as they inched closer, I hung in and was rewarded. KATs game last night defied logic. Now, instead of watching game 4 feeling like I’m a hospice visitor with a loved one, there is a legit chance that we win this series.
I assume this is for the playoffs?
We all know there’s a lot of noise in plus/minus, on/off and lineup data but when you have theoretical reasons to think certain things will happen beforehand and then they are supported by that kind of data imo you should be paying close attention.
I don’t think it’s an accident that we’ve gone on some good runs with him off the court. The ball moves better which can offset at least some of the lack of shot creation and the defense gets a significant upgrade, especially with Deuce or Wright. IMO, we have to coach giving due consideration to Brunson’s issues the same way we coach to deal with Towns’ defensive issues.
This. I’m pretty sure KAT is thinking, “Why is everyone focused on my D. Just give me the damn ball.”
I’m not saying Kat is right, but that video clip where OG was shouting at him on the bench and he wasn’t having it suggests the guys are not *exactly in sync about what is going wrong.
The interesting thing is this guy was drafted 14th by Ainge and coached by Boy Genius and they couldn’t get anything useful from him and they bailed on him.
The instant he got to IND, he blossomed into a fine rotation player.
He said everything was on the table and, apparently, he meant it. Our starters are twenty, thirty, and forty million stars who have earned their reputation and playing minutes over the years. It is not easy to start juggling them around and benching them without disrupting the locker room. But Thibs was in desperation mode. Even his job could be on the line had the Knicks been humiliated in this series. He knew that if he were to go down, he’d go down swinging. In a weird way, the team’s poor performance and foul trouble turned out to be helpful by forcing his hand even more.
The lineup he kept on the floor last night not only brought that disruptive energy on defense we desperately needed, but it was also something Carlisle could not have schemed for. The Pacers were not getting the shots they wanted in that second half and for the first time looked more frustrated than the Knicks. This last thought is the most important for the Knicks, I think, because Game 4 is going to be much more difficult than Game 3.
Today is a GREAT DAY to be a Knicks fan. In the first six minutes of the 4th quarter, KAT carried the Knicks like Forrest Gump carried Lieutenant Dan. I regret my third quarter KAT slander. Few players have his ceiling (but that floor is mighty low).
I am going to live in this moment until Game 4.
Kat may put his stamp on this Win but rewatching the game made me notice that when we were deep in the hole OG, Bridges and Deuce hit one tough shot after the other making this comeback possible.
Last night he coached very poorly again. The blown challenge was absolutely inexcusable. Josh Hart had to demote himself bc Thibs wouldn’t do it. Scott Foster forced him to play the best lineup of the night. And Delon & Landry made his decision to exhaust OG and Bridges in game 1 look as stupid as everyone knew it was.
Josh’s two huge rebounds made the coach look good, though, you have to give him that.
We still have to work to overcome our coach. But we’re getting better at it.
I still am not convinced that last night was good process/good results, but this stuff doesn’t matter so much given the inherent variability in a short series. Just win tomorrow.
Hi everyone. Big games. I agree about it being hard to watch. This team seems to have to get down to get up. Playing in NY is a huge psychological disadvantage. So many rabid fans ready to kill you if you fail. I mean, here we are in the ECF and look what’s getting said about Kat and coach. It’s no wonder this team is actually better on the road. I’m bottom line worried about being like a Red Sox fan that lived between 1918 and 2003. So, this next game may be one of the more important of my life. And this team is destined to score like 17 in Q1. My poor heart
KAT is taking the 2nd most shots in the reg. season, and 2nd most in the playoffs, although the gap between him and Brunson widened.
“Even his job could be on the line had the Knicks been humiliated in this series.”
Ha. Go back and read the first half of the last game thread. I think if the entirety of Knickerblogger had been miraculously transported into the locker room at halftime, Thibs would have been torn to bits like a warthog getting eviscerated by a pack of hyenas.
Venom could make a video clip for the track: “To Hell and Back” with our yesterday’s game recap
That was a Comeback from Hell boys!
We almost witnessed Lide after Sports Death !!!
I’m probably gonna sound like a pessimist after a win, but this team has a bunch of work to do to get back to their season-baseline performance. I don’t know what happened, but we are making mistakes we don’t normally make, and taking more bad shots than usual. I would love to attribute it to Indy playing great defense, only I think they’ve been more opportunistic than good. While the Pacers have played well overall, this deficit is more about our guys losing their heads than it is Indy playing well. If only by a smidgen. One area in this series that it’s been more them than us, is coaching. Carlisle is outclassing Thibs, and the 2nd half of last night excluded- it hasn’t been close.
Why is Brunson using so much of the shot clock? Meaning- is it him or scheme? He’s got 4 guys whom he knows he can trust in the normal starting lineup- 2 of which he has complete synergy with. Last year he had no choice but to play like that, but this year he has a full complement of starters who make it easier for him. In this series, all he really needs to do is feed KAT early until Indy gets sick. And KAT can’t initiate from the perimeter as often as he does. That’s why I ask if this year’s Brunson ball is on Brunson or scheme.
I wanna circle back to Indy and make sure I give them proper credit. They are playing really well, I just don’t think they’re better than this version of the Knicks after a hard fought and educational first 2 series.
“The interesting thing is this guy was drafted 14th by Ainge and coached by Boy Genius and they couldn’t get anything useful from him and they bailed on him.”
Well, they did get Malcolm Brogdon for him, which was more of a position of need, and Brogdon went on to win 6MoY for them before (predictably) getting hurt in the playoffs. Still, they wound up including Brogdon in the Jrue Holiday trade, so it worked out!
interesting hubie, I also had a similar vibe the lineup change wasn’t just a coach’s decision, but was more a player one…
Echoing KYN. Game ball goes to the guys that figured out how to stem the tide, KAT struck opportunity glory but was also why we were fucked for most of the game.
appreciated your post al, always makes me feel a little lighter to know I’m not the only one that has to adjust life stuff due to some bad nerves…
sometimes it does feel like that, like I’m the only person with the issue, even if I do know that’s not true at all…
through the good and bad of fandom – glad to be along on the ride with you all…
even you donnie pacers fan…
although it does make me feel a bit better knowing you are down there sucking on brown air, while I’m up here enjoying that cool clean bay breeze 😊
Go Knicks!
on a bit of a downer note – didn’t the cavs/pacers series go pretty much like ours is going…
they are all big games now, but Tuesday feels like another knife’s edge experience…
I for one am happy game four is on the road. Nothing screams back breaking throat rending tapeworm in the brain amoeba in the eyeball Amazonian screw fish up the urethra like losing game four to these dipshit hee-haws in Madison Square Garden.
It’s not that he doesn’t get shots. It’s that we don’t run anything for him. Everything he gets is self created.
Look at his 4Q last night:
– we got him the ball standing still in the corner, he beat his man one-on-one for a driving layup
– we got him the ball 6 feet behind the arc, he beat his man one-on-one for a driving layup (and one)
– Siakim closed out on OG, who passed the ball to KAT for a bailout 3P
– a Mikal Bridges post up was going nowhere so KAT cut to the basket and bailed him out (this was the sick dunk, and one)
– he took the ball from Josh Hart and hit a 31 foot step back three over two defenders (should’ve been a four pt play).
https://www.nba.com/game/nyk-vs-ind-0042400303/play-by-play?period=Q4
Nothing came from a play. Nothing came in flow. He just hero balled, and the only reason he could is because Brunson was on the bench.
Run some shit for this man! Get him the ball in his favorite spot. Pass to him when he’s moving. Get him switched on to weaker defenders.
Who is supposed to tell him not to, his dad?
Didn’t realize the Knicks were 15-15 from the FT line in the 4th quarter.
And everyone of those mattered.
we only had 13 assists less than half of ourb asline win number and we won anyway let us up those assists please
Isn’t it the same for everyone? Jalen, OG, Bridges, Towns, they get screens and have to create off of them.
In addition I think they actually try finding KAT in the post, but he doesn’t seem to be good at fighting for position there.
All that said, sure, give the guy more shots, he deserves them.
I guess some of what you describe, Hubert, and what I call a “set of screens”, actually are this era’s “plays”, it’s all about contingencies and finding little holes or favorite matchups you can take advantage of in the defense.
Look at how Siakim scores, by contrast. Yes he gets a lot of points one on one because we have no one who can guard him but they also do stuff like this for him all the time:
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=21&GameID=0042400303&Season=2024-25&flag=1&title=Siakam%208%27%20Driving%20Floating%20Jump%20Shot%20(2%20PTS)
Have you ever seen us do something like that for KAT in these playoffs?
(If you can’t see the video, they had Brunson’s man set a screen for Siakim to end up with Brunson guarding Pascal for an easy 2; we could be running action like that to get Halliburton or Obi on KAT all day but we never do.)
Embrace the randomness.
Kind of crazy that Andrew Nembhard has 9 fouls over 3 games as Brunson’s primary defender. Turner has 9 fouls as the main rim protector. Nesmith has 13 as the other Brunson defender. The minutes are not that different, overall. And the Pacers play quite aggressive defense on ball handlers, much more so than the Knicks.
Pacers starting lineup:
Siakam: 8 fouls
Haliburton: 7
Nesmith: 13
Turner: 9
Nembhard: 9
Knicks
Brunson: 13
Towns: 12
OG: 10
Hart: 11
Mikal: 5
Or maybe Thibs is a players coach who has the utmost respect for a veteran like Josh, who means everything to this team, and even though he made the decision to move hart to the bench he let Josh tell the press that it was also his decision in order to make him look good to the fans and the press.
Carlisle will try to adjust but can his team do that? Starting Mitch and giving some minutes to Wright and Shamet expands the rotation and takes away one of their key advantages. Hart, OG and Mikal all had an extra pep in their step in the 4th last night.
“Or maybe Thibs is a players coach who has the utmost respect for a veteran like Josh, who means everything to this team, and even though he made the decision to move hart to the bench he let Josh tell the press that it was also his decision in order to make him look good to the fans and the press.”
Lowlife conspiracy theorist.
You’re right. We should all just assume that Thibs, a professional basketball coach who’s won coach of the year multiple times and is currently coaching a team that’s in the ECF is too dumb to make changes to the starting line up when down 0-2 and had to be forced to do it by one of his players.
Swift, you’ve actually hit the nail on the head. One of the things that is so difficult with this team is figuring out the thought processes behind anything that’s going on. Hart’s not starting, plays for KAT, Brunson hero ball, it’s all Schrodinger’s box. The KAT is both alive and dead in there.
Game 4 might answer a little bit of it, at least whether fouls drove the extra bench play or maybe Delon (and Shamet?) are now part of the rotation…?
Edit: I’ll just add to the mix, Thibs two-time coach of the year or too dumb to…
Maybe someone starts worrying about KAT getting his when he fucking shows up as a teammate on defense. Danger will Robinson.
Yeah and maybe Thibs respects Josh so much that he also threw the first two games so the fans would understand better. We didn’t even think of that!
The coach of the year award is not given out for tactical excellence and in-game adjustments, fellas.
Why exactly is it called hamburger helper? How does it help?
The latter! 😂😂😂
I would kill for a profile of Karl called Schrodinger’s KAT…
I’ll see what I can do on this score, Rama.
My favorite text from a neutral friend last night…
“Towns is a unique player, can win or lose any game at any time “
It’s a strange team, no doubt. Just going to enjoy it.
For those who intend to rewatch the 4th quarter , watch Kat on D. Remember, Mitch was out for most of the run with Kat as the main anchor on D. He did an extremely solid job. Good feet, good reads, good contests without fouling (he had 4 or 5 fouls). It highlights he’s not incapable, just not always engaged and focused and trying hard on that end. Didn’t Shaq always say if you want the big dog to guard the house you have to feed him. I bet you most of Kats solid D games in the playoffs happened when he was actively involved on O. All the more reason to run some plays for him early and focus on him getting off first in games, not Brunson.
You really think it impossible that Thibs talked to Josh about not starting and then let him say it was his idea to the press in order to make him look good?
These dudes have huge egos and asking a starter to not start is a big deal. It could easily be a little way for Thibs to pump up his ego a little.
Yes coach of the year is given to coaches who coach teams that win a lot of games. Thibs teams have won a lot of games historically. You win games by getting the most out of your players, which includes making in game, in between game and season long adjustments.
But you know people on this blog think they really know better than a dude who’s coaching a team in the ECF that just knocked off the reigning champs.
GTFOOH.
😂😂😂
Good management 101. Let your employees take credit for good ideas and not you. Makes them feel appreciated. No one likes a boss who acts like all the success is bc of their great leadership
One thing I thought last night is that the Pacers should have taken the ball all the way to the rim i. The fourth quarter, it was open, but they kept kicking it out to the three point line, which was. guarded quite well.
OG was great in defense last night at the end
Swift, you want to say we’re hard on Thibs, go ahead. We are.
But you’re suggesting he conspired with the media to leak his plan about mulling a lineup change a day before he did it, and worked with Josh to concoct a story in which he would lie and say it was his idea, all so Josh wouldn’t be embarrassed by not starting (when Josh is clearly not embarrassed by not starting). And that he’s such a great manager he wanted Josh to get all the credit.
Come on, man. This is not serious.
Well, we’re here to talk about basketball and we are all laypeople, so honestly if we follow this logic nobody should post anything here about anything ever.
Criticize David Fizdale? Sorry, but he was an NBA coach and knows more than all of us. Criticize Phil Jackson? Can’t do that. Phil Jackson knows more about basketball than you, and if he says Joakim Noah is worth a big four year contract, you’re really not in a position to speak out against that.
Why are we even all here? I thought the point was to talk about the team.
It’s also a bizarre logical leap to say that if people criticize Thibs it means they think they’re better than him. We’re just fans watching a game talking about what we see. When people criticize Karl Anthony Towns does that mean they think they’re better basketball players than him? Every time someone calls out KAT’s defense should one of us say “KAT has two blocks in this game, you think you could get more?”
Who wouldn’t want to munch down on silicon dioxide (the stuff that composes 60% of the earth’s crust and is used as an insulator in capacitors and transistors) with every tasty bite!
potato stroganoff and rice oriental were my go-to’s as a youngster…loved that shit..
It is all speculation as to what was said to whom, by whom , when and where.
It isn’t difficult to think with the season going down the toilet there was a discussion of starting Mitch and either Thibs took it to Hart or Hart took it to him and they discussed the impact of the individual players and team and Hart green lighted it.
Or… as Olivia Dukakis said to Cher in Moonstruck: https://youtu.be/5UuVlfwAMDw
I’ve ripped him my fair share, so only fair to note that he was great last night.
Even really talented people have blind spots, sometimes massive ones.
And Swift, in case you missed it, I was funnin’ you by calling you a lowlife conspiracy theorist.
You’re no lowlife! ; )
speaking of og’s dee…the best was when he swatted nesmith’s shot away….and the camera zoomed in and you could see he said “get that weak shit outta here”!
As SVG said in real time (and many said here), the foul called on Bridges on Haliburton with under ten seconds to go was wrong.
Knicks were able to overcome the refs yesterday. It was a rough whistle.
https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport.html?gameId=0042400303
It is a little funny that we were down 20 at the end of the first half and Swift wants us to give Thibs all the credit for it.
Thibs flew extremely close to the sun last night. Didn’t get melted like Icarus, but still has to be said.
It’s kind of funny that you think being down 20 in the first half means anything in today’s NBA. It’s literally 7 possessions.
Do you still think 10 million a year is a big salary for an NBA player?
Thanks Raven!
I just think it’s not beyond the possibility that our coach is letting hart take the credit for going to the bench in order to help him look good. Managers and coaches do that kind of shit all the time.
It’s not that big of a stretch. It also turns something that could be made into a “controversy” by the media into a feel good “look at how much this team sacrifices” story.
yes it is…
I resonated with what Owen said last night — sums up how I’ve felt this season.
This team is capable of anything, for good or for ill. I have no idea what to expect from game to game. Which makes for dizzying highs and soul-crushing lows.
Re: getting KAT the ball, I have a genuine question: have any of you seen a single short roll on the pick & roll all season? That’s one of the first counters I can think of for defenses sagging off the perimeter to collapse on a PNR.
If being down 20 means nothing, why has no other team had as many as two-20 point comebacks in a single postseason in NBA history until this playoff?
I know this is way off-brand, and probably just a way to deepen my suffering, but I have a strange feeling that we’ve turned the corner in this series, will win Game 4, and will ultimately prevail in 7 games.
It’s possible variance has so significantly changed the coaching meta and that Thibs is clock righting into some moments here. My buddy and I were just stupefied by this playoffs last night. Maybe Clock righting is the way to go as parity and variance make all the smart guys as smart as the dumb guys.
Pags,
I hope you are right, but the only thing I know for certain about the future is that it has not happened yet.
Every prediction takes me out of the “here & now” and makes my happiness contingent on future events that I cannot control (and often cannot even influence).
I’m going to enjoy last night’s victory until Game 4, not because of what it might portend, but rather because it happened.
Pags, the shoot slot of threes era of the NBA is only about 10 years old. There are THAT many playoffs since this variance was introduced.
Pepper,
Why do you think it’s a stretch? It’s literally management principal 101 to let your team take credit for achievements and not the boss.
Ephus, I can certainly respect your perspective, but I find it very parsimonious. Is anticipation of pleasure not a considerable portion of the pleasure?
Playing the lottery is dumb from a financial standpoint, but I think there’s something to the idea that you’re buying the fantasy of anticipation. In dreaming up the possibility of what we’d do with all that money, for a moment we experience that feeling. By denying yourself that, are you not the poorer, like I am on 99% of my takes?
Pags being depressingly cheery is downright chilling.
Ephus, I’m just guessing you’re not much of a bettor. (Good for you.)
And Owen and Doug, I’d slightly re-word it to be thus: “Following this team makes me feel more like being a parent of an angry teenager than a fan but love is love is love”
Although I guess “toddler” might work equally well…
Oo Pags you opened a big shitcan of worms there… Carly Simon has clearly taught you well, but it strikes me that from a whole number of angles Ephus’s perspective might be the much healthier one. Equanimity and all that. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve mapped out exactly how I’d spend the money down to the dime, but I’ve probably only bought three lotto tickets in my life, all on a whim. ymmv.
Consider the same emotional dynamic in another arena then. Should we stop ourselves from feeling anticipatory excitement if we’re about to dine on a world class meal? About to bed a beautiful lady (or gentleman, if that’s our thing)? On the cusp of a career achievement towards which we have worked for years?
Anticipation of pleasure is a considerable portion of what makes the world go ’round, is it not?
If we drafted young LeBron or Wemby or Cooper Flagg, ephus, would you really feel nothing at all until they did something great on the court?
Anticipating future pleasure in order to offset present pain is a simple hedonistic strategy advocated by Epicurus. I’d never, ever think Pags could be close to those who advocate pleasure as the goal of life! 😂
Thibs could have found a way to let Hart volunteer to come of the bench by talking about the need to get more minutes for Mitch.
we’re talking about tom thibodeau…do you really think that he’s spending time scheming about how use the press to make sure a change to the starting lineup reflects well on a certain player….i would say the likelihood is slim and none…there is a higher probability that dolan told him to do it…
So, here is a lot of high priced therapy wrapped up in a post.
I used to believe that my talents, intelligence and willingness to work harder than anyone meant that I would achieve success. In fact, I believed that any failure on my part meant that I had failed to bring my best to the endeavor.
When I succeeded, it did not feel good, but rather like the absence of a negative. I had already imagined what success would bring, and the reality rarely lived up to the hype. “Is That All There Is?” By Peggy Lee could have been my theme song.
Another song that meant a lot to me was Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. It’s all about living in misery while imagining a glorious future when “you’ll be happy”, after a plan comes together.
I grew up helping friends run sports books. I also saw some of those friends wiped out by compulsive gambling. By the time I turned 25, I got out of gambling.
Just before I turned 50, my cancer was discovered. The tumor was large and aggressive. If my colon had not burst, the tumor would have metastasized and my chances for survival would have been slim.
Instead, I had emergency exploratory surgery followed by 12 rounds of chemo. I had to change my attitude to find the coping skills to survive.
I have move to be present at all times. The future was uncertain and the end was always near (h/t Jim Morrison).
I found strength and fortitude in my new approach to life. The past cannot be changed. The future is uncertain. There is only now.
Living in the here & now confers a type of immortality.
At the end of the day the decision to start Mitch had very little impact. The best lineup we put on the court was the Brunson-less lineup that we were forced to go to bc he had 5 fouls.
What Thibs deserves major credit for last night was keeping Brunson on the bench until the 1:37 mark. In game 1 he brought 5-foul Jalen back with 5 mins to go. So he learned from his mistake. Bravo. Seriously.
Unfortunately Thibs’ smart decisions in game 3 only underscore how influential his gaffes were in game 1. But that’s in the past. All of us are more than happy to celebrate him doing better last night. We need this man right now and we are all rooting for him to do better, just like all of KAT’s critics are rooting for him to do better.
What is truly important is not who gets credit for starting Mitch. It’s what do we do now with all that we’ve learned. This is two games now where we played our best ball with Brunson on the bench. How will Thibs process that?
Also more important: he wasted his challenge again. It was a terrible call, I know, but that’s never getting overturned and that’s two games now he Bickerstaffed. We were very lucky that didn’t cost us another win.
Also more important: what the fuck is he doing with Mitch’s minutes? The guy’s conditioning is not there yet. Everyone can see it. Even us stupid lay people who never won a coach of the year award. Why is he playing long stretches of consecutive minutes? He was so gassed at the end of the 1Q last night and Indiana saw it and took advantage. He should play in 6-8 spurts, not 12-16 minute spurts. When are we going to make that change?
Maybe we should have drafted Shannon Jr. over Dadiet…
Doris Burke complained TNT is getting all the close games, while so far ESPN has three blowouts to televise.
The only Wolves starters with more than 2 FGAs are Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley and it’s almost halftime?
Seriously? I’ll take the guy who isn’t a 5 year college player who is 5 years younger.
LOL!
And SVG makes me miss Doris, i’d prefer to have Doris than SVG. 😉 RJ and Reggie are the same to me, don’t like them. 😀
I see that Swift has the rose colored glasses on again… so i guess that means our championship hopes are still alive! 🙂
Today is definitely a good day to be a Knicks fan! 🧡💙
(Ephus™️)
“Seriously?”
Not really. At least, not yet! But the kid looks like he might be pretty good!
Donte!
OKC hasn’t been able to , as Captain Tupolev says in The Hunt For Red October, “Shake the man loose!”
I sure hope you have some other stuff you are in to besides for the knicks…TV, music, books, whatever (well except for the politics stuff, too ugly a topic amongst mixed company – which nowadays most likely also includes loved ones, well family members anyways)….
I may have not been paying close enough attention your last go through here – i am tuned in now though ephus 😊
Hell of a game
Those FTs by SGA both hit the net a little too perfectly, his programmer may have over quantized him.
(They read what I just wrote and quickly hit the humanize button!)
Great game low-key messed up at the end with the OKC fouling up 3. I get it, but still wanted to see if the Timberpups could tie it
Ant with 16 pts and Randle with 5 pts is pretty pathetic in a basically must win game at home.
Ant had 2 shots attempts at halftime..
LOL Donnie.
Thunder are not my cup of tea.
I absolutely hate that games like that end with intentional fouls and intentional missed free throws, instead of actual basketball plays and shots at the basket from the field, made or missed.
I’m telling you guys, in the year 2125 they’re going to look at old basketball videos and marvel that we used to play on a clock.
I honestly don’t know what rule change the NBA could implement, but the game really suffers when teams intentionally foul up 3 points.
Just ruins the endings of games.
Hand out a tech
So its 3 three throws total anyways
Semis have been engaging
I’m inclined to agree but I also don’t really want refs interpreting intent. (Was the foul intentional or in the run of play? It generally seems really obvious, but idk)
Or we could play to a target score and remove the entire motivation for one team trying to stop the other from playing basketball because there’s a clock that’s about to expire.
Geo…. I don’t understand why you think rational people can’t have a rational discussion about politics today. My wife is an ultra liberal CUNY finance professor and I am…. well, not. We get along smashingly.
It is hard to imagine more competitive basketball. Not classic basketball from an esthetic point of view but 4 of the last 5 decided in the last 10 seconds.
Agreed, but in the moment of time the refs should be able to tell what’s going on. OKC was not going to let Minny attempt a 3 to tie. When it’s obvious like that a tech should be handed out.
Sure, the Wolves and Knicks have a nice narrative, what with the trade and all. But the Pacers and Thunder have some history too. Aside from both acquiring their current stars via the contract of Paul George, both Derrick McKey and Detlef Schrempf are still alive today to give live, on-air testimony to one of the great win-win trades of 1993. That should he good for at least 10 seconds of pregame hype.
sadly bob, it is no longer truly about politics, it’s more an identity and idealogy thing…
how do you even explain to someone their identity or idealogy is askew…
people do not want to hear that, they will fight you tooth and nail if you challenge who they are…
kind of like sex and religion, politics is a touchy very personal subject…
plus it detracts from our shared love of the knicks, food, tv, music, books, travel and of course – each and every opportunity to talk about the weather…
also it’s not like anyone can really change anyone else’s mind about that sort of stuff…
so really, what’s the use of going in endless circles on arguments that will never get resolved…
we already have the knicks for that…