Hey! Yeah, you.
Stop looking at that car wreck and listen for a minute.
Remember that really bad 1-11 stretch that followed the Knicks’ 22-22 record. The one that’s sort of still sliding off the edge of a cliff? I said stop looking over there. Look right at me.
The “1” in the “1-11” was a victory against the Phoenix Suns. You know who we’re playing tonight? Thaaaaaat’s right. The Phoenix Suns. Melo was near a triple-double and Afflalo scored 17. Langston Galloway started in place of Calderon and put up 11-7-5 with 2 threes, 3 steals, and a block. Derrick Williams did some Derrick Williams things off the bench and everyone played solid basketball. Kristaps Porzingis even played relatively shitty basketball and it didn’t matter. The Suns just aren’t very good, although they have some young talent, and even this putrid bunch of Knicks had little trouble doing them in.
Now, about that car wreck. In addition to the awful Suns, the Knicks have managed to beat the awful Timberwolves, the awful Orlando Magic, and the up-and-down Pistons in an extended 4-20 stretch, leading into tonight’s game. The car wreck in question is pretty bad. It seems like our vehicle is totaled. No insurance is going to cover the entire bill. The driver of the car is something like Mr. Magoo and he’s still got his license somehow.
As I look at the road ahead, the Knicks play 17 more games. I count about 4 that I think are winnable, given the current state of affairs. Tonight’s game against the Suns is one of those games. The upcoming game against the Lakers is another. I’ve plucked out games against the Nets and the Sixers as the other pair. The truth is, all of those games are losable too. No one would be surprised. No one would be surprised if the team went 0-17 to close the season, frankly. I’m still counting on those 4 wins to get the club to 30 wins, just for the hell of it. I had the team as a 35 win club in the pre-season, so 30 will make me feel less despondent…which is something very different from satisfied or elated. To get to my magical turd of 35 wins, the team would need more than those 4 wins. The Knicks would have to close the season 9-8, which would certainly feel pretty good, all things considered and lift a few dreary spirits before putting this debacle to bed. I don’t know where 5 extra wins can be found in the remaining games. It seems “undoable” when you start to look at who’s coming up. There are a few Hornets and Pacers and Wizards and Pelicans and Kings to be bagged, but it’s best not to get your hopes up.
I have some other post-mortem type thoughts on the season to share, but they’ll wait for another time. This is a game thread for our winnable tilt against the Suns. A win would make me feel better. I think I really need a big Porzingis game to run deep enough to make me feel again, though. I need 30 minutes of 20 point, 11 rebound, 5 block action from The Future….please. There’s no chance he’ll top 25 minutes though, so he’d better start quick.
Be good to each other Knickerbuddies. We’re all in this together. Keep it positive. Go Knicks.
Which button do we press to simulate the rest of the season?
You press the one that says, “PANIC.”
The easiest thing to simulate would be Melo’s total minutes:
17 games x 40 minutes a game= 680 minutes
(of course, all bets are off if there are any OT games, then that number could jump considerably)
“Kurt, his knee is popped out of his skin!! Give him a rest! Please!!”
Sasha is starting tonight. Told y’all to buckle up
Fire Isiah!
FUCK SCOTT LAYDEN
If the Knicks weren’t my team I’d be hysterical at the level of incompetence. Just think about this. The Knicks have 2 guards that need development (Galloway and Grant). At a minimum, Galloway is already better than Sasha. Arguably, Grant is close to as good. So if you are putting your own interests (trying to win games and secure the head coaching job) ahead of the long term good of the team (which is to develop the young players), you should be playing Galloway over Sasha. Rambis is so incompetent he doesn’t even know that Galloway is better than Sasha let alone recognize that it would really nice to play Galloway, Grant, and KP together thinking about the long term.
Hey, give Kurt a break, he’s just trying to catch lightning in a bottle by starting Sasha, you never know when he might have a breakout performance after 1000 games in the NBA.
Sasha is starting-and this is 135% 4realz- because of his “harassing defense”
Ironically that is also why the Knicks refused to fire Isiah
This comment provided me with more enjoyment than this game is likely to
This is hilarious.
Holy shit the suns are bad
No, we’re just that good
Put Sasha back in!
Sasha has been the difference. Heart of the team!!!
Anthony Substitution replaced by Vujacic
Jeez, I was joking about putting Sasha back in
Looks like Melo is in his usual end of season hot streak
Sahsa “Buckets” Vujacic
Good thing you’re not the coach dumbass
Rambis is a genius, this will be the game that catapults him into the coaching stratosphere
No one else would have had the “courage” or “foresight” to start Sasha.
One day I will tell my grandchildren that I was there, on my couch drinking cheep beer and making snarky comments on the internet when Sasha Vujacic changed history
Winning this game would have the added bonus of keeping the Suns ahead of the Nets in the draft lottery.
After this game they should relegate the Suns and call ASU or Arizona up to the NBA
Hey NBA GM’s are you watching this Melo dude? Could put you over the top, just give us a few young players and 1st round picks.
Rambis is totally playing Melo 40 minutes tonight.
“Only time Melo rides the pine is at the Hooper Ranch on a 6-year-old retired thoroughbred named Pine.”
-Kurt Rambis, Coach Impersonator
There’s like 800 people watching this
Fuck that garbage paint clogging goon Tyson Chandler
Not the desert any more cause the Knicks making it rain
Mario Chalmers was wheeled off the court (with a boot on his foot) in Boston tonight. He had 11, 5, and 5 in 22 minutes, and of course Boston finds a way to injure him. I was really hoping we could sign him for $8 million AAV, but if that’s bad, he’s going to lose millions of dollars.
Well, it was a non contact injury, which is even worse. Dammit. And here I was hoping for a Chalmers/Batum free agency.
March 9th, 2016 – the beginning of Sash-sanity and the Knicks furious push to grab the 11th seed in the East
You guys make being a Knicks fan bearable. I managed to talk myself to going to the local bar establishment for the second half rather than go to bed. Watch me swing this game Phoenix’s direction.
No internet nerd is more powerful than the machine
Oh my
How the hell did the Suns win 17 games this season?
I don’t think the suns have a game 1 starter left
I think we should play the Suns more.
This might be the worst NBA team I’ve ever seen in my life
They should play the Westchester Knicks. That would be a more entertaining matchup.
Sasha better watch hisself – might get called out by some folks when he gets offered a “ridiculous” contract in the offseason (and by that I mean any contract at all).
Probably the same way we won 17 last year. Sheer dumb luck.
Booker looks like a find though. Suns definitely made a mistake trading Thomas and not pairing the two.
Recap is up. WHEEEEEE!!!!!