This falls on the HC and the vet leaders. Thibs needs to somehow get these guys ready to play from the start of the game and the 3rd quarter. We're too lackadaisical out there. First play of the game RJ throws a lazy pass that results in a turnover. First few minutes we did not close out good enough and allowed Allen, Portis and Ojeleye wide open threes. That set the tone. We left Connaughton on an island by himself wide open all game too! Like how much more do we need to get killed from three before we make an adjustment? Why are we continuing to leave these shooters to help? Especially when Giannis is having a subpar game! Why are we helping?! So I did not like the gameplan last night at all.

And the vets need to get it together. We did not sign Kemba and Fournier to shoot 2/13, 0/6 from three and 4 points. If these guys are not going to defend, they need to score. Simple as that. And Randle needs to do a more consistent job of playmaking. He's been too 'Melo' in some games trying to do everything himself (1 assist last night). His effort and motor on defense also needs to be more consistent. He's taking plays off which he did not do much last season.

Kudos to the bench. It's our biggest strength. Defense was supposed to be the other but we are not defending like we did last season. It cannot be that adding Kemba and Fournier dropped us from the best defense in the league to the bottom of the league. It doesn't work that way. Defense is mostly a team effort. This team this season is just not defending as hard as they did for whatever reason. We are not closing out and defending the three and we are not attacking the glass. We have a great HC in Thibs who I'm confident will try his best to fix this but the players need to step up. Especially Randle (it starts with him).

SergioNYK wrote:I'll keep posting it until it changes - these home losses where we are allowing teams to outwork us and outhustle us needs to stop! I can take losses if they happen because the other team is simply better. And I'm not saying we are better than the defending Champs, even though they were missing some guys. They still have the best player in the league and the best defensive guard in the league and were looking for revenge. We knew they would be ready. Yet for some reason, we couldn't match their energy or effort. Getting outrebounded by 12 and allowing 26/50 threes is simply unacceptable!

This falls on the HC and the vet leaders. Thibs needs to somehow get these guys ready to play from the start of the game and the 3rd quarter. We're too lackadaisical out there. First play of the game RJ throws a lazy pass that results in a turnover. First few minutes we did not close out good enough and allowed Allen, Portis and Ojeleye wide open threes. That set the tone. We left Connaughton on an island by himself wide open all game too! Like how much more do we need to get killed from three before we make an adjustment? Why are we continuing to leave these shooters to help? Especially when Giannis is having a subpar game! Why are we helping?! So I did not like the gameplan last night at all.

And the vets need to get it together. We did not sign Kemba and Fournier to shoot 2/13, 0/6 from three and 4 points. If these guys are not going to defend, they need to score. Simple as that. And Randle needs to do a more consistent job of playmaking. He's been too 'Melo' in some games trying to do everything himself (1 assist last night). His effort and motor on defense also needs to be more consistent. He's taking plays off which he did not do much last season.

Kudos to the bench. It's our biggest strength. Defense was supposed to be the other but we are not defending like we did last season. It cannot be that adding Kemba and Fournier dropped us from the best defense in the league to the bottom of the league. It doesn't work that way. Defense is mostly a team effort. This team this season is just not defending as hard as they did for whatever reason. We are not closing out and defending the three and we are not attacking the glass. We have a great HC in Thibs who I'm confident will try his best to fix this but the players need to step up. Especially Randle (it starts with him).

Uptown wrote:

Chandler wrote:Some perspective

Bucks are a good team and had to shoot lights out to win

Knicks have great depth and coaching

Biggest issue at the moment IMO is starting unit is not stopping dribble penetration. At the moment KW and EF are not hitting shots so the subpar defense is all the more of an issue

Connaughton, Brown, Rubio, OG, Trent....Shooting the lights out is becoming a trend against us.

the interesting thing on this list is that none of these guys are the primary offense -- Brown is the closest but still 1B to Tatum's 1A

so we're doing a good job of taking away the primary threat (very Belicheck-ean) but getting burned by these other guys. AND to be fair those guys still have to hit those shots. COnnaughton and Rubio probably had their career best against us.

Nalod wrote:does NYmentality only come out as pregame hype man then retreat into darkness until he starts a new cycle of meds??

Better question is if he and BRIGGS take the same meds