From Stefan Bondy, who is now covering the Knicks for the Post after the Daily News let him go:
An old enemy in new digs punished the Knicks on opening night.
Kristaps Porzingis went from booed during introductions to being cursed in a chant to taking over down the stretch of Boston’s 108-104 comeback victory Wednesday night.
The Latvian dropped 30 points against his former team, including nine in the final 2 ¹/₂ minutes as the Knicks’ offense went ice cold.
Porzingis added four blocks and expertly guarded the paint against the Knicks (0-1), who managed just three total points after holding a 101-95 advantage with 3:39 minutes remaining.
With two minutes left, Porzingis was given a technical for elbowing Isaiah Hartenstein under the basket.
It prompted the MSG crowd, still bitter over the 7-foot-3 center demanding a trade in 2019, to break out a “F— Porzingis” chant.
The former Knicks All-Star responded with two clutch free throws and a 3-pointer on the following possession.
The sequence swung the momentum for good.
It was an ugly night for Julius Randle, in particular, who has stated a season goal of becoming more efficient.
In Game 1, the power forward missed 17 of his 22 shots, including a few gimmes under the basket. Randle had just 14 points in 32 minutes in his first game since undergoing minor ankle surgery in the offseason.
Jalen Brunson wasn’t much better while shooting 6-for-21 with 15 points and six assists.
The Knicks were led by Immanuel Quickley, who, two nights after failing to agree to a contract extension, dropped 24 points on 7 of 11 shooting.
His shooting carried the Knicks in the beginning of the fourth quarter, when the home team rode a 13-2 run to take its first lead of the contest.
The Knicks couldn’t hold onto it. Mostly because of Porzingis and their own missed shots.
Eh, whatever, they still crashed the boards and played tough defense. Randle and Brunson are unlikely to play as poorly as this going forward (well, Brunson, at least, is unlikely to play this poorly going forward), so they’ll likely still win a bunch of games this year. I’m still cool with 53 wins as a guess!
Now, if Randle continues to play like this…that won’t be good.
105 replies on “NY Post: Kristaps Porzingis’ late heroics sink Knicks in crushing opening-night loss”
I didn’t see the second half, but from watching the first half, I felt like we had match up problems against the Celtics. Mitch had to guard Porzingis on the outside and that left Randle as our other big and he is not a rim protector by nature. We had no blocks in the game. Whereas Boston could play Porzingis and Horford together or even Kornet with one of them, which gave them a really good inside defense. That, combined with our poor shooting in the first quarter really did us in.
HEY – WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYONE!!!
i miss räz…they were a cool nerd…
oh yeah – the game…jalen didn’t look great, or good…julius looked sleepy…
quik though – he might’ve hit another gear…wow…this could be fun to watch…his confidence is through the roof right now…
as far as RJ goes – just have one good season – give us all hope that we can improve ourselves as dramatically as he needs to…
one game…my hopes are that much like ihart deferred early in the season, DDV will work things out as the year progresses…
the celts just have better players…they have four players making 30 million plus…2 of those nearly double that…
still and all – they had to play a pretty darn good game to beat us…ugh, we shot crazy bad from the line and within the arc…
Although i think we have to get better at a lot of things, we only lost by 4 pts, easily a good call on the Brunson flopping that was in reality a foul on a 3PA could’ve made it even. IF the FTs went in, which was a big IF last night. If we made 70% of our FTs we’d also take it to OT. And all this with Brunson and Randle playing bad, i don’t think they’ll combine to play bad on the same game a lot of times. It’s just one game, went their way, let’s try to win the next.
And maybe it was for the best… 😀
Brian, can you stop the Morning News thread today? It’d be nice to keep discussing the game here.
When your two best players shit the bed this bad and you shoot free throws blindfolded, you must be happy that you nearly win the game.
Well I’m not.
Because I hate going to bed at 4 AM after a close loss (adrenaline denied me a peaceful sleep, I was still awake at 5:30 AM) and because we were outscored 13-3 in the last 3:39, a 6-points lead become a 4-game loss.
Anyway, the Celtics are contenders, one of the worst team we could have drawn for a season opener, and we went toe to toe with them.
I can’t be too sad (except for the sleep 🙂 )
Thoughts:
– Positive sign: It was a very physical game, the effort was there and our defense was above (our) average, sometimes brilliant.
And we did never quit, no matter how bad we shot. Some things never change.
– First date in IQ’s “you gotta pay me a lot” Tour.
He had bad starts in the last two years, so it’s a nice sign and I can’t care less if he’ll cost a boatload next july.
– Boston’s top-6 are frightfully scary (they all play both sides of the ball), the rest of the bench is meh. Our bench is better and we even sit three guys (Evian, Jericho and Deuce) who could be useful.
Bench depth is nothing if you don’t use it.
– Let’s keep a tradition alive: fuck the refs.
Why didn’t they call a flagrant foul when Tatum slide over JB’s landing zone? It was a little turning point, next play IQ did foul Tatum and JB got a technical foul.
– Raise your hands if you think that 15 minutes of Obi could have been more useful than 15 minutes of DDV.
No Strat, one’s enough, you don’t need to raise both 😉
(It should have been) Play Of The Game:
4th 4:29 Jaylen Brown bad pass (Immanuel Quickley steals) BOS 93 NY 96
4th 4:10 Quentin Grimes makes 23-foot three point jumper (Isaiah Hartenstein assists) BOS 93 NY 99
4th 4:10 Jaylen Brown shooting foul
4th 4:10 Celtics Full timeout
4th 4:10 Quentin Grimes misses free throw 1 of 1
IQ got the two Jays napping with a fantastic steal, the sequence made the MSG explode and Mazzulla is notoriously bad with timeout but this time he was lucky and “iced” Grimes like an NFL kicker.
Including Grimes’ one we went 1-4 from the line in the last 4:10.
The Celtics? 10-10 (KP 6-6).
Stats Of The Game:
– NY 14-26 (.538) BOS 22-26 (.846)
Same number of FTs, one team shot well the other shot blanks. Guess who won?
– 18-56 (.321). Knicks’ shooting percentage.
No, not from 3, from 2…
– 18-7. Boston’s lead on fastbreak points.
Timing is bad, spacing is bad, decisions are bad, we’re still the worst, and most unwatchable, transition team in the league (I miss you Obi).
Do they never practice it?
Grades:
Brunson D
Holiday’s a pitbull but 6-21 is bad, missing a crucial tech FT is very bad and too many of his shots were of the “no-pass” variety.
Randle D
I start with the positives: solid defensive effort and good complementarty numbers (11 REBs, 7 AST and no TOs).
But 5-22 is ugly, 0-8 in the restricted area is awful and 1-5 FTs is unacceptable.
Barrett B+-
He was our offense in the first and his trademark “RJ’s minute” (7 points in 66 seconds to start the 4th) ignited our comeback.
Not a strong shooting night (8-20) but he went to the line and did well (6-7) and was very present on defense.
Chalk one to “good RJ” and hope he keeps it going.
Grimes B-
Had his hands full with Tatum, shot well but as usual not enough.
I’ll give him a target: to become an 85% free throw shooter (he did improve by more than 10% last year).
Robinson B-
Speaking of FTs… sigh
He gave us second chances but was in foul troubles all night and honestly KP is the kind of player he suffers.
Quickley A
Great numbers (24 with 7-11 FG, 5-7 3FG, 5-6 FT, 6 Reb, 4 AST), strong effort. If this are the results I hope he’ll play all season wuth a (dollars) monkey on his back.
Hart B-
The usual energy, too many passed shots for my taste and not enough attacking the rim (he shot only threes).
Hartenstein B
Nothing new: 7 points, 5 ORebs (8 totals) and always ready to fight.
DDV C-
I like him but… We got him for defense and shooting, yesterday one of these things was missing and his minutes shrinked. The question is simple: do we really need him? Time will tell.
Thibs C
I hate when a lineup has momentum and he changes one or more players. The “bench mob plus RJ configuration” was doing very well, he put Randle and Brunson back in.
He started the year with a 9-men rotation, but his stars betrayed him and there’s not much you can do if you’re not ready to bench them during a bad game.
Thanks, Max, don’t disagree with any of that, well done. Only additions I’d make are that Randle seemed out of sorts. Hard team to play against for all kinds of reasons, but he was slow to loose balls, for example. Needs to dial back the meds a bit. It’s early.
Is 20 shots for 24 points good?
Grimes tried but was just too short on Tatum, who was like the Angel of Death out there. Glad Q didn’t get more shots.
Honestly it felt like we should have lost that game by 25 or more. So I guess that’s a win of sorts.
@Raven
Yeah, to me Randle did look “more controlled” than usual and like if he was afraid to fumble (officially he had 0 TOs but I remember at least one, it’s possible he regained possession and offset it).
Could it be yoga or meds or post ankle surgery?
Re: Barrett
Yes, when “star1” score 14 on 22 shots and “star2” 15 on 21 shots 😉
P.S.
The grade for Barrett is “B+” not an undecided “B+-“.
Copy&Paste from Word often makes me look dumb(er)… 😀
Fair enough, Max! I did find that Barrett scored relatively low on the “wince” measure last night, which some have argued is scientifically questionable but I still find it the most appropriate measure for gauging his play.
Agree Raven, I went berserk when he let KP steal and score on a rebound already in his hands but (with the scientifically questionable caveat) I think he was under par in “expected dumbness” for the game.
I still don’t get why Mitch wasn’t put back into the game to close it out. In the last 2:42 of the game, the Celtics recovered the defensive rebound five times, plus one offensive rebound. The Knicks didn’t get a single rebound during this point in the game until iHart got an offensive rebound with 18 seconds left and the game mostly out of the Knicks’ control.
Maybe Free Throws Fear?
(Not that I-Hart is so much better, but he’s a bit better)
Was at the game, MSG was rockin’, crowd was awesome, a few Celts fans but not too many.
I had the first turnover of the night…dropped a nearly full 26-oz can of Goose Island IPA. Our seating area had a sticky fraternity party floor ambiance for the rest of the game. Then later, knocked over another one!
It was apparent right from the start that the Knicks were tight. You could just feel it. Terrible games for Brunson, Mitch and Julius. No excuse. The missed Julius layup and the misses on several point blank putbacks (seemed like a goaltend on the third one), the missed FTs (1-8 between them) were incredibly deflating.
RJ’s stats were so-so on the night but tell you what…of the starters, he singlehandedly kept us in the game in the first half. He was the only one who didn’t look tight.
KP was phenomenal…never looked rattled despite the booing and jeers. If he stays and plays like that, pencil the Celts in for a finals trip. But he won’t, right? Right?!
IQ had a sensational game. No two ways about it.
Grimes came alive a bit, but we need more from him. His missed FT on the 4-pt play opportunity made me want to dump another beer!
iHart commits a lot of dumb, hand-sy reach fouls. He and Mitch really hurt us, especially Mitch, who was a total non-factor.
The ‘Nova connection was pretty mediocre. Josh Hart hit two huge 3’s but beyond that they were largely either invisible or visibly bad.
Thibs actually coached a good game, I liked his sub pattern and considering how badly we shot it was pretty awesome to be a Grimes FT away from a 7-point lead after losing for most of the game. Alas, he can’t coach guys into making layups and wide-open shots or hitting FTs. This loss was on the players, not the coach.
The Celtics’ bench beyond Horford was horrific. They are one significant injury to any of the top-6 away from having serious depth issues.
All in all, a not horrible opening night loss as they go. We certainly looked like we could compete with anyone if Brunson and Randle show up.
One last comment before work overwhelms me — lots of commentary earlier about how IQ should start, which I will not argue against, but it seemed there was a lot of court time for the IQ-Brunson pairing despite IQ not starting, and it felt like things worked really well during those stretches (which might have just been IQ playing great…).
Trae and DeJounte were a combined 7-33 last night in a loss to CHA. Jalen Johnson had a big night tho…
Obi started and played well stats-wise but only played 19 minutes…anyone know why?
@Max, thanks for the cap. A pleasure to read as always. I’ve missed them.
@Raven, noticed the IQ and Brunson tandem also. I think/hope this will happen a lot, and the results for IQ will be similar to last night’s.
I also think this is the year IQ becomes a superstar but I say that every year 😉
Thanks Max, for the TV recap, and Z-Man for the “i was there” recap. 😉 Somehow reading this “18-56 (.321). Knicks’ shooting percentage. No, not from 3, from 2…” feels even worse than watching it. And yeah, i forgot about Mitch, he also played bad and if i see him practicing 3P again i’m going to get mad. Practice your FTs, young fellow.
Can you believe i had to scroll up to check if it was still there? Because i didn’t even noticed it reading the first time.
Celtics should be the best defensive team in the NBA, their Top 6 all can defend with a few of them doing so at an elite level. Jrue really is an incredible, versatile defender.
You should’ve taken a selfie with Queta to send me, Z-Man! 🤭 😛 😉
I have to say that every game i’m expecting a “RJ Barrett blocked by _____”, but i sure wasn’t expecting a “Mitchell Robinson blocked by ____”. :O It was KP both times.
Katz had a good line in his story this morning:
“But that brings us to the rest of the game, which got so ugly that it got bullied in middle school.”
https://theathletic.com/5001500/2023/10/26/knicks-celtics-finish-paint-loss/
(I know, I know, get back to work…)
lol cyber, wish I was sober enough to think of it!!
LOL 😉
Mazzulla’s rotations were insane. He seriously had a lineup of Pritchard/Tatum/Houser/Horford/KP in the fourth when the Knicks went on their big run. You simply have to stagger things so that Derrick White or Jrue Holiday are on the court at all times.
RJ did a lot of really dumb stuff. He absolutely filled his quota for the night. But the minute he had in the fourth quarter more than made up for it.
KP really looked fantastic, like the fully realized version of what people fantasized about him being. It make take as long for Wemby but KP is there and as oft mentioned, for the rest of his career health and durability are the only question marks. He had a vibe about him last night that was low key terrifying considering he could be in Boston a long time.
Tatum was lethal last night but I have to say, it really felt like a night where he was both lucky and good. He hit a lot of tough shots that he always seems to miss in the playoffs.
I agree on Mitch. Wasn’t a good night for him. And I love IHart but he does some dumb stuff.
Still, not unsatisfied with the night. We competed all the way and there was a real 90’s Knicks grit and determination in evidence. Garden was rocking too.
Need to hear Clyde though, worst part of the offseason is being without him.
Did not watch the game, have not watched the highlights.
I’m glad we lost in a way because I have trauma from 2 years ago when we won that thrilling opener against The Celtics only for the season to end up sucking.
It’s going to be rare for both Brunson and Randle to both be that off and for us to shoot that poorly from the line. And Boston is a great team, so can’t be too mad.
However, I do think we might need to be a little patient with Randle. He sat out most of the summer with the ankle recovery, so his timing and shot might be a little off while he shakes off the rust.
I am (slightly) concerned about Brunson holding up this season. He played the most minutes ever in his career last season and played in the world games this summer. Dude is a tough player but I’m worried a little about him getting worn down. Or it could just be that he went up against Jrue Holiday.
Anyways, hopefully we take care of business these next few games. Never want to get too down barely losing to a title contender but the games come quick in the NBA and none of the teams are easy wins.
The Celtics are a tough matchup for anyone, but they are an especially tough one for us. They have two excellent defensive guards. Jrue Holiday is a pest no matter who he’s guarding. Tatum is tall and long where we are undersized. KP can bomb 3s and drag Mitch out where he’s less comfortable and away from the rim helping. The game was a lot closer than I thought it would be. My only real complaint about yesterday was the FTs. There are no excuses or match up issues to explain away missed clutch FTs.
Recently he was Ntilakilla and Barrettcuda, right? Yeah, i think he’s been away since when the blog changed and we all had to register again. Maybe he’s here with a different moniker. 😛
I didn’t verify this, but it’s probably right.
We hardly shot any threes at the beginning of the game and it looked like we were going to get run out of the building. Once we stopped forcing everything inside we started to look okay. Until the last three minutes of course.
Let’s also remember that KP often comes out in October and November looking like somebody fused Larry Bird and Kareem, but that he’s not always great at maintaining that level of play.
couple observations:
1. minutes distributions looked normalish… but there are going to be plenty of nights where someone is going to get donte’ed…. and that could be donte for awhile especially during this tough early stretch of the season where thibs is afraid to get out of his comfort zone…. but it will likely hit everyone not named brunson for long stretches….
2. the offense looked exactly the same… no surprise but was hoping for some actual new wrinkles because that’s sort of the benefit of returning the same guys every year…. but old dogs i guess… does not bode well for the offense or the year….
KP has filled out since he played for the Knicks and just doesn’t look as frail as he used to. I don’t think of him as injury prone any more.
I also noticed IQ and Brunson seemed to share the floor for longer stretches than usual. Looks like they got 13 minutes together last night.
Last year they got 973 total minutes together, and as has been noted here before they were extremely effective minutes (120 ORtg, 111.5 DRtg).
It won’t be easy as long as Quickley isn’t starting, but making it a priority to at least see if they can replicate that production over ~1,200 minutes to so strikes me as a fairly obvious plan. Tom Thibodeau knows more about NBA coaching than me, but “let your best players share the court more often” seems like low-ish hanging fruit.
One other interesting line from Katz:
“Barrett made various passes throughout the game — a dump-off here, a kick out there — that he admits he could not have made at this time last year, continuing his improved play that began during this past spring’s playoff run.”
The part I find fascinating is “he admits he could not have made.” I always attributed it to “he would not have made.” I guess he’s beginning to expand his normal tunnel vision? It’s an odd thing to admit you can’t make passes…
Me too DJ (more Julius pick’n pop, more plays through I-Hart, more double screens for Grimes or at least, blasphemy… better 2-1 and 3-2 fastbreaks).
At least until the preseason started and we looked exactly like last year, save for maybe one or two plays a game (I remember 2 backdoors, one for DDV and 1 for RJ, and 1 double screen to free Grimes in the 3 games I watched).
Edit: You know you need more sleep when you read your post as “new ones” as if someone else wrote it… 🙂
I don’t think you can say this is a game we absolutely should have won (say we make a few more FTs maybe the Celtics play differently) and Boston didn’t shoot all that well from 3, but it’s a game we probably should have won.
On the plus side, we hammered the Celtics on the offensive boards and we didn’t turn the ball over against a tough defense. The FTs were a problem, on both ends and as usual we couldn’t shoot. Granted that’s basically Brunson and Randle, but it was our problem last year too.
in league news the Bulls having a players only meeting after the first game of the season is probably not a great sign.
Wemby looked better than I expected. Sloppy with the ball a bit but he didn’t try to force anything on offense like I figured a kid with his experience would and he’s just insanely long and everywhere on defense.
I’m guessing that the Celtics playing Porzingis 38 minutes per night is not going to be sustainable.
We need to give DDV a bit more time before passing judgement. It was just one game, and he’s the only new guy in the rotation. Having said that, his style of play last night reminded me of myself as a rec leaguer. Lots of hustle, decent D and rebounds well for his size, but a near non-factor on offense.
🙂
OKC beat the Bulls easily and got some good contributions from newly emerging young players: Ousmane Dieng shot 3-5 from 3pt as a stretch four off the bench and rookie Cason Wallace had 13 points on 5 FGA. Vasilije Micic, another player who I find intriguing, got a DNP-CD.
That Bulls team is in the familiar “sucks but doesn’t suck bad enough” liminal space that we’re all so accustomed to around here.
If it gets ugly in Chicago, and it looks like it very well might, the Knickerblogger ceasefire in the LaVine Trade Wars will come to an abrupt end.
count me in on the “offense looked the same…no new wrinkles”…but thibs seems like the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” type and probably thinks it ain’t broke…
I can’t imagine a more difficult opening night game than this one in terms of pressure….playing maybe the best team in the NBA (definitely the best in the EC) when healthy and rested when they actually are healthy and rested, and playing on your home court where you should be expected to win, coming off a playoff run…expectations breed nerves, and you could just sense that Brunson and Randle were overhyped and never really got comfortable out there. OTOH the Celts’ played free and easy, and KP lit the Garden up, while Tatum just did his normal thing.
And now on to Atlanta, where we face a good team at home coming off a bad loss…it’s pretty rare that Brunson has two stinkers in a row, yet that will also be a very tough test. But they are probably steaming at pissing away that lead last night. I am feeling pretty good about our chances.
And even if we start off the season poorly, like 3-7 or something, there were a lot of good signs last night. I think that once this team gets firing on all cylinders, they can run off some long winning streaks against the 25 or so non-contenders.
“If it gets ugly in Chicago, and it looks like it very well might, the Knickerblogger ceasefire in the LaVine Trade Wars will come to an abrupt end.”
We can argue about it all we want, but Leon is not going to trade for Zach LaVine. But I guess arguing about highly improbable events is a big part of what we do here.
I don’t think Fred Katz was lying when he said Leon Rose contacted the Bulls about Zach LaVine last season, but okay.
Z-Man – You asked about Obi. I watched a lot of the Indiana game last night, I don’t have ESPN so I had to wait until this morning to watch the Knicks. The Indiana game was a blowout so the starters never went back in during the 4th quarter. That combined with I think what will be a fairly even minutes split with Nesmith meant low minutes for Obi. He actually looked pretty good on defense, pretty active. Indiana is super fun their pace was unrelenting. They are super deep and ran on every play. I think they are making the play in and probably top 8.
I’m proud of our team. We played hard and simply couldn’t overcome a bad 1st quarter and missed FTs. I think Brunson will be fine and am super excited about IQ’s play and optimistic about RJ’s.
My only worries moving forward are Randle who I have never had a ton of faith in and DDV’s shooting. If DDV’s shooting is closer to Hart or RJ than Grimes or IQ he will not be a great signing. He needs to be one of our better shooters for him to have any real value.
Overall, tough game against a great team we made it a game and probably should have won.
I was beating the drum as much as anybody last night about passing up 3pters but in the end the Knicks wound up shooting 18 for 41 from 3pt range. That’s not exactly the same old Knicks offense, if they shoot close to that many per game that would be great although they did attempt 35 per game last season which was 8th in the NBA.
Overall we played well last night, we just didn’t win. Boston is probably going to be very good as long as they’re healthy.
“I don’t think Fred Katz was lying when he said Leon Rose contacted the Bulls about Zach LaVine last season, but okay.”
Yeah, I guess that proves that a trade is imminent.
Seriously, what do folks think Leon and his team do on a typical work day? How much of the outreach they engage in is reported by Katz?
My guess is that there is continual contact with opposing teams and ongoing discussions about dozens and dozens of players. Most of the conversations lead absolutely nowhere. So if Leon or a proxy reaches out and says, “Hey, I hear you want to trade Zach, is Fournier, Obi and a protected first enough?” that is enough to make Katz’s statement true. It doesn’t mean that actually trading for LaVine is a realistic possibility…especially since the reporting was, you know, from last year.
I have no idea what the Bulls are doing, but it makes no sense to me. They built a team that looked pretty good when they had Lonzo Ball running the offense and defending at a high level. Once he went down it was obvious they weren’t good enough to contend for anything significant. Once his injury turned out to be more problematical than hoped, they should have just blown it up while some of the veterans on the team still had maximum value. Now they are getting older and losing value. I can’t see why they can’t see that.
Thanks, Ben. Obviously WAS might be the worst team in the NBA so it’s not a great measuring stick but I agree that they will be very uptempo and lots of fun to watch. Obi has a lot of competition on that team…both from traditional PF types and small-ball versions. But he is starting, which is a plus, and seems like it’s his job to lose for the time being.
The Wizards have an “ok” offense. They will probably have the worst defense in the league. That’s not going to net out to a lot of wins, but they’ll probably outscore some teams some nights.
lavine is represented by klutch… and klutch and caa have had a blood feud since forever…. might as well be the jets and the sharks… there are other agencies where we have never had any players represented by them too…
we should absolutely entertain the idea… but in reality it’s never happening…. not because lavine isn’t good enough… but because our former agent turned basketball boss has baggage….
He looks swole every fall. Remember he has exercise-induced anemia, so the more he plays the more frail he gets. It’s unfortunate, and I would probably feel empathy for him if he wasn’t a Celtic and a rapist.
You said:
This is, as a definitive statement, obviously false. Leon Rose was interested in trading for Zach LaVine. Leon Rose would’ve traded for Zach LaVine, had the price been lower when he inquired about trading for Zach LaVine.
If what you meant was “I don’t think Leon Rose will trade for Zach LaVine because he will again deem the price to be too high,” you could’ve just said that and I wouldn’t have responded, because I agree.
But you don’t get to say something so definitively and then reach for the fainting couch when it’s pointed out that you’re obviously wrong.
Since, again, we know Leon Rose was in fact interested in trading for Zach LaVine recently, it seems to me that the topic is at least in the 70th percentile of discussion worthiness by our standards. I mean how much time did we spend discussing Nathan Knight?
The team actually played pretty well. We beat them at rebounding (barely), 3pt shooting (surprising), and turnovers. And we put up 20 more shots than them!
Seems like a recipe for success. But we were garbage inside the paint, and we blew too many free throws, and that killed us.
Even though we rebound well, this is a short team at every position except center, which will maybe make it harder for us to score up close. Hopefully this won’t be an ongoing issue.
Looks like they’re wrong, Strat.
Well, at least they admit to have missed it.
I do everything in my power to avoid complaining about the refs because it’s a hard job, I tend to think the calls balance out, and it’s not like anyone involved with the Knicks has any ability to do anything about them anyway.
But last night was fucking annoying.
That’s fucking insane, Brunson got called for a flopping tech when the refs should’ve been reviewing a possible flagrant for the defender landing on Brunson’s foot. Talk about what could’ve been a pretty huge turn of events, granted Brunson probably would’ve missed 2 of the 3 FTs lol
“If what you meant was “I don’t think Leon Rose will trade for Zach LaVine because he will again deem the price to be too high,” you could’ve just said that and I wouldn’t have responded, because I agree.”
Wait, you actually agree that Leon won’t trade for LaVine? Yet when I say Leon won’t trade for LaVine without providing what is the most blindingly obvious reason, you feel obligated to poke at the semantics? And then say that my statement, that you essentially agree with, is obviously wrong? Wow, that’s pretty freaking obtuse of you.
Tell you what, you try to come up with a trade that will make sense for both teams.
Couldn’t watch the game live due to “ugly” working schedule but watched it a few hours later without knowing the final score.
A Win would have been nice but it’s ok to lose by this team that way.
Season opener ain’t the perfect sample to draw safe conclusions bout the season but it definitely gave us a good idea of what to expect.
Half full or empty glass is a state of mind and personally i liked what i saw.
*I truly admire knowledgeable and passionate women in “man’s territories” but Doris Burke’s commentary is an absolute ballsbreaker! Worst aspect of the game for me
He has definitely filled out since his Knicks days, but I actually think he’s slimmer this year than he was at the end of his stay in Dallas and maybe last year too. I was wondering if Boston changed his training. Maybe they felt he lost some athleticism because of the extra weight and they found a happy medium. He was moving a hell of lot better on defense last night than he was in Dallas.
Major trades in the NBA are somewhat rare, so shorting their occurrence is always a safe bet. We probably won’t trade for LaVine, or Anunoby, or Embiid, or whoever else.
But if the standard for discussing something here is “it is more likely than not to occur,” hoooooo boy, we’ve been doing it wrong!
Well, I like that level of accountability but it was an enormous call. I do think the refs screwed the Celts on a few things but that’s a 3-4 point swing in the game.
Can’t believe the Bucks are next. Tough start to the season.
I checked the NBA Boxscore and that’s what they have. So apparently the NBA stats are wrong because Brunson did hit that shot on Jrue.
https://www.nba.com/game/bos-vs-nyk-0022300065/box-score?type=matchups
Brunson’s ugly no call/flop was a huge refs mistake but We definitely had our chances to steal the game but let it slip away…
“Never give Up” mentality seemed right there yesterday. Next Level demands “Finish them off” ability when you have the chance. We missed that…
You mean the Hawks? 😉
I know a lot of you won’t like it, but i think the most likely to come to the Knicks is Donovan Mitchell next summer. He has a player option for the 2025-26 season, so if he asks out, either the Cavs trade him in 2024, or they risk losing him for nothing in 2025. If he only wants the Knicks, he’ll be a depressed asset, like Kawhi when he left the Spurs for a modest return.
I think this assumes we “stay better” than the Cavs this year. If not, it may be less appealing for Donovan to walk this way.
I think he tries to come here in two situations, if the Knicks are better than the Cavs or if the Cavs don’t come out of the 1st round again. But this is all moot if some big fish is available at the deadline and we are able to grab him. We’ll see what happens, but if i was to bet who would be the most likely to come here, my money would be on Donovan.
“But if the standard for discussing something here is “it is more likely than not to occur,” hoooooo boy, we’ve been doing it wrong!”
I said: “arguing about highly improbable events is a big part of what we do here.” Sounds like you agree wholeheartedly with that statement, especially as to how it applies to acquiring Zach LaVine, so I wonder why you are so strangely irked by it.
I am going to delay discussing Lavine until I absolutely have to….
The Bucks look kinda good…
Kelly Oubre Jr. looks bigger than I remember…
I think I don’t want the fat, old, already injured guy.
I don’t want Harden, either.
The Beard is a real team cancer, isn’t he. Send him to the Clippers where once-great players go to die.
LOL
Apparently God gave Giannis everything. Except for a three point shot. To keep him humble.
This is according to a conversation I overheard in a gym.
De’Anthony Melton deserves better than being forced to try to create offense. The Sixers are really thin without Harden.
Early returns – Dame is good in Milwaukee too
Oubre Jr. with 13 points on 4 shots…
Hell of a block by this Giannis guy. Anyone heard of him? Seems solid.
Make that 24 points on 10 shots for Oubre Jr.
Barrett had 24 points on 20 shots. Is that better?
And Oubre does it with the flair of a future perfumier
Brook Lopez, to pull out an old take, possibly not mine, really has had one of the most astonishing career transitions I can think of.
Just saw my first in-season tournament ad. Actually very well done. Julius was featured.
Imperioli needs the work.
Oubre did some of his traditional knucklehead stuff to even up his line
“Oubre did some of his traditional knucklehead stuff to even up his line”
Yeah, very much so…
Dumb challenge. Great game.
Maybe Dame is better than Jrue?
crazy reactive opening game take i will outright deny later: giannis has maybe a year or two left as an all nba level player.
pt, glaucoma acting up?
At the risk of being condemned by film bros everywhere, I didn’t love Killers of the Flower Moon? Great performances, the usual Scorsese technical brilliance, etc. But telling the story from this POV for 3.5 hours felt monotonous and frustrating. I wanted way more Lily Gladstone than we were given.
Boy, if the Sixers get anything for Harden, they’ll be pretty tough.
Meant to say this but I can’t buy a ticket for a movie that long unless it’s about Dua Lipa doing a mid career transition to GM the Knicks to an NBA championship with Clyde as her style and basketball mentor.
PT – I will take the other side of that take. You talking crazy.
Obviously he’s much better on offense, but the Knicks would have won for fun last night if it wasn’t for the job Holiday did on Randle, Brunson, and RJ.
If I’m the Bucks, I’m obviously not worried, but the 76ers played without their 2nd best scorer, on the road, and scored 117 against the Bucks. If the 76ers get any quality player for Harden, they are going to be tough if Embiid holds together.
His knee issue may have been worse than we know. If he loses a little athleticism he doesn’t have an outside shot to fall back on. We’ll see.
It would possibly explain why he was willing to sign the extension so early.
Pundits are talking like the West is really strong this year compared to the East. I’m just not seeing it. The East looks pretty tough. The West looks balanced and competitive, but with a lot of teams depending on aging players.
The East might have better top teams, but the West just has greater variety of good teams. The Mavericks would be a lock for a playoff spot in the East, for instance, but could very easily miss the playoffs in the West.
The Strat/Cyber discussion about Holliday’s one-on-one stats was interesting. I’m guessing NBA stats counted that as a wide-open shot since technically Jrue got screened to free up Brunson. But if that’s how they count these things, then it’s a pretty worthless statistic.
The Mavericks have two stars and very run of the mill players after that. They struggled to beat the Spurs yesterday, giving up 119 points in the process. They would struggle against Miami, Toronto and probably Indiana and Atlanta to be above them in the playoff seedlings. I don’t hold much faith in the Clippers either, to mention another Western team.