Pelicans 115, Knicks 92: “Oh well. Goodnight, Irene.“

Will the injury-boosted Knicks Nightmare ever end? For that, we can only sit and wait.

New York’s Madison Square Garden hosted the second game in as many days on Tuesday and the Knicks could do nothing to stop the visiting New Orleans Pelicans in a game that had its outcome up in the air only for a couple of quarters.

Intermission brought with it a close 48-47 score, your dudes down one point, but by the end of the third the Pels had run the distance up to seven points and by the end of the game, it was sitting at a demoralizing 23-point gap. Sheesh...

“They’ve got great versatility,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said of the Pelicans, who were without their two main point guards—CJ McCollum and Jose Alvarado—on Tuesday. “When you look at their team, Zion has the ability to bring it up, [Brandon] Ingram is terrific. People probably overlook Herb Jones, he’s a terrific player, he’s an all-around basketball player, he’s a terrific player. He does everything well. He’s got great vision, he can run the point, he sees over people. Ingram, same thing, with his size he can pass over people. And Zion’s incredibly unselfish as well. They’re strong on both sides of the ball. Throw in [Jonas] Valanciunas and what he brings. Their defense is terrific.”

That’s all cool and very true.

The Knicks, for their part, were missing five starters (or four plus a makeshift one in Isaiah Hartenstein, if you prefer) for their game against the Pels, the second of back-to-back nights of action in Manhattan. Ay, Jesús!

Jalen Brunson was ruled out for Tuesday’s game with neck spasms and Hartenstein had to miss this one once more with Achilles issues (side question: is this iHart thing starting to get worrying or is it just me?).

Knowing Thibs and Brunson, it’s obvious that there was something really wrong with JB’s neck and that this wasn’t simply a DNP-Rest type of absence. Ian Begley of SNY reported exactly that after the game, which I can only believe coming from him and given the parts involved in it.

With all of those bodies cold and out, the Knicks started a unit comprised of Precious Achiuwa, Jericho Sims, Josh Hart, Miles McBride... and soon-to-be-record-man Donte DiVincenzo. The chart above says it all.

In a day to forget for the Knicks that saw them land face-first in an empty Mardi Gras Pool, DiVo inched closer to writing his name in golden letters and forever in the history books of the New York Knickerbockers Professional Basketball Organization.

DiVo, as it’s been the case for the largest part of the season for one reason or another, was given the green light to hoist as many three-balls as he could muster before his arms fell off, so that’s what he did on Tuesday.

Even if Donte missed 11 3-point shots of the 18 he took, he still made seven and finished the game with a team-high 23 points only topped by Troy Murphy III’s 26 and Brandon Ingram’s 24 from the other side.

In the history of the Association, through games played on Feb. 27, DiVo is one of only 35 players to have completed 6+ games with 7+ 3PM. There are still more than 20 games left in the Knicks' schedule, just for context, so it’s not crazy to think he can have another couple or three such outings to become part of a very select club of shooters in NBA history.

DiVincenzo’s role has grown steadily as the season has advanced, first moving to the starting lineup in place of the disgruntled Quentin Grimes and then forced into a larger usage because of the injuries impacting the roster at different points in time.

Outside of DiVo, only Bojan Bogdanovic (20) scored more than 15 points on Tuesday and he did so off the bench as part of a reserve unit that only featured two main contributors—yes, Thibs reduced the rotation to a seven-man squad—including him and fellow newcomer Alec Burks.

Other than Jericho Sims (seven points in 30 minutes), all other four starters put up double-digit scoring figures but that was never going to cut it against a mob of Pelicans that shot 50.6% from the floor, 52.9% (!) from three, and 82.6% from the free-throw line. On the other end, the Knicks bagged just 37%, 30%, and 69% of their field-goal, three-point, and free-throw attempts. Híjole!

The Knick of the minute, however, is definitely Josh Hart. He scored the game-stealing bucket on Monday and one day later he had another double-double (his ninth this season on top of two trip-dubs) finishing with 15 points, 10 rebounds, five dimes, two steals, and only one turnover. You get an idea of how bad things went for New York knowing that he logged a minus-22 plus/minus even with that 15-10-5-2 stat line...

At this point and considering there is nothing I can do to stop the ongoing injury epidemic, I’m just doing this for pure fun: here are the NBA leaders in games with 40+ minutes played in the 2024 calendar year.

While the likes of Maxey, Doncic, Kyrie, Sabonis, Fox, Davis, and Giannis are getting miles and miles added to their odometers before the postseason, Thibs is loading minutes upon minutes on their soon-to-be reserves. Genio!

Also, this being a game against a certain human being, current Pelicans franchise player and former Dukie, no. 1 overall pick, I’m contractually obliged to share this postgame clip of Zion Williamson.

Fast-forward to any summer of your choice, from this one through 2035, and yell with me: Welcome to the New York Knicks, Zion!

Knicks (35-24) off the schedule Thursday, when they’ll host the Golden State Warriors (30-27) before a one-game homestand-detour to Cleveland next Sunday. Tip-off in two days scheduled at 7:30 ET. Steph vs. Donte. Don’t miss it.