KNICKS LOSE 96 – 99
I DON’T LOVE THE FEELING I HAVE
Here we go again. The Knicks have faced three top notch teams in four games since returning from break. They were ran out of the gym in Milwaukee, took an emotional loss in Brooklyn, and just last night blew a late lead to Philadelphia. They had what’s going to be a rare gimme in OKC the other night, but for the most part, as we’ve said before, this could very well be one hell of a second half. Heat-Of-The-Moment-Twitter-Meltdown Robert agrees:
The Knicks have been welcomed back to the real world and it is not going to be kind to them for as long as they continue to play without Mitchell Robinson & Derrick Rose. I also think they need to trade for a shooting wing because Alec Burks & Reggie Bullock are anything but consistent, although that we’ll save for another day. Bottom line, Knicks fans have already had a taste of being in the hunt; the last thing we want at this point is to lower our expectations but it’s tough to remain optimistic at the same time. D-Rose & Mitch were two players I graded in the A range in our progress report from the end of the first half.
This one looked pretty promising for about three quarters. The problem with that is four quarters make a dollar. Now I’m not going to even think about blaming Tom Thibodeau for giving large minutes to young players because without him doing that we’d be a losing team this season, but you could see the fatigue start to factor in late. Julius Randle specifically — who still went for a robust 19 points, 15 boards, and eight dimes — had himself a very rough 12 minutes at the end. The Knicks, entering the frame up nine points thanks to Randle, RJ Barrett (17 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and even Alec Burks (19 points), just didn’t have much left in their legs to complete this one. Randle had nothing in his.
Near the top of the period, Julius had his cookies stolen by Philly’s version of Frank Ntilikina in Mattisse Thybulle. It lead to a 12-to-2 Sixers run which I thought was a very key moment in the game. The run pushed the 76ers from down seven with about nine minutes to go to up three with about four minutes. It was a run that featured key shots from Seth Curry (20 points), Furkan Korkmaz (12 points), and also got Tobias Harris (30 points) going later on in the period when he took over. The shot by Seth gave me a stomach ace. When you’re tasked with a member of the Curry family you do not help. Julius helped:
On top of that Julius misfired on his last eight shot attempts, going from 54% after three to finishing the night at 37%. He was all over the place in the fourth but that’s going to happen when he’s constantly playing hard on both ends for 40 minutes a night. Immanuel Quickley & Reggie Bullock were also difficult to watch at the end of the game. IQ took a pretty reckless shot from deep to try and play hero ball for the NYK while Bullock stepped out of bounds there at the end. The Knicks have not quite been sharp in their ATO’s lately. As a unit, New York mustered up just 14 points in the final quarter versus Philadelphia’s 26 points.
Backing it up a bit, once Philly took the lead you felt the momentum shift, especially when RJ Barrett missed those key baskets. RJ had a strong game on both sides but missed two crucial jumpers late. There was the pull-up 18-footer to break the tie with under three to go where he got away with a backcourt violation, but then there was the more crushing one with 20 seconds left, missing the seven-foot fader wide open. The Knicks were down two at the time and Philly finished them off from there.
RJ has been wonderful this year, and he’s only 20 years old, but eventually he’s going to have to start making those clutch shots in order to grow into a legitimate No. 2 option. Barrett finished the night 7-for-17. He still had some very strong moments in this game despite a disappointing ending. It was also a nice bounce-back from the last time he went up against all-world defender Ben Simmons. He had some extremely impressive, crafty finishes on the All-Star while playing great on the break as per usual.
The Knicks actually took the PITP game 48-to-38, and even the fastbreak game 23-to-8, but they struggled shooting once again. They were a meager 33% from deep and a revolting 64% at the free-throw line. They are called free-throws for a reason, folks. That cannot happen. Barrett was 3-for-7 the night after hitting all 10, Quickley continued to miss from there lately as he was 0-for-1, and Julius went 4-of-6. That’s 50% foul shooting amongst the Knicks’ three best scorers.
Speaking of scoring machines, Frank Ntilikina & Obi Toppin, everybody! Man, those two are contributing to nothing right now. Frank is averaging a whopping 0.0 PPG over his last three contests. He can play all the defense he wants but if he can’t put the ball in the hole he doesn’t belong on the floor. If it were for a team who didn’t desperately need scoring it wouldn’t be a problem as much as it is right now, but the Knicks aren’t that team. I think his future is bleak here, quite Frankly. See what I did there? HAHAHAHAHA I’m awesome.
Obi on the other hand is also not much worse at the moment. If the Knicks were focusing solely on development this year I’d say you keep throwing him out there to work out the kinks, but they’re clearly trying to win games and Obi Toppin is not helping them do so. If all he is going to do is sit in the corner and airball threes you may as well put Kevin Knox back into the rotation. At least he was around 40%. Obi has not found a single strength so far in the NBA despite being 23 years of age. He has been useless.
That said, with a bench that deplorable, I think it’s time that Thibs staggers some of his starters a bit. The Knicks need one of RJ & Julius on the floor at all times to balance things out. Also, once D-Rose returns (and for fuck sake when will that finally be????) he should be the starting point guard. Immanuel Quickley (13 points on 6-of-11) is a pure bucket getter. Devin Booker Lite. Lou Williams 2.0. So I say let him do it as the sixth man. “But R.J., you advocated for IQ to start all year!” Yes, imaginary person, I did. But that was when we were limited to a rotation of him, Elfrid Payton, and Austin Rivers. Now D-Rose has entered the scene. He has played great as the catalyst and is the perfect stopgap for this season. He has got to be the guy that IQ splits (and even shares some) minutes with.
Also, great news on Mitch last night too.
Full moon coming up! The Knicks will be facing competition that isn’t at the top of the conference. Orlando comes to MSG tomorrow night. Have to win it. Get updated first with my latest show from this morning! Ciao.
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20-21
(Photo: BILL STREICHER/USA TODAY SPORTS)
It's My Opinion 