Knicks Game Reviews

Final Score:  Knicks 109, Nets 116 I only have one takeaway from this game, and it's a long one, so strap in. How to Torpedo Your Team's Chances of Winning 46-43. That's what the score was after a Mitchell Robinson put back with 4:37 left in the 1st half. From that point on the Nets finished the half on a 15-2 run. The Knicks starting lineup, for the most part, held their own for the majority of this game. This one stretch of the game, not only took the Knicks out of this game, but highlighted the root of a lot of the Knicks problems through 12 games.  Here we have a simple p&r. Part of this is on both Robinson not setting the cleanest screen and Austin Rivers' loose handle breaking the play down for a moment. But Rivers still finds his way past Nets' defender Chris Chiozza forcing DeAndre Jordan to leave Robinson under the basket to thwart his attack to the rim. This should  be an advantageous situation for the Knicks. Instead, Joe Harris is able to leave his m

Final Score:  Knicks 112, Jazz 100 And just like that, a true winning streak is born. Let's dive in. The Austin Rivers Game If you're reading this, you know what happened. The Knicks played terribly for about two and a half quarters. They were stagnant offensively, reverting largely to what made them so unwatchable last season, and seemed to be catching breaks defensively. What was once an 18 point deficit felt like it could have been 30. It would have been easy for the Knicks to simply mail it in. But, here's the thing; this years' Knicks are not the same team they were last year. If anything has been made clear through eight games it is that. Tom Thibodeau has this team operating with an energy we simply have not seen in New York in quite some time. And they are combining that energy with, across the board, a substantially improved team mindset, and better shot selection. This all begins with Julius Randle. Randle is doing everything right at the moment. Tonight he pl

Final Score:  Knicks 83, Raptors 100 What a horror show. The final game of 2020 went about as fittingly as possible, as the Knicks put together one of the worst displays of perimeter shooting in the history of franchise, or maybe the history of basketball. Despite that, it is, hopefully, a sign of better things to come that there were still quite a few positive takeaways from the game. Let us discuss... Defense Wins Championships For three quarters the Knick defense, even without their best perimeter defender, was phenomenal. They were flying around making rotation after rotation, actively using their hands to disrupt even the simplest of Raptor passes. When the 4th quarter began, Toronto was 13-42 (31%) from 3, and even that felt like they ran above expectation. They were simply not generating a lot of great opportunities. Tom Thibodeau has the Knicks defending harder and smarter than they have since before many players on the Knicks were born.  As Cold As Ice 3-36. If it felt like th

Final Score:  Knicks 95, Cavaliers 86 Okay so this is a day late. No matter, it was not a dream, the Knicks are still 2-2.  Unstoppable Force v Immovable Object I kid. But the Cavs were a surprising 3-0, while the Knicks (1-2) were coming off what could end up being the biggest upset of the entire season, beating the two time defending regular season champ Milwaukee Bucks by 20.  The game itself was, largely, a sloppy mess, featuring lots of turnover from one team, and lots of bricks from the other. But in past years when the Knicks played a game like this they typically lost. Not this game though. This was a game that may be remembered as the one Knick fans first became acclimated with a Tom Thibodeau victory. A game in which the Knicks did not break 100 and turned it over 25 times, was somehow filled with positives the team can carry with it into the future. The Phoenix Realistically, there's only one way to start a breakdown of the positive things that took place Tuesday night;

Final Score: Knicks 130, Bucks 110 No that's not a typo. How did this happen? Let's dive in. Redemption I'll start with the good. There was a lot of it.  Elfrid Payton & Julius Randle have not been the most popular athletes to call New York their home. Their first year has been marred with selfishness, inefficiency, and a general lackadaisicalness that is not what Madison Square Garden was built on. But for one night (actually, three in Julius's case), the much-maligned duo put their struggles aside and dominated the leagues most formidable regular season opponent.  Payton came out of the gate flying, controlling the game in a way he has always been capable of. The Bucks tried to counter his penetration in a familiar way---they sagged off him. But Elfrid was not to be denied, and when Milwaukee gave an inch he took it. His shot was falling, but I'd like to think that if Payton brought the same energy he did in games 1 & 2,  but with a few jump shots finding