KnicksTape

Great, great win for our fellas. We needed this game to not choke the 5 seed, and we won fairly convincingly. The game started off sloppy and no one seemed like they wanted to win at first, but things tightened up and felt a bit like a playoff game later on. We showed good resiliency handling that run by the Heat towards the end of the first half, and answered with a big three of our own. I started getting nervous when Gabe Vincent was getting some generous whistles was about to ask to see Pat Reilly’s Venmo history, but we kept it close and pulled away at the end. Here’s what I thought about some of our guys tonight, followed by some random notes (including about a movie I had on in the background):

Julius Randle– What the hell happened with this injury. He was limping around for like 2 minutes, ended up shooting the free throws, then went to the tunnel and almost collapsed. Announcers said it “looked like an ankle”, which is a pet peeve of mine. I hate when they just say the body part. Yes, thank you, it IS an ankle. Good call on that, Mike. Now can you elaborate what just happened to our best player? In any case, I really hope it isn’t serious. Love or hate him, losing him for any extended time ends any realistic hope for a playoff run.

Jalen Brunson– Let’s lighten the mood a bit, Brunson is back and back to doing Brunson-things. That halftime buzzer beater was awesome and stole some momentum from the Heat. Goes without saying this team isn’t doing anything without him, so seeing him back and making big plays is huge. He didn’t finish the game (it was Quickley time in the Mecca) and didn’t have a great stat line, but its good to see him getting back into the swing of things.

Immanuel Quickley– He’s just so good. This sort of performance is what we need of we’re going to make noise in the playoffs. There were a few possessions when Duncan Robinson was on him and that dude couldn’t find his own ass if had a map and flashlight. Not sure what was happening with his free throw shooting, but not going to read into that.

Quentin Grimes- Continues on the best stretch of his career. I love that he’s not just a 3 and D guy, and can put the ball on the floor a bit. This came in handy down the stretch when a defender overcommitted to stop his three ball, so he responds by driving and dishing to RJ for a big three. Small stuff but shows that he doesn’t have to just develop into Reggie Bullock.

RJ Barrett– Could’t hit the ocean from the boat (besides his big three down the stretch, fine). I can’t keep getting into arguments with Heat fans that he’s better than Jack Harlow in Jordan’s when he’s getting outplayed by him. Not sure why there’s a weird connection between RJ and Herro. I guess they’re both about the same size and position, play similar roles as that third guy (come to think of it, Brunson, Randle, RJ, and Mitch reminds me of the old Heat Lowry, Butler, Herro, and Bam lineups), and play each other a lot. Typing that out, I can see why they’re compared. The only difference would really be their expectations coming into the league, but they both got the same rookie extension, so who cares anymore. They find themselves in the same spot with both their teams trying to figure out if they’re really that third option for the next 4-5 years. This is all a long winded way of me saying I like to see RJ outplay him when they go head to head.

Josh Hart- Forget his tenacious defense and rebounding, what I love about Hart is when he does something simple that other players might miss. If you wanted a single clip to show someone what Hart brings to this team, show them that sequence at the end of the half. It’s pretty basic but he sprints down the court, catches a pass with like 3 seconds left, redirects right to Brunson while still hanging midair, and Brunson buries it. Credit should rightfully go to Brunson for making the shot, but we don’t get game swinging opportunities like this without Hart.

Isiah Hartenstein- It’s so nice having someone who’s just good at basketball. I know it probably seems like I’ll break the news that basketballs are round next, but follow me here. After years of stacking our front-court with the likes of Kevin Seraphin and Cole Aldrich, it’s nice to watch our back-up center just be good. Look up at your TV and he’s getting a contested defensive board, or maybe finishing a layup, or maybe just not having bricks for hands. These are the sort of thing non-Knick fans take for granted, but I’m overjoyed to see it. He’s not an end-of-career guy like DeAndre Jordan or Kurt Thomas, he’s not failed project like Luke Kornet, and he’s definitely not a huge miss like Bargnani or J****m N**h. He’s just good.

Mitchell Robinson– Notice how I called Hartenstein our “backup”? Well we may be revisiting that soon. I don’t feel like writing too much about a guy who’s just running and jumping out there, but obviously Mitch gives us size and theoretically more upside. It’s just going to be interesting to see how these lineups shake out when I.H. is just looking like the superior player. I’ll probably have more on this later (plus guarding a guy like Giannis, Embiid, or even Mobely might change things).

Random Notes

• God, Kevin Love is old. A real silver fox out there.
• Has anyone had a career like Victor Oladipo? He’s minor disappointment after being drafted high, then gets completely shredded and looks like he’s going to be a perennial All Star, then had a 4 year stretch on 3 different teams where he can’t even play more than 40 games once yet still retains some trade value, and now finally ends up as Gabe Vincent’s back up. Can someone explain to me if he’s still hurt or not? What the hell happened?
• During the game I had The Forgotten Battle on in the background on Netflix. Never heard of it, my roommate just threw it on. It got off to a rocky start until I realized we were listening to it in Dutch with German subtitles (ironic since this is a movie about the Netherlands in 1944). It follows a German solider who’s conflicted about what he’s doing, members of the Dutch resistance with varying levels of zeal, and some British paratroopers who crash landed in the same general vicinity as the rest of the characters. I really liked it and it’s surprisingly intense and grisly at times. Also, I spent most of the movie trying to figure out if the female lead (Susan Radder) was hot or not. Still up for debate but I’m leaning “yes”. I have a lot more conviction about the movie itself, where I’m giving it a 7.9/10 but I’d probably give it more if I was focused on it. It was sort of tough to follow British paratroopers in brutal hand-to-hand underwater combat while Caleb Martin is shaking loose for a jumper.