Playing with no choice in the draft for the first round of 2020, a shorthanded squad of the Knicks faced the Philadelphia 76ers for two quarters on Saturday night before breaking down as Four Year Strong, and the positives were few and far between.
Prior to the team’s first regular season home game at Madison Square Garden since last March, the Knicks announced that Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley would not play due to injuries. Each rookie held his boos at the opening of Wednesday’s season; Quickley injured his hip and is on a daily basis, while Toppin suffered a strain in his right calf that required an MRI. It will be reevaluated in 7 to 10 days, which, farce bah.
But this is the NBA, where there is no excuse, so the Knicks still had to play against the 76ers under normal rules. They did this while wearing the City Edition t-shirts for the first time, which, if you didn’t already know, are available for purchase! Nothing like good old-fashioned capitalism, baby. We hope that any consumer who buys one of the basketball practice pinnies will get the right number at the front and back, unlike Reggie Bullock at the start of Saturday’s competition.
The five holders were as follows: Elfrid Payton, RJ Barrett, Reggie Bullock, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson. It was Randle who carried New York for most of the night, while Barrett struggled hard and everyone else except Mitchell Robinson and Alec Burks was downright bad.
At first, Randle was rocking, hitting each of his first three shots and taking the Knicks to a hot start. But Philly remained calm and, in the end, made Tom Thibodeau request his first timeout just four minutes from the first quarter, with the Knicks 10-8. Thibs loves this quick timeout.
Behind Randle and Burks, who scored 11 and 9 points in the first quarter, respectively, the Knicks played basketball regularly in the first 12 minutes. At the end of the period, the score was tied at 27-27.
The second quarter represented an opportunity for Dennis Smith Jr. to lead the show with his bank colleague Nerlens Noel. It was an opportunity he would have missed. DSJ and Noel were like an off-Broadway show. Sure, it was happening in New York, but nobody wanted to see it.
In the middle of the second quarter, the score was tied at 40-40 and Randle was doing things like that.
That move was immediately followed by Robinson’s theft, which resulted in a quick dunk, and suddenly a 9-0 run sent the Knicks up five.
Robinson’s first foul of the night came at 5:45 from the end of the first half. He would end the half time with three fouls. He would also end the game with three fouls! Coincidentally, Mitch’s first foul marked the start of a fall to New York. The 76ers soon went on their own 11-0 run to climb six. In the break, it was 60-55 in Philadelphia.
The 76ers came out stronger than the Knicks in the second half, rising 10 after a few minutes. In a short time, the advantage had increased to 16. The Knicks never completely let go of the rope, but their efforts will certainly not lead to a tug of war. At one point, Mike Breen noticed that the Knicks had as many losses as goals in the third quarter (6 each). At the end of the period, the Knicks were lost by 86-69, RJ Barrett was 1-13 off the ground, and bloggers were beginning to think about which band to incorporate in the first sentence of their recap.
You cannot sweeten a pile of rubbish and convince someone that you are sweet. The Knicks sucked tonight and in the end it was a 20 point loss as the team dropped to 0-2 this season. But in another year, that could have ended a 40 point loss. Who says you can’t try to see the bright side, even when you’re locked in a pitch-dark room?
Grades:
> Barrett was bad, but that kind of thing is going to happen with the second year of 20 years. Overall, he looks much better this year. Tonight’s line of statistics was more disgusting (10 points out of 2-15 shots, including 0-6 out of three, plus 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 turns), but he hit 6 out of 8 free throws. Once again, we are looking for positive sides in the dark.
> The only consistent attack came from Randle and Burks, who scored 25 and 22 points, respectively. Randle was mostly a good version of himself, hitting 11 of 15 kicks (including 2-2 deep) and adding 7 rebounds and 3 assists, plus 4 turns. Burks is the only player on the team who shows a consistent ability to shoot from outside. He shot 6-13, including 4-6 beyond the arc.
> In addition to a small wave of fouls in room two, Robinson played very well. He finished with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks, and was very active in the casualties.
> Let it be recorded that this Knox dunk happened, even if it didn’t matter at all:
> It was a balanced effort for Philly, led by Joel Embiid (27 points), followed by Tobias Harris and Seth Curry (17 points each), as well as Ben Simmons (15 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks).
> Payton and DSJ were rubbish. Honestly, just check the numbers for yourself, if necessary.
> Despite receiving absolute rubbish from the position of owner, Frank Ntilikina was kept chained to the bench until he finally reached two minutes before the end of the fourth period and the game was already decided. So much for the theory that Thibs was giving DSJ every minute tonight and Frank every minute tomorrow against Milwaukee to keep everyone’s legs fresh or something.
Whatever is happening to Ntilikina is strange, but at the same time, it is up to him to show that he deserves time on the floor. In two minutes tonight he didn’t record any statistics, and the shot he made was ugly.
The whole night was summed up very concisely by fomalhaut: ‘This game is not fun to watch.’
The Knicks are back in action against the Bucks at home on Sunday night at 7:30. This can be a loss of schedule.