Knicks 102, Cavaliers 82: “I love IQ”

Immanuel Quickley has not stopped surprising me.

The effect it has on the game when it is actually turned on is unreal. Don’t look for more evidence than you did last night.

The Knicks beat the Cavs, led by Elfrid Payton. In fact, they got off the plane. If the “flat” thing was a basketball in that analogy, then the leather straps were still in a trash can at the basketball factory and they hadn’t even been tied up by rubber and mounted on a ball yet.

It was 5:25 to the first quarter. It is past the middle of the quarter, for those who are scoring the score at home. The Knicks were throwing 1-8 and turned the ball a few times behind the brilliant attack led by Payton, and were losing 13-3. They were on their way to scoring around 24 points throughout the game!

So Alec Burks made an attempt at 5:11 to make it 13-5. But the show finally started when Quickley checked in at 4:47. Increasingly, the quick check of the game seems to be the moment when Knicks fans are given the green light to have fun in any game. And have fun, we do.

Suddenly, with Quickley in place of Payton and Austin Rivers in place of Burks (but mainly the first part) there was spacing. RJ Barrett was free for a dunk with assistance from Julius Randle.

A few moves later, Quickley was released for a trademark floater.

But what really set the tone for the rest of the night was how IQ ended the first quarter: with a setback three that, a few weeks ago, I really wouldn’t have thought it was something he had in the bag.

But like I said, he keeps surprising me every day! Thus, the Knicks had a 13-3 disadvantage at the 5:25 mark and turned it into a 19-16 lead at the end of the period. From there, the defeat began.

The second half didn’t really belong to Quickley, he was saving the best for later. But RJ went crazy in the second quarter, scoring 11 points in 4-6 shots to reach 16 in the break. Obi Toppin also managed a few minutes of quality off the bench, adding five points in about eight minutes of action.

The Knicks entered the half-time with 14 points more, after a second quarter of 28-16. And unlike the breakdown against Jazz the other night, the second half was even better, because we were treated to the IQ Show again.

We will try to fill some gaps in the section “What does Quickley have in the bag?” bingo card. Baseline dunk over Jarrett Allen (which is still much worse than Mitchell Robinson, by the way. We don’t forget):

A little hesi / fake on the right to freeze Prince Taurus for another triple:

Another pull-up, an extremely skilled foul and a 4-point play (plus perhaps one of the best Knicks celebrations at the moment since JR did this eight years ago):

A medium-sized pull-up, which, given that Quickley dropped his sweater, was not something I thought he would have in his bag right away. Of course, this is about little Darius Garland, but still impressive.

AN second 4-point game in a matter of six minutes. Some guys wait weeks, months, years between 4-point game opportunities. Quickley forces about a realistic game ball of 4 points per game, if not more.

And finally, Quickley’s shot, a good float in front of Allen (who, again, is not as good as Mitch).

In all, Quickley ended the night with 25 points, five rebounds and three assists, the best mark of the team.

As commentator Heart Like John Starks said, “I love IQ.” Me too. You should, too. It was such a fun game. I didn’t smile as much as an idiot during the Knicks games in a long time. It’s amazing what a solid shipowner can do for you.

Grades

– I feel like I write almost all the recaps when he has a substandard game according to his new high standards, but Julius Randle has really found a way to impact the games, even when he is not consistently scoring the ball, and that doesn’t is something you could say about him last year. If any team was going to know what to do to try the game plan against Randle, it was this Cavs team that the Knicks has seen five times between pre-season and regular season (and I think they just saw it for the year? Real , Sexland). So, with the extra attention of the (really formidable) Cavs D, Randle made an effort to find his teammates and it was a big part of the race that brought the Knicks back at the end of the first quarter, despite not scoring his first points until the second room.

And in defense, Randle helped to be a rising tide as well. Julius and Mitch were scolded by Clyde for not putting much effort into the transition in the first quarter, when the Knicks were falling behind. Probably Thibs probably said (and / or shouted) some of the same things to them behind the scenes. Randle then reversed the script in the second half and made a fundamental defensive play when the Knicks needed to take Cavs’ last breath in a twist:

In all, Randle finished with 16 points (7-13 shots), eight rebounds, six assists, a steal and a block. If you haven’t already, vote #JuliusRandle #NBAAllStar on Twitter or vote Julius here.

– I probably didn’t do enough work for RJ above, but he was an absolute bully throughout the game, ending with 24 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. He was not favored by having Elfrid start the game, as did all the other players on the team. But he and Randle showed their chemistry in this game, particularly Randle meeting RJ. That connection was the only three points of the first six minutes, and Randle found RJ for three of his six assists in the night. I know there is a lot of debate among Knicks fans about whether Randle should be part of the long-term plan for the Knicks or not, but I really think that once IQ is in the initial lineup for Payton, we will see even more for that building around RJ, Randle, IQ and Mitch (for now, at least) can be a good idea.

– I had almost totally forgotten about that weird foul that Cedi Osman committed at IQ until I was looking for a picture of Quickley for the header (which, by the way, there were literally three photos taken of IQ last night by both Getty and USA Today – the that Joe used for the post-game, the practice photo I used above and this one. Do it better, photo transfer services!). What the hell was that? Osman was like a complete WWE. Or maybe it was more like a traditional Greco-Roman fight. Let’s meet in the middle and say it was Kurt Angle style.

POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports

– Austin Rivers set up a second good straight game. Not as good as your 10-10 25-point nuclear bomb against Jazz, but 13 points, three rebounds, three assists and three bank robberies is the kind of (more sustainable) thing I would love to see. it.

– Taj Gibson has 40 seconds of playing time! I don’t know why it got me so excited at the moment. I think it’s nice to see a familiar face at times.

– A little bit of PSA: the Dallas Mavericks are halfway through 14th place in the Western Conference, and now we are more than a quarter of the 72-game season. The Knicks are currently eighth in the East. I know that in our dreams many Knicks fans dreamed of several lottery bets on what should be a 2021 recruiting class … The wildcard could really end up being the Knicks will you miss the playoffs or not?

That’s all I have for this game. It was so fun. I can’t wait to do this again. Unfortunately, the level of competition will increase a lot with the Clippers arriving tomorrow afternoon. Will Thibs start the Elf again and fix the Knicks in the beginning? Because I don’t think a 13-3 hole against the Clips will be so easy to recover, even with Quickley’s prodigious powers. I think we’ll see in about 24 hours!

If you want to know more about this game, take a look at Collin Loring’s recap in The Strickland!