RedDawg#8

That's honestly the reason putting a big on Randle makes no sense to me. He plays like Lebron, outside in. A PF size SF that can distribute the rock and hit from deep. Clint and John both are afraid of his dribble drive and back off of him, giving him open looks from outside. You need a guy that isn't afraid to play him tight and get in to him. Once he is in the lane you have more help. And last I checked, 3 points is more than 2. So we should be selling out more to chase him in to the mid ranges vs donating him wide open looks from 3. Dre is the better matchup for him outside, but that leaves JC to guard who? Barret or Bullock? Not ideal either. I think we just run zone on their butts or box and 1 with Dre chasing around Randle.

It just seems to me like they refuse to admit obvious flops when they fall for it. They give Gallo a flop warning when there was no call made on a very questionable flop accusation, but when the obvious flop works they stand by the call because they don't want to look gullible

Trae needs to pay it outright. And tell his coach thank you, because he may have just sacrificed himself to take the heat off of him.

BOOM, they will for sure squeeze 3 if not 4 games in the Garden. Which is in line with all the "expert" projections. The fix is in already. The series is going the distance. If we are up 3-2, best believe they throw every call in the book against us to get a game 7 back in MSG.

Yes, but not just that, having great games, exciting/close, similar to the Lakers and Warriors last night. They want the drama and buzz in the building. So if anything expect the calls to keep it close down the stretch.

Yo, Green is so trash lol Im exaggerating, he is obviously a really "good" player. But my goodness he is limited offensively. He tried to back down a guard like he was Charles Barkley and front rimmed the layup. He is such a joke to me lol

Yep, I was just thinking this, Cam needs to attend SL this year.

Ready for this phase of Trae's development. He adopted the foul drawing as a means against the overly physical defenders. But come postseason, they let a lot of that contact slide, so Trae will have to adjust even further to getting bumped, scratched, blitzed, and knocked down over and over. He is about to grow a lot in the next few weeks.

Thank God Nate is pretty well respected in the NBA fraternity, otherwise I could totally see them spinning a BS narrative the same way they did with Trae for ROY. "Oh, it's called Coach of the year, not coach of the 2nd half of the season"

At all. I also found it odd that his first game back came right after LP got fired.

I love Nate man. Just keep it 100. None of this coach speak, cryptic "we got to take care of ourselves and not worry about the outside." No, just address the elephant head on. He knows what's up. He knows what everyone wants to see happen. He is keeping it real with his guys and mentally preparing them for the media shit storm they are about to walk in to. I'm sure they appreciate him speaking up about it too. Obviously the noise doesn't control what happens on court, but pretending that you don't hear it and it doesn't add fuel is very disingenuous in 2021 when these guys see and hear everything. I think our guys are super competitive, and this will help them in the end

Yeah, I have struggled with Achilles soreness when I do cardio and what not. I haven't been to the gym in 6 months since my daughter was born, and my heel pain is completely gone. But I fear that once I crank it back up it will flare up again. It's such a lingering, annoying, pain.

Welp, since they are clearly the "favorites", I hope that Trae goes off in a close out game to send them home and gives Spike Lee and all of Knicks nation the Reggie Miller for old times sake.

You should send a list out so we know who we are lol

Even worse, this guy is getting serious MVP buzz, while ours gets blackballed.

Bogi because of overall speed and accuracy. Snell if time wasnt an factor, he has the slowest release of the three. Kev with the best range, so he is more likely to hit the 4pt shots.

Hmmm.... nah. They got homecourt, we should get the lower pick. Cant have everything.

Thanks. I just listened to Bill Simmons semi compliment us by saying our scoring should absolutely scare the Knicks, but that we dont play any defense. I was wondering where we finally landed defensively and where people get this idea from.

After what happened to the Yankees I wonder if they change their tune. 8 vaccinated personal tested positive. They had Johnson and Johnson fyi, the least effective of the vaccines, but the CDC is already investigating what happened up there. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/05/16/us/yankees-covid-tests-positive-trnd/index.html

I really like Mays' game. Can do a little bit of everything and plays with confidence and poise.

We saw the same thing then. We are not different. I said that they were the better team WHEN WE PLAYED. You said that we were inferior back then to the team we have now. We both believe that we are now different if not better than we were before. The only difference seems to be that I am waiting to see what we can do at full (or near full) strength against them, while you are convinced that the matchup is tilted in our favor already. There is no need to debate it because my position is not to put us below them. For the umpteenth time I think we can win the series too. The more we go back and forth, the more my narrative appears to be downing my Hawks and that's not what I'm about. I don't like the Knicks, I don't give a flip about any of them or their fans. Each loss we took to them pissed me off. I need to see us flip the script and return the favor 4 times. I am on record since the first loss saying I wanted pay back. I'm a serial homer but in this instance I chose to be objective. However, I'm not going to waste anymore energy defending a position that unintentionally downs my team in favor of NY. Not going to happen. Screw that and them. I want their head on a pole. End of story.

Let's be clear, Knicks should fear us too. Im not putting them on a pedestal. Truthfully just trying to call it objectively. We can beat them, but they are not the first matchup I wanted. Plain and simple. Randle has been giving us buckets since before NY. It is what it is. I would have similar reservations about any team except Boston really. Boston is just trash dressed up in green this year. I was nervous about Miami. They're clicking and have that team you don't want to face energy going. Milwaukee was vulnerable when we last played but they have turned on a switch here lately. There is no easy matchup. And outside of Dre not being back in starter form yet, I feel as good about this team as I have at any point this season. We can't be anymore ready than we are at this point. We been preaching playoffs since March 2020. We're in now. It's time to put up.

One team found a way win, the other didn't. 3 different times. You say we blew leads. I say they hit big shots. They had no fear against us. They smelled blood when it was winning time. Did you watch those 3 games and come away thinking that we were clearly and obviously better than them? If you didn't then what are we talking about? If the team names on the jerseys were switched and we won against them in the exact same way, would you be singing the same tune in their favor? We swept the Wizards and won the last 2 in nail biter fashion with no Beal in their lineup. Do you think there is a debate that we arent the better team than them regardless of how we did it? It's not a negative to have respect for your opponent. This is the 4/5 matchup after all . The most competitive matchup typically in every postseason. They are not a perfect team, otherwise they'd be higher than 4. So they are beatable. If there is any mental edge in a 4/5 series its got to be head to head records.

Oh and last thing Imma say about this, Knicks are forced to spend A LOT of extra energy to close out the season. They just played an overtime game today and have to turn around and play a B2B with a 1pm tip off on Sunday. They NEED to win to keep 4th, but that's a lot of wear on their squad before the playoffs. If Thibs wasn't their coach I would say they may rest some of their guys tomorrow. But I know better. And guess what, better for us that they play a full game on a back 2 back. Meanwhile, by the time we tip off, we could very well decide to chill tomorrow. Our last real game was against Washington. Orlando we were able to get guys rest. That's over a week of time off compared to NY who has to run through the tape to secure homecourt. That will be a huge plus in our favor that will go under the radar.

Sidenote Im actually excited about the Wizards vs Hornets game to decide 8th seed. It's almost like a bonus play in game. If the Wizards win and get 8th, I truly think the Celtics get bounced from the playoffs. The Wiz will beat them in the 7v8. And Boston may be too frustrated and collapse in the 8th place game. So, there is still plenty to cheer and hope for tomorrow lol