Knicks Rd1 - Playoffs Series 2021

[HawkingAwesome]

1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

From one toxic fan base to another. If we win, that mean's dealing with Philly fans, dang near the same thing lol

Watch out for batteries and snowballs

[MarylandHawk]

5 hours ago, marco102 said:

Might have to change my avatar to subzero Trae!

 

You love to see it. 

[sturt]

Cautionary tale from the NHL tonight...

 

[Spud2nique]

8 hours ago, HawkingAwesome said:

Watch out for batteries and snowballs

And don’t dress as 

[kg01]

Crowd chanted "PlayoffRandle"?  Haha

Randle's regular season ...

... playoff ...

All these eggsperts and jacklegs that called Trae an "empty stats" player now need to affix that label to PlayoffJulius.

ETA: Now I need the OrangeJulius logo changed to PlayoffJulius.

Edited June 1, 2021 by kg01

[macdaddy]

While the Knicks roster is seriously flawed, where is the criticism of Thibs?   All we heard all year was what a genius he is.   Hawks lose one game and Nate takes all this heat.  Knicks have been blown out in the last two and Thibs only answer is to make Rose play the whole game.  

[MarylandHawk]

11 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

While the Knicks roster is seriously flawed, where is the criticism of Thibs?   All we heard all year was what a genius he is.   Hawks lose one game and Nate takes all this heat.  Knicks have been blown out in the last two and Thibs only answer is to make Rose play the whole game.  

His poor coaching has been the biggest surprise. He is letting Trae be free to do what he wants.  He schemed to take away the lob, which worked but Trae was free to do Trae things. Then he tried to get more offense by starting D Rose but that screwed up his year long bench chemistry. Not coming up with a defensive plan for our best player is just ridiculous. If he tries to do it now, it will open up the rest of our guys because they have confidence. 

[JayBirdHawk]

1 minute ago, MarylandHawk said:

His poor coaching has been the biggest surprise. He is letting Trae be free to do what he wants.  He schemed to take away the lob, which worked but Trae was free to do Trae things. Then he tried to get more offense by starting D Rose but that screwed up his year long bench chemistry. Not coming up with a defensive plan for our best player is just ridiculous. If he tries to do it now, it will open up the rest of our guys because they have confidence. 

I expected to see a lot of Frank Nitty on Trae, just to make him work harder even if he can't stop Trae.

[kg01]

8 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

While the Knicks roster is seriously flawed, where is the criticism of Thibs?   All we heard all year was what a genius he is.   Hawks lose one game and Nate takes all this heat.  Knicks have been blown out in the last two and Thibs only answer is to make Rose play the whole game.  

It's crazy.  What I've observed is that there's a pocket of media who worship him.  He can do no wrong in their eyes.  Combine that with the pocket of media who worship the Nix and you'll start to understand the lack of criticism.

Before the games, they all picked Nix in 3!  Now they're all lamenting the dearth of talent and, instead of acknowledging he's been out-coached, are further praising him for succeeding despite having no talent.

Well, are we analyzing things or just moving the goalposts to salve our fanhood?

In reality, the move to start Rose was a panic-move that burned any hope of returning to their normal rotation (since Payton's done mentally probably).

In reality, because he ... as his m.o. portends ... ran guys into the dirt tryna squeeze victory out of every regular season game, missed the opportunity to change his rotation to see what it'd look like before the games actually counted (more).

Had he experimented with Rose in the starting lineup, he might've lost a game or two but he would've also learned that it hurts his reserves more than it helps his starters.  Oh and those 1 or 2 lost games wouldn't have put his season on the brink.  See how that works?

[kg01]

3 minutes ago, MarylandHawk said:

His poor coaching has been the biggest surprise. He is letting Trae be free to do what he wants.  He schemed to take away the lob, which worked but Trae was free to do Trae things. Then he tried to get more offense by starting D Rose but that screwed up his year long bench chemistry. Not coming up with a defensive plan for our best player is just ridiculous. If he tries to do it now, it will open up the rest of our guys because they have confidence. 

The fact that they never trapped Trae is mind-boggling.  It may not have worked but it's malpractice to not even try.

Guy's been panicking all series.  Throwing Ntilikina in was a panic move, starting Rose was a panic move.  Starting Gibson worked, sort of, but lacked insight.  He just happens to be a guy who played for him in Chicago.  It was only a matter of time before he tossed him in there.

[AHF]

Just now, kg01 said:

The fact that they never trapped Trae is mind-boggling.  It may not have worked but it's malpractice to not even try.

Guy's been panicking all series.  Throwing Ntilikina in was a panic move, starting Rose was a panic move.  Starting Gibson worked, sort of, but lacked insight.  He just happens to be a guy who played for him in Chicago.  It was only a matter of time before he tossed him in there.

I think Thibs knows he is outgunned and is desperate.  Not sure that is stupid.

[kg01]

10 minutes ago, AHF said:

I think Thibs knows he is outgunned and is desperate.  Not sure that is stupid.

AH with an avatar win.  Fist bump.

[ATLHawks3]

I have a feeling Thibs is gonna try just about everything next game. Doubling/Trapping Trae beyond halfcourt, having offensive sets where Randle receives the ball in the low-post, starting Ntilikina to bother Trae, etc.

[macdaddy]

9 minutes ago, AHF said:

I think Thibs knows he is outgunned and is desperate.  Not sure that is stupid.

Payton started in every game he played this year but gets benched in the first round?   Quickley averaged 11 points in 20 minutes on the season and is a pretty good shooter.   

And why the hell they didn't keep Austin Rivers when Thibs has no faith in in Frank or Payton i don't know. 

[JayBirdHawk]

7 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Payton started in every game he played this year but gets benched in the first round?   Quickley averaged 11 points in 20 minutes on the season and is a pretty good shooter.   

And why the hell they didn't keep Austin Rivers when Thibs has no faith in in Frank or Payton i don't know. 

I keep reading Knick fans rumblings about a clause in Payton's contract to be a starter when he signed with the Knicks, don't know if actually true though. He had faith in Payton in the regular season. They traded Rivers when they got Rose.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, macdaddy said:

While the Knicks roster is seriously flawed, where is the criticism of Thibs?   All we heard all year was what a genius he is.   Hawks lose one game and Nate takes all this heat.  Knicks have been blown out in the last two and Thibs only answer is to make Rose play the whole game.  

Knicks fans have been on him.  Some said that he shouldn't have gone into panic mode by starting Rose.  Most of them wanted Frank Nitty to get his shot at Trae, as the starter.

Others have highly questioned his lack of creativity in the offense.

On the National Media though, you are correct.  They were quick to jump on Nate for sitting Trae too long.  But little has been said about Thibs.  Their cop out now is to finally admit that the Hawks were the more talented team, so there's very little that Thibs could've done.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

12 hours ago, sturt said:

Cautionary tale from the NHL tonight...

 

 

No concerns about this, honestly.

In the NHL and in baseball, a hot goalie or pitcher can really help you equalize a series.  In the NBA, it's a lot harder because of all of the adjustments you can do to limit star players and/or role players.  It also helps if your team has the best player on the court, even if they're down 3 - 1.

To me, this was the situation when the Cavs came back against the Warriors.  Now of course, the loss of Draymond was HUGE for them in both Game 5 and 6.  But once it came down to a Game 7 situation, the best player on the floor ( especially if he's a bonafide superstar ), will have the upper hand.  In that series, it was Lebron and Kyrie that powered them through in Game 7, especially with their shot making.

 

Would it shock me if the Knicks won Game 5.  Nope.

But I give them like a 40% chance of doing it.  Until they can come up with an offensive scheme that can generate over 100 points in a game, I like our chances to close them out tomorrow night.   And they still haven't come up with a legit game plan to slow down Trae.  We have the formula to slow down Randle, considerably slowing down his scoring and playmaking impact.

Trae chose to go the volume 3 point shooting route in Game 4, when they started giving him the long shot.  He got a little crazy in the 1st quarter, going1 - 6 3FG, but settled down in the 3rd quarter, going 3 - 7 from deep.

So even that strategy didn't work for the Knicks.

To me, there's only one way they're getting back in this series.  And I won't say it, due to it happening to the Lakers and Philly.  I'm not bringing that kind of karma on our team.

 

 

[kg01]

I predict traps on Trae all game in game 5.

But then BANGdonovich is gonna give folks Drazen Petrovic flashbacks ...

Edited June 1, 2021 by kg01

[TheNorthCydeRises]

9 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Trae chose to go the volume 3 point shooting route in Game 4, when they started giving him the long shot.  He got a little crazy in the 1st quarter, going1 - 6 3FG, but settled down in the 3rd quarter, going 3 - 7 from deep.

 

That is 2nd and 3rd quarter combined.

In total for that game, despite Trae going 4 - 14 3FG, he went 5 - 7 on his 2 FG shots, giving him a eFG% of 53%.  That's acutally higher than his season average, from a shooting standpoint.

Tomorrow, he may have to go back to looking to draw fouls, if the game is tight, or if some of his teammates aren't making shots.

We have the best player in the series.  So I'm not concerned about blowing a 3 - 1 lead.

[AHF]

Just now, TheNorthCydeRises said:

That is 2nd and 3rd quarter combined.

In total for that game, despite Trae going 4 - 14 3FG, he went 5 - 7 on his 2 FG shots, giving him a eFG% of 53%.  That's acutally higher than his season average, from a shooting standpoint.

Tomorrow, he may have to go back to looking to draw fouls, if the game is tight, or if some of his teammates aren't making shots.

We have the best player in the series.  So I'm not concerned about blowing a 3 - 1 lead.

As an Atlanta sports fan and a UGA football fan, I have to admit I'm nervous until we close it out even if I think we have every reason to be confident.  I want to watch Trae and the gang put a wrap on this one.