Carmelo Anthony at MSG tonight .. First Game-Thread in 2020

Happy New Year KO Members !!!

Portland Blazers are in the Knicks MSG house tonight.
The Blazers starter back-court of PG Damian Lillard & SG CJ McCollum are averaging 50 pts, and 10 Dimes per game.
A good reason for coach Miller to tandem Frank & Dotson dynamic defensive pressure to keep Lillard & McCollum combine scoring down to 40 pts for 30 minutes of playing-time.
All the Blazers guards will look for screens take advantage of our inexperience rookie RJ Barrett.
Payton's career never had any success vs the Blazers pair Lillard & McCollum, and now Payton having a inexperience rookie SG RJ Barrett in the lineup for 30 minute may spells out a big advantage for the Blazers in MSG tonite.

Kiyaman said:

Portland Blazers are in the Knicks MSG house tonight.
The Blazers starter back-court of PG Damian Lillard & SG CJ McCollum are averaging 50 pts, and 10 Dimes per game.
A good reason for coach Miller to tandem Frank & Dotson dynamic defensive pressure to keep Lillard & McCollum combine scoring down to 40 pts for 30 minutes of playing-time.
All the Blazers guards will look for screens take advantage of our inexperience rookie RJ Barrett.
Payton's career never had any success vs the Blazers pair Lillard & McCollum, and now Payton having a inexperience rookie SG RJ Barrett in the lineup for 30 minute may spells out a big advantage for the Blazers in MSG tonite.

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No disrespect but I?m glad you?re not the head coach having Ntilikina and Dotson starting as our backcourt, both those guys would not start for a good team and you make it sound like they?re the AS defenders needed to cover POR dynamic BC of Dame and CJ. Miller will be starting Payton and RJ, I tend to agree that RJ should be coming off the bench and he may when Bullock is up to speed and who we may see tonight.

Schedule is pretty touch until Feb... gotta win these games if we want to avoid being a complete disaster.

tiger0330 said:

No disrespect but I?m glad you?re not the head coach having Ntilikina and Dotson starting as our backcourt, both those guys would not start for a good team and you make it sound like they?re the AS defenders needed to cover POR dynamic BC of Dame and CJ. Miller will be starting Payton and RJ, I tend to agree that RJ should be coming off the bench and he may when Bullock is up to speed and who we may see tonight.

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Thanks for the game thread Kiya you beat me to it. But I was thinking the same thing tiger. Dot/Frank vs Dame/CJ is where phrases like knife to a gunfight and koolaid to a gin party originated. I sure hope Melo gets a nice reception. No matter what you think about Melo he was the last Superstar that actually wanted to play for the Knicks.

jimkcchief88 said:

Thanks for the game thread Kiya you beat me to it. But I was thinking the same thing tiger. Dot/Frank vs Dame/CJ is where phrases like knife to a gunfight and koolaid to a gin party originated. I sure hope Melo gets a nice reception. No matter what you think about Melo he was the last Superstar that actually wanted to play for the Knicks.

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I will be unpleasantly surprised if Melo doesn’t get a warm reception at MSG tonight just like I thought he should’ve been signed in the off-season when DET signed Joe Johnson, who I said wouldn’t make it out of camp and he didn’t.

He got a decent ovation...

tiger0330 said:

No disrespect but I’m glad you’re not the head coach having Ntilikina and Dotson starting as our backcourt, both those guys would not start for a good team and you make it sound like they’re the AS defenders needed to cover POR dynamic BC of Dame and CJ. Miller will be starting Payton and RJ, I tend to agree that RJ should be coming off the bench and he may when Bullock is up to speed and who we may see tonight.

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I'm sure if we would have kept coach Hornacek, throughout Frank & Dotson 3 season the two guards would be jellin in the backcourt together on both sides of the court by now. Hornacek did find a way to get Jarett Jack & Courtney Lee to mix well in the back-court during Tim Hardaway Jr. injury, before GM Perry added Mudiay to the roster.
Having a tandem of veteran PG Payton & rookie SG RJ coming off the bench would be a Big lift of energy for the Knicks depth, and a surprise to Knick opponents throughout the first half of a season.
I like getting RJ Barret in the draft however .. RJ Barrett's quick athleticism are great, but his low b.ball IQ were not worth TANKING an entire season for.

Every time Melo touches the ball the msg crowd cheers.

I also agree that the Knicks can do better than Payton as the starting PG. Guy is slow as molasses and he can’t shoot.

6 min into the game and McCollum has 10 pts on rookie RJ

MRob dunks on Whitesides head!!!

Reggie in for RJ. Nits in for Payton.

Bullock makes his NYK debut....

MRob with the spectacular one handed ally oop stufff!

Robinson 5-5 with 10 points in the first quarter. Feed the man and get him 30!

Sensational dunk by MRob, his back turned slightly to the basket and the pass a little too high but he slams it home.

MRob balling Knicks down by 2 at the end of the first

tiger0330 said:

Sensational dunk by MRob, his back turned slightly to the basket and the pass a little too high but he slams it home.

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I’m going to post a vid of that dunk tomorrow but you should see it on the NBA top 10 tomorrow.

tiger0330 said:

I also agree that the Knicks can do better than Payton as the starting PG. Guy is slow as molasses and he can’t shoot.

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Payton played better being in the bench lineup .. Bullock could play like a super-star SG and Mills/Perry would not allow Miller to take RJ out the starter lineup.
Crazy one handed alleyoop dunk by MitchRob from Randle .. MitchRob looking for a dynamic payback performance on Whitehead

Knicks 0-3 from downtown in 1st Q but had a 9:2 assist to turnover ratio.