Game Thread: New York Knicks @ San Antonio Spurs 3/2/2021 8:30 pm [Game #36]

rady

Administrator
Staff member

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(18-17) -- (17-13)

VenueTVTIME
AT&T Center, San Antonio, TXMSG8:30 PM EST



Probable starters:

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Injury Report

New York KnicksSan Antonio Spurs
Mitchell Robinson - Right hand surgery (OUT)Keldon Johnson - Conditioning (QUEST)
Elfrid Payton - Sore right hamstring (DOUBT)Rudy Gay - Health and safety protocols (QUEST) (OUT)
Taj Gibson - Sprained right ankle (OUT)Derrick White - Health and safety protocols (QUEST) (OUT)
Jared Harper - G League assignment (OUT)Devin Vassell - Hea;th and safety protocols (QUEST)
Ignas Brazdeikis - G League assignment (OUT)Quinndary Weatherspoon - Heath and safety protocols (QUEST)


Game Preview

Surprising Knicks bring 3-game win streak to San Antonio

The New York Knicks, playing their best basketball of the season and arguably in years, look to continue their winning ways when they square off against the host San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

The game is the second of a back-to-back set against visitors from New York City for the Spurs, who fell to the Brooklyn Nets 124-113 in overtime on Monday.

The Knicks head to San Antonio after a 109-90 road victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday. New York (18-17) has won three straight games and seven of its past nine to climb above the .500 mark after 35 games for just the third time in the past 20 years.

"The first unit is really finding some chemistry together and I think they're reading the game well," New York coach Tom Thibodeau said after the win against Detroit. "Offensively, when we share the ball, we're hard to guard."

All-Star Julius Randle led the Knicks with 25 points and added eight rebounds and six assists on Sunday. RJ Barrett scored 21 points for New York.

Three other New York players finished with double-figure point totals, but the most impressive work against the Pistons was done on the defensive end, where the Knicks limited Detroit to 38.4 percent shooting (28 of 73).

"I don't want us looking ahead, and I don't want us looking behind and at what happened in the past," Thibodeau said. "Our focus has to be exactly on what's in front of us and that's each day, each game, each practice. Be ready to keep improving. We got a young team. We have a team that can grow."

The Spurs played well against Brooklyn on Monday, scoring the final 10 points of regulation over the last two minutes to send the game to an extra period.

Dejounte Murray's scrambling jumper at the buzzer completed the comeback, but San Antonio ran out of gas getting back into the game and fell flat in overtime. Brooklyn scored the first eight points in the extra session and never looked back as the Spurs lost for the second time in three games after being forced to postpone four games because of COVID-19.

"I thought they were great, really worked hard," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said of about his players after the Monday defeat. "You know they've dug down deep all year, they never give in, and tonight was another good example."

DeMar DeRozan led San Antonio with 22 points and 11 assists in the loss. Murray and Lonnie Walker IV scored 19 each, Jakob Poeltl and Patty Mills hit for 14 apiece and Trey Lyles scored 10. Poeltl grabbed 12 rebounds to pace the Spurs.

Walker sank a career-high five 3-pointers.

"Lonnie's playing pretty confidently," Popovich said. "He's learning how to play the game, is understanding what's going on and being consistent. He's doing all those things better."

San Antonio's Keldon Johnson, Derrick White, Rudy Gay, Devin Vassell and Quinndary Weatherspoon were held out for the third straight game because of health and safety protocols. Of those five players, Johnson is the most likely to see the court on Tuesday.

--Field Level Media

(STATS / cbssports.com)
 
Thanks, Rady.

In a move that would have seemed inconceivable as recently as last week, Frank Ntilikina starts at PG for the Knicks tonight. He needs to take this opportunity and run hard with it.
 

mafra

Legend
Frank has 3 threes tonight. He?s now 10-18 on the year from downtown.

Don?t give up on a bench 3-&-D for
Nada
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Frank's hot hand in the 3rd qtr. suppose to get him 30 + minutes of playing-time tonight.
Thibs is crazy !!!
 

mafra

Legend
Third game in 4 days ITIS. We were undermanned and out of gas, playing another undermanned and out of gas team. But, Popps had them ready to go and Randle/RJ duo had 29 combined points instead of 54. Toppin, the draft?s most NBA ready offensively inclined 24 year-old, had 7 points in 25 minutes (so much for the usuals excuse), and 7 point total from the Bullock-Burks duo.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Our big head allstar Randle hog the point on every offensive-possession like our Ex-Bum Melo used to do every game .. that's why we kept screaming we need a PG every season Melo was a Knicks.
Now Randle head is SWOLLEN!
Randle is not Draymond Green. Nor is Randle a decent point-forward, unless you add his performance tonight.
And Thibs went a long with Randle TRYING to be the PG on every offensive-possession tonight ..
We had No Rose, No Payton, No Rivers tonight to play PG, and Thibs & Randle REFUSE to let Frank play the point, or give Frank his first 30 minute game this season.
After watching tonight game the rumors are true, Leon & Thibs has plans on trading Frank !!!
 
Third game in 4 days ITIS. We were undermanned and out of gas, playing another undermanned and out of gas team. But, Popps had them ready to go and Randle/RJ duo had 29 combined points instead of 54. Toppin, the draft?s most NBA ready offensively inclined 24 year-old, had 7 points in 25 minutes (so much for the usuals excuse), and 7 point total from the Bullock-Burks duo.

Not sure what you want Toppin to do. He hit 3 of 7 shots. Meanwhile, Burks goes 1 for 9 and Quickley chucks up 21 shots. How you find a way to single out Toppin every time we lose is beyond me. This time you even aged him 2 years to boot.
 
Toppin is shooting 48% from the floor this season, but the crazy thing is that he has hit 61% of his 2 point shots. Do we regularly feed him the ball to go to work on the interior? No, we have him hanging out at the 3 point line.

It?s not Toppin. It?s how he is being used. Or not being used, given he only is averaging 12 minutes a game.
 

The Dragon

Benchwarmer
Frank is not active like Rose, IQ or even Elfred. he doesn't impose risk on the other team when he has the ball like Rose or IQ.... he slow the pass a lot on offence, he needs to be more aggressive going to the basket or shooting, he has nice shot, better than Rose and Elfred, but he doesn't use it..... he is very passive on offence.... somebody has to get it out of his head that he is only good in defence.....
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Not sure what you want Toppin to do. He hit 3 of 7 shots. Meanwhile, Burks goes 1 for 9 and Quickley chucks up 21 shots. How you find a way to single out Toppin every time we lose is beyond me. This time you even aged him 2 years to boot.

A forwards (PF/SF Obi & Knox) offensive-game depends on the PG & SG abilities to get the forwards the ball.
Example: Karl Malone & John Stockton, or Nash & Amare, Dunkin & Parker, or Harden & Capela, or Jokic & Murray.
It's up to Payton, Rose, Rivers, Quickley, RJ, and Burks to stop their shoot-first performance, and start getting the forwards more involve in the offense by setting-up a couple of plays for our young-core Knox and Obi to score.
It's bad enough we have our PF Randle as our first option, and Randle decision-making at the Point does not bring Knicks wins. That's why the addition of PG/SG-Rose skills made a helluva big difference in our team-performance.
Tonight, coach Thibs let PF-Randle run the offense .. which lead us to a 119 - 93 LOSS to the Spurs.

Quickley shooting 21 FG shots tonight are all on coach Thibs having no game-plan for the Spurs.
Thibs without Rose scoring, or Payton's slashing at the PG position to boost Randle's ego to play more off the ball to pass to a slashing RJ.
Thibs had NO Game Plan for tonight game!
Frank played well as a 3 and D guy in Thibs starter lineup ..
Thibs & Randle should've let Frank play PG to run the offense in the first-half of the game, and then let Randle/Quickley run the offense in the 2nd half of the game for the win.

I'm curious .. Did Quickley's creative-scoring earn the green-light to be the 2nd or 3rd option in the Knicks offense? I say Yes!
IQ rookie performance has earned at least 24 minute per game from being such a quick scorer, plus IQ goes to the FT line 2 or more times in every half.
So far, MitchRob & Quickley are the only two players on our roster that earned their playing-time minute.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Frank is not active like Rose, IQ or even Elfred. he doesn't impose risk on the other team when he has the ball like Rose or IQ.... he slow the pass a lot on offence, he needs to be more aggressive going to the basket or shooting, he has nice shot, better than Rose and Elfred, but he doesn't use it..... he is very passive on offence.... somebody has to get it out of his head that he is only good in defence.....

At the end of last season coach Miller started giving Frank minute every game, and in each game teammates had to let Frank into the offense to the point where Frank started controlling the ball.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Frank is not active like Rose, IQ or even Elfred. he doesn't impose risk on the other team when he has the ball like Rose or IQ.... he slow the pass a lot on offence, he needs to be more aggressive going to the basket or shooting, he has nice shot, better than Rose and Elfred, but he doesn't use it..... he is very passive on offence.... somebody has to get it out of his head that he is only good in defence.....

He's not a PG,his handle isn't good enough and may never be. There was a play where Murray stripped him and it reminded me of a game last year where the announcer from I forget what team they were playing against said his handle was suspect and players would test his handle whenever they could. He also doesn't get deep enough into the paint because of it, notice the number of times he gives up the ball 10 ft from the hoop.

His best shot wherever he winds up in FA will be as a 3 and D off guard and he needs to stay healthy for the rest of the season. Pretty sure he'll be trade bait for help in the playoff push along with Rivers KK and perhaps even Bullock or Burks.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
He's not a PG,his handle isn't good enough and may never be. There was a play where Murray stripped him and it reminded me of a game last year where the announcer from I forget what team they were playing against said his handle was suspect and players would test his handle whenever they could. He also doesn't get deep enough into the paint because of it, notice the number of times he gives up the ball 10 ft from the hoop.

His best shot wherever he winds up in FA will be as a 3 and D off guard and he needs to stay healthy for the rest of the season. Pretty sure he'll be trade bait for help in the playoff push along with Rivers KK and perhaps even Bullock or Burks.


Frank only flaw is his high dribble, and being a Frenchy in NY.
Frank is more than a 3 and D guy.
Phil drafted Frank's raw skills to put alongside D.Rose in the backcourt as a tandem.
Frank & Quickley's skills are best suited at the SG position, because the two players have a handle where they could pass the ball off their dribble as a combo guard leading a break.
The four different FLAWED head-coaches Frank had as a Knicks had no type of offense/defense plan for a Knicks team to win above 40% of a 82 game season.
They all needed an experience NBA PG with creative offensive skills to win games.
Even our assistant-coach today needed Jason Kidd PG leadership to have the best coaching season of his career.
Thibs has never been a good offensive-coach however, Thibs is a great defensive-coach. The reason why Thibs had to get D.Rose & Butler for the Wolves to make the playoffs, and now D.Rose for the Knicks.

I actually believe Leon & Thibs are afraid to trade Frank to the wrong team because Frank may flourish in the next team rotation as a 3 position player.
The Brooklyn Nets Harden could use a player like Frank in his rotation now!
 

mafra

Legend
I agree. Frank doesn?t create offense nor does he have good vision. He?s a decent passer. Frank should be a 3-&-D wing. This is where his worth is. Make him a Bruce Bowen clone.

He had 0 assists playing against SA reserves.
 

The Dragon

Benchwarmer
He's not a PG,his handle isn't good enough and may never be. There was a play where Murray stripped him and it reminded me of a game last year where the announcer from I forget what team they were playing against said his handle was suspect and players would test his handle whenever they could. He also doesn't get deep enough into the paint because of it, notice the number of times he gives up the ball 10 ft from the hoop.

His best shot wherever he winds up in FA will be as a 3 and D off guard and he needs to stay healthy for the rest of the season. Pretty sure he'll be trade bait for help in the playoff push along with Rivers KK and perhaps even Bullock or Burks.


I totally agree with the handles comment, maybe that is why he rarely go deep or drive to the basket as you said, look at Rose, Elfred and Q, they all go deep and move the offense, he stick to the top of the arc and try to pass. if he doesn't impose a threat he will not be successful guard
 
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