Game Thread: New York Knicks vs Washington Wizards 23/3/2021 7:30 pm [Game #44]

rady

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(15-26) -- (21-22)

VenueTVTIME
Madison Square Garden, New York, NYMSG7:30 PM EST



Probable starters:

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Injury Report

Washington WizardsNew York Knicks
Davis Bertans - Strained right calf (OUT)Austin Rivers - Trade/buyout possibility (OUT)
Ish Smith - Right proximal quadriceps injury (OUT)Elfrid Payton - Sore right hamstring (QUEST)
Thomas Bryant - Torn ACL (OUT)-
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Game Preview

Three times in the past week, the Knicks have lost to an upper-echelon Eastern Conference team.

The most recent defeat left the Knicks making frustrated comments about the officiating.

New York, however, hopes it won't feel any frustration when it hosts the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.

The Knicks are coming off four straight games decided by five points or fewer, and their only win was 94-93 Thursday over the Orlando Magic in a game decided by Reggie Bullock's steal against Evan Fournier on Orlando's last possession.

On Sunday, the Knicks hung with the Philadelphia 76ers for nearly three hours before falling 101-100 in overtime.

"Everyone wants to win,'' New York's RJ Barrett said. "When we lose, especially a game like this, a game we should've won, it's a tough way to lose.''

Barrett's comments were made after Julius Randle made incensed postgame remarks about being called for a loose-ball foul with 5.3 seconds left, allowing Tobias Harris to sink the game-winning free throws.

"After all the fouling and everything that was going on, for them to call that and decide the game is (expletive) ridiculous," Randle said. "They have to do a better job.''

The Knicks enter a two-game series against the Wizards with four losses in their past six games after going 8-3 in their previous 11.

Randle scored 24 points Sunday, hit the game-tying 3-pointer in regulation but missed a potential game-winning shot with one second left in overtime. He connected on 7-of-23 from the field in 46 minutes and is shooting 40 percent (46 of 115) in his past six games.

The Wizards can relate to some of New York's frustration from Sunday as they enter with six losses in their past seven games since a two-point win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 4.

The latest defeat was 113-106 Sunday in Brooklyn, when the Wizards nearly erased a 14-point deficit with a late comeback.

The Wizards shot 53.2 percent from the field but committed 19 turnovers and were 7-of-21 from 3-point range.

"You can still win the game," Washington coach Scott Brooks said. "We were right there with only seven makes. You've got to be able to generate points in the paint and generate points at the free-throw line."

Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal combined for 14 turnovers on a night in which four Washington starters scored at least 17 points.

Westbrook posted a triple-double with 29 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds, and Beal was held to 17 points, his second-lowest figure of the season.

The Knicks took the first meeting of the season 109-91 in Washington on Feb. 12.

--Field Level Media

(STATS / cbssports.com)
 
It would be nice for the Knicks to just put their foot on someone?s throat for once. Maybe tonight?s the night.
 
Knicks lead 66 - 49 late in the 1st half. I like to think it?s because we are a much better team. We?ll see if we can show some killer instinct tonight.
 

mafra

Legend
69-49 at the half... WAS 2-12 from downtown. Beal and RW loom large tho... Still, we will battle with CHI and WAS for the 9-10 spots (especially if Indy is a seller). So, at least forcing a split in these back2back vs WAS a must.
 
Some teams and some players would have a hard time bouncing back from a tough OT loss. Tonight, Knicks lead by 29 and Randle has 35 points halfway through the 3rd quarter.
 
MRob with 16 and 11. Noel has played well with MRob out, but needless to say, MRob should be getting the bulk of the minutes at center going forward.
 
RJ with 21 points. As Clyde just said, RJ looking more and more like the player he was at Duke.

3 consecutive 20 point games for Burks.
 
Not sure what more you can say about Randle. In the closing minutes, Randle is on the sideline talking one on one with Toppin, looking like he is trying to help him breakdown the game.

Before this season, who honestly believed Julius Randle would become the new cornerstone of this franchise?

Knicks now 22 - 22. Dominant win. Knicks now with more wins than they had in 66 games last season. That?s progress, fellas.
 
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Heat trailing big in the 4th. If Heat lose, we go into a 3-way tie for the 5th seed and only half game out of 4th seed. Staying focused on the 4th/5th seed will be big to avoid Bucks, Nets, and Sixers in the 1st round.

Only 28 regular season games to go in this shortened season.
 
Thibs asked in the post-game press conference about possibly giving Toppin?s minutes to Knox. Thibs said that Toppin has been very good in practice. Sounds like Toppin?s biggest issue is nerves.
 

mafra

Legend
Also sounds like Knox is done here. They won?t give up on Obi after a few months. Why? We?ve seen a lot more from Knox his rookie year, surrounded by lesser talent and inferior coaching... than the crap play on the court we?ve seen from Toppin.

What bigger indictment could there have been than during dunk contest the announcers said only 1/3 participants were bball players, and the other 2 guys just jumpers.

Obi is shooting 30% from downtown and 73% from FT. He has 19 turnover to 18 blocks/steals combined. He has 16 offensive rebounds all year. In other words, he contributes very little when he?s actually on the floor.

Is this all confidence? I hope so; I really do hope I am wrong and he just explodes... I have no doubt he practices hard and is a good soldier. He just isn?t what he was billed to be: an off force. It also makes you wonder if Perry/Rose did any homework for draft or just circled the CAA client on the top the board.

He could dominate guys in the post in college, bc he was going up against smaller, younger future dentists and chiropractors at Dayton.

We have the coaches tho... get in the lab, work on him for 18 months, and hopefully come 2022-2023 we have a guy off the bench who can give us a quality 18 minutes.

Not exactly what you are looking for with the 8th pick... but it doesn?t appear to be a Jokic or Curry we passed on. So, we live and learn.

But, still... if we draft Halliburton instead of Obi we are 27-17 instead of 22-22.


The Randle transformation is incredible. We actually have 1 of a BIG 3 already. And, with RJ, IQ, MRob we also have the surrounding depth pieces. Now we just need the other 2 of a BIG 3.

And, with Randle becoming this force... just makes having Obi here more meaningless. Even if Obi was a rising stud, where does he play? He can?t play SF or C!!!!
 
I don?t get the Haliburton obsession. 12 points, 5 assists, 3 boards in 30 minutes a game on an 18 - 25 team is closer to a bust than a star for a lottery pick.

48% from the field with 42% from 3 is pretty good, but not if you only score 12 points a game. Shooting so little a game makes your percentages unimpressive because it means what you mainly do is take open/easy shots that happen to come your way in a game.

Toppin has done nothing but he barely plays. He literally averages less than 12 minutes a game.

Ironically, if you scale Toppin up to 36 minutes per game, he?d be averaging over 12 points and 7 boards a game. In light of that, how impressive is Haliburton?s 12 points per game in 30 minutes? Not very.

Knox got 29 minutes a game his rookie year and only gave us 12 points and 4 boards a game on a terrible team.
 
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mafra

Legend
I?m not obsessed withHalliburton but he?s actually a competent player, not a complete liability on the court. He has taken over a few games (down the stretch of games) and helped SAC win a few.

Just his shooting alone open the floor. Unlike the airballs Toppin hoists.

Oh, and when we are without EP and Rose we would?ve had TH instead of nothing at PG.

We had a huge hole in the backcourt... we didn?t need another PF.

We could?ve taken Hayes tho. Gulp. And be in same boat.

But, if you are Rose, what does Obi do well that attracted him to the prospect? I don?t have any faith he?ll be able to find talent in the draft now.
 
I?m not obsessed withHalliburton but he?s actually a competent player, not a compete liability on the court. He has taken over games (done the stretch of games) and helped SAC win a few.

Oh, and when we are without EP and Rose we would?ve had TH instead of nothing at PG.

We had a huge hole in the backcourt... we didn?t need another PF.

We could?ve taken Hayes tho. Gulp. And be in same boat.

But, if you are Rose, what does Obi do well that attracted him to the prospect? I don?t have any faith he?ll be able to find talent in the draft now.

I don?t see it with Haliburton.
 
I think the draft stunk so we took a guy. It?s almost not worth sweating it. How much time was wasted debating DSJ vs Ntilikina? Too much. Both irrelevant.

Haliburton drops 28 tonight. Great game, but it comes after a stretch where he struggled to score double digits most nights. I don?t hate the kid, but I think he is a role player. Maybe he is a Bullock or Burks type guy in his prime.
 
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