Game Thread: New York Knicks vs San Antonio Spurs 5/13/2021 7:30 pm [Game #70]

rady

Administrator
Staff member

gt.png


SAS.gif
at.png
NYK.gif

(33-36) -- (39-31)

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



Probable starters:

away.png
i
i
i
i
i


home.png
i
i
i
i
i


Injury Report

San Antonio SpursNew York Knicks
Luka Samanic - Broken finger, left hand (OUT)Reggie Bullock - Sprained right ankle (PROB)
Trey Lyles - Sprained right ankle (OUT)Derrick Rose - Sprained left ankle (PROB)
Derrick White - Right ankle sprain (QUEST)Alec Burks - Left knee contusion (PROB)
-Immanuel Quickley - Sprained left ankle (QUEST)
-Mitchell Robinson - Foot surgery (OUT)


Game Preview

For the first time in eight years, the New York Knicks have clinched a playoff spot.

With three home games remaining, the Knicks hope to improve their positioning in the Eastern Conference starting on Thursday when they host the San Antonio Spurs.

The Knicks (38-31) clinched a berth that was unexpected by many heading into the season and are assured of at least a top-six seed after the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. After Boston lost to Cleveland, New York star Julius Randle tweeted: "Check it off the list. We not close to done."

New York holds the same record as the Miami Heat but lost all three head-to-head meetings. The Knicks are a half-game behind the fourth-place Atlanta Hawks, from whom they swept the season series. If all three teams are tied, the NBA's tiebreakers say a division winner is the first tiebreaker and a head-to-head record is the second tiebreaker.

The Knicks are returning from splitting a six-game road trip and are 13-4 in their past 17 games since falling to 25-27 with a two-point loss at Boston on April 7. New York nearly posted a winning trip but took a 101-99 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night in a game that featured 22 lead changes.

"We fought like hell," Randle said. "Me, I played to exhaustion. I know my guys played to exhaustion. To do what we did, last game of the road trip, against a championship-caliber team, the play was great."

New York was done in by rebounding woes as it was outrebounded 51-38 and could not get a rebound before the Lakers hit the tying shot in regulation.

"Rebounding beat us tonight," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. "All we had to do is get that last rebound, the last shot of the game. Everyone's got to get a body on everyone."

Even with the rebounding woes, the Knicks got monster performances from Randle and Derrick Rose. Randle scored 31 points, marking his 14th 30-point showing of the season, while Rose finished with a season-high 27 points to cap the trip.

The Knicks are playing a rescheduled game from February due to a positive COVID-19 test on the Spurs at the time but could be undermanned. Reggie Bullock (ankle), Alec Burks (knee), Immanuel Quickley (ankle) and Rose (ankle) are listed as questionable.

San Antonio (33-36) is 2-7 in its past nine games and missed a chance to clinch 10th place in the Western Conference when it never led in a 128-116 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.

DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points and Dejounte Murray added 15 but the Spurs trailed by double digits for most of the night. They remain two games ahead of the Sacramento Kings.

The Spurs dropped three games behind the ninth-place Memphis Grizzlies by being unable to follow up one of their most impressive wins of the season. After shooting 59.6 percent and hitting 17 3-pointers in a 146-125 rout of the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, San Antonio shot 42.6 percent and missed 23 of 31 3-point tries.

"I just want to win and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to win," Murray said. "But at the end of the day, the situation we're in, the last option is getting that play-in berth and going to see what we can do to try to get in the playoffs."

--Field Level Media

(STATS / cbssports.com)
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Thanks for the Game-Thread Rady .... The Spurs game tonight has become a must win for the Knicks players confidence going into the playoffs. I was hoping we beat Lakers & Spurs to give us a 40 win season having 2 games left to rest Randle one or both games.
I would have like to see both our dynamic rookies (Obi & IQ) receive 30 minute of playing-time in one game together this season.
 
Not going to lie. I?m glad Celtics lost and we have the playoffs clinched and instead these last 3 games are for seed. Takes a lot of the heat off. Sure, we?re better off playing Atlanta or Miami than Milwaukee, but the idea of losing tonight and having to worry still about the play-in would be making me sweat way worse.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Half-Time .. Knicks 46 - Spurs 43

Some defensive battle. Neither team has hit 40 yet with less than 4 minutes to go in the 1st half.

A Defensive orientated game .. with D.Rose dynamic offense missing this will be an up-down close game, unless Thibs have a trick up his sleeve for the 2nd half.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Knicks take a 46-43 lead at the half. Said yesterday we missed Quick and to a lesser extent Burks scoring in the Laker game but Burks has been better than IQ scoring 14 all in the 2nd. Other guys seemed to have cooled after that period of hot shooting so we could use another hot hand like Burks and IQ.
 
We?ve seen this all season. RJ just all of a sudden going into alpha mode in the 2nd half. Lead is cut all the way down to 4.
 
We got torched the first half of the 3rd quarter but close the quarter on a 15 to 2 run to trail only by 4 going into the 4th.
 
Good to have Burks back for the playoff push. He steps it up when things get tight. He?s made a couple big plays here late in the 4th.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Burks Burks Burks for Crunch-Time points 96-92 Knicks .. 2 min remain
sssh .. 21- 2 run as soon as Payton sat his ass down !!!
 
Top