Chapter 1: What happened in the Knicks game against Utah?
We did have a Knicks game last night in Salt Lake City. And it was, you know, look, Knicks are in this road trip where it's been up, it's been down. You know, it's kind of like, eh, bad opponent in Utah. And they're kind of sleepwalking through that first half. And then things flip there in the second half. And they end up winning, kind of going away. And Jordan Clarkson and his return to Utah.
He was a member of the Jazz. He goes off for a season-high 27 points off the bench. And at the end of the day, I mean, look, it's a victory. And they got one more to go on this road trip. Two and two thus far. And... Here's where I stand with the Knicks, and I've felt this way for a while, and you can agree or disagree here in a second.
And I'm not a diehard Knicks fan, so I come at it from a little bit of a different angle.
Chapter 2: How did Jordan Clarkson perform in his return to Utah?
They've gotten to the point where, to me, the regular season is, I'm not going to say completely meaningless, but... We're all just waiting for the playoffs, and we're going to nitpick things. There's things we're going to like, things we're not going to like, questions we're going to have.
To me, I don't think that there's really anything they can do in the remainder of the regular season that's going to make me feel like, yes, I feel really strongly that this team can go to the NBA Finals, or conversely, that I don't have confidence. or, hey, they're going to get picked off. They're going to lose to this team.
This shortcoming is going to be the thing that does them in when it comes to the postseason. Ultimately, we just got to get to the point where they're going to play these games. They're going to match up with who they're going to match up in these series and let the results lie where they may.
Yeah, I agree with you.
Chapter 3: What are the Knicks' current standings on their road trip?
I think being on the West Coast is tough. I think you worry about the tread on the tire. I think going into this game, obviously Josh Hart was dealing with a sore knee. And I also think people need to listen to what Mike Brown's comments and his evaluation of the team, talking about lack of hustle, talking about defensively he felt they were lazy and they got beat up on the boards.
And I'm talking about the game against L.A. And then they go into ā You know, the Clippers game, and they go into this game, and you start, as you stated, the first half, I was like, oh, they made the doors blown off. Yeah. And Brunson went cold. And the second half, you know, they rallied.
Chapter 4: What are the Knicks' playoff expectations this season?
I think the biggest thing for the Knicks right now, you just acquired Jose Alvarado. And listen, his first two games, I thought he was solid. As of late, he's kind of been spotty. Colick, they got out there. He's been spotty. They need somebody to back Jalen Brunson up to be a better presence off that bench because he's playing a lot of minutes.
He's picked up on his minutes as of late on the West Coast. And in Valley, he was able to kind of rally in the second half and really knock down some shots. But Clarkston was big. I thought Cat was big. Mitch had a big game. I thought he was solid. So OG had a couple big threes. But Utah gave them a fight. I don't know if anybody watched the game. I know it was late.
But Utah gave them a fight all the way into the fourth quarter. Knicks just had a little more spunk, a little more fire in their step, and they were able to get out the building with it.
So we're getting down to this kind of last stretch here, last month or so of the season. They got one more on the road trip. They got to go play the Pacers, who obviously have had their issues this year, missing Hal Burton, and they lost some guys in the offseason after their trip to the finals, but had their way with the Knicks.
Not had their way, but beat the Knicks in overtime at the Garden this Last time they faced each other and they're gonna see them a couple times here in short order But again, you know this last pocket of games like is there what do you need to see? Is there anything you can you need to see from this team down the stretch? We're gonna be like, all right now now I'm really ready to do this.
We got to be a lot better in transition I think that's one thing that killed us last night, especially I mean Utah was able to just pretty much get up and down the court At will I also think You know, we got to get more from our bench. Our bench is hurting us. And Mikael has to be better. I think he's going through a little shooting struggle.
Yeah, he had an off night.
Right. So, overall, I mean, for me, defensively, we got to step it up from a transition standpoint. But I thought Cat's been picking up his game. He seems a little more involved. And Brunson has to play all four quarters. And when he gets cold, we struggle.
But don't you also feel like game to game, opponent to opponent, quarter to quarter? Obviously, it's the NBA. You're going to have runs and whatnot. But I tend to believe that in a best of seven series. you know, where they can really go to work and go to town on the specific opponent and game planning.
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Chapter 5: What issues did the Knicks face in their recent games?
You know, you've got some representative teams, but, like, the Knicks have been built for making this run. So, game to game, like, there's going to be some fluctuations. They're going to have some off nights. They're going to have some off moments, like, throughout the course of a game. And, like, To expect these guys to kill it in transition defense or defensively every minute of 82 games.
Maybe that's a mistake on my part to believe that.
But I'm just reacting to the question you asked me. What is a sign for a Knicks fan to say this team is ready? Most likely we will play Indiana. If you go back to last year's series, what killed us was our lack of ability to get back in transition. Our lack of ability to stop spurts. We've been seeing these over ā during the West Coast, we ā well, this West Coast trip, excuse me. Yeah.
We've seen these signs, right? So for me, as a Knicks fan, I sit here, I'm like, if we're still deficient in those areas and we got the playoffs right around the corner, yeah, this calls for concern.
Yeah, so they've got the game with the Pacers to wrap up the road trip. Then you've got Golden State coming in without Curry. You've got India, you've got the Nets in there, you've got the Wizards, you've got the Pelicans. I feel like it shapes up pretty nicely for them over the course of the next couple of weeks to put themselves further in a good spot.
I mean, look, they're pretty entrenched there right now in the number three spot in the East. The Boston thing, it's interesting. Because I didn't know what to expect as far as Tatum coming back, how effective he was going to be, how effective they were going to be without him.
I didn't either. I was talking about this last week when he had his return. I thought they should have let him come off the bench, the kind of easiest way. Like, if he would have played 15 to 20 minutes, I'm like, that's a smart move. I tore my Achilles. I tore my right Achilles. So I know what it means to come back from an Achilles injury. And it wasn't the issue from a physical standpoint.
It was really from the neck up. Feeling like I could still do what I need to do in the spur of the moment and without thinking about what I need to do. Tatum, he bossed all that. I mean, his first game, he looked amazing. Because I figured out what I was thinking, rather. I thought Joe Mazzulla needed to figure out where did he lose his first step? Can he still elevate on his jumper?
Is he a defensive liability? Those are things I felt like he needed to figure out. That first game, I mean, forget about it. I mean, he put all that in the can and he's been excellent thus far in the game.
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Chapter 6: How can the Knicks improve their transition defense?
I've been watching Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.
Yeah, so, I mean, the U.S. can breathe easy as they did survive and move on to the quarterfinals thanks to Team Italy and Vinny Pasquino basically in the postgame saying, hey, you're welcome, you're welcome.
So he was feeling himself a little bit. The one who's the happiest.
Yes, yes. Front-facing. But again, he's not the only guy that's involved there. At some point, someone else that's part of that Team USA outfit has got to be able to step in and understand what's going on.
I know he's been dragged, but he does. I mean, 9 o'clock in the morning when he did that bite in Valley, you should know what's going on. I mean, you're the captain of the ship.
Yeah.
But we should give him some grace, right? I thought about that this morning.
Well, we can now because they're not eliminated, which helps.
But even if they were to be eliminated, you wouldn't give him nothing? You wouldn't give him no love? Not really, no.
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