Like Van Gogh Knicks Paint Another Loss — March 12, 2019: Indiana 103 NY 98

March 13, 2019 Lou V 2018-19 0

Knicks have made losing an Art Form. They are Van Gogh. This may have been their Starry Night. Up against the 42-25 Pacers — whom the Knicks had twice as many losses as going in — in Indiana — the Knicks had the lead throughout the first half, by as many as 10 points. But you knew they would lose by about 10. And they lost by 5. They had fallen down by 18 early in the 4th but then the late run.

With the loss, Knicks have a very nice 3-GAME LEAD on last place, 4-game lead over Cleveland, and 5.5-game lead over Chicago with 14 games to go.

Van Gogh Overrated

Van Gogh is by the way overrated as an artist. He was my favorite artist as a kid; loved his colors. But visited the Vincent Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, and found out he only learned to paint late in life, painted for only 10 years (some of his stuff was rudimentary with bad angles but he was in right place at right time — in Paris at the advent of new paint technology — became ‘one of the boys’ of the many other famous artists flocking to Paris at the time; he artfully used the new bright colors available); cut off his ear after an argument with another male artist because he was going insane due to syphilis (there was a syphilis epidemic at the time); and went to town and threw his ear at a hooker (who perhaps gave him the syphilis). He sold one painting while alive and wasn’t particularly regarded as a fantastic painter; he lived off his brother who owned an art gallery, and died after his brother died also of syphilis. The brother’s wife, with child, out of desperation marketed and sold Van Gogh’s art and made him famous in his after-life. The song “Starry Starry Night” furthered his fame to current-day gigantic proportions. There are probably thousands of current day artists who are better. Maybe tens of thousands. Not so Rembrandt.

The Game

Trying to think of a deeper analogy between Van Gogh and the Knicks but can’t. Last night was not a good night if you are a fan of Mitchell Robinson or Allonzo Trier (3-12 for 7 points) as Robinson played only 13 minutes, and Trier had a poor shooting game. Robinson — who has been avoiding foul trouble almost completely the last two months — got into early foul trouble in this game against Domantas Sabonis, who can do that to you. Robinson picked up his 3rd foul in the second quarter — and finished with only 13 minutes, 3-3 shooting for 7 pts and 3 blocks. Sabonis dominated the Knicks in two previous games against them this season, but not tonite — 4-12, 10 points — although he did pick up two fouls on Robinson, once by leaning into Robinson on a drive.

DeAndre Jordan had something to do with that and blew up the boxscore for 5-6 shooting, 12 pts, 16 rebounds, 5 assists. Somehow he didn’t look that impressive while watching the game; will have to watch it again.

Despite the poor shooting game from Trier, he did connect on a 3 and provide one of his usual drives:

Good News Knox

Good news for the Knicks: the second good game in a row for Kevin Knox — he hit his 3 and finished on drives to the basket — he was 5-9 (4-5 from 3, 2-2 from free throw line) 16 pts, 5 rebounds in 25 minutes.

Other Knicks

Damyean Dotson again looked like a starting NBA shooting guard. He had 18 pts on 6-16 shooting (4-8 from 3) and 6 rebounds, 3 assists. Emmanuel Mudiay played well — 7-14 for 21 pts. He attacks the basket — attack attack attack — and has become much better at finishing tough layups in traffic, something he didn’t do when he came to the Knicks a year ago. He still doesn’t orchestrate his teammates well — doesn’t even look to pass sometimes; and his defense is shoddy. Coach has him out there because he attacks; pushes the tempo.

Dennis Smith Jr (3-8 for 7 points, 3 assists) didn’t play that well again. He was there at the end and you had a feeling if Trier was in there instead in the last 3 minutes, the Knicks would have won. Smith did nothing as far as penetrating to the basket or scoring in the final minutes. Still he finished with a team high +11. Fizdale is clearly playing Smith Jr to close to see what he has in him for the future.

Lance Thomas played 12 minutes and scored 2 points. Henry Ellenson and Luke Kornet did not play. Frank Ntilikina and Mario Hezonja continue to be injured.

For Indiana

This is Indiana without Victor Oladipo, out for the rest of the year. Knick castoff Wesley Matthews is the starting shooting guard, playing well (4-8, 14 pts). Boran Bogdanovic was tough — 24 pts on 9-16. Miles Turner was 5-15 for 15 pts, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in 37 minutes (Mitchell Robinson had 3 blocks in only 13 minutes). Darren Collison had 16 pts on 5-11 shooting. And Doug McDermott had 8 pts on 4-6.

More on Banning of Knick Fan Event

Meanwhile, there was more news on the banning of the Knick fan for telling James Dolan to sell the team — according to Dolan he was going to give the fan a visit to the lockerroom, etc, but then found out the fan set up the whole thing:

The boxscore:

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071680

 

Related Articles

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*