Schlock. At Least Toppin Scored 20. Cleveland 119 NY 101

With the Knicks officially eliminated from the playoffs, they took on playoff-bound Cleveland at Madison Square Garden on a Saturday afternoon. NY made it a game into the 3rd quarter — but then Cleveland pulled away and blew them out.

Immanuel Quickley kept the Knicks alive at the beginning of the 4th — scoring their first 9 points — but RJ Barrett had a difficult afternoon — his ball constantly rolling out of the rim on his drives. He finished 4-18 and the Knicks fell with him.

You had to feel bad for the people who purchased tickets for this game. Overall, the Knicks played poor D and at the end, schlock basketball.

1. Barrett Averaging 20.0 PPG

Barrett seemed intent on keeping the Knicks in the game and keeping his PPG average above 20. He came in at 20.1 ppg, but with the 4-18 performance only scored 12 points — lowering his ppg average to 20.0.

His hero ball hurt the Knicks, as the ball did not rotate at all.

Meanwhile Darius Garland, Cleveland’s young star point guard — did distribute — for 13 assists and 24 points. The Cavaliers had a balanced attack — with Kevin Love killing the Knicks off the bench (15 points on 6-10 shooting, 3-7 from 3), center Moses Brown scoring 16 points with 13 rebounds, Caris LeVert scoring 19, and Isaac Okoro scoring 16.

2. Toppin Scores 20

And then Obi Toppin scored again and Kenny Albert said he had 20 points. Toppin did it on efficient 5-10 shooting from the floor (1-4 from 3) and a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line in 31 minutes as the starting power forward.

Julius Randle was out with a nagging leg injury — and coach Tom Thibodeau said that would probably be it for the season for him.

3. Quickley Looked Good Again

Immanuel Quickley looked good again running the team — 17 points on 6-17 shooting and 7 assists (with 7 rebounds). So that continued to bode well for the Knicks future.

4. Other Knicks

Evan Fournier had a quiet 19 points on 6-10 shooting.

Mitchell Robinson was at times awesome in the paint — at one point in the 2nd quarter blocking back to back shots to keep the Knicks from falling behind too far. But in the end they fell behind by very far. Robinson blocked 3 shot on the night, and had 7 points in 29 minutes.

Taj Gibson was popping 3’s every chance he got in the 1st half. It was reported that his 3-pt field goal percentage on the season was 50 percent coming in, including a perfect 8-8 from the right corner. So he started popping away like it was a schoolyard game which it essentially was. He went 1-5 from 3 and 2-7 overall for 8 pts.

Jericho Sims played 16 minutes of aggressive basketball, and had 6 rebounds and 2 points.

Alec Burks had 11 points on 3-9 shooting. Miles McBride and Quentin Grimes were out injured.

Ryan Arcidiacono played 22 minutes. The new Knick is knicknamed “The Arch of Dimes” — dime meaning assist. The 6’3 former college star at Villanova had 5 points and 1 assist in 22 minutes. He played with intensity.

Etcetera

Other highlights on the afternoon were Luis Severino pitching 4 shutout 1-hit innings against Philadelphia in a Spring Training game — hopeful for the Yanks since he’s been lit up his previous 2 spring starts. And bad news for the Mets as Jacob deGrom was put on the shelf for a month. It was that kind of afternoon for the Knicks — as fans started switching their attention to baseball.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360981

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*