Knicks CRUSH Warriors. NY 132 Golden State 94

December 21, 2022 LouV 2022-23 0

The Knicks won their 8th straight game, CRUSHING the Golden State Warriors at Madison Square Garden on a Tuesday night, 132-94. NY was up by 30-38 points for a good part of the 4th quarter.

Golden State was without Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins, but had the rest of the team including Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole, and Draymond Green.

The Knicks DEFENSE stifled Golden State, and the Knicks’ ball movement created easy opportunities on offense.

The game was broadcast nationally on TNT, where the Knicks received no love. The TNT announcers — Brian Anderson and arch-enemy Reggie Miller (with Jared Greenberg reporting) — weaved a story through the night that Golden State was “undermanned and scuffling on the road”. There was hardly any mention of how well the Knicks were playing at all.

Afterwards, coach Tom Thibodeau summarized why the Knicks have won 8 in a row: “The field goal percentage has been good from the start of the season, free throw percentage good, the rebounding good, and points in the paint — we did a good job with our shell right from the start of the season — but I think right now we’re putting it all together.”

Thibs added: “We’re challenging shots a little bit better. The containment — our bigs are really making good decisions in the restricted, and that’s helped. Our guards are doing a better job of squaring up the ball. So it’s probably a compilation of steady improvement from the start to where we are now. And there’s still a lot of things that we have to do better. So we can’t be satisfied with it. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

1. TNT Announcers Become Part of Story

Before the game, TNT studio analysts Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley trivialized the recent Knick success. “I don’t think they can get out of 1 round of the playoffs,” said Shaq.

“I’m with you Shaq — whoop de doo,” said Charles Barkley. “They’re not even the best team in the same state. They’re not even the best team in their city.”

2. Knicks Lead Grows and Grows — and then the Crush

The Knicks pulled out to an 15-point lead in the 2nd quarter, led by 13 at the half, and led by 19 after 3 quarters. Defense, rebounding, ball movement.

On the last play of the 3rd quarter, Golden State came down with 5 seconds left, got the ball to Jordan Poole on the left side, and Quentin Grimes gave the foul with .1 second left. He must have thought the Knicks had a foul to give. They didn’t. Poole got (and made) two free throws. All of this happened right in front of coach Tom Thibodeau who could be seen glaring and barking at Grimes.

At the end of the quarter, Thibs was given a quick interview on TNT and said he wasn’t happy with the Knicks defense so far — Golden State was shooting for too high a percentage.

So the Knicks really turned on the Defense in the 4th quarter and blew Golden State off the court — winning by 38 points

3. Robinson >> Wiseman

The TNT announcers spent a fair amount of time discussing James Wiseman, and how he was slowly getting better in the NBA. They hardly mentioned Mitchell Robinson at all.

Wiseman came off the bench for 4 points (on 1-4 shooting), 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 22 minutes and a -29. Robinson had 9 points (3-3 shooting) and 11 rebounds, 3 steals, and a +19.

The Robinson/Julius Randle versus Wiseman/Draymond Green was an interesting matchup within the matchup. The Knicks Dominated it — Green gave Randle some tough D but Randle finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists and a +17. Green had 7 pts, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists in 26 minutes.

4. Knick Guards Destroy Golden State

With Curry out, the Knicks had the better guards — Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes, Immanuel Quickley, and Deuce Miles McBride overwhelmed and far out-did Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole.

Jalen Brunson was a sniper all evening — getting to where he wanted to get on the court at will, hitting mid range jumpers all over the place, and popping in some 3’s for good measure. He had 21 points on 7-16 (2-5 from 3) shooting.

RJ Barrett handled Klay Thompson and then some. Barrett was efficient on his drives — finishing with 18 points on 8-19 (only 1-6 from 3) in 31 minutes.  He had the luxury of sitting for the entire 4th as the Knicks rested their starters for a back-to-back game in Toronto Wednesday night.

Quentin Grimes had a terrific night — 19 points on 5-9 shooting (4-8 from 3) while guarding Jordan Poole (26 points on 8-18, 2-8 from 3) — Grimes did not let Poole go off.

And Immanuel Quickley shot lights out throughout the night and especially in the 4th quarter — he finished with 22 points on 6-10 shooting (5-6 from 3).

5. TNT Insult to Injury

The TNT announcers Anderson and Miller didn’t even get the Knick players right at times — in the 3rd quarter Julius Randle hit the floor scrambling for a loose ball that he got and tossed to Mitchell Robinson as the announcers were saying that Robinson was on the floor scrambling for the ball. Later, Deuce Miles McBride received an ahead-of-field pass for a layup and the announcers called him Grimes.

Late in the game, TNT announcer Anderson complemented Isaiah Hartenstein on his play, saying he was in many ways similar to Nikola Jokic — and then Miller and Anderson joked the rest of the night that Hartenstein was no Jokic — which ended up oddly kind of belittling his play.

Jericho Sims jumped out of the gym several times for slams and that got mention from the announcers at least.

All the Knick reserves had huge +/- numbers as the crush continued thru the 4th and even Svi Mykhailiuk (5 pts) and Ryan Arcidiacono (3 pts) got to play.

6. Thibs Got to Sit Down

Coach Tom Thibodeau got to sit down in the 4th quarter, which was noticed by the players.

“Obi told me,” said Randle. “I was like ‘wait, what?’. He was like, ‘I’ve never seen that’. This is Thibs 3rd season here? I’ve never seen him sit down. That was Crazy. He was probably so uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to do.”

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468618

 

 

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