The New York Knicks started off their seven-game road trip with a 123-108 loss to a newly-assembled Philadelphia 76ers team featuring James Harden and Joel Embiid.

Eragon is one of my favorite fiction novels ever.

That being said, the film adaptation is one of the worst movies of all time. Yet because of my affinity for the storyline, I will still watch it from time to time. 

I know it sucks. I know why it sucks. I know what could make it better. And most importantly, I know that there’s nothing I can do to change it from playing out the same way it always does, no matter how many times I watch.

But every six months I concede to the gods of cinema and spend 99 minutes watching miserably as one of my favorite stories is butchered in translation.

I can’t imagine a better analogy for what’s become of the 2021-2022 New York Knicks season.

Wednesday night’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers started off like so many New York Knicks games have in recent weeks.

They came out running, motivated, and hitting shots; jumping out to an 18-9 lead after Jericho Sims put back a missed jumper from Evan Fournier:

Despite playing against this season’s MVP-favorite in Joel Embiid, and a previous MVP in James Harden, it was the Julius Randle/RJ Barrett tandem that ruled the first 12 minutes. 

The two combined for 20 points to start off Wednesday night’s national TV affair, helping New York out to a 33-25 lead over the 76ers after one.

They didn’t slow down, either, combing for another 15 points in the second quarter, although this was largely by way of Barrett’s continued hot scoring. 

It’s these moments that help paint the picture of a brighter Knicks future, one where Barrett sits firmly atop the totem pole as the franchise face and team’s best player. 

And those images certainly stand more vivid when the team is winning following these stretches. New York walked into halftime up 62-55 over Philadelphia. 

But to open the second half, when faced with the adversity of a resurgent 76ers team, head coach Tom Thibodeau regressed to his comfort zone; outright and unresolved surrender.

Joel Embiid scored six unanswered points to open the third quarter, prompting a Knicks timeout, but as he is accustomed, the head coach kept his starting lineup in the game. 

And to their credit, they began fighting back…

…but Philadelphia took their first lead of the game on a pair of free throws from James Harden at the halfway mark of the third quarter.

New York wouldn’t retake the lead for the rest of the game. But as has continued to be the case out of the All-Star break, RJ Barrett made sure to keep us interested with a strong performance.

The Knicks ultimately fell to the 76ers, 123-108. 

It’s their 16th loss in their last 19 games. 

Notes

• Wednesday night marks RJ Barrett’s eighth game with 30 or more points this season. Despite losing two of them out of the All-Star break, the New York Knicks still have a winning record (5-3) this season in such games.

• After recording 12 field goal attempts in the first half, RJ got only three (!!!) in the first 12 minutes of the second half. Evan Fournier and Julius Randle refuse to recognize his ascension, and it’s quite literally the most frustrating thing to watch in real time. Hell, even the three attempts he did get in the third weren’t on-ball; he was pinned up in the corner waiting for an extra pass to fire off a three. I’m pretty sure you could find a diagram in How to Reverse Star Development 101. As far as I’m considered, this is what decided the game. Because, yes, not letting your best player take shots is a counterintuitive strategy, for those at home wondering.

• I’ve never been more convinced that Julius Randle’s hot shooting from last season was a one-hit wonder. He finished this one with 24 points on 9-21 shooting from the field and 0-2 shooting from behind the arc. After making 160 of his 389 3-point attempts last year, he’s just hit 94 of his 314 this year.

• Cam Reddish recorded his most minutes since being traded to the Knicks, and even then, it felt like Thibs was mismanaging him. If prompted, the head coach would likely chalk it up to foul trouble, as the 21-year-old recorded his third foul at the 7:13 mark of the second quarter. But he wasn’t brought back into this one until the 3:45 minute mark of the third quarter. That’s over 12 minutes riding the pine.

• On a brighter note, he was absolutely brilliant in the first half. He even made a three!

• Nerlens Noel didn’t suit up for the eighth straight game. Due to the reports of his plantar fasciitis, you have to wonder if we see him again this season.

• Per Cleaning the Glass, in the 1,095 possessions the Knicks have played with Alec Burks at point guard, they’re scoring 108.3 points per 100 possessions and allowing 114.6 points per on defense. That ranks in the 26th and 23rd percentiles, respectively. No bueno.

• Cleaning the Glass also shows no lineup data for New York when filtered through Alec Burks playing point guard with Immanuel Quickley on the floor. That means the Knicks haven’t tried that lineup for more than 10 possessions this season. Not that anyone wants to see it, but this is further indicative of the idea that while Burks is a very bad fit at point guard, his presence is also detrimental to Quickley’s development at the position.

I love the Eragon story. 

Because I’ve read the novel some dozen times now, I know what it could be on the big screen. 

Unfortunately, it’s not meant to be. The film remake that graded 16% on Rotten Tomatoes (generously I might add) will never outgrow its perpetual ceiling.

In the same vein, I love this New York Knicks team.

And based on all of the double-digit leads they’ve built up over some of the NBA’s top contending teams, I see an image of a team that can (and should be) better than this.

But similar to Eragon director Stefen Fangmeier, head coach Tom Thibodeau insists on retelling this story without its best parts, leading the way to a cataclysmic ending each and every time.

The most-used phrase in our Strickland server on Discord following this loss to the Philadelphia 76ers was “fireable offense,” as we counted off the many, many issues that could be traced directly back to the head of the New York Knicks bench. 

Fangmeier didn’t get an opportunity to film Eldest, the Eragon sequel film.

Thibodeau should see the same fate.

Fireable offenses. Everywhere.