Game Day: Knicks @ Nets, 3/15/21
The Knicks head across the river for the first game of a brutal back-to-back tonight and tomorrow. Can they pull an upset against the red-hot Nets?
The Knicks got a much-needed win on Saturday. It felt great, didn’t it? Sure, it was a little worrisome to see the Knicks come out and fall behind the Thunder by double digits early, but ultimately they figured it out and won the game. Cool! A nice little win that effectively required the effort of running away from a little fluffy, yapping puppy.
Today, the Knicks will have to try to run away from a cheetah riding a champion racehorse with chainsaws strapped to its head. The Nets have won 12 of their last 13 games — and they’ve been without Kevin Durant for 12 of those 13. Hasn’t really mattered that much, because James Harden has more or less been a walking triple-double, and I guess Kyrie Irving has rediscovered his verve for basketball after his little early-season hiatus.
If the Knicks want any chance of competing against this absolute buzzsaw of a team, they’re gonna need to embrace the best possible offensive lineup they have and try to use their formidable defense to slow the Nets down enough to outscore them. So, enter the ideal starting lineup, as evidenced by that second half romp on Saturday:
Even if Elfrid Payton and Derrick Rose get cleared for this game, the time is now. Shit, if Clyde Frazier decides to suit up tonight, it’s still time. There was no 3-point line when you played, Clyde! We gotta space the floor! Get Immanuel Quickley in the damn starting lineup.
Going into this game, the Knicks are sitting at fourth in the NBA in defensive rating (108.6) and the Nets are sitting at first in offensive rating (118). Conversely, the Nets are 25th in the league in defensive rating (113.2) and the Knicks are 23rd in offensive rating (108.8). Unstoppable force weight down by an immovable object, meet immovable object being pushed on by a very stoppable force. Or something like that, I dunno. The Nets are good on offense, the Knicks are good on defense. This will be a big test for the Knicks, particularly after they got eviscerated by an injury-riddled shell of this Nets team back in January (though that iteration had Durant, just not Irving or Harden).
If the Knicks can roll out the starting lineup above, they figure to take advantage of the biggest Achilles’ heel of the Nets’ defense — Irving and Harden, who aren’t exactly known for their play on that side of the ball. Stretch them out, make them chase Quickley and Bullock and Barrett around screens all day and defend them all over the floor. Don’t give one of them possessions off by letting them double Randle while Payton sits in the corner (assuming Payton’s healthy for tonight).
Game’s at 8 PM tonight on ESPN. Yeah, the Knicks are big time now, look at all those national TV games! Feel free to comment along here or with us on Twitter.
