Game Day: Knicks @ Pelicans, 4/14/21

The Knicks head to the Bayou looking for their first four-game winning streak of the year. Can RJ Barrett help the Knicks get a win over his former Duke teammate Zion Williamson in their first meeting of their careers?

Bigfoot. The Loch Ness Monster. A W in the Nike SNKRS app. A four-game Knicks win streak.

All things that some might proclaim exist, but only few claim to have ever seen in person.

Could the Knicks achieve their mythical fourth straight win tonight? Thus far it’s eluded them five other times this season. And it’s not like they coincidentally always end up against some powerhouse team for that fourth game, either — their five losses on attempted four-game streaks have come to the Thunder, Kings, Magic, Spurs, and Heat. Not exactly all scrub teams, but not really world-beaters, either.

So now the Knicks head to New Orleans to face the 25-29 Pelicans, who are currently riding their own three-game win streak after a 117-110 win over the Kings the other day.

RJ Barrett’s former Duke teammate Zion Williamson is playing crazy good basketball, averaging 29.2 points per game on 63.8% from the field in his last 29 games. RJ (last game notwithstanding) has been on his own hot streak of late. So who’s going to win the duel of the former Dookies?

Honestly, the real story is less RJ vs. Zion individually, and more Julius Randle vs. Zion. And in another way, Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson vs. Zion. Most of Williamson’s damage has been coming from the paint — he’s shot an absurd 602 of his 813 field goal attempts at the rim this year, and made 69.6% of his attempts there. Noel, Taj, and even Randle have really been making it their mission to not give anyone anything at the rim this year, so it will be intriguing to see how that affects Zion.

On the other end, it’ll be interesting to see how the Pels attack Randle. The Lakers felt OK with just single-teaming him last game, and he tore them apart. In the two games prior, the Raptors and Grizzlies aggressively doubled him, which stymied Randle’s own offensive production some, but also allowed him to rack up assists finding open teammates on the perimeter. Basically, what I’m trying to say here is that Julius is matchup-proof, and the Pels shouldn’t even try to handle him.

The game is at 8 PM tonight on MSG. Feel free to comment along here or join us on Twitter!