Game Day: Knicks @ Warriors, 1/21/21
The Knicks roll into Golden State to start their four-game west coast road trip. Can they contain the red-hot Steph Curry, or will he finally be the one to punish the Knicks from deep?
Our friends across the pond can just wake up early instead of staying up late for this one, right? Yea, who cares. They don’t wanna see this shit.
I’ll spare you the gory details, so you don’t have to suffer through an unreasonable amount of second half Elfrid Payton minutes. This is whats gonna happen.
Speak it into existence
The return of Alec Burks tonight will help the Knicks’ league-worst 3-point shooting, though I don’t think he’s got enough to bring them into respectability. At worst you want to be league average. Unfortunately, the Knicks are starting four non-shooters, and that has dropped them squarely into last in attempts and 23rd in percentage. They also manage to be fifth-worst in threes allowed, but they have to best opponent 3P% in the league. So something is going right. Nevertheless, I’m dubious about how much value that defense has to do with Elfrid Payton and Reggie Bullock running guys off the line. That’s why here at dot Land we reject the current starters. It is imperative to advocate for a change to put some more mustard on this dirty water dog.
Payton, in particular, has a horrendous habit of ball watching and digging too far down. That leaves him cut off at the knee when trying to close to shooters on kick-outs. He regularly loses his man this way, and Steph Curry may in fact be the best off-ball mover in the NBA. Good luck, Elf, you’ll need a fuckton of it.
Ultimately, how high up Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle can get while defending pick-and-rolls without letting Curry fire at will or waltz to the rim may be the biggest question. He may be the hardest singular talent in the NBA to guard, and the Warriors are starting to come together around him as they establish an identity with their new teammates. Whatever you do, don’t give him a reason to get up for this game.
Knicks by -63
It all started out in the Golden State
Late game, so you got plenty of time, here’s the full playlist of one of my favorite Short Dog records.
