Things aren’t getting any easier for the Knicks after their loss to the Thunder on Friday. Today, the Western Conference contending Nuggets visit MSG. Can the Knicks contain Jokic and the (so far) underachieving Nuggets? More importantly, have the Nuggets been properly contact-traced for COVID after facing a team yesterday that’s been knee deep in the NBA’s recent outbreak?

Some of the varnish got a little tarnished on Friday night — nothing like Wednesday’s atrocities in DC, but we can sweep this under the Robert Randolph schedule loss rug, it’s a massive dusty old thing. The accursed Friday Knicks look to return to their new selves this evening to take on the Denver Nuggets, who are on the championship contender apron. The Nug-dogs played the 76ers early yesterday, so they’re probably carrying some unverified amount of viral load into the Garden. Second game of a back-to-back sounds nice, but Philadelphia was without several players and were barely able to field a team due to contact tracing and at least one 76er getting sick.

To review, Seth Curry plays for the Sixers, he tested positive for the coronavirus. The Sixers played the Wizards, then played Brooklyn, and then the Nuggets. The Wizards played against Curry and then moved on to play the Celtics, who are now without Jayson Tatum for this reason. Players are turning up missing all over the place. Doc Rivers said he didn’t even want to play, but ultimately it’s not his decision. The mental toll this must be taking on these young men, the coaches, and whoever else is in their traveling parties, is far beyond anything I’ve ever experienced, and I can only hope they have access to all the best healthcare, because playing basketball on television for money is super cool but really it does not matter.

All that is not to discount that the Mavericks played the Nuggets on Thursday and promptly dropped three of their players due to COVID protocol. It’s flying around the league, and if it hasn’t set in for you just how closely this effects the NBA community, here’s a little background information. Seth Curry is coached by Doc Rivers. Doc’s daughter is married to Seth, and Doc’s son, Austin, just lost one of his AAU coaches to COVID on Friday. That interlocking induces trauma. Whether you create a second personality, or have full scale memory loss or hopefully just zoom in on some therapy, deflecting the pressure to keep from having a mental crisis is a boiling pot, and you’re in it.

So watch every game like it may be your last, friends.

Supposably

My guess is the Knicks will be playing a severely depleted Nuggets roster. I’d bet a quarter of the team will be out due to COVID protocol. They’re already missing Michael Porter Jr., who is under strict quarantine. Contacts will be traced. Traces of the contact will be left at the scene.

They’ll have to immediately throw the playbook out the window if none of the matches add up. In that event, it’ll all come down to who knows their team better. Mike Malone, who just helped usher Denver to the Western Conference FInals in his fourth season with the team? Or Tom Thibodeau, who is one game over .500 through the first nine games of the season?

One thing that Thibodeau has struggled with is heavy minute loads, with RJ Barrett (38.8) and Julius Randle (37.7) leading the league in minutes per game. It was something he’s been criticized for coming into the job, but it doesn’t exactly seem fair this time around given how injuries have piled up and the door is still shut on several Knicks.

So while Randle’s workload has been immense and RJ has been soaking up minutes, there is help on the horizon if Thibs wants it. Frank Ntilikina, Alec Burks, and Obi Toppin are all still ailing, while we await Taj Gibson to clear the COVID protocol to be granted access and availability. The other side of it is Thibs just not trusting the back six or so players. Omari Spellman was waived. Dennis Smith Jr. came back from injury and hasn’t played, despite being available Wednesday and Friday. After a rough outing for Quickley, maybe that changes, but it largely seems as though this rough patch will be smoothed out as soon as the backups are back up.

In his sole game, Toppin got 24 minutes. It would seem likely that even if his minutes drop significantly, he can spell five minutes of Randle, and suddenly the rotation is much more sensible and Jules can go harder in the minutes he’s given. Likewise, Burks was averaging 27.7 in his three games. While Austin Rivers has taken up the 27.7 mantle, certainly an adjustment is waiting for Barrett.

Rob the Joker

However this ends up playing out, the Nuggets present the toughest challenge New York has faced yet. Sporting a gargantuan offensive initiator who has all the dynamism of Larry Bird joined by the surface area of Oliver Miller. A truly unique tetrahedron Rubik’s cube for Mitchell Robinson to solve. While big Mitch has made huge strides on the defensive end SiMPly by showing restraint, he still struggles with the heavy bags. Andre Drummond and Joel Embiid have given him fits, powering through his chest and riding him to goal.

Enter Nikola Jokic. A big old bear that just skates around the floor, seemingly half in the bag. Equally as behemoth as Embiid and Drummond, certainly as coordinated, but without the propulsive speed, he’s not quite as imposing a ramrod. Jokic just wedges his way into the middle and humps away at you. He also does plenty of his operating further on the perimeter. Robinson will absolutely have to meet him out there, but as a face-up defender, I actually like Mitchell’s ability to stick with Jokic. The big question will be just how much of Mitchell’s restraint we get to see, because Jokic has all the tricks!

Knicks by -12

<3 OJ Da Julius Man

I know the Thunder game was a caca affair. We’re already way past that and never was worried. This one goes out to you, Jules.