Game Day: Knicks @ Pacers, 12/23/20
Jon Schulman gets you ready for the Knicks’ season opener on the road at Indiana. Can the Knicks carry over their end of preseason magic? Hit the comments below during game time too!
Maybe James Harden’s hyper isolation ball is starting to make sense to me. You breathe on him, he flails, the refs awards him a couple-three free throws, he chokes and the heartbeat flutters away slowly, alone. This whole time he was the one that had the brainpower to keep us safe. He was in his self contained basketball bubble! Well he reached deep into his bag to throw a Matthew Lesko suit onto this brand new season.
Harden’s Rocket-implosion has been extremely self centered, but not especially isolationist. What can ya do? I for one have not been too optimistic about this season being able to make it unfettered from beginning to end but I thought they’d at least get the thing off the ground before one of the league’s top few stars threatened to end it for everyone.
That includes the Knicks of course. If you want to watch these youngsters make headway this season everyone has to play their part, otherwise risk losing every game. Losing as in not on the record books at all. That’d be great.
Projected Starters
The Knicks may or may not have a handle on this and thats why they play the games! Tom Thibodeau certainly seems capable of identifying what makes a winning brand of basketball. It heavily involves Immanuel Quickley’s threatening jumper. Using Julius Randle as an offensive cabin more than an engine has also paid obvious dividends. Nevertheless the looming question is whether veteran savvy is rewarded simply for being publicly perceived. At this rate either it won’t be, or it’s days are numbered. The Kentucky push and pull will be on full display tonight.
I really like the Robinson/Turner matchup for New York. Turner is big and slow and offensively really doesn’t want to go beyond the 3-point line. Surely he’ll be out there on opening night but as the season progresses, he’ll start straying back inside the arc. Nevertheless you have to be fast and willing to pull from way out to elude Mitch. On the other end, Turner again is slow, he might throw his body at Robinson, but I can already see Mitch liquefying to swim around him then reemerging solid in front of Turner to snag offensive boards and flush them home.
The guy I worry about most is Domantas Sabonis. He’s also the guy I wish Julius Randle could be. So please, Jules. Look at your opponent and pretend it’s a mirror. Crunch these little crumbs on screens. Before you start to rumble, use your muscles to start a war and then hit the open man — no matter who it is — so they can fire the missiles at the basket. If you turn and face and the sea parts, by all means jump in. Leverage your strength to get others going first.
The rest of the Pacers are no slouches, and their bubble star TJ Warren sounds like he’ll be ready to rock in the opener. Plantar fasciitis is a sneaky killer though. I think he should sit.
Prediction
While it’s hard to imagine the Knicks replicating what they did to the Cavs now that we’re in the regular season, it’s worth noting that the Cavs smacked the Pacers around in the preseason. Certainly that means when the real lights come on, the Knicks are preparing to slaughter the Pacers. It is a known fact. A stone plaque. As the Knicks embark on their probably undefeated season, I couldn’t be happier to see all these guys set to make gigantic leaps into NBA superstardom guided by the steady, principled, and jolly hand of Tom Thibodeau. What could go wrong?
Knicks by 38.
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How it started:
How it’s going:
