The Knicks put on one of their most impressive first halves in recent memory, but a classic third quarter of doom allowed the Lakers to come back and eventually fell New York in overtime.

That was something wholly different from what we’ve been seeing this year. Julius Randle was busting his pick out there to start the game on both ends as the Knicks had their best start of the year. They were pushing after makes, sharing the ball, playing for one another and everything looked easy, intuitive. A fortifying bouillon. The third quarter was a whole other boiling stew, peppered with doom and chunks of agita. The Knicks tried to ice the game from 24 minutes out, and unsurprisingly it didn’t work. Getting simple switches and just dawdling with the ball in traffic as their togetherness fell to the wayside and the Lakers flooded back into the game.

Before a wild rumpus to force overtime, led by the magnificence of RJ Barrett, I ducked in to see how the Strcikland Discord horde was holding up. In full dissing effect, our good friend GAx floated their disbelief: “I can’t believe we’re gonna lose this game.” Some thoughts that bubbled… 

• RJ Barrett is just phenomenal. Of late, he’s doing such a better job taking the ball straight to the glass, no longer looking to absorb contact and power through it. Instead using his quickness and length first. Strength and footwork second. The only problem is that he hasn’t established himself as the bridge that can carry them over some troubling water when the team is searching. That will be the next big step for Barrett. Twenty-one years young, this future is very bright. 

• Mitchell Robinson has been wonderful lately in his own right, and he’s only getting better. He may be banged up (was wearing a back brace in warm ups and seems to be getting his minutes restricted to some extent), but he’s as integral a part of what goes on as anyone. There is a future where Mitchell is in the running for Defensive Player of the Year every season. His next few steps include, but are not limited, to: (a) getting in the best shape of his life, (b) keeping those hands high, arms out, and (c) knowing your personnel better than they know themselves. We’ve seen him do that with the bigger name players, although he still doesn’t know who Nikola Jokic is for some reason. 

• The Lakers love sending Anthony Davis out to throw touchdown passes his way, and they tried a few to no avail. Mitchell did a good job sprinting back and taking a lot of that garbage away, and look what we have here…

• Now follow RJ’s lead and bring a journal to film sessions to keep diligent notes on team by team strengths and weaknesses. Doffs cap to Malika Andrews for the reporting. Mitchell will need to figure out who the tomato cans are and how to take advantage of them, too. On top of that, we’ll want to see him do it intuitively, not just when told. Eventually to become the one telling people and truly anchoring the defense.

• I have never watched a game with Davis in it where he hasn’t gotten actually injured or temporarily hurt at some point. Guy must be made of 22% hay.  

• LeBron’s incredulousness to every perceived missed or incorrect call that doesn’t effectively give him total autonomy over the outcome of every single possession is insanely tiresome. It’s Chris Paul levels of crotchety loserness at this point. It keeps the referees from being able to tend the game when it’s on the line. And I hate refs, but come on. Shut up more. 

• Late in the fourth, LeBron wouldn’t stop moving during a jump ball which should have probably been a delay of game technical the third time he did it. At the very least they should have stopped and reset the tip again. Instead the refs threw the jump leading to a bad Fournier live-ball turnover and James dunk. Sure he’s smart and knows where they want to send the tap but I dunno. How about fuck off, crybaby.  

• More Malika:

• If you’re a big reporting fan, during the pre-game crack up, Jalen Rose predicted Muscle Chestbrook would have a triple double at halftime. Ol’ Rusty finished the first half with five points (1-7 shooting), three rebounds, four assists, and four turnovers. A plus-minus of -24. Ha-haaa. He got benched in overtime and barely contributed in the second half. It felt like Elfrid Payton was out there.

• Speaking of (former) Knicks starting guards that don’t contribute to success but make teammates feel good about shoveling shit, Kemba Walker had a rather innocuous first half offensively as Randle and Barrett forced the tempo with incisive passing and constant aggression. The first half largely consisted of quality defense, closing possessions with the rebound, grab-and-go for RJ and Jules. This play in particular was one of my favorites of the night. It’s preceded by a Barrett bound — he quickly recognized an imbalance and swung it to Julius on the move at half court. Julius missiled a hit-ahead to Fournier. No over dribbling, no allowing the defense to set up on you. Quick movement, quick reads. Coach Thibodeau likes to say the game will tell you what to do, and that was a perfect example. 

• The game tells you what to do. It tells you. What to do. Thibodeau, oddly enough, doesn’t like to listen to what the game is telling him so much. 

• Perhaps anticipating that Kemba’s welcome mat defensive stylings would help Westbrook get going, New York slotted le beaucoup plus grand, Evan Fournier, on that downhill bull. Routinely doubling the strong side of the floor kept the Lakers a little off kilter, searching for the angles — although the Knicks didn’t always dig down deep enough to stop drives and cuts, and the Lakers ended up capitalizing on it as the game wore on. 

• With Fournier on Westbrook, Kemba was tasked with keeping Malik Monk in check, and Monk saw some outlandishly open looks that were not dropping in the first half. Kemba was so slow getting out to him. Walker mostly hid in the first half on both sides and it basically worked. In the second half he tried to assert himself at the start and it played a role in derailing the offense. Shortly after that, Monk was just teeing off, and neither the Knicks nor Thibs made adjustments. 

• It was only a matter of time with Kemba letting Monk feel the seams, check the weather, swipe right, and shoot his shot. Twenty-nine points for Monk, almost exclusively in the second half, and basically he did nothing else. Awesome job, guys.  

• Thibs’ refusal to make subs when they’re getting their heads kicked in and refusing reasonable rotations in general is going to give all of New York an aneurism. He just stands around with his arms folded wondering if anyone can tell his deodorant doesn’t work.

• Totally Thibsular

• Immanuel Quickley had a bad first half. Rotten. He got completely chopped down to size by Austin Reaves, who had previously been known by the Knick faithful as some kid urinating in his Summer League diapers as Deuce McBride dug his hooks in critically deep. He’ll never survive, we thought. Instead, Reaves survived, and in this affair drew three fast fouls. And IQ was never to be seen again. If I were Quickley I would have requested a trade already, but certainly after tonight’s miscarriage of coaching justice that should be plenty for me. Vaya con dios. Fans would understand. 

• Supposedly on the trade front, the Hornets may have expressed interest in bringing Walker back to Charlotte. Coincidentally, it would seem that Charlotte may have a bee in their bonnet.

• Maybe they want Nerlens Noel too? Kemba and Nerlens for Bouknight? I’d do it. All sorts of bad for Nerlens, so let’s look at this great sequence instead as we try to sell Charlotte on the value of elite perimeter defense and rim protection.

• Having said that… Nerlens’ defense was bad all game. His health seems to be a real issue. For someone that relies so heavily on gambling to poke and swat the ball away, he has to be able to fall back on a fundamental base when he can’t just fly back into the play after he gets beat. Until that time, Noel gets beat constantly and that allows good players to get a rhythm going. 

• Trying to remain positive, at one point Noel got an and-1 off a nice interior dish by Alec Burks. That is thousands of dollars in found money right there. Take the good fortune and get him off the floor. Thibs never wavered and Noel got pummeled by a bunch of skinny little Lakers and LeBron at center.  

• They say it’s a tale of two halves. Couldn’t have been more true for Carmelo Anthony. For your viewing pleasure: Melancholy Melo/Assuaged Anthony. Hampered hamstring for the former Nugget. 

• The Knicks are blah; but they were expected to be a middling sorta play-in team in the East. The Lakers were title chasing and they’re a crisis. I sincerely enjoy their foibles. Westbrick missed a pull-up 15-footer, off the glass so bad that the Knicks cleaned the glass like there was vomit all over it. Later the crowd was booing him. Davis’s wobbly middies are also as goofy as they’ve ever looked. LeBron is great and all that, but he’s lost some of the mystique. And these Lakers simply cannot defend. I mean the Knicks pumped in 71 first half points. 

• What we saw from Randle, aside from the opening to the third, was what made him All-NBA and the Most Improved Player last season. If he is able to continue channeling this version of himself, the Knicks might not be lottery bound.

We’re coming down to the deadline, friends. New York has two more games between now and then, against Utah Monday and Denver Tuesday. Late Thursday night, when all the deals will have been done, the Knicks press on with their Westerly road trip with a game against the Warriors. Will they be a very different team by the time they get to San Francisco? I assume we’ll have to go back and watch the tape. Big decision for Coach Thibsodonk here.