0:00

Welcome into locked on Nix Alex Wolf here

0:02

going solo to break down the Nix one

0:04

13 to one 11 win over the Pistons.

0:08

It came down to the wire and the

0:10

refs actually helped the Nix for once. This

0:12

was weird, strange territory,

0:14

but the roughing still probably needs a

0:17

little bit of work. The

0:19

Villanova trio went crazy in this game

0:21

and Evan Fornier and Quentin Grimes made

0:23

their return to the garden and Malachai

0:25

Flynn, I guess. All that and more

0:27

next on locked on Nix. You

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are locked on Nix your daily

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New York Nix podcast, part of

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the locked on podcast network, your

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team every day. All

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right. Welcome in to locked on Nix. Today's episode

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visit fandul.com/locked on to get started. And I

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want to thank you guys for making locked

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day whether you're checking us out in your

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on YouTube. We appreciate you making us a

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on both YouTube and your favorite podcast app and

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then hit the notification bell or the auto download

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function so you never miss an

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episode. I'm Alex Wolf. I'm editor in chief

1:26

and Nix site, the Strickland, which you can

1:28

find strict outland and not joined by

1:30

Gavin today. We're going to have a little bit of a, of

1:33

a, uh, a separate week this week. He's very

1:35

busy with lots of play by play work, which

1:37

is exciting. Uh, so I will

1:39

be going solo today and man,

1:41

one 13 to one 11 over to the lowly

1:45

Detroit Pistons don't love to see that

1:47

from a Nix perspective. I'm sure maybe

1:49

the, uh, Pistons upper management

1:51

is not exactly, uh, crying

1:54

over it today. Monty Williams was

1:56

a little animated after

1:59

the game. because if you

2:01

want to talk about, you know, based off what happened

2:03

with the Knicks and Houston, uh,

2:05

a few weeks ago before the all-star break

2:07

with that, that blown call, uh, that ultimately

2:09

cost them the game, the foul

2:12

call on Jalen Brunson that then, uh, led

2:14

to those holiday free throws, which, which lost

2:17

on that game. If

2:19

you believe in poetic justice or karma or whatever,

2:21

then the Knicks get a, a

2:24

win off a pretty straightforward no-call, uh,

2:26

down the stretch that should have been a foul. I mean,

2:28

look, I don't

2:30

know. Knicks fans can look at this

2:33

and through the Homer glass. I've seen a lot of

2:35

people trying to justify the call and be like, no,

2:37

I don't think it was a foul. It

2:39

was a foul. I mean, uh,

2:41

uh, Osso Thompson comes away with a, with

2:44

a steal down the stretch of this game. The

2:46

Knicks are down too. Um, and

2:50

he gets the ball and, and starts, you know,

2:52

working his way down the court and you could

2:54

argue that he didn't have full possession or whatever,

2:57

but then Steven Genzo just comes in and

2:59

basically hip checks him to get

3:01

the ball. And, uh, yeah, it was,

3:03

I mean, it was a foul straight up. Like any

3:05

other time that gets called a foul, the referee said

3:07

as much in the post game scrum, I'm sure the

3:09

last two minute report when that comes out today is

3:11

also going to say that was a foul. Uh,

3:14

it was foul and the Knicks lucked out

3:16

and it didn't get called. And then

3:18

Jalen Brunson ends up with the ball. He gets

3:20

a nice pass in to Josh Hart who finishes

3:22

for an and one and then

3:24

Josh Hart to his credit, just big

3:27

boys, the Pistons for the final 10 seconds or

3:29

so of the game and just gets gets

3:32

rebound after rebound, uh, off

3:34

of free throws, no less.

3:37

So yeah, it was, uh, I

3:39

mean, there was, there was some gut check stuff

3:41

by the Knicks late to get this one done.

3:44

And yet also, I mean, they got away with

3:46

the hip check and that ultimately probably won them

3:49

the game. But I do think, I don't know,

3:52

not to leave the show with refereeing for,

3:54

you know, the second time

3:56

in however many weeks, but I do

3:58

think the game just kind of further underscore the refereeing

4:01

needs to be looked at this off season. I

4:04

don't know, maybe I'm just living in the moment too

4:06

much, but it feels like refereeing

4:09

is getting worse this year. And it seems like more

4:11

and more people are being like, what is going on

4:13

with these guys? There's just

4:16

too much inconsistency with how they call

4:18

games. There's huge calls being made

4:20

late down the stretch of games that just don't,

4:24

that are blatant misses that need

4:27

to get addressed, I think. Cuz

4:29

they're changing the outcomes of games. I mean, in

4:32

this case, I'm not gonna complain as

4:34

much because it's the, it

4:36

helped the Knicks out. But referees in

4:39

general are just blowing more

4:41

and more calls late in games. And also

4:43

sort of throughout the game, if you

4:46

pay attention, skewing

4:48

things more than you would

4:50

like to see. I mean, in this game, there

4:52

was just technical fouls flowing left and right. Two

4:54

Pistons got teed up from pretty

4:56

minor reactions, at least from what it seemed

4:58

like like for me at one point got

5:01

teed up much to the delight of the

5:03

garden crowd for like clapping at an official.

5:08

I don't know that like those sort of

5:10

things I know that they're supposed to enforce

5:12

them, but it seems like they're getting an

5:14

even quicker trigger. And then the

5:16

Knicks end up getting a technical at one point

5:18

for two delay games because one

5:20

of those at one point was Josh Hart didn't have

5:22

his jersey properly tucked in coming

5:24

out of a timeout or something. And so the ref

5:27

hit him with a delay game to

5:29

which Hart was like, why didn't you just tell me to

5:31

tuck my jersey and like, sorry, I missed it, whatever, I

5:33

had a duck tail or whatever. I don't

5:35

know, it doesn't make any sense to me to

5:39

make the game as much about them

5:41

as they are the referees that is.

5:44

So I don't

5:46

know, I just felt like it bears

5:48

addressing. I just think refereeing is

5:50

kind of starting to hit an all time

5:52

low during this season and could probably use

5:54

a look this offseason. But

5:56

also, I want to just say to a win the win.

6:01

It came down in the wire against the Pistons. I

6:03

would have loved for the Knicks to beat them more

6:05

handily, but Quinton Grimes, who I'll get to in a

6:07

second, had a heck of a game. But the

6:10

win counts in the standings, that's all that matters.

6:12

I mean, I'm sure that Sixers

6:14

fans, Pacers fans, all the fans of teams

6:16

that were below the Knicks, plus maybe Bucks

6:18

fans, Cavs fans maybe aren't super thrilled with

6:20

this. If anything, they should be more angry

6:23

than Pistons fans because the Pistons are trying to

6:25

lose as many games as they can anyway, or

6:28

at least at this point, they should be because why

6:31

would you try to resuscitate

6:33

this season at this point when you're this far in

6:35

and only has six wins? But

6:37

yeah, I mean, the win still counts

6:39

for the Knicks. So nobody's gonna look

6:41

back and be like, if

6:43

the Knicks are in the first second round of

6:45

the playoffs and with a fully healthy roster, and

6:47

no one's gonna look back and be moaning about

6:49

how they only beat the Pistons by one possession

6:52

in late February, I mean,

6:54

it's just the fact is they won. They

6:57

kept their record against below 500 teams, like

6:59

pretty much immaculate at this point in the

7:01

season. And the Knicks just find ways to

7:03

beat these teams sometimes with a little rough

7:05

help, but they do it, they beat them.

7:08

So, you know, I'm not concerned about that.

7:10

But yeah, nice game for

7:12

Quentin Grimes, who came back to the Garden 14

7:14

points all in the fourth

7:16

quarter. So that was impressive

7:19

and annoying because he,

7:21

I don't know, it didn't seem like he was doing

7:23

too much different than what he was doing with the

7:25

Knicks. And yet was nailing all the shots down the

7:27

stretch. Maybe he was

7:30

trusted with a little more ball handling responsibility

7:34

or a little more self creation, though I don't think

7:36

those are the moments he necessarily shined the most. But

7:39

yeah, good for him. 14 points

7:42

all in the fourth quarter. I'll get some comments that

7:44

he made in a little bit too. Kate

7:47

Cunningham too had a heck of a game, 32 points

7:49

for him. But ultimately Villanova trio just

7:51

way too much in this game. Jalen

7:53

Brunson dynamite is always Josh

7:56

Hart and even Chenzo were just constant

7:59

motion. the entire time that they were in the

8:02

three guys combined for 79 points, which

8:04

is really solid Brunson ends with 35 points, 12

8:06

assists, 11 and 26

8:09

shootings shot three of 11 from three and

8:12

10 of 11 from the line. So somehow,

8:14

I don't know, this goes back to the

8:16

roughing tune. I have to bring it back there, but somehow even

8:18

with 11 free throw attempts and he took the whatever

8:21

technical free throws that the Knicks had to, it

8:24

felt like he should have had more. I don't know if he

8:26

was just getting hacked and whacked all game as Clyde would say.

8:28

We had Han and Breen on the broadcast and no

8:30

Clyde in this one, but I'm sure that he would

8:32

have said hacked and whacked. It

8:35

was a tough game for Brunson in that regard and

8:37

just didn't seem to get a lot of

8:40

calls. It got enough, but not,

8:42

it got some, but not enough, let's put it that way.

8:45

He's also only shooting 31% from

8:47

three in his last 11 games, which is

8:50

crazy because he's still averaging 32 points

8:53

per game during that span on decent

8:55

efficiency otherwise. So whenever

8:58

he starts hitting threes consistently again, I think we've

9:00

got some 40 point games coming up from him

9:02

because everything else is working

9:05

phenomenally for him and with the defense keyed 100% in

9:07

on him, which

9:09

is the crazier part. But

9:11

I also thought his passing was on point right

9:14

up until that final sequence too, he spent all

9:16

night just kind of luring the D in and

9:19

lulling them to sleep and then finding someone, maybe

9:22

someone that wasn't necessarily right in position to

9:24

score but someone that then had a clear

9:26

path to the hoop that a couple of

9:28

his assists like one of them he hit

9:30

Hartenstein who then had made a nice move

9:32

still on the inside to finish but had

9:34

a nice clear lane because Brunson distracted all

9:36

the defenders enough by just being patient and

9:39

waiting for everyone to collapse on him because that's just

9:41

kind of what teams are accustomed to doing at this

9:43

point on him because he's so good on

9:45

offense. Final sequence, he gets the ball of

9:47

Steven Cenzo off that steel

9:49

slash foul, then just

9:52

comes down draws every defender back out of

9:54

the paint towards him to try to defend

9:56

against like a floater from the

9:59

free throw line. you know that general area

10:01

and then gets it down to Hart to Get

10:04

in there for that and one Opportunity where

10:06

he only had one defender to to beat at that point

10:08

and had the advantage of being on the right side of

10:11

the rim Or the side the left side of the rim

10:13

tag I believe the correct side of the rim To

10:16

you know get that defender off their

10:18

feet and finish that playoff. So

10:21

that was great as well I

10:23

do want to talk more About Josh

10:25

Hart and Dante Di Vincenzo in the games

10:27

that they had Bojan Bogdanovich and his game

10:30

against his former team also

10:32

the Potential new starting lineup that

10:35

I would love to see which would feature

10:37

Bojan Bogdanovich and a little bit of numbers

10:39

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right, and I'm back in to keep talking through this

12:04

narrow next win and Josh

12:07

Hart came through in this

12:09

game big time. Another fantastic performance

12:11

for him. 23 points, eight

12:14

rebounds, six assists, two steals, one block. He

12:16

was just a total ball of fire on

12:18

both ends. He was flying in for rebounds.

12:20

It's getting the break started, which he always

12:22

does. But I think the biggest

12:24

thing for him to be is he

12:26

continues to be confident with that

12:29

three pointer. This is sixth game in the

12:31

last seven, where he's taken at least four

12:33

three pointers. And I think he really

12:35

needs to keep doing that. Like, because he needs to keep

12:37

the defense paying attention to him out there. I think

12:40

it really makes all the difference for him if he at

12:42

least gets a little bit of respect from

12:44

three, because one of the biggest things is if

12:47

teams don't respect him from three and he doesn't

12:49

respect himself from three, then we run

12:51

into issues. Then you run into stuff like what

12:53

happened in the heat series last year, what happens,

12:55

you know, at his worst moments this year, he

12:58

seems not confident. He seems like, you know, he's

13:00

not really looking for his own shot from three,

13:03

which means teams always know that he's going to

13:05

put it on the floor and try to drive.

13:07

And then they can prepare for that and prepare against

13:09

any, you know, counters that he might have out of

13:11

that. Right now, he's, he's just

13:14

pulling into those threes consistently, confidently,

13:17

and teams are starting to respect him a bit

13:19

from there, which is opening things up on

13:21

the offensive end. That final sequence to

13:23

I, you know, I should give him a shout out again,

13:26

just crazy, crazy hustle,

13:28

you know, manages to get that

13:30

and one first to, you

13:32

know, give the next to lead, doesn't hit the free

13:35

throw, but then manages to

13:37

corral his own miss gets another two free throws

13:39

out of that makes one or two there. Then

13:41

corrals another one to end the game and ends

13:43

with the ball in his hands to end the

13:45

game by corralling his own

13:47

miss one more time. Just a

13:49

fantastic showing from him down the stretch, just

13:51

a huge amount of hustle and heart to

13:55

finish this one off. And,

13:57

you know, I thought that he had a phenomenal game

13:59

and should continue. to Dante

14:01

Di Vincenzo as well 21 points five

14:04

of 10 from three eight of 13 shooting

14:06

overall four assists two steals The

14:08

same deal is hard I think he just hustled it

14:10

but hustled his butt off all game even if he

14:13

committed about down the stretch Whatever, I mean,

14:15

that's just sort of exemplified his effort He's willing

14:17

to you know, put himself out there any given

14:19

time to get this game sealed up

14:21

for the Knicks I also

14:24

just think his shot making and scoring is getting

14:26

to crazy levels So since January

14:28

18th, which is now over a month and

14:31

was actually four games before the Randall

14:33

injury In 16 games.

14:36

He's now averaging 21 points for rebounds

14:39

three assists and 1.6 steals on 45.7

14:43

percent shooting overall 40.7 percent

14:45

from three and that's on 11 three-point

14:47

attempts per game and 73.9

14:50

percent from the free throw line. So obviously you hope to

14:52

see that get a little better But he's only taking like

14:54

1.4 free throw attempts for games. You can

14:56

kind of take that with a grain of salt But 41 percent

14:59

shooting on 11 three-point attempts per game

15:02

is insane I mean, that's at

15:05

starting to reach levels of you

15:07

know, peak splash brothers It's like he really did

15:10

just take whatever was left out of

15:12

like clay Thompson and just put

15:14

it in himself as far as you Know

15:16

that three-point shooting ability monster style, but

15:19

if this continues through the end of the season I

15:21

mean, I think there's a world where he enters the

15:23

most improved discussion. He's he's at about 14

15:25

points per game right now Which

15:28

is only up about four points from where

15:30

he was last season But I don't

15:32

know if he continues at this rate. It'll probably end

15:34

up Being at like 16 points

15:36

per game by the end of the season if he

15:38

keeps averaging 20 per game

15:40

for these last 20 games

15:42

and change now granted Maybe this changes a little

15:45

bit once on an obi and Randall get back

15:47

and you know He fades back to

15:49

being the fourth or so option again but it's

15:52

so good to know that he has this

15:54

in him this scoring ability because Now

15:57

the Knicks can count on that if

15:59

they're in a pin You know if there's if

16:01

there's an injury again if if someone has to just

16:03

sit out a little bit during the playoffs So you

16:06

know like one game injuries happen all the time in

16:08

the playoffs or a guy will I

16:10

don't know, you know twist his ankle or something and then

16:12

he has to sit the next game and then is able

16:14

to come Back after that, you know, if it's not a

16:16

major sprain or whatever It's

16:18

good to know that even Chenzo has this gear and

16:21

can be this good of a score and he's proving it

16:23

Consistently and he has yet to slow down. So I'm kind

16:25

of starting to just think this is just who he is

16:28

Boyan Bogdanovich as well Solid

16:31

game I thought 13 points six

16:33

boards shut 5 11 3

16:35

of 8 from 3 his release on

16:37

his jumpers is just so crazy quick I'm starting

16:39

to think between him and even Chenzo the Knicks

16:41

might have one of the fastest shooting combos in

16:44

the NBA I mean it somehow

16:47

he runs in slow motion

16:49

and does everything in slow motion except for shoot the

16:51

ball Where it's basically just the ball touches his hands.

16:53

He shoots And that's

16:56

that's super valuable. I mean that they're gonna

16:58

need that shooting whether it's Down

17:01

the stretch of the season whether it's you know in

17:03

the playoffs, whatever He's proving

17:05

that he can shoot it He's still sort of trying to

17:07

find his way a little bit I think

17:09

Bogdanovich is as far as what his role is going to be

17:11

on this team and I don't know if Tibbs fully

17:14

knows either but I Mean

17:16

if I may suggest it, I think

17:18

a lineup I really want to see get some

17:20

run that maybe still needs a little bit of

17:22

work But could potentially start for this team would

17:25

be Jaelen Brunson Dante Di Vincenzo

17:27

Josh Hart By on Bogdanovich and then

17:29

with either Isaiah Hartenstein or pressure the

17:32

two at the five. I Think

17:35

that's worth exploring more because I don't know it seems

17:37

like Bogdanovich and Brunson need

17:39

some time to learn together So hopefully they're able

17:41

to get it But I think

17:43

he offers that secondary shot creation that

17:46

the starting lineup really needs to take some burden off

17:48

of Brunson And both guys have looked

17:50

like really good separately I think they just kind of

17:52

figure out each other spots playing

17:54

together But just for for reference, I looked

17:56

up the they're cleaning the glass numbers, which

17:58

I don't think are updated for last night's

18:01

game just yet. But

18:03

Brunson, Dante, Josh Hart,

18:05

Bojan and Prashchichua is

18:08

technically a negative lineup. They're at a really,

18:11

honestly, a really poor negative 22

18:13

net rating in 49 possessions

18:15

so far. But they're shooting the lights

18:18

out with that lineup. They're shooting 64.5%

18:20

effective field goal percentage. So

18:22

to me, that feels like something worth exploring

18:25

more. If they can score that efficiently, if

18:28

they figure out the defensive rotations in that

18:30

lineup, which I think they

18:32

have enough defense on the floor there, like

18:34

DiVincenzo and Hart are plus defenders. And

18:36

then one of Hartenstein or Achua is

18:38

gonna give you plus defense at the five. So

18:41

then if like Brunson and Bogdanovich can just

18:44

hold the line well enough at their positions,

18:46

then that should be a good enough defensive

18:48

lineup to take

18:51

advantage of the fact that offensively, it would

18:53

be crazy. I mean, just crazy amounts of

18:55

shooting and shot making and

18:57

a great like four out spacing,

19:00

essentially five out if you wanna include like Precious as

19:02

a shooter. I don't know, I just think

19:04

that's, it's worth exploring more. And

19:06

luckily it got somewhat of a more of a

19:08

look in this game. And I just think it

19:10

needs to maybe be looked at

19:13

as the starting lineup just once or twice. We saw again

19:15

in this game, the next starters kind of came out and

19:18

didn't quite have it to

19:20

start the game. They figured it out late, but

19:23

early on, I think that when you're dealing with

19:25

Brunson is just the Alpha

19:27

and the Omega to start these games. You kind

19:30

of run into situations where he's

19:32

getting draw a lot of defensive attention early.

19:34

And if you can't work your way through

19:36

that immediately in whatever the other team has

19:38

schemed, like you don't have enough creation

19:40

and shot making out there otherwise. So I

19:43

don't know, but I will say that same lineup that

19:45

I highlighted, which was the Brunson, Dante,

19:47

Hart, Bogdan, Precious lineup. If

19:50

you just move Bergson for Di Vincenzo, that

19:53

lineup is a big positive. I think like a plus 17

19:55

in 22 possessions. And

19:57

it's the same if you put Bergson for Hart, it's

19:59

like a plus... 22 and like 18

20:01

possessions So it seems like they

20:03

kind of just need some seasoning as a lineup Like I

20:06

think Brunson Dante og Bojan and I heart

20:08

too would probably be really good as well

20:10

If Randall takes longer than og to get

20:13

back and you need someone to still plug

20:15

that hole for Randall I think

20:17

once you get og back in there who's better on

20:19

defense But not as good with you know

20:21

creation and whatever not as good of a ball handler

20:23

as Josh Hart In the starting

20:25

lineup Then I think it would

20:27

make sense to have Bojan out there because

20:29

og can Definitely cover for him on defense

20:32

and then you can have Bojan out there

20:34

who could you know? Create some more shots and

20:36

make some more threes or whatever. So yeah,

20:38

I don't know I think it's

20:41

worth looking into but I do want to

20:43

highlight the the center trio in this game

20:45

precious Sims and and Isaiah

20:47

Hartenstein and then talk about Evan

20:49

Fornier the booing controversy

20:52

or whatever where

20:54

you know, he got he got booed coming back to the

20:56

garden and Close out

20:58

the show in just a sec. But first I want to

21:01

let all you know about our friends over a better help

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in your life So today I want to

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say how I really feel about something you

21:22

might even be thinking about the same thing

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this week And for me, it's feelings

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of conflict about the Knicks the

21:29

Knicks winning this game And

21:32

yet doing it on a on a ref call and

21:34

now I don't know how to feel about myself anymore.

21:36

I'm questioning questioning everything because just

21:38

two weeks ago, I was

21:40

you know, really uh Railing

21:43

on the refs and how you know, there are

21:45

travesty and this that the other and maybe that's

21:47

still true But I find myself now benefiting from

21:49

it and it makes me Maybe

21:52

a little less likely to be quite as

21:54

vehement in my disapproval. And what does that

21:56

say about me? Am I being a hypocrite

21:58

here? Maybe maybe not. I don't know you

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betterhelp.com slash locked on MBA.

22:37

All right. And I'm back in to finish up on this

22:39

game. So let's talk about precious

22:41

a Chua. I wrote this out. I

22:43

feel very, very proud of

22:45

this line. So I hope everybody appreciates

22:47

this. It was another precious gem in

22:50

this game. The spice up are shooting

22:52

four points, 11 boards, two steals, two

22:54

blocks for precious. Uh,

22:56

I'm starting to think you kind of just give

22:58

this guy whatever he wants this off season within

23:00

reason, because he's exactly the Swiss

23:02

army knife type of player this team needs at

23:05

the four or five, especially like

23:07

if the Knicks make it to like the second round

23:09

again this year, or somehow get

23:11

deeper than that. They get to the ECF or something

23:13

like that. Tibbs is definitely still going to have his

23:15

job next year. So we should just be in that,

23:18

in that mindset. Um, I

23:21

still probably believe that if the Knicks want to

23:23

win a championship, they might need a different

23:25

coach, but I'd love to be proven wrong on

23:27

that. But the

23:29

fact is unless the Knicks colossally disappoint

23:31

this, this, uh, postseason, he's, he's going

23:33

to be the coach probably all of

23:35

next year as well. So as long

23:38

as that remains the case, I think precious is

23:40

really the perfect four or five for

23:42

this team under Tibbs and you

23:44

know, he does exactly what Tibbs likes and yet

23:46

also can give you some other stuff, which is

23:49

rare. It's rare to have a guy that

23:51

can go out there, provide that rim defense

23:53

the way that precious has been, uh, you

23:56

know, also provide the rebounding that Tibbs requires

23:58

out of that five position. And

24:00

yet also be able to stay out there as a four and not

24:03

look foolish for it. He's not, although

24:05

I'm about to praise this guy, he's not Jericho Sims

24:07

out there as the four, where it's like, well, this

24:09

guy is pretty good on defense and good at rebounding,

24:11

but cannot do anything

24:14

to justify being a four man

24:16

on offense. Because you need spacing,

24:18

precious, luckily, even if he's not a great

24:21

three point shooter, at least draws

24:23

the defense's attention enough. And then has the ability to

24:25

put the ball on the floor too, and is

24:28

a half decent passer and just especially once you

24:30

get him into a role, it seems like he

24:32

really embraces that role

24:34

and is

24:37

able to do whatever you need, whether he's the four, whether

24:39

he's the five. He seems to

24:41

understand both assignments now at this point. He

24:43

also only played 34 minutes with Isaiah

24:45

Hartenstein getting somewhat back to normal, so that's a

24:48

good thing as well. I

24:50

want to highlight Sims though, I did just mention him a second

24:52

ago. He had 2.6

24:54

rebounds, four offensive rebounds in

24:56

20 minutes. He played really great defense, total

24:59

demon on the offensive glass again. I

25:02

thought that he just is

25:04

doing really good defensively, keeping himself in front

25:06

of whoever he ends up on. His

25:09

versatility is really good. And like I said,

25:12

I said this a couple games ago, I

25:14

think with Gavin, he's got a little Taj

25:16

Gibson in him with how he defends. Obviously,

25:18

he's much more able to get vertical, but

25:21

he's not really a crazy shot blocker. He's

25:23

just gotten really, really good at moving his

25:25

feet and keeping guys out

25:27

of the paint in that way. Rather

25:30

than daring them to come at him, he kind of just

25:32

walls them off and says, well, once you eventually

25:34

try to go up for a shot, I can

25:36

jump up high. And defend that

25:38

or just use my standing reach to bother

25:41

you, but you're just not going to get

25:43

around me. That's gonna be my goal and

25:45

he does really, really good with that. Isaiah

25:48

Hartenstein too, continues to kind

25:50

of get back in the flow here. Six

25:52

points, eight rebounds, four assists, one block.

25:55

And that one block is a monster block. I definitely had

25:57

to point that out. It was stopped.

25:59

Jalen Dern OOP at the rim along with precious

26:01

there as well. They both kind of got in

26:04

there and Block that

26:06

dunk attempt crazy good stuff

26:08

from Isaiah Hartenstein. He loved to see that Also

26:11

got 27 minutes. So he slowly but surely

26:13

getting back to his normal starters minute load

26:15

again Hopefully he continues to be allowed

26:17

to just kind of play around 30 though I think

26:19

that would be good for him Especially

26:22

like I said with precious playing as well as he is

26:24

You know you can get precious in there for 30

26:26

something minutes and Hartenstein in for 30 as well Because

26:29

precious can share the floor with them. That's that's

26:31

solid. I think that's good and

26:34

lets Hartenstein hopefully not overexert himself

26:37

because For all

26:39

of the debates about is tips causing

26:41

over exertion injuries blah blah blah like

26:43

we know for a fact that Isaiah

26:45

Hartenstein's injury is an overexertion injury and

26:47

he needs to not Play like 45

26:49

minutes anymore. So at least not until

26:52

the games really matter. So hopefully

26:54

this this continues But

26:56

then just to address the final thing from this game, so

27:00

Evan Fornier Returned

27:02

as well as Clinton Grimes. He got booed all the

27:04

hell which I don't know Maybe

27:06

he was a little excessive by like the fourth or

27:08

fifth time he was getting booed but I didn't

27:11

fully get the outrage from

27:13

the A

27:16

lot of people were like the beat especially the

27:18

the Knicks beat online We're all

27:20

just being like Evan was a professional like why are

27:22

dicks fans doing this? He doesn't deserve this blah blah

27:24

blah blah blah and I don't

27:26

know I think he said and did all

27:28

the right things when there was a Mike

27:32

shoved in his face in the locker room here Towards

27:36

the end and you know was mostly

27:38

a good soldier or whatever but I Mean

27:41

if I was gonna pick out a few things

27:43

that would maybe give Knicks fans a little bit

27:46

of juice to boo him One every

27:48

single time he got interviewed by a French outlet He

27:51

would go way more in on the Knicks than

27:53

he ever would to any American reporter Basically,

27:56

I guess assume that people don't have

27:58

Google Translate and wouldn't be looking for

28:00

articles that he was a part of or whatever. And

28:03

so I mean, he was, he was

28:05

trashing the organization more in those sort

28:07

of things than he ever and basically

28:09

being like, I was wrong. But

28:11

the reality is he wasn't like he wasn't, he

28:14

wasn't wrong here and yet would kind of act

28:17

like he was which came out when he first got to

28:19

Detroit. So then you know, the second thing I would

28:21

say that is he got to Detroit and then I was

28:23

like, Oh, so happy to be out in New York. Never

28:26

really was like, Oh, thanks for giving

28:29

me a big contract and trusting

28:31

me to be your starting shooting guard for a year,

28:33

even though I blew that opportunity. So

28:36

I don't know. I mean, he's, he was pretty, pretty

28:39

straightforward about how he felt when he left. So

28:41

I can't blame fans for seeing that quote and

28:43

then being like, Oh, you don't like us, we

28:45

don't like you, you know, you weren't any good

28:47

anyway. So like, why should we, you know, have

28:50

to stand on decorum here for you. And

28:53

then lastly, I think

28:55

this is big too, even if you set the single

28:57

season three point record, which people also

28:59

were bringing up last night, like he's your three point

29:02

single season three point record holder. Why are you not

29:04

like respecting him more? It's like, well,

29:06

yeah, he did that in one of the worst seasons

29:08

in recent memory. And probably it's

29:10

a record that a lot of people now are

29:12

going to look at and be like, Oh, great.

29:15

You took the three point record

29:17

from John Starks, which had stood for 30

29:19

years in a season where, you know,

29:22

you're bad, like the team was bad. And, you

29:25

know, we just want to forget that season even exists. And

29:27

now it's in the record books, as

29:29

the most three pointers made in Nick's

29:31

history. You know, I

29:33

think that maybe that just kind of rubs people

29:36

the wrong way, too, especially when, you know, he played

29:38

himself out of the rotation by halfway through the next

29:40

year, and got replaced by Quentin Grimes.

29:42

So I don't know, I, I think

29:45

maybe the booing was a little excessive, but

29:48

also not completely unjustified. Let's just put it

29:50

that way. But yeah,

29:52

then Quentin Grimes, I think probably won't be getting

29:54

too much love from Nick's fans

29:56

either. He's had the comment, but that's just

29:58

Nick's fans for you. So. I

30:01

don't know. He's you know, if you got asked about that

30:03

and was like well Evan was my vet and blah blah

30:06

But that's Nick stands for you. They're gonna boo

30:08

him. It's like, okay, bud. Well, anyway, he's

30:10

probably not getting cheered next time But

30:12

uh, yeah The Knicks won still so unless

30:14

Detroit decides to do what the Knicks did

30:17

and put in our protests at the league

30:19

Seems like this is gonna stand we got a game tonight Against

30:22

the New Orleans Pelicans so back to back

30:24

not a lot of time for the Knicks

30:26

to figure this out Hopefully they're able to

30:29

to you know, kind of sort out some of the

30:31

issues because pelicans are legitimately a good team But

30:34

we'll be here for you tomorrow