Game Day: Knicks (24-13) @ Suns (22-15), Fri 1/9/25

[AmareIsGod]

That Allen play was amazing.

[specialsauce]

Oso played good D tonight. You mean to tell me he can't get one fucking rebound all game though?

Allen with the hustle play of the year. He's a different guy this year. Found his joy again and I love it.

[Furlanfufi]

[Wally_West]

Who was the dumbass saying we only gonna win 26 games this year? The ringer? Bleacher report?


Eat it!!

[Split T]

I thought we started 9-1, but it was probably 8-1 or 9-2…still we were awful last year, so that’s not a surprise

[pickle]

Yeah we were 8-1.

[Split T]

Who was the dumbass saying we only gonna win 26 games this year? The ringer? Bleacher report?


Eat it!!

I know espn ranked us 30th in their next 3 years future ranking.

[Mori Chu]

Knicks are considered a likely Finals team, but we took care of them. This Suns team is tough. Love it. If we were in the East we would probably be like the 2nd or 3rd most favored team.

[virtual9mm]

Loving the team!

That being said...you won't be able to sustain chemistry if Green comes back...not enough minutes in the backcourt. With how well Allen is playing...I think you have to trade him. Or Green. Or even...Booker.

You could set up a Green-CG backcourt for five years. Or a Booker-CG3. Bouyeh backs up both guard positions.

[AmareIsGod]

[AmareIsGod]

[Mori Chu]

Booker (31/8) and Brooks (27/7/5) had the most gaudy stat lines, but several others made big contributions. Royce O'Neale hit 4-6 3s and had 12 points along with 6 rebounds; Mark Williams shot 5-6; Dunn shot 3-3 and had 5 rebs, 3 ast, and a steal; and Grayson Allen, despite shooting just 2-10 (and 0-6 from 3), was a steady presence at the end of the game, with that great hustle to knock the ball off Mikal, and hitting some critical FTs (6-6) and helping us close it out.

[Superbone]

Bone, you need to do a better job controlling the crowd. I'm still hearing cheers when Brunson makes shots.

Way too many Knicks fans there for my comfort. But most of them left early.

[Superbone]

What a play by Grayson to bonk the ball off of Mikal!

Play of the game!

[pickle]

[bajanguy008]

Last few minutes of the game leaves you so much to dissect

I assume we all were bothered by the struggle against double big lineup from Knicks and Ott refused to change our lineup to keep the spacing on offense
Again credit to him for trusting that we could figure it out but not sure we had a choice anyways



Still think we were bogged down but credit to Book and Royce for making huge plays
I'm sure if we lost that big lineup situation would have been hot topic but having a lineup with some pairing of Mark/Oso/Nick wouldn't be a good idea especially in a close game.

On the topic of bigs. Oso closes the game again and his ability to switch out on to guards is a big factor in us sealing the win. Thing is Mark is decent on the perimeter but definitely not as good as Oso so I'm sure Brunson gets off a shot if it's Mark out there forced to switch

That leads to another valid discussion i saw in another thread Shel bring up the topic that Mark being more and more matchup dependent makes his proposed contract interesting (how high should it be)

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

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[ShelC]

Really good game and great win. I've always felt like there's this underrated rivalry between the Suns and Knicks with some history going back a while. Knicks are one of the best teams in the East so this was another good test for us, especially being able to close it out and win a tight one that came down to a few possessions.

Interesting chess match throughout the game. Knicks went big, we went small and aside from a few not so great possessions in the 4th, we were able to knock down shots late and disrupt their offense with our smaller lineup. Brunson usually thrives in those clutch moments but he really struggled to get clean looks and our ball pressure took the whole team out of rhythm. I had a feeling Mich and KAT would give us some problems but we were able to withstand their impact. Mitch is a tough cover on the boards, KAT was more aggressive in the 2nd half with his 3pt shot and driving. Those are things to keep in mind next week in NY.

Being petty, it was great seeing Knicks fans online complaining about our defense and the refs not calling fouls. That's coming from fans of a team that prides itself on being physical and playing defense. We set the tone and the Knicks couldn't handle it. I'm wondering if this was maybe a turning point where the refs have adjusted to our style of play and are allowing our physicality instead of calling everything a foul like earlier in the season. They tend to reward the more physical team anyway and we definitely got away with a lot last night but this is our style and we're not changing. There were some great individual defensive possessions from Brooks, Grayson and Goodie, but everyone played really well on that side of the ball.

The boxscore is interesting- near identical shooting stats but they dominated the boards while we forced almost twice as many turnovers. Late shotmaking sealed it but our defense really won the game.

Book carried us offensively and played a tough 40 minutes. Brooks with a real good all around game with 27-7-5 and Royce hit some big 3s in the 2nd half. The Knicks did a pretty good job overall crowding our shooters and making it tough on Grayson and CG. I think CG's been exposed a bit with starter's minutes as a smaller guard who can't get off the midrange shot or easily get to the basket. But he's still valuable to what we do obviously. Goodwin kept the energy and defense going while Brooks sat and was a menace against everyone he guarded. Oso again impacted the game beyond the boscore. He switched well on the perimeter and had a few really slick passes to cutters. He and Williams are a nice duo at the 5 since they bring such different skills to the position. Grayson's shot wasn't falling but his defense was really good and he was able to get into the lane when run off the 3pt line.

Hope we can get the win in NY, winning that one will get us even more attention across the league.

[Wally_West]

Send him to the allstar game

[Superbone]

You outdid yourself with the postgame post, @ShelC, with the additional Knicks coverage as well!

Pics from the game: