Madness

The Knicks have their best win of the season for the second game in a row.

Sports.

Game Recap: Knicks 120, Celt’s 117 (OT)

⌚️60 Seconds or Less: Why does it seem like every time the Knicks and Celtics face off, there are three or four games in one? Let’s go through them, shall we?

• GAME 1 - first six minutes: Boston comes out with flames shooting off their flames, hitting four of their first five threes to go up 25-10. Gonna be a long night for the road team.

• GAME 2 - next 37 minutes: New York isn’t only the better team, but the better team by a not-insignificant margin, outplaying the Celtics on both ends as they methodically engineer a nearly 30 point turnaround. Knicks up 12 with five to go.

• GAME 3 - next 7 minutes (5 in regulation, 2 in OT): 💩🙈🐿

  (I was looking for a groundhog emoji for that last one, but Substack doesn’t seem to have it, so I kept it in the rodent family with a chipmunk. Hopefully you get the point. New York poo poo’d away the lead with their usual brand of slow, stodgy, unwatchable late game offense that included a turnover and two 24-second violations. Including the beginning of overtime, the C’s go on a 21-4 tun. Boston’s up 115-110, with the ball, and under three to go. No way we’re winning this game.)

• GAME 4 - last 3 minutes: Wait, we WON the fucking GAME?!?!

That takes us to…

📸 📸 📸 Plays of the Game (OT Edition): It’s hard to express how dead in the water New York was midway through the overtime period. Their defense was still fighting, but they had nothing on offense. Nada. Zip. Zero. Someone needed to hit a shot.

And while Julius Randle was responsible for some of the late-game execution issues that got them to OT to begin with, he gave them life with this basket:

After this, no one scored for over two minutes.

Some of it was good defense by both teams. Some of it was missed open looks by both teams. Horford and Grimes each bricked open shots from deep, and Tatum had a pretty good look at the rim with 40 second left.

That miss led to the biggest shot of the game by who else but…

…Michael Myers, aka, RJ Barrett.

I don’t know when’s the last time you’ve watched a Halloween movie, but Myers repeatedly gets the shit kicked out of him every time. Stab wounds, concussions…you name it. And it’s always his fault. No chill in that dude.

But he never, EVER dies.

RJ doesn’t have it out for small town babysitters, but he’s right up there with Michael when it comes to self-inflicted wounds. This was another one of those games, with too many tough shots that should have been passes. The frustration levels were high with him all night long.

But when the Knicks needed someone with ice water in their veins to make the big one, RJ stepped up to the plate. Massive, massive shot from the kid.

(We won’t talk about the ensuing Celtics possession when Barrett gave up the baseline to Jaylen Brown as Boston took the lead.)

After Julius Randle wisely attacked a napping C’s defense, got fouled, and calmly sunk both free throws, Jalen Brunson fouled Jaylen Brown, who made neither foul shot. In between the first and second attempts, Julius wasn’t shy about sharing his feelings:

After the second miss, RJ got the rebound, got fouled, and made both of his freebies. Boston had one last chance, but Tatum missed a look that was well-contested by Barrett, and after a long bounce ended up in the hands of Malcolm Brogdon, Jalen Brunson blocked his shot at the buzzer.

Unreal. Absolutely unreal win.