Toss it in the Trash

The less said about this game, the better.

Good morning. Woof.

Game 68: Spurs 120, Knicks 105

• Other than KAT scoring the first nine Knick points, New York came out of the gate with a level of offensive futility that needed to be seen to be believed. Non-Towns starters began the game 0-for-20 from the field, and it wasn’t until Cam Payne hit a three with 9:18 remaining in the second quarter that a non-Knick big man scored.

• The defense wasn’t much better, and the rout appeared to be on when San Antonio went on a 23-2 second quarter run to take a 28-point lead.

• Spurred by defense, the Knicks used a 22-3 run of their own to cut the lead to eight points in the third quarter, but the Spurs answered that with a 10-0 burst.

• One last New York push cut the lead to single digits midway through the fourth, but it was too much Mamu for the Knicks, who never got over the hump.

I blame myself.

As someone who creates content primarily about one NBA team but who prides himself on having an in depth knowledge of the league at large, I was nonetheless unfamiliar with Sandro Mamukelashvili before last night.

Clearly, my ignorance came back to bite me in the ass.

Mamukelashvili, or “Mamu” as he will now forever be seared into my brain, had the sort of night that will get him a commercial for a used car dealership in San Antonio, which is to say it will never get any better for him than this.

But of course that’s little consolation for Knicks fans. Mamu’s career high 34 points in on 13-for-14 shooting just 19 minutes was the omega, and not the alpha, of this loss.