Welcome to NY, Wemby

The Knicks get their first look at Vic. Plus, a look back at the defining stretch of Monday's win.

Good morning! Who’s ready to watch an alien play basketball?

Game Night

TONIGHT: Spurs at Knicks

When: 7:30 pm, ESPN

Injury Report: For the Spurs, Devin Vassell is unlikely to play due to an adductor injury, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. For the Knicks, everyone is healthy, although RJ Barrett said he’s going to be dealing with knee pain moving forward for a bit.

Halftime Zoom: Giddy up! Here’s the link.

What to watch for: No Vassell should help New York. San Antonio has played teams about even with Vassell on the floor but has been outscored by 18.3 points per 100 possessions without him. Tre Jones and Wemby (duh) are their other big on/off swing pieces, and it’ll be interesting to see how New York’s offense tries to work around Vic’s approximately 23-foot wingspan. On defense, it seems like Mitch will get the Wemby assignment, which should give us some fireworks one way or another.

New York’s Super-Subs

As the fourth quarter started on Monday night, the Knicks were as close to NBA mediocrity as a team could be.

Literally.

Not only were they tied at 76 all through three quarters, but they had scored exactly as many points as they’d given up - 696 - through nearly seven full games.

Over that time, they’d done some nice things, but at no point did we feel like we were watching the team that played at a 53-win pace following the Josh Hart acquisition and that proceeded to wipe the floor with Cleveland in the first round.

And then, for a glorious 4:21 stretch, everything finally came together.

In true Knick fashion, it was their bench that put all the pieces together, starting with the very first possession of the period.