What a night in the Association. Last night was Adam Silver’s vision of the In-Season Tournament played out. Being at the Garden, there was a different feel than a normal Tuesday night game against the Hornets (shoutout Jayson Tatum for playing in a Monday night game in Charlotte) and the crowd was into it the entire game. It seemed the intensity was up in each game last night from not only the fans, but the players and coaches too.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the game has a different feel to it. The Orange court and KITH jerseys looks way better in person than they do on TV. The Knicks came out locked in, only allowing 16 points in the first quarter. I knew immediately it was going to be a Julius Randle game when he hit his first contested three of the night. Randle has 11 points in the first quarter and set the tone for the Knicks. Ending with 25 points, 20 rebounds and 5 assists, this was one of Julius’ most dominant nights in a Knicks jersey. Josh Hart looked great last night and Immanuel Quickley put the game out of reach in the second half. Thibs must love the tie breaker format for the In Season tournament since he gets to play his starters in blowouts. It was cool to monitor not only our score but also the score of the Boston Celtics and the Bucks-Heat game and most of the arena wanted the Knicks to keep scoring for the point differential (the rest did not know about the IST). Now a one game playoff in Milwaukee to get to Vegas. Let’s go Knicks.
The other games of the night had the same feel. Although I did not watch the Bulls-Celtics game, I thought the clip of Billy Donovan yelling at Joe Mazzula as he was hacking Drummond up 30 was unreal. The Celtics and Nets both took care of business, but Boston won the three way tie on point differential after crushing the Bulls (sorry Orlando).
In the West, I got home for the 4th quarter of the Thunder-Twolves game and the Rockets-Mavs game. The Timberwolves team is tough and gutted out a gritty win after Anthony Edwards took a hard fall in the 3rd and did not play the rest of the game. The Rudy Gobert discourse needs to change. Even though he started Covid and is disliked across the league he completely dominated that game on the defensive end. Troy Brown Jr. stepped up big for Minnesota with 12 points in the 4th and the biggest shot of the game. I would love to see a 7 game series between these two teams. In Dallas, the biggest difference maker in the 4th quarter of a tied game was not Luka, Kyrie, Sengun, or Fred VanVleet, but it was Derrick Jones Jr. who had 12 points. I was really hoping that Houston pulled it out but it’s hard to stop the dynamic duo of Luka and Kyrie in the clutch. The three of them combined for 35 of the Mavs 37 in the 4th and allowed New Orleans to move on to the Knockout Stage.
In the Warriors-Kings game, the Dubs played their best half of basketball this season in the first half and took a 17 point lead into halftime. Kerr seemed like one of the few coaches that did not understand the stakes of the IST. The Warriors needed to win by 12 or more to advance, the Kings needed to win to get in. Kerr took his foot off the gas in the second half. In the 4th quarter, the Warriors could not get anything going and the Kings stormed back. I thought the game completely changed for the Warriors once Kerr took Moses Moody out. Moody had 11 points in the 4th and was the only player hitting shots. Once Kerr took out Moody, the Warriors ran out of gas and Malik Monk hit one of the craziest, luckiest go ahead shots to win the game for Sacramento and move onto the Knockout Round.
All in all, last night’s game solidified the In-Season Tournament as a huge positive for the NBA. As a Knicks fan, I know they can beat any team in the NBA in a 1 game and am taking pride in the fact that they can be the first ever In-Season Tournament champions. I do not need any extra incentive like an automatic playoff berth to root extra hard for them on Tuesday as mentioned in this tweet here: https://x.com/TommyBeer/status/1729879739983384790?s=20.
In all honesty, the NBA slate tonight is beyond mediocre. It is hard to follow up the night of basketball displayed yesterday. My favorite matchup of the night is Philly-New Orleans. This should be a close game especially with CJ McCollum returning from his collapsed lung. I am also looking forward to watching the brand new SEC-ACC challenge in college basketball. A top 20 matchup of UNC-Tennessee headlines the slate tonight. Hopefully my Tar Heels can take care of business in Chapel Hill and the Razorbacks can upset the Blue Devils in Arkansas.
JakesTakes 
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