Talking about asserting dominance over the *checks notes* Charlotte Hornets? Look, the Hornets of this year aren’t the same as previous, but still kinda the same, but still, Peak-Thibs happened, and in a 24-point blowout win against the aforementioned Hornets, Mikal Bridges ended up playing 47 minutes with both OG and KAT going 40 minutes each. He played 4 starters 38+ minutes. The Knicks starting 5 accounted for 113 of their 125 points.
Now, obviously we see coaches play their star players 38+ minutes all the time… when the games are close. But in a blowout, I guess it’s just Thibs being Thibs.
I guess I gotta weave in some analysis at some point, so I see this as two sides of a coin. Because money. Fantasy-wise, this is obviously not so bad, Knicks starters, if nothing else, will get plenty of time to grab their counting stats, though I think one of the best arguments against playing your players 20,000 minutes a game is the risk of injury or frankly, just tiring them out during the already grindy season.
I’m not a Knicks fan, so I’m just here for the content and memes, but honestly, what was the team before Thibs came? I honestly think their last best coach was Jeff Van Gundy (love the dude) and that was what, like 15 years ago? Anyways, just from looking outside, I definitely don’t think Thibs rigidness when it comes to minutes is an overall plus value, but I guess everything else he does is, so weird trade off. I guess he just is who he is, and you just accept that since he’s been doing this for 10 years, he’ll probably be doing it the next.
Now if he could just teach Mikal Bridges to hit a three…
There was a Jonathan Kuminga sighting! Despite having a pretty good growth season last year, Kuminga still remains somewhat an engima, even with the continual flashes of “he did that?”. Staying true to form, he scored 33 points (14 in the fourth quarter) with 6 rebounds going 13-22 in 32 minutes helping the Warriors snap a five-game losing streak.
Also, just gotta mention, Payton Pritchard is on pace to hit the 7th most threes in a season right now with 309. I’m not sure if that pace still keeps, but it would be the most threes ever besides Curry and Harden. Not a bad group to be in.
And speaking about interesting sightings, I bring to you one of the rarest the past few seasons, and that’s the sighting of Khris Middleton. What do I expect? Pretty much what he gave last season, something like 15/5/5 would be within range. His debut is tonight, so get those lineups set.
Luka, still easing his way back into the rotation netted his first triple-double of the season, going 21/10/10.
And despite the loss, Nikola Jokic finished with 27/20/11, of which I say, I don’t think there was any debate on MVP since like week 3. Durant made a strong case for a week, and then of course Jayson Tatum will be there, but Jokic is the best player in the universe and we’re all lucky to witness such a thing.
As a Clippers fan, ef that dude. Love him.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
