So let us get the real hurtful stuff out of the way. The Knicks lost by double digits after being up 21 points in the 3rd quarter. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving absolutely turned up in the second half. RJ Barrett shot horribly. Some of the lineups thrown out there were horrible by Coach Thibs.

Let’s get positive now. In the first half, RJ was the best player on the floor. Alec Burks was also in the role of being a scorer since RJ was the main distributor, leading to a great first half from him as well. Overall, a lot of minutes were given to the young guys, helping them work on their games in the shortened rotation. Also, they got to the line at will, getting 36 attempts from the charity stripe (RJ honestly could have taken over 20+ free throws with how many times he was getting hit), but couldn’t convert on 15 of them.

Obi Toppin continues to shine when given the opportunity to play over 20 minutes a night. Obi finished with 19 and 5 and had some electrifying plays in the 4th quarter with a put-back dunk on an RJ miss and a layup on KD where he went up and under.

My favorite part of it all, though, is when in the locker room, KD and Kyrie considered this game to be like a playoff game, while KD was on Twitter. It is great to see that the Knicks group of young guys minus Reddish, Robinson, and Grimes were able to give such a great effort and make a team with the best player in the world feel a playoff atmosphere.

Thibs brought back a culture of playing hard back to New York, but he is not the guy that can push this team forward. The group of Rose, McBride, Quickley, RJ, Grimes, Reddish, Obi, Mitch, and Sims needs to be the priority and Thibs does not see that. With only 2 games left, all that can be looked forward to is hoping that group is pushed next year.

Go New York Go New York Go.