First off, I watched this game on the ESPN broadcast which was tough to get through, they need to get rid of Doris Burke and Doc Rivers because the countless spurts of silence on commentary was frustrating.

The Good:

• The interior defense looked amazing for pretty much the whole game and the gap between the two teams wasn’t even close. For reference, in the 1st quarter alone we held the Knicks to 18 points and overall we held them to 36-97 on 37.1 percent shooting for the entire game. We also had 11 blocks as a team while they had 0 and lead them by 9 on the defensive rebounds.

• KP and JT won us this game. Tatum finished with a triple double and KP also finished with 30 points. What I liked so much was their two man game which is kinda how Al and Kyrie were back in 2017-18. They also combined for 16 of the 26 free throws so they were in the post a lot this game, hopefully they keep it going against Miami’s infamous zone defense on Friday.

The Bad:

• JB just looked out of sorts tonight. And yes, I get it’s the first game but he showed flashes of the Miami series where he got reckless on offense and it lead to unnecessary turnovers. A great example is the wild pass he threw to Holiday in the opening minutes of the first. I’m hoping it’s just nerves from opening night or the 300 million dollar contract and not a consistent trend throughout the season.

• The three ball was awful tonight. We scored on 12-39 shooting and that came out to 30 percent. Hauser and PP didn’t hit their shots off the bench at all so that’s definitely something that needs to be worked on the next few games. The offensive boards also needs some improvement as well

Overall, I thought we did great against a good team in the East even though it was an ugly win. Let’s see how we do in the rematch against Miami on Friday ☘️