The Knicks will be facing the Los Angeles Lakers tonight at 7:30 in Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are 8th seed in the East at 27-27, and are riding a two game winning streak against the defending NBA champions. The Lakers are 33-20 and 5th in the West, and are looking to get higher in the rankings for the impending playoffs. Going into the game tonight, John Henson and Mitchell Robinson are both listed as out for the game. On the Lakers side of the ball, Kyle Kuzma, Wesley Matthews and Marc Gasol are all listed as day-to-day, all with lower body injuries. LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Jared Dudley are all out for the game as well. Some keys for this game against a injured Lakers would be don’t let Andre Drummond get hot, get RJ the ball, and do not choke a lead.
Andre Drummond is the newest addition to this Lakers team and has taken complete control of the squad in the two games he has played. In those games he has averaged 24.5 minutes per game, 17.5 PPG, and 11.5 RPG. This was enough to destroy an equally hurt Brooklyn Nets, so minimizing his impact on the game is crucial. We have some big men to get it done but we will need to pull out all stops tonight. RJ Barrett has been electric his last few games, and that needs to continue. This season he’s averaging 17.6 PPG and is pairing well with Julius Randle, and we need to continue riding this RJ wave to get a much needed win over LA tonight. Last but not least, if we get a lead, we can not choke it. It has become a thing as of late to just fall apart down the stretch and lose winnable games. After being up big against Toronto we won by only six, on Friday we barely beat the Grizzlies in overtime by four, the two games before that we let up huge leads to barely lose at the end. If we get a lead on the defending champs, we MUST capitalize and get the win to make our playoff dreams less of a dream and more of a reality. Tip-off is at 7:30 PM EST in MSG, and as always, go Knicks!
TheDyspatch 