Tara talks to China (@chiniqua) from Posting and Toasting about the Trail Blazers' upcoming game vs the New York Knicks. The two teams who commit the most fouls, have the lowest number of assists, in New York City on New Years day. Oh boy! As China says, “Someone has to win this game”.

00:15 Remembering the Enes Kanter experience. And sharing notes on the Melo experience.

4:30 What happened when David Fizdale left. It seems like he wasn’t able to make it work with the roster that he had and Mike Miller seems to be making it work. Miller came from the G-League and was used to having to deal with a constantly changing roster and he’s very adaptable.

7:30 Miller takes good timeouts. Things seem to be trending upwards. 

8:00 Guess is that he will finish out the season as the coach.

10:00 Who are the key players? Julius Randall has been very divisive this season, under Miller he is doing really well and scoring lots of points. 

12:00 Elfrid Payton is back from injury, coming off the bench playing well. Frank Ntilikina is another person who Knicks fans argue about a lot. He’s great at defense but on offense “is not as bold as he could be”. Marcus Morris Sr. and Mitchell Robinson are also important. Morris has been solid and Mitchell is good for highlights, he just gets into foul trouble.

15:00 And speaking of foul trouble, the Blazers and the Knicks are the top (or bottom, depending on how you look at it) in fouling. They commit the most fouls. Both teams also have the fewest assists. 

16:00 When they are playing well, they have Robinson and Ntilikina playing good defense and Randall and Morris and anyone else scoring.

17:30 Rookie RJ Barrett is not great, but the biggest struggle is that they give up on rookies too soon. People are already out on Kevin Knocks even though he’s only in his second year.

19:15 Taj Gibson and Wayne Ellington are the elder statesmen. Gibson has been playing regularly but Ellington has been hurt for much of the season. 

20:00 New York really struggles from the free throw line and good point guards feast on them.  

21:00 This game is really going to be all about Melo’s return to the Garden. 

22:30 Hire JR Smith! (I promised China I’d put this in the show notes.)

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