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Good day, friends! I hope you're having a pleasant weekend. The Knicks and their new starting lineup will face a great test today against the visiting Spurs. One pictures this new frontcourt trying to stop Tony Parker's penetration and Tim Duncan's floor game and one...wonders how that will work.
And yes, those same five-- Raymond Felton, Pablo Prigioni, Iman Shumpert, Carmelo Anthony, and Andrea Bargnani-- will start even though Knicks PR momentarily made it seem like Tyson Chandler was Wolverine. The big news of the day is THE RETURN OF THE PIPE THE EMPIPE PIPES BACK PIPE TIME EVERYBODY PIPE NOW. J.R. Smith will debut after serving his five-game suspension for failing one or three drug tests. Woodson says Smith will play 30 or so minutes off the bench in five-minute increments. Remember that Smith is *also* making his debut after offseason knee surgery, so I guess the Knicks see that as a good way to ease him in. Cool. I'm excited to see how J.R. looks and interested to see how his presence affects the rotation. I would not be surprised to see Tim Hardaway Jr. fall all the way out of said rotation, nor would I be surprised to see Iman Shumpert play criminally few minutes. We'll see! Amar'e Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin are both available, incidentally.
The Spurs are 5-1. They're tough as always. A noon Sunday start may soften them a bit, but Parker is still a menace off the dribble, Duncan is still Duncan, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili are still killers, the shooters can still shoot, and god dammit they have Marco Belinelli now. I hope you're ready, Knicks.
Tip-off, again, is at noon. This is your game thread. This is Pounding the Rock, a most excellent Spurs blog. Please don't post large photos, GIFs, or links to illegal streams in the thread. Go the Knicks! Back to .500!?