Game Preview: Knicks vs Pelicans, 4/18/2021

I love these Knicks, always caring and brave. I love the room they still have to grow, their amazing courage against brutes. They’ll get better and eventually stretch their legs all the way out. Accommodatingly crucifying acrimonious buzzkills. I do mean all, the way out, bending a trip in this acrid callous amorphous ballgame. Life. It takes your breath.

Julius Randle is one of the most menacing players in basketball, contend with it. He is simultaneously one of the games dagger-footed fastest and most awesomely powerful athletes. The unstoppable object combined with the immovable wall. Julius has been unloading on the league all season and this win streak is no fucking exception. Truck Jules forever! You got ‘em pressed like Lee, just keep on nailing it to ‘em.

Projected Starters

Some minor alterations since we last spoke to the Pelicans. The oldest Ball brother returns to action after missing a few outings. That will certainly put a few more chiles in the gumbo. As the ball snaps around with a little more vim, possibly making the Knicks’ fearsome defense a bit more molar than incisor. Still bites hard but they’ll need to grind it out as opposed to just tearing into the fowl flesh.

Elfrid Payton v Eric Bledsoe

Reggie Bullock v Lonzo Ball

RJ Barett v Brandon Ingram

Julius Randle v Zion Williamson

Nerlens Noel v Steven Adams

In their previous match, Nerlens Noel was a majorly late scratch. He came back to help the Knicks in their game against Dallas, possibly getting the block of the year.

Frank Ntilikina came in and helped stem the tide for the missing Alec Burks, who will likely remain in the COVID protocol today. It was RJ Barrett who reaped the benefits of the opened up Burks-controlled minutes. He poured gasoline on the Mavs and Julius was the human torch. Fatality, brutality. Get out of here, dumb baby. All that shit.

Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images

Keys & Predictions

The Pelicans flew up from the deep carob and emerald of the bayou only to be capped in the beige and slate of the Chocolate City. Fleeing this refereeing for the city that stays wide eyed and fully down the hole.

We’re in it, never chipping. Each moment a perpetual fourth quarter. A lustrous Merkur, fluttering from inside our cheek. Cold edge sparkling, razed. Small and all, the city’s calm cynicism bleeds cold at first. Right by your ear and getting hot as it opens down to your jaw. You’d better hold that together. Keep your nerves in check. Trapped in the ulcer, New York. Rapt, unfazed. Yea we’re just a bunch of cut ups.

Game is at 1:00, Knicks by -9.

Photo by Howard Earl Simmons/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Parting Shot

Knicks fans have long pinned their hopes on players that embody hard work and dynamism. The embers of these rarities often never fully reaching their apex in unison. We end up rooting for players that contain these elements disjointedly. A great playoff series, a fantastic bolt of chaotic good, a storybook defaced in the library.

The ground is now level and spring is a wonderful time to plant the seeds that will grow your garden and feed your community. Maybe keep some dogs around, so no one thinks it wise to rattle our cages.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images