Last night, losing was unacceptable. With Knick favorite Anthony Mason passing away not even 24 hours beforehand, the Knicks dedicated the game to him and showed effort that would’ve made Big Mase proud in igniting a late 10-0 fourth quarter run to hold off the Toronto Raptors.
Langston Galloway was the hero for the second consecutive night by hitting a late three-pointer. Against the Pistons, the shot took the Knicks into overtime where they eventually outlasted them in double OT. With the Raptors, Galloway got the ball with 5 seconds left on the shot clock and put New York up 103-98 with 13 seconds left. That game-icing bucket was only Galloway’s second field goal of the night.
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The game had been a tight affair most of the night with neither team being up more than a few points. The Knicks tried pulling away in the third but couldn’t contain Lou Williams from going off and dropping 12 points in the quarter. In the fourth, the Knicks’ ball movement and energy surged them to 10 straight points for a 90-79 lead with under five minutes left. The Knicks then got sloppy, allowing the Raptors to hit a few threes and free throws to pull within 2 to set up Galloway’s heroics.
The Knicks will be back in action on Tuesday March 3 against the Kings.
Andrea Bargnani’s return lasted one full game. The injured-plagued foward/center is back on the sidelines after re-aggravating his right calf just one minute into tonight’s game against the Pistons.
Bargnani made his season debut on New Year’s Eve, scoring 9 points in 19 minutes in a 99-78 losing effort to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Bargnani has played just 20 minutes this entire season.
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ENOUGH! Remember we gave up two draft picks for this man last year? The Raptors are very grateful for that misstep. If the Pistons could figure out a way to drop their most expensive player in Josh Smith, we surely can figure out a way to get Bargnani out of here.
Knicks forward Andrea Bargnani is now out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a torn ligament in his left elbow.
Bargnani suffered the injury while attempting a dunk in the third quarter of an eventual 110-106 defeat to the Sixers. Bargnani was undercut on the dunk and landed awkwardly on his elbow. He remained in the game until early fourth quarter.
Bargnani had played in every game this season, averaging 13 points and 5 rebounds.
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So how many bigs do we have left? With Stoudemire and K-Mart out, we’re left with Tyson Chandler, Jeremy Tyler and Cole Aldrich. Coach Woodson isn’t high on giving the latter two significant minutes, but we don’t have much choice at this point. The “indefinitely” tag has me worried we won’t see Bargs back until after the All-Star break.
The Knicks blew an early 14-point first half lead, but showed the poise and grit that was missing from the first two months of the season to battle back and defeat the Phoenix Suns in overtime, 98-96. It wasn’t pretty and the defensive switching made this one harder than it needed to be, but the squad got the job done despite Melo working on fumes and refs making suspect calls in key moments.
FAST START AND SLACKING: Melo came out strong with 13 points in the opening 12 minutes to give New York a 28-21 lead. They went up by as much as 14 in the second quarter, but bad defense allowed the Suns to pull within four at one point. The Knicks had to settle for a nine-point halftime lead, 52-43, after Goran Dragic hit a three at the buzzer.
WHEN THE PROBLEMS STARTED: The Knicks took a 75-68 lead into the fourth, but Coach Woodson went with the lineup of Toure Murry, Tim Hardaway Jr., JR Smith, K-Mart and Amar’e Stoudemire. Murry uncharacteristically took back to back bad shots and Stat was continually expoited by Leandro Barbosa’s (21 points off the bench) drives to the rim. The lead was erased and Melo was forced to come back at the 9:03 mark, giving him little rest after already working hard to nab over 10 rebounds.
TIC FOR TAC: Even with Melo back in, the ball movement struggled and the teams traded baskets before NY turnovers and horrible help defense allowed for a Dragic open layup and a 88-83 deficit. The Knicks looked dead in the water, but Woody made a key substitution of Andrea Bargnani, who played solid interior man to man defense once paired with Martin. Unfortunately, Melo’s legs were gone on his jumper and he couldn’t deliver a dagger to knock out the Suns, including a missed wide-open mid-range shot. Nonetheless, he made one of the game’s most important plays in driving and kicking out to an open Felton who swished a three-pointer to put the Knicks up 92-90.
FINAL CHANCES: Now with the lead, Melo had to take a shot that would leave roughly 10 seconds on the clock. He was clearly fouled on the arm going up for a jumper, but the refs either missed it or decided to swallow their whistles (Melo had been jawing with the refs earlier, including a brief face to face that almost earned him a technical). Melo was furious and had to be calmed by Woody in the huddle.
Barbosa went for a drive and appeared to have been tied up successfully by Martin for a jump ball. However, the refs deemed this one a foul, and Barbosa hit two foul shots to send the game into overtime after JR missed good inbounds fadeaway (ironically, the same shot that beat the Suns in regulation last season).
MELO GRINDS IT OUT: Melo scored four of the team’s six overtime points to put this one away. One was a nice alley-oop from K-Mart, and the other a tough fadeaway in the post over Gerald Green, who had been giving Melo a tough time all night. The Suns couldn’t convert on open threes. K-Mart got two crucial stops on Dragic at the rim despite being switched off and having to cover him from the perimeter both times.
Although Melo didn’t shoot the ball well in the second half (9/24 overall), he found other ways to lift his team with his rebounding (16) and assists (4). K-Mart was huge on the defensive end in addition to several monster putbacks, contributing 8 points and 9 rebounds. And despite being torched at times by Dragic (28 points), Felton had his own moments with 19 points.
BACK IN THE PLAYOFFS…FOR NOW: This win put the Knicks ahead of the Brooklyn Nets for the final playoff spot in the East. If the Knicks hope to keep it that way, it’ll be important for Tyson Chandler to make his return tonight against the Bobcats since most of the starters will be dead tired.
Knicks center Tyson Chandler has confirmed that he will return to the starting lineup tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Chandler has been sidelined since November 6 after fracturing his right fibula in a collision with Bobcats guard Kemba Walker. In his absence, the Knicks have struggled mightily on the defensive end, posting an overall record of 7-17.
In the four games Chandler has played this year, he’s averaged 7 points, 9 rebounds, 1 steal and 2.5 blocks.
Coach Woodson has also confirmed that the addition of Chandler will move Andrea Bargnani to the bench, and Carmelo Anthony to the power forward position.
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Finally, some good news! I’m not expecting Chandler to be an immediate savior since the team’s problems are varied. In addition, it’ll take some games before his timing and legs are fully back. But from a morale standpoint, just his presence will be a huge energy burst for this team. The road to .500 begins tonight…
BOSTON, MA — Considering it was “Friday Night Knicks” AND Friday the 13th, another ridiculous and painful loss should have been expected. After a masterful third quarter filled with excellent ball movement with our frontcourt of Melo (26 points), Bargnani (22 points) and Stoudemire (18 points) carrying the scoring load behind nice pick n’ rolls and sweet passes from the likes of Pablo Prigioni, it all went to hell in the fourth with ice-cold shooting, broken plays, and a fatigued Melo trying to bail the team out with seconds remaining on the shot clock (he couldn’t). As you can deduce from the title, the bulk of this defeat falls on our backcourt and the coaching rotations of Coach Woodson.
BACKCOURT INEPTITUDE: Let’s get started with the reason the game was lost. Our guards shot a combined 3-20. Prigioni was 1-6 (although he did contribute 8 assists), Iman Shumpert 1-8 (including several airballs), and JR Smith went 0-1 despite playing 26 minutes and the entire fourth quarter (he sheepishly said afterward he was trying to get his teammates involved). There’s no way a team can win getting that little from their guard rotations.
The main issue that stood out is when the defense tightens, none of our guards can break down their man and get to the rim. This leads to a lot of passing on the perimeter that fails to set up the plays and leaves Melo, the only player that can consistently take his man one on one, being left to try to make something happen (many times 20 feet away from the basket). Secondly, our backcourt can’t keep anyone in front of them, putting a lot of pressure on a frontcourt that isn’t the most savvy defensively with Chandler still out.
4TH QUARTER CHOKE: The Knicks had a 73-68 going into the quarter but had to go at it without Kenyon Martin , who left the game limping with an abdominal strain. That hurt on the defensive end because K-Mart was having a strong game altering lay-ups and snatching down rebounds (8 points, 7 rebounds). Our defensive rotations got sloppy and the Celtics went on a 13-2 run to tie it at 81. A Melo drive for a three-point play would give NY their last lead to 84-81. Open back to back threes from Courtney Lee (18 points) and Avery Bradley (13 points) put the Celtics up for good 86-84. New York had their opportunities — Bargnani had a few open mid-range jumpers that bricked, and Melo’s pass out of a double team for an open JR Smith three could have put the Knicks back in front. The team could only manage 13 points in the quarter and were outscored 22-13.
STAT POSITIVITY: Amar’e Stoudemire continued his excellent offensive play, shooting 7-9 (18 points) and nabbing 5 rebounds. Once again, he seemed to be phased out for much of the 4th despite hitting a bailout jumper to put the Knicks up 81-78. We’ll all continue to be skeptical in wondering if his knees hold up, but so far he’s looking spry and strong in the post. As a precaution, he’ll likely sit today’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.
MORE HOPE ON THE HORIZON: From comments yesterday, it appears that Tyson Chandler will return this coming week. That won’t fix everything, but at least the interior defense and rebounding will get a boost.
The Knicks are back at the Garden tonight to face the Hawks at 7:30 p.m. ET.
It feels so good to be back in the win column. After a nine-game losing streak, the New York Knicks were due for a good game, and it came at the expense of their equally struggling little brothers in Brooklyn, whom the Knicks lit up for 16 three-pointers (59%) in route to a 30 point thrashing at the Barclays Center. New York put together their first complete game of the season and unquestionably the best performance as a team we’ve seen all year. Is this a taste of things to come or just a benefit of playing the lowly Nets?
FIRST HALF CHARGE: The Knicks came out on fire, drilling 12 of their first 14 shots and shooting at 78% for much of the quarter. The defense was strong as well, with Andrea Bargnani pestering Brook Lopez with two blocked shots. Garnett got a nice dunk only to be one-upped on the next play by Bargs driving past him and slamming home a one-handed stuff. Melo played the background (no shot attempts over the first 5 minutes) while others like Raymond Felton (3/3, 8 points) kept the floor spaced with their offense.
The Knicks lead 30-23 after one, and continued their momentum with the second unit (Prigioni, Hardaway Jr., Stoudemire, JR and K-Mart) holding serve with the guards covering much of the scoring slack despite Stat struggling at times with KG offense. Melo and company returned at the 7:31 mark and quickly pushed the lead up to 10 (42-32) courtesy of a sweet Melo pass to an open Shumpert for a trey. A 22-6 edge in rebounding allowed Brooklyn to the trim the deficit to 50-43 at halftime. However, the Knicks were shooting 58% with the balanced scoring, giving you the feeling the Nets were just delaying an inevitable blowout.
3RD QUARTER PILLAGING FROM MELO AND SHUMP: The 18-5 run that closed the book on this game was ignited by the hot three-point shooting of Iman Shumpert. After weeks of trade talk and his standing with Coach Woodson, it was great to see the assertive, sharp-shooting, and highly confident Shump we’d d been expecting all season. His five three-pointers were a career-high, along with his 17 points being a season-high. Outside of a verbal squabble with Andrey Blantche that earned them double technicals, and being a litte too aggressive early with his defense, Shump was pretty much flawless last night.
Melo (19 points on 8/12 shooting, 10 rebounds, 6 assists) had the prototype game of how he should play when the team’s outside shots are falling. He made sure everyone got involved early on (namely Bargnani), made quick decisions out of double teams, and abused Alan Anderson on the block and on the boards. By not having to carry the offensive load in the first half, Melo had more than enough energy to put the finishing touches on the end of an awesome third quarter with several jumpers and passes to a rolling Stoudemire for quick scores. By the time the smoke cleared, the Nets found themselves in a 84-59 hole with the entire fourth serving as extended garbage time.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MAN TRASH TALK: Andrea Bargnani had what I’d like to call a “good ejection” in the fourth after getting a second technical for getting into it with Kevin Garnett. Earlier, both had received double technicals for getting tangled up after a rebound. Bargnani didn’t back down and got ejected for talking trash to KG after draining a three in his face. It’s much easier to deal with KG’s mouth when your mopping the floor with him and his team.
MOVE THAT BALL: New York had 24 assists to Brookly’s 11. It should come as no surprise that the Knicks shot 57% for the game while the Nets could only muster 39% on repeated isolation and broken plays.
The Knicks will be back at it tonight to prove they’re on the road to turning it around as they face the Orlando Magic. The Knicks have lost seven-straight at home, so that’s another losing streak the squad should be motivated to snap.
When you’re playing this bad, you find ways to lose, as the Knicks did last night at the Garden in dropping their seventh straight at home and ninth overall. The last time New York lost nine straight was back when Larry Brown was coaching the team. Ironically, I don’t think any of those sorry Knicks teams were ever as bad defensively as what we’ve seen on this losing streak.
BEST FIRST QUARTER IN AGES: The Knicks came out with strong defense from a surprising place. Andrea Bargnani, of all people, was prowling the paint and swatting shots to the tune of three blocks. His jumper was working which helped space the floor and get others involved, leading to Melo only attempting his first shot six minutes in. Felton was nailing shots and dropped a sweet alley-oop to Melo. The Knicks were able to hold the Pelicans to 24% shooting for a 20-16 lead, and got another break with New Orleans’ best player, Anthony Davis, leaving the game with a hand fracture.
EARLY SIGNS OF A COLLAPSE: Although the Knicks held a 49-44 lead at halftime, the second quarter displayed signs of the horror to come in the second half. Tyreke Evans came off the bench and pretty much waltzed into the paint at will for layups, scoring 10 points in just 14 minutes. The perimeter defense was worse, as another bench player in Ryan Anderson got repeated (and I do mean repeated — 7/11 from behind the arc) open three-point shots to keep the game close.
The offense was stalled as the Knicks overall were looking to just shoot jumpers and not attack the rim with Davis absent. The Knicks didn’t get their first free throws until midway in the second and it was Bargnani’s foul drawing that allowed NY to hold their lead.
ANOTHER 30-PLUS QUARTER: We know by now that the mark of an extremely poor defensive effort is when the Knicks give up 30 or more in a quarter. They did so in the third behind putrid interior defense. Kenyon Martin was the culprit several times here as he failed to rotate. Bargnani’s main weakness is help defense, so despite his scoring he allowed multiple uncontested layups as well. The frustration hit peak levels when Melo foolishly switched off Anderson on the perimeter. Bargnani didn’t come out to cover, leading to Shumpert dashing recklessly to prevent an open three-pointer (which happened anyway). Shump crashed into a Pelican big setting a pick, leading to a foul and four-point play opportunity.
Shump was livid after Melo criticized him for the play. He tried to plead his case in the huddle as Melo (and Coach Woodson) tuned him out.
Frankly, the play shows the lack of teamwork and awareness the Knicks play with. All parties could have done better. Melo should have never left Anderson, Bargnani could have flashed out to prevent the three, and Shumpert shouldn’t have barreled through the pick for a needless foul.
4TH QUARTER STRUGGLE: The Knicks started the final 12 minutes down 2 points (76-74), but were able to at one point gain a six-point lead off the hot three-point shooting of Tim Hardaway Jr., who drained back to back treys to put NY up 88-82.
At that point, the game should have been over with the Knicks maintaining decent defense and pulling away. But if you can’t play smart defense, it doesn’t matter how hard you play — the lead will soon be erased. In a matter of about 30 seconds, a Ryan Anderson three and a three-point play by Evans on a fast break erased the Knicks’ cushion.
The final six minutes were disastrous on both ends. The Knicks committed six turnovers and missed 12 of their final 13 shots. While the Pelican guards were feasting in the paint and on the perimeter, Shumpert remained benched in favor of JR Smith, who couldn’t get a stop if his life depended on it. JR himself admitted as much after the game:
They were pretty much scoring at will, especially my guy. I don’t know what the hell I was doing on defense.
Shumpert was so upset (and deservedly so) that he declined to talk to the media after the game.
THJ’S CAREER NIGHT: Although his defense was suspect along with everyone else, Tim Hardaway Jr. was the shooting spark that nearly won this game for NY. He had a career-best 21 points off the bench on 6-10 shooting (5-8 from downtown) in 25 minutes. We can only hope Woody continues to play the kid more and experiment with a Shump-Hardaway lineup until JR gets his mojo back.
MORE PABLO: Ray Felton had a strong first half (10 pts. on 4/5 shooting, 5 assists) but fell of a cliff in the final 24 mintues (2 pts, 0/5 shooting). He had a bad turnover down the stretch and possibly suffered a hip injury. Prigioni getting 10 minutes last night in lieu of Felton’s struggling made no sense.
FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP: Let’s be clear — the Knicks are in shambles right now. There’s no leadership, no accountability and no identity. And yet, the team is still just three games out of first place on the Atlantic Division. The Knicks have a “favorable” schedule of equally sub .500 teams over the next four games (Nets, Magic, Celtics and Cavs). If the team can manage a 3-1 or 2-2 stand, it’s something solid to build as Tyson Chandler returns in the next 1-2 weeks (with hopefully Jeremy Tyler by the end of the month).
In the meantime, try not to slit your wrists, fellow Knicks fans.
PORTLAND, OR. — The Knicks’ three-game West Coast swing started with their sixth straight defeat as the Trailblazers, behind hot, efficient play from guards Damian Lillard and Wesley Matthews, burned the Knicks for a combined 40 points. Outside of Carmelo Antony having another double double (34 points, 15 rebounds) and Kenyon Martin of all people being the high man in assists (6), there wasn’t much to applaud on the Knicks’ end.
FLAT 1ST HALF: The Knicks went down by as much as 22 points in the first half courtesy of bad help defense in the post (primarily Andrea Bargnani), and no offense outside of Melo. Portland went on a 12-0 run to go up 22-12 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter and NY wouldn’t get it to single digits again until midway through the 4th quarter. A 17-4 run in the second quarter got the Blazers their biggest lead, 44-22, before settling on a 56-39 halftime lead.
A SOLID THIRD QUARTER FOR A CHANGE: The Knicks slowly began chipping away late in the third behind inspired play from Melo. Instead of doing damage on the scoring front, he got three consecutive assists, two of them 3s from Udrih and Bargnani, that kept the Knicks within a 13-10 point striking range headed into the fourth.
THE BACK-BREAKER: A Bargnani three trimmed the lead to seven (81-74) early in the fourth, but then the momentum collapsed in less than a minute. Metta World Peace touched the ball after the shot, leading to a technical on a second delay of game. A broken fast break on the Knicks’ next play lead to Blazers exploiting the team’s bad transition defense for an easy Batum dunk, and then a Shumpert missed three lead to Wesley Matthews sinking one on the other end to put the deficit at 88-74.
The Knicks’ effort was never the same after that outside of Melo, who managed to get to 98-91 off a jumper with 1:47 remaining. Lillard promptly hit two shots, a mid-range jumper and floater in the paint, to ice the game.
SHOOTING GUARD HOLE: This is where the Knicks were hurt the most on offense. Iman Shumpert is playing like a man with broken confidence and it’s evident in his stats last night (0 points, 1 steal, 2 TOs). JR Smith wasn’t much better off the bench, managing just 6 points on 2-8 shooting and 5 fouls.
PG PLAY: Beno Udrih improved from last game, going for 13 points and 5 assists. Still, our guards overall have to improve defensively and offensively for the team to prevent big deficits going forward. Pablo Prigioni didn’t have it this game — the veteran contributed 0 points and just 1 assist in 17 minutes.
STOUDEMIRE: Amar’e had his usual defensive woes (giving up a four-point play opportunity in the first half), specifically trying to guard LaMarcus Aldridge (18 points, 14 rebounds). However, he was active and showed life on offense, dropping 10 points off jumpers, post moves and rolling to the basket.
I’ve worked my butt off to get in tip-top shape and to be able to compete at the highest level. To work that hard and to be losing like we are, it’s not a great feeling. – CARMELO ANTHONY
The criticism is starting to quiet about Melo. While his defense will never be standout, his shot selection is improving, and his rebounding has been the best of his career while trying to pick up the slack for Tyson Chandler. The man needs help badly and unless JR, Iman and Bargnani match his effort, this losing streak will not end anytime soon.
It’s starting to look like that ESPN prediction of a 37-45 record was on the generous side. The Knicks put together a decent first half, imploded defensively and offensively in the third, and then had to play catchup in the fourth. They couldn’t get the stops they needed and most alarmingly, our leader Carmelo Anthony was a petulant, unfocused player who had his teammates tuned out and the refs non-calls in his head.
NEW LINEUP: With Felton sitting out with back spasms, Coach Woodson elected to go with Iman Shumpert and Beno Udrih in the backcourt. The frontcourt was manned by Melo, Andrea Bargnani and Kenyon Martin, who NY hoped would bring some toughness and interior defense.
The first quarter was solid with Bargnani getting off to a quick start (7 points in the quarter) by driving to the rim. The interior defense was still a problem, but it didn’t become damning until the second half.
Udrih went scoreless and managed five assists while Shumpert chipped in 11 points. Even with Felton out, the perimeter defense was still abysmal as noted by Rodney Stuckey going for 21 points off the bench and getting into the paint at will.
Melo had a horrid first half where he shot 3-12. He complained about the lack of calls, missed several free throws, and overall played with tunnel vision. This is one the games were you could clearly see he wasn’t trusting his teammates and rushing bad shots. The whining earned him a tech in the third and he didn’t settle down until the fourth. He missed a three with the Knicks down 82-87 which basically sealed the game.
INEXCUSABLE DEFENSE: Sometimes a picture is worth more than any game analysis. For a synopsis of how bad the defense is and why the Knicks have been playing from behind in nearly every game, click on the image below and watch Amar’e Stoudemire. Also note Melo’s reaction on the bench.
This is the reason the team went down by as much as 15 early in the fourth (63-78) and ran out of time despite clawing their way back into it with two minutes remaining.
MORE PAIN TO FOLLOW: It’s not going to get better, as tonight the Knicks have to face the Indiana Pacers, who sport the best record in the league. I see no other scenario but a blowout that rivals what the Spurs did to NY last week.
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NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST 