Emmanuel Mudiay continued his excellent play last night in helping the Knicks take a hard-fought road win over the Memphis Grizzlies. His most dazzling play happened with under two minutes left when he converted a Trey Burke steal into a monstrous And-1 slam over Garrett Temple. Note the contrast between the Knicks and Grizzlies announce teams.
A few factors made this dunk extra sweet. Garrett Temple fouled out on the play and it put the Knicks up 96-93 with 1:35 remaining. It also took some of the fight out of Memphis. And Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr.’s reactions were the proverbial cherries on top. These are the momentum plays a young team has to learn to execute to pull out close games. We’re slowly getting there…
There were many thrilling moments Friday night as the Knicks stormed back from an 18-point deficit to defeat the Bucks. One of the best was seeing Joakim Noah go strong to the hoop with a two-handed slam over future All-Star Giannis Antetokoumnpo. A little revenge for his game-winner on us Wednesday night.
Wait a minute, Mindaugas Kuzminskas is putting guys on posters now?! Cole Aldrich is a former Knick so I hate it had to be him. Well, not really… This wasn’t a rim rattler by any means, but Kuz is quickly becoming a fan favorite with these type of plays.
It was all good in the first quarter. Kristaps Porzingis (28 points) was cooking with his shot (4/5) and had 11 points. Carmelo Anthony (28 points) was picking spots and also had a scorching 4/5 start, leading to the duo accounting for 24 of the Knicks’s first 26 points, and a 30-20 first quarter lead.
Then the BS started. The game literally came to a grinding halt in the second quarter. The Knicks could not stop fouling. The Jazz knocked down 15 free throws in the quarter and were only down 54-49 despite shooting 38% from the field and the Knicks 51%. Exacerbating the problem was Porzingis got in foul trouble and had his rhythm broke. He wouldn’t score again until midway through the third quarter.
The Knicks had a scrappy third quarter as the Jazz found their offense. Utah briefly took a 62-60 lead, but a quick Courtney Lee (10 points) three put New York back in front. The Knicks clung to a 80-78 lead headed into the fourth.
The starters fought tooth and nail to hold the lead and had to sit to start the fourth.This proved disastrous as the bench unit couldn’t score and the Jazz promptly reeled off a 9-0 run to start the quarter and go up 87-80.
Then our defensive woes came back to bite us. A couple of strong Derrick Rose (18 points) drives would get the Knicks to within five (100-95), but we couldn’t hold defensively. Either Rodney Hood, who had 10 points in the fourth, would hit a timely three, or the Jazz would find an open mid-range jumper after breaking down our switching defense. The Jazz would have a 36-point fourth quarter and hand New York their second straight defeat at Madison Square Garden.
***
100 points or more given up in every game this season. This defense is so bad, it makes me long for the days of Mike Woodson and Mike D’Antoni. Seriously, is it that hard to not play defense with your hands? Sure, Hornacek deserves some of the blame, but outside of KP this is a team composed of experienced players. They need to take some pride in fighting over screens and not being so dependent on a switch to bail them out (and in turn create more mismatches). Even the switching under Woodson wasn’t this bad.
Our defense was a godsend for the returning Gordon Hayward, who put up 28 points with HALF of them coming from the free throw line!
We have three days until we face the Nets on Wednesday. Our practices better consist of pick and roll defense drills and fighting over screens.
MIAMI — The Knicks made it three in a row last night with an efficient, disciplined performance on both ends against the Heat.
PAINT DOMINANCE: On the offensive end, the Knicks got huge games from the starting frontcourt of Melo (25 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals), Robin Lopez (19 points, 2 blocks) and Kristaps Porzingis (12 points, 2 blocks). Melo shot 75% from the field, using a balanced attack from inside and mid-range. Porzingis struggled with his shot, but hit double figures in the second half by getting to the line. And Rolo put his full arsenal on display with putbacks, spin moves and his pet baby hook shot.
D-WILL SPARK: Once again, Derrick Williams was the key bench contributor, helping New York maintain their fourth quarter double digit lead. He had 13 points (5/8) to go along with 8 rebounds. The most clutch bucket was a fourth quarter three-pointer with the shot-clock expiring. It pushed the lead back to double digits and seemed to deflate Miami’s confidence.
PORZINGIS STAYS FOCUSED: Chris Bosh had a monster game (28 points) and seemed to relish taking our rookie to school. He got a nice driving dunk at KP’s expense, and Whiteside followed up with his own slam over the Latvian giant. Porzingis didn’t get rattled, and came back from the Bosh dunk for an alley oop on the next possession. Earlier, he had two good blocks on Luol Deng and Dwyane Wade.
He’s not going to block every shot, but I like the fact Porzingis is never afraid to contest, even after getting yammed on like below.
Kristaps Porzingis was back at last night in the Knicks’ 111-109 road win over the Toronto Raptors. Late in the second quarter, he flew over THREE RAPTOR PLAYERS to deliver a vicious putback on a Carmelo Anthony miss. It’s getting to the point where we’ll start being disappointed if we don’t see this every game.
I’m just trying bring energy to the team, trying to go for every offensive rebound. Second chance points are huge in the NBA. – Porzingis
Six games into his NBA career, Kristaps Porzingis has already delivered some highlight-reel putback slams against elite opposition. Last night against the Bucks, he had his best one over Greg Monroe. Check out this compilation of his biggest putbacks.
Five games into the season, our rookie Kristaps Porzingis might have already found a signature move. LaMarcus Aldridge was the victim last week. This week, Porzingis caught Kevin Love in the paint with a sweet putback slam.
Kristaps Porzingis is gaining confidence before our eyes. The towering 7’3 rookie had his best game (13 pts, 14 rebs, 3 stls, 2 blks) tonight against the Spurs in a losing effort. He also delivered the best play of his young Knick career via this emphatic putback slam over LaMarcus Aldridge. I can’t remember ever seeing him this fired up.
I love nights like this. Four guys with 20-plus points. Sharing the ball. Making plays. Having fun out there. Taking the load off me. I love nights like that. – CARMELO ANTHONY
As bad as the Knicks have been this season, it could be worse. Dont’ believe me? Just take one look at the Sixers, who are not only out of playoff contention, but currently on a 17-game losing streak. The Knicks added to Philly’s misery last night, overcoming a 12-point deficit (29-17) in the first quarter to score a much-needed home win to remain in play (3.5 games back) to catch the Atlanta Hawks for the 8th and final playoff spot.
SLEEPWALKING: The Knicks came out very lazy and allowed the Sixer guards like Michael Carter-Williams and Tony Wroten to get in the paint at will. With Tyson Chandler out due to personal reasons, the Knicks missed his defensive presence and rebounding. In addition, Melo wasn’t his usual self, looking lethargic coming off a cold last game. He didn’t have good lift on his inside game nor on his jumper. Thankfully, the Knicks only had to settle for a 31-26 hole after hitting a few timely threes to close out the first stanza.
DEFENSE PICKS UP: By the second quarter, the Knicks realized their were playing the Sixers and started playing defense. They took a small five-point lead following two Raymond Felton threes, but hurt themselves by going in the penalty six minutes in, allowing Philly to stay close at the line and keep it tied at halftime, 61 all.
THE BEST PLAYER ON THE FLOOR: Amar’e Stoudemire has been beasting and his output was sorely needed yesterday to keep the pressure off Melo. Playing at the 5, Stat was too fast and quick for guys like Thaddeus Young, dropping 23 points (9/10 shooting). Stat’s defense was adequate as well, including a nice block at the rim that lead to a JR Smith three on the other end. A 9-0 run late in the third, after a few minutes of back and forth buckets early on, allowed the Knicks to take the lead for good.
FOUR OVER 20: The Knicks had four different plays score over 20 points: Melo (22), Stat (23), JR (22) and Hardaway Jr. (28). Tim’s output was the most scorching, including 13 points in the fourth that allowed Melo to rest the entire period.
The Knicks head to Boston Wednesday night to take on the Celtics. I wonder if Melo and Rondo will have any “side” conversations.
![[Video] Watch Emmanuel Mudiay’s And-1 Slam Over Garrett Temple](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/knicks_mudiay_dunk_temple.png?w=825&h=510&crop=1)
![[Video] Watch Kuzminskas Rise Over Cole Aldrich](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/kuzminskas_aldrich_dunk.png?w=825&h=510&crop=1)
![[Video] The Putback God Chronicles: Porzingis Elevates Over Three Raptors](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/porzingis_scola.jpg?w=716&h=510&crop=1)
![[Video] Watch Kristaps Porzingis’ Putback Slams](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/porzingisjpg.jpg?w=635&h=510&crop=1)
![[Video] Another One: Porzingis Slams a Putback Over Kevin Love](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/kristapsporzingis_kevinlove.jpg?w=717&h=510&crop=1)
![[Video] Porzingis Throws Down Putback Slam Over LaMarcus Aldridge](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/porzingis_firedup.jpg?w=641&h=359&crop=1)
![[Video] Race to 8th Seed: Knicks Offense Overwhelms Sixers 123-110](https://nykloyalist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/thj_pumped.png?w=439&h=510&crop=1)
NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST 