Tag: highlights

[Video] Sweet Revenge: Knicks Pummel Celtics 114-88

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It’s always a great evening when the Celtics get smashed. The worst defeat the Knicks suffered this season was an embarrassing 41-point defeat to Boston at home, so it was highly appropriate that New York returned the favor with this rout. 

 

MELO SETS THE TONE: The Knicks came out the gate with Carmelo Anthony dropping 2 assists via backdoor cuts from Iman Shumpert. The team quickly followed the ball movement lead to a 12-0 run that had New York up 18-5. JR Smith added two triples and when the first quarter ended, the Knicks had 9 assists on 62% shooting for a 31-15 cushion. The sparks for this great start were Melo (11 points, 2 assists, 2 steals), Tyson Chandler (5 rebounds) and Kenyon Martin (4 points, 1 block).

BENCH FIREPOWER: There was no dropoff when the second unit came in to start the second quarter. In fact, the Knicks bench blew the game open. Lead by Jeremy Tyler delivering his best game of the season (17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks), New York had 63 points from the reserves, allowing Melo and company to get extended rest in the second and all of the fourth quarter. JR chipped in 17, and Tim Hardaway Jr. added his dribble penetration and deadly 3-point shooting for 16 points.

CHANDLER ON THE RISE: It was a struggle his first few games back, but Chandler is starting to get back into a groove on offense and defense (12 points, 13 rebounds). He was the recipient of several nasty alley-oops, and when Tyson gets those touches his defensive intensity picks up. 

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AUDITION FOR RONDO?: In the off-season, stories began circulating that Melo was pushing for the Knicks to sign Rondo. A few months back, Rondo’s high school coach said Melo was actively trying to recruit him. Rondo is just six games back into his comeback from ACL surgery, so he doesn’t have his legs and looked pretty bad out there (7 points, 5 assists, 4 turnovers). 

However, if Rondo can get back to his old form, he’d be a huge asset for Melo’s game. All ACL injuries aren’t created the same, so I’m sure the Knicks will be monitoring his progress closely to see if he bounces back like Shumpert, or slides  further like we’ve seen with Derrick Rose. I’m banking on the former happening.

THREE AND NO REASON TO STOP: The Knicks are on a three game winning streak and have the Cleveland Cavaliers next on Thursday (January 30). The Cavs are struggling having lost four of their last five, so the Knicks should keep this streak going.

SOUR NOTES: Shumpert left the game early with a right shoulder strain, a re-aggravation of an injury he suffered in the pre-season. K-Mart was also forced to sit after re-aggravating his left ankle sprain. Metta World Peace returned, so we’ll just have to pray he can step up with spot minutes if K-Mart misses any extended time.

 

 

[Video] Team Effort: Melo, Felton and Chandler Power Knicks Past Lakers

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NEW YORK CITY, NY — Weekend afternoon games have not been kind to the Knicks this season. Whether it’s due to partying or just lack of focus is anyone’s guess. This wasn’t an issues yesterday (well, at least on offense) as New York but together a total team effort highlighted by big games from Carmelo Anthony (35 points), Tyson Chandler (13 points, 14 rebounds), Raymond Felton (20 points), Tim Hardaway Jr. (18 points) and JR Smith (16 points) to take their latest “must-win” game over the Los Angeles Lakers. The last thing the Knicks needed was a letdown after Melo’s 62 point game and for now, the momentum is still intact.

DEFENSE NEED NOT APPLY: A win is a win, but it was disturbing how badly the Knicks guarded the perimeter. The Lakers burned them for 11 treys on 47% shooting. Felton was the culprit most of the time, but others were pretty lax closing out on the shooters until the final minutes of the game. Jodie Meeks (24 pts) had a 13 points in the third and was a scorching 6/8 from downtown.

The post defense got off to a bad start with Pau Gasol (20 pts) before our trio of bigs, lead by Chandler, clamped down in the second half.

AROUND THE RIM ISSUES: Jeremy Tyler and Cole Aldrich had some really good defensive stops and rebounds, but their offense also had you yelling at the TV. On about four occasions they missed point-blank shots at the rim. Once they get more comfortable with their playing time, that should cease.

THJ: Our rookie was on fire. Tim went 4/5 from downtown and attacked the basket for a sweet 3-point play. His best sequence came in the third when he swished a three-pointer and was the recipient of a Melo alley-oop to extend the NY lead to 83-79.

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FUN FACT: Since resigning from the Knicks and going to LA, Mike D’Antoni is winless at Madison Square Garden. Expect Melo to keep it that way.

On Wednesday, the Knicks will host the Boston Celtics.

[Video] History at MSG: Melo Sets Franchise Record with 62 Points in Bobcats Blowout

I can’t accept all this losing – CARMELO ANTHONY

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Simply amazing. Less than 24 hours ago, I was witnessed to one of the greatest moments I’ve seen in my years as a Knicks fan with Carmelo Anthony torching the Bobcats for 62 points. Melo didn’t just establish a career-high, but he also broke Bernard King’s record for not only the highest scoring game in Madison Square Garden and franchise history.

Everyone has a different story of when they realized this game was going to be special. Some caught on as early as the first quarter when Melo dropped 20 points. For otherslike myself, it was when he punctuated a 37 point half with a pin-point halfcourt shot.

The other Knicks took Melo’s lead and did what we haven’t seen consistently all season; they picked up the slack in other areas. The defense was strong in with the guards keeping their men in front of them and not relying on switching. The Knicks executed several fast breaks . They didn’t rely on jumpers and attacked the paint (most notably JR Smith). Coach Woodson also played based on performance, letting young Jeremy Tyler (8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks) get more valuable minutes (22) over Tyson Chandler, who was having another so-so game (2 points, 6 rebounds).

Back to Melo. Let’s go behind these numbers. In 39 minutes, he shot 23/35 from the field overall (66%) and 6/10 from downtown (60%). He made all 10 free throws, lead the game with 13 rebounds, and committed zero turnovers. And for those detractors who want to snicker at the fact he had zero assists, that just lets me know you didn’t watch the game, as he had several “hockey assists” passing out OF double teams in the post that lead to open shots.

Apparently, this performance was inspired by a Muhammad Ali speech that was played for the team before the game. Melo’s entire demeanor was different as he didn’t crack a smile until going to the bench after that 62nd point.

Now it’s time to let Melo’s game speak for itself. Watch the highlights and be astounded. We can only hope this becomes the spark that gets the team inspired to finish the year strong. If you want to trade this man or see him leave, you must be insane.

ALL OF MELO’S 62 POINTS

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HIGHLIGHTS

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LEBRON JAMES CONGRATULATES MELO ON INSTAGRAM

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A Change Is Gonna Come — Nets 103, Knicks 80

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Remember that five game winning streak earlier this month? With the way the Knicks have played during this four-game skid, that streak feels like it took place last season. As you can see from the above quote and the look of disgust on Melo’s face, this team is in shambles from the top down. To show you how bad thing have gotten, this is the first time our rival Nets have blown us out since the move to Brooklyn. The Knicks were never in it: bad (switching) defense, vapid guard play and just overall weak decision-making.

As Avery Johnson pointed out during halftime, Carmelo Anthony (26 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals) can’t just will a broken team to winning with just a few more passes. Apparently, he’s also supposed to handle point guard dribble penetration and defending the perimeter. Y’know, be the “leader” some fans and critics claim he isn’t being despite the fact he’s the onl yplayer consistently playing hard every night.

Drastic roster changes are needed if the Knicks have any hope of keeping Melo, or attracting any other big name free agents for that matter, in the coming seasons.

[Video] Knicks Hold Off Suns in OT, Extend Winning Streak to Five Games

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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.

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A Smart Return: JR Smith Ignites Knicks Over Sixers

That’s the worst feeling in the world, someone takes the game away from you, especially something you love. It’s all you know, you’ve been doing it your whole life. – JR SMITH

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It took only one game for JR Smith to get his mind right (for now). Our knucklehead two-guard came off the bench in the second quarter and has his best 12 minutes of the season, scoring 11 points and dishing 4 assists to help ignite a 25-6 run and power the Knicks to their fourth-straight win. The Knicks are now poised to start climbing the playoff ladder.

SLUGGISH START AND OPEN PAINT: Melo had to sit early with two fouls and without their leader, the Knicks were sluggish all-around. No Tyson Chandler again (flu) had the paint wide open with the young Sixer guards like Michael Carter-Williams and Tony Wroten blowing past our defenders for easy layups. The Knicks were only shooting around 35% despite getting open looks and not defending the three-point line, allowing for the Sixers to take a 28-20 lead after the first.

JR’S SPARK: The team did a complete 180 with JR in the lineup to start the second. JR nailed his first three jumpers (one a three off a Melo offensive rebound), and everyone’s energy picked up. JR made sure to make the extra passes needed to keep Stoudemire and Melo feasting on the Sixer defense. When the smoked cleared, the Knicks had went on a 25-6 run over the last 8:40 and outscored Philly 32-12 in the period to take a 52-40 lead into halftime.

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NEVER PUT AWAY, BUT NEVER BACK IN IT, EITHER: The Knicks never delivered the crushing blow to blow this game open, but they never lost focus enough to let Philly back in it. The latter was great to see considering NY has blown numerous big leads all season. The Knicks were up 84-68 after the third and let the Sixers get no closer than 8 points in the waning two minutes of the game.

REBOUNDING IMPROVEMENT: With Chandler out, the Knicks are making a concerted effort to crash the boards. Everyone chipped in to give NY a slight edge in the board battle (39-38): Melo (9), Martin (8) and Shumpert (7) were the strongest in this department.

STOUDEMIRE CONTINUES TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK: Someone must have told Amar’e it was 2009, because he came out and stayed in beast mode the entire night. He made his first seven shots, which included a handful of nasty dunks. His post moves were crisp and he fought for rebounds, often tipping it to fellow players when he couldn’t get it himself. We saw this same Stoudemire before he went down with knee problems last year so we can only pray he stays healthy. None of the teams we’ve played during this streak have had an answer for him. And even more promising is he’s doing a lot of his damage working two-man ball with Melo on the floor. Stat finished with 21 points and 5 rebounds.

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TEAM DISTRIBUTION: The Knicks had 26 assists, a clear indicator the ball stayed moving. The stat lines for everyone were great with no one carrying too much of the load: Melo (18 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists), Stat (21 points, 5 rebounds), JR (14 points, 6 assists), K-Mart (8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks), Shump (7 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals), Felton (9 points, 6 assists) and Bargnani (10 points, 4 rebounds).

The Knicks are back home on Monday to face the Phoenix Suns.

[Video] No JR Needed – Knicks Soar Against Heat 102-92

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The Knicks put together the best home win of the season last night with a complete team effort in defeating the Heat. After two months, the team (sans JR Smith) finally looks to have turned a corner.

MELO GETS HIS HELP: The question going into every game is who will help Melo with the scoring load. At their worst, the Knicks predictably dump the ball to Melo, many times with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, for a low-percentage isolation shot.

Outside of the first few possessions, the Knicks were at their best in terms of ball movement, guarding the passing lanes, and attacking Miami’s weak interior defense. Andrea Bargnani (19 points), Iman Shumpert (12 points, 9 rebounds), Amar’e Stoudemire (14 poitns, 11 rebounds) and Raymond Felton (13 points, 14 assists) were the “secondary Big Four” that took the load off Melo and allowed him to operate more freely on offense.

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MELO VS. LEBRON: We didn’t get to see as much of this as we should have. When they did guard each other, Melo got the better of it. LeBron was still able to have a monster stat line (32 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists) just because he’s the best player in the league, and poor Bargnani found himself switched off onto him way too many times.

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MIAMI HELPS OUT AT THE FREE THROW LINE: The Heat could have made this a tighter game simply by hitting their free throws. They shot a very poor 52% (11/21) with Dwyane Wade being the main culprit (0-6). New York wasn’t any better at 50% (5/10).

TIM HARDAWAY JR: THJ made a new poster at the expense of Jesus Shuttlesworth aka Ray Allen. Yeah, our rookie got game.

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THE 16-0 RUN: After getting embarrassed by a LeBron baseline dunk, Bargnani came right back with a three-point play on Wade to ignite a 9-0 run to end the fourth, highlighted by two Melo treys and Hardaway’s spectacular tip-in dunk. Usually with JR Smith in the 2nd unit lineup that starts the fourth, the Knicks have been giving up leads and momentum. This time, the point guard play of Toure Murry had Bargnani and Stoudemire carving up the Heat in the post and at mid-range.

CLOSING STRONG: When Felton came back in, there wasn’t any drop-off. Ray continued attacking the paint, which collapsed the Heat defense and got nice looks for Melo and Stat. And when Melo got what appeared to be an isolation play, Felton and others cut to basket allowing for easy layups and dunks. Felton also keep the defense honest by hitting several long jumpers.

ROLES DEFINED: The Knicks are finally playing like a team and everyone appears to know their roles. You can see the confidence and they should have it, considering two of their last four wins have come against the defending Eastern and Western Conference champions.

JR SMITH: Our knucklehead shooting guard sulked on the bench most of the night, but did put up an obligatory standing ovation at the final buzzer. In the locker room, he pouted about whether he still has a “future” on the team. We’ll see if JR finally wakes up, but I think he’s earned at least 2 games on the bench.

 

[Video] Choke Averted — Knicks 89, Pistons 85

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A win is a win, but last night’s game unnecessarily went down to the wire after the Knicks blew an early 15-point 4th quarter lead and had to rely on Melo free throws (and the ever-present bad Josh Smith jumpshot) to pull out a 89-85 victory at MSG.

2 BAD, 2 GOOD: Why did this game turn out to be so difficult? It’s hard to cruise to a win when your play right down the middle between horrible and great. The Knicks put together a very good first and third quarter, where they outscored Detroit 24-21 and 32-17, respectively. The second and fourth quarters saw them shooting under 35% and get outscored 20-17 and 27-16.

A THIRD THAT SHOULD HAVE ENDED MATTERS: After settling for a 41 tie at halftime, the Knicks blew open the game behind three consecutive treys from Carmelo Anthony to push the lead to 58-49. The rest of the team fed off that energy and became terrors in the passing lanes and on double teams to force seven turnovers (the majority of them on Josh Smith) that lead to repeated fast breaks, including a Shumpert three-point play on Greg Monroe. It turned out to be a 25-3 run that gave NY a 73-58 lead going into the fourth. That should have been the last we saw of the starters.

JR SMITH THE CATALYST: Knick fans have come to expect trouble when we see JR starting the fourth. He made several bad passes that lead to turnovers, and the Pistons began to creep back by getting to the foul line. JR had a few iso plays that went nowhere as well. Instead of getting benched, JR continued to get crucial fourth quarter minutes that did the team no favors. In his 30 minutes, JR contributed 6 points (2/6 shooting) and 2 assists. He also got some boos when introduced and very audible groans when he touched the ball in crunch time.

FELTON NEARLY BLOWS HIS SOLID RETURN: For most of the game, Raymond Felton played well in his return (12 points, 6 assists). He moved the ball and his jumper was working off pick n’ rolls. The big problems happened late in the fourth when he coughed off the ball on back to back possessions. They were the result of bad concentration — Jennings picked his pocket close to halfcourt, and Felton got stripped driving right into heavy traffic. On top of that, he missed a second free throw that would have iced the game. Thankfully, Melo got a key offensive rebound to save the day.

MELO VS. J-SMOOVE: Melo (34 points) and Josh Smith (21 points) were battling all night, with Melo getting the better of it most of the evening. However, Smith made a strong push late in the fourth to get the Pistons back in it and got a key offensive foul on Melo with less than 30 seconds remaining and 86-85. Smith then blundered with this airball jumper.

The funniest thing about this clip was Melo feeling mighty proud like he blocked the shot.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Despite the game being uneven from a playing standpoint, the Knicks were able to gut this out due to varied team contributions. Andrea Bargnani cooled after a fast shooting start, but had a double double (13 points, 11 rebounds). Stoudemire got abused a lot by Detroit’s formidable frontcourt, but still managed to drop 9 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes. Shumpert only scored 5 points, but also had 6 rebounds and 5 assists in addition to being the main defensive spark in the third quarter run.

The Knicks got the win, but they’ll need to regain their Texas trip form if they have any hope of being the Miami Heat Thursday night.

[Video] Welcome Back, Shump! — Knicks 105, Spurs 101

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What a difference a competent shooting guard makes. We’ve saw a flash of it during the Nets win earlier this season, and Iman Shumpert reminded us last night why most fans were so high on him going into this season as he dropped a career-high 27 points to lead the Knicks to their best win of the season over the Spurs.

 

1-2 PUNCH: The Knicks had an excellent inside-outside game going with Carmelo Anthony’s return and Shumpert’s fiery outside shooting. Melo chipped in 27 points on 50% shooting and nabbed 12 rebounds. When he drew double teams, he and the rest of the teammates looked for Shump behind the three-point line for open treys. This allowed Iman to not have to worry about putting the ball on the floor and keep the Spurs defense spaced out.

THE SPURS’ BEST WEAPON: Although New York kept Tim Duncan (9 points, 7 rebounds) and Tony Parker (12 points, 7 assists) contained, the game was close due to Marco Belinelli playing possessed and dropping 32 points (6 threes, 12-16 shooting overall). It wasn’t until the final two offensive plays, where he badly bricked two threes, that he finally came back down to earth.

SHOOTING WELL: The Knicks maintained a strong shooting percentage the entire game, hitting 51% of their shots, including a hot 9-17 (53%) from downtown.

MURRY OR UDRIH?: Beno Udrih go to play the crucial final minutes of the fourth and almost blew the game with a near turnover. His defense was also a struggle. Murry is still learning out there, but I haven’t forgotten how Udrih blew that Wizards game by not being able to keep his man in front of him. I hope to see Murry’s minutes get around the 20 minute mark until Felton and Prigioni’s return.

NO TIME TO REST ON LAURELS: The Knicks are now 11-21 and 4 1/2 games behind the division-leading Toronto Raptors. The upcoming schedule features the Rockets (tonight), Dallas, Detroit and Miami through next Thursday. The team will need to bring the same effort we saw yesterday to get through this stretch with a winning record.

Melo the Closer – Knicks 111, Hawks 106

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The Knicks overcame the heartbreak of Friday’s defeat in Boston by putting together a wholly efficient offensive performance to take a 111-106 victory over a red-hot shooting Atlanta Hawks team at Madison Square Garden. Outside of one moping player, all was well in NYC last night.

 

GOOD AND BAD DEFENSE: The Knicks did an excellent job of disrupting the Hawks offense with deflections and steals. They forced 12 turnovers in the first half and 27 for the entire game. It was completely necessary to offset the scorching shooting of the Hawks, who shot around 60% for most of the game. The percentage was due to the inside dominance of Paul Millsap (18 points, 8 rebounds) and Al Horford (17 points, 6 rebounds) coupled with the Knicks guards amazingly losing Kyle Korver on the perimeter (13 points, 4-9 from three).

THE SPARKS: We know Melo will get his, but the question with this Knicks team is who backs up our star player. Last night it was Tim Hardaway Jr. (13 points) who was aggressive getting to the rim for several dunks in the first half. Stoudemire (9 points, 5 rebounds) had a quieter game by his recent standards, but his output was great in getting the Knicks breathing room in the second quarter despite the Hawks shooting around 56% in the first half.

MELO THE FOCUS BUT TEAM EFFORT: The second half is where the team has had problems and in the third bad defense reared its ugly head. The Knicks had a 62-48 lead after the first few minutes, but left Korver open for back to back treys to help ignite a 15-6 run. ATL could not miss from the perimeter and were just behind 81-77 going into the fourth.

Up until that point, Melo had shot 9/15 from the field. There were a few rushed shots from him, but outside of that the team made his job much easier. Prigioni was dishing sweet passes to Melo and Bargnani. And speaking of Prigioni, his shooting kept the defense honest, dropping 11 points (3-6 from downtown). This gave NY a nice 15-point cushion late — under those cirmcumstances, Melo’s heat-check three, which went in to make the lead 106-93, was welcomed. Melo ended with another good stat line of 35 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

The reason for the seemingly close score was Atlanta hitting four straight threes in less than two minutes of garbage time.

SULKING JR: Although JR Smith got the starting assignment at small forward, he managed just 1-8 from the field in 24 minutes (benched for all of the 4th). He looked like he was at a funeral on the sidelines with Prigioni trying to console him. This comes on the heels of JR just attempting one shot against Boston.

A lot of fans are ready to ship JR out, but my memory is not short. His bench play last year was key in our team finishing at the second seed. With the knee surgery, I’ll give JR at least until the All-Star break to get it together.

1ST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

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