Tag: Jason Kidd

No Melo, No Offense – Knicks Can’t Score in 4th, Fall to Pacers 81-76

JR_pacers

The score in the end was respectable, but watching that wretched fourth quarter last night if you’re a Knicks fan was not. After some nice circus shot drives from JR Smith that gave NY a slim 60-58 lead going into the final stanza, the Knicks just fell apart of the offensive end. How bad was it? At one stretch the Knicks were shooting 1-11 in the quarter, and at another NY was on the wrong end of an 18-6 run. The team scored no field goals over a 7-minute stretch. To say Melo was missed is an understatement considering NY posted their lowest scoring total of the season thus far with 76 points.

And as if we didn’t need another injury, Marcus Camby re-aggravated his foot and didn’t play down the stretch (MRI scheduled for today). That lack of size down low was a key reason why Pacers backup center Ian Mahinmi killed us on the boards in the fourth (6 rebounds, 2 offensive) and dropped 13 points.

It seems like nothing has gone right in recent weeks. When the offensive is good, the defense is trash. When the defense is tough (like it was for most of last night), the offense is putrid. There’s no time to sulk, as the Knicks are back in action tonight against the Bulls, who’ve already beat us up twice this year.

Melo better come out on fire tonight. I don’t want to see any whining to the refs from anyone in orange and blue.

Defense for 2 Quarters? Melo Drops 40 to Rally Knicks Past the Magic 114-106

Melo

After a dominant, defense-heavy win over the San Antonio Spurs last game, most of us were hoping a light bulb had gone off for the Knicks in realizing their defense has to be like that every game. At the very least, we hoped the defense wouldn’t go to shit in the very next game.

That’s exactly what happened in the opening quarter last night against the lowly Orlando Magic, who blitzed the Knicks for a 36-point first quarter and replicated another 30 point-plus quarter after the half to go into the final quarter with an eight point lead. But luckily for us, NY has this MVP candidate on the squad you may have heard of… Carmelo Anthony.

It wasn’t pretty at times, but Melo’s 40 points (16 in the fourth) was a joy to watch. Onto the game’s notable points.

 

WE’LL HAVE TO LIVE WITH OPPOSING GUARDS GOING OFF (FOR NOW): Face it, Knicks fans. We’ll have to live with the fact that any team with quick point guards are going to give us fits until Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert make it back. Jameer Nelson lit up Jason Kidd in the first quarter last night for 12 points. Kidd couldn’t keep up on screens or when Nelson drove to the basket. Pablo Prigioni did marginally better, but it was a recurring problem in the first and third quarters.

 

ONLY DEFENSE FOR 2 QUARTERS, BUT IT WAS DAMN GOOD DEFENSE: The Knicks again played hard defense when they wanted to. But when they did, the team had phenomenal results. After giving up 36 points in the first, the Knicks held the Magic to just 19 points in the second while scoring 32. The offense was spurned on by a aggressive Carmelo Anthony, who came in at the 9 minute mark and was able to draw a third foul on Vucevic. This helped to open up the lane and the rebounding for the Knicks. JR Smith took full advantage, earning three-point plays at the rim and driving at will. Aside for some late defensive lapses in the second that lead to JJ Redick hitting a three to pull the Magic within 2, the Knicks played strong to take a four-point lead, 59-55, at halftime.

The Knicks started the third strong but inexpicably fell apart halfway through. This coincided with Nelson, and Arron Affalo for that matter, getting hot from mid and long-range. A coast to coast Nelson drive off a jump ball gave the Magic the lead for the quarter, and he added further damage with three pointers. Affalo got in his own and even a four-point play earlier in the quarter to give the Magic a nice 87-79 lead going into the fourth.

The Knicks woke up again and held the Magic to just 17 points. NY somewhat got a break in the Magic waiting a little too long to put Nelson back in, but even then the defense was stifling. With the game on the line, we had the ultimate closer in Melo and the Magic had no one.

 

JOSH MCROBERTS ON MELO?: Poor Josh McRoberts probably woke up this morning in a cold sweat and shivering from the lingering effects of that torching he received from Melo in the fourth. Melo was literally toying with him: exaggerated dribbling, holding the ball to the end of the shot clock, and chuckling repeatedly after every bucket. Vucevic got some abuse too when he had to guard Melo on switches. Melo pretty much lived in the post with short jumpers and the Magic had no answers. A double team late in the quarter led to an open Kidd three-pointer which served as the dagger in putting them up 111-1104.

 

MELO’s DEFENSE: Lost in Melo’s 40 point performance was his great defense on JJ Redick in the fourth. It seemed like a crazy move to have Melo chasing Redick on screens, but he stayed with him most of the time. Redick is a rhythm shooter and you could see he never felt comfortable shooting over Melo. He had several possible game-changing three-pointers that bricked and finished the game shooting 3-10.

 

CAMBY LIMITED AND RIGHTLY SO: The Spurs game had a lot of people saying Marcus Camby in our starting lineup was the solution to our defensive woes. Well, Camby had 2 points, 1 rebound and 0 blocks yesterday. The lineup needs to be adjusted to the competition and that was proven in spades last night. The most promising thing I liked about Camby’s time was his passing out of the high post. His teammates fumbled some of them (including Melo on what looked to be an easy alley oop) and hopefully that improves in the coming weeks.

 

STAT TRYING HARD: It was rough watching Amar’e Stoudemire. On the positive end, he was getting to the rim easily on pick and rolls and his first step. But once he got there, he couldn’t finish for anything — either his shot got swatted or rimmed out. You could see it was bothering him and Melo had some encouraging words. I liked that the team kept going to him even with the repeated misses. He started the fourth good with a three-point play and a open dunk, so that’s promising. The defense is still shaky, but 11 points and 4 rebounds in 17 minutes is solid.
JR, TYSON AND KIDD: JR Smith couldn’t extend his 20 point game streak to six, but his 18 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals were very important. If he didn’t get his fifth foul early in the fourth, I’m sure he would have been even more aggressive. Kidd did get lit up for 29 points from Nelson, but he dropped 15 points, going 5-8 from downtown. Chandler couldn’t keep Vucevic off the boards (18 rebounds), but he contributed another strong double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, going 6-6 from the field. And all three were very strong defensively in the closing fourth quarter.

I want the team to get all the rest they need because we have the division rival Celtics next, who are currently on a two-game winning streak and looking to pick things up to get back into the playoff picture.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTMleKacJs&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Rusty Stat and Defense-Phobic Knicks Fall to Blazers105-100

Stat_Melo

It was the start of a New Year, but the ugly trends that marred the end of 2012 reared their ugly heads again in the form of bad defense and rebounding. These factors are the main reason the Knicks are on a two-game skid and now 2 games behind Miami and just one more loss removed from the third seed.  It’s looking like some serious changes might have to be made before we face off against San Antonio tomorrow.

OUR STARTING LINEUP DIGS ANOTHER HOLE: The defense and rebounding was very bad to start this game. How bad? How about the Blazers outrebounding the Knicks 14-5 in the first quarter with 8 of them coming on the offensive glass! We had nothing going to the basket and our jumpers, even the open ones, were not falling. The Blazers shot 52% in the first half and the only reason their lead was only 11 at the half was due to Melo’s literally carrying the entire offensive load on his back, including a desperation heave three-pointer before halftime. Might be time to start JR as we can’t keep trying to overcome these first half deficits with late game heroics.

MELO’AND JR CAN’T DO IT ALONE: Melo had 45 points in this game with 24 of it coming in the first half. He had some nice three-pointers and his outside jumper was working well.  JR didn’t have the best shooting night, but he was very active all over the court in contributing 28 points, 11 rebounds (team high), 5 assists and 3 steals. Outside of these two, the rest of the team might as well have continued celebrating New Year’s are they only combined for 24 points! Outside of Melo, the starting lineup only had 15 points the entire game (10 for Tyson and 5 for Brewer).

IT”S GOING TO BE A LONG MONTH: Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni have more than proven their value to this team over the last two months. But without Felton, we’re seeing the limits of their abilities. The younger guards of the league have been blowing by them at will which puts more pressure on Chandler and our also thin front line. Damian Lillard had 21 points and Nicolas Batum was the latest player to come into the Garden and go off, dropping 26 points and going 6-7 from downtown. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do but gut it out over the next month. Iman Shumpert’s return will help a lot, but everything can’t be put on him as he’s returning from major surgery. Which leads me to my next point…

GIVE AMAR’E TIME: Stat made his return last night and got a very nice standing ovation. After that there was a lot of struggling on the offensive and defensive end. Stat managed 6 points, missing his first 5 shots, getting beat backdoor by the likes of JJ Hickson, and missing two key free thorws down the stretch. With all that said, Stat did show glimpses of good things to come in working a nice pick and roll with Prigioni and getting a monster block and later a facial. It’s going to take a lot of time, probably after the All-Star break, before we see any semblance of the old Stat, but he’s sorely needed.

MORE CAMBY AGAINST BIG FRONTCOURTS: Camby held up well in the limited minutes he had last night. While he’s not a scoring threat, his presence is sorely needed when we have to deal with large frontcourts. We made nice run when he was paired up front with Chandler.

#@*! a Moral Victory: Knicks Erase 27-Point Deficit But Lose on Kings Buzzer-Beater 106-105

Copeland_Novak_defeat

It finally came back to bite us in the ass.  Playing pathetic defense and letting trash teams hang around has happened a few times this season, most notably in December on the road to the Bobcats and Suns. But each time, the Knicks played great fourth quarter D and JR Smith hit heroic buzzer-beating shots to steal the games. Well, this time we got to feel the heartbreak ourselves with James Johnson heaving up a miracle three to snatch away what would have been the greatest comeback in Knicks history. Personally, this game still has me pissed off and these are the reasons why.

 

LESSON LEARNED: You play two halves of basketball for a reason, New York. I don’t know if the Knicks were thrown off because of the last start time (10 p.m. ET time) or what, but their defense in the first half was the worst it’s been the whole season. Coach Woodson was incredulous watching Kings guards essentially having an open look shooting drill from the three-point arc. You had guys like Jimmer Fredette coming off the bench and scoring 15 points in 12 minutes off 6-7 shooting from downtown. The Knicks had no effort on each side of the ball and our ineptness was puncuated by Chris Copeland getting blocked on a fast break by little guard Aaron Brooks. And not to mention that block lead to a Kings fast break and a three-pointer.

It doesn’t matter that we were missing a good chunk of our starting lineup; giving up 71 points at the half to the Kings is not acceptable. In the second half, the Knicks held Sacramento to 35 points. I hope the lesson that Woodson crashed home in the postgame is that if we had of played any semblance of defense in the first half, this would have been a Knicks blowout win.

 

KIDD’s KEY MISTAKE AND CRITICAL MISSED SHOTS: Jason Kidd is our glue, but last night 2 of his 5 turnovers resulted in us not being able to steal the victory. Kidd turned the ball over twice, the last in trying to get a lob to Chandler, that lead to Kings forward James Johnson hitting his first three-pointer of the season. In hindsight, our last three possessions went heavy on isolation and trying to wear the clock down instead of ball movement to maximize scoring opportunities. Chandler made several offensive tipbacks to give us extra possessions but we failed to convert on any which would’ve iced the game.

The other problem is the missed free throws. Chandler was a beast everywhere else in getting 21 points and 18 rebounds, but his 3-9 at the free throw line (including a key miss in the final minutes), came back to haunt us. The rest of the team was no better as we shot 12-20 (60%).

 

IF SOMEONE ELSE GETS INJURED I’LL SCREAM: How much more bad luck can we have? The early word from last night was that Tyson Chandler was seen limping in the locker room due to a sprained ankle. He won’t miss any time but I’m really desperate, as most Knicks fans are, to see this squad at full strength. Melo, Rasheed Wallace and Amar’e Stoudemire are all scheduled to come back sometime next week, with the first two expected to be back on January 1. Their presence is sorely needed.

 

THE BRIGHT SPOTS: Chris Copeland’s first half defense was trash like everyone else’s, but his scoring was very impressive. He had the jumper working and was aggressive in dropping 23 points. JR Smith continued his excellent play with a season-high 28 points coupled with 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Marcus Camby didn’t have a strong rebounding game (just 2 boards), but his 11 minutes were key in our comeback as he had four emphatic blocks around the rim.

In the end, we’re still 21-9 despite the erratic play of the last two weeks. In a few days we’ll start 2013 with several of our most important players back and our best perimeter defender in Iman Shumpert is scheduled to make his return by mid-January. It would have been great to end the year with our greatest comeback in overcoming a 27 point deficit, but Knicks fans have many reasons to be hopeful in the New Year.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJrkWXweDjw&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Felton and Melo Are Out… JR Isn’t: Swish Hits Another Game-Winner In Phoenix

jrsmith_gamewinner_suns_knicks

With Christmas being a disappointment courtesy of the Lakers, yesterday evening’s game against the Phoenix Suns was supposed to be an easy bounce back game. We had already bested them by a comfortable margin earlier in the season. That meant nothing as the Suns played inspired ball behind Jared Dudley, who dropped a career-high 36 points. But in the end, it was key defensive stops and timely buckets that lifted this depleted Knicks squad to a much-needed road win.

JR SMITH DOES IT AGAIN: Not only did JR hit the game-winner with just a second left, but the man from St. Benedict’s Prep also hit a contested circus shot the possession before to tie the game. If the latter shot doesn’t go in, we lose this game. Smith never lost his confidence despite bad shooting early in the game. Coach Woodson knew our chances of winning hinged on Smith breaking out at some point and that’s exactly what happened. Smith was also great on defensive with key fourth quarter steals and deflections. His stat line was awesome with 27 points, 5 assists, 5 steals and 6 rebounds off the bench. JR showed a bit of his nasty side too in taking out Goran Drajic.

JASON KIDD REMAINS YOUNG AT HEART: J-Kidd is our glue and proved it again last night with a phenomenal game on both ends of the floor. He mixed up his attack with three pointers (5-8) and driving to the basket. His 23 points were sorely needed, but his biggest contribution was on the defensive end during the last possession for the Suns with the game tied at 97. Kidd caused a deflection which lead to Telfair stepped out-of-bounds And with the game on the line, Kidd delivered a perfect inbounds pass to Smith and the rest is history.

CHANDLER AND CAMBY DELIVER THE 1-2 PUNCH: Candler shook of his bad Christmas game with an excellent effort (14 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks and just 2 fouls). Our rebounding normally goes in the trash can when Tyson sits, but Camby showed why he’s another invaluable pickup, notching 9 rebounds (4 offensive) in just 13 minutes! Camby is still rusty in regards to finishing around the rim and passing, but his defensive presence and rebounding is all we need from him right now. And lo and behold, with Camby playing well the Knicks win the rebounding battle 41-38.

BAD DEFENSE WE CAN LIVE WITH: Yes, seeing Jared Dudley drop 36 was annoying, but with several backups having to give heavy minutes with our injuries, we’ll have to live with it. Copeland got burned a few times with pump fakes, but he also made key buckets with his 14 points. With Steve Novak still struggling, another scorer was key to spreading the floor and Copeland was it.

While I’m not a fan of these down to the wire games against lowly competition, they serve as great confidence builders for our bench and can only help with poise when the playoffs come. Don’t get content, Miami. NY is still right on your heels in the standings.

MSG VERSION

NY Spoils Kyrie Irving’s Career Night With 103-102 Win

Chandler

Those damn Cavaliers. No matter who’s on the team going back to the LeBron years, they always seem to get up to play us. If my memory serves me correct, they even won the season series last year. Last night was no different with Kyrie Irving going for a career-high 41 points with 17 of those coming in the 4th quarter (several off crazy three-pointers). Considering NY was without Carmelo Anthony (slight left ankle sprain) or Rasheed Wallace (sore foot), we can’t complain too much as a win is a win. However, the Knicks made this much harder than it needed to be as they were up 10 with around five minutes remaining.

Tyson Chandler was huge again with key tips to the backcourt for offensive rebounds and containing Anderson Varejao, who had just 9 points and 8 rebounds compared to Tyson’s 23 points and 10 rebounds. Jason Kidd had a horrid shooting night (3-13 from downtown), but had some key assists in the fourth to offset the cold night. And Raymond Felton picked up the scoring slack with 25 points.

Melo’s still questionable for Monday’s game against the Rockets, but hopefully he suits up so we can get revenge for the blowout they delivered last month. Plus, we gotta welcome Jeremy Lin back to the Garden the right way.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiO0YQkC3Lk&feature=youtube_gdata_player] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8KU7VqKIB4&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Revenge Served Cold: Melo’s 45 and Kidd’s Dagger 3 Stuns BK

JR_Melo_Kidd

What appeared to be a blowout early on with New York down 26-9 in the first quarter, turned into another nail biter against the Nets and a classic finish by Jason Kidd, who hit the game-winning three-pointer to help the Knicks edge their crosstown rivals 100-97.

If the rivalry between these two teams felt media manufactured before the season, it has unquestionably morphed into the most exciting one in the NBA thus far. And the best thing about last night’s game as we get to see them go at it again next week. Onto my thoughts…

Knicks Start Flat, Nets On a Mission: Maybe it was underestimating BK because Brook Lopez was out. For whatever reason, the Knicks came out horrid in the first quarter. They only had 5 points over seven minutes into the quarter while the Nets got into a nice groove by feeding Andry Blatche for jumpers and layups. On the other hand, the Knicks were missing most of their layups and bricking jumpers as the offense was completely stagnant. Brooklyn had an 17-point lead after a Joe Johnson three with just 1:56 remaining, and it looked like the Knicks might just get ran out of the building as the “Brooklyn” chants started.

New York Knicks v Brooklyn Nets

Melo On Fire (And Efficient!): When the offense is hurting, we turn to our best player and boy did he deliver starting in the second quarter. After a short break to start (where Rasheed Wallace helped out with a three and short jumper to bring NY within 21-35), Melo got to cooking. He had 15 points in the quarter on a nice array of shots: long jumpers, three-pointers, and drives to the lane, the latter of which trimmed the deficit to 49-53 at halftime.

Melo had 8 in the third and added 15 in the fourth for a total of 45 points on 15-24 from the field. He did exactly what was needed to get us back in it and showed some overlooked leadership after the Kidd three in calming everyone down and reminding them that we still needed one last stop to prevent another overtime situation. Longtime Knicks fans will remember Chris Childs did the same thing to calm down Larry Johnson when he had the famous four-point play against the Pacers in the ’99 Eastern Conference Finals.

Kidd Saves the Day: Remember the last Nets game where Raymond Felton’s bad play down the stretch helped seal our defeat? Well, Felton had another bad game (7 turnovers, 8 points on 3-12 shooting), but this time we had Kidd in the lineup to make the difference. The old man had 18 crucial points (all from downtown) while also notching six assists. The craftiness of the leg kick out on his three-pointer was amazing. When the foul was called, I half expected Kidd to get up and hit the Larry Johnson “L” pose. It was a “cheap” foul, and as Rasheed Wallace says, the “ball don’t lie” so karma righted itself with the free throw being missed. With that said, one good flop deserves another with all the embellishments we’ve put up with from Reggie Evans and Gerald Wallace over these two games.

JR Smith Shows Up: The bench had a terrible game against BK last time out. To win, we needed someone to step up and to his credit JR Smith did just that, contributing 16 points. We’ve been winning despite his recent shooting slump, but having an “on” JR would make these games much easier. Hopefully he can keep this up to close out the month while we incorporate Stat back into the fold.

More Space in the Atlantic Division: The Nets came out like a team desperate to end their four-game losing streak. NY winning is huge in that it gives us a four-game lead over the Nets in the Atlantic Division and keeps us #1 in the East. And let’s not be coy, fellow Knicks fans — there is nice satisfaction in pushing the Nets’s losing streak to five games.

We’re back at it on Thursday night to face our old nemsis…I mean coach, Mike D’Antoni and his struggling Los Angeles Lakers. After an embarrassing loss to the lowly Cavs last night, you can bet they’ll come out with guns blazing so it’s another “trap game” we need to be ready for.

Take the Night off, Melo — Knicks Stomp the Heat… Again 112-92

RaymondFelton

Y’all should’ve listened to Chris Bosh over the summer. When he was asked what team he thought would be their toughest challenge in the East, he mentioned the Knicks as being very underrated. Now everyone else sees what he meant, as the Knicks without Carmelo Anthony completely destroyed the Heat in Miami for their second consecutive blowout. It was a beautiful night for Knicks fans and a wake-up call to the so-called observers out there that who comes out in the East is not a foregone conclusion. Onto my thoughts.

Live by the 3 and Murder the Heat With It: For the second game, the Knicks took over 40 three-pointers (44). NY hit 18 of them (41%). No, the Knicks weren’t just jacking them up most of the time. They were open shots from ball movement — the Knicks did a great job with spacing (Miami Coach Spoelstra even called Tyson Chandler’s lob threat “vertical spacing”), preventing the Heat from just staying home on any particular three-pointer shooter. And the Knicks had them in abundance — Steve Novak dropped 18 points (4-9 from downtown) and Raymond Felton was 6-10 from behind the arc.

Felton Is Fearless: What more can be said about Raymond Felton? It’s an amazing story considering where he was last year with Portland. The man was drawing ohhs  and ahhs from how he was crossing over Miami guards and big men alike to get into the lane and sink jumpers. Felton’s stat line was 27 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and just 3 turnovers. He rose to the challenge of picking up Melo’s scoring hole but also kept the rest of the team involved. By the middle of the third quarter, Felton was walking with a definite swagger in his step.

The Heat Was Beat Into Submission: A Mike Miller buzzing-beating three to end the first gave Miami a 26-23 lead after one. From then on it was all Knicks. It got really ugly in the second half with the Knicks outscoring Miami 37-27 in the third and 22-12 in the fourth. The threes and the defense just flat-out killed Miami’s spirit. LeBron became discouraged and the rest of the team followed suit. A defining moment came in the fourth when Chandler cut to the basket and the Miami bigs didn’t even both trying to contest, just walked to the bench while Tyson slammed home another dunk.

American Airlines Arena Became MSG South: The Knicks fans got louder and louder as the game progressed. It was a beautiful sight to hear the arena completely taken over for by the fourth quarter.

Let’s Not Rest On Our Laurels: Yes, we’ve embarrassed the Heat twice. Yes, NY has the best record in the Eastern Conference. It’s just December, and we still have a lot of basketball left to the play. There will be bad games, but the effort need to be there every night. We don’t play Miami again until March, but beyond that we know there’s a good chance we’ll be matched up with them at some point in the playoffs. Let’s be ready to meet the challenge.

Tomorrow night we head to Chicago to face off against the defensive-minded Bulls. Hope NY stays on the mental high from this win.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjRqKSJ4sn8&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Comeback Kidd! Jason and Felton Carry Knicks to Road Win Over Spurs 104-100

“It shows me this team is for real. We beat a great team tonight.” – Knicks head coach Mike Woodson

If there were any remaining non-believers, the Knicks effectively dispelled those naysayers last night in San Antonio, executing stifling defense and exceptional guard play from Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton to lift the Knicks to a 104-100 win over the Spurs.

The matchup had the intensity of a playoff game from the start; both teams came out taking quality shots and passing well. Felton scored the Knicks first 5 points and you could tell early on he had a point to prove taking on Spurs all-star Tony Parker. For the first time this season, Carmelo Anthony couldn’t get off to a fast scoring start due to quick double teams and physical play from DeJuan Blair. However, Melo showed excellent passing out of those double teams to give the Knicks a tight 33-31 lead after one.

The Knicks got some breathing room early in the second courtesy of JR Smith hitting a jumper and scoring with a drive into the lane. Pablo Prigioni hit a pull-up jumper, and Steve Novak and Rasheed Wallace hit three-pointers to push the lead to 45-38. Melo continued his great passing; he found JR for another drive into the lane that this time resulted in a three-point play.

Tony Parker picked up his game late in quarter, getting several fouls as Felton had issues keeping in front of him. The free throws got the game close and San Antonio finished strong with a contested three-pointer at the buzzer from Danny Green to give the Spurs a 54-52 halftime lead.

The calls started favoring the Knicks in the third, resulting in the Spurs already being in the penalty by the seven minute mark. Unfortunately, the Knicks were having problems at the line and finishing at the rim (Chandler, Brewer, Melo). The Spurs sensed blood and tightened their D for several fast breaks, one of which ended in a Jackson three-pointer. The Knicks finished the quarter cold with one too many JR isolation plays and a 74-76 deficit into the fourth.

A Novak airball for the eighth straight three-point miss was a dubious start, and inexcusably bad defense from Tyson Chandler lead to Tiago Splitter reeling off 13 straight points inside to start the quarter. The guard penetration from Manu Ginobili and Parker supplied Splitter with these opportunities and it looked very bad for the Knicks, who went down by 12 points (77-89) with seven minutes to go.

That’s when Felton and Kidd took over. Felton drove for a layup on Parker to bring the Knicks within 10. The New York defense held, one of which was a steal from Kidd, which lead to the veteran hitting back to back threes to put the Knicks right back in it down four (85-89). Ginobili stopped the run with his own three-pointer, but the Knicks came right back with a sweet Melo pass resulting in a Chandler three-point play off a dunk. Felton and JR would both score in the lane to bring the Knicks closer.

The best sequence came off another Kidd steal to ignite a fast break. Kidd passed to Melo on the wing, who drove to elicit a double team and kick to Felton under the rim, who passed back out to an open JR Smith for a three-pointer and a two point lead (97-95). Another stop would lead to a Kidd dagger three-pointer, and Tyson would put the exclamation mark on the game with a put back dunk off a Felton miss to ice the game with a 102-95 lead with a little over 30 seconds remaining. The Knicks closed out with a 22-11 run. 

For us Knicks fans, this was a beautiful game to behold. Last year before Woodson, we would have given up once the Spurs pushed it to 12. Instead, we fought back and snatched their hearts out. Jason Kidd’s value to this team cannot be stressed enough; without him we’d have about three losses already. And Raymond Felton… let’s hope that man keeps that chip on his shoulder for the rest of the year. Great effort by everyone. I loved how Melo had faith in his teammates when his shot was not falling. He focused on passing , defense and made sure to not be a liability out there. We can only hope to see the same from Amar’e when he comes back.

We head right back into the fire tonight on ESPN against the Grizzlies, who’s frontcourt of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph will be a huge mountain for our tired legs. I can’t wait…

And Still Undefeated! JR and Melo Lift Knicks Past Mavs 104-94

It wasn’t a pretty game. Melo referred to it in his post-game interview as an “ugly, grind-out win.” The threes weren’t falling like they did in the first few games while the Mavs were red hot in the first half behind the arc. But the Knicks held strong through their defense and got hot at the right time behind a scroching 3rd quarter from JR Smith to take a 104-94 win and remain the NBA’s only undefeated time at 4-0.

The Mavs’ OJ Mayo, who has been a monster at the season’s start with several 30 points games, set the tone for his squad immediately by sinking a three-pointer to start the game. The Knicks didn’t find many fast breaks opportunities but relied on Melo working rookie Jae Crowder off the block to the tune of 10 points in the opening quarter. Raymond Felton thrived as well in dropping five assists early (finishing with nine), several being easy pick and rolls with Tyson for slams and alley oops.

Marcus Camby made his Knicks return after a 10 absence which helped immediately with rebounding, but not with Mayo’s deadly shooting (two threes to start the second quarter). Steve Novak was cold in missing his first three shots, leading to the Mavs going on a 8-0 run. The ghost of Vince Carter also found his jumper and posted up JR Smith twice for quick buckets to give the Mavs a 39-30 lead. Although Dallas was shooting 50% for three, the Knicks climbed back to tie it 44-44 behind a three point play from Ronnie Brewer and a three-pointer from Melo. However, the Mavs would finish the quarter with a 57-55 behind an emotional Melo getting a tech  for complaining about a missed foul and sitting after getting three fouls. In addition, the Mavs were finishing strong at the rim, especially a highlight worthy facial on Rasheed Wallace to close the half.

Although Mayo nailed another three to start the third, it would thankfully be the last they’d make the rest of the half. Jason Kidd was strong defensively — the veteran guard got some key steals for fast breaks and caught OJ Mayo with his fourth foul on a charge, removing the Mavs’ best shooter from the floor. The Knicks had the same problem, as Melo getting too aggressive on D forced him to sit with roughly seven minutes left in the third with four fouls. The interior defense gave up a few inside shots to Chris Kaman and Crowder, but JR Smith started getting hot with his jumper to push the Knicks in front 78-71, and later Novak found the range from three to maintain a 82-76 lead.

It was nip and tuck for a large chunk of the fourth with Kaman getting to post-up and JR Smith making a few ill-advised fouls. But JR made up for it with deflections that lead to steals, and Chandler putting a statement on the game with a putback dunk off a Melo missed layup for a 12-point lead with six minutes remaining. At that point, both squads got very sloppy with missed free throws and fouls, but NY’s lead was enough to see them down the stretch to the 104-94 win.

The Mavs didn’t get held in the 80s, but the Knicks defense succeeded in causing 20 turnovers while keeping theirs to 9 (they average 12). The scoring was impressive with Melo dropping 31, Smith 22 and Brewer 13. The defense was tenacious with multiple steals from Felton (2), Kidd (3), Brewer (2) and Smith (4). This is our best start since the Finals 1993-1994 squad and our home record under Mike Woodson has been extended to 12-2, the two losses coming in the regular and post-season to the Miami Heat.

There will still be some detractors being that the Mavs were missing Dirk Nowitzski and Shawn Marion, but it’s very hard for me to have any sympathy for banged squads when we have been without our second-leading scorer (Amar’e Stoudemire) and best perimeter defender (Iman Shumpert). Hell, we just got our backup center on the floor last night with Camby. We have a very big game coming up next Thursday on the road against the Spurs, but we have to stay focused and take care of business in our next one, a Tuesday game against the Magic. Orlando is in a freefall at the moment having lost their last three, but we need to up for them and not fall into a “trap game.”

Until then, let’s enjoy being the only remaining undefeated team in NBA!

*************************************************************