Raymond Felton, currently out with a right pinky fracture, completed his first non-contact practice yesterday at the Madison Square Garden training facility. It’s no secret that the Knicks desperately need Felton, who’s been out since late December. The loss of Felton has forced New York to put heavy minutes on its aged guard reserves Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni.
From the below clip, the recovery period has already done wonders for his shooting form. If everything continues to go well, Felton could be back this Saturday when NY heads to Philly to face the Sixers.
It was another bad loss last night to the Bulls, but Steve Novak gave Knicks fans something to smile about. As most know, Nate Robinson likes to run his mouth and in recent years seems to get off in beating his original NY team. After hitting a three-pointer last night, he mocked Novak’s Discount Double Check belt celebration. When asked about it after the game, Novak gave the below classic response. JR Smith is really rubbing off on our three-point specialist. I love it!
Carmelo Anthony has confirmed a phone call with Kevin Garnett has put an end to their hostilities that began last night at Madison Square Garden.
Anthony and Garnett spent the majority of yesterday’s Celtics wintrash-talking in the fourth quarter, drawing a double technical. According to Melo, Garnett said something that “crossed the line” enough to merit him waiting by the locker room and outside the Celtics tour bus after the game for a confrontation.
There’s certain things that you just don’t say to men, another man. I felt he crossed the line. We have an understanding right now. We handled it the way we handled it. Nobody needs to know what was said behind closed doors, so that situation is handled.
I just wanted to know what was being said, where was all that coming from? Whatever was being said on the basketball court, where was all that coming from?
Melo refused to go into detail about the matter, but took responsibility for his “losing his cool” during the game and reiterated that his reason for attempting to confront Garnett was simply for a conversation, not a fight.
Absolutely, and that was my whole mindset and motive of going back there and seeing him in the locker room and in the front, to have a one-on one conversation and talk it out like grown men,” Anthony said. “I lost my cool yesterday. I accept that.
The unconfirmed rumor going around is that Garnett said something about Melo’s wife Lala. If that was the case, then I’ll have to do a 180 on my earlier stance as I completely understand and support why Melo went looking for him after the game. A man’s family should always be off-limits unless you’re looking for a fight or at the very least a confrontation.
I can’t wait for the next game between these two squads.
I HATE LOSING TO BOSTON! It was a story of composure and physicality last night at the Garden with the Celtics, being the veterans they are, rattling the Knicks with hard defense to execute down the stretch for their third straight victory. Our leader Carmelo Anthony mentally checked out and got into a personal battle with Kevin Garnett, leading to several ill-advised late contested shots and trying to win the game by himself. It’s a learning experience for sure, but this game also shines light on our recurring problem dealing with physical teams.
MELO VS. KG: Garnett does what he’s done for most of his career — throw sneaky elbows and other fouls to get under his opponent’s skin. Melo was already having a horrid shooting game, but I firmly believe the stuff with KG got him even more out of sorts in the pivotal 4th quarter with the game on the line. After the double-tech was called on both, Melo hit a clutch three and then proceeded to stink it up the rest of the way. He got caught repeatedly on switches where he fouled KG in frustration 10-15 feet from the basket.
As we saw in the games against Chicago and Memphis, Melo doesn’t channel his anger with physical play well. He makes stupid fouls (his second in the first quarter far away from the basket caused him to sit most of the half) and puts his team at a disadvantage. I don’t give Melo any points for trying to confront KG after the game. That does nothing for the team or himself. If he wants to truly get KG and the Celtics back, and I’m sure Coach Woodson told him this at some point last night, you stay poised and kick their ass on the court with ball movement, defense and playing NY basketball.
NY FOLDS UNDER DEFENSE: The Knicks had a horrible third quarter exacerbated by the play of Pablo Prigioni. He had awful time handling the Celtic full court pressure. The Knicks couldn’t get into their offense until late in the shot clock, causing sloppy pick n roll passes that were intercepted for turnovers. Speaking of turnovers, the Knicks had six in the third and only scored 16 points. And keep in mind the Celtics didthis with Pierce on the bench, who had picked up his fourth foul.
ISO VS. BALANCED SCORING: The Celtics shot 53% from the field and got contributions from everyone. Pierce dropped 23, KG 19, and Avery Bradley 13. Their bench, lead by Jeff Green’s 16 points, contributed a total of 39 points. Melo lead the Knicks with 20 points on a putrid 6-26 shooting night. Tyson Chandler had a few rebound lapses late but it’s hard to criticize his 13 point, 17 rebound night. JR Smith chipped in 24 points but on 7-18 shooting and Amar’e Stoudemire added 13 points. The reason our points came on 41% shooting was due to heavy isolation plays and long three-pointers, while the Celtics made the extra passes needed to get many wide open jumpers.
THE WORD IS OUT: Until the Knicks prove otherwise, the scouting report on them will be they can’t handle physical play. This game, along with the losses to Memphis, Chicago (2X) and Houston (2X), prove that in spades. The bitching and moaning has to stop and it starts with our leader Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks will have to turn it around quick because later this week they face two more physical teams in the Pacers and Bulls.
And on one last ironic note, Melo has won NBA Player of the Week.
The interior defense. The rebounding. The hard effort over four quarters. There’s many reasons for Knicks fans to rejoice at the 100-83 victory the team achieved tonight over the Spurs. But for now, let’s marvel at this amazing alley oop to punctuate a blowout fourth quarter from Pablo Prigioni to JR Smith. Props to the good people from the Knicks board at realgm.com for getting this up on Youtube so quickly.
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.
Knicks co-captain Amar’e Stoudemire will make his long-awaited season debut tonight at Madison Square Garden against the Portland Trailblazers.
Stoudemire had been sidelined the entire season after undergoing a left knee debridement procedure in October. He completed his first scrimmage on December 19 and completed a full contact practice with no problems.
Stoudemire is expected to come off the bench for the forseeable future, manning a formidable second unit with the team’s second leading scorer, JR Smith.
A low-post presence? More rebounding? Scoring help? Stat’s return couldn’t have come at a better time with Melo and Sheed questionable for tonight. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Stat has a monster game to start his season off right. I know for sure the Garden will give him a thunderous ovation. Once Shumpert is back, the circle will be complete.
With all the running around for the holidays, I finally got the chance late last night to sit down and watch the Knicks’s thrilling comeback victory over the Timberwolves at Madison Square Garden to finish our six-game home stand at 4-2. The same bad defense that defined our recent losses to the Rockets and Bulls was an issue in the first half, but the Knicks clamped down in the remaining two quarters to hopefully have some momentum later today in Los Angeles against the surging Lakers. Here’s my thoughts on our last victory to put us at 20-7.
REFS ARE STILL TRASH: The referees weren’t as bad as they were in the Bulls game, but their incompetence nearly cost us the game. There was no consistentcy in the calls and Melo’s late fouls that clearly showed a bias against him. One was a ridiculous offensive foul and the other was simply jocking for position inside for a rebound. Keep in mind Melo was getting hacked all night when trying to score in the post. You can’t even say the refs were trying to help out the Wolves because they gave us several make-up no calls down the stretch.
MELO the MVP: After every game it’s getting harder and harder to deny Melo’s MVP credentials. We looked to be dead in the water on offense during the closing minutes with Melo picking up his fifth foul and Coach Woodson a technical to give the Wolves a four-point lead. Instead, Melo would reel off 19 of the team’s 23 fourth quarter points. A three-pointer with less than 3 minutes left trimmed the Wolves lead to 86-85. A stop lead to Melo getting back in the post for a lauyp and a foul to extend the lead to 88-86. Melo would then live at the line the rest of the way in making six straight clutch free throws to seal the deal. We can’t expect this every night, but it’s great insurance to know Melo can bail us out even when overall he’s had a bad shooting night (10-25, 3-10 from downtown). Melo’s 9/10 from the free throw line was huge.
SAVED BY DEFENSE: The Wolves didn’t have Kevin Love, but that didn’t stop them from dropping 55 points in the first half behind a dominant post game from Pekovic, who had 21 points points and 17 rebounds. Tyson Chandler did his part in limiting Pekovic’s output to single digits in the second half. When that happened, it was all on the Wolves guards of J.J. Barea and Ridnour to score. While they had solid scoring nights of 14 and 12 respectively, their shooting was off during the key final minutes. The Knicks held serve with allowing only 36 points in the second half and forcing 17 turnovers.
The pivotal defensive stand of the game came in the final three minutes where the Wolves had four chances to score off two offensive rebounds and fouls. Each time the Knicks turned them back and Melo immediately drained a three to take the lead for good.
STAY THE COURSE, JR SMITH: For the third straight game JR Smith has remained on point. As the only other player on the team talented enough to create their own shot consistently, the Knicks struggle badly when he’s off. Against the Wolves he had 19 points on 7-15 shooting and 7 assists. He’s finding himself coming into the game quicker these days as starting guard Ronnie Brewer (0 points, 3 rebounds) is in a horrible runt now that his three-pointer isn’t falling. Aside from a horrible blunder in the final minute that lead to the ball being taken away and the Wolves sinking an open trey, Smith was fantastic.
The Knicks are back at it later today against the Lakers. With the Heat playing the Thunder, this is a game we absolutely need to get back to our rightful spot atop the East.
You had this coming, Brooklyn. After a summer spent boasting about being the best team in New York and much trash-talking after beating the Knicks in overtime last month, NY gave their BK little brothers a big dose of reality last night with a 100-86 beating at Madison Square Garden. I will give Brooklyn credit — they played a good first half anchored by excellent outside shooting from Joe Johnson and Keith Bogans. However, there’s also a second half to the game, and that’s where this contest was won (and dominated) by the Knicks.
We Missed You Melo!: With Steve Novak sitting due to the mysterious “flu-like symptoms” and Rasheed Wallace still out, it wasn’t looking promising earlier in the day when it was believed Carmelo Anthony might sit for a third straight game. Instead, Melo came out and did what he’s done all season and that’s torch the Nets. You can tell the ankle was still bothering him in his spots as he relied on more jumpers instead of driving completely to the basket, but that didn’t help Brooklyn any. Melo shot 12-22 and was 4-8 from downtown. And the best thing is he didn’t have to work too hard as the bench allowed him to rest most of the fourth.
This is the JR Smith We Love: JR has had some very bad shooting games, but seeing him on like he was last night was beautiful to watch. JR was not just shooting well (7-11 for 19 points), but flat-out out-hustled the Nets by nabbing five rebounds and playing smart defense. He was a +24 on the court and was one of the key offensive sparks that took an eight-point lead entering the fourth and pushing it at one point to 18.
Chris Copeland Again Contributes: Cope is gonna mess around and earn a regular rotation spot if he hasn’t already. He contributed a solid 8 points off the bench. Although he had some defensive lapses in the first half that lead to some open threes, he tightened up that D in the second half. Great effort.
A Tyson Possessed: Raymond Felton had a bad shooting night, but we should thank him for making sure he did one thing right — feed the beast that was Tyson Chandler. Those alley oops Tyson caught were sick and was key to us taking control in the third. Chandler had an awesome and balanced stat line of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks.
The Lead Grows: The Knicks now hold a six-game lead in the Atlantic Division. Our closet rival is the Nets, who have lost their third straight (8 of the last 10) and currently sit at 13-12. And against eastern conference teams, the Knicks are 13-2. With Amar’e coming back soon, there is reason for high optimism that we put the lead completely out of reach over the next month.
Next up is Chicago on Friday. I’ll be at MSG for that one. Can’t wait!
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.
![[Video] Steve Novak’s Funny Message to Nate “Little Nathan” Robinson](https://nykloyalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/novak.jpg?w=635&h=508&crop=1)
![[Video] Pablo Prigioni’s Sick Alley Oop To JR Smith 1/3/13](https://nykloyalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/image-1.jpg?w=512&h=246&crop=1)
![[Video] Melo’s 19 4th Quarter Points Steals Game from Wolves 94-91](https://nykloyalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/50d7aa67ee211-preview-620.jpg?w=620&h=510&crop=1)
NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST 