This was one team we couldn’t lose to. With Jahlil Okafor serving the first of a two-game suspension for a street brawl in Boston, the Knicks were able to win this one “comfortably” despite a lazy fourth quarter that saw them post only 18 points.
Without Okafor, the Sixers relied on perimeter shooting. But three-point defense is one of New York’s strong points, and Philly only made nine on the night. On the offensive side, Kristaps Porzingis lead the way with 17 points and 10 rebounds for his ninth double double of the season. Arron Affalo chipped in 13 points while Carmelo Anthony, obviously hampered in his first game back from strep throat, had 12 points on 5/16 shooting.
The Knicks will battle the Friday Night Curse tonight with they meet the Brooklyn Nets.
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.
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
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.
A win! It’s been a long time, 2 weeks actually, since the Knicks had notched a victory. While the ship wasn’t completely righted with this W, the Knicks showed signs of life in the areas of ball movement and getting timely defensive stops.
MELO FEASTS AT THE LINE: One of the indicators that the offense is stagnant is when you see Melo shooting 20-plus shots. Tonight, he took 18 shots but was masterful in drawing fouls and getting easy points at the line. He had a season high in free throws (16) and for the first time this year had more points there than from the field (13).
STAT UNSTOPPABLE: After a passive first quarter where he wasn’t looking for his shot, Stat came alive at the start of the second with back to back tip-ins. From there the man couldn’t miss, banking long-range jumpers and punishing Philly in the post. In the end it was fouls (5 by mid-fourth quarter) that muzzled him. Nonetheless, the damage had already be done to the tune of 22 points on 9-10 shooting and 4-6 at the line coupled with 5 rebounds.
THE TURNER AND HOLIDAY SHOW: On Philly’s end, the offense was anchored by Jrue Holiday (30 points) and Evan Turner (21 points). They did the majority of their damage in the second half and had to play from the behind. On the bright side, these two at least are highly talented as opposed to the unheralded players that had been lighting the Knicks up in recent weeks.
KENYON MARTIN ALREADY RUBBING OFF ON THE KNICKS?: Looks like that old Denver “Thuggets” mentality is creeping into the Knicks. In the third quarter, Melo took exception to a Spencer Hawes box out and promptly slapped the bigger man in the back of the head. Hawes immediately got in Melo’s face only to be shoved hard by Tyson Chandler, earning our All-Star center a technical and a very appreciative chant from the Madison Square Garden faithful. Melo got a flagrant 1 out of it, but it was great to see our team not only playing well, but showing a legit “take no shit” attitude instead of the bitchiness and ref whining we’ve seen over the losing streak.
Speaking of Martin, he didn’t get any playing time tonight (Woodson didn’t want to play him off one practice). From the problems the Knicks had with pushing back guard penetration in the paint with Holiday and Turner with Chandler off the floor, you can’t help but be hopeful that Martin will be able to quell some that defensive bleeding.
FELTON PICKS UP THE BACKCOURT SLACK: Jason Kidd was abysmal again, scoring just three points on 1-7 shooting (0-6 from downtown). It wasn’t a killer as it’s been in recent games since Raymond Felton was aggressive in attacking the rim and scored 14 points.
A FOURTH QUARTER THAT WOULD NEVER END: The Sixers just refused to go away. The lead hovered around 12-13 points before the Sixers chipped it down to eight. Luckily, JR Smith’s three-point silder was high and he drained several treys to keep the Sixers at arm’s length. In addition, Smith forced a turnover late on Turner. The Sixers got as close as 98-93 with a little over a minute remaining before Jason Kidd’s free throws sealed it.
With this win, the Knicks take the season series over the Sixers 3-1.
New York makes another national TV appearance on ESPN this coming Wednesday (February 27) against the Warriors.
The hell with this game. That was my thoughts just a few minutes into the third quarter when the Sixers extended their lead to 20-plus and it became obvious the Knicks had completely phoned it in. How bad was it? Melo, Shumpert and JR shot a combined 9-42. The team well into the third was shooting 32%. The lane was wide open for any Sixer player that wanted an easy bucket *stares at Tyson Chandler*. Jrue Holiday abused a returning Raymond Felton (and anyone else that tried to guard him, for that matter), to the tune of 35 points.
The sole bright spot for the Knicks was Amar’e Stoudemire got going for his first 20 point game and played decent defense. Other than that, the Knicks are lucky that the Bulls and Nets also dropped games allowing NY to keep their tenuous #2 spot in the East.
All in all, it was an absolutely disgraceful night of basketball. The Knicks better had redemption on the mind today when they face the Hawks on ESPN.
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY –After the high that was Friday’s beatdown of the NBA champion Miami Heat, there were a few select detractors amongst the media (this pathetic ESPN article by Ian Connor being the main culprit), that the Knicks big win was simply an aberration at best and at worst an indication of “fool’s gold.” Today’s matinée against the Sixers proved the Knicks are indeed a team with renewed focus, as they’ve improved on shot efficiency while maintaining excellent defense in a 100-84 win.
The Knicks opened up with good outside shooting again spurred by excellent ball movement. In what is hopefully a continued trend, Carmelo Anthony was tenacious on defense and got a standing ovation from the MSG faithful for a Charles Oakley-like dive into the stands. Outside of a few forced alley oops that lead to turnovers, the Knicks stayed strong and lead after one 31-25.
The bench, lead by Jason Kidd and JR Smith, had strong performances throughout the second. An out-of-bounds bassline pass from Kidd to Smith lead to a 3 pointer that ballooned the lead to 10, and Melo continued having a field day at the expense of Thaddeus Young, freezing him with a vintage spin move for a three-point play opportunity. Our 35-year-old guard Pablo Prigioni was productive as well in drawing charges on Nick Young and getting a steal that lead to a Novak trey. At halftime, the Knicks were sitting on a 57-44 lead after holding Philly to just 19 points in the second quarter.
The third was not as fluid; the offense started to stall badly around the eight-minute mark. Luckily, JR Smith was the spark with a few bailout jumpers on 4-7 shooting to keep the lead at 9. Nonetheless, Philly had some encouragement on the lights out 3 point shooting from Jrue Holiday (who went 5-6 and finished with 27 points).
A few more Smith 3s off steals from Prigioni and Kidd would help seal the deal in the fourth. In addition, Melo’s post game couldn’t be handled by the Bynum-less Sixers (Thaddeus Young fouled trying to keep up with Melo). And in a final “victory cigar” for us Knick fans, Chris Copeland got his first NBA points and Rasheed Wallace hit a nice post-up hook shot.
The final stat lines were great across the board. On defense, the Knicks forced 18 turnovers, had 12 steals and 5 blocks. On offense, the Knicks shot 50% from the field (39-77) and 40% from downtown (11-27). And our star Melo was able to drop 27 on 10-18 shooting. Consider that against the Heat, he went for 30 but needed 10 more shots to do it. JR Smith was great in dropping 20 points, grabbing 9 boards and 2 steals. 18 years into his career, Jason Kidd continues to show was he can be invaluable to any team. His stat line for today was 12 points, 6 assists, and 2 steals.
Unfortunately, we won’t have long to celebrate as tomorrow night the Knicks head to the Wells Fargo Arena (MSG West) for their first back to back of the season. This is the epitome of a “trap game” as the Sixers will be highly motivated to get revenge on their home floor after getting worked today. But with Bynum still out and now Jason Richardson likely gone with that ankle injury, the Knicks had a very good chance of starting this season 3-0 since God knows when.
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