Tag: recap

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.

[Video] What Bum Ankle? Melo Drops 31 and Chandler Goes Off as Knicks Rout Nets

Brooklyn Nets v New York Knicks

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!

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

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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]

Welcome Back, JR! Knicks Stay Perfect at Home With 108-87 Wizards Blowout

JRSmith_3

The Friday night Knicks curse? Not with the Washington Wizards in town. The Knicks lets their haphazard opponent hang around for a few quarters, but blew the game open at the end of the third and cruised to an easy 108-87 win to remain undefeated this season at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks were never in any serious trouble after falling behind 2-6 to start. The first quarter was quiet with no on taking over, but three-pointers in the final minute from JR Smith and Steve Novak pushed the lead to 26-17 after one.

This game was a coming out party, or rather a return to form for JR Smith, who after averaging 17 points off the bench to start the season had been shooting less than 30% and averaging 9 points over the last five games. His jumper was working and he finished at the rim to the tune of 10 points at the half. Pablo Prigioni was another spark off the bench; our 35 year old “rookie” was draining 3s off screens and making sure to feed Tyson Chandler. Melo’s jumper was working, but our leader was more focused on passing and notched five assists, the majority to Chandler for easy dunks and layups. Although the Wizards had eight offensive rebounds and roughly half their points in the paint, a Melo buzzer beating, 23-foot jumper gave the Knicks a 58-46 halftime lead.

Trevor Ariza had some success early in the third, but the Wizard’s deficit hovered around 14 points for most of the quarter courtesy of good shooting from Ronnie Brewer. His defense remained strong as he got a steal that lead to a Chandler dunk. Raymond Felton got aggressive getting into the lane and finding Chandler, who got a three-point play inside. Add on some three-pointers from Rasheed Wallace and Novak, and the Knicks were resting on a 84-63 lead after outscoring the Wizards 29-19 in the third.

With another blowout, Melo and the other starters got to rest all of the fourth. The rest of the team stayed productive with Novak still hitting 3s, and Prigioni delivering a sweet alley oop to JR Smith. Chris Coperland and James White got significant minutes and were able to hit shots. The Garden got loud with Marcus Camby chants, but Coach Woodson sadly ignored them, saying later that Camby’s a “pro” and understood tonight we were going with the young guys.

Outside of a few too many fouls and the continued rebounding woes, the Knicks stat lines were great. Melo had 20 points in 27 minutes on 6-13 shooting. Chandler had a double double (12 points, 10 rebounds). JR had 20 points off the bench on efficient 9-14 shooting (2-3 from downtown). Prigioni had 8 points and 5 assists. Felton had an overlooked 11 points. Novak went 3-6 from long-range. As a team, the Knicks only had 8 turnovers while forcing 17. And with this blowout, the Knicks have held 10 of their 15 opponents thus far under 100 points while having one of the toughest schedules of November.

Yes, it was the Wizards. But any Knicks fan that’s been around longer than this season remembers quite well that no victory was guaranteed against any team in previous years. The Knicks are not just taking care of inferior teams; NY is doing it in dominant fashion which should bring a smile to all our faces. Our home stand continues tomorrow afternoon against the Phoenix Suns. Get well J-Kidd, Stat and Shump!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJPbBvul5J4&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Frontcourt Shutdown: Knicks Ice Bucks 102-88

After the bitter defeat last game to the Brooklyn Nets, I was not in the mood to see another tough game with Milwaukee’s explosive backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis going off. Apparently the Knicks weren’t either, as they administered clamp down defense and merciless frontcourt offense to whoop the Bucks 102-88.

Recently, the Bucks have given the Knicks loads of trouble in the form of Brandon Jennings, who seems to relish getting at the Knicks and last season drew a “suck my dick” retort from Melo at the free throw line. Jennings and Ellis started hot, hitting their outside jumpers and blowing past Knick guards to the basket for fouls and layups. Melo had one of his trademark fast starts to keep us in it early, hitting two 3s and drawing fouls inside for 11 points. Jennings and Ellis also contributed 11 points a piece to help give the Bucks a 26-23 lead after one.

Coach Woodson mixed up the lineups to start the second, giving Chris Copeland some burn with the bench unit. The secondary team was anchored by Pablo Prigioni, who contributed two 3-pointers off screens and got a nice steal that lead to a layup. Steve Novak continued his improved shooting as well, draining two 3s to keep the game tight until Melo made it back on the floor. Anthony promptly delivered back to back baskets on a three-pointer and driving layup. The two point guard backcourt of Raymond Felton and Prigioni was able to hold up with help defense (including a nice Novak block on an Ellis cut) as the Buck got sloppy (1o turnovers). The Knicks ran over the Milwaukee in the closing 2-3 minutes to jump out to a 58-48 lead at halfime.

The Knicks remained focused for the start of the third and promptly put the game away. Tyson Chandler, who had eight points at the half, remained aggressive and continue drawing fouls on cuts to the basket in addition to scoring with easy dunks and layups off pick and rolls. In just a few minutes, a Felton steal and layup followed by a Melo jumper had pushed the lead to 68-48. A quick run fueled by a Jennings three and an Ellis drive trimmed the lead to 68-55, but a Melo drive for an “and 1”  layup put a halt to it. The Knicks defense tightened up and the Bucks relied on jump-shooting (which was ice-cold) and fell behind at the end of the third 88-70, being outscored 30-22.

The Bucks bench couldn’t do much better in the fourth; Milwaukee would get no closer than 14 points. The highlight of the quarter was a steal by Steve Novak that lead to a one-man fast break layup, which prompted teases from the bench to Steve for not dunking it. Novak finished with a nice game of 19 points ( 5-7 from downtown). Other big contributors were Prigioni (11 points, 7 assists), Chandler (17 points, 8 rebounds) Felton (12 points, 7 assists) and of course Melo, who dropped 29 points and nabbed 8 rebounds.

And the best stat of all for last night? The Knicks outrebounded the Bucks 38-36 and held their starting frontcourt to 2 points!

New York moves on Friday to face the Wizards.

BK Draws First Blood: Nets Down Knicks in OT 96-89

The bragging rights on the historic first “Battle for NY” goes to the Brooklyn Nets, who showed poise and efficiency down the stretch to overcome big efforts from Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler to take a 96-89 overtime victory in a highly entertaining game last night from the Barclays Center. The game had me on the edge of my seat and pacing all night. Of course, not seeing a Knicks victory was highly disappointing, but everyone will agree this is the start to what will be an amazing rivalry over the next few years. Here’s what stood out to me last night.

Melo and Tyson Beast…Everyone Else Falls Short: Melo dropped 35 points and Tyson contributed a career high 28 points. Outside of that, the state line is abysmal with the next highest scorer being Raymond Felton with 8 points on 3-19 shooting. I was especially impressed with Tyson meeting the challenge of guarding Brook Lopez and drawing a key offensive foul in the last-minute that unfortunately couldn’t pull out the win. Our bench was invisible and got outscored solely by Jerry Stackhouse (15 points) of all people. No way we win with just two guys showing up on offense.

Kidd Missed…Felton is Horrid: You never want to place blame on one guy for a loss; we win and lose as a team. But damn it, Raymond Felton contributed heavily to this defeat. I sincerely believe he got too caught up in the atmosphere and trying to “win” his matchup with Deron Williams. Felton had 5 turnovers and even more disastrous kept bricking jumpers and airballing floaters during the crucial fourth quarter. The value of Jason Kidd cannot be overstated. Not having his outside shooting to the space the floor and court generalship really hurt us. There’s no way with Kidd on the floor that Melo gets frozen out of getting solid looks over the last 6-7 minutes of the game.

Melo’s Free Throw Irony: The cruel irony last night is that Melo, who’s been rightly complaining about not getting fouls, finally got them last night in shooting 16 free throws. And of course, Melo only goes 10-16 from the line. Make about three more and it’s likely this game doesn’t see overtime. But in his defense, Melo played a total of 50 minutes and had no rest in the second half. Fatigue likely played a huge part.

The Knicks have to jump right back on the saddle tomorrow when we head to Milwaukee to face the Bucks, whose backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis are sure to give us fits. All of our losses have been on the road this year, so getting this one would bode well for our confidence with a winnable stretch of games following against Washington, Phoenix and Charlotte.

Back on Track: Knicks End 2-Game Skid With 121-100 Pistons Blowout

After getting ran off the floor in Houston and letting the refs and three-point shooting sink them in Dallas over their last two games, the Knicks needed to get refocused. New York did just that against the lowly Detroit Pistons yesterday, fueled by Carmelo Anthony’s 29 points and good contributions from Raymond Felton, JR Smith, Tyson Chandler and Steve Novak to notch another blowout and maintain a perfect 5-0 record at Madison Square Garden.

Melo had one of his trademark red-hot starts to kick off the first and never really cooled down for the rest of the contest. He started 6-6 and had 15 points in the quarter, while Tyson Chandler was aggressive on pick and rolls and getting to the line. Pablo Prigioni had a nice steal in the waning seconds of the quarter to push the lead to 32-22 on 61% shooting from the field and one turnover.

New York was very cold to start the second and the Pistons found new life behind guard penetration from Will Bynum. The lead was cut to 32-29, but Knicks were able to hold on with Marcus Camby keeping the Pistons off the offensive glass. Melo came back in and hit a tough turnaround jumper and dished a nice behind the back pass to JR Smith for a corner three. JR Smith had a great rebounding game (10), including an offensive one that lead to a Steve Novak three that pushed the lead to 50-38. Felton had back to back buckets off a jumper and back door cut pass from Jason Kidd, who then drained his own three-pointer to push the lead to 57-42 at halftime.

The Knicks had a mental relapse to start the third with three straight turnovers, two on fumbled passes from Tyson Chandler. This allowed the Pistons to reel off eight straight points. Melo got a tough call for “fouling” a three-point attempt from Kyle Singler, but showed the restraint that had been lacking the last two games. Coach Woodson even made it a point to pull Raymond Felton away from a referee. A Melo three-pointer pushed the lead back to 75-60, but the Pistons guard penetration kept them within striking distance. However, two threes from Steve Novak in the final minutes gave NY a nice 86-72 cushion going into the last quarter.

Novak stayed hot from downtown and immediately pushed the lead to 93-78 to start the fourth. Outside of a miracle three-pointer from Brandon Knight (21 points) with the shot clock winding down and Chandler in his face, the quarter was all Knicks. Novak hit another three and for the first time this season put on the belt as the lead ballooned to 98-81. It wasn’t a serious contest after the first few minutes of the fourth, but that didn’t stop Rasheed Wallace and James White from hitting a few more threes to put the exclamation point on the game.

This was all-around great game for the Knicks to end this woeful two-game losing streak. The contributions outside of Melo were fantastic from Felton (14 pts, 10 assts), JR Smith (15 pts, 10 rebs, assts), Wallace (15 pts), Chandler (13 pts, 7 rebs) and Novak (18 pts). Novak has been off for most of this year so to see him go 5-7 from three bodes well for our premier shooter.

Tonight is the biggest game of the season thus far when we met our crosstown “rivals” the Brooklyn Nets. Don’t miss it on TNT.

Oh the Shame: Rockets Embarrass Knicks 131-103

Let’s be brutally honest about Friday’s blowout loss to the Rockets in Houston. The Knicks shamed themselves and reverted back to the worst of their habits from early last year: no ball movement, iso heavy offense, no rebounding and weak interior defense.

The game was reasonable until the last minutes of the second quarter, when Coach Woodson inexpicably went with a frontcourt that included Steve Novak and Melo. The Rockets got to the line at will, with James Harden having more free throw attempts than our entire squad. Omar Asik destroyed Tyson Chandler inside on the offensive rebounding side and scoring at will in the post. At halftime, we had given up 72 points and were looking at a 72-57 deficit.

It got worst in the second half. We got as close as 10 (73-83) when yet again, our leaders left the refs take us out of the game. Melo got a technical for complaining and let a Rockets player waltz right by him on a fast break in the midst of his complaint for any easy score. Chandler wasn’t far behind on the whining, and the Knicks looked completely deflated and went into heavy isolation plays that lead to contested JR Smith jumpers and more fast break/free throw opportunities for the Rockets. Chandler got a flagrant 1 for elbowing Asik and by the end of the third we were down 80-104. Yes, you read that right; the Knicks gave up over 100 points in just three quarters. It was the same story in the fourth with Asik making Chandler is personal whipping boy. The 131 points we gave up is the highest scored by any team this season. Even Toney Douglas was draining shots (now that is unacceptable)

This game can determine how the rest of the Knicks season goes. Either they come together and acknowledge the team’s glaring faults or continue not trusting each other. There’s a few things I’d like to see in today’s game against the Pistons.

1. Stop letting the refs decide the game. It’s not right, but Melo and Tyson are not going to get the benefit of the doubt on any calls. I sincerely believe among refs they’ve gotten a reputation as complainers and the refs deliberately look not to call fouls in their favor. They need to suck it up, not complain outwardly, and get back on defense. Next dead play, mention respectively what’s happening to the refs and keep it moving. This starts with our team captains/leaders Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler

2. PLAY DEFENSE. We lead the league in points allowed and there’s no reason that should have been destroyed by the Rockets. Harden and company driving to the lane at will is unacceptable. Tyson has played badly on the defensive end and has to get it together.

3. Rebounding. Part of this ties into the coaching. We need Camby out there helping, period. Melo does what he can, but playing him at the 4 isn’t always going to work against the bigger teams. You’d think the Grizzlies loss would’ve have hammered that point home. Time to get creative with the lineups as teams are starting to figure us out.

Redemption starts today at 1pm.

Questionable Calls and Bad Perimeter D: Mavs 3pt Shooting Lifts Them Over Knicks 114-111

Hopefully the Knicks had a nice Thanksgiving to erase the sour taste of a bitter 114-111 defeat to the Mavericks in Dallas on Wednesday night.

Even without Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs are still dangerous due to OJ Mayo, who’s been one of the deadliest shooters in the NBA thus far, leading the league in three-point shooting. What was not foreseen is giving up 25 points off the bench to the ghost of Vince Carter and getting slack on our defense to the tune of giving  up 30 in the 4th quarter and allowing the Mavs to hit 4-6 from downtown (they shot 13-29 from three for the game).

Like the game against the Hornets, we jumped out to a 10 point lead by the second quarter only to let the Mavs go crazy behind the arc (Carter, Troy Murphy, Shawn Marion and OJ Mayo). Still, NY closed the quarter strong behind some good steals from Jason Kidd and aggressive inside play from Tyson Chandler to have a 54-49 lead at halftime.

The second half of the game was tough to watch. After an even battle for much of the third, JR Smith started to become a liability on defense; OJ Mayo was burning him for layups and 3s. Vince Carter had a good time at JR’s expense too, knocking down a few 3s. Even Shawn Marion and Jae Crowder got in on the 3-point barrage, and before you knew it the quarter had ended with the Mavs outscoring the Knicks 35-26.

The Knicks fell behind by as much as 12 points in the fourth. Carmelo Anthony had a very tough night and not just from the hard defense Marion put on him. Melo got hit with several tough offensive calls. And even though he had a season-high 7 turnovers, a few of them could have been called loose ball fouls (Melo was hit hard in the face on one). Even so, Melo managed to chip in 23 points, and Tyson Chandler had 21, fueled by a key 3-point play that helped the Knicks  get within four (101-105) late in the fourth. We never folded, but we gave up too many 3s, committed too many shooting fouls and let the corpse of Vince Carter drop way too points off the bench to pull this one out.

Knicks fans can take a little solace in the fact that despite our bad play perimeter defense, we were within just a point (111-112) with the ball in Melo’s hands for the potential game-winning jumper that missed.

We can take out any remaining frustration tonight on our old friend Jeremy Lin in Houston. You know damn well Raymond Felton will be up for that game.