Tag: review

Panic Time – Knicks Remain Hapless On Offense (And Defense), Now in 3-1 Hole to Pacers

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Carmelo Anthony said before last night’s “must-win” game four that the Knicks would learn a lot about their character. Based on that quote, we’d have to conclude that the Knicks are a bad shooting, whiny,, unfocused and flawed group. Now that is a tad harsh, but Knicks fans the world over are calling for the blood of a bunch of teams members from Coach Woodson on down. After a second abysmal effort, this time resulting in a 93-82 defeat, the Knicks find themselves in a daunting 3-1 deficit  headed back to Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

I won’t sit here and claim to have all the answers, but the glaring concerns I witnessed last night need to be corrected if this team has any shot of extending the series.

 

CAN ANYONE SCORE???: There were omens from the outset that the Knicks were in trouble. Iman Shumpert, trying to help lift the scoring load off Carmelo Anthony, went 1-5 in the first quarter. No one else was in sync and the team was shooting 9% at the seven-minute mark. Our offensive ineptitude negated the six turnovers Indy committed in the opening 12 minutes, allowing them to have a nice 23-16 lead courtesy of a 9-2 run to end the quarter. And while Roy Hibbert wasn’t killing it on offense, he managed to still be a force with 5 rebounds (4 offensive).

 

STOP DOUBLING THE POST: Remember how thrilling the Knicks look when they’re hitting three-pointers? The role has been reversed over the last two games since Coach Woodson has insisted that the Indiana bigs (West, Hibbert) get double-teamed every time they get the ball in the post. They simply pass the ball out, where it’s moved around the perimeter to an open man. For this game, it was George Hill and Lance Stephenson eating off this stupid strategy. Too often we saw the deja vu image of a Knicks guard scrambling to the perimeter too late and the Pacers extending their lead via another open trey.

The Pacer threes, combined with their 30-18 edge in rebounding, allowed them to push their lead to 48-34 at halftime.

Do you think any adjustments were made? Of course not — more doubling in the second half, and more momentum-crushing open threes kept the Knicks subdued for the rest of the game.

 

WHEN OUR FATE WAS SEALED: Despite how bad we looked, the Knicks were able to get within eight early in the fourth behind some much-needed three-point shooting from Chris Copeland. That potential run went to hell when Woody inexplicably benched him to insert Jason Kidd, who literally hasn’t scored a single point in the last month.

So what happened? How about Kidd leaves Lance Stephenson open for a three that pushes the lead back to 11. And on the Pacers next possession, Stephenson makes the driving layup to put the lead at 74-61. You could tell the team’s spirit was broken and the game was essentially over at that point.

 

OFFENSE WOES CONTINUE: JR Smith continued the worst shooting slump of his career, going 1-8 in the first half and 7/22 for the game. Melo had 24 points but on 9/23 shooting and got held scoreless in the fourth before fouling out. Raymond Felton contributed 14 points and did his best to look for his shot.

The team as a whole shot 35% and look demoralized for most of this game. Our three-point shooting, which is essential for this team, was a wretched 8/28 for 28%.

 

CAN WE TURN IT AROUND: The Knicks certainly have the right mix of veterans to come back, but I don’t think they have confidence that they can beat the Pacers. As has been the story all year, the team deflates when faced with tough, physical defenses. With Melo and JR being the only ones who can consistently create their own shots, the Pacers can opt to zero in on them with double teams when they enter the paint, and remain confident they can be contained with man to man defense anywhere else. The other Knicks rarely cut to basket or move off screens, making our offense very predictable when the three-point shot is taken away.

Woody’s stubborn rotations, coupled with bad court leadership from our team captains, has brought us to the brink of elimination. To at least go down fighting, Pablo Prigioni needs to get Kidd’s minutes. Chris Copeland and Steve Novak are defensive liabilities, but at this point our scoring drough is more dire. Play them to space the floor. Dust off Camby and see how he does guarding Hibbert. At the very least, he knows how to box out and block a shot. 

Judgement day is tomorrow, guys. Now it’s really a must-win.

Another 2nd Half Shutdown: Knicks Rally Behind Defense, Beat Celtics In Game 2

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23! No, I’m not talking about the iconic number of one of game’s greatest players. 23 indicates the new record for offensive futility that the Boston Celtics set last night in the second half while under pressure from the Knicks defense. The Celtics could only put up 23 points (11 and 12 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively) when faced with the likes of Kenyon Martin in the lane, resulting in a decisive 87-71 Knicks victory.

We’re still waiting on that complete 48-minute game when it comes to defense, but the Knicks put the clamps down when it mattered and reminded the Celtics this isn’t the team they swept back in 2011.

 

TRIGGER-HAPPY REFS IN 1ST QUARTER: For whatever reason, the referees decided to call the first quarter like they were afraid a fight was going to break out. BS fouls were being called on both teams, resulting in Iman Shumpert, Kevin Garnett and Tyson Chandler having to take quick seats. Offensively, the Knicks didn’t truly get going until newly crowned Sixth Man of the Year JR Smith came in. Swish went 4-4 for nine points in just 8 minutes with the last two being his patented stepback outside jumper and a breathtaking buzzer-beating three-pointer from 36 feet to give New York a 26-20 lead.

SLEEPWALKING THROUGH THE SECOND: The Knicks had a putrid second quarter all-around. Steve Novak and Chris Copeland continued their invisible play. Jason Terry found his stroke from downtown (3-3) that helped spark a 11-0 Boston run to take a 31-27 lead. At one point, Boston lead by as much as 10 as the Knicks offense degraded into predictable Melo isos. The Knicks couldn’t protect the ball either as the Celtics got 16 points off turnovers and outscored the Knicks 28-16 to hold a 48-42 halftime lead.

The only positive from this quarter was Garnett getting hit with his third foul.

 

BACK TO REALITY: The Celtics shot 57% over the first half and we know that wasn’t going to continue. Iman Shumpert hit back to back treys that erased the Celtics lead, and from there it was all Knicks. Melo rebounded from a slow first half (3/11 shooting) and lit up Boston for 13 points in the third and 34 points overall. Whenever the Celtics tried to make a run in the fourth, a few quick Melo jumpers kept them from getting closer than nine.

With Melo and Smith guaranteed to get theirs every night, the Knicks always have a need for a third guy to step up on offense. Last night it was Raymond Felton (16 points, 7 rebounds), who pushed the pace and ran the Celtics ragged with his drives into the lane.

The interior defense from Tyson Chandler, who had a huge block on Avery Bradley, and Kenyon Martin, who had four big blocks in the second half, kept the Celtics a jump-shooting team. K-Mart in particular was huge with 11 rebounds (3 offensive) and keeping Garnett (4-9, 12 points) working hard to get post position. His defense was also the main catalyst for Jeff Green not being able to get anything going to the basket.

The Knicks will need to be even better on Friday when they head into Boston for what will no doubt be a highly emotional game. Let’s pay back that 2011 series with a sweep of our own.

Happy Easter, Boston! Knicks Dominate Celtics 108-89, Take Season Series

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2004. That is the last time the Knicks won a season series against the Boston Celtics. Here we are nine years later with the Knicks breaking that drought emphatically with three straight wins (two in Boston) over their Atlantic division rivals to win the season series 3-1 and extend their winning streak to eight. Are the Knicks about to peak heading into April and the playoffs? There’s many reasons from this game to think so.

BLOWN OPEN IN THE SECOND: The Knicks had a 28-23 lead after one solely based on their hot shooting (52% from the field), punctuated by 4 three-pointers. The Celtics were right there with them courtesy of Jeff Green (27 points), who attacked the rim like JR Smith has been doing lately. But when the second quarter came around, the Knicks ran them out the building.

Chris Copeland provided some key offense with Melo on the bench by hitting his first two three-pointers. Steve Novak added a few treys and Jason Kidd added a shot-clock bailout one that extended the lead to 60-44. The three-point shooting was the main factor in the huge lead, as the Knicks hit 11 of them at the half. The ball movement was on point (15 assists for the team), and the scoring was evenly distributed.

You’ll recall the Knicks ran away with the last Celtics game in the second and capped their excellent play with a deep JR trey at the buzzer. Well, Raymond Felton did one better with a beyond half-court floater that banked in to make the lead 65-48. When shots like that are going down, you know you’re in trouble.

[youtube http://youtu.be/Enf4PBVoNyA]

NO THIRD QUARTER MELTDOWN: Over the first 4-5 minutes of the third, the Celtics were the team with momentum. They were getting to the line and hitting threes, which got them as close as 11 on a few occasions. However, the Knicks responded with timely buckets each time, the biggest being a Felton 3-point play that gave Avery Bradley, the Celtics’ best perimeter defender, his fifth foul. NY finished the quarter strong and Boston faced a 86-69 hole headed into the fourth.

BOSTON SUCKS!: These type of Madison Square Garden chants have come back to haunt us in previous games, but not tonight. The chants started at the beginning of the fourth and the Celtics never could provide any reason to shut the Knicks fans up. Paul Pierce had a good night (24 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists), but sat the entire fourth as coach Doc Rivers knew it was a lost cause.

JR COOLS OFF: JR Smith’s 30 point game, 50% shooting streak ended tonight on a very good note. I say that because we all wondered if JR would go back to his chucking ways when his shots weren’t going down. He was 4/12 from the field, but made sure to get to the line (7/10) and swallow up rebounds (12) on the small ball-minded Celtics. Tonight he faced one of the best defenses in the league and didn’t mentally have a setback, the clearest sign thus far that the “New JR Smith” is here to stay.

PABLO PRIGIONI REMAINS UNDEFEATED: Since Prigioni entered the starting lineup, the Knicks have been on this season-high eight-game win streak. It shouldn’t be surprising as Prigioni expertise in ball movement and steals/deflections have made sure the offense remains diverse with everyone being a scoring threat (except himself, of course). Pablo will get his biggest test on Tuesday against the Heat.

MELO’s 27 MINUTES: Carmelo had under 20 shots tonight (9/19) which is always a plus for the ball movement. The reason he ended up with 24 points instead of 32 is his struggles converting at the rim. A lot of them were point-blank shots that were just rimming out. But like JR, he contributed in other areas, namely in nabbing 10 rebounds. His defense was lazy at times (being late on switches and not contesting Green’s drives to the rim), but these lapses weren’t a huge detriment.

KNICKS SURVIVE THEIR TOUGHEST MONTH OF THE SEASON: How difficult was the month of March? We lost Tyson Chandler, Kurt Thomas and Amar’e Stoudemire to injuries, leaving just two bigs on the team. Melo missed several games with a bum knee and appeared in dire straits at times. Our West Coast trip proved to be a disaster going 1-4, and the Brooklyn Nets at one point were one game out of the top of the Atlantic Division. This winning streak helped the Knicks finish the month 12-6, stay atop the Atlantic by 4.5 games, and remain poised to have a healthy and confident team headed into the playoffs.

We’ve vanquished Boston. Now it’s time to make a statement to Miami and win that season series on Tuesday.

[youtube http://youtu.be/dLvKgUaT3Ls]

Have a Seat, Kidd — Knicks Clamp Down in 4th, Defeat Wizards 96-88

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It took Jason Kidd shooting 19% from the field over the entire month of February for Mike Woodson to take away his starting spot before last night’s game against the Washington Wizards. Unfortunately, Woodson’s stubborness came back on display in the fourth quarter and for a while seemed like it may cost us the game. Lucky for the Knicks, the Wizards give you a lot of room for error and New York got themselves right to hold a three-game winning streak before facing the Miami Heat tomorrow.

NEW LINEUPS BUT SOME OLD BAD HABITS: James White made the start at small forward with Iman Shumpert finally getting moved to shooting guard. White didn’t supply anything in the way of offense, but he also wasn’t a defensive liability, which had been the problem with Kidd trying to defend faster guards. Unfortunately, Carmelo Anthony was off (1-6 in quarter), but JR Smith and Raymond Felton were aggressive looking for their shots and getting to the rim. And Steve Novak hit a nice bank shot and a trey to help the Knicks lead 26-23 after one.

With Pablo Prigioni out with back spasms, Woodson had Kidd man a new second unit of Kidd, Shump, Novak, Stat and Chandler. The defensive rotations were still off and Chandler was visibly annoyed at times, but at least a deficit wasn’t created. Things tightened up with Melo and JR coming back in and the Knicks took a 54-48 lead into halftime.

After a horrid third quarter where the Knicks went six minutes without a field goal and were outscored 29-19 to give up the lead (73-77), Woodson resumed his love affair with Kidd getting major minutes in the fourth despite bricking several open shots. He would keep him in there until the 3:21 mark. Stat had words for Woodson when he sat for most of the fourth after getting some good points in the post, and he wouldn’t come in until Kidd got benched. Shumpert got in when the game was all but already decided by the cold shooting from the Wizards.

Knicks fans can only hope Kidd doesn’t get this much burn against Miami tomorrow.

NO K-MART?: I would have really liked to see what Kenyon Martin could have done last night. I guess with the Wizards not having Nene, Woodson didn’t feel the need to play him. I feel his defense could have really helped stifle that crazy 21-6 run the Wizards had in the third quarter. K-Mart and Camby are expected to be available for Sunday.

CLOSING STRONG: Outside of the third, the Knicks closed every quarter with a run. They had shutout runs of 8-0 and 9-0 in the first half, and the Wizards were held to just three field goals in the entire fourth quarter (outscored 23-11 in the quarter).

MOMENTUM PLAY: The Knicks were down 75-77 early in the fourth when a steal lead to a Kidd fast break. Wall chased him down for a block that was ruled a goaltend, sending Wall into a brief tirade that earned him a tech. That three-point swing gave the Knicks a 78-77 lead, which they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

FELTON HITS A FLOATER?!: Hell has frozen over. Not only did Felton hit a floater, but it was the shot that iced the game. That shot has been broken all year, making this one of the most unintentionally funny Knicks-related videos of the season.

ANOTHER CAREER-HIGH: Surprise, surprise — another guard gets their career-high on the Knicks. Last night it was Bradley Beal scoring 29 points with 12 coming from downtown. Luckily he was off in the fourth with the rest of his team.

BACK IN 2ND PLACE: The Knicks are back in second place in the Eastern Conference, but the hold is very tenuous — a bad loss or two and the Knicks could be as far down as fourth place. That makes the Heat game on Sunday very important.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqcj4V84MT4&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

No Execution, No Focus, No Win – Knicks Fall to Raptors 92-88

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Guess all that talk about a great practice on Tuesday means that’s where the Knicks left their game — this 92-88 Raptors loss was probably the worst they’ve played all year. That’s saying a lot considering the cluster of bad defeats NY has suffered this year to teams like Houston and Chicago. There was no ball movement, defense and worst of all no consistent energy nor effort. And no, we simply can’t look at this as an aberration from a team looking ahead to the All-Star Break. This was just another example of the inconsistent play (and coaching) plaguing this team.

 

WHO WAS THE TEAM COMING OFF A BACK TO BACK?: Coming into last night, the Raptors were less than 24 hours removed from a grueling one-point road win against the Nuggets. Their fatigue showed early with them settling for long, contested jumpers. The Raptors shot an atrocious 4/19 in the quarter and scored just 14 points.

That would have been good for the Knicks, but their ineptitude was nearly as bad. The Knicks, coming off two full days of rest, could only manage 7/21 from the field for 18 points. Raymond Felton was aggressive at least, but outside of that it was bricked jumper after bricked jumper.

 

NOVAK THE EXPLOITER…AND THE EXPLOITED: Steve Novak came into the game early in the second and Toronto promptly reeled off six straight points on him. Guys like Rudy Gay and Alan Anderson drove right by Novak in embarrassing fashion. But to his credit, Novak contributed on the offensive end to the tune of three treys to help the Knicks get out to a 35-27 lead.

Suprisingly, the one game where Novak appears to be hot from downtown, Coach Woodson sits him for most of the second half when we were in desperate need for offense.

 

3RD QUARTER WOES: Even with the lazy all-around effort, the Knicks held a 42-37 lead at halftime. That was promptly erased in a third quarter where the Raptors outscored the Knicks 28-18. Melo couldn’t hit anything (including three straight missed free throws) and neither could any other Knick. Even the ejection of Kyle Lowry couldn’t help as John Lucas III and Alan Anderson continued destroying our Knicks backcourt.

 

MELO HURT AND NO ONE STEPS UP: As everyone has probably heard, Melo suffered a deep contusion to his right arm in the first quarter after a collision with DeMar DeRozan. His arm went numb and it affected his shooting the rest of the night. That didn’t stop Melo from shooting (to the tune of a horrid 5/24), but it’s not like he had much help elsewhere. Although JR Smith had 26 points, a lot of those points came with the game already decided. When the momentum hung in the balance, he missed key free throws and defensive close outs on the Raptors.

 

LOWER-LEVEL PLAYERS FEAST IN MSG ONCE AGAIN: This was the most distressing thing about the game. It’s becoming tradition for bench and role players to have career games at the Garden because of our bad perimeter defense. Alan Anderson was 6/8 from downtown (many of them wide open) and finished with 26 points. John Lucas promptly came in for the ejected Lowry and hit a three to set the tone. Late in the fourth, he iced the game with a fadeaway jumper.

 

TIME FOR ANOTHER LINEUP CHANGE: Jason Kidd is still a valuable piece to this team, but it isn’t as a starter. At 40 he does not have the foot speed to keep up with opposing guards and it’s one of the main reasons we have a lot of bad defensive switches and end up with mismatches. To make matters worse, he’s in one of the worst shooting slumps of his career — last night he had 0 points on 0/3 shooting.

What this team needs is a balance of offense and defense. The first experiment I’d go with is putting Iman Shumpert at shooting guard, moving Melo back to his natural position of small forward and Stoudemire back to starting at the 4. And giving Ronnie Brewer another shot at the rotation (Lord knows his defense is needed).

 

The good news is that even with losing 3 of their last 4 games, the Knicks still hold the #2 spot in the East. But I hope everyone on the team takes this break to do some soul-searching, get healthy, and gear up for a second half of the season that will require them at their best.

[youtube http://youtu.be/0eyLH7_c1yc]

Let’s Not Play Defense Tonight! Wizards Stun Knicks 106-96

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Looks like the Knicks needed another reminder that you can’t play zero defense and expect lower level teams to roll over for you. Coach Mike Woodson made it a point to say in the last game that although they blew out the Pistons, they were outplayed in the second half and lucky to have had a big cushion. The Knicks didn’t have that cushion tonight and paid dearly for it in the deciding quarter.

 

THE TREYS NEVER STOP: From the first quarter the Knicks had a horrible time defending the perimeter shooters and keeping John Wall out of the paint. Wall would blow by his man (in most cases Felton) and that lead to wide open threes for Trevor Ariza and Martell Webster, who would go a combined 10-16 from downtown.

 

WHEN DID WALL BECOME A SHOOTING THREAT?!: Everyone knows John Wall can’t shoot. Hell, it’s hard not to shoot bricks with him in NBA 2K with his sliders on 100. So why on earth were our guards playing him tight? That allowed him to attack the rim and then it seemed like our whole team collapsed allowing for wide open three pointers.

 

WASHED IN THE 4TH QUARTER: The Knicks took a 73-70 lead in the fourth which evaporated in a matter of seconds with Melo fouling Ariza on the perimter for a four-point play. The Wizards took advantage of unexcusably lax Knicks defense, which on multiple occassions saw them late to get set down the floor and give up dunks to Nene and drives to Wall. With them unable to get stops, the Knicks resorted to iso Melo ball and long stepback jumpers from JR Smith… you know how those turn out in the long run. The Wizards would go on to outscore the Knicks 36-23 to emphatically close the game.

 

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU’RE FEELING YOURSELF: The Knicks were able to turn it on at will the last two games against the Kings and Pistons. They came into D.C. feeling themselves and got a rude awakening of what happens when you play trash defense and have a lazy mentality for most of the game. Let’s hope this is a wake-up as the Knicks head to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves, another sub .500 team.

 

Ran Off the Court: Sixers Rout Knicks 97-80

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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.

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!

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