Tag: Tim Hardaway Jr.

[Video] No JR Needed – Knicks Soar Against Heat 102-92

Melo_Lebron

The Knicks put together the best home win of the season last night with a complete team effort in defeating the Heat. After two months, the team (sans JR Smith) finally looks to have turned a corner.

MELO GETS HIS HELP: The question going into every game is who will help Melo with the scoring load. At their worst, the Knicks predictably dump the ball to Melo, many times with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, for a low-percentage isolation shot.

Outside of the first few possessions, the Knicks were at their best in terms of ball movement, guarding the passing lanes, and attacking Miami’s weak interior defense. Andrea Bargnani (19 points), Iman Shumpert (12 points, 9 rebounds), Amar’e Stoudemire (14 poitns, 11 rebounds) and Raymond Felton (13 points, 14 assists) were the “secondary Big Four” that took the load off Melo and allowed him to operate more freely on offense.

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MELO VS. LEBRON: We didn’t get to see as much of this as we should have. When they did guard each other, Melo got the better of it. LeBron was still able to have a monster stat line (32 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists) just because he’s the best player in the league, and poor Bargnani found himself switched off onto him way too many times.

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MIAMI HELPS OUT AT THE FREE THROW LINE: The Heat could have made this a tighter game simply by hitting their free throws. They shot a very poor 52% (11/21) with Dwyane Wade being the main culprit (0-6). New York wasn’t any better at 50% (5/10).

TIM HARDAWAY JR: THJ made a new poster at the expense of Jesus Shuttlesworth aka Ray Allen. Yeah, our rookie got game.

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THE 16-0 RUN: After getting embarrassed by a LeBron baseline dunk, Bargnani came right back with a three-point play on Wade to ignite a 9-0 run to end the fourth, highlighted by two Melo treys and Hardaway’s spectacular tip-in dunk. Usually with JR Smith in the 2nd unit lineup that starts the fourth, the Knicks have been giving up leads and momentum. This time, the point guard play of Toure Murry had Bargnani and Stoudemire carving up the Heat in the post and at mid-range.

CLOSING STRONG: When Felton came back in, there wasn’t any drop-off. Ray continued attacking the paint, which collapsed the Heat defense and got nice looks for Melo and Stat. And when Melo got what appeared to be an isolation play, Felton and others cut to basket allowing for easy layups and dunks. Felton also keep the defense honest by hitting several long jumpers.

ROLES DEFINED: The Knicks are finally playing like a team and everyone appears to know their roles. You can see the confidence and they should have it, considering two of their last four wins have come against the defending Eastern and Western Conference champions.

JR SMITH: Our knucklehead shooting guard sulked on the bench most of the night, but did put up an obligatory standing ovation at the final buzzer. In the locker room, he pouted about whether he still has a “future” on the team. We’ll see if JR finally wakes up, but I think he’s earned at least 2 games on the bench.

 

[Video] Shump the Closer — Knicks 92, Mavs 80

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It’s not the 3-0 Texas sweep it should have been, but we’ll take it. The Knicks came out with the same fire they showed earlier this week against the Rockets, but made better decisions down the stretch to pull out a 92-80 victory over the Mavericks, making it a 2-1 trip to the Lone Star state with an additional win over San Antonio.

MELO STARTS IT, SHUMP ENDS IT: Carmelo Anthony came out on fire in the first quarter, scoring 15 of his 19 points. The Mavs looked lethargic and the Knicks took full advantage on offense and defense, outscoring Dallas 29-17 and holding their shooting under 40%.

In the final minutes of the fourth with the Mavs down just six points, Iman Shumpert scored seven points in the remaining two minutes to ice the game, including a fearless layup drive around Dirk Nowitzki. His stat sheet will only show 9 points, but they were the most impactful of the game (along with his three steals, one coming late in the third to stifle a Mavs run). Defense wins games, and with Shumpert refocused in that area, there is absolutely no reason to not have him on the court during crunch time.

K-MART GETS NY THROUGH SCORING DROUGHT: Down 52-35 at halftime, the Mavs made a strong push in the third while the Knicks went ice-cold on offense. Vince Carter, Jose Calderon, and Monta Ellis all nailed treys to help get the lead in single digits. However, Kenyon Martin had one of his better games of the season, scoring the majority of his 14 points in the third quarter to allow the Knicks to maintain a 10-point lead (67-57) going into the fourth.

STOP THE JR SMITH LOVE AFFAIR, WOODY: I’m on record as giving JR until the All-Star break to get it together. Nonetheless, that doens’t mean play him when it’s a detriment to the team. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 10 points, including a crucial three-point play in the third. He provided good minutes early in the fourth before getting pulled for JR, who immediately had issues not turning the ball over and leaving Mavs guards open on the perimeter. If it wasn’t for Shumpert, the Mavs might have stolen this one.

JR did at least provide one hilarious moment during the game.

NOW DO IT AT HOME: The Knicks have been a decent road team and horrible at home. For the rest of the month, 10 of the 13 games NY plays will be at home. This will likely be the period that makes or breaks our playoff hopes considering the majority of the opponents have sub-.500 records.

Melo the Closer – Knicks 111, Hawks 106

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The Knicks overcame the heartbreak of Friday’s defeat in Boston by putting together a wholly efficient offensive performance to take a 111-106 victory over a red-hot shooting Atlanta Hawks team at Madison Square Garden. Outside of one moping player, all was well in NYC last night.

 

GOOD AND BAD DEFENSE: The Knicks did an excellent job of disrupting the Hawks offense with deflections and steals. They forced 12 turnovers in the first half and 27 for the entire game. It was completely necessary to offset the scorching shooting of the Hawks, who shot around 60% for most of the game. The percentage was due to the inside dominance of Paul Millsap (18 points, 8 rebounds) and Al Horford (17 points, 6 rebounds) coupled with the Knicks guards amazingly losing Kyle Korver on the perimeter (13 points, 4-9 from three).

THE SPARKS: We know Melo will get his, but the question with this Knicks team is who backs up our star player. Last night it was Tim Hardaway Jr. (13 points) who was aggressive getting to the rim for several dunks in the first half. Stoudemire (9 points, 5 rebounds) had a quieter game by his recent standards, but his output was great in getting the Knicks breathing room in the second quarter despite the Hawks shooting around 56% in the first half.

MELO THE FOCUS BUT TEAM EFFORT: The second half is where the team has had problems and in the third bad defense reared its ugly head. The Knicks had a 62-48 lead after the first few minutes, but left Korver open for back to back treys to help ignite a 15-6 run. ATL could not miss from the perimeter and were just behind 81-77 going into the fourth.

Up until that point, Melo had shot 9/15 from the field. There were a few rushed shots from him, but outside of that the team made his job much easier. Prigioni was dishing sweet passes to Melo and Bargnani. And speaking of Prigioni, his shooting kept the defense honest, dropping 11 points (3-6 from downtown). This gave NY a nice 15-point cushion late — under those cirmcumstances, Melo’s heat-check three, which went in to make the lead 106-93, was welcomed. Melo ended with another good stat line of 35 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

The reason for the seemingly close score was Atlanta hitting four straight threes in less than two minutes of garbage time.

SULKING JR: Although JR Smith got the starting assignment at small forward, he managed just 1-8 from the field in 24 minutes (benched for all of the 4th). He looked like he was at a funeral on the sidelines with Prigioni trying to console him. This comes on the heels of JR just attempting one shot against Boston.

A lot of fans are ready to ship JR out, but my memory is not short. His bench play last year was key in our team finishing at the second seed. With the knee surgery, I’ll give JR at least until the All-Star break to get it together.

1ST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

[youtube http://youtu.be/zAe9qyJBdRg]

Melo Falls Short In Clutch, Nuggets Take 97-95 Win Over Knicks

I didn’t get it done, that’s it. My teammates did a great job of getting us in that position, putting us in that position, giving me the chance of tying the game or going for the win. I didn’t come through. I’ll take that. – CARMELO ANTHONY

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DENVER, CO — The Nugget supplied multiple opportunities down the stretch to steal a rare win in Denver, but the Knicks just couldn’t get over the hump as a airball Carmelo Anthony jumper with seconds remaining closed the door on a New York comeback and gave them their eighth straight defeat.

The Knicks kept it close throughout and at times flashed decent defense, which are some of the few positives to take when you’re on a losing streak this long.

 

30 ONLY ONCE: The Knicks gave up 30 points in the first, a clear sign the defense was supbar. Guys like JJ Hickson got easy putbacks and the weak perimeter defense allowed the Nuggets to sink three from behind the arc. However, the Knicks adjusted well in the second quarter and aside from Nate Robinson (16 points), kept the Nuggets in check with just 21 points in the second, 24 in the third and 22 in the fourth.

 

MORE TIME FOR THJ?: Tim Hardaway Jr. played 15 minutes and had 8 points (3-5 shooting), 3 rebounds and 2 blocks. The blocks were very impressive as they came early in the fourth quarter in the paint, turning back 7-footer Timothy Mosgoz and 6’9 forward Darnell Arthur. Considering that JR Smith is still trying to find his shooting touch (5-13, 1-7 from downtown), making Hardaway a consistent staple of the rotation at 15-20 minutes a night seems like a no-brainer. It would be nice to have shooting guards who can actually SHOOT. And with THJ shooting 50% over the last 10 games, he’s the best choice.

 

CALLS FOR MELO: After Coach Woodson was fined for criticizing the referees for not calling fouls on Melo, we’ve seen an improvement in how he’s treated. He had 11 points in free throws this game. Unfortunately, a big focus is going to be on the last play with Randy Foye, who clearly caught Melo on the arm which disrupted his fadeaway shot. A similar foul went in Melo’s favor in the first quarter.

 

3-POINT FAILINGS: It’s not impossible for this team to win without good three-point shooting, but it’s definitely very difficult. The team shot just 6-22 for 27%, with the biggest culprit being JR’s 1-7 stat line. Again, the addition for Hardaway Jr in regular rotations will be a huge lift in this regard.

 

MELO’S CRUCIAL MISTAKES: The Knicks were right within striking range down just 2, 85-83, with just under two minutes remaining. A Melo post isolation led to a off-balance circus shot, and then on the next possession Melo shuffled his feet for a travel. The Nuggets extended the lead with free throws and a three by Randy Foye to 94-85, but the Knicks battled back to make it a 96-93 deficit after an open Felton three. A Shumpert layup off a loose ball scramble and Ty LAwson splitting free throws had the Knicks down 97-95 with the ball in Melo’s hands with 19 seconds left, leading to the miss on the fadeaway.

 

SHUMPERT VS. FARIED: This game will probably quiet some of the talk of those who were disappointed the proposed trade of Iman Shumpert for Kenneth Faried didn’t go through. Shumpert had his best game in weeks, scoring 11 points on 50% shooting, and 7 rebounds. Faried notched 4 points and 6 rebounds before having to leave the game in the third with a leg bruise. The Knicks have loads of problems, one of them being rebounding, but what the Knicks need more than anything is two-way players, not specialists. Faried cannot score on his own except through clean-up plays, and we already have a few bigs in that area (Martin, Chandler). I wouldn’t be mad at all to have a young, high energy guy like him on the team, but I’d rather hold onto Shump as well. Too bad the Nuggets won’t take Stoudemire.

 

MELO AND BARGS: The two combined for 49 points and so far I’d say this experiment is working out (at least offensively). I’d like to see their minutes reduced as Melo clocked 40 minutes and Bargs 39, but until are “sharpshooters” (JR, Iman etc) actually start consistently hitting shots, this is the only course of action.

The next stop for the Knicks is Sunday back at the Garden against the Pelicans.

[Video] Knicks Orange & Blue Scrimmage Recap

Shumpert_Scrimmage

Earlier this week, the Knicks held a special “Orange & Blue” Scrimmage for fans up in NYC. The below video recap includes comments from Melo, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tyson Chandler. Peep the ending jam session courtesy of Melo, Hardaway Jr. and Shump.

[Video] Preason, Game 1 – Knicks 103, Celtics 102: Shump the Sharpshooter, Hardaway Jr.’s Game Winner

“No exhibition games!” – Iman Shumpert

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Aside from a frustrating fourth quarter collapse, there was a lot to like about the new and improved New York Knicks, who kicked off their preseason with a go-ahead corner jumper from Tim Hardaway Jr. to hold off the Celtics 103-102.

Melo took it easy tonight (7 points on 3-8 shooting), but did show some nify two-man game moves with Andrea Bargnani. The latter’s outside shot wasn’t falling (0-3 from downtown), but he did a decent job of getting to the line and keeping the floor spaced.

The offensive star of the game was Iman Shumpert, who was a scorching 7-7 from the floor (3-3 from behind the arc). There was no holding back — Shump was full speed ahead the entire game. If his shooting remains consistent, Coach Woodson would be hard-pressed to keep him out of the starting lineup.

Metta World Peace was a solid contributor last night as well, chipping in 13 points and 4 rebounds. He was one of five Knicks in double figures, including Raymond Felton (11), Hardaway Jr. (16), Shumpert (18) and Bargnani (12).

With the lead up to 23 points with a little over eight minutes remaining, the Knicks bench was emptied and the Celtics went on a run. They briefly took the lead behind Chris Babb scoring 12 points in the quarter.

Thankfully, Hardaway Jr. was also on fire, dropping 10 points in the final stanza. His jumper in the closing seconds put away Boston for good, and shows the Knicks have another capable offensive weapon to help out Melo. Woodson should be giving him as much play as possible to get his confidence strong for the season.

Next up on Friday are the Toronto Raptors.