I’m sure every Knicks fan is willing to have a little more fun at Brooklyn’s expense. This new “BIG” commercial features what is by far the best Felton-Chandler alley oop this season — it just happened to come last night on Deron Williams and Brook Lopez. Remember your place, little brothers.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp4bqtbe8HE&feature=youtube_gdata_player]
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.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiO0YQkC3Lk&feature=youtube_gdata_player] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8KU7VqKIB4&feature=youtube_gdata_player]
Carmelo Anthony had a great return after a two-game absence from a lacerated finger to drop 34 points, 6 rebounds and two steals on his old Denver Nuggets team to help New York remain the league’s only undefeated home team at 8-0. After a horrid road game in Chicago last Saturday that saw the Knicks shoot 32% (35% from three), New York did much better with Anthony’s offense back in rotation, posting a 43% field goal percentage (12-30 for 40% from downtown). Even so, Denver still played the Knicks hard and held an 88-80 lead at the beginning of a fourth. A timely Mike Woodson timeout lead to two Novak three-pointers and a Chandler dunk to tie the game, and the Knicks would go on to outscore the Nuggets 32-22 for the quarter. Jason Kidd was once again invaluable in the fourth, dishing six assists and keeping the offense balanced with scoring contributions from Smith, Chandler, Melo and Brewer.
The Knicks are back on the “road” tonight when they venture back to Brooklyn for a revenge game against the Nets, who took the first “Battle for NY” on November 26 in overtime.
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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]
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]
Big news came out of NY this morning courtesy of ESPN New York, who’s reporting from close “sources” that Amar’e Stoudemire will have absolutely no problem accepting a bench role if asked by coach Mike Woodson.
“All he cares about right now is helping the team and winning,” said one source, who has been around Stoudemire regularly in recent weeks. “He’d be fine with coming off the bench if that’s what they want.”
“He just wants to win,” the source says. “He sees how well they’re playing and just wants to help. He’ll be fine with whatever they want to do.”
There’s been a strong contingent of Knicks fans that are convinced our frontcourt of Melo, Stat and Chandler cannot work togather, citing spacing issues and the losing record Stat and Melo have together thus far. While that is a fair point, you can easily counter that by stating the majority of that losing record came under Mike D’Antoni. Under Woodson, the pair have a winning record together. So the question becomes does Stat automatically lose his starting job next month? Or do we give this team, who over the last two years has never been at full strength for any significant period of time, a final chance to make it work?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this, but from my perspective the middle ground is the best solution. With his mobility severely hampered by the surgery, throwing Stat right back in the starting lineup when he’s nowhere near game shape would be unwise. One look at the Lakers and Dwight Howard’s struggles to get back on track since his back surgery should be a good indicator of the arduous process ahead. And we saw last year with Amar’e’s back that it took him until after the All-Star break to get any semblance of a rhythm.
Stat should be coming off the bench, at least initially, until he gets back into condition. His offense is less erratic than JR Smith’s (who’s currently our needed but streaky spark for the second unit). With our nice trio f point guards (Kidd, Felton, Prigioni), there’s many different lineup choice the Knicks can go with. Not to mention, the majority of the teams out there would struggle with finding backups able to containing Amar’e. That either forces their starters to come in early, or Stat helps maintain or build leads. And in crunch time, Stat can still be out there as an extra weapon.
Now what happens if Amar’e, using his own favorite word, does “”phenomenally,” ala a James Harden in OKC, off the bench? Do we keep him there or see if he does even better in the starting lineup? If… and it’s a big if, Melo can hold up to the pounding he’s been taking at power foward, then NY probably shouldn’t tinker with what’s working great (and I don’t think Woodson would). However, when we are meeting big frontcourts like Grizzlies, then Stat should be in the starting lineup without question.
One thing’s for sure is that this team needs Stat. Last year, in what was arguably his worst season, the man still averaged 17 points and 8 rebounds. How we handle Amar’e’s comeback will have immense significance on how this season will turn out. Get well soon, Stat…
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.
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.
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.
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