Author Archives: Andrew Smith
When: 7:30 PM
Where: Garden
Channel: MSG (Or Time Warner customers search Twitter for free streaming links)
Suns (4-9)
PG: Steve Nash
SG: Jared Dudley
SF: Grant Hill
PF: Channing Frye
C: Marcin Gortat
Bench: Markieff Morris, Shannon Brown, Ronnie Price, Hakim Warrick, Michael Redd, Robin Lopez
Knicks (6-7)
PG: Iman Shumpert
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Toney Douglas, Jorts, Bill Walker, Mike Bibby
I know we are often criticized in the comments section for being too apologetic for D’Antoni. Personally, I think it’s too easy of a copout to simply place the blame or give the credit to the head coach of professional athletes. However, one consistent criticism of D’Antoni on the site is his inability to adjust to mismatches or foul trouble situations.
Tonight’s matchup provides a perfect example. The Suns have Channing Frye and Markieff Morris split minutes at the “stretch 4″ a position that Amar’e has had trouble defending (see Ryan Anderson). Now, the majority of the Suns half-court sets begin with a Nash/Gortat pick-and-roll with Dudley and Frye/Morris ready to catch and shoot from the opposite side. This brings Amar’e away from the basket where he appears to be uncomfortable defensively. So, you assume Frye and Morris should continue the trend of shooting bigs who kill the Knicks. The hope is that Shumpert and Chandler’s length can neutralize Nash, possibly the best pick-and-roll guard in the league.
On the flip side though, Morris and Frye are both weak interior defenders. So, ideally you’d like the Knicks to exploit this by feeding Amar’e at the high post to attack the rim while simultaneously keeping Chandler in space so that Gortat isn’t in a good help position. However, all season long, it seems the Knicks either betray a gameplan early on in the game, or simply allow for the offense to find continuity through ball movement.
Simply, let’s hope the Amar’e we all know and love is given an opportunity to flourish in the mismatch he can exploit on the offensive end. You know, coming off a very frustrating game on Monday afternoon, he’s chomping at the bit to take over against his old team.
Apologies for the late recap, although there obviously isn’t any good news to report. You just have to hope two things: 1) Melo is OK long-term and at worst misses a couple of games (I won’t get into the beating he has to take in order to get a foul call) 2) You hope the Knicks don’t get used to the bad habits that you saw last night (lack of ball movement (ahem Iman), and first-quarter malaise).
If there was an encouraging thing, it’s that you hope D’Antoni trusts Balkman and especially to me Novak, with just a handful of minutes a night. I think both can be productive in their own way in small doses.
Another tough road game awaits Saturday night in Oklahoma City. As of now, Melo is questionable.
When: 8:00 PM
Where: FedEx Arena
Channel: TNT (Marv, Reggie, Fratello)
Knicks (6-4)
PG: Iman Shumpert
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Jorts, Douglas, Walker (Anyone else? Bibby? Balkman? Novak?)
Grizzlies (3-6)
PG: Mike Conley
SG: Tony Allen
SF: Rudy Gay
C: Marc Gasol
BENCH: Dante Cunningham, O.J. Mayo, Quincy Pondexter, Jeremy Pargo
The Knicks look to ride the momentum of a 4-game winning streak spurred by their DEFENSE of all things. While Memphis is coming in on a 3-game losing streak since the loss of Zach Randolph.
There has been some criticism, unfair IMO, about D’Antoni’s playing time distribution. It’s unfair, because if he trotted out a unit of Douglas, Walker, Novak, Balkman, and Jorts the backseat drivers would be furious. When Jeffries and Davis return, the playing time will be more evenly regulated.
Anyway, the Knicks have an opportunity to play zone tonight against a weak outside-shooting Grizzlies team which should help the legs AND also force Gay and Conley into becoming outside shooters. (See how Clippers beat Miami last night). I’m hopeful that the Knicks mix up their defensive schemes similarly to what they did against the Pistons.
When: 7:30 PM
Where: MSG
Channel: MSG (Or TimeWarner customers search Twitter for free streaming links)
76ers (7-2)
PG: Jrue Holiday
SG: Jodie Meeks
SF: Andre Iguodala
PF: Elton Brand
C: Spencer Hawes (game-time decision) OR Nikola Vucevic
BENCH: Louis Williams, Thaddeus Young, Evan Turner, Tony Battie, Andres Nocioni
Knicks (5-4)
PG: Iman Shumpert
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Josh Harrellson, Mike Bibby, Renaldo Balkman
The Sixers are on the back end of three consecutive nights. Although they were able to rest their starters for the majority of the second half in last night’s blowout win over the Kings. As Tommy stated earlier, a big key to the Sixers’ hot start is simply due to familiarity, they have relied on this core of players for several years and you can see how comfortable they are with each other. Here is a link to a good summary of what the Sixers are doing on the offensive end of the floor.
The Sixers do pose some personnel issues for the Knicks, especially when they play Thaddeus Young at the 4 with Amar’e on the floor, and Andre Iguodala is a tremendous defender who will most likely draw the assignment on Anthony tonight.
However, despite what John Hollinger’s formula tells you, the Sixers are NOT the best team in the NBA, and you hope that tonight’s division rivalry inspires the Knicks to give a full four-quarter effort. We know the importance of ball movement and bench play, but I’d like to see the Knicks establish an identity as a very difficult team to score on in the 4th quarter, a trend we’ve seen in a couple of their wins this season.
Not sure what Fields was doing in transition D on that last possession, but a win is a win, and overall the fourth-quarter defense was very good.
It’s hard to not get excited about the impact Iman Shumpert is having on both ends of the court. It’s only 9 games into his NBA career and I’m sure a rookie wall will come at some point, but he’s been really impressive thus far, to quote Bill Raftery.. “ONIONS!”
You can see the signs that when there is quick ball movement, pick-and-rolls (especially on the wing), and not settling for outside shots, the Knicks can have a great offense – it just needs to come on a more consistent basis, which you hope will come with time.
Positives: Chandler was ridiculous tonight. It’s always good to steal a win when your two stars struggle from the field.
Negatives: Most of us on the site have been huge supporters of Douglas, but he’s really pressing on both ends of the court. To me, he can really be a huge part of this team if he just relaxes and lets the game to him. But, there is definitely reason to be concerned.
The Knicks will be back at it Wednesday at 7:30 to host the Sixers who have had a very impressive start to the season.
When: 7:30 PM
Where: MSG
Channel: MSG (or TimeWarner customers search Twitter for free streaming links)
Bobcats 2-6
PG: D.J. Augustin
SG: Gerald Henderson
SF: Tyrus Thomas
PF: Boris Diaw
C: DeSagana Diop
Bench: Kemba Walker, Matt Carroll, Derrick Brown, Bryan Mullens, Bismack Biyombo, D.J. White
Knicks 4-4
PG: Iman Shumpert
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Bibby, Douglas, Walker, Jorts, Balkman
Hopefully the Knicks keep the momentum going from their last two games as the Bobcats come back to the Garden for the second time in six days. We all know what happened last time. Simply put, the Knicks are a better team and cannot allow the Bobcats to get easy buckets in the first half like last meeting where the Bobcats ended up shooting 56% from the field.
I’m confident the Knicks will come out with a lot more energy and the last two games have shown much better ball movement and cohesion on offense with Douglas playing off the ball (or not playing at all). Two keys to me are 1) Bibby or Douglas playing well, with the lack of depth, it’s pretty clear that if both throw up a dud the Knicks are in trouble and 2) as crazy as it sounds, Bryan Mullens killed the Knicks last week and has been very effective, the Knicks frontcourt needs to limit his impact.
When: 7:30 PM
Where: The Palace
Channel: MSG
Knicks 3-4
PG: Toney Douglas
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Shumpert, Walker, Bibby, Jorts
**CORRECTION 6:15 PM Shumpert will start at PG in place of Douglas*** SHUMP SHUMP
Pistons (2-5)
PG: Brandon Knight
SG: Austin Daye
SF: Tayshaun Prince
PF: Jonas Jerebko
C: Greg Monroe
Bench: Will Bynum, Damien Wilkins, Jason Maxiell, Ben Wallace (Stuckey and Gordon both game-time decisions)
To all the TKB faithful, apologies for the lack of posts today. Tommy Dee is a father! Jackson Thomas Dee was born this afternoon at approximately 2:15 PM. Today’s been a great day which means the Knicks will play well and win., and more importantly the Knicks may have found their point guard. That’s our preview… Congrats to TD!
When: 7:00 PM
Where: Verizon Center
Channel: MSG (or Time Warner customers – search Twitter for free streaming links)
Knicks (2-4)
PG: Toney Douglas
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Shumpert, Bibby, Novak, Walker, Jorts
Wizards (0-6)
PG: John Wall
SG: Nick Young
SF: Rashard Lewis
PF: Andray Blatche
C: Javale McGee
Bench: Trevor Booker, Chris Singleton, Jordan Crawford, Roger Mason, Kevin Seraphin, Jan Vesely
Well, it’s hard to say the 7th game of the year is a must-win, but this is as close as you come to one. The winless Wizards are an awful shooting team with no offensive chemistry and a lackluster defense. Mo Evans called a players-only meeting after their last blowout loss to address the selfishness issues on the offensive end. Dwight Howard went for 28 and 20 on Javale McGee in the Wiz’ last game, so I think a key is establishing Amar’e in the first quarter to exploit their lack of strength and try to get McGee and Blatche in foul trouble early.
On the defensive end, the Knicks have to have better on-ball defense as Young, Wall, and Crawford do have the capability of scoring in spurts. Hopefully, yesterday’s practice addressed some of the communication and switching lapses the Knicks have suffered from. As we said on TKB.tv today, the Knicks need to come out with an incredible amount of energy, and if they don’t, you have to wonder what’s going on in the locker room.
When: 7:30 PM
Where: MSG
Channel: MSG (or Time Warner customers search twitter for free streaming links)
Knicks (2-3)
PG: Toney Douglas
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e (Game-time decision) or Jorts
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Bibby, Walker, Novak, Jordan, Shumpert (Game-time decision)
Bobcats (1-4)
PG: D.J. Augustin
SG: Gerald Henderson
SF: Corey Maggette
PF: D.J. White
C: Boris Diaw
Bench: Biyombo, B.J. Mullens, Kemba Walker, Derrick Brown, Matt Carroll
Hopefully, the addition of Amar’e (even not at 100%) convinces the Knicks to not settle for outside shots and take advantage of a weak Bobcats interior defense. To me, the lack of movement off the ball is causing the large number of outside shots. Let’s hope we see some chemistry start to form tonight rather than just hoping we score off isolation plays.
The Bobcats are coming off their third consecutive blowout loss and are riding a 4-game losing streak after an opening night victory. The Cats will most likely be missing Tyrus Thomas again, which obviously plays in the Knicks’ favor.
The keys to tonight’s game are 1)establishing an early lead with transition points and points in the paint against an undersized team on the tail of a back-to-back 2) neutralizing Diaw who facilitates the offense as a stretch 4/5 allowing Augustin to play off the ball.
When: 10:30 PM EST
Where: Oracle Arena
Channel: MSG/NBA TV
KNICKS 1-0
PG: Toney Douglas
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Bibby, Lin, Walker, Balkman, Jorts, Novak
Warriors 1-1
PG: Monta Ellis
SG: Brandon Rush
SF: Dorell Wright
PF: David Lee
C: Andris Biedrins
Bench: Kwame Brown, Ekpe Udoh, Klay Thompson, Ish Smith, Charles Jenkins
The Knicks are catching another break with Stephen Curry apparently out, although there are some reports that he’s a game-time decision. Don’t be surprised to see Ellis take 25-30 shots with Curry out. Warriors have a very hard time protecting the rim, so look for the Knicks to attack the paint early. Would love to see Lin get some minutes tonight in his hometown, especially if Douglas struggles establishing a flow on offense.
← Older postsNewer posts →Knicks Highlights
-
