Category Archives: Text
When: 8:00
Where: TD Center
Network: ESPN
Knicks (8-14)
PG: Iman Shumpert
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Douglas, Walker, Jeffries, (hopefully D’Antoni makes adjustments here)
Celtics (11-10)
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Kevin Garnett
Bench: Brandon Bass, Mikael Pietrus, Chris Wilcox, Avery Bradley
As we said on TKB.TV today, Christmas afternoon’s hard-fought win over the Celtics feels like five years ago. Assuredly the Knicks will utilize same defensive gameplan of forcing Rondo to shoot and collapsing into the paint, however, Paul Pierce is in much better playing shape compared to December, and is playing phenomenally over the last couple weeks.
Bottom line, the Celtics make shots (42% from 3 as a team) and always play great fourth quarters, led by Doc’s out of timeout plays, on the flip side, the Knicks have been horrible from outside (31% from 3 as a team). You want to focus on the positives from last night, but if the Knicks don’t get good minutes from their bench on a back-to-back, winning on the road in Boston is a tall order.
Despite coming into the Garden 0-8 on the road recently, the Bucks were oddly confident. They had watched a tape of the Knicks’ home setback to the Suns and were happy to see them employing the same defensive principles assistant Mike Woodson used as head coach of the Hawks.
“They switch on just about every play, and it creates a lot of favorable mismatches for opponents,” a member of the Bucks disclosed before his team broke the schneid with a 100-86 win Jan. 20. “Check out how many times Tyson Chandler wound up having to guard Steve Nash.”
This is not to point the finger at Woodson because we’ve been seeing this from D’Antoni for years. But Woodson is the defensive coordinator. He’s getting paid to run the defense one would think. Unless that whole concept is a lie and Woodson was hired to be a place holder should the Knicks end up removing D’Antoni from the top spot.
This is the NBA; moral victories shouldn’t have any place in the Association…although I think this game might be an exception. This team (and everyone who follows it) is searching for answers and wondering if this group of players/coaches has the answers. I think last night showed that STAT can be effective within the offense (34pts on 16-27 FGs, 11rebs). Melo missed shots he normally makes, but still brought energy and tried to get his teammates involved. Fields can be a threat for this team and help provide Melo an outlet when doubled. They didn’t play their best game, but they had a shot at the end. Even in a loss, this team made progress last night; if they can become consistent in their effort and execution for 48 minutes, they can be really good.
Knicks starting five matches up well, but…their second unit sure doesn’t. I said it in my last post, and I have to say it again, the ineptitude of the second unit really hurts this team (Bulls’ bench 25pts – Knicks bench 6pts). TD’s play is just painful to watch (6pts on 2-7FGs, 3TOS, 15min). I know I’m stating the obvious, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t. Defensively, he struggled with Watson in the P&R game (more on this later). He ran into the ball screen twice, allowing open jumpers. For the quarter Watson had 10points. As the PG of the second unit, his role has to be to get STAT the rock. Stoudemire had 9pts in the first quarter; he was playing aggressively and very effectively in the P&R game. So naturally TD should have come in looking to get him off screens and get him the ball. Unfortunately, that was not the case. He came in the game, took 4 shots, and had 2 TOs to start the quarter. That just cannot happen. I really do think it’s time to see Jeremy Lin inserted into the second line up. I don’t see how his play would be any more detrimental. TD continues to have problems when he forces the issue. I don’t see Lin having that problem. I think he’ll come in, play his role, look to facilitate, and try to make hustle/toughness plays. The only way to know is to give the kid a shot…I think it’s time.
Beyond TD, the rest of the second unit and entire second quarter was atrocious. In the first 6 minutes, there were 6 TOs by the second unit. Nobody played well, not even the starters when they came back in with just more than five minutes to go. For the quarter, the Knicks had 11TOs leading to 10pts. When trying to beat an elite team, you can’t have quarters like this. They need to find some answers off the bench so the starters can get some rest and the product on the court doesn’t drop off the table.
The real problem was handling the ball screen. Rose is deadly, we all know that. Coming off screens, if he gets into the lane, he is scoring or someone else is getting a good shot. My gameplan as coach would be to have the guard go under the screen, which usually allows the defender to stay in front of the PG. Although the downfall here is that you will give up some open jumpers behind the screen. With Rose, I’d much rather have him shoot jumpers than get into the lane. That would be how I would play it first and foremost, and adjust if he gets hot from the outside, but that is not what the Knicks did.
In the first half, the Knicks guarded the pick and roll two different ways. One method was for the guard to go over the screen and the big man to help/hedge out. This was totally ineffective. First off, the guards (Shump or TD) have to get over the screen with more urgency. They consistently ran into the screen and were late getting over the top. The big man has to hedge out and make Rose at least slow down or ideally retreat dribble. The hedging by the big men was late and not aggressive enough to affect Rose. He was able to turn the corner consistently. The other method was to switch. They have done this a lot all year, with little success. That theme continued last night. When the Knicks switched, the mismatch was a problem. Rose was able to beat them to the basket or create easy pull ups. Their struggles with the P&R is what allowed the Bulls to have 28 points in the paint in the first half without any real post scoring threat.
In the second half, they made adjustments to how they were guarding the P&R with Rose. They started to go under the ball screens. This helped to keep Rose in front of them. There were still times where the guards got caught up on the screens, which just can’t happen when you are going under and Rose made them pay for that. Late in the game, they started doubling the ball screen to get the ball out of Rose’s hands. I really liked this call. They could not shut him down so they tried to make someone else beat them. The Knicks execution of the doubling strategy left something to be desired. When you double the ball, the next closest defender needs to step on the closest offensive player quickly. That did not happen. The Bulls players, particularly Jimmy Butler, stepped up and made some big plays down the stretch. The change in handling the ball screen helped their defense, allowing only 10 pts in the paint in the second half…the Bulls still shot 52% for the game. To beat this Bulls team, you have to make them take contested jump shots. The sense of urgency has to be there from the tip by all 5 men on defense to stop a guard like Rose in a P&R situation. That was not the case, and that was the difference in the game last night.
And they still had a shot at the end. They did not play their best game on offense or defense, and they were still in it at the end. STAT finally broke out and had a great game. The Bulls struggled with the Knicks P&R almost as much as the Knicks struggled with the Bulls. STAT was great rolling to the basket and his teammates, particularly Melo, did a great job looking for him. He showed the explosiveness we know he has blowing by Boozer multiple times from the elbow and wing. As a team, I thought they ran good offense with two exceptions. In the mid to late second quarter, they were very stagnant and sloppy (as evidenced by the 11TOs). Also, in crunch time they struggled. From the four minute mark to the two minute mark of the fourth quarter, they had four bad possessions (but because of fortuitous bounces, two of those possessions resulted in FGs).
They were down three points with 13.7 seconds left. I was not crazy about STAT taking the final shot down three, but my problem was more so with the execution of the play designed. The play called is a play a lot of coaches utilize late in games with a side OB. The play starts with two guys on the FT line and the designated shooter in the middle of the lane. Then the shooter then runs between your two men on the FT line. As the shooter clears, they close the gap with a double screen. Melo didn’t hold his screen long enough, which allowed Noah to get through and contest STAT. He’s not a great shooter (5-14 on the year), but you want to give him the best opportunity possible so Melo needs to hold that screen. I think Melo was quick to move because he was the second option on the play. The man closer to the ball on that play will usually come off a flare screen from the other screener (a screen the screener type look). If the initial shooter is not open, there will be another player flaring out to the wing. You can see Melo leave his screen early to sprint out to the wing for the reversal. The problem is they had enough time for him to set a solid screen and then get out wide.
All that said, I would have liked to see Melo coming off the initial double screen. He’s the go to guy; he needs to have the ball at the end. The point remains they did not execute well enough on that final play or on defense throughout the game to win. To beat a championship level team, you have to be consistent for 48 minutes. This team is not there yet, but the progress made tonight can be somewhat encouraging given the struggles they’ve had this year.
Dalen Cuff is a basketball analyst for Columbia University and MSG Varsity and will be breaking down X’s and O’s for theknicksblog.com all season. Follow him on twitter here.
When: 8:00 PM
Where: Garden
Channel: TNT
Bulls (18-6)
PG: Derrick Rose
SG: Ronnie Brewer
SF: Kyle Korver
PF: Carlos Boozer
C: Joakim Noah
Bench: C.J. Watson, Taj Gibson, Omer Asik, Brian Scalabrine
Knicks (8-13)
PG: Iman Shumpert
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Bench: Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Jared Jeffries, (maybe Lin or Novak tonight)
TKB’s got a good feeling about tonight’s game. The Bulls are coming off a loss to the Sixers which Rose got to rest much of the fourth quarter for tonight’s game. But, without Deng and Hamilton the Bulls lose a lot of depth and don’t have much firepower aside from Rose, and Korver if left open.
You know, the Chicago native Shumpert will be raring to go against his hometown squad, but if he starts to get crazy look for Bibby or Lin to get minutes to facilitate the offense. The Knicks are coming off a well-played win, have had some days to rest and the Garden should be rocking tonight.
I’d also like to see Novak get some minutes tonight as his defensive shortcomings can be hid guarding Korver.
For those of us watching at home, get ready for some Knick-bashing from Reggie Miller and Weight Watchers Barkley.
Martin is mulling other offers, but the interest on both sides as it relates to Smith has been there for weeks.
Call off the search! We’ve found it!
If you’ve been to MSG this season, you probably saw the Landry Fields confidence “Missing Persons” posters all over the arena. Fields has been searching for this part of his game for most of the season, he may have now just recently found it. The constant preaching of moving the ball from MDA has helped Fields the most as of late. He thrives from an upbeat style of play. When Fields is reacting instead of thinking with the ball, he becomes a vital piece to this teams success.
Without a polished point-guard at the helm, the Knicks need to run the offense through ‘Melo and allow him to make the right decision. Fields is normally the beneficiary of open looks from Anthony’s double teams. His shooting has improved over the last 5 games, he’s averaging 14 points and 44% from beyond the arc. Knocking down that corner three is a lethal weapon for the teams offense. When he hits one or two early on, his confidence sky rockets and he gets back to playing at higher level. Don’t be so quick to forget how much Fields had impacts on the Knicks W’s last season before the ‘Melo trade. He lead all guards in rebounding and continuously kept plays alive. His latest confidence boost should have him back in these categories.
Tonight starts the first of the Knicks only back to back to back this season. Firstly against the Bulls, then against the Celtics. Fields will have his hands full with “Rip” Hamilton then Ray”Jesus Shuttlesworth” Allen, two masters of running through multiple screens to get easy shots. Completely stopping these guys from doing what they’ve done for countless seasons is unrealistic, but Fields making them work on the side of the court is realistic. If Fields continues to play strong, and more importantly confident, then he should off-set the mid to deep range shooting of “Rip” and “Jesus”. Even if his shot does not fall early, I would like to see him attack the rim, rush those free-throw rebounds/tip-dunk attempts, and overall stay involved while on the floor.
Lets see if his confidence continues tonight…
Join Anthony Donahue on The Knicks Blog Radio where he will talk about the Knicks big victory of the Detroit Pistons last night and will be previewing Blue and Orange’s matchup against League MVP Derrick Rose and the Bulls with Doug Thonus of Chicago Bulls Confidential.
Tune in and call in! 646-478-5554
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theknicksblog/2012/02/02/anthony-donahue-talking-new-york-knicks-and-nba
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