2009 Game Thread: NYK @ CHA
December 15th, 2009 by Brian Cronin | Comments | Permalink |
I was going to tell you that the Jonathan Bender era of the New York Knicks begins tonight, but apparently Bender will be de-activated for tonight’s game, as well as Thursday’s game against Chicago. So the Jonathan Bender Experience (with Noel Redding on bass) will likely begin this Friday at the Garden. The Knicks surely knew that I was going to attend that game, so they saved Bender just for me (that game against the Clippers might be Blake Griffin’s debut, as well).
Without the Bender hoopla, we are instead treated to the first of a stetch of four very important games for the New York Knicks. Not only are the four games all against teams under .500, but three of the four, including tonight’s game against the Bobcats of Charllote, are against teams that the Knicks are competing with for a possible playoff appearance.
Currently, in John Hollinger’s Playoff Odds, the Knicks are ranked 9th, with a 57.7% chance of making the playoffs. The Bobcats, on the other hand, are actually ranked 5th, with a 72.5% chance at the playoffs, the highest odds outside the top four teams in the East (who all currently rank at 100% odds).
So let’s hope the Knicks lower the Bobcats’ odds a bit tonight and improve their own at the same time!
Remarkably, the Bobcats’ top assist man, Raymond Felton, actually averages less assists per game than Chris Duhon. Ouch.
Gerald Wallace, though, is averaging over 12 rebounds a game! That’s got to be a fluke, right?
Anyhow, here’s your game thread to talk about the game!
It will be interesting to see if Larry Brown decides to showcase DJ Augustin given the rumor that Walsh is interested in him.
I also expect a big game from Harrington – showing up fellow Protege spokesman Stephen Jackson.
I guess the new rule is you get to travel twice before they call it.
D’Antoni chatting up Diaw before the game.
Think D’Antoni will get benched for tomorrow’s game?
Man, Duhon is hot, nice to see…
Gallo and Jeffries are a surprisingly effective low-post defensive combo.
Man, if Gallo turns out to be a good defender? Holy crap! Imagine Dirk or Peja as a good defender!!!! It’s almost too good to be true!
I personally see Duhon as moderately handsome, but hey, Owen, don’t hold back, man.
we gotta find a way to keep them off the boards..Tyson Chandler looks like the oversized 5th grader against us
My bad, the rule is the Bobcats can travel twice before it’s called. Not the Knicks.
You know who is not a good looking man? Gerald Wallace.
sorry..that comment was late..
It’s amazing how active Wallace is – he seems to be in on every play.
That pass by Gallo was insanely stupid. The Harrington pass was a little more excusable (the problem there was he foolishly put himself into a position where he had to make a bad pass).
lol..I jus scrolled up and read 5 and 7
Wow, Larry Hughes – I like you better when you pass the ball to other people and take open threes (or at least take layups).
Flip Murray’s really gettin PT over Augustine?
HUGHES IS BACK!!
I’m sure Nate would have 8 turnovers by now.
Curry accidentally made the free throws.
Hey, Knicks, maybe look for Gallo a bit?
so is chandler..he hasnt gone to the hole yet!
It’s amazing – the Knicks are playing incredibly sloppy, yet they’re only down six.
more defense like that from Will, and he might just make himself useful lol
“I personally see Duhon as moderately handsome, but hey, Owen, don’t hold back, man.”
That’s funny…
did I really just see what I think I saw?? Did Curry? Naw…I must be dreamin..lol. Nice effort Eddy
D’Antoni needs to send someone in to sweep Wallace’s leg – I’d go with Darko.
It’s almost surely my imagination, but the Knicks sure do seem to fail an inordinate amount of times to get the shot to drop on opportunities for “the hoop and the harm.”
well, lol..they said Bender might “suit” up
Bender sounds a little like Snoop Dogg….
fo shizzle
I wonder if games in which Duhon does well are correlated to games in places without a lot of nightlife.
Beautiful Alley oop from Lee to Chandler, who then throws up an airball, so typical of him…
Wow, the Bobcats are so inept on offense – all the Knicks have to do is not actively suck and they will win this game.
So far, though, they’re leaning towards “actively suck.”
When did Eddy Curry become the best free throw shooter on the team? As a team, the Knicks were 7-13 for the half. 53% is pathetic. That said, I never thought I’d see the day when the Knicks had almost double digits in blocks in a game. Tonight, they almost had it by the half.
I think the Knicks were lucky that Diaw picked up 3 fouls early.
Incredible number of blocked shots, nine so far….
More turnovers though…
On a separate note, I was sooo wrong about Brook Lopez in the 08 draft. He’s got 20 pts, 9 r, 1 blk, 1 a at the half against LBJ and co. The guy is a monster.
Other than Eddy coming in, the team has looked really good. They started forcing the ball ‘at’ him turning, it over and fell apart for a few minutes. D’Antoni won’t play him again this game I bet.
I know that 1 was called above the cylinder, but we have got to keep them off tha boards
Larry Brown wants a time out.
Chris Duhon, leader of the offensive charge. What a canny epithet.
think we can convince LB that he really needs a low post scorer and peddle Curry to Charlotte for Augustine and whatever would make the salaries match?
J. Jeffries is having an awesome night…..5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals, 2 blocks, 6 pts, 0 to’s, +18.
Now 3 assists.
Greatscott – totally agree. If he played like this on a consistent basis, he’d be worth the MLE.
indeed, I am thoroughly impressed
Diaw and Wallace back in the lineup and the lead evaporates.
Duhon looks tired, Hughes is of…this is where you wonder what the value of sticking to a strict rotation is. Why not Douglas or even Nate for 4 minutes?
I don’t see how Augustin would be different from Nate.
Jeffries for three!!!!
so i just get in from my son’s karate class and I see the knicks with 9 blocks and 10 steals.
So I say again, who are these guys???
chadler doesn’t need to take 27 foot jumpers…
much respect goes out to jared jeffries for his performance tonight
Over 40 turnovers combined tonight.
they’re looking like they might blow this…
I see a heartbreaking loss coming
Ironic statement of the evening: the Knicks really miss Jeffries strong D.
5 game winning streak down the drain. :(
Clyde calls the loss of Jeffries fouling out a calamitous loss.
2 mins later I can’t believe I’m agreeing with him, but there it is.
unclear why gallo was not in the game at all in the 4th q.
that Jeffries call killed them, should have been a charge. he was amazing in the third quarter, dominating the game as a perimeter defender is virtually impossible. ah well.
disgusted
I don’t understand how Felton gets to the hole twice in a row. He was reluctant to shoot all night, why can’t we defend him driving to the basket? And really, he’s not that quick.
On the Jeffries call, it’s almost like the ref was thinking ” I can’t let Jeffries draw another charge, he’s over his limit”
the Knicks are back to their normal soppy, no-defense game. David lee will NOT stop anyone driving to the basket. He actually moved his body sideways on a couple of occassions. Pathetic.
Why will D’Antoni keep playing guys that are performing badly, as is the case with Hughes tonight? Why not play Douglas? D’antoni can be stubborn to the point of harming his own team. I guess the 4-win honeymoon is over.
Jeffries committed 2 dumb loose ball fouls in the backcourt earlier. Hard to fault the guy, he was sensational for most of the game.
Gallo needed to show up tonight.
That being said, this loss was pretty predictable.
As great as Jeffries was, Hughes was absolutely horrendous. 6 turnovers, and most of them of the cringe variety.
“the Knicks are back to their normal soppy, no-defense game.”
Really?? They were sloppy, but no-defense???? What game were you watching?? They couldnt shoot tonight plain and simple. Couldnt shoot 3′s or FT’s and they lost because of it. Frankly Im not discouraged at all because the team D continues to get better and better plus it looks like Duhon and Chandler are past their early-season slumps. I do admit tonight wouldve been a good game to give Nate some pt because they needed a spark on offense but they almost pulled it out strictly with their defense tonight.
Irvin -
“Why will D’Antoni keep playing guys that are performing badly”
My question was why D’Antoni would sit Duhon when he obviously had the hot hand tonight.
In my view, pathetic shooting from the line killed the Knicks, as well as the loss of Jeffries down the stretch.
ouch, that hurt, but saw it coming. maybe if we were home, we pull that out, but we did not have enough players playing well tonight to pull this through. i think the refs called a pretty poor game as well at the end. what I don’t understand is why D. Lee didn’t at least foul the guy so he doesn’t lay it in. I understand why he doesn’t do it earlier in the game, but that was bad. real bad.
bigBlueAl wrote:
“Really?? They were sloppy, but no-defense???? What game were you watching?? ”
I was watching the game where the only guy playing REAL defense against a terrible team was Jeffries (For FAKE defense, pay attention to what Lee and Gallo do when guys are driving to the basket).
David Lee, Gallinary, Harrington & Chandler, even Duhon, were NOT paragons of defense tonight. It’s just that their terrible performance today was masked by the worse play of the Bobcats (22 turnovers, poor shooting, no penetration, hesitation when open for shooting, etc.) combined with Jeffries’ spectacular game.
The Knicks are extracting value from Jeffries!
The Knicks are extracting value from Jeffries!
Donnie, please work the phones. If they can unload him, it would be a miracle start to the season.
“But I can’t help but walk away from this game thinking one thing: moral victory. Jeffries’ value is skyrocketing.” – Hahn
Irvin – Gallo and Chandler are just as good at blocking shots as Jeffries (all 3 average just below 1 block per game) and they each had 2 blocks tonight. The Bobcats are no longer a terrible team and actually now have a very good starting 5 (not much of a bench but that does have alot to do with LB going with a short rotation).
These Knicks defensively will never be confused with the Riley/VG Knicks teams but you have to admit they have been playing pretty good D recently and the zone they use is actually very effective. Again they lost tonight because they scored 87 pts and got nothing offensively from Harrington, Gallo and Hughes. Earlier in this season they wouldve lost tonight by 20 but with the way they have been playing D lately they nearly almost won tonight on the road w/o scoring 90 pts.
“Again they lost tonight because they scored 87 pts and got nothing offensively from Harrington, Gallo and Hughes.”
really makes you wonder why Nate or at least Douglas didn’t get a chance.
Jon Abbey wrote:
“really makes you wonder why Nate or at least Douglas didn’t get a chance.”
Not to mention the fact that not playing the rookies this year effectively puts the Knicks in the position of starting the 2010/2011 season from zero.
Everybody praises the “wonderful” (only when compared to the 1-9 start) results of D’Antoni’s 7-man rotation. But this is coming with a very heavy price tag: the current nucleus will not be there for next season and we have to start all over gain. Lee, Hughes, Nate, Harrington and even Jeffries might be gone by next year and then…it’s back to square one with an alienated Darko, a useless Curry and a bunch of rookies who never got the chance to develop their skills.
How come D’Antoni is so quick to bench Gallo and others (Darko, Nate, the rookies) but will stick with Duhon and Hughes for incredibly long periods of strikingly bad play? Isn’t that a recipe for losing the team chemistry and losing the respect of players?
Darko won’t be here next year. His contract expires.
also, we were up by 8 going into the final period, so I think the rotation had been doing decently well. we were even up by 6 with 3 minutes again. i don’t think it was a rotation issue as much as it was we just choked at the end of the game. maybe we could have thrown nate in at the end, but that makes little sense (would have been rusty) and we didn’t need him earlier. i kind of do want to see a little more douglas though.
furthermore, after the knicks package jeffries and nate in a trade, you will begin to see Hill and Douglas. they will get their time and come on later in the season. we still have 58 games to go…
I can’t wait until the Knicks make some kind of trade for a useful pg or wing player with shooting skills. I’d even take an offensively challenged guy who protects the rim. Lee is just a sucker defensively. I mean would it hurt to “attempt” to block a shot. People go at him like he’s a bitch or something. Damn!