2012-13 Game Thread: Knicks @ Cavaliers
March 4th, 2013 by Brian Cronin | Comments | Permalink |
After a disappointing loss against the Heat on Sunday, the Knicks have to regroup to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland tonight. Annoyingly, Cavs star point guard Kyrie Irving is back and will start tonight against the Knicks. The Knicks’ backcourt will have their work cut out for them, but I would like to think that the Knicks will take the past success of opposing point guards to heart and really step it up tonight.
This is a relatively big game, just in the sense that you always want to follow up a disheartening loss with a win. The Knicks really need to put a beat down on these Cavs.
Let’s go Knicks!
This would be a great game for Felton to bounce back on. He has been playing decidedly below average for some time now.
Waiters is out tonight.
Oh good!
netw3rk ?@netw3rk
Instead of James White, Woodson should think about starting a clothes-hanger with White’s jersey on it.
Austin Carr: “Once Kyrie lights up Raymond Felton, they will bring in the taller guy Shumpert.” lol wow thats disrespectful
Amar’e first off the bench with the baseline slam!
Two for three from three for Shump! Woohoo!!
austin carr is a hmoervision all-star. i cant take his commentary
They’re may not be a more annoying broadcast team than Cleveland’s.
Anybody else think that maybe Woodson should hire a Defensive Coordinator?
cleveland is the worst. houston is pretty bad too (drexler is awful)
why the f are we f’n double teaming luke f’n walton is the post??? when will this f’n stop??!!!
Defense? We talking about defense?
74% shooting in the 1st quarter for the Cavs.
Just turned it on, how the hell does Speights have that line?
Um er well that was unpleasant. At least Shump hit some jumpers, Amare had a nice cut to the basket and Camby is playing.
They look like they don’t give a shit.
Turns out that most NBA players are athletic enough to take 7 shots in a quarter, and sometimes they even make them!
For a supposedly stats guy you are always ready to take n=1 situations to prove your point.
This is embarrassing.
empty the bench. let some new guys play. this is pathetic
Uh huh.
man, Camby sure looks like a guy that hasn’t played a game in a few months…
breen. this just in. if you give the other team a bunch of dunks, their shooting percentage will be pretty good
So glad Woodson holds the players accountable for their effort defensively….
They’re still shooting something like 12 for 16 outside the paint…
Melo falling over his own foot pretty much sums this one up
This sounds cruel, and i do hope Carmelo’s ok, but it seems he took himself out out of embarrassment…
melo. get real. stop being soft, you are fine. you tripped over your own foot. lebron (who i cant stand) practically tore an acl yesterday and stayed in the game and melo rolls around on the floor
Well, at least finally some signs of life. Hopefully they can cut the deficit as close to single-digits as possible by halftime.
yes, we could come back and win this but bottom line is that good teams dont follow up on tough losses on national tv by giving up dunk after dunk to the cavs. we talk a good game and dont come to play. its our coach’s fault and also our best player’s fault
A couple of pretty feeds for Tyson from JR and Felton.
Stat!
LMAO at Speights trying to cover Amar’e on that spin move.
Melo out remainder of the game with injured right knee. Sigh.
Just when you are about to yell at Amare to pass he pulls off a spin move for a basket and reminds you that he can still be really f’in good.
Knicks have turned it around since ‘Melo went out. Going to have win this one without #7. And now Chandler is getting into a beef with a fan.
Hard to see the upside in this one. Trying to hold on to the optimism.
a random good move once in a while while the other team is torching his defense and our team defense does not = good. amare is the worst contract in the league, no matter how much we sugar coat it and talk about how great his 12 points per game are
Twitter already kinda mocking Melo for being out for the game tonight by falling over himself while LeBron did what he did yesterday.
But it’s what we’ve got, so i’m going to keep cheering for him
Fair enough but Amare was usually guarding Luke Walton not Speights.
(meaning rooting for Amar’e), I’m still not sure of what to make of this whole Melo thing that just went down.
check walton’s assist numbers. he has done what he wants on the court. its not just amare’s defense that is the problem today at all. my point is that amare has always had to make up for his defense with great offense. amare gives us a good move now and then, but thats about it. thats just not getting it done, not that we can do anything about it
One of the beat writers did mention that after yesterday’s game when Melo was asked about injuring his arm during the game he said his knee was bothering him more so this has probably been a lingering issue.
Here comes the Amare 30 point game in a comeback win that starts the “who’s team is it?” meme again. Haha. Why are the Knicks always some kind of embarrassment? For a fucking dozen years this team is a laughingstock. I predict the Knicks will finish with the 5th best record in the conference but still win the division.
and lets be real. i cant stand lebron. but there is such a ifference between melo and lebron defensively, hustle wise, leadership wise, etc. lebron got kicked in his ars and picked it up. melo gets criticized and he has never truly stepped up. yes, he has passed the ball better. but his overall hustle and defense are lacking. if your star doesnt give it his all, what does that tell the rest of the team? the difference between the star player of the contenders and our star is immense
Twitter can go get fucked. If Melo’s hurt, he should sit.
well, if we were up 25 instead of down 25 when this happened, and he was scoring at will, does anyone really think he would have just taken himself out like that? i dont
I feel you, I too wish that Amar’e defended like Igoudala, and that Felton dished like Chris Paul, and that JR shot like Kevin Durant. But you’re right, we can’t really do anything about it at this point, the roster’s pretty much set.
Getting upset at Amar’e being Amar’e, Felton being Felton, and JR being JR is needlessly punishing ourselves. They are who they are, and we can only hope that this team of obviously flawed players somehow manages to make a good run at the playoffs.
Me, I’m gonna celebrate every good move this year. It’s been eons since the knicks gave us something to cheer about.
JR starting the 2nd half along with Amare.
Didn’t know that, hope he’s ok, we need him! (you have to admit it looked pretty suspicious though).
+1
It’ll be interesting to see how Woodson handles Amar’e's minutes- he played 16 in the first half so we’ll see if he’s limited to 14 in the second.
I agree, especially after what we saw Lebron do yesterday. But Im not going to rip an athlete’s pain tolerance (except for Carl Pavano lol) and Melo isnt someone who plays “soft” so whatever as he likes to say it is what it is.
Just hope its nothing long term obviously.
my only thing is that effort can be improved. i know that felton is simply not a good shooter, and i accept that. i feel that amare and melo’s defensive problems are partly due to simple effort. weve seen it from amare for years. jvg called melo out on it on national tv yesterday. thats my only issue
This feels like the gallo , Wilson moz days… Good times.
Hmm, Not seeing a lack of effort on this lineup to start the second quarter, Every guy seems to be owning up to the responsibility of carrying the team. (and JR is being JR)
10-0 run to start the third! Wow!
Only positive with Melo being out is Amar’e possibly being unshackled minutes wise.
Thanks for going away from Irving, Cavs!
Don’t look now, but the Knicks look great right.
Plus we haven’t seen an iso yet…
Cavs have scored ONE POINT all quarter.
I think we’ll pull this one out in the end. The real question is when are we gonna pick up Josh “Murderland” Selby?? He’s been waived. Hook it up, Melo!
Totally! Not super-talented, but scrappy as hell
Nothing worse than when JR brings the ball up the court. Dribbled the ball aimlessly for 20 secs before shooting a fadeaway airball.
OK, three.
Totally! I loved that team. Not super-talented, but scrappy as hell.
If the Knicks come back and win this game, the Melo haters will come climbing out of the woodwork like long dormant termites.
If you don’t bench JR Smith after that possession I’m not sure what he could ever do to deserve a benching.
oh man. now you guys are trying to start trouble on the board!! you cant question the melo trade around here, or you shall suffer public scorn
as i was saying
Here we go.
Also, the Knicks (JR and Amar’e) have isolated plenty since Melo was out.
Every time Chandler lands awkwardly on a failed alleyoop attempt I hold my breath.
i agree, but you have to remeber that, a) jr is playing hard at least, and b) who the hell do you bring in?? flight white?
What I love best about this run is that they eventually did start going to Irving and it made no difference! Woohoo!
Shit, I hope I haven’t jinxed them with the Irving thing.
Is it possible to like that team AND to like Melo? As the joke goes, i root for the laundry. You could bring Kris Humphries to the knicks and I’d talk myself into liking him. (But please, don’t bring that bum here).
You were saying?? lol
Prigs sighting.
Yeah I never question JR’s effort, but he is such an airhead.
Novak is terrible and hasn’t positively contributed in a long time. No idea why he’s still getting so much burn.
Offense not the same without stat…
Put STAT back in! Offense is grinding to a halt.
See, now this is the kind of post I like to read.
Awful lineup that ended the 3rd starts the 4th. Ugh.
Gettin’ Priggy with it
yeah, I have a hard time seeing how we’re going to score with this line up, Pablo already took his shot for the game.
Ha! Yeah, I might have stepped into that one. :)
Man, I am still pissed that Livingston didn’t make it through waivers.
If they can tie the game with this lineup they’ll win easily when STAT comes back.
There you go Novak! The lead, at last.
I prefer to think of them as eclectic.
Novak is totally useless. I have no idea why he’s out there.
Problem with this game is down the stretch the Cavs will have the best player on the floor
Novak has been huge this quarter.
But we just might have the better team
Felton to Amar’e for the jam, so nice to watch.
Novak has big games against shitty teams, so good idea to have him out there
There have been many times this season I would agree with you BUT he’s 4/7 from three tonight.
It’s almost like my post was sarcastic.
Speaking of funny, Amare running out of the way of Irving was hilarious.
or the less-incompetent team
Six Flags Ray Felton Great Adventure. jesus christ.
When Kyrie entered the paint, Amare instead of picking him up, runs to the opposite side hehe.
We need to request an Oop-atorium from Felton.
So, Amar’e had his man almost pinned underneath the rim and JR ignores him and drives for a crazy layup that misses.
Guys, getting the ball to JR with 5 seconds on the shot clock is not good offense.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP GIVING IT TO JR FOR AN ISO
I think he only passes to Novak. It’s a rule or something
STAT getting big!!!!
Great persistence by Stat, even better celebration by Novak
Stat comes up HUGE in the post!!
Cant believe they didnt call an immediate timeout to get Stat back in the game after Irving’s layup.
Wow. Stay has been great tonight
Foul or play it out?
Cavs are out of timeouts, foul them immediately and dont let them shoot a 3pter.
Thank You Chandler.
Tyson smash
Tyson channels OLAJUWON
Roller-coaster night but in the end great freaking win.
Great win.
Tyson owed us that awesome stop for all the chip shots he missed in the first half.
Terrible decision by Irving. Wow, what a great win! Jason Kidd is nuts with the little stuff (like tapping that ball back in bounds).
Knicks had no starter with double digit points.
Nice win.
While I loved the play, I dunno if that was so much a great play by Chandler so much as it was a dumb play by Irving. Who tries to shoot a three over a center? Besides John Starks, of course. ;)
Great team win… Minus jr who was horrible.
Seemed as if they all , especially stat, stepped it up after melo got hurt. I know ruru will attack me but it really felt for me like the pre melo team and I really enjoyed it.
Wasn’t he even inside the 3 pt line at that point? Don’t know what he was thinking with that shot.
Kidd finding his 3pt stroke again looms pretty large if it is a permanent thing.
He might have been. I think he was trying to draw the foul from behind the three-point line but wow, it was just idiotic.
But yeah, that doesn’t take away from the great win. It was definitely a great one, with Melo missing the second half. STAT really stepped up.
Melo going out finally forcing Woodson to start a half with his five best guys, Amar’e had better stay in the starting lineup whether or not Melo plays in Detroit.
nice win on the road, would have been easy to give up when Melo went out down 22 in the midst of four games in five nights. on to Detroit…
I want Melo to be as healthy as possible, but in way, I think him missing most of this game might be a big moment this season. Amar’e putting the team on his back for the comeback win is huge–I think Woodson needs to fall back in love with Stat a little bit and games like this can only help.
also Kidd seems to have decidedly more energy coming off the bench, he needs to stay there.
and JR needs a shock collar for shot selection, is that allowed? :)
agreed. and no, ruru will not like that. but obviously, winning with that team is not sustainable, but maybe melo realizes that he is a great player, but also may have been part of the problem
I don’t nessesarily feel like this team has a better chance to sustain success…. Just more enjoyable to watch and root for.
Actually, when melo is the guy finding Amare , diving for balls , throwing oops to Chandler, it’s amazing to watch… Just wish they get stat more involved and promote ball movement.
JR played pretty well in the second and third and was a big reason why the Knicks got back into the game. If the Knicks hadn’t got that late offensive rebound do you think Woodson might have had to answer a few questions as to why he didn’t call a timeout to get Amar’e back into the game on that late possession? I know they only had one left but that’s the biggest possession of the game. I’m not sure I’d have subbed for him in the first place- you’re up four at that point and a stop or a score next time down pretty much seals the game- at this point I’d say Amar’e making a play on offense is more likely than Shumpert making a play on defense.
Definitely.
STAT was an absolute beast tonight and I am very happy Novak made me eat my own words for at least one night. I really think it’s time to start Amar’e and move Melo back to the 3.
Safe to say that Woodson wll never ever put out Prig, Kidd, Camby, JR and Chandler out on the floor as a unit again. I mean… I was just dumbfounded by that lineup.
And I don’t know what it was, but Novak had extended minutes and save for maybe two plays, was not exploited like a third world child laborer. Not sure if it was him playing better defense, the rest of the team providing better help, or the Cavs just being dumb offensively, but it was really refreshing. Extra brownie points for Novak’s catch, dribble step to draw the foul off of Walton. That was beautifully timed.
That JR was 1/7 didn’t help matters but it didn’t submarine us either. But the rest of the team shooting 11/23 from the 3 pt line saved this game.
Shumpie with his first promising stretch of offense was nice to see also, and he had an end of quarter possession clearout cover on Irving that reminded me of last year, forcing him into a long shot and right in his grill as he took it. they really need to keep getting him 25 minutes if at all possible, maybe take a few of JR’s.
it was time a few weeks ago, hopefully this will finally force him into it. I think playing all that 4 has been wearing Melo down some too, besides the consistently very high minutes.
Also, you see how much less of a liability Amar’e is when he’s at the four. Yes, he left Irving in the lane on that late pnr but that would have been an easy dunk for the roller if he hadn’t as there was nobody on that side of the lane to rotate over. Of course, counting on Novak who was two steps outside the lane to rotate over and challenge Irving’s shot probably wasn’t the best decision either- better to make Irving make a pass in traffic but it wasn’t quite as egregious as it looked.
And it’s going to to be interesting to see if Martin can grab Camby’s minutes- obviously tough to judge too harshly in his first game back but he didn’t look good at all.
Wow – look what happens when you move the ball.
I have a feeling Woodson going back to camby starting , pending health… Actually remember that lineup being effective but don’t have the numbers to back it up.
Melo saying after the game his knee had been bothering him for a couple of weeks and had an MRI on it recently which came back clean.
Think it might be time to sit him for a week or two (or more if necessary) and make sure he is healthy come April.
JR’s bad 3pt shooting is annoying but doesnt bother me since most of them have been great looks and he had been shooting great from there for the past month. Its the AWFUL possessions that sees him dribble forever then take a horrible looking layup or mid-range jumper that is infuriating.
Felton really needs to stop acting like the refs are assaulting his family everytime a whistle goes against him. And what the hell was that sequence towards the end of the fourth quarter where Felton turned it over horrifically on two consecutive possessions including one on a fast break.
amen. shump i till not playing very good offense for the most part, but to deny that his defense is crucial is just wilful blindness. he needs his minutes
Milwaukee starting guards (Ellis/Jennings) outscored Utah’s (Watson/Foye) by an almost impossible 54-0 tonight. if it had been 52-0, they might not have won, Ellis made the last shot in a 109-108 OT win.
I absolutely agree with this.
It’s pretty obvious, like most teams with a dominant offensive player, kind of hang back at times and take possessions off.
When your best offensive player is out, everyone else has to be fully engaged.
Denver was a less than .500 team without Melo, but typically the first 2-3 games without him they would play with a lot of energy.
Guys need to be more assertive around Melo, and this is exactly the kind of game a team needs to become more balanced, more confident in other offensive situations, and creating those.
That was a hell of a game. Bucks guards eviscerating their counterparts for the entire game and the Jazz destroying the Bucks on the glass. Larry Sanders is one of my favorite players in the NBA to watch.
The Knicks have the third ranked offense and are six points better with Melo on the floor per 48 minutes.
Maybe you should post when the Knicks win and Melo plays, we can talk about your “observations.”
I love larry sanders also…
Larry SANDERS! (c. Zach Lowe)
I still have no idea how the Bucks haven’t gotten Jeffrey Tambor to record some Larry Sanders lines to play over the PA after he makes a big play. “and now, because he leads the league in blocks, Larrrrrry SANDERS!”. get on this, people!!
Recap’s up. Everyone’s invited except Jon Abbey.
that’s ok, Robert Silverman seems to be erasing my presence here retroactively.
That’s fucked up.
Genocide is fucked up. At most this is passive aggressive tweeking, which I’ll fully admit to.
Besides, anyone who admits to / takes pride in being a “smug asshole” should appreciate type and not be offended, right?
heh, I can most certainly handle it, yes.