Best line of the year.

jon abbey:
I swe

Boston’s backups are a lot better than Prigioni, who really seems exposed against better teams. and it’s not just Felton, Shumpert is going to be huge for this team if he regains his athletic form of last season.

and it’s funny that people are calling for more Melo at PF, when so many of his issues in this game came when he was trying to defend Garnett.

I agree on Shumpert, but he hasn’t played so far in this season and we have beaten Miami twice, so I don’t think his absence is an excuse to lose to the Celtics.

the problem in this game wasn’t Melo guarding Garnett, KG was good but nothing more, it was a performance that was to be expected by him.

the problem was that Carmelo was force to take bad shots because of the stagnant offense, and yes, I agree Prigioni and Kidd have a lot to do with that, because they provided no dribble penetration at all.

but the issue I still have with this team is: Felton supposedly gives us the dribble penetration needed to make the offense more fluid, but good teams will gameplan to force him into long two’s all the time, and he has shown already that he will take those shots (and miss A LOT of them).

my point is: unless we get a better PG somehow, this team offensive shortcomings (and defensive too, because defense at the PG position has been a disaster so far) will keep the Knicks from winning it all.

The Honorable Cock Jowles: But… but… defense! I remember a fall-away Jeff Green jumper from like, 19 feet. I thought to myself, “Jesus, I am so glad there are only two players on the Knicks who will actually take that shot, and neither of them are named Jeff Green” and then it went in.

I saw an interesting stat today. Over the last two years, ~1% of Michael Beasley’s shots are dunks. ONE PERCENT! He’s 6’10? and “athletic!”

The Celts do lead the league in long (16-23) 2 percentage and are top 5 in attempts from there, but like ol’ Shane Battier says, you can live with those shots.

Re: Beasley – yeah that guy is terrible.

Frank: We lost because Melo lost his mind and took some bad shots, but mostly because the Celtics took and made shots we want them to take.

They took 22 shots from 10-23 feet, and made 14 of them (63.6%).
For the season they average 13.3 for 30.3 from that range (43.9%).If they shoot even 50% from that range (which would lead the league if kept up), we win this game.

we kept them basically to their average # of shots at the rim and from 3 point range.They just hit shots we want them to take.

But… but… defense! I remember a fall-away Jeff Green jumper from like, 19 feet. I thought to myself, “Jesus, I am so glad there are only two players on the Knicks who will actually take that shot, and neither of them are named Jeff Green” and then it went in.

I saw an interesting stat today. Over the last two years, ~1% of Michael Beasley’s shots are dunks. ONE PERCENT! He’s 6’10″ and “athletic!”

d-mar: I agree that our defense has fallen off lately, but I don’t think last night it was all that bad. I was there and watching rotations and closeouts closely, and there weren’t too many instances of just leaving guys wide open or letting guys go untouched to the basket. The C’s just executed well, Garnett carried them early, Pierce carried them late and Bradley seemed like he made every shot he took.

We lost because Melo lost his mind and took some bad shots, but mostly because the Celtics took and made shots we want them to take.

They took 22 shots from 10-23 feet, and made 14 of them (63.6%).
For the season they average 13.3 for 30.3 from that range (43.9%). If they shoot even 50% from that range (which would lead the league if kept up), we win this game.

we kept them basically to their average # of shots at the rim and from 3 point range. They just hit shots we want them to take.

Matt Smith:
I also think a lot of people posting tend to overrate someone’s defensive prowess because they look at their 1on1 intensity, whereas they don’t appreciate how important help defense is against a competent NBA offense.
STAT has a long way to go to being a competent defender. I think people saw his intensity improve (he’s not as much of a matador anymore, which is awesome), and now they think that he’s a decent defender. His lapses on rotations aren’t always obvious, but they’re a good reason for why you saw so many Boston open jumpers.
PS – Sometimes lack of help defense awareness is obvious – am I the only one who saw that wide-open (like, by 10 feet) Jeff Green jumper in the 4th, while STAT stood befuddled under the rim?

I don’t necessarily disagree but the Knicks play two guards- Kidd and JR- who’d much rather help than guard their own man, one of whom (the old one) doesn’t have the foot speed to make up for bad gambles. Melo at the four has been very good (much better than Amar’e) at rotating out on shooters but he’s just not a guy who can challenge shots when he has to rotate on the interior. Novak’s rotations are every bit as slow as Amar’e's and when he has to rotate inside, forget it. This team has a lot of defensive flaws and I’m not sure that Amar’e's are that much worse than everyone else’s. You mention the poor rotation on Green but what about the play where Kidd and Melo just stared at Pierce (who had Chandler on him) and let Lee slip behind them for an easy lay up- that’s a lot worse than giving up a jumper to Green. What killed the Knicks last night was giving up the Chandler/Melo switch on KG and Pierce even after it burned them time and time again.

thenamestsam:
I think people are getting a little too caught up in the specifics of last night. The big issue to me is still the defense. To give up 100 points to that team on our homecourt with no Rondo AND Pierce in foul trouble for a lot of the game is troubling. Yes, to have a chance at a championship we’re going to need to play with more composure under pressure than we showed last night, but the defense has to get straightened out or I really don’t think that will ever have a chance to come into play.

We’re now, what, 5-6 in the last 11 and it’s not like it has been a brutal schedule stretch or anything. This team just isn’t playing great right now, and while injuries are definitely part of that it does seem like the effort on the defensive end has really fallen off.

I agree that our defense has fallen off lately, but I don’t think last night it was all that bad. I was there and watching rotations and closeouts closely, and there weren’t too many instances of just leaving guys wide open or letting guys go untouched to the basket. The C’s just executed well, Garnett carried them early, Pierce carried them late and Bradley seemed like he made every shot he took.

Melo’s misses were no more contested than Pierce’s makes, his just weren’t falling, that’s the way it goes sometimes.

We’re now, what, 5-6 in the last 11 and it’s not like it has been a brutal schedule stretch or anything. This team just isn’t playing great right now, and while injuries are definitely part of that it does seem like the effort on the defensive end has really fallen off.

1. Carmelo’s very poor performance
2. Novak’s inability to guard anybody effectively
3. Avery Bradley’s extremely effective and disruptive defense.

If Bradley keeps this up he should be considered for Defensive Player of the Year. Also Tom Hensohn on the Boston call just gets more pathetic and embarrassing every year. Why do the Boston fans put up with this? I feel sorry for his play-by-play guy who is professional and deserves better.

Matt Smith:
STAT has a long way to go to being a competent defender.

Just my 2c. I love STAT, and love how tuned in he is (especially his positive attitude – he didn’t bat an eyelash when Woody took him out for Brewer in the waning minutes), but he’s got a lot to learn.

PS – Sometimes lack of help defense awareness is obvious – am I the only one who saw that wide-open (like, by 10 feet) Jeff Green jumper in the 4th, while STAT stood befuddled under the rim?