Game Thread: Knicks @ Celtics
January 24th, 2013 by Jim Cavan | @JPCavan | Comments | Permalink |
Breath, everyone.
Beyond his work for KnickerBlogger, Jim is a contributor to the New York Times Off the Dribble NBA blog, ESPN.com, and The Classical. He is currently working on a biography of Robert Silverman, titled "Clownin' and Astoundin.'" Follow him on Twitter @JPCavan.
Bump Shump
Big game right here ! Looking forward to a NYK blow out !
If this game comes down to the last shot and the ball is in Pierce’s hands, I may have to shut off the TV
A great team D effort is needed to keep him from scorching us yet again ! same with Kev, he old but still is nifty and can get his.
Congrats to Chandler for making the All-Star team. First time Knicks have multiple All-Stars since 2001 when Houston and Spree made it. First time since 1994 (Ewing/Oak/Starks) Knicks had multiple All-Stars voted by the coaches since Spree in 2001 was an injury replacement.
i swear. pierce could suck againstvery otherteam for a month and then kill us….its frustrating
Awesome news about Chandler. Congrats to him!
what is kidd doing? he has two turnovers but could have 5 already
Defensive effort appears to be there early. Always a good sign. Missing wide open jumpers tho has me concerned with how poorly we have been shooting it !
How Garnett got voted as a starter over Chandler is baffling.
If JR Smith doesn’t start turning it around and start putting the ball in the basket this team is not gonna be very good. Felton has a sub-.500 TS%, Smith has a sub-.500 TS% and Shumpert will probably be lucky to crack a .500 TS%. That’s just too much crappy shooting, I don’t care how rarely you turn the ball over.
Someone please reinstitute the no layup rule tonight. Rondo should’ve hit the deck on that break.
Knicks playing some zone D as soon as Amar’e entered the game.
Did they just say Garnett brought a bodyguard?
the go as melo does., If hes hot out the shoot then they all catch fire. Whatever it is you are rite JK this shooting needs to return to early season form !
chandler just picked up his 2nd. it always goes back to the stupid first foul. chandler decided to get into it with KG when it was obvious he would get called for a foul. stupid fouls bite you in the ars sometimes
Chandler already with 2 fouls and both were silly off the ball fouls.
i know tht felotn is historically a bad shooter, but im hoping, with healthy paws, he will be a little more efficient than he was showing before he got hurt. and of course, he should get chandler some more very high pct shots
while knocking on wood, i will say that amare has played pretty decent d over the past few minutes. baby steps
When was the last time we saw good JR?
Novak actually looks good and active as the center of the 2/3 zone defense.
lol max. baby steps indeed. ITs an effort thing tho I feel. You kno where ur supposed to be its just if u feel like getting there. And also felton can stroke it as smooth as anyone when he comes out and hits his first one. but the roster as awhole is extreamly streaky which is a huge problem. its not a issue with getting good shots, the shots are decent a lot of the time. sometimes they are just cold and that makes for 70 point games.
Teams beat the Celtics INSIDE. Melo missed a good opportunity there. Shoot jumpers and we will lose. Period.
Melo needs to learn how to do a reverse lay up. He really misses to many shot at the rim
JR is just being asked to handle the ball way too much.
That 2/3 zone didn’t look half bad. It’s one way to minimize the individual defensive shortcomings of Amar’e and Novak and take advantage of their length.
Haven’t seen Melo own a quarter or a half in a while.
I think it was a 1-2-2
Offense is so hestitant
amare circa 08
Amar’e looking real good tonight.
Amar’e with the block and the reverse one-handed stuff!
i think shumps hair just bothered sullinger’s put back attempt!!
Amar’e seems to be back and playing better defense. I like this.
thats the good JR i seem to remember
Less hesitant
JRSMITH!
Welcome back Amare!
or box and 1 I believe
We’re cooking now.
Stat is gassed, but that is what happens when you play real d and really try to rebound. great job by him. he needs to focus on 6 minutes spurts of energy and intensity
Amare 5 pts., 6 rebounds, 2 blocks in 9 minutes. That’s just awesome.
I love Kurt Thomas, but he’s real fucking old.
Keep Amare in the game! WTF! Terrible substitution.
i hate the no melo, no chandler, no stat lineup. its asking way too much of prigs and jr
yeah that was a pretty shitty sequence right there
Somebody needs to call a paleontologist; I think I just saw a Kurt Thomas (Roundballis Oldassis).
he needs a breather, he played hard
Agreed. Woodson is mediocre with rotations at best.
Woodson is playing way too many combinations. Choose something and stick with it. MDA always did the same thing. Hate. Choose a game plan and stick with it.
Melo another missed layup
Melo missed a wide open cutting Shump there.
Our bench looks better then our starters. How sad.
Melo playing like shit
Shump shump!
Marv getting annoyed with the fake crowd noise is hilarious. He’d hate watching the WWE.
What happened to the defense?
stats defense is regressing to the mean (his mean)
Damn. I just hate that Joey Crawford is reffing this game. I F**CKING HATE that dude. Sorry, not super relevant but just airing some frustration, humour me.
Melo mentally getting killed. Bad decisions everywhere.
Shump Shump!
Melo’s pressing way too much. Settle down out there.
Is the defense really to leave Paul Pierce open or are we over rotating? MENTAL MISTAKES
Pierce sbould’ve been leveled on that attempt! What is wrong with these guys???
Too much of Melo and JR taking long, low-percentage jumpers. Those two are a combined 4-19 and most of those 19 FGA were not real good looks.
I guess it’s promising we’re only down one with Melo and JR going 4-19 from the floor.
Melo and JR are 4 for 19. Rest of team 11 for 18.
Two things I HATTTEEE the fact that we waste so much time getting the ball to Anthony. It seems like we force it so much just to get him a touch. ISO joe. Meet Iso Melo.
The other thing. Our defense. Where has thou gone ?
How does JR Smith get beat off dribble by Pierce?
stt looks good, but is there a better matchup in the league for him than sullinger?? this is exactly why he (and all of us) should embrace coming off the bench and battling scrubs
I’m officially sick of watching JR miss shots.
Melo and JR are shooting us out of this one. We really need ball-movement, even if it’s only lateral.
things that make you go hmmmmmm…. JR’s shot selection tonight
JR single handedly losing us the game. Wouldn’t we rather have Prigs out there at this point?
they should run a Chandler/Thomas pick and roll.
JR’s teammates instead of calling him Swish need to start calling him Brick.
This has been an ugly ass first half to watch. Awful shooting from both teams then the refs started calling foul after foul for the last few minutes of the half.
Lol that would make too much sense.
Like how chandler had rondo guarding him and we STILL couldn’t get him the ball for an easy dunk.
It’s a slump. a really bad one. It won’t last forever.
I love that Marv just punked Celtic fans for needing to have noise piped in. Fake bitches.
meh
Well up 2 at the half, I will take it. By far Amare’s best half of the season.
Really bad slumps = mediocre players. Woodson is misusing him at this point. Prigs should get more burn at the 1 just for ball movement purposes. Celtics perimeter containment is awful.
Amare is looking better and better.
I’m going to go out on a limb and state that Boston’s bench is the main reason they are only 20-20
yeah, sort of.
I also question Mike’s rotation. Prigs is playing good ball. Let him get some more burn.
Problem is this is the JR we saw all of last season too. His shooting numbers as a Knick have been awful. I give him alot of credit for his effort every game and the fact that he has shown the ability to make some good passes and play good overall basketball and not just be a scorer. But at what point do we stop waiting for JR to shoot like he did in Denver and just accept the fact that in 74 games as a Knick he is a 40% shooter overall and only a 34% 3pt shooter??
Felton coming back and allowing JR to not handle the ball as much and be able to spot up more should help him alot so hopefully that will start an improvement in his 3pt shooting again.
Some hard hitting analysis from the boys in the studio
I cant imagine the Iron Sheik actually does his own tweeting.
If you read a bunch of them you would.
Yeah Ive read a bunch of them, alot of cursing and stupid stuff tht sounds just like something he would say if you see his interviews he does nowadays. Just cant imagine he actually tweets all the stuff he does, too much stuff that deals with current events that I cant imagine he is always up to date with lol.
James White? Really? Waste of fucking minutes. Hate these gimmick starts.
Terrible coaching
Terrible foul
Maybe we need KG to talk crap to Melo again to get him going.
I know I’m a broken record, but KG HAD TO get decked on that alley oop attempt by Chandler. I know the game has charged since Oakley & Mason but we have no balls.
Looks like Shump has been learning to shoot floaters from Felton. That was ugly as hell lol.
Why are we taking so many quick shots??????
Put in the bench please!!
Shump is looking like Brewer about now.
Knicks just running up taking quick horrible shots. They seem to have no plan whatsoever on offense right now.
Isn’t this on Woodson?
Its more on not having Felton right now. Would like to see Prigs get some more minutes right now.
Jesus Christ the Celtics are just having a parade to the FT line now.
So Melo is guarding Rondo, Stat is guarding Pierce?
Cmon. I agree we miss Felton but these lineups and this strategy is horrible. We are better than this team w out Felton
What a play by Kidd!!
novak’s interior d just sucks. he looks like he is bracing for a high speed car crash every time a guy is driving towards him
its like he suffers from battered defender syndrome
These refs are not letting ANYTHING go, seems like there is a foul called every possession.
Every time the Knicks seem to be on the verge of making a run to build a decent lead the Celtics immediately answer with a run of their own to regain the lead.
Another rotation decision I dont agree with. Stat is having his best game of the year. The offense completely sucks. Let him run with 4 for a while. If he picks up 5 then fine hold hime out for a while. No reason to take him out w 4.
See? Boston fouls hard. Tyson hit the deck there on what looked like a low bridge. We foul like little girls. They’re parading to the line on touch fouls
Melo beginning to step it up on offense. Hope he has enough energy to close this game out.
Gotta say the Knicks rotations on defense have been pretty spot on tonight. Laying off Rondo and rotating to the actual shooters. Its helped that they have missed some wide open shots but for the most part cant complain about the defense at all tonight.
It’s amazing how we all know how this will end with Pierce isn’t it? It’s forgone. It’s really unbelievable.
I don’t know when woody will understand u can’t ask melo to play point forward for 43 mins efficiently
the prigs to chandler alley oop blows
Melo gets a minute and a half rest to start the 4th, immediately re-enters and hits a 3pter. Also JR WTF man lol.
We can live with JR’s shittiness if Melo is going to ball this well. Wow, what a big shot!
Pablo playing more minutes. I can dig it.
It’s officially Melo time.
Blatant no call on Terry grabbing Melo’s arm on that layup.
So awesome. Come on, guys, hold on to this one. This win would be amazing.
JR’s bad play is taking place of Felton’s bricks, and Amar’e is taking the place of JR Smith. That’s how I’m rationalizing this phenomenon.
Smith is just brutal. Just brutal.
Why is Amar’e still out? Is there a reason he isn’t in for bad JR?
Triple double for rondo. Arguably the 2nd best Pg in the league.
i am not at all in favor of iso melo to close games out…but it is nice to be able to give it to aguy and be pretty sure that he will eitgher be able to create a decent shot or a foul
Offense has grinded to a freaking halt. Its just standing around then give the ball to JR with 10 secs left. If thats the case then just make sure Melo gets the ball in every possession and live and die with him and not JR.
Woodson has now gotten in it in his head that JR is like his guy and if he sits him even when he’s playing like crap that he’s giving up on him. JR Smith should not be in this game. The excuse will be that he is in their for D.
If I hear the word “Switching” one more time….
It seems JR Smith is to Mike Woodson as Mark Sanchez is to Rex Ryan.
Could use a three here…
This is a recurring nightmare.
How badly would JR Smith have to shit the bed before getting pulled. What if he just punted the ball into the 20th row?
Thank you, Amar’e.
STAT to the rescue?
That’s pretty embarrassing.
It is pretty funny how JR just will never stop shooting, I am not even saying he should, really (Now whether he should be pulled is another question).
In defense of JR, he is getting the ball with like 5 ticks left on the 24. He has to put up something in that situation.
Bullsh*t calls.
Wouldnt be a Celtics-Knicks game without late game bad officiating bailing the Celtics out.
That… was… a foul?
Refs just decided we shouldn’t have chandler for the final 4 monutes
If JR has the ball with under 10 seconds left on the shot clock, he barely EVER passes the ball, even when he is 2 for 15 or whatever he is tonight.
lets not get carried away. jr is getting stuck with the ball with 5 on the shot clock again and again. the problem is that melo draws the double and they leave kidd and then run at him with impugnity after melo passes him the ball. kidd cant penetrate so that allows the defense to recover
need to post Stat on Pierce.
JR’s shot clock beating buzzer beaters are deceiving, as he usually brings it upon himself.
Rondo went up, shot, missed, landed, fell, THEN they blew whistle.
We blew this when we didn’t extend the 80-70 lead over 3 scoreless C’s possessions. Now the refs are giving it to them.
Chandler will probably get fouled out by the 2 min mark.
Garnett doing an arm-takedown on Chandler and no foul call.
And this garbage flop.
FLOP FLOP FLOP FLOP FLOP
Awful call.
So many bs calls, just stupid…
WOW
JR M’Fin Smitty!!!!
That’ll do, JR. That’ll do.
I cant take these Celtics game anymore…..
JR SWISH!!!!!
Go back to the zone woody
What a fucking flop.
Im still scared.
HAHAHA. Eat shit, Pierce!
Wow Woodson really doesn’t like Amar’e down the stretch does he…
… and then Melo airballs a jumper over two defenders of course
Oh boy…
This offense the past few minutes has been so incredibly awful there are no words to describe it.
Knicks aren’t playing to win right now, they’re playing avoid a loss.
Awesome. Dribble for 15 seconds, shovel the ball to a covered Carmelo on the 3 point line with 5 seconds left on the shot clock. Great fucking offense
Pierce butterfingers
Who is this imposter wearing a Pierce jersey??
JR says…..shhhhhhhhhh
Ugly as shit but I will gladly take this win!!
That is how you do it.
Woot! More prigs, more shump, a lot less JR.
Never thought Pierce would completely blow the game for his team.
…
I thought I’d be happier about it.
Nothing is sweeter than Paul Pierce’s sad confused face after this particularly blatant choke job
I have a headache right now from the stress of the last few minutes, cant even enjoy this win at the moment lol.
Best ending ever.
Ugly win against a Boston team that’s not particularly good, but wins on the road are always hard to come by and Pierce choking was really satisfying.
It’s kinda hilarious that they call JR Smith swish
Games like this make me question woodsons chops as a head coach.
Yep having Thomas in at all was terrible and not enough stat
A few things…
A. A win in Boston is great. I’ll take it.
B. JR is in quite a slump, but Woody knows benching him will likely cause even more problems, so I don’t mind it so much.
C. Paul Pierce horrifically choking at the end of the game was hilariously awesome.
D. While I am okay with him keeping JR in there, some of Woody’s other strategic decisions are just bizarre. Thomas’s minutes, White starting, not posting STAT, STAT not playing as much period, etc.
E. I’m on Vicodin right now after a late night visit to the dentist, so I am probably enjoying the win more than normal ;)
After JR singlehandedly making this a much closer game than it should have been comes up with the three biggest plays down the stretch with the three and two forced turnovers. Still, he’s really pressing- could it be that Shumpert’s return has him worrying about minutes?
Also, Amar’e was being guarded by Paul Pierce down the stretch- maybe you could have put him in the post once or twice?
The irony of tonight:
we were not very good at anything (except rebounding, bizarrely) but we came away with one of our best performances of the season.
Buck Foston, g’night!
I didn’t watch the first 3 quarters–how did Kurt manage a -8 in 1:42?
I forgot… Celtics have now lost 5 in a row and are 2 games under .500 and are still surrounded by that cloud of controversy from Doc Rivers’ tirade over changing how they’re playing otherwise they’d get rid of some guys.
Now I am MUCH happier about the win.
Yeah that last part was weird. You put Amar’e in presumably for his offense, he is having a pretty good night offensively as it is and is now being covered by Paul Pierce. He shouldve gotten touches in the post down the stretch.
Good point I just read on Twitter, Knicks were getting hosed down the stretch by the refs but they didnt let it get to them. No techs and really not much complaining at all. Kept their composure on the road late in the game, good to see.
<3 <3 <3 Lakers and Celtics both under .500 <3 <3 <3
15 points on 7 FGA, 9 boards, 2 blocks and only 1 TO in 20:28 screams “I’m ready to play a bit more than 20 minutes.” Was it just all the fouls or is there some other reason Amar’e gets so little burn?
Chuck just said Jamal Crawford and JR Smith should have made the all star team. Aparenty he hasn’t watched the NBA since November.
Doctors told Woodson to limit STAT’s minutes when soreness crept up in his knee after a few games.
It was foul trouble for the most part- he had to sit most of the regular minutes he would have played in the third. I think it was exacerbated by the fact that Chandler was in foul trouble too- Woodson probably wanted to make sure Amar’e was still available in case Chandler fouled out.
OK, we’ve weathered the storm, now time to go on a roll, like 15-5 or some shit like that.
As far as stat goes. Lets be honest he’s a liability on the floor playing D. I like the idea of stat playing the 5. I think he can really excel at that position and give Ty some rest to boot.
Look at the remaining 10 games before the All-Star break. Knicks have a very realistic chance of winning 7 or 8 of them. 7 of 10 at home and only facing 3 teams with winning records and they are all at home.
NY only scored 5 points in the lasr 5+ minutes, very lucky Boston is struggling so much currently. those two turnovers by Pierce were things of beauty.
Haha! I’ve been on a juice fast since New Year’s Day and I cheated tonight with two generously poured glasses of Oban 18. I’m flying!
Re Amare- by far his best performance of the year, not just on offense but defense/rebounding too. 9 boards in 20 minutes is very strong work.
Don’t look now but in his last 5 games (against sme very good defenses) Amare has scored 64 points on just 32 FGA. He’s not turning the ball over, he’s not going iso- just high quality/efficiency offense now. Like others noted, I was screaming at the Tv for Melo to pass the ball into aare in the post against pierce at the end. Oh well- win is a win, ugly or not.
Wait until Raymond gets back. I think Amar’e will eventually start again. There’s absolutely no reason he shouldn’t.
I dont think Amar’e will start until Camby and/or Sheed are back. If Amar’e starts then you only have Kurt Thomas as a big off the bench.
It seems Amar’e is learning defense on the fly with the Knicks. I think I saw Shumpert and Tyson telling him where to be throughout the game. A lot of defense is being in the right place at the right time, and it’s been helping Amar’e a lot. I guess the “I’ve never been taught defense” mantra really does have some credibility.
I have to say, Amar’e has been a pleasant surprise. I thought it would take Amar’e a lot more time to get his game together and become a real contributor, but after tonight’s game his TS% is up to .581 and he continues to keep the turnovers under control. He’s looking pretty good out there.
These threads are often fun to read after the game is over. How many games have there been this year in which about half of the comments between 80 and 150 are some version of “What the hell is JR doing?”, “Will someone explain why JR is still in the game!?”, “Is Woody even watching the game? PLEASE BENCH JR!”, “NOOOO!!! WTF JR!!!” and then half of the last 20 comments are some version of “JR!!!”, “EARL!!!”, “He’s this generation’s Starks — the lovable knucklehead!” By the way, I am almost always in total agreement with both sets of comments. He certainly doesn’t make things easy…
massive: clearly Amar’e didn’t mean that D’Antoni didn’t preach the importance of defense or have any defensive schemes. Teaching means providing or having others provide individual instruction making it clear how exactly to execute. That is, rather than just get upset that Amar’e isn’t defending and acting passive aggressive about it. Creating a culture of communication on D is supposedly at least as important as any particular scheme used.
JK47: Even those like Zack Lowe and Jared Dubin who think STAT is the worst defender ever believe that he is one of the most efficient scoring big men of the modern era.
As I’ve written previously, last year was a fluke year because: 1. Amar’e hadn’t been able to do anything bball related for six months or so because of his back. 2. Horrible point guard play other than during Linsanity. 3. Therefore horrible ball movement that kept him from what he does best: rolls and cuts.
I think many also constantly underestimate his work ethic. I believe he’s the first to come back so successfully from microfracture sugary. He always stays in phenomenal shape, Other than last We, ia LQya K