Game Thread: Knicks vs. Magic
January 30th, 2013 by Jim Cavan | @JPCavan | Comments | Permalink |
The Knicks try and make it two in a row against Orlando, who hopefully partied late into the night last night.
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.
SHUMP SHUMP
Let’s see how we guard the PG position tonight.
Kenny Albert…unbelievable voice and forehead
Looks like they’re breaking down the defense successfully.
Also: screw Reddick.
Wow reddick….
Think we should guard him?
Raymond Felton’s defense is so horrifically bad right now.
Uh, Iman Shumpert’s is worse.
Shump can’t stop Reddick at all! Also, his total inability to finish around the rim has always baffled me.
geezus defense!!!! when did we bring dantoni back?
Love to see Chandler playing on offense.
A lot of this is absolutely absurd shooting, as much as people won’t want to hear it.
Right now, but the trend of the last few games doesn’t look good for Raymond at all.
Yeah, they’ve both been horrible the last 3 games.
I don’t expect that to last all year. But who knows.
With Reddick torching us it’s as simple as Woody telling Shumpert not to go over the screen. He’s gotten a wide open look everytime he’s attempted to shoot the passing lane.
I saw Shumpert helping out on Nelson after he blew past Felton with ease. Then Nelson passed the ball to Reddick, who nailed a shot on a Shumpert close out. If Felton could actually stay in front of his man (which he can’t), Shumpert wouldn’t look so bad right now.
Shump’s rep as a defensive stopper is being somewhat challenged tonight I would say
Why does Felton keep giving Nelson his right hand?
Bleh, another defensively poor 1st quarter.
At least we’re not helplessly throwing up bricks.
His inability to get around screens is quite unbecoming of a defensive ace. If you actually go back and watch players reaction to his plug on that play, it’s clear he was NOT supposed to come of Reddick.
As great as Chandler has been offensively, we’ve seen Amar’e chase penetration into the paint more than Chandler did in that first quarter.
Wasn’t Shumpert on Korver last game? Didn’t seem horrible.
It’s quite clear by players reactions that Shumpert was supposed to know this.
Yeah, it just seems like Shump’s been involved in a lot of scores.
Ayon, Amar’e's greatest nemesis.
ruru, i like you man, but please stop comparing chandler’s and stat’s defense….. most of us, if not all of us, are really rooting for stat to improve in this area, but there is no comparison to be made
i dont undrstand this defense. how does a guy try to drive by novak, not get by him, but hes able to kick out to ish smith for a 3 with no one in the area code
Orlando now missing their 2 best players, and we still are putting up no resistance on defense. Not good.
Ew Felton, ew.
Nelson is making some really tough shots, too.
our perimeter passing off the drive and off the double team does not seem crisp tonight. maybe its the spacing that is off. but pass are off target, etc. got to tighten up
Paint points: Knicks 28, Orlando 16
agreed, would also like to see harder drives against rotation.
yeah, nothing felton could have done on that last one. nelon is an interesting player. i dont watch him much, for obvious reasons, and really have no idea how good he really is, beyond his stats. is he better than felton? i could be swayed wither way. he sure looks good tonight
Seems like other teams are deliberately looking to attack Felton haha
the magic backcourt is torching us. imagine Kidd was playing!!
he is def. better than Felton, though similar, but a hot/cold player who’s best games are much better than Felton’s.
Not much different defensively, Felton might be a better penetrator/passer/
If you’ve ever wondered what an All-Star game would be like if none of the stars showed up, this is your game.
Chandlers help defense has been nonexistent for some time now…blocking shots may be slightly overrated and all but when was the last time Chandler had one. His help defense on small penetrating guards is just lazy. He needs to block Ish Smith or Nelson or put the, on their ass. I don’t care about his fouls.
Wow
Well, at least Reddick finally missed! Either of those misses would have been brutal had he connected.
In better news, come on, folks, there’s no way that the Magic shoot this well in the second half. The Knicks will likely win this one going away.
Wallace doing a nice job on Lebron, who can’t get a whistle. Bird looks great. That’s troubling.
You got that right. That sucks that he looks good.
Right, a lot of this is just two good shooters getting really hot at the same time.
It’s not exactly a layup line out there.
16 paint points in a half is actually an elite number, especially when paired with 4 free-throws.
The Pacers lead the league in paint points allowed per game (35.7).
He fits their system perfectly, in every single way. Not a good man defender or positional rebounder, but he’s a great weakside/rotation player and one of the best big man runners in the game.
Watching from a sports book in Vegas. Glad I hit the money line instead of giving up 9.
I love the shots Chandler’s been taking tonight. When teams double Melo off the ball he has to take that wide open elbow jumper. Absolutely has to.
Blatche is showing that he just totally checked out last year. It is a joke that he was on the scrap heap last summer.
What, you think they aren’t playing All-Star Game level defense?
You said if none of the stars showed up….ahem, Melo
And that follow on the air all is why Chandler should not contest 25 feet from the rim.
OK, im not impressed with tyson’s d today either….but, he hs to be one of the 3 best game dunkers in the league right now, right? that dun on the break was pretty ridiculous
time to push this league to double digits
He did sit for a good portion of the 2nd when the worst of it was going on. I was speaking of that stretch. Plus it doesn’t feel like he’s playing much.
This is what Miami must have felt like when they played the Knicks without Melo. How many hero shots have Nelson and Reddick hit in this game? J.J. just rose up about 3 feet beyond the arc with Chandler in his face and he drains it. Not much you can do there.
Love the d. Stat forced the travel but JR had the key rotation.
hoooo Stat!!!! good explosion at the hoop there
I can’t believe Prigioni hit that shot
what is melo doing??? enough of the hero ball!!!!
Tonight the heat check failed.
there was no heat to check. it was just a gunner shot
Chandler and Amar’e 14/15 inside the paint. 29 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists. That’s a frontcourt.
Prigs with the old man layup!
Prigioni is just awesome.
And he should have gotten the hoop and the harm.
Good pass by amare
You have to take advantage of an awful defensive frontcourt when they come to town.
Heat are not a strong road team this year. Nets tied at half after being down 10.
We should have posted amare there
He’ll yeah!!
That’s Gustavo Ayon? Good! I remember when he killed us last year during Linsanity.
Love that drive and dish from Prigioni to Amare.
Pablo with the old man back tap! That made unreasonably happy.
Prigs can even rebound like Tyson. I’m really shocked by how good he turned out to be.
Well, except for that last shot.
…and a very old man three attempt.
Priggy smalls!!!!!
and then he redeems himself!
It’s the Pablo Prigioni show and we are all merely spectators.
Prigioni shows he has no short-term memory. Follows an airball three with a swish three.
Why we don’t run that Melo amare pnr more I will never know. I’m not sure how you stop that
You stop the Carmelo aMare pick and roll by blitzing it with three men need shooters on the court with them to make it work. That’s why Novak is out there with them.
Nice trap by STAT and JR.
He’s like a goldfish.
Is that Stephanie March on celebrity row?
That’s my point…that’s not stopping it.
Stat is back!
Amare is unconscious tonight. He can play whatever defense he wants as long as he never misses.
And the sneaky backdoor cut for the dish to a wide open Novak. Pablo, I loves ya.
i will say it again. amare is actually trying on defense now, and that is at least half the battle
How is Prigs not in the rookie game?
It’s raining 3s.
Floodgates are opening
i am impressed with vucevic
Also half the battle: knowing
GI JOEEEEEE
24 assists on 41Fgm is nice to see. Sharing is caring
true, that is the other half. he is still working on that half
Conflicted but think I’m rooting for the nets tonight…I still believe in a world where we are in 1st place in the east
Even Novak’s hitting from downtown now. Turn out the lights.
We are moving that ball!
Knicks paying Orlando back for the barrage of threes in the first.
ho was that a foul on shump???
Horrible call…time to watch the nets
Another shitty fucking call wtf
oh no… not the hack-a-brew
Now that this one is in the books, I have to compliment John Hollinger for absolutely fleecing Toronto today. The corpse of Rudy Gay for Ed Davis is a coup.
please take brewer out
What-are you not entertained?
Am I the only one having issues with League Pass? The video has been utterly unwatchable, with the video stopping every ten seconds. The league is ripping off loyal customers. I could not watch tonight’s game at all. Total crap.
And it has nothing to do with my computer or Internet connection. I steam all kinds of video on different devices, and league pass is the only one that causes this trouble.
im just picturing Edwin Starr (or Jackie Chan) singing “Brew!!!! What is He Good For??? Absolutely nothing!!”
ive had that problem. try this…keeping everything plugged in, turn your able box upside down for a second or shake it a little. it works for me
guys, im not too impressed. we allowed the washington generals to score 97 tonight
Good game. Huge improvement over the last two outings against Orlando.
I’d be more concerned if in the first half Reddick and Nelson didn’t turn into Frazier and Monroe.
OK, Georges St. Pierre.
Thanks for the advice. Glad we’re all cool with the league defrauding its own fans.
Brooklyn really getting humiliated tonight.
It really is pathetic. Reminds me of the death of Linsanity in Miami right before the All-Star break. Nice winning streak but puts things in perspective.
So this is the end of Brooklyn’s new coach honeymoon bump, huh?
Three convincing losses to Miami on the season now. I don’t see how anybody can view them as a threat in the East. The Knicks and Bulls are the only teams that can push Miami in a 7 game series.
The crazy thing about this Nets game is that it was tied at half time and they might lose by 20+
The Birdman is out in Brooklyn. Looks like he can still rebound.
the Knicks’ problem will be getting there, especially if they and Chicago end up 2 and 3.
i was actually serious. it has worked for me. i used to get pissed about it but it worked once and has worked ever since
Amar’e TS% watch: .627
He was 7 for 7 tonight, all shots from 5 feet or less.
On January 30, 2013 Danilo Gallinari posted 4 blocks in a game against the Rockets.
http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400278399
This happened
The Nets have maybe 2 impressive wins this season, at OKC and at home vs. the Clips. And I guess you could count beating the Knicks at MSG last time they played. Other than that, they’ve been feasting on the bad and mediocre teams in the NBA. Still not impressed.
That last fadeaway at the top of the paint was not 5 ft.
Other than the first couple of games his shot selection has been positively Chandler-esque which is great because there’s very little need for him to be taking 18 footers in this offense. I love that fadeaway he hit in the lane- very Hakeem-like. He also hit a similar shot against Atlanta- it’s really becoming clear just how hard he must have worked in the off-season.
The dunk he had from two feet outside the restricted area with a big under the basket was vintage Amar’e.
These are the kinds of athletic plays he was doing in practice after surgery and during training camp, it was just a matter of getting his conditioning.
He can be every bit as efficient and prolific (in his minutes) as he was the last few years in Phoenix.
What’s happened is he’s basically eliminated isolation possessions ( they account for about 5 % of hos total plays) and replaced them with these fantastic post moves that get him a lot deeper.
Even if he’s lost a little bit of athleticism (which is going to be very minimal because I think he’s going to get even better athletically moving forward), he’s made up for it with the added skill.
As I said for months, Amar’e had an even better off-season than Melo, who had perhaps his best (and he has had some great off-seasons).
Had Amar’e not gotten injured,he’d be the comeback player.
Also, so sick of talking about his defense. A lot of confirmation bias on these boards. His bad possessions are awful, but you shouldn’t judge him on just his bad possessions. His on-ball defense tonight created a lot of problems, and he was great in the trap.
good to know. now i don’t feel as guilty for using first row
jp82:
Am I the only one having issues with League Pass? The video has been utterly unwatchable, with the video stopping every ten seconds. The league is ripping off loyal customers. I could not watch tonight’s game at all. Total crap.
And it has nothing to do with my computer or Internet connection. I steam all kinds of video on different devices, and league pass is the only one that causes this trouble.
“Don’t call it a comeback…”
JK47:
Amar’e TS% watch: .627
He was 7 for 7 tonight, all shots from 5 feet or less.