Comments on: Knicks 102, Cavs 97

By: mcliff05

mcliff05 — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:30:51 +0000

Great to see this team fight back like that on the road. I couldnt believe we were 0 for our last 10 trips to Cleveland, it really makes you appreciate how improved this team is over past Knick teams. So lets just keep some perspective of what this team is and what it is not when we criticize. It is not the favorite to win the East. It is a very competitive team that will be a tough out in the playoffs. It is a deep team at certain positions but very thin at others.

Speaking of Felton specifically, lets keep in mind that he will never be CP3 or Tony Parker, but he is a solid PG who can run the PNR well, knock down open jumpers at a decent clip and take it to the hole. Felton is an average NBA PG who happens to be the best option on the team. And with the trade deadline in our rearview, like it or not, we’re stuck with him.

Another thing that struck me was the similarities between the last two games. The favored road team starts slow falls into a large 1st half deficit, and then they clamp down on defense in the second half and pull out the win. I just hope the ratio of the Heat:Knicks is not as wide a gap as Knicks:Cavs.

By: Nick C.

Nick C. — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:57:10 +0000

Hahaha on the edit. Anyone care to enlighten me on how a team that leads the NBA in defensive rebounding percentage gets killed constantly for not being able to rebound (other than lazy reportage, three year old script etc.)?

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:38:23 +0000

great win last night –
agree that assuming this Melo injury is nothing too serious, it might actually be a good thing in the short term — we need to learn to play without the iso-Melo again. When the ball is moving like it was in the 2nd half last night (and for the 1st half against Miami), the Knicks are tough to beat. The Iso-Melo (which without a doubt we have slipped into more of late) seems so much easier to defend.

Still in small sample size alert! territory but the second unit with Tyson+Amare is just looking fantastic. When those two are playing together without Melo, here are the #s per nbawowy:

81 total minutes, PPP-for 1.207, PPP-against 0.890.
Rebounding #s – ORB 43.9, DRR 81.1, TRB 63.6

Mind you- Memphis leads the league in ORB currently at 32. The difference between the Amare/Tyson ORB and Memphis’s is the same as between Memphis (#1) and the last place team in the NBA (SA at 20.1%). We are already the #1 defensive rebounding team in the NBA at 75.5, and the difference between the Amare/Tyson crew (81.1) and the our leading percentage (75.5) is greater than the difference between the #1 and #30 D-rebounding teams.

That unit is just killing it – granted playing many of their minutes against the other team’s 2nd units.

Would love to see Amare/Tyson play together more often, and would love to see Melo and Tyson’s minutes come down to the mid-30s. We need these guys fresh for the playoffs, and they’re not ~~taking PEDs~~ supermen like Lebron.

By: lavor postell

lavor postell — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:14:51 +0000

The thing I don’t understand about Woodson is his insistence on playing lineups and players that everybody knows will put the Knicks at a disadvantage. Why does James White need to get 5 token minutes a game where the Knicks become an atrocious offensive team with terrible spacing and he manages to commit at least 2 mind bogglingly stupid fouls as well as miss at least one jumper horrifically.

His managing of STAT’s minutes has been the single most frustrating thing as well as his sudden decision that Amar’e should not play major minutes with Melo. Pretty funny coming from a guy who said that he views STAT as a starter, paid a shit ton of lip service to those saying they were a poor fit and also said a starter should never lose his place to injury. If STAT doesn’t hurt his knee before the season I highly doubt that he is a bench player and considering how he has played since being back, it’s weird that it took a Melo injury for him to crack the 30 minute mark.

I just want to say Woodson’s biggest weakness as a coach so far this season is his tinkering with lineups at extremely weird times. The one that really set me off was against the Clippers at home with the Knicks down 6 and a little over 2 minutes left he takes Chandler out of the game coming out of a timeout. Obviously the Melo/STAT frontcourt got lit up and the Clippers ran away with it.

Also on JR Smith it’s reallly hard for me to evaluate such a player coherently. There’s little question that in terms of effort JR brings it every night and I love the fact that he genuinely seems to relish being a Knick and all the pressure and insanity that entails. I do not love possessions where he aimlessly dribble for 20 seconds before taking some idiotic turnaround from 18 feet while STAT is literally begging for the ball after pinning his man underneath the hoop. For bad or for worse JR is an extremely important Knick and I can only hope he gets hot at the right time for us to make a run.

By: er

er — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:44:43 +0000

LAst night was the ballsiest win of the season. This team has always shown that they never quit but damn why do thy have to play like shit in the first halves so many times

By: AHouston20

AHouston20 — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:31:45 +0000

I think Melo’s injury, if not serious, could be a good thing in the long run. If he can get his legs back under him some with a little rest and Woodson learns to trust Amare more this could be beneficial to Knicks. Melo shouldn’t be playing 40-42 minutes a game anyway. Maybe some rest helps him get back to early season form for this ridiculous two and a half week stretch, just look at the back to backs alone:

3/14 and 3/15: @Nuggets and @Blazers
3/17 and 3/18: @Clips then @Jazz
3/26 and 3/27: @Celts then home vs Grizz
4/2 and 4/3: @Heat then @Hawks

By: nicos

nicos — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:38:49 +0000

I’d also add that one big positive about Amar’e's game that I’m not sure has been mentioned is that he didn’t use Melo’s absence as an excuse to start jacking up shots. He really didn’t change what he’s been doing offensively at all- he just got more minutes. A good sign that all his team-first talk wasn’t just putting on a good face for the press as some have suggested here.

By: JoMo

JoMo — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:34:54 +0000

nicos: I never want to have to watch that Prigs, Kidd, JR, Novak, Camby lineup ever again.

Post-game interview about this went something like, "Again, I was having a stroke, and next thing we knew, that lineup was on the floor."

By: nicos

nicos — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:23:49 +0000

I’d agree with JoMo on Felton- up until that horrific two-turnover sequence late I thought he played pretty well. He certainly didn’t shut down Irving but I’ll take holding him to 22 points on 9-20 shooting and not having him living in lane any day. I thought Felton did a pretty good job getting into the lane and has done so fairly consistently lately- the problem is those kick-outs for three pointers are turning into good but passed up looks unlike earlier in the season- even tonight Kidd passed up three or four open looks in favor of passing to a less open guy. And with the Knicks perimeter struggles he’s facing a lot more traffic on the high screen and roll so he’s had to turn the corner quicker and his passing angles to Chandler have largely dried up.
He has done a nice job hitting Amar’e on cuts though- and how Amar’e seems to be wide open under the basket so often is beyond me- the second his guy turns his head he’s in the lane waving his arms around (he may not elevate like he used to but his first step is still a killer) and if anyone other than JR has the ball it usually winds up as a dunk. On that note- maybe JR feels like he’s playing for a contract and doesn’t want Amar’e taking shots away from him because he sure seems overly reluctant to get Amar’e the ball.
Of course it goes without saying the big issue is Melo’s knee- I think the Knicks might survive a week or two without him but I never want to have to watch that Prigs, Kidd, JR, Novak, Camby lineup ever again.

By: JoMo

JoMo — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:58:00 +0000

Great write-up, Jim. Though, I think Stephen A. Smith might take exception to your Jason Kidd revival/DMT analogy after having used it (screamed it, really) repeatedly on “First Take.”

I don’t think Felton has been wholly ineffective as of late. Am I correct in saying that poor shooting from the guards on any team is going to shut down pretty much all of the versatility of an offense? No matter how it’s structured? His shooting has looked, at times, as piss-poor as Kidd’s, but at least he’s able to open up a little daylight with his penetration (still leading to a decent number of easy OREB’s and conversions).

I dunno. I’m clearly not as savvy as a Ruru or a Flossy, but it seems evident that a large percentage of our problems are emanating from the backcourt as of late.

As much as people want to shit on Woodson’s rotations and switching, he doesn’t seem to have much to work with if guys are in slumps. Dog-house or no, I’m virtually sure Shump’s absence is still precautionary to keep him primed for the playoffs.