Knicks Morning News (Saturday, Feb 02 2013)
February 2nd, 2013 by Mike Kurylo | @KnickerBlogger | Comments | Permalink |
Pau Gasol knew he could play like this. Kobe Bryant and Ricky Rubio did, too. The only person in Laker land who seemed to doubt what the gifted post player could do was the man in charge.
A win over Chicago was devoid of the fluidity and ease that was a staple of the Nets’ winning ways early last month.
David West scored 30 points and lifted the Pacers over the Heat, 102-89. In other action, the Celtics defeated the Magic.
Brook Lopez led the way with 20 points in three quarters as the Brooklyn Nets outlasted an under-strength Chicago Bulls 93-89 at home on Friday.
O.J. Mayo scored 20 points to lead six Dallas players in double figures and the Mavericks, despite the absence of Dirk Nowitzki, added to their mastery of Phoenix with a 109-99 victory over the Suns on Friday night.
Ty Lawson had 21 points and 13 assists, Andre Iguodala scored 24 and the Denver Nuggets beat the New Orleans Hornets 113-98 on Friday night for their sixth straight victory.
The Indiana Pacers proved one thing Friday night: Beating Miami last month was no fluke.
Mike Conley scored 18 points and Tayshaun Prince added 14 in his Memphis debut, including a pair of key fourth-quarter jumpers, as the Grizzlies defeated the Washington Wizards 85-76 on Friday night.
Raymond Felton aggravated his right pinkie and left the game late in the third quarter. But he returned in the fourth to score 5 of his 14 points in a victory at Madison Square Garden.
Brook Lopez led the way with 20 points in three quarters as the Brooklyn Nets outlasted an under-strengthen Chicago Bulls 93-89 at home on Friday.
Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points, Amare Stoudemire had 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and the New York Knicks extended their winning streak to three games with a 96-86 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.
Brandon Knight had 20 points and 10 assists, and the Detroit Pistons never trailed Friday night in a 117-99 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Brook Lopez scored 20 points through three quarters, then the Brooklyn Nets turned to their bench to beat the short-handed Chicago Bulls 93-89 on Friday night.
Thaddeus Young had 23 points and 15 rebounds, and Jrue Holiday scored 21 to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to an 89-80 win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.
Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett each had a double-double, and the Boston Celtics responded to yet another blow to their lineup with a 97-84 win Friday night over the Orlando Magic, who lost their eighth straight game.
Rudy Gay wowed a sellout crowd by scoring 20 points in his Toronto debut, leading the Raptors to a 98-73 rout of the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.
The move is a likely precursor to the outright dismissal of Billy Hunter, who is under fire for questionable business practices and nepotism.
Much was said about Memphis trading away its talented star Rudy Gay, but getting Tayshaun Prince from Detroit may pay more dividends than people expect.
LeBron James wants to win as many championships as he can. When it comes to the titles dictated by money, he’s not that interested.
Thomas R. Ashley, Billy Hunter’s lawyer, issued a statement after Hunter was placed on indefinite leave as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association.
The Knicks and Nets paid tribute to the late Ed Koch during their games on Friday night.
Friday night, against a Milwaukee Bucks team featuring two dynamic guards, the Knicks defended as they did in November and rendered Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings ineffective while cruising to a 95-81 victory.
The New York Knicks will host 150 children, their families and teachers from Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday when they play the Sacramento Kings.
Mike Kurylo is the founder and editor of KnickerBlogger.net. His book on the 2012 Knicks, "We’ll Always Have Linsanity," is on sale now. Follow him on twitter (@KnickerBlogger).
Saying that I sure hope Ray’s finger is ok would be the understatement of the year lol. Who would have thought that Raymond Bulldog Felton would be as important and indispensible as he is? The Garden needs some Blue and Orange I Heart Bulldogs shirts ASAP! On another note..for as much as I love Tyson’s offensive improvement..I will take 20 boards and 2 blocks from him over 20 pts any day. Wow. The thing I love about him is he never tries to do too much. He stays in his lane and only stretches his game out when it’s appropriate. He knows exactly where he fits in and does everything he can to keep the wheels turning. Perfect fit here. And I love how STAT is finding his groove and fitting in in ways nobody thought he would. I still am a little afraid that his ego will take over at the wrong time at some point, but at the moment I am proud of what he’s been doing lately. This is the way our best players should play. Now we just need Smith, Shump, Kidd, Felton, Sheed, Camby and Novak to excel in their roles and try not to do too much. Age and injury be damned..this has the look of one helluva squad
Chandler was amazing last night, that’s the kind of performance that would win him DPOY easily if he could do it consistently. I also gotta give credit to Amar’e, he’s looking better and better on defense, especially when paired with Tyson Chandler.
I think the idea that he’s a little wary of fouls has some merit, he basically has to contest everything at the rim alone when Melo is at the 4 since no one else is big enough, he has to box out the opponent’s best rebounder and defend their best big, and he has to set screens on offense constantly since he’s the only legit roll threat, and screens are a pretty common way to get offensive fouls. Can’t wait to get at least one of Sheed and Camby back
Is Isiah Thomas doing occasional voice-over work on the 2-3 minute game recaps over at NBA.com?
One of the guys recapping last night’s games sounds frighteningly like him, and when I heard him praise Toronto’s collection of mediocre volume scoring wing players I thought it had to be. Can anyone confirm?
He is on NBA network 2-3 times a week, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case.
Last night Amar’e took 10 FGA. 9 of them came in the paint, and the other one was a baseline J from 14 feet (missed). He also got to the line 8 times in 24 minutes. I keep expecting him to turn into a pumpkin and go back to his elbow-driving, mid-range brick heaving ways of 2011-2012, but it’s not happening. At times he actually does look a lot like his mentor Hakeem… on the offensive end, at least.
I am really surprised that Billy Hunter is using Thomas Ashley as his attorney. Ashley is a NJ-based criminal attorney with a strong reputation, but he is a solo shop and hardly the dean of the NJ bar, let alone someone who can handle the civil fight against the NBAPA and their attorneys at Paul Weiss. I am intimately professionally aware of a these players. It looks like Hunter is much more worried about criminal prosecution (in New Jersey federal court, apparently) than fighting tooth and nail to keep his job.
He’s getting great low post position and it’s all good from there. Eventually, teams are going to have start doubling him, maybe then the shooter formerly known as Steve Novak can start getting some open looks if the ball swings quickly enough.
God help the teams that have decide who to leave open on the perimeter between Melo, JR, Novak, Kidd… even Felton and Shumpert can pretty reliably knock down wide-open catch and shoot 3s.
I guess teams could double with Tyson’s man when the Knicks go big in the frontcourt, but as a general rule, if you leave Tyson Chandler alone near the basket you’re gonna have a bad time.
I think Kidd can be left open fairly safely at this point, 9-35 from 3 point range in his last 8.
16-46 in his last ten. Spin ‘dem numbers, bruh.
One real plus Shumpert has over JR is the fact that he drives with his head up. I’ve been impressed how under control he’s been when penetrating from the corner-he’s thrown some really nice passes in those situations. When both Amar’e and Chandler are in the game that corner penetration will be an absolute nightmare to defend if he can hit the three well enough to get guys running out at him on a consistent basis.
He shot 31.5% from three in 13 games in January- how big does the sample size have to be before you can say he’s struggling from three??
My impression is that starting only matters insofar as it affects morale. So I like Amare coming off the bench because of the example he sets. The contrast between his humility and discipline vs. D12, Gasol, and other noxious chemistry experiments is stark. I don’t know how it affects his team mates obviously, but from a fan’s perspective I find it inspiring. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it ranks up there with Melo’s willingness to facilitate and Chandler’s commitment to play balls out as big drivers of overall team morale and intensity. IMO total mpg and 4th qtr min are the real issues anyhow. Even if they’re extra cautious in raising Amare’s min limit, which seems wise, he’ll still have a big impact on a lot of games if he can stay healthy and average out somewhere near his current offensive efficiency.
It seems obvious to me that he shoots (and plays, just generally) better off the ball. The January sample happens to coincide almost totally with Felton’s injury and his move over to the starting PG position, and it came on the heels of a month where he was overplayed already (32+ mpg in December).
With some rest and a move back to SG I think his shooting stroke will return. And my point still stands: if leaving Jason Kidd wide open to shoot uncontested 3s is really the best result a defense can hope for, we’re going to be giving people a lot of problems. We have two players who can shred 1-on-1 defense and need to be doubled, one of the best PnR finishers in the NBA, a PG that can penetrate and break down defenses and a collection of pretty excellent 3 point marksmen. Health problems are really the only thing that could derail what should be a top 3 offense in the 2nd half of the season.
I agree with everything else in your post but this. The 2 other factors affecting this potential, I think, are people getting burned out (Melo, Chandler esp) and the defense coming back. I think the half court offense could be elite given healthy rested bodies as you say. For the overall offense to be that good, though, won’t they also need a very good transition offense? I think so, and I think that will depend heavily on whether they can pick up the typical defensive intensity quite a bit esp in the first 3 qtrs .
Yeah, he’s struggling, but if teams want to leave him open that’s cool with me. Carmelo shot 42% from the field in January, and I’d be delighted if teams decided to leave him open. Guys go through bad spells every season.
I agree that his shooting has not been very good, but my point is that arbitrary endpoints are misleading and irresponsible. Abbey wanted to make his point as “strongly” as possible, so he chose the last 8 games instead of the last 10. Why? Because the numbers support his claim better. That’s all.