Knicks Morning News (Sunday, Jan 01 2012)
January 1st, 2012 by Mike Kurylo | @KnickerBlogger | Comments | Permalink |
The rookie Josh Harrellson had 14 points and 12 rebounds in his first start, and Tyson Chandler, a defensive specialist, had 22 points and 7 rebounds.
Andrew Bynum had 29 points and 13 rebounds in his season debut after a four-game suspension for a flagrant foul in the playoffs.
Off to a 1-2 start, the Knicks are already looking to Baron Davis to provide some help to Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, even though Davis is at least five weeks away from playing.
Kobe Bryant had 28 points and 6 assists and made three passes that broke open the game in the fourth quarter against the Knicks, who have lost eight in a row to the Lakers.
Andre Iguodala had 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Lou Williams added 23 points off the bench, and the Philadelphia 76ers overcame a sluggish start to beat the Golden State Warriors 107-79 on Saturday night.
Manu Ginobili scored 23 points, 14 in the second quarter, to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 104-89 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points, Tyson Chandler had 18 of his 22 in the second half, and the New York Knicks assumed control early in beating the Sacramento Kings 114-92 on Saturday night.
Russell Westbrook scored 18 points, Daequan Cook hit four 3-pointers in quick succession to help Oklahoma City pull away in the first half and the Thunder led wire to wire in a 107-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night.
Kevin Martin scored 27 points, Kyle Lowry matched a career high with 18 assists and the Houston Rockets led from start to finish in a 95-84 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
Jonas Jerebko had 20 points and 12 rebounds, and the Detroit Pistons ended Lawrence Frank’s 20-game losing streak with a 96-88 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.
Defending conference regular-season champion Arizona got 16 points from Jesse Perry and 14 from Nick Johnson, taking control early and beating Arizona State 68-51 in the teams’ Pac-12 opener on Saturday.
Center Andrew Bynum scored 29 points in his first game of the season after serving a suspension as the Los Angeles Lakers came from behind to beat the Denver Nuggets 92-89 Saturday.
The corrupt, contrived sentimentality of big-time college sports has created a glaring, and increasingly untenable, discrepancy between what players get and what everyone else in their food chain reaps.
Chauncey Billups was the Knicks point guard for a New York minute. He played in just 22 games, including the playoffs, last season and wasn’t around long enough to help the combination of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire become a winning one. Now far removed from Madison Square Garden and playing nurturing veteran to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin with the Clippers, Billups still believes that Anthony and Stoudemire can succeed together with the right supporting cast.
Josh Harrellson, the unheralded second round pick out of Kentucky, scored 14 points with 12 rebounds in his first NBA start as the Knicks closed out the calendar year with a convincing 114-92 victory over the hapless 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).
The legend still grows….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b9GFQzjPj4
Secondsies!!
they call him Brad Miller Lite…aka JORTS!!!! Nice game from the rook but I don’t wanna get ahead of myself. We all know the kid can play, but I think he shot too many 3′s..way too many for a 275 lb guy. Honestly..I’m surprised Novak didn’t get the nod to spread the floor more for Melo. Still, Jorts did REALLY WELL. I think Douglas shot too much last nite..but he did however, do a great job of gettin Chandler involved. I thought Jordan did well too. But most of all, I liked the fact that Melo didn’t force alot and he seemed content with not takin all the shots. Translation: He’s beginning to trust his teammates more. Good job without Amare out there. 1 sour note: Chandler has to stick to his game and realize he’s not Ben Wallace, Bill Russell, Dikembe Mutombo, or Alonzo Mourning out there. He is a reliable double double guy and a good paint protector. But he’s not ultra physical and he’s more of a shot alterer than a shot blocker..and that’s where he’s gettin most of his early fouls. Blocks are really not a key indicator of paint presence. It’s the whole package..as evidenced by what he did in Dallas last season. He can be more like Camby was tho..maybe not as good a rebounder..but he definitely can be that type of presence. We need him to get that in order in time to play against the really good to great bigs (Booz, D12, Bynum, Griffin, Love, Bogut, Garnett..etc). He will, I suppose it’s a matter of time. He just needs to continue to communicate and motivate back there and just do what he naturally does..he may be putting too much pressure on himself since we’ve been sorely lacking paint presence and he is makin a good chunk of change
I am glad Jorts is doing well because in other news Mozgov had 8 points 10 rebounds 2 assists and 4 blocks in 26 minutes for Denver against LA last night.
Yes and he also got torched for 29 points by Bynum. Its always a good idea to microanalyze one game at a time
After the rockets, the Knicks might be the best talent evaluators in the draft. Every guy they get turns out to be good despite expectations, to the point where It’s starting to become common to see second round picks starting games for the Knicks the season they were drafted.
I don’t know if you can really fault Mozgov when the Nuggets blew the lead with him on the bench. Nene was a -11 +/-.
Meanwhile, Gallinari shot 3-12, got to the line twice, and blew an open, fast break layup that would have tied the game with 4 seconds left. Ouch.
Correction, Danilo shot 1-2 from the free throw line. Also, 0-4 from beyond the arc.
P.P.S. If you don’t like microanalysis, you’re in the wrong place, buddy. :)
Obviously, Jorts is the story of the game. The team looked much better. They got Tyson involved and I remember at least two really nice pick and rolls with him and TD. 8 asts for TD. Melo was his usual beautiful self killing people who try to guard him plus 7 rb’s 5 asts and no TO’s
Jorts 5 offensive rebounds!
Tyson Chandler now leads the league in Offensive Rating. His impact on the game last night was enormous.
TD made some very nice passes, looked much more like a PG than in first 3 games, which is not necessarily saying much. Seems like he’s getting a bit of chemistry going with Chandler.
Good to hear that Shump will be back sooner rather than later. Considering that he looked done for the season when he was carried to the locker room, quite a relief, as I may have been his biggest fan here at draft time.
Jorts is a fun player to root for, hope he continues to shine. Love the way he defends the post, reminds me of Kendrick Perkins. The 3-pt shot is a bonus, he looks pretty confident taking it. He probably knocks Balkman out of the rotation, though.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more 1-dimensional player than Novak. Dude can shoot the 3, though.
Jordan Hill had a good game last night, and may be coming around. People were down on him on draft night, but he was viewed as a project who came late to the game. He may turn out to be a pretty good pick, not necessarily better than Lawson or Blair, but not a bust.
One yellow light on Jorts — he allows his man to get a lot of offensive rebounds. He is so aggressive in bodying up in the post and contesting the shot, that he does not get into good defensive rebounding position.
In the meanwhile, how about some love for Landry Fields. He offensively carried the Knicks during the first period. His dunk off of the ‘Melo pick was a thing of beauty.
I still do not understand how the Kings team we saw last night beat the Lakers.
The Kings might be the worst team in the league right now. Just sayin’.
I’d go w/ the Wiz.
Love it. For all the struggle over the ball between Amar’e and ‘Melo, at least Carmelo is leading the league in free throw attempts.
Ephus -
Also just noticed Demarcus is leading the league in offensive rebound pct., for whatever that’s worth.
Guys until you have seen the Pistons, Suns, and Cavaliers play reserve judgement on the kings. There are a lot of bad teams this year
My vote would be New Jersey (as currently constructed of course)
Kings are bad, but there were still some good signs for the Knicks. Toronto is probably a bit better than the Kings, so a good barometer game tomorrow.
Alas, Gang Green is now Rigor Mortis
Rex will shortly guarantee that the Jets will be in next year’s Super Bowl
Anyone know about the Time Warner mess. Should I change to Direct TV? Any ideas. I don’t mind waiting a week, but after that it will be tough. I’m all bundled with TW and very bummed.
Sorry to double post, but Chauncey was pretty darn classy in the Daily News article. Nice to see.
NBA league pass broadband works great.
Demarcus Cousins demands a trade… can’t see him ending up in a Knicks uni, but that’s interesting.
http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/217970/Cousins_Demands_Trade_From_Kings
No, Cousins certainly doesn’t end up here. But what IS a likely destination for him? Who needs a talented but hot-headed big man and has assets to give up? And what do the Kings want back?
Somebody fire up the Trade Machine!
From what I can tell Demarcus Cousins seems to suck. Good rebounder but pitifully inefficient on offense. Plus he’s a massive pain in the ass. Who would want him really?
Varejao for Cousins straight up works. Cleveland gets a high risk, high reward youngster to team with Irving and Thompson, Kings get a high-energy big who doesn’t need the ball to be effective.
Let’s see… currently worst offensive rebounding team in the NBA
Jorts for Cousins.
Jim, Sideshow Bob seems more of a final piece on a rising contender, especially with that contract. Plus, the Kings already have Chuck Hayes as their glue guy big man, no?
For the Time Warner People on this board, right now MSG HD has been replaced by NBA TV HD. Also NBA League Pass seems to work from channels 401-405 and 412 for NBA League Pass HD. I don’t know how long this is going to last but at least I get to watch some games. I haven’t checked if the Raptors vs Knicks game tomorrow is available.
This is true about Hayes, but it’s not as if his skill set wouldn’t translate to the PF slot. I just think with such a wing-heavy and wing-focused offense, a guy like Varejao could be pretty useful and effective.
Now Cousins’ agent is saying his client never demanded a trade — naturally. So who knows at this point.
Yeah, but the story I linked says that Westphal issued a statement and that he’s not travelling with the team. A situation like that doesn’t tend to improve.
Right. It’s already not being handled well. If Cousins is in fact demanding a trade, I think you do your best to keep that fact quiet and try and get the best deal possible for him. Obviously questions about his attitude are going to be posed by any team even remotely interested, but I think drawing it out into the spotlight like this can only hurt the possible haul the Kings might get.
True. On the other hand, you would think Kings management would want to get Hickson into the starting lineup if Cousins were to beshipped out.
Would Washington want to put Cousins and Wall together again? The Wizards have some interesting pieces, big and small.
Watching Anthony Randolph implode right now.
Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz…
… sorry. The Knicks are the worst offensive rebounding team in the league. Just take a shot on the guy. We’ll teach him how to behave.
Why? We have Chandler at C, no need for Cousins and his bad attitude.
The non-Knicks basketball fan in me would love to see Wall and Cousins back on the same team. They’re both not good enough that they can get another Top 5 pick this year and potentially snag Harrison Barnes. That would be some team down in Washington.
Honestly if you don’t wanna go that route to see what is going to happen you could just watch the games on feeds for the time being. And generally speaking it’s not hard to connect your tv to your computer. I watch all of the games that way other than nationally televised games. I think they’ll end up working it out though so I wouldn’t be so fast to jump to DTV.
Deron Williams has been stinking out the joint all season long in New Jersey. He was 6-16 tonight with 5 assists and 6 turnovers. That’s 28 assists, 24 turnovers now on the season with a TS% way under .500.
I cannot believe the Cousins situation. WTF?
Nice to see Gallo make up for the blown Laker game. The Knuggets are looking quite good.
It is also nice to see Jordan Hill doing better for Houston.
Watching Jorts he really surprised me defensively. In fact he has looked good defensively since preseason. I thought his lack of athleticism would kill him but he has quick hands and is physical. I was not a believer but I’m coming around.
Looking at his game last night spacing the floor, only taking shots that are available, I think we should use Amare like that. It was very similar to the game Amare had against Boston, Amares is better of course I’m not comparing them, just their roles.
The big difference I saw against Sacremento was patience the Knicks were really letting the game come to them. There were a handful of forced shots by Douglas and Melo but both were moving the ball and people were taking the shots that the ball movement and defense gave them not forcing the issue and getting in trouble.
On a side note Rubio has looked fantastic. He is going to be a star and the Wolves will challange for a playoff spot this year.
@42 It is NOT nice to see Jordan Hill doing better for Houston :)
Although I’m not too worried that it will keep up.
@43 I agree, Harrelson looks like a nice surprise. They’re going to have to pick the right spots for him. He understands the game and looks very strong, so he can body up and keep people away from the basket. But quicker guys, and taller players who can shoot right over him, will be trouble. I don’t want to see him trying to guard Chris Bosh.
And of course he can shoot, and was a pretty good rebounder in college.
I didn’t think he’d be an NBA player this year, but looks like he could provide solid backup minutes for Chandler and Stoudemire.