Knicks Morning News (Sunday, Jan 13 2013)
January 13th, 2013 by Mike Kurylo | @KnickerBlogger | Comments | Permalink |
Mike Woodson should stop at the Duane Reade near the Garden, buy the biggest alarm clock he can find and bring into the locker room for today’s noon start against lowly New Orleans.
His Knicks need to wake up.
They simply haven’t been ready to play at the…
All indications are the Knicks not only will see the Pistons and the sights while in London, but Iman Shumpert as well.
Shumpert, who tore his left ACL and meniscus in the playoffs last April, could make his long-awaited season debut when the Knicks play in London on Thursday, coach…
It wasn’t all that long ago that descriptions like “championship contendersâ? were applied to the Knicks.
Now, with the season not even half over, their best player calls today’s meeting in the Garden against the team with the worst record in the West a “must win.â?
That’s…
Dirk Nowitzki is coming along gradually. Maybe the Dallas Mavericks are, too.
Mario Chalmers had career highs with 10 3-pointers and 34 points to lead the Miami Heat to a 128-99 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night.
Luis Scola and the fast-paced Phoenix Suns heaved a collective sigh of relief after snapping a 12-game road losing streak with a rousing 97-81 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
The Knicks found themselves short-handed again Friday night with Marcus Camby out two to four weeks with a foot injury.
A success at every level, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant has had little experience with struggling on the basketball court.
Luis Scola scored 22 points to help the Phoenix Suns beat the Chicago Bulls 97-81 Saturday night, snapping a five-game losing streak.
Luis Scola and the fast-paced Phoenix Suns snapped a 12-game road losing streak with a rousing 97-81 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Jrue Holiday scored 30 points, Thaddeus Young had 18 points and 12 rebounds and the Philadelphia 76ers snapped a five-game losing streak with a 107-100 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.
Al Jefferson scored 10 of his 20 points in the third quarter, and the Utah Jazz rallied to beat the Detroit Pistons 90-87 on Saturday night.
George Hill scored 19 points, D.J. Augustin added a season-high 18 and the Indiana Pacers beat the Charlotte Bobcats 96-88 Saturday night for their fourth straight win.
John Wall gave his teammates a lift with 14 points and four assists in his first game of the season, and the worst-in-NBA Washington Wizards have their first winning streak after a 93-83 victory Saturday night over the Atlanta Hawks.
The high-flying Los Angeles Clippers came down to earth with an unexpected late bump in a 104-101 loss to the Orlando Magic on Saturday, their first defeat at home after a franchise record 13-game win streak.
The rebuilt and rebranded Nets have won five in a row to improve to 7-1 under Coach P. J. Carlesimo.
Coach Mike Woodson said he would not push the Knicks, the oldest team in the league, by holding practice on a day of rest after back-to-back games. But after three straight losses, he changed his mind.
Mike Woodson doesn't like the way the Knicks are allowing themselves to be pushed around and get "out-toughed," and he said it's about time they showed some resistance.
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).
These 1 quarter starts have been demoralizing. We dont have an adequate 2. Start JR!!! He can also help Kidd bring the ball up.
Have to stop the bleeding today. I have a feeling that this will be a breakout game for Amare.
Woodson on the miked up session “on offense need ball movement setting screens” interesting.
Knicks 1st quarter defense is beyond atrocious, just inexcusable
This team just cannot get a stop in the first quarter.
It’s a joke already. This team has a very limited ceiling because they simply don’t defend. New Orleans is shooting 70% in this game and the Knicks are playing 100% hero-ball on the offensive end.
The Knicks are a bad team right now, there’s no sugarcoating it.
I’d like to see some more Melo post ups on offense. On defense Chandler and Melo need to lead. Kidd has been playing like crap recently
They had a segment with Melo after a break where he said the problem on defense was “not communicating and getting away from our schemes. ” what that means or who is open to interpretation.
I’m a big Melo fan, but that last sequence was horrendous – he gets blocked on one end, doesn’t get back on the other, Gordon misses a wide open 3, gets his own rebound and ends up scoring underneath – all while Melo is basically standing at midcourt. Just unacceptable
Speaking of slow starts: game thread?
Seemed to me like they’re missing Sheed.
Defense appears to be tightening up.
Eric Gordon’s return means the worst player in the NBA, Austin Rivers, gets DNPs every game. This has immensely improved the Hornets as a team.
WHAT IS JR THINKING. OR NOT THINKING.
JR geezus.
So… how late was JR up last night?
Melo shooting a sweet 1-8 so far.
Re: the difference between starting and coming off the bench. Amare scored over Jason Smith (PF-Ryan Anderson) had he started he would have been defended by Robin Lopez and/or Anthony Davis. (I know cherry picking)
Teams I’m convinced are worlds better than us and that we have zero chance of beating in a series:
Miami
Chicago (even without Rose)
Indy (even without Granger)
Boston
It’s simple: We can’t score on good defenses and we can’t get any stops against anyone at any time.
Anyone miss Jeremy Lin? I said when we lost him he was the difference in terms of depth between us being an okay team and a great team. Looks like I couldn’t have been more right.
So much for not giving up another 29 point first quarter.
SHUT UP I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT. *cries*
Utter stupidity. He needs to be in pass or drive mode today cany hit anything. Momentum killer
I’d like to believe that, but NO just missing a lot of open shots
Here’s a radical idea: since Melo and JR have started out 1-12 and Amar’e has already scored on his one attempt in the post and drawn a foul on another possession, maybe, just maybe, try to get him some more shots on the block and get him going on offense?
Let’s see what the team looks like at full strength before making crazy statements like that…..they’re playing terrible right now without Sheed, Felton and Shumpbut let’s not get carried away
I forgot, probably Brookyln too, and maybe the Sixers once Bynum’s back.
That’s some big boy effort from STAT.
This. JR keeps chucking though
Ronnie Brewer finishing around the basket makes Jarred Jeffries look like Tyson Chandler.
Let’s keep feeding amare pls
It’s not a crazy statement. Crazy would be to say the early stretch with 45% 3p shooting and Felton shooting efficiently and Kidd having a career year at 40 is sustainable.
If your team is completely helpless without a below league avg PG who can’t manage 50% TS, a guy pushing 40 who hasn’t played near a full season in half a decade, and an athleticism-reliant guard who will never be the same, there are significant structural problems.
This is a 45 win team that started hot, like the Sixers did last year.
Could have been better if we didn’t let the best PG on the roster walk away for absolutely nothing, leaving us the worst PG rotation in the league. With Felton out it might be the worst in Knick history.
Ugh, Novak’s man doubles on Melo in the post and Melo spins in the other direction to brick a fadeaway over both defenders?
Melo pass the fucking ball
I’ll take Priggi Smalls and Kidd over Toney Douglas and Baron Davis eight days a week, but yes, the PG rotation is sub-optimal right now.
I disagree with this on so many levels so let’s just agree to disagree…I’m sure having Felton, Shump and a healthy Amare back will only hurt the team going forward.
Melo is playing like a big JR right now. Get your ass in the post and pass when double-teamed Melo. The shots off
Relax. Knicks are going through a rough patch, that’s all. It happens. It’s January. It’s not a big deal. I’m a Heat fan, and the Heat have been also not been playing great ball the past few games. The Celtics are not a better team than the Knicks, and will be fighting for a 7th seed. They’ve had a hot stretch the past few games, but again, teams have hot and cold stretches over the course of 82 games. The Bulls will be a tough out in the playoffs, especially once they have Rose back, but I don’t think they’re better than the Knicks without him. Finally, Lin has not even been that good in Houston, so I highly doubt he is the difference between the Knicks being a great team. Step away from the ledge. The Knicks will be fine.
TOO MUCH BALL MOVEMENT
lol
Melo is regressing to the mean right before our very eyes.
I knew the .600 TS% Melo was too good to be true.
KG must have said something really disturbing to Melo, he’s been playing like garbage since Monday.
Brewer has a bad habit of passing up open layups
Garnett just stomped on his mind grapes
Ronnie Brewer is seriously making a difference out there on defense. Has anyone else noticed NO has only scored 5 points this quarter?
KG melted his thoughtsicles
Melo looks seriously relieved.
And we have the lead!
Melo’s soup has now reached a rolling boil
Chandlers effort level has gone way up!
It’s bubbling over. Still needs to pass on doubles though
Can I just point out how fucked up it is that Shumpert’s season debut will be at 3:00pm on a Thursday?
There’s your ball movement, you jackals.
Melo last shot 3?
29 point 1Q
12 point 2Q
Not bad.
on another continent.
really ugly first six minutes, nice comeback after that.
The Hornets are on a 4 game winning streak, beating San Antonio, Houston, Minnesota and Dallas, the last three by seven points or more.
With Davis and Gordon, they’re probably something like a 45-48 win team. That’s a pretty good team when healthy. So don’t underestimate playing well against them.
Box score might not make it look so (although he was a team leading +11) but it sure felt like Prigs was the biggest reason the Knicks turned it around in the 1st half. Plus benching JR for most of the 2nd quarter. Melo getting hot helped a bit too lol.
Right, I’m just saying it would be nice for us desk jockeys to be able to watch it in real time.
Maybe JR Smith’s headband was just cutting off circulation to his brain?
This might be Amare’s worst game of the season.
I can’t believe that Amar’e being a better rim protecter than Tyson was even a topic of discussion on this board lol. Rim protecting might not be Tyson’s strong suit, but he is still worlds better in that category than anyone on the team (except Camby).
I disagree, he is just not getting the ball at all!
Not talking about offensively. He has been beaten to a few rebounds and is fouling guys left and right. Did play good D on Vazquez at the end of the quarter though when he was isolated on him.
Interesting to see how long Melo sits at the start of this quarter.
Now Amare with a nice contest of a Davis jumper!!
If Novak is making his threes it’s game over lol.
Now Amare with nice help on D forcing a 24 sec violation. I may have spoke too soon lol.
Nice to see the Knicks pull away with Melo on the bench. Was worried at the start of this quarter.
I don’t know, he’s been up and down on defense as usual (but made some good plays recently) and the Knicks are getting all kind of wide open looks from 3 off the Stat/Pablo PnR. It’s amazing how little they look to actually get him shots though.
… and then he commits a dumb foul and goes back to the bench, never mind
Kidd for JR pls
I thought Stat looked very good
Totally agree about Amare on offense. He has shown some nice post moves although his jumper is still way off but yeah the lack of touches especially off the PnR is perplexing. Although I guess am glad they arent force feeding him either. Slow process getting him back in the flow, at least physically for the most part he looks good.
lol Tyson straight up stuffed him on the perimeter.
JR with a terrible game. Let’s get some stat post ups please
terrible offensive game by Anthony. HE needs to pass out of the double instead of shooting turning away from the double. That’s a few games in a row where he has stop passing out of the double.
Hornets have only scored 52 points (so far) through the last 3 quarters–not bad.
I take it back, this might be Amare’s best game of the season lol.
Anthony Davis cannot guard that Amare guy.
Much needed win. Nice to see them put this game away in the 4th.
lol where’s dogrufus and his doom and gloom prognostications?
Good bounceback win.
Thank you, schedule makers, this stretch of 2 games in 7 days couldn’t come at a better time (and both very winnable obviously)
BBA: I noticed that, especially at the end, Amar’e had one or two very good traps and a few good rotations. When the guards went the other way on picks they seemed to get Amar’e out of position.
Regarding the pick and roll, he seemed to be cutting well. But when the defense aggressively stops the roll, you have to take the best shot available and go for the 3 pointers.
There was a nice play giving to Amar’e on the left elbow making it look like an iso but leading to a handoff.
His biggest problems were some incredibly stupid fouls.
Done that his whole career. I thought Amar’e was great.
we really could use the good JR back ASAP, this one is brutal.
reShumpification is imminent, at long last.
He forced some today, but did make passes out of the double. But looked to get his shot going and didn’t get after the basket today.
3 bad games. It’s a rough stretch. Shouldn’t last long.
Need to get JR off the ball again. he is tired.
lmao
I think the thing is as some have mentioned here before is that when Amare makes a mistake on defense it is usually something so bad/stupid it just stands out so much, similar to Novak. You just cant help but notice it so you remember those plays easily. The dumb fouls and getting clearly beat for rebounds at times doesnt help either.
He did play pretty damn good in the 4th quarter though, next step is for his jumper to return to pre-2012 form.
I totally agree with this– JR’s worst tendencies take over when he has the rock in his hand too much.
Apparently Amar’e just set a career low for FGA over a four game span, which would help explain why the jumper has looked shaky. Hard to get into rhythm on that shot when you take no more of them than Kurt Thomas.
Just got back from the game. Couple more positive Amare notes. He has not been turning the ball over at a high rate which we all thought would be a major concern. His double teaming and man to man D is actually aggressive so it works and he seems to get involved with forcing some turnovers (yes the rebs and mistakes are glaring.)
Also bad JR is 3-11 but the new bad JR also gets 4 boards and 6 assists and 2 steals and decent D.
I believe he had to get back to the Atlanta studio. Kenny, Ernie, & Shaq were waiting.
lol
He’s had zero turnovers in the last four games against some pretty good defensive teams. I’d say a lot of that is a lot of his touches are coming in the post where he’s been getting pretty deep post position and his footwork in the post has been pretty good- thanks Hakeem! It makes you wonder what kind of season he might be having if he hadn’t injured the knee.
Just read Carmelo Anthony told reporters he’s been on a 15 day fast “for spiritual reasons”. That really does explain a lot. You need to be completely resting when you’re doing a fast. Poor shooting = fatigue from undernourishment. Blowing a gasket over KG = increased irritability.
I still don’t understand how Olajuwon did it during Ramadan every year.
also, lol
No one knows why he does it. I don’t think his people tell him to go on a mid-season cleanse. He’s got a nutritionist.
Right. Really deep position against smaller players, and he’ll always be able to go right by bigger players. I think he looks really good. That go around the basket turnaround 180 is vintage Amar’e (he learned that from Allen Iverson)– a play maybe only Griffin has the athleticism to make among power forwards.
His finishing and shooting will come.
Why oh why would you randomly fast in the middle of the season unless you’re reeeeally observant of a religion that demands it? Just seems crazy to me. Though it would explain why he flipped out when Kevin Garnett mentioned honey nut cheerios. Just imagine what he’d have done if KG had whispered “ham sandwich” in his ear all game long.
Amare is looking better and better. I wonder where he tops out. He seems to have lost lots of lift. If he doesn’t get most of it back, the jumper becomes even more critical.
I guess we have to remember that he hasn’t played much full-speed basketball since May. Rooting for you, STAT!
haha
keep in min that for a good portion of last season his long back-related layoff made people think he had “lost it,” and that it wasn’t until the end of the season that his lift was back to normal. Since this was a much slower layoff I think this time around the transition will be slower.
Z-man:
Amare is looking better and better. I wonder where he tops out. He seems to have lost lots of lift. If he doesn’t get most of it back, the jumper becomes even more critical.
I guess we have to remember that he hasn’t played much full-speed basketball since May. Rooting for you, STAT!
Right? This is so perfect. They might only play one more game before Felton returns! Talk about great timing!
Not sure why our starting lineup (for now) isn’t Prigs, Kidd, Copeland/Brewer, Melo, and Chandler. I truly think James White is useless, and trotting him (or Brewer) out there for a couple minutes just to keep JR on the bench seems silly.
Prigs is probably better at playing PG (in this system) right now than Kidd is, not just because he seems to be able to turn the corner a little better than Kidd at this point in Kidd’s career, but also because he probably can tolerate the extra needed energy expenditure better than Kidd also. Kidd can go back to his SG / ball-moving ways. Copeland’s versatile offense is huge with this unit, and we all know Melo is better at the 4.
Then take out Kidd 6 minutes into the game when JR comes in. Play Prigs 10 minutes or so in the first, then bring back Kidd. JR/Melo/Kidd can split primary ballhandler duty until ~5-6 min left in the 2nd, when you can put Prigs/Kidd combo back on the floor together.
Whatevs – this will all be better when Shump can give us 20 min or so, and then Felton will be back hopefully in 1-2 weeks. can’t wait until Sheed, Felton, and Shump are all available, and we can glue Brewer and White to the bench.