Knicks Morning News (Sunday, Jan 27 2013)
January 27th, 2013 by Mike Kurylo | @KnickerBlogger | Comments | Permalink |
PHILADELPHIA — J.R. Smith is in the midst of a miserable shooting slump.
The Knicks’ sixth man missed all eight of his attempts on Saturday against Philly.
In all, he’s missed 21 of his last 24 shots.
Mike Woodson called Smith’s shooting slump a “major concern.”
“J.R. is a big part of what we do on both ends of the floor. He didn’t even make a shot tonight (so we’ve) got to program him back to playing, Woodson said. “…. We’re going to need it.
PHILADELPHIA — Mike Woodson was just like any Knick fan forced to watch his team’s awful outing against the Philadelphia 76ers: absolutely disgusted.
“We just didn’t have any effort tonight. It started right from the beginning — layup after layup,” Woodson said after the Knicks’ 97-80 loss in Philadelphia. “We didn’t come to compete tonight, and that’s kind of disappointing.”
It was a rare display of public frustration from the Knicks coach.
Nicolas Batum had 20 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 12 assists for his second triple-double in a week and the Portland Trail Blazers handed the Los Angeles Clippers their fourth straight loss with a 101-100 victory on Saturday night.
Al Jefferson scored 25 points and Paul Millsap had 21, leading the Utah Jazz to a 114-110 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.
Deron Williams scored 20 points in the first quarter but was held to 7 points the rest of the game, and the Nets struggled to contain Houston early.
Washington’s Emeka Okafor dominated inside as the improving Wizards stunned the Chicago Bulls 86-73 to record their fifth straight home win on Saturday.
Ty Lawson scored 26 points, Andre Iguodala had 20 and the Denver Nuggets used a strong first three quarters to rout the Sacramento Kings 121-93 on Saturday night.
For the first 32 games of the season, the Washington Wizards were a sorry bunch â?? winning only four times. The comical comparison was the Washington Generals â?? the punching bag for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Brandon Jennings scored 20 points to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 109-102 victory over the Golden State Warriors Saturday night.
Tony Parker had 31 points and the San Antonio Spurs earned their eighth consecutive win by shutting down the Phoenix Suns in the final quarter for a 108-99 victory on Saturday night.
The Charlotte Bobcats’ long home losing streak is over.
James Harden scored 29 points, Chandler Parsons added 16 points and a career-high 11 assists and the Houston Rockets beat Brooklyn 119-106 on Saturday night for their 12th consecutive win over the Nets.
Even with their full complement of talented, confident and expensive pieces at their disposal, the Knicks were unable to slow down the 76ers and Jrue Holiday, who scored 35 points.
Kyrie Irving made a 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 99-98 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night.
Jrue Holiday scored a career-high 35 points, Nick Young had 20 and the Philadelphia 76ers cruised to a 97-80 victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday night.
The spark Raymond Felton’s return was supposed to provide never materialized. Instead, the best point guard on the floor was Jrue Holiday, the best team the Sixers. It wasn’t even close.
PHILADELPHIA â?? Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder. That certainly applies to Raymond Felton, who made his return to the Knicks lineup last night against the 76ers after missing 12 games with a broken right pinkie.
In his absence, the Knicks looked like a vulnerable team, a team…
PHILADELPHIA â?? It was a tough month for Jason Kidd without Raymond Felton. Last night, it was a tough night with Felton.
Felton wasn’t sharp in his return from a monthlong absence because of a broken right pinkie. He finished 2-for-8 for eight points with three assists and two turnovers…
PHILADELPHIA â?? Raymond Felton’s return made the Knicks as close to whole as they had been all season. Getting him back to run the point was supposed to heal their ills.
Instead, as the Knicks hit their official season 41-game midpoint, they never looked less like a championship contender than…
Fresh off his return from a left knee injury in last year’s playoffs, Knicks guard Iman Shumpert took a shot at a Q&A session with Post columnist Steve Serby.Q: Do you think you’re perfect for the New York market?
A: I think so. I think I…
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).
Hehe, Simmons did a live draft for the Celtics/Knicks game and he had an astute shot at Woodson’s strategy in the game (which most of us took issue with at the time, especially the whole “not posting Amar’e with Pierce guarding him” thing).
Pretty funny.
I actually thought that whole piece was pretty funny and spot-on, despite my general dislike for Simmons. Maybe it was the gleeful hangover from the win, though.
Sad news for Rondo and whatever team was going to trade for him. Why couldn’t it have been KG or Pierce?
I said this in the other thread, but now KG and/or Pierce are going to end up somewhere else and could be back in our way again. The only Eastern contender I can see Boston doing a trade with is Brooklyn, since they have no rivalry with them.
Rondo’s got a torn ACL. That should put an end to any thoughts of Boston being a threat.
Celts almost certainly blow it up now.
Yeah, and KG just fumbled away a rebound that would have iced the game, allowing Lebron to hit a game tying three…..
Twitter is abuzz with trades for Celts. I like this one:
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=aob34up
For those too lazy to click:
Boston gets: Pekovic, Shved, Stiemsma, Gay
Minny gets: Garnett, Fab Melo
Memphis gets: Pierce
Maybe Minny gets a pick or 3 or some other throw-in to make it a little better for them.
Good win for the Celts!
Looks good for Boston but why would KG go to Minny?
Hah, it would be too delicious for KG to have his ass shipped back to Minny.
I’m a little afraid that this Rondo injury will turn into a Duncan situation where Boston deals away as much salary as they can, tank like crazy and end up with a much higher draft pick than they deserve, only for Rondo to come back next season and launch them right back into the playoffs.
Then again, I have no idea if there are any game-changing players in next year’s draft–probably nobody even close to Duncan’s level. But if Boston gets a top-5 pick because of this while also having an excuse to shed salary I’m going to be pissed.
What about this one:
Brooklyn gets:
Kevin Garnett
Paul Pierce
Boston gets:
Brook Lopez
Marshon Brooks
Kris Humphries (cap filler)
whatever draft pick BK still have
Is it me or is Wade turning into Jr Smith. I didn’t start watching until the 4th but he looked bad out there relying on gimmicks to get fouls then getting angry when he doesn’t get the calls which leads to him forcing the issue or throwing elbows. Maybe he is JR. Garnett?
Yes, I realize that wade is way better than JR but his game is regressing rapidly
Rondo is pretty great but he is no Tim Duncan….
Also, Wade’s numbers look nothing like Smith’s….
In an off year his usage is 29% and his ts% is at 58%.