INDIANAPOLIS — If you’re looking for someone to blame for the New York Knicks’ 3-1 series deficit to the Indiana Pacers, J.R. Smith has a suggestion for you: start with him.”I take the blame for this whole series,” Smith said after shooting 7-for-22 in the Knicks’ Game 4 loss. “It started off with Game 4 in Boston or Game 5. I haven’t been playing myself. I haven’t been playing my part. I’ve been letting my teammates down. I’ve been letting my coaches down.
INDIANAPOLIS — In an attempt to neutralize the Pacers size advantage, Mike Woodson went with a bigger starting five for Game 4. He inserted Kenyon Martin into the starting lineup and took out Pablo Prigioni. The bigger front line didn’t produce the desired results. The Knicks were out rebounded, 54-36. Indiana had 16 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points. The Pacers outscored the Knicks, 36-26, in the paint. “Rebounding wise we got hammered on the boards again,” Woodson said after the Knicks’ Game 4 loss.
HEROIt was the Georges — Pacers star Paul George was terrific, flirting with a triple-double thanks to 18 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, not to mention two blocks. And point guard George Hill poured in a game-high 26 points.
ZEROIt feels like J.R. Smith has earned this…
INDIANAPOLIS — Carmelo Anthony spoke in a whisper. J.R. Smith took blame for this collapse. Tyson Chandler had no criticism, just praise for the Pacers. Mike Woodson seemed stunned their shotmaking has gone so wayward, so quickly.
The Knicks have sunk in a deep hole, a series deficit from which…
INDIANAPOLIS — Carmelo Anthony boldly declared last night he believes the Knicks “are the better team” in this series and remains confident his squad can surge back from a 3-1 deficit.
“I believe. I really believe that we can do something special here. I’m very confident that we can do…
INDIANAPOLIS — When it came to the offensive woes last night, J.R. Smith didn’t want to hear about past issues with ball movement.
“We moved the ball. We’re still missing shots,” Smith said. “I don’t think that’s the problem.”
Yes, there were a slew of clanging…
INDIANAPOLIS — Knicks center Tyson Chandler emphatically said his critical comments after Saturday night’s game and after Sunday’s practice were not directed at Carmelo Anthony.
“I pulled Melo to the side. I’m a man of my words,” Chandler said. “None of the words were directed at him. I…
INDIANAPOLIS — If ever realistic opportunity presented itself for the Knicks after halftime Tuesday night, it came relatively early in the third quarter. At 7:17, with the Knicks gaining something resembling momentum, Indiana’s behemoth in the middle, Roy Hibbert, picked up his fourth foul and earned a seat on…
INDIANAPOLIS — After leading all rebounders in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semis against the Knicks, Brooklyn’s own Lance Stephenson has been almost the forgotten starter for the Pacers.
Well, he reminded everybody of his presence in a big fourth-quarter way Tuesday night.
KNICKS PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
PHOTOS: BEST PLAYOFF…
INDIANAPOLIS — When the epitaph of this cruel tease of a season is written, it should begin with the utter disintegration and disappearance of J.R. Smith, who was supposed to be Carmelo Anthony’s wingman but was Rihanna’s instead with everything on the line.
J.R. Smith, who from…
INDIANAPOLIS — The most troubling part is how puzzled they all seem, bereft of answer and explanation. Three times now in four games — and, really, in three out of four quarters in the other one — the Knicks haven’t just been beaten by the Pacers, they’ve been bloodied, battered. Outclassed…
The San Antonio Spurs got the added energy Gregg Popovich wanted against the Golden State Warriors and a stellar performance from Tony Parker that they desperately needed.
The Indiana Pacers finally figured it out.
Tony Parker had 25 points and 10 assists, and the Spurs held the Warriors’ starting backcourt to 13 points for a victory Tuesday night in Game 5.
The San Antonio Spurs routed visiting Golden State 109-91 on Tuesday to grab a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference second round series.
Despite a lineup change, size did not matter Tuesday night. The Pacers were again simply better as they rolled to an 11-point victory and put the Knicks on the brink of elimination.
Iman Shumpert, Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin, key supporting role players, combined to miss all 11 of their field goal attempts and did not take a free throw.
Roy Hibbert and the Pacers handed the Knicks another loss to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal.
Carmelo Anthony was good, not great, in the Knicks’ Game 4 loss to the Pacers, but all around him was a Knicks supporting cast that was disintegrating.
George Hill scored 26 points and Paul George added 18 points and 14 rebounds as the Pacers put the Knicks on the brink of elimination.
Indiana grabbed a 3-1 lead over the New York Knicks in their Eastern Conference second round series on Tuesday, the Pacers suffocating the Knicks on defense and winning the battle of the boards en route to a 93-82 victory.
There would have been no shame in losing a long, tough, close series against the Pacers, a team that earned its way to this point as much as the Knicks did.
J.R. Smith is taking responsibility for the Knicks' 3-1 hole.
Following the Knicks' Game 3 loss to Indiana, center Tyson Chandler stood in front of the microphones and notepads and essentially said to his teammates, "This is your conscience speaking.'' Without naming specific names, Chandler then enumerated the various sins that were committing.
This time, Carmelo Anthony was shut out in the fourth quarter and suffered the indignity of spending the last two minutes on the bench after fouling out. That’s no way for a superstar to rescue his dying team, that’s for sure. And now, the Knicks are in trouble. Big trouble.
Tyson Chandler clarified comments he made about the Knicks being too selfish and insisted he wasn’t talking about Carmelo Anthony. “I want to clear it up,” Chandler said following the Knicks’ 93-82 Game 4 loss. “I wasn’t directing my comments at Carmelo Anthony. I was directing my comments at the New York Knicks.
J.R. Smith has done nothing to live up to that ‘Swish’ moniker throughout these playoffs. His constant misfiring continues to be among the biggest reasons the Knicks trail 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals after their 93-82 loss to the Pacers Tuesday night.
Anthony’s certainly not playing at the level of a player who finished third in the MVP voting, having failed to score a single point in the fourth quarter of Game 4, as the Knicks fell behind in these conference semifinals, 3-1.
WHERE is Ja Ruruland? Somebody get ahold a that motherfucka so I can make some sense of all this!
You know, while I don’t necessarily think that a new coach is all that imperative, it does irk me that the Knicks aren’t even in a position to think about a new coach because Dolan doesn’t like coaches who he can’t control, which is pretty much all of the best coaches.
I’ve been stewing in this all night and I’m even madder this morning.
OK – so let’s say that defensive rebounding really IS the main problem (I don’t think it is, but whatever). So you start Kenyon Martin? He of the 12.9 TRB%? Of the 17.1 DRB which is worse than Thaddeus Young and Luke Babbitt? Or do you choose Marcus Camby, only maybe the best defensive rebounder in the last decade? I understand Camby is in the doghouse, but even in this terrible year for him, his TRB% is 19. Oh, I forgot, we got him to play in May and June. Oh wait – IT IS MAY.
Of course the real problem is scoring. It’s offense. We CAN’T SCORE. So what’s the answer? Let’s put another scoring-deficient player on the floor so the Pacers can pack the paint some more. Let’s take Prigioni off the floor so Jason Kidd, who hasn’t made a 2 point shot since April 7(!!!!!!!!) and hasn’t scored in 2 weeks(!!!!!) can pass up some more open shots and brick some more layups. Let’s NOT do what Miami showed was effective against Indiana last year (put a mobile/shooting big at C to pull Hibbert away from the rim) — let’s play scared, coach scared, and do EXACTLY what Vogel wants us to do. HE EVEN SAID PREGAME IT’S BEEN NICE TO BE ABLE TO KEEP HIBBERT AT THE RIM THIS SERIES!!!!
It’s freaking ridiculous. And the worst part of it? The Pacers are not that good. We were STILL within 8 with 10 minutes left in the 4th.
It’ll be interesting to see what Woodson rolls out for game 5. If I see Kidd out there for more than 5 minutes I’m going to go crazy. Pablo needs at least 4x as many minutes as Kidd. And Cope needs to play. I don’t care that’s it’s pathetic that I think he’ll make all the difference. All I know is our ORtg with Cope on the floor is 120 THIS SERIES and 98 with him off. All I know is our ORtg with Prigs on the floor is 118 and 94 with him off. Of course small samples, single player on/off yada yada. But the other lineups DON’T WORK.
I dunno, Frank, did Woody sound at all like a guy who was going to suddenly reverse course and play Prigs? He made it sound like he had completely soured on Prigs for some unknown reason.
Let’s have a poll.
A. I think Woodson will figure out what is wrong by looking at the tape and the empirical evidence and make the obvious adjustments heading into game 5.
B. I think Woodson will manage the team in game 5 the same way he managed it in game 4, and think that better effort and making shots will be the key.
I vote B all day.
No – he sounded like a guy who has no answers.
I’ve been a Woody fan all year long. I think he’s been great getting guys to buy in, and reining in JR for the most part. But if this is what we’re going to see in the playoffs going forward, let’s just skip all the 2nd round losses and the non-renewal of contract whenever it’s up. Let’s just let him go now. Let’s see Jeff Van Gundy, or even better, Stan Van Gundy sitting on the sidelines at MSG. Let’s get a coach who has already shown he can coach at the highest level and that isn’t 1-11 in his last 12 2nd round playoff games. It’ll never happen because of CAA, but barring some amazing comeback, it should happen.
THCJ – do you still think coaches don’t make a difference? In the last 2 playoff years alone, we’ve seen Spoelstra neutralize Hibbert by going extra small (granted Lebron will make any coach look good). We’ve seen Pop do whatever magic he does to take control of this GSW-SAS series after they were totally outclassed AT HOME in the first 2 games. We’ve seen a George Karl higher-seed team implode AGAIN in the 1st round.
@5 — definitely B. If it’s A I will be happily shocked.
I can’t stop fuming. After having 2 kids and being so busy at work, I didn’t think I had this level of emotion about the Knicks anymore. But to watch a coach so obviously make the wrong moves is just infuriating. And it’s not like anyone thought starting K-Mart and Tyson together was a good idea (other than K-Mart Sr.)– NO ONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA.
In Woodson’s bizarro world, playing to the other team’s strengths is how to win. Playing THEIR game and not OUR game is how to win. It’s not enough that we’re playing in their building — we have to let them choose the style, pace, and rules. Why don’t we just let Vogel choose our rotations? Then we’d save Woody’s playoff salary. It’s a f*cking joke.
it’d be one thing if the Pacers were a juggernaut. But they’re not. They’re not that good. Hibbert will be a nonfactor against Miami in the next round, and I’d be shocked if that series went more than 5 games.
That’s giving him too much credit.
What you’re seeing now, this IS his first idea. What we got in the regular season was thrust upon him by injuries to our big men.
When you look at those two amazing stretches: 18-5 & 18-2, what did they both have in common?
Most of our bigs were hurt and he didn’t have the option of starting two of them. (Or when he did, he had Rasheed.)
Our success was a complete accident. Or, as this smart fellow put it:
This has been the M.O. of his entire coaching career in Atlanta, right? 50 win teams and embarrassing playoff exits featuring heavy isolation offense.
We’ll never get rid of him, though, because what he managed to accomplish in Atlanta (consistently in the playoffs, sometimes to the second round) is great for MSG’s bottom line. Throw in the fact that he’s Dolan Compliant, and we’ve got Coach W*****n with us for a long, long time, guys.
Get comfortable.
And one more thing — as horrible as JR has been in the last 6 games, at least he had the stones to stand up and take responsibility. He’s the least leader-like guy on the team, and at least he had the courage stand up. Freaking Tyson Chandler is getting owned by the Pacers inside, and he calls out Melo, then “everyone”. No Tyson– as the center, 1st team all-D, and DPOY last year, it’s ON YOU that we’re getting crushed on our defensive boards. It’s ON YOU as a leader of the team that we feel the need to double freaking Roy Hibbert in the post. As a leader, when Woodson says “let’s double Hibbert so their guys can shoot wide open 3′s when Kidd’s walker gets stuck in traffic” — you tell him “WTF? Double Roy Hibbert? You must be kidding.”
Oh, and by the way, nice technical foul last night. I love giving up points for free when we can’t score.
Wow – I am so salty this morning. I even slept well.
Can you not do this, though? It’s really irritating, sorry. I know everyone is frustrated with the coach, but spelling his name out doesn’t make you an accessory to his failure (and by the same token, replacing his name with asterisks accomplishes nothing).
What if I went with Vogel’s B1tch? ;)
It would really be funny if Woodson went small out of desperation, the Knicks won, and Melo called him a genius for doing it. OK, I know. I am an optimist. Here’s another dream-Kmart wins it in game 7 with a 3 from the top of the key.
I can’t take it-my expectations were finally raised for the first time since the 90′s, only to be crushed again by Dolan.
Frank mentioned several times in this thread that the Pacers are not that good, and I totally agree. They are so limited offensively, and really the only guy who can break you down off the dribble is Paul George, and he’s not even that good at it. They are a great defensive team and an excellent rebounding team, but can look completely incompetent trying to run offensive sets.
So our advantage is supposed to be offense, and theirs is defense, and what do we do? Play big and try to be more like them. Unbelievable.
Don’t know how many Jews we have on the board, but I was reminded last night of a Jewish passover song called Dayenu. Dayenu means roughly “It would have been enough” and the song is about being grateful for all the gifts god has given us. It has a repetitive structure that goes like:
If He had brought us out from Egypt and not carried out justice against them, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If He had carried about judgement against them and not smashed their idols, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If He had smashed their idols, and had not smitten their first born, dayenu, it would have been enough.
And it goes on like that. You get the picture. Anyway the reason I thought of it last night is because whatever god watches over the Knicks is exactly like that, except the complete fucking opposite. Honestly if one freaking thing would go the Knicks way I really think we would be winning this series, but one thing is apparently too damn much to ask for. I mean we did literally everything wrong last night. Everything. And they shot well. And it was still an 8 point game in the 4th. Anyway without further ado, Knicks dayenu.
If we had just played Prigoni, and still shot 0% on wide open 3s, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If we had just made some shots, and not gotten any rebounds, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If we had just gotten some rebounds, and not played Cope, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If we had played Cope, and JR had gone 1-47, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If JR had not gone 1-324, and Kidd still got to play, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If Kidd had been euthanized, and Shump was mysteriously stuck on the bench, dayenu, it would have been enough.
If Shump had gotten back in the rotation, and Woodson was still our coach, dayenu, it would have been enough.
But most of all, if we had a competent coach, dayenu, it would have been enough.
So we didnt play Prigs because we needed someone who could make shots, and then gave 61 minutes of hoopless floortime to an injured Shumpert, Zombie Kidd, and noted scoring machine Kenyon Martin while two of the better shooters in the nba cooled their heels on the bench. Does this make sense to anyone?
This is maybe the one time we need our crazed New York media to absolutely go nuts on someone. It was beyond obvious to everyone but Woodson that playing the Pacers’ game is not the way to win this series. We can’t score the freaking basketball — put the guys who can shoot in the game, and let the defense figure itself out. News flash: the Pacers offense sucks. They scored 80 points in an important game against us in April with Solomon Jones and Chris Copeland playing center for us.
thenamestsam:
I don’t know if Frank Vogel is Jewish but I can picture him singing like this.
If That Idiot had just started Kenyon Martin & Tyson Chandler together, Dayenu.
If That Idiot had just benched Prigioni instead of Kidd, Dayenu.
If That Idiot had just double teamed Roy Hibbert in the post every time, Dayenu.
(This could go on forever.)
The New York media is lame and toothless.
We need the Italian football media. Those guys are nuts.
and by the way, I would LOVE to get in a shootout with the Pacers, if that’s what Woodson is worried about if you put Novak or Copeland in the game for a lot of minutes. We’ll win that game 9 times out of 10. THEY SUCK ON OFFENSE.
What’s worse is that the 3-4 unforced turnovers by the Pacers in the first 5 or so minutes kept the score close so that Woodson could feel justified in his stupidity.
I’ll just keep writing.
“Moving the ball” is great. The trouble is when you move it places/players the opponent is not worried about. You can pass the ball to Kenyon Martin and Jason Kidd 50x and it only makes the offense worse. You have to break the defense by getting the ball in threatening positions.
It’s true that we missed a lot of open looks yesterday, but even those open looks are the shots the Pacers WANT us to take.
We need to get Hibbert out of the lane. Copeland needs some time against Hibbert with 4 other shooters on the floor. If we get killed on the boards worse (is that even possible?) and Copeland goes 0 for 10, I’ll happily eat crow. But my feeling is that either Cope will get a bunch of open 3s, or the lane will be wide open again with Hibbert standing by the 3 point line. These are good things.
Frank I’m totally with you. Right there on everything you’ve said so far. Really frustrating to lose because of tactics. If we lost to Miami, I could shake their hand and say you’re the better team, Lebron is the greatest player of our generation…
Anyway, every evidence, EVERY evidence suggests that Copeland will be a better offensive player than Kidd and JR who is mired in a slump so deep, I’d trade him straight up for freaking Lance Stephenson right now, just for the playoffs. And he will be passable on defense and is bigger than either player.
We HAVE to do this now (along with playing Prigs a LOT more minutes than Kidd)… if this doesn’t happen I just don’t know how I’ll get over my bitterness from all this..
The odds of “A” happening are lower than one of these players playing on an NBA court next season…maybe 10%?
http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/21044/nba-options-to-follow-spurs-mcgrady-plan
I was half expecting some sort of epic locker room meltdown last night to be the cherry on top of this cowpie of a postseason. Maybe that will be tomorrow night?
For once, a good O’Connor article…although he should have peppered in more of Woody’s idiotic decisions:
http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/9276386/nba-playoffs-2013-other-new-york-knicks-letting-carmelo-anthony-down
Frank at #22 is right: “moving the ball” is not so useful when there is no one to “move the ball” to. The Knicks’ real problem right now is that just about everybody on the Knicks roster CAN’T PLAY.
Kidd? Can’t play. Finished.
Amar’e? Can’t play. Hurt.
JR? Can’t play, for whatever reason.
Tyson? Can’t play, probably because of the neck.
Shump? Can’t play. Knee.
Camby? Can’t play. Finished.
Q? Can’t play. Roster filler.
Barron? Can’t play. Roster filler.
This leaves you with about 4 functioning NBA players– Melo, our average-at-best PG Ray Felton, Kenyon Martin and Pablo Prigioni. Sure, Woodson is an idiot, but there isn’t a coach in the history of the world who could win a playoff series when literally 2/3 of the roster CAN’T PLAY BASKETBALL.
The management of this team should probably realize that this core ain’t winning shit other than maybe another first round playoff series, and start moving the veterans that still have some value, namely Melo and Chandler. Instead they’ll let the Knicks gradually decline in 2014 and then bottom out in 2015. Then they’ll “reload” again and buy high on another “big 3″ instead of patiently putting together a roster that is built to last.
Wait, what about Manchurian Coach?
(Credit to er from last night)