Thomas B.: I would write the game preview but since I stopped posting the Knicks have been winning. So as much as you loyal fans love my work, I’m on hiatus until the Knicks lose.Hey, my KB store t-shirt arrived today. Sweet.Great quality fashion for the price of good. Pick up your shirt today.  

The knicks have won every game since I started wearing my hoodie while watching, needless to say tonite is a hoodie night.

Thomas B.: Hey, my KB store t-shirt arrived today. Sweet.Great quality fashion for the price of good. Pick up your shirt today.  

Did you go with the ‘Mozgov’ or the ‘Pringles’?

Hey, my KB store t-shirt arrived today. Sweet. Great quality fashion for the price of good. Pick up your shirt today.

Frank: Re: why we seem to have huge leads going to the 4th quarter then nearly lose them, does anyone know if there is one lineup that tends to just get killed out there? Presumably most of the comebacks are happening between 12 and 4-5 min left in the game- is that the second unit that is killing us each time? Maybe MDA needs to switch up his rotations?  

I was surprised to see this lineup as our most successful of the heavy usage lineups D’Antoni has put out there: Felton-Fields-Chandler-Gallinari-Stoudemire.

I know this lineup happens when D’Antoni has had it with Mozgov halfway through the first and subs Chandler for Mosgov. But since Turiaf has been starting, I’m not as sure, although clearly Turiaf has been much better as a starter than Mozgov.

It seems like Amar’e is actually the one killing us in the 4th just by the eye. The offense stops moving and the ball is then “forced” into Stoudemire which is where most of the turnovers happen either from him or on the passing end from Ray and TD. I think everyone believes that Amare needs to make “big plays” in the 4th and that’s where we get into trouble, and it’s also why Amar’e's +/- is in the toilet.

Also it appears that Chandler defends much better compared to his production which softens the blow of his inefficiency somewhat.

Z-man:
Still don’t understand how 2-7 with 10 FTs for 14 points is more efficient than 7-12 with no FTs for 14 points. Even if the first case goes 10-10, if each FT is equal to .5 shot attempts, that translates to 7-12, in which case they are equally efficient.If the second case went 10-20, that translates to 7-17, in which case the 14 points on 12 shots is way more efficient than the 14 points on 7 shots.  

It’s because a certain proportion of your free throws don’t consume possessions: things like and-ones, technicals, and clear path free throws. Apparently, around 12% of free throws come in this form — that’s why FTAs get multiplied by .44 and not .5. If you really wanted to get technical, you could count the number of non-possession consuming FTAs a player has and subtract those from the total FTAs before doing the formula. In that case, if the player we’re talking about got all of his free throws from shooting fouls and never made the FGA on the foul, the real true shooting percentages would be equal.

BigBlueAL: So in Hollinger’s Playoff Odds after winning last night, the Knicks odds of making the playoffs actually dropped and is now barely over 20% and only ahead of 2 teams in the East.You have to be kidding me.Of course last year in January the Knicks playoff odds were almost at 50% after their decent stretch so there you go lol.  

It’s because the hollinger odds are based off of the remaining schedule and our remaining schedule is quite brutal so while the Knicks have improved as of late, some of our remaining schedule has improved as well. I posted in the game thread last night that our ten game schedule starting on December 15th is amazingly brutal. Going 5-5 during those ten games would probably take a miracle. We could go a lot worse and if we are only at .500 when we reach that stretch it’s going to be very difficult to get back to .500. They really are going to need to be 4-5 games over .500 going into that stretch. If they go 5-5 on those ten games you’ll see those odds skyrocket.