Comments on: Open Thread: LA Lakers @ New York (2nd half)

By: Frank O.

Frank O. — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:05:10 +0000

jon:
I agree Lee had difficulty guarding the bigs. He gave up a lot of size, but the mismatch he caused on the other end clearly out-weighed his shortcomings on defense.
The Knicks didn’t lose the game because Lee had trouble guarding Gasol and Bynum…they lost this game because our overall guard play is atrocious!
Bynum and Gasol combined for 39 points (66% on 21 shots), 14 boards and 5 assists in a combine 65 minutes.
Lee had 31 points (50% on 26 shots), 17 rebounds and 4 assists in 42 minutes.
For all intents and purposes, Lee fought to a draw the starting center and power forward for the Lakers. He didn’t block any shots and those guys combined for 5 blocks. Lee is a severely undersized center.
So, that is to be expected.

Where the Knicks got killed was the back court.
LAs three point guards had 30 points (55% on 18 shots), 5 assists and 5 rebounds.
The Knicks guards had 7 points (18% on 17 shots), 5 rebounds, and 14 assists.

Chandler offset Bryant’s scoring, although Bryant played a more complete game.

No, this boiled down to the Knicks point guards.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:54:43 +0000

Hill also has a surprisingly nice touch from 15 feet or so.

If you don’t count his size and his “athleticism,” his outside shooting was pretty much the only thing that made him stand out coming out of college.

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 03:11:52 +0000

Hill also has a surprisingly nice touch from 15 feet or so.

By: Droidz1979

Droidz1979 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:05:29 +0000

I think Hill is a good investment for the future based on the limited minutes we’ve seen him play (including yesterday). He may be raw but he is active on the boards, not afraid to play physical underneath, can play “D” and has got size that complements with Chandler and Gallo’s game.

I would say he is a good piece from the puzzle, we just have to be patient a bit and not waste such talent for some washed-up scrub with the illusion that we could get 2 max. player on 2010. I think a Lebron might be enough and a decent veteran PG (would have been J. Kidd) since if we acquired a rookie PG this draft, we would also have to endure the learning curve path of stupid turn-overs like Jennings has been showing or his PG percentage which has gone back to earth after the 50-point explosion at the start of the season. Hope we could buy-out Curry’s contract coz it would be a dream to trade him and i might be amenable to Jeffries staying for the rest of 2010 to help the Knics on D and avoid any further adjustments on team chemistry that a new player brings in the middle of the season. Unless of course its a max player and we only lose the likes of Darko, Nate, Hughes or Duhon (if its in exhange for a decent PG).

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:26:15 +0000

Lee was awful on D, though, Bynum and Gasol both backed him underneath and scored at him on will. that wouldn’t have happened to Dwight Howard.

“The real tragedy about Duhon being the starting point is that this was such a great point guard draft, and we drafted the only one who isn’t a real point guard.”

yes, a brutal mistake as we’ve been saying since draft day, hopefully it doesn’t end up costing us LeBron. at least Hill is showing signs of life, but Walsh HAD to take a PG there, inexcusable.

By: taggart4800

taggart4800 — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:53:21 +0000

Frank O
Thank you for adding some perspective to this. Had Dwight Howard put those numbers up against the Lakers we would have been reading ‘ Superman Shines as Magic Stumble ‘ or even Al Jefferson, he would have been showered with affection. 17 boards is a collosal number considering the opposition. Now i don’t want to get into the ‘How much Lee is undervalued’ debate but i just thought it was odd that it did not get the coverage it deserved.

Will Eddy Curry get half those numbers total this season?

By: jaddddd1

jaddddd1 — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:39:17 +0000

The real tragedy about Duhon being the starting point is that this was such a great point guard draft, and we drafted the only one who isn’t a real point guard. Toney is much more scorer than distributor. We passed on Jennings, Lawson, Maynor, Holiday and others.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:43:03 +0000

As bad as Duhon is, though, Al, he’s only signed through this season. Kidd would have required a multi-year commitment for a fairly sizable salary.

So I’m cool with passing on Kidd. But yeah, the team would be a lot better with him. Hell, Jason Williams likely would have been an improvement, and he’s not very good at all!

By: The Honorable Cock Jowles

The Honorable Cock Jowles — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:12:33 +0000

“Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t believe that David Lee is an All-Star this season because the former Knicks coach feels that no player on a sub .500 team deserves All-Star consideration.”

HA! If only Michael Lewis had written Moneyball about basketball analysis, we might never have to hear terrible, uninformed opinions from the professional basketball inner-circle which, apparently, is as dumb as the average sports fan.

By: david

david — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:12:58 +0000

The difference between Jeffries sucking on offense and Duhon sucking at shooting (he is still a nice passer — a few of those dimes he dropped to Lee were pretty sweet) is that Duhon’s inability to hit the three makes the pick and roll ineffective and that’s 50% of the offense.

When he gets healthy again (hopefully by the next game), Nate should start or at least see the majority of the minutes at the point. I thought he was really solid in the first half, despite not having his shot on — he battled really hard on defense and played controlled basketball on offense, getting the ball to Lee a lot.