Last week, the Knicks had a hard luck loss to the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, with Cody Zeller scoring with less than a second left and Zinger’s would-be game-winning three-pointer coming just after the buzzer. Now the Knicks get a chance to avenge that loss at the Garden, as they host the Hornets.
The Hornets will be playing without PJ Hairston, who wasn’t a major factor in the loss last week, but his absence could affect the Hornets’ depth, although I imagine that they’ll just play Jeremys Lamb and Lin more than normal. Zeller actually goes into the starting lineup to replace Hairston, as the Hornets will start Zeller and Marvin Williams at the forward spots and Al Jefferson in the middle. That’s a pretty big frontcourt, I guess to match up with the Knicks’ similarly big frontcourt (both Melo and Marvin Williams would be 4s on many teams).
Marvin Williams, by the way, is a good example for Derrick Williams, as they were both a bit of a bust as the #2 overall pick, but Marvin Williams has resurrected his career pretty well, so that should make Derrick Williams feel better about his future.
In any event, the Hornets will presumably (if they’re not foolish) try to run a lot on the Knicks with starting guards Kemba Walker and Nicolas Batum and their back-up guards, the Jeremys. Hopefully the Knicks will do a better job slowing them down tonight.
With an interesting stretch of games coming up, including a tough road matchup with Oklahoma City, it would be really nice for the Knicks to get a win tonight to bring their record to .500. Heck, forget the upcoming games, it would be swell to see them get to .500 this “late” in the season period. And it is always good to beat another team that is in the mix for that #8 spot. The East has improved a lot this year, and the Knicks need to beat teams similar to them, like the Hornets, if they’re going to rise in the Conference standings.
Let’s go Knicks!