Post Game: Knicks 111, Bobcats 78

January 24, 2012 | 10:06pm

The Knicks can now breathe a long sigh of relief. They finally did what they were supposed to and blew a bad team out of the building as they rolled into Time Warner Cable Arena and put a whooping on the Bobcats.

The theme of the night was rebounding. The Knicks out-rebounded Charlotte 53 to 33 and they were led by Tyson Chandler‘s 17 boards, including 8 offensive. Chandler had a monster night, also finishing with 20 points in the blowout win. He was 9-10 from the floor.

Also chipping in with an excellent game in the rebounding department was Carmelo Anthony, who finished the game with 11 boards. That was pretty much it for Melo though, as he went 0-7 from the field and finished with a career-low 1 point. While it’s disconcerting to see him have that poor of a night scoring, it was encouraging to see him moving the ball, making the extra pass and not being a black whole that sucked all the shots into his orbit. The Knicks as a team shared the ball very well, collecting 26 assists on 39 baskets, an excellent ratio. Conversely, the Bobcats were assisted on just 10 of their 27 made field goals.

Also struggling from the field were Bill Walker and Iman Shumpert, who went a combined 2-15. Shumpert missed three lay-ups and a dunk. He did not have a strong game. It might be time for a move to the bench for the rookie, despite his strong outing against Denver last week. He’s clearly not a point guard, and that’s throwing off some of the rest of his game. If you move him off the ball and let him be a scorer on the second unit, he can start getting back in a groove. He’s got all the talent in the world, but he’s being mis-used right now, and you don’t want him to form bad habits. Get the kid back at the 2-guard position.

Amar’e Stoudemire had a strong game in the wake of his name surfacing in trade rumors yesterday. He had 18 points and 8 rebounds and looked as fresh and spry as he had all season. He threw down a couple of big time dunks and looked to have his explosiveness back, even if just for tonight. He only wound up taking 12 shots, but his minutes were down and for the most part he was much more involved in the offense when he was on the court tonight than in the last few games. If Amar’e can get back to playing good basketball, that’s obviously a huge development for the Knicks.

Let’s see, what else? Jared Jeffries hit a couple of outside shots early in the game and then of course took one of the ugliest shots in the history of basketball to realign the universe later on. Steve Novak was 3-3 from the three point line, Jeremy Lin got to spin and put up 8 points of his own, Toney Douglas looked more confident than he has in a while and Jerome Jordan had a monster jam in garbage time.

That’s really about it, other than to qualify all of this optimism by reminding you that the Bobcats are not a very good basketball team. They were also missing D.J. Augustin and Corey Maggette, two of their (sadly) best players. Next up for the Knicks are the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are finishing up a game against the Miami Heat as I type this. Of course, the Knicks also take on the Heat on Friday. Kyrie Irving should provide a nice test for either Shumpert or Baron Davis if that latter returns from injury. The rookie number one pick is off to a terrific start to the season.

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Post Game Suns 91, Knicks 88

January 18, 2012 | 11:05pm

The NBA’s second and fourth best offenses of the 2010 NBA season faced off in the Garden tonight. Surely both teams would crack the century mark and put on a show, right? Wrong. This, my friends, is post lockout basketball at it’s finest, rather its worst. The Suns came in to the Garden losers of their last five and in the midst of a five game road trip. The Knicks have been going through struggles of their own, who were losers of their last three games coming into the night.

It was an ugly, but close, game throughout which featured over twenty lead changes. Neither team led by more than eight points. The Knicks used their strength on the offensive glass (18 offensive rebounds) to try to overcome their poor shooting. The Knicks out rebounded the Suns 54 to 38. However the Knicks shot just 37% as a team, as STAT & Melo were a combined 12-44 from the field. The Knicks at times moved the ball better than they have during this losing streak.

The turning point came with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter. With the Knicks “stars” Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony struggling to hit shots, Phoenix capitalized with a couple of baskets in transition to take a 5 point lead. The teams traded baskets after a Knicks timeout. Phoenix then jumped out to an 8 point lead after a Carmelo missed layup followed by another Anthony missed shot on the baseline. Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert  (20 points) suddenly found his shot and tried to will the Knicks back into the game. Shumpert hit a pair of jump shots to cut the Suns lead to 3. The teams would trade baskets until under a minute left when Shumpert would hit a key three pointer to keep New York in the game. Only to be followed up on the next possession by a Shannon Brown corner three that hit the far side of the rim, bounced up, hit the top of the backboard, and fell through the net. As long as it took you to read that description was as long as it felt for every Knick fan watching. Coming out of a timeout, the Knicks inbound to Anthony who takes another shot that his ego wouldn’t let him pass up. The ball would carom off the front of the rim into the hands of Tyson Chandler. Chandler would kick the ball out to the rookie Shumpert, who would then proceed to hit another three with 25.2 seconds left.

After the ensuing Phoenix timeout the Knicks would foul to eventually put Steve Nash at the line. Nash hits the pair putting the Knicks down four with 19 seconds left. After another Knicks timeout, Melo would follow his missed layup attempt with a put-back to get the Knicks within two. After a Suns inbound, Tyson Chandler would foul Steve Nash, who would then ice two free throws as the Garden faithful booed him. On the next Knicks inbound they got the ball to the top of the three point line; Stoudemire passed the ball (and set a screen at the same time) to Melo who hits a clutch three to bring the Knicks within one. And then for his third trip the line, Steve Nash hit two more free throws to give Phoenix a three point lead.

In the end, all the Knicks attempts at heroics would be for naught. In a very anti-climactic ending, the Knicks inbounded the ball the Shumpert from under the Suns basket. He ran up the court with fury and Phoenix attempted to foul Shumpert in the back court but the refs swallowed their whistles. Shumpert got past half court and hoisted up a poor attempt at a shot as the Knicks went on to lose their fourth straight game.

Phoenix would hit 7 of 12 from downtown. The Knicks themselves only shot 4-15 from behind the arc. Steve Nash, expectingly, killed the Knicks, scoring 26 points on 9 of 12 shooting to go along with 11 assists and 5 rebounds.

While this was not a good loss by any means there were some positives. The NYPD’s 14th precinct has called off the search for missing person Landry Fields, who had 17 points, 10 of those in the third quarter. Landry would also add 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals to make it a vintage Fields game.

The Knicks defense continues to be a work in progress but is already vastly improved from years past. The Knicks continue to switch incessantly on defense which is often leading to mismatches in favor of the other team. It’s hard to argue with the overall results as the Knicks are statistically a top ten defense this season. Certainly if the offense was clicking, and the Knicks were winning, then the defense would be lauded. It’s early and I believe that the offense will come. Especially with the addition of a point guard. Baron Davis, if you are wondering, might start playing as early as next week.

The Knicks (6-8) will get the chance to redeem themselves and snap their losing streak on Friday night as Andrew Bogut and the Milwaukee Bucks (4-9) come to town. The Bucks come into MSG losers of their last three games and losing them badly by an average of 16 points per game.

Post Game: Knicks 92, Thunder 104

January 15, 2012 | 3:47pm

I don’t want to tell you a single thing about this game. I don’t mean to pull the blinds back from the blogosphere but guess what: we’re no different than you are. No one, save a Knick fan trapped inside Thunder Stadium (not what it’s actually called) would want to do any different.

Knicks fans don’t come any more passionate than I do. But tonight I went out to a bar with the full intention of watching the Knicks. One eye would focus on the NFL playoffs, the other on my beloved Knicks. I have Time Warner Cable, so picture-in-picture, a glass of wine and stoic contemplation were not an option.

Well it didn’t go down like that. Instead, our beloved New York Knicks did nothing to earn my, or our, attention. I make no apologies. They stunk. Amar’e Stoudemire (7-19 for 14 points, 5 turnovers), Bill Walker (1-6, 3 points) and Iman Shumpert (3-10, 6 points) were especially bad, and managed two free throw attempts between the three of them. That’s a bad sign. Amar’e continued trying to force his way to the rim with predictable results, especially against the twin towers of Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins. The only bright spots were another solid performance from Josh “5 for 10″ Harrellson (12 points), some progress from Toney Douglas (5-10 for 14 points and +4) and the return of Jared Jeffries (who only played three minutes). This is the risk you take when you build an exceptionally top-heavy roster: lose one of your “Big Three” and big trouble ensues. That’s what happened without Carmelo Anthony last night.

A twelve point difference tells you nothing. It was worse. With about two minutes to go in the third, the Knicks were down thirty one. Thirty one. You think Carmelo Anthony would have mattered? What would he have done? Guess what: guess don’t generally put up +31s. Watching him go against Kevin Durant (28 points on 10-13 shooting last night) would probably have been depressing anyway. The Knicks went against a team that’s as good or better than any in the league and they got smoked. They’re not quite ready for prime time yet.

There’s nowhere to turn, fellow Knicks fans: the ship be sinking. Grab a life preserver.

Jonathan Fishner is the author of the blog The Real King Fish where he claims to have been “Reppin’ The Knicks Since Day One.” You can follow him on Twitter - @therealkingfish.

Post Game: Knicks 83, Grizzlies 94

January 12, 2012 | 11:00pm

That… was ugly. In what was undoubtedly the their worst game of the year so far, the Knicks fell to the Memphis Grizzlies by a final of 94-83. It was just a miserable night all-around and the game wasn’t nearly as close as the final score would indicate. Amar’e Stoudemire picked up two fouls in the first two minutes, and somehow it was all down hill from there.

Carmelo Anthony sustained injuries to both his hand and ankle, the latter of which knocked him out of the game for good early in the third quarter. It wouldn’t really have mattered if Melo had played the rest of the game, because the Knicks were dreadful in all areas.

Stoudemire proceeded to play what was probably his worst game in a Knick uniform in Anthony’s absence. He went 1-7 from the field on his way to just 6 points, grabbed only 3 rebounds in 20 minutes of play and was -12 on the evening.

The injuries and foul trouble forced Mike D’Antoni to go deeper into his bench than he normally likes to do and much earlier than he ever wanted to as well. Steve Novak and Renaldo Balkman got to spin after a few games off each, but didn’t really do anything of note – Novak hit a three, and Balkman got fouled once.

Bill Walker hit a few threes. Jorts did too.

Iman Shumpert played the worst game of his young career as the Knicks took their first loss in a game that he started. Shumpert was trigger-happy all night, and he set a rookie season high for field goal attempts in a game. At one point, he had attempted more shots than Stoudemire, Anthony and Tyson Chandler combined. The lone encouraging thing about his performance tonight is that his poor shooting did not deter from him staying active on the defensive end of the floor whatsoever, as he recorded four steals and stayed active in the passing lanes. Shump is a rookie, and he’s going to have more games like this. It’s a learning experience; the kid still appears as though he’ll be a good player. I expect we’ll see a very different Shump-Shump on Saturday night against the Thunder.

I wanted to get through this recap with mentioning Toney Douglas, but he broke out of a shooting slump by hitting three straight shots in the fourth quarter after starting 0-9. Maybe it’s the start of something. Probably not.

The bench unit closed Memphis’ lead in the fourth, nearly getting it down to single digits at the end, but they were way too far behind. Still, nice effort from the back-ups.

The lack of ball movement was especially alarming for the Knicks, as they struggled to create offense in half court sets. The Grizzlies were seemingly in every passing lane, Tony Allen and Mike Conley were harassing ball-handlers and Marc Gasol had what seemed like I’m reasonably sure was a billion blocked shots (actual count: four). Both Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo had strong games for the Grizzlies, the latter was repeatedly left open for threes by Landry Fields, who didn’t really do much of anything in this game either.

On to the next one. The Knicks take on Kevin Durant and the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Saturday night, in a game that Carmelo Anthony may or may not play. The Thunder are without backup point guard Eric Maynor, who tore his ACL. Starter Russell Westbrook will provide another tough test for Shumpert, and the Stoudemire-Serge Ibaka match-up is probably the ripped-iest match-up in basketball. OKC currently has a 10-2 record, while the Knicks are 6-5.

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Post Game: 76ers 79, Knicks 85

January 12, 2012 | 12:14am

The crowd at MSG chanted “defense” and the Knicks responded often! New York held the 76ers to 79 points, their lowest total points given up on the season. The Knicks held the 76ers to just under 40 percent from the field and won the rebounding battle by nine.

Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Knicks with 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Tyson Chandler had 13 rebounds, but he was even more effective altering shots. His presence in the paint neutralized Elton Brand and any post game for Philadelphia. Amare Stoudemire was efficient on offense scoring 20 points on 8-14 shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds.

Tonight’s x-factor was Josh Harrellson. The rookie forward from Kentucky scored 13 points off the bench and spread the floor hitting three three-pointers. Coach Mike D’Antoni also went with a shorter rotation of eight players, the least amount of players he’s used in a game all season.

There was also a scary moment that took the air out of MSG. Tyson Chandler was hit hard by 76ers big man Tony Battie and remained on the floor for two minutes while being assessed by Knicks trainers. Luckily for New York, Chandler got up, went to the bench to make sure he was ok, and then returned to the game and played most of the second half.

The win improves the Knicks to 6-4 overall and 3-2 at home. The loss drops the 76ers to 7-4 and 3-3 on the road. New York hits the road next to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday, January 12th.

Follow me on Twitter: @MikeAScotto

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Post Game: Bobcats 87, Knicks 91

January 9, 2012 | 11:09pm

The Knicks maintained a steady lead for three and half quarters until the Bobcats slowly came back from an eleven point deficit. In the fourth quarter though, New York managed to squeak out the victory for their third straight win.

Iman Shumpert* quickly solidified himself as the Garden’s fan favorite. He had the MSG crowd chanting “M-V-P” as he hit the foul line. A little overblown appreciation for the rookie, but his defense was spectacular with three steals and his shot selection was much improved (7-13 from the field, 16 points). The Knicks are 4-1 when he plays.

But when it mattered most, in the final minutes of the game, it wasn’t Shumpert who saved the Knicks, but Carmelo Anthony, who had been struggling throughout the night. Melo hit a pair of clutch free throws to seal the deal.

In fact, Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire forced a few too many shots and combined for an inefficient 13 for 43 from the field (30.2%). The Knicks can credit the victory to Tyson Chandler who showed why he was paid $58 million over four years.

Chandler piled up the stat sheet with 20 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocks, and zero turnovers. His presence on the court was just as boisterous as his line suggests.

One specific sequence in the second quarter highlighted how the Knicks played offense for the majority of the night: Shumpert stole the ball at one end and returned for it to the house for a slam. The next Bobcats possession, Landry Fields played excellent on-ball defense which led to a forced shot by the Bobcats and a Melo to Chandler alley oop on the other end.

Speaking of alley-oops, there were a lot of them tonight. That’s a good sign that the offense is clicking and going to come around soon enough.

Mike D’Antoni went nine deep, but the bench only manufactured three points of the Knicks’ 91. In other words, the starting five (Shumpert, Fields, Melo, Amar’e, Chandler) accounted for 96.7% of the team’s offensive production. If they want to compete against elite teams, they are going to need more than that.

Toney Douglas continued his erratic play. He looks nervous on the floor and needs to build some confidence. Mike Bibby ended his streak of seven consecutive threes; Josh Harrellson honed in six boards and two steals; Billy Walker got a chance to show his stuff but made no major contributions.

On defense, the Knicks constantly switched on pick and rolls which led to mismatches. Tonight, the Bobcats went out of their way to set screens and the Knicks always switched. It was lazy defense. Although the Knicks didn’t get burned tonight because of it, they are going to soon lead to the easy baskets for the opposition.

The Knicks still have a long way to go before they can think about contending in the Eastern Conference. Tonight, they got their first win at home. On Wednesday, the test will be against arguably the best team in the Atlantic Division in the Philadelphia Sixers. New York will look to continue their current three game winning streak.

*Injury notes: Iman Shumpert’s knee cramped up and Jared Jeffries is running + shooting and looks to be back by Saturday.

Post Game: Knicks 103, Pistons 80

January 8, 2012 | 7:44am

If a basketball team scored 38 points a quarter, for an entire game, they would score something like 152 points. That’s a lot. And that’s the pace the Knicks set when they went off in the second quarter of tonight’s game. How? Why? I don’t know why, only how: Mike Bibby. Bibby went wild in the second quarter, going 4/4 from three for fourteen points and leading the Knicks out of what looked like it could be a close one and into blowout land. To the people of Detroit: I am truly sorry for the awful sports night you had tonight. Seriously.

What else happened in this one? As long as your name isn’t Toney Douglas, lots of great things. Douglas, of course, was supplanted in the starting lineup by prodigy-rookie-of-the-year-candidate???-wunderkind Iman Shumpert, who continued to impress with an in-control 10 points on 5-10 shooting. As if that wasn’t bad enough for TD, Mike Bibby seems to have regained the form that he arguably left in Sacramento. Where does that leave Douglas? With less than six minutes of playing time. For now at least, the Toney Douglas point guard experiment has come to a disappointing close. And not a moment too soon.

But enough negativity. The positives: the Knicks outdid the Pistons in every significant statistical category; every permutation of Shumpert, Stoudemire, Anthony and Chandler connected on an alley-oop or monster dunk off a cut (Carmelo got Greg Monroe particularly badly on one occasion and the one Amar’e banged on Jason Maxiell was just plain wrong); Amar’e regained a bit of his #immortalswag with 22 and eight boards; Carmelo looked comfortable facilitating the offense and had seven assists and only one turnover; Landry Fields didn’t look completely lost; Melo led all Knicks with 31 minutes played, meaning everyone got valuable rest; and Steve Novak and Jeremy Lin both played (Lin even scored four points).

While last night’s nail biter was far too exciting, this one was far too boring. Also, Detroit is just awful. So I’m not going to complain and I’m not going to get too carried away. The takeaway is that the Knicks have achieved a .500 winning percentage and are building a bit of momentum. They are on their way back home where a win against dreaded Charlotte and Boris Diaw on Monday would go a long way and would set up nicely for a big game against Atlantic Division-leading Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Onward and upward.

Jonathan Fishner is the author of the blog The Real King Fish where he claims to have been “Reppin’ The Knicks Since Day One.” You can follow him on twitter @therealkingfish.

Post Game: Knicks 99, Wizards 96

January 6, 2012 | 11:39pm

I think it’s safe to say the Iman Shumpert era has begun. The Knicks overcame a 16-point deficit to beat the Washington Wizards by a final score of 99-96 and Shumpert was the key to the game. John Wall and his band of 0-6 youngsters were running the Knicks out of the gym when Mike D’Antoni decided he had seen enough and tasked the rookie with the responsibility of slowing down Washington’s point guard.

Almost as if by magic, everyone on the team started playing better. Landry Fields was cutting and defending. Amar’e Stoudemire was making shots and (gasp!) playing defense. Tyson Chandler was grabbing every rebound in sight. Bill Walker threw down a tomahawk slam. Jorts drew a charge. Mike Bibby was alive, and even prompted Spero Dedes to utter the phrase “Mike Bibby is feeling it now,” on MSG. And there were even sightings of the Knicks playing some DEFENSE.

Shumpert was the key to everything, as despite just a 4-11 shooting night, he managed to affect every aspect of the game on his way to racking up 10 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and a +20 in a three point victory. He was the most important player on the floor in a game that featured Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire combining to score 60 points.

Of course, the beginning of Shumpert’s probable reign as the Knicks’ starting point guard means the end of the Toney Douglas experiment, so let’s all pour one out for the shooting guard from Florida State. He’s probably better suited to a role as a bench scorer anyway, and the move will relieve some of the pressure he’s been feeling.

For the Wizards, John Wall and Nick Young were both very impressive. It helped that Young was left wide open for much of the night by Landry Fields and Bill Walker, but he still had to knock down those open looks, which he did, and he finished with 24 points and four three-pointers. Wall is quite possibly the fastest player in the league with the ball in his hands. He went coast to coast for easy lay-ups multiple times, often turning them into and-one opportunities. He registered 22 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists in 43 minutes. He’s saddled with some pretty terrible teammates right now, but you can tell the sky is the limit for him. Special player.

Although Shumpert was the spark that brought the team back to life, obviously in the end it was Carmelo Anthony drilling a huge jumper to give the Knicks the win. Ho-hum stuff for Melo, really.

Tomorrow night the Knicks finish off their second back-to-back of the season as they had to Detroit to take on the Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Detroit enters the game with a 2-5 record and is coming off a 23-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Knicks’ record stands at 3-4, so they’ll be looking to get back to .500 for the third time this year.

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Post Game: Bobcats 118, Knicks 110

January 4, 2012 | 10:27pm

The theme of tonight’s game was defense and the lack of it. The Bobcats had six players in double figures led by Boris Diaw’s 27 points on 12-15 shooting. Gerald Henderson also torched the Knicks for 24 points on 10-13 shooting. Charlotte put on a clinic from the field shooting 55 percent overall and 64 percent from downtown.

The return of forward Amar’e Stoudemire and guard Iman Shumpert wasn’t enough but both put up big numbers. Stoudemire had 25 points and 12 rebounds while the rookie Shumpert provided a spark off the bench scoring 18 points, grabbing five rebounds, dishing three assists, and playing harassing defense with two steals. Carmelo Anthony dazzled the Madison Square Garden crowd with 32 points as well.

Despite the gaudy numbers put up on offense the Knicks struggled on defense. The additions of assistant coach Mike Woodson and center Tyson Chandler haven’t yielded results up to expectations. Fans booed the team’s lack of defensive effort on the court. To make things worse, Chandler appeared visibly frustrated with his teammates lack of rotation as the Bobcats scored numerous uncontested baskets in the paint.

The final blow came when Shumpert limped off the court towards the end of the game after re-injuring his knee. Shumpert immediately went back to the locker room. Mike D’Antoni said the injury would be okay.

The Knicks have one day to address their defense before hitting the road to face the Washington Wizards. The Wizards come into the game winless with six losses to start the year. The Knicks enter the game with a 2-4 record.

Follow me on Twitter: @MikeAScotto

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Post Game: Raptors 90, Knicks 85

January 2, 2012 | 11:24pm

The Knicks lived and died by three pointers. And in the pinnacle possession, where Carmelo Anthony jacked up an ill-advised three point attempt from the right side of the court on a play run incorrectly, they died.

The three ball accounted for almost 40% of the shots the Knicks took, and New York compounded that mistake by making only 27% of all their threes. The team’s offensive efficiency was staggeringly low too, for the second time this season it dropped to below 90.

New York wasn’t dominated on the glass or on the defensive end. They lost because they did not – as cliche as it sounds, it’s true – play a full 48 minutes, and in the end, the second quarter ruined their chances at victory.

The first quarter was evenly matched between both teams. Beginning in the second quarter though, the Raptors dominated on both the offensive and defensive ends. The Knicks shot 3-19 in what might have been the worst quarter of Knicks basketball all season.

The third quarter saw the rise of Toney Douglas‘ three point ball. The Knicks continued to shoot three pointers; however in the third quarter, unlike the first half, they started to make them.

The Knicks also stopped playing “Melo-ball” on offense and started playing team defense. They were also helped by the lackluster shooting on Toronto’s end, and the Knicks eventually cut the 18 point lead to just three. Eventually, New York finished the quarter down nine.

However the team could never regain control or take the lead against a Raptor team playing on their second straight night. And that was all she wrote.

The Knicks were without Amar’e Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert, Jared Jeffries and of course, Baron Davis so it looked pretty ugly out there, particularly in that second quarter. Lots of isolation, not a lot of defense is no recipe for wins in the National Basketball Association. So here’s, to more effort and health!

The Knicks are 2-3 and will face off against the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. See you there.

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