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: 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: 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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