knicks

Apr 28 2013

Game 4: Celtics 97 Knicks 90

“Those damn Celtics”

 Shump

Oh well. I couldn’t whip out my limited edition autographed Wicked Witch of The West broom to celebrate a Knicks sweep on the arch rival Celtics. Everyone that watched this game had their beats per minute go through the roof in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and in overtime. Even if you took a whole bottle of Lipitor (I advise you not to do that), it still couldn’t have controlled the high blood pressure. The Knicks offense played like the Celtics offense from the last three games in the first half; one colossal hot, steamy turd was dropped on them from the rafters. Somehow, they were only down by 5 at the end of the first quarter. The game was very 90s-esque; sloppy, sluggish basketball was played and it was really documented in the first half, as the Knicks shot 29% from the field, along with an abysmal 20% from downtown, as well as committing 12 turnovers, more than their average 11.8 a game from this season. The Knicks didn’t gain the lead until Raymond Felton hit a jumper with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter, which explained the struggle within the Knicks: Gaining the lead. The reoccurring comeback gene that happened several times in the regular season was happening in the playoffs. The Knicks had a chance to capitalize in the final minute of the fourth quarter after Tyson tipped out™ an offensive rebound, which resulted in a Melo pull up three, in what was their final possession before Paul Pierce took the final shot that everyone thought was going to be drained because its Paul freakin’ Pierce, and missed, en route to overtime. More

By • 2013 Playoffs, Game Previews/ Recaps • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Apr 10 2013

Ex-Knicks of The Week

SI

Taylor Armosino (@tarmosino): Earlier this week, Knick legend Bernard King was finally elected to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. King won’t be the only former Knick inducted to the hall this year, as ex-coach Rick Pitino and shooting guard Richie Guerin also made the cut. Props to all three, but I’m going to talk about King this week.

Often compared to modern day Knick star Carmelo Anthony, Bernard King was one of the great scorers of his day. Though I’m not old enough to have seen him play, you need just to look at the stats to see how good he was. For his career, King averaged 24.1 points per 36 minutes. His career true shooting percentage was .561, exactly what Anthony’s is this season. The fact that King didn’t shoot threes makes his accomplishments even more impressive. He was scoring efficiently operating in the post and in the mid-range area, the two most inefficient spots on the floor. At the height of King’s scoring prowess, the 1983 and 1984 seasons with the Knicks, he posted player efficiency ratings of 22.7 and 25.2 and true shooting percentages of .619 and .585. He truly was a dominant scorer. More

By • Ex Knick of The Week, Management • 0 • Tags: , ,

Apr 9 2013

Recap: Knicks 120 Wizards 99: Atlantic Division Champions!

Spike

They did it! For the first time since 1993-94, the year in which Jason Kidd was a sophomore at the University of California, Carmelo Anthony was 10 years old, Iman Shumpert was 4 and I wasn’t born yet, the Knicks have won the Atlantic Division.  Now we can all laugh in unison at the ESPN writers, who all picked the Celtics, Nets or Sixers to win the division, knowing that we surmounted the arch rival Celtics (see ya in the playoffs) and the preseason media hype glutton Nets. The Knicks made sure their division clinching game was going to be a blowout, as they rained threes down on the Wizards en route to a 120-99 victory. They have now won 13 in a row. Here are a few notes: More

By • Game Previews/ Recaps • 0 • Tags: ,

Apr 7 2013

Notes From the Knicks 125-120 Victory Over Oklahoma City

Melo

50 wins on the season. 12 wins in a row. This is fun.

ABC’s Sunday matinee featured a showdown of teams fighting for playoff position. The Knicks are trying to hold onto the 2 seed in the East, while the Thunder are trying to get the 1 seed in the West. It was a big game for both teams. Not surprisingly Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Knicks with 36 points and 12 rebounds. The Knicks were hapless defensively, allowing OKC to shoot 57.7% from the floor, but they took 15 more shots and hit 15 threes. Without Kenyon Martin in the fold due to injury, the bench stepped up for the Knicks, especially in the first half. Chris Copeland, Jason Kidd and Steve Novak all played well and JR hit a few huge shots down the stretch. All in all, this was a great team win for the team. It was easily the best win of the streak and probably the best win of the season. The Knicks now lead Indiana by 2.5 games in the standings. This was a fun Sunday.

Here are my notes from the game: More

By • Game Previews/ Recaps • 0 • Tags: , ,

Apr 5 2013

EPIC RECAP: Knicks 101 Bucks 83

melo marquis

What. A. Night. The title says it all. Please excuse me you will. Tonight, the best Friday Night Knicks game of all-time occurred, bar none. It’s not even a question. A bajillion years from now, you won’t be able to come up with a better Friday night game like this. To be honest, who the hell was thinking of Robert Randolph during the game? Probably lots of people during and after the first half of play, but no one gave two shits about Robert Randolph after the second half. People were probably throwing darts through an image of him. What happened tonight was absolutely mesmerizing. The Knicks went from a more than atrocious first half to the best second half of the season, containing the best third quarter of the season, which is not even a question. The Knicks only scored 36 points in the first half, shooting 34% from the field, 1-12 from the perimeter and coughed the ball up 8 times, while J.J Redick bombarded them with threes early on. It would of been miraculous if the Knicks made a shot with ease in the second quarter. The Knicks needed some kind of motivational booster or strategy adjustments going into the locker room. “Fuck Robert Randolph” tweets were all over the place, per usual. But after the awe-inspiring 1972-73 championship team ceremony (I’ll talk about that more later), the Knicks annihilated the Bucks in the second half six ways to Sunday, the seventh way being Carmelo Anthony, and, if you want to include an eighth (Beatles homage), J.R Smith. In the third quarter, the Knicks scored 42 points, 6 more points than they scored in the first half, went on a 25-2 run at one point, and the granddaddy of them all (no pun intended), Jason Kidd’s buck-naked-inducing (no pun intended there either) 59 foot buzzer-beater from beyond half court. Somehow, the Bucks did come within a six point deficit in the fourth quarter, but that was sealed by one of the few Carmelo Anthony heat checks that happened tonight. Here are some notes: More

By • Game Previews/ Recaps • 1 • Tags: , , , , ,

Apr 5 2013

The Knicks Offense Continues to Lead the Way

Melo

All season, despite the media narrative of the Knicks being a defense oriented team, New York’s elite offense has been the catalyst for it’s success. The Knicks score 108.2 points per 100 possessions, a mark that ranks third in the NBA behind only Miami and Oklahoma City. However, the defense has been woefully average all season. New York gives up 103.1 points per 100 possessions, good for 16th in the league behind Minnesota, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Golden State.

On Wednesday night’s Knicks-Hawks ESPN broadcast, the insufferable Jon Barry said something that spurred me to go look at the stats. He incorrectly spoke about how the Knicks defense has been the difference during the winning streak. Having watched the games, I didn’t think the Knicks were that much better defensively. They’ve had a few great performances (Utah, Boston) and a few not so great performances (Memphis, Charlotte). As I figured, and par the usual, Barry was completely wrong. More

By • Analysis/Opinions • 1 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Apr 2 2013

Notes From the Knicks 102-90 Victory Over Miami

After I spent the day warding off angry Knick fans on twitter for saying that he wasn’t a top 10 player in the league, Carmelo Anthony dropped a 50 burger on the Heat in Miami. He was truly fantastic, getting his 50 points on 18/26 shooting. I don’t care if LeBron and Wade were out, scoring 50 points on anybody is impressive. The game itself was frustrating in the first half, as the Knicks came out flat. Even if they had lost, I wouldn’t have cried panic. It’s hard for teams to come out fired up when the other team is missing it’s two best players. Like good teams do, the Knicks turned it up in the second half and took care of the depleted Heat. After hitting 7 threes in the first half, Miami was able to score just 32 points in the second half.

Is this a huge statement win for the Knicks? No. Miami didn’t have LeBron or Wade and this a game the Knicks should’ve won. That being said, they did well to actually win the game. It’s really difficult for teams at this point of the season to come out fired up against depleted teams. Obviously it was a great game for Anthony, but the Knicks did well to come out and take care of business tonight.

Here are my notes from the game:

More

By • Game Previews/ Recaps • 0 • Tags: , ,

Apr 1 2013

Feel Good About a Potential Knicks-Celtics Playoff Series

KenyonMartin

Having beaten down the Boston Celtics twice in the last week, including a 108-89 laugher last night, New York’s playoff prospects look quite good in the event that the two teams meet in the first round. Without notorious Knick killer Rajon Rondo in the fold, Boston doesn’t look to be a team that matches up well with the Knicks. Granted, Boston lost to New York without the invaluable Kevin Garnett, but the Knicks have been playing without the equally as invaluable Tyson Chandler. Without Rondo, Chandler and Garnett in the fold, the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony is both the best player on either team and a matchup nightmare for the Celtics. Without Boston having any rim protectors and Green being an average defender, Anthony was able to muck things up for Boston’s defense in the past two games. His jump shot wasn’t hot, but he was able to get to the rim, grabbing offensive boards and causing havoc in the paint. More

By • Analysis/Opinions • 0 • Tags: , ,

Mar 31 2013

Game Recap 3/31: Knicks vs. Celtics

Happy Easter!

It’s so much more fun to write a recap for win instead of a loss. And even more fun when it’s so much more fun to write a recap for win instead of a loss. And even more fun when it’against the Celtics.

The Knickerbockers won its eighth straight game on Sunday, defeating the Boston Celtics 108-89 at the World’s Most Famous Arena. They now have a 4 ½ game lead in the Atlantic Division, and the magic number to clinch the division is at 6.

With the win, the Knicks took the season series from the Celtics 3-1, and have all but ended Boston’s reign atop the division.

The Knicks dominated this game from about the second quarter on, and held a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half. Carmelo Anthony led the way with 24 points on 9-19 shooting, despite only taking a handful of shots in the second half. He was also a beast on the offensive glass and grabbed 10 rebounds in all, but really looked aggressive crashing the basket.

The key to the game was the bench. Chris Copelandia poured in 22 points the lead the second unit, a role usually designated to J.R. Smith. After three straight 30-point games, Smith scored 15 on 4-12 shooting. He didn’t have the great shooting nights he has had in the past week or so, but Smith did a lot of good things tonight. He continued his drive-first mentality and got to the free-throw line 10 times, as well as grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing out four assists.

Copeland played a huge role with Kenyon Martin being sidelined due to a strained abdominal muscle, and played 20 important minutes. He was 6-10 from the field en route to his 22 points, and also grabbed five rebounds. He got to the line nine times himself, and as a unit the Knicks took 31 free-throws.

Overall, this was a fairly easy win for the Knicks, and they coasted for most of the contest. It was exactly the way they wanted, especially since they travel to Miami on Tuesday. Maybe Lebron, Wade and Chalmers won’t play again? No shot.

Here are a few other notes from the win:

  • The ball movement was excellent again tonight, and led to 14 three-pointers. The Knicks shot 52% from behind the arc and allowed them to build the lead and put the Celtics away. The Knicks have shot extremely well from 3 during this winning streak, and is coming from the crisp ball movement and spacing; the keys to an efficient Knick offense.
  • Raymond Felton had a solid game tonight, despite having only four assists. He hit 3 three pointers and scored 18 points in total. The addition of Pablo Prigioni to the starting lineup continued to be effective with the two point guards. Prigioni dished out five assists, and Kidd off the bench because of the change is doing a lot of little things for the second unit.
  • Steve Novak took more two point shots than three pointers tonight. That has to be the first time that’s happened.

 

By • Game Previews/ Recaps • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Mar 29 2013

Analyzing Kenyon Martin’s Recent Production

Kenyon Martin

Look, I know that Kenyon Martin has only played 13 games with the Knicks, but recently, he has been a valuable piece to the Knicks bench. It wasn’t fair to adjudge the way K-Mart played during his first 10 day tenure because he got little to no playing time. He only played one game during his first 10 day deal, and was on the floor for just under 5 minutes, the game being Stephen Curry’s 54 point explosion at MSG.  The second 10 day deal was pretty much the same, except, he actually got playing time, but again, in only one game. K-Mart made his legitimate Knicks debut against the Thunder and pulled a Bill Walker by fouling out in 17 minutes of run, four of those fouls being in a very short span. But at the same time, if it wasn’t for him defending Kevin Durant, defending as in bear hugging him or smacking the crap out of him, the Knicks wouldn’t have been in that game. Then, K-Mart was signed for the remainder of the season, and as of now, it has turned out to be a great move. More

By • Analysis/Opinions, Management • 0 • Tags: ,

1 2 3