Bulls 98, Knicks 89

I didn’t even have to read the AP recap or yours, Seth….I saw the minutes and I just groaned. I saw the amount of 3s. It dawned on me… who wants to hold the record for most 3s ATTEMPTED?! I mean, towards the end, it sounds more than obvious they were huckin 3s because they were to tired to drive and create a play. I don’t understand what D’Antoni’s beef is either. We have a roster of talent, and youth. We want to showcase the experience, and develop the youth. What is with this fuckery of sitting the youth no matter what?! The last two games have sounded like we are burning ourselves out.
  I have little doubt in my mind that we will see another illogical 6 man rotation (prob with 7 & 8 playing 7 minutes or less). Nevermind that it will be the 2nd game of a back to back, and a timezone change as we fly home, D’Antoni is apparently determined to run the Harrington’s, Duhon’s, Jefferies, Lee’s, Chandler’s into the damn ground.

What is it about these great coaches coming to New York and NOT coaching the way they coached their previous teams???

but tonights loss is 100% on him.

Playing just those 6 guys, on the first night of a back to back… is just stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Not having enough control of your team so you cant say to them, “Hey, lets not shoot more 3s tonight then we ever have in the history of the team. Cause, ya know, they aint falling.”

Ugh. MD dropped the ball big time tonight.

sounds like i missed some real garbage. Clippers tomorrow, and if the knicks play like this again, MSG will no doubt boo the lifeforce out of them.

I didnt see the game either, but like most have said.. the numbers are demoralizing to see.. wtf is up with the three ball.. why wont Dantoni praise drives to the basket..hitting players on the move and gettting back on defense.. isnt that what brought the team the little success we’ve had this season?

and about nate.. there has GOT to be something else that has happened.. maybe nate fked dantonis daughter and got her pregnant, and says hes not paying child support.- why isnt he getting ANY MINUTES

and whats with toney doug… hes not dwttd. he’s not even getting any burn.. and again WHY NOT??!!

Walsh needs to holla at DA and see what exactly he is trying to prove with nate, and see what hes trying to do as far as developing the youngs and having a fresh, fast, high tempo team on the court…

we need to hurry and trade jjeffries/curry and mayb harrington(since hes the main talent ,along with nate) too, so hill/ douglas can get minutes. anyone want T-MAC??

I can understand the Nate benching – to a point – but he said at the time it had a lot to do with Toney Douglas playing well. Then Curry comes back, he gives Curry 6 minutes and Toney is out of the rotation… what is up with that? Why does a center take minutes from a guard? And in the Charlotte game, Larry Hughes was hurt – again no burn for Toney, let along Nate. Now, finally, with Hughes out, Toney comes in the game – after not playing at all for two games – is it any wonder he’s not effective in his first 5 minutes? Toney is being put in a position where he has to come in and do something spectacular right away or get benched. I do NOT like D’antoni’s substitution. or in-game adjustment.

Looking at the stats, shooting .340 from three is not bad. .333 from three is like .500 from two. I’m sure that’s the way D’antoni sees it. I didn’t see the game, but I imagine the Bulls were doing something defensively to cut off that pick and roll, and the Knicks responded by jacking threes. The Knicks shot 15-39 from two point range tonight, and that’s a bigger problem, in my mind. Looking at the box score, I’d say the biggest anomaly is David Lee’s 5-14 shooting. What was happening with Lee?

it really is. I don’t like bashing the coach…but dammit, this one is on him.

I wonder if we HAD picked Brandon Jennings… would the guy even be getting minutes?

for some of the slick pick and roll stuff they’ve been doing, but in terms of managing the game and personnel, he seems kind of clueless to me. I agreed with benching Nate at the time, but at some point you have to give the guy another chance. Meanwhile, Wilson Chandler is jacking up 6 threes and he hasn’t been hitting those all year. Meanwhile Toney and Curry get yanked after a few minutes. And with Lee not having a great game, doesn’t it make sense to get Curry some burn there?

It seems like they built a big lead on hot three point shooting and then when they started stagnating and going cold D’antoni didn’t have the good sense to try to get them to do something else.

Meanwhile, another loss, and no progress for Toney or Hill or Curry for that matter. At times like these I think of Mark Jackson, and wonder what would be happening. I think Toney would be well on his way to learning how to be a point guard in the NBA. As it is, he can’t make any progress because he know that unless he comes in and immediately makes a shot and makes no mistakes, he’ll be yanked in a couple of minutes.

I watched

i know everyone loves toney douglas. and i got plenty of respect for that. but, does anyone think that nate could run the pick and roll? i mean… he really is such a bad pass/balllhandler that he can’t get his teammates involved enough?

win 4 lose 6.

It burns players out. I think that a major reason for Duhon’s drop off last year was too many minutes.

I can understand if you have to because of injuries, but otherwise you burn players out, make them susceptible to injury, and make it hard to get the other guys into the game when you need them.

Expand the rotation

i would

D’Antoni does NOT know how to deal with players.

Case 1 – Marbury. Say what you will, but he deserved a little bit of playing time. He was fully capable.
Case 2 – Duhon, why does he never get pulled for his terrible-ness
Case 3 – Robinson, you can say he’s childish, but for his minutes to go to ZERO is unconsciounable.
Case 4 – Jordan Hill, he looks ok to me but has only played in 10 games.

Of course the irony is that the Knicks not only started playing better with a short rotation, but when they gave up 7seconds or less and started passing the ball until they found someone with an open look.

We don’t necessarily have to choose to either Develop or Push for Playoffs. With guys like Toney Douglas, Nate Robinson rotting on the BENCH and picking splinters out of their asses, we have talent to still win while still playing our youth.

The exception might be Hill, who IS very raw, but I honestly, see ro reason why 4 minutes here and there would be so detrimental to the team.

I think what is MORE detrimental is thefake notion that we are playing well when we run our starters for 40+ minutes each, regardless of how the game is playing out. Shit, if the Cavs and Heat can sit Lebron James and Dwyane Wade for about 10 minutes a game, then we can fucking sit Chris Duhon and Al Harrington and be fine.

Dantoni’s stubbornness is legendary. Fuck it if players are tired, it’s HIS rotation. Fuck it if this style aint working it’s MY team. You think I should play WHO??? Fuck that I’m the world famous Mike Dantoni 7 seconds or less available in bookstores now!!!

Having said all that, It’d be a mistake to can him. At this point we’ve gone all in with him and have too much invested to turn back and I’m not just talking money.

What should happen is for Walsh to put a boot in his ass and hold him accountable. Leave him out to dry next media session and pull no punches. Put a few losses on him and direct the media to ask him why he handled situations the way he has. Tarnish up that nice coaching rep of his by letting the media jackals nip at his heels a lil so that he has no choice but to make smarter decisions and actually LEAD this team or his rep will be shattered to the point his next coaching gig will be that of a meager assistant. Walsh protects him too much. He wanted New York…let him have it, all of it.