Another game of the Jeremy Lin experience is behind us, and all we got was more kindling for the fire (the...Linferno, if you will. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm trying so hard not to pun). Lin had another terrific game and the Knicks' offense started terribly but blossomed through the latter three quarters. After that horrid first period, they established a lead in the second quarter and kept right on building it to the final buzzer. And, as Landry for prez said in the game thread (quoted in the headline), the experience brought all the mirth and excitement of being in a room with-- well, maybe not 100 puppies, but at least like 70-80. It was a lot of fun.

Continue reading this post »

I just spent a good twenty minutes combing the threads for a comment that I felt did that game justice, but nothing really worked except for the one quoted above (uttered by quite a few people, but copied and pasted from Spike4Prez). Just wow. With Jeremy Lin suddenly thrust into the starting lineup, this game already felt bound to be a letdown following Saturday's rapturous spectacle. When Amar'e Stoudemire had to leave town, the odds became even more imposing. And when Carmelo Anthony strained his groin in the first quarter, a win seemed near impossible.

But they did it! And by "they", I mean Lin and his sidekicks, the foremost of which were Steve Novak and Jared Jeffries. Those guys did it. That sentence was as blissfully baffling to write as it must have been to read.

Take the jump for details.

Continue reading this post »

First of all, my apologies for not getting this up sooner. I was having some posting/editing issues last night and decided to leave this until the morning. The good news, at least for our present purposes, is that I'm not even close to over that game. We've seen explosive performances from role players before-- somebody mentioned Nate Robinson's outburst New Year's Day outburst against the Hawks-- but, as far as I can recall, nothing quite like this.

Take the jump!

Continue reading this post »

I really need to go curl up in a ball and not think about basketball for a little while, so this will be quick.

That's how the Celtics beat the Knicks. That's the way they've done it every time since early last year. The Knicks played a pretty excellent first half. Carmelo Anthony led the offense with scoring and distributing, Amar'e Stoudemire stayed hot, and Tyson Chandler finished stuff inside off guard penetration. Jeremy Lin got to spin and didn't look terrible. The team defense was solid, and the Celtics hung around mainly cause they kept hitting threes. Things looked good.

And then, as always, everything went Chinua Achebe in the second half. Dig:

- After a brilliant 10-2 run, the Knicks got cold and stagnant in the middle of third and missed tons of long jumpers. Despite the Celtics going a massive stretch without a field goal, Boston actually chipped into New York's lead in the third period.

- Toney Douglas, who was replaced as the third guard by Lin in the first half, got the second half backup minutes and was an abject nightmare. Lin didn't play well, but at least he penetrated and helped get the team decent looks. Douglas could hardly get the ball up court, ran the offense about 40 feet from the rim, and missed all his open looks.

- This is a big one: Despite shooting terribly, the Celtics still managed to put points on the board because they got EVERY offensive rebound. In many cases, Chandler and Amar'e failed to box out Chris Wilcox and company, but on some occasions a Celtic just seemed to be in the right place at the right time (though that's probably a factor of New York's poor effort, too).

- New York got called for a ton of fouls in the second half and found themselves in the penalty with 7:43 remaining in the game.

- In crunch time, the Celtics doubled and tripled Carmelo Anthony. Melo passed out of traffic just like we've all been asking him to, but both Iman Shumpert and Landry Fields missed good, open threes in the final minute.

- On the final play, D'Antoni opted to trot Steve Novak out there fresh off the bench. It appeared that the play was run for Melo or Shump to get the ball with Novak as a decoy. But, with no timeouts, those two guys well defended, and time ticking, Fields inbounded to Novak and Novak missed a hideous turnaround three from the corner (when he probably could have passed).

And thus, even though Paul Pierce's sickening and totally typical three got waved off and he missed one of two free throws after that, the Knicks blew a game against the Celtics. There were errors-- strategic, mental, and physical errors-- but the Knicks really could have had this one. We're just snakebit, y'all. Especially against Boston.

Be kind to one another and have safe evenings. I'm gonna put my computer away and go try to forget about what I just sat through.

Tonight's game had all the early makings of a signature Knicks loss. They kept pace with the Bulls in the first quarter with some hot shooting from Landry Fields and inside punch from Amar'e Stoudemire, then collapsed in the second quarter and seemed to let the game slip away. The second unit came in missing shots and practically assisting Chicago baskets with their turnovers. Overall, the team coughed up ELEVEN turnovers in that period, allowed C.J. Watson to torch them the way Derrick Rose (more justifiably) had in the first quarter, and fell behind by 11 heading into halftime.

And then something seemed to turn in the second half. Suddenly, the Knicks moved the ball like pros and made nifty feeds to folks cutting inside. Carmelo Anthony (3-10 in the first half) began to pick his spots wisely and thrive from the right block. As a team, the Knicks began to force turnovers and chip away at the lead.

And that's the "this" alluded to by moose35 in the comment quoted above. Even without a point guard and even without a shred of help from their bench (six points, all from Toney Douglas), a Knicks squad that moves the ball quickly but carefully, hits some open shots, and plays halfway decent team defense is effective enough to compete with a good team. This one was a close game throughout the fourth, but the majesty of Rose and a few missed opportunities lost the game down the stretch.

Take the jump for some individual notes.

Continue reading this post »

Ah, that felt nice. Sure, it was the Pistons, and sure, the Knicks could very well descend back into the doldrums in the games to come, but let us appreciate tonight. Like riise said in the thread, 'twas a night of actual, real-life ball movement. We saw awesome swing passes, gnarly pick-and-rolls, tubular penetrate-and-kicks, and radical ball movement. And the Knicks finished those plays too! New York shot a sizzlin' 60 percent from the field, marking the first time they'd hit more than half of their shots this season(!). The Knicks' shot defense on the Pistons was a bit spotty, but they made up for that by forcing 20 turnovers and converting 'em into fast break points the other way.

All told, the Knicks increased their lead in each quarter and had this one pretty much wrapped up by the beginning of the fourth. It was a splendid, refreshing evening with several excellent individual performances. Take the jump for some notes on those and more.

Continue reading this post »

Tonight's headline actually comes from Twitter (a popular social networking site), where I thought @Ms_Mambo summed things up pretty well. The Knicks came out decently-- the defensive rotations were sharp, and they made up for bad shooting by taking care of the ball and getting bunches of second-chance opportunities. Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoudemire both got going offensively, and even received a few nice, easy looks from penetrating Knick guards.

The wheels started to wobble in the second quarter and third quarters. Knick guards began to commit one turnover after another, allowing the Rockets to get buckets in transition. New York briefly looked re-engaged in the third quarter, but the Rockets jolted back ahead and took a nine-point lead with eight minutes remaining in the period. Mike D'Antoni, displaying some combination of fourth-game-in-five-nights practicality and sheer reckless abandon, let out the stops and just went with quantity, digging deep early and letting his end-of-benchers handle the final quarter and change. It went really well, aside from the fact that the scorekeepers were still keeping score and stuff.

Take the jump for a bit more.

Continue reading this post »

Indeed they were! As commenter KnightandDaye (a Pistons fan?) said in the game thread, a Knicks team without Carmelo Anthony or a point guard ran just about the most reckless, headless, gimmicky offense imaginable...but at least the threes were falling. New York couldn't get anything going inside-- Amar'e Stoudemire got triple-teamed every time he put the ball on the floor and Tyson Chandler could have hopping on a trampoline and the guards still wouldn't have been able to find him-- so they went outside. Bill Walker came alive from behind the arc and Toney Douglas became...undead, and the Knicks as a team hit 18 of 43 threes while hitting 12 of 41 two-pointers. Read those numbers again. That's RIDICULOUS.

Anyway, I've gotta be honest: Knowing full well that the Knicks didn't have much of a shot of winning, I kind of loved this game. Some of those threes, including the makes, were preposterous (Walker's turnaround elbow three falling to his left comes to mind), but a lot of them came off crisp ball movement and good, open looks, particularly in the first half. The best part by far was Walker's personal run in the third quarter: nine points in a little over a minute, including the aforementioned turnaround fall-away and a banker from the top of the arc. They just kept pulling and pulling and I kept on cackling like a madman the whole night long.

And really, it was the only option. Amar'e Stoudemire, per usual, wasn't getting easy touches rolling to the rim, and struggled to score off the dribble because of that aggressive help defense. To his credit, he managed a few nice elbow jumpers and tough inside makes in the second half, but this wasn't going to be his night. Miami was dead-set on making other Knicks do the scoring.

New York did a halfway decent job of defending, too. It was hard to tell with all the highlight alley-oops and transition tomahawks LeBron James and company put down, but New York stifled a number of Heat possessions with solid help defense and limited their second opportunities by crashing the glass. There were obviously plenty of breakdowns, but fewer than you'd expect given the circumstances.

I don't know. I'm not too bent out of shape about this one. The Knicks kept the game close and did so in the most delightfully batshit way possible. Steve Novak took six threes in nine minutes! I just can't get mad with numbers like that. Hell, it even gave us a bit of encouragement that some Knicks might actually be able to hit open looks sometimes once Melo's back and Baron Davis is there to distribute the ball a bit. This team has a terrible record and some grave issues, but I was laughing way too hard to worry about those tonight.