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The Knicks lost! They will end 2014 with 5 wins, which bodes very well for the 2015 NBA Draft. This loss featured some fun and even productive moments throughout the first half, but New York's trusty pig bath of a defense let J.J. Redick go off and Blake Griffin create easy buckets for others out of the high post, so the stretches of scoring couldn't divert the tank. And then they just roundly sucked in the second half, never bothering to embark on the token comeback. They got the job done, like felinequickness said.
Andrea Bargnani came back! He looked very much like himself, mixing a couple genuinely lovely passes and a bucket or four into a bowl of rusty jumpers and poorly planned drives. He knocked some people down on defense and had a nice NBA facefight with Matt Barnes, which was fun. Welcome back!
Other notes:
- Tim Hardaway Jr. and friends did a nice job stopping the very first baseline screen thing the Clippers ran for Redick. After that, nope. Hardaway did an okay job trailing him through the initial action, but once the ball moved at all, it was over.
- Andrea Bargnani checked in around 5:17 in the first. He'd intended to check in at like 6:26, but on 2 or 3 consecutive plays, he either wasn't at the scorer's table in time or the dead ball wasn't the right kind for a substitution. Then, when it was finally time, there was a timeout. It was like when you're waiting for a concert to start and every time the lights change or a roadie walks on stage you think it's finally time, but nope. And then the concert is an alternately brilliant and bumbling, drunken-looking mess that tries to fight Matt Barnes. Basically a Deertick concert.
- This was a nifty little play:
They often build the sideline triangle this way, by bringing the post guy across the floor to set up later than usual. Here, Barnes gambled to front Melo, so Jason Smith found a new angle by hitting Cole Aldrich for the little touch pass around the front.
- I liked the MSG graphic about how Cole Aldrich broke ALL of his career-highs on this road trip. He smashed his assist record with 4 in just the first few minutes of the game. After burying a couple nice hooks, he got a bit too attached to that shot and didn't score much the rest of the way. That passing, though. Nice passing.
- Shane Larkin is such a disruptive little flea, I really enjoy it. He's just so fast and bouncy that he can be pretty much anywhere on the court in an instant, which means a string of lazy passes from an incoherent lineup can turn into an easy run for the Knicks. That happened during the first half tonight, and it's happened a few times before.
- Hardaway apparently suffered a "mild" (their words, I've been told that's not a thing) concussion at some point, which is such a bummer for a guy who probably thought he was gonna have a fun New Year's Eve in L.A. Feel better, Tim.
- Carmelo Anthony had his second incident of the year in which a ref blew a whistle too close to his face on an inbound and startled him into dropping the ball. Does he have extra-sensitive eardrums? HE'S GOT HYPERACUSIS, SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG, SHUT HIM DOWN FOR THE YEAR.
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Breen: "Remember when they were talking about raising the rims from 10ft?" *40 seconds of silence* Clyde: "................yeah."
— netw3rk (@netw3rk) January 1, 2015
- Clyde also introduced Breen to the word "bellicosity" while talking about Quincy Acy being a madman.
- My dog, who had been asleep, suddenly rolled off her bed and went "WAAAAAAHHHH" in a tone that can only be described as an adult man's voice. Aldrich airballed a hook shot exactly as this happened.
- Clyde, saying Antetokounmpo: "Ana coocoo popo."
- Jordan Farmar, because it's a holiday, your FARTDOG Young Achiever's certificate might not arrive until next week. Sorry!
That's all. Have a fantastic evening, everyone. Please be safe. Do not get in a car with anyone who has been drinking. I will help you find a better ride.