Posting and Toasting - Game 5: Knicks vs. Celtics~https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/29802/posting_fave.png2013-05-02T13:28:29-04:00http://www.postingandtoasting.com/rss/stream/40552252013-05-02T13:28:29-04:002013-05-02T13:28:29-04:00Knicks-Celtics Game 5 Leftovers
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<figcaption>Al Bello</figcaption>
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<p>Idle thoughts after a Game 5 defeat.</p> <p>I couldn't sleep last night because I felt sick. My head pounded, my mouth tasted like acid, and my leg bones felt hot. That-- the hot leg bones, which feel to me like they might melt-- is the signature symptom of me giving waaaay too many fucks about the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.postingandtoasting.com/">Knicks</a>. It's shown up intermittently since I was very little. I've come up with ways to combat the post-loss feverishness (taking very hot showers, for instance), and over time, have adapted to avoid it entirely. I suspect that has more to do with me growing older and having more important shit to care about (surprisingly little still, but more) and the Knicks not being a terrible, constantly humiliating team anymore.</p>
<p>Which brings me to the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.celticsblog.com/">Celtics</a>. I reckon the Celtics are responsible for every moment in which I've felt physically ill about basketball since I became a human adult. New York's played and lost plenty close or important games over the last few years, but only the ones against Boston have made my tibias throb. The Celtics have a way of making me upset not just about the Knicks, but about myself. The series in 2011 coincided with genuine tragedy within my closest circle-- like, I missed Game 3 to travel to a funeral-- yet I found myself losing sleep over <span>Kevin Garnett's</span> moving screen on <span>Toney Douglas</span> and <span>Jared Jeffries's</span> blown look at the rim instead of the gaping maw of mortality that loomed over me during the day. That, in turn, made me feel very childish and guilty. Thankfully, present-day me isn't dealing with the context of real-life pain. Nope. Rather, I just lay in bed last night stewing in the Knicks' missed opportunities in Game 4, their eerie indifference in Game 5, and-- above all else-- the role that I, adult human, played in all of this by feeling happy and confident after Game 3. I became genuinely angry at myself because I'd thought of something I might tweet after the Knicks clinched while in the shower Wednesday morning. The Knicks got overconfident and relaxed because I got overconfident and relaxed.</p>
<p>All of this is to say: I have a problem with the Knicks. I have a graver problem with the Knicks and the Celtics. I take it from recent threads that a lot of you share these problems with me, and I appreciate that. It helps. We're a sick bunch.</p>
<p>Anywayyyyy, more lingering thoughts about last night and where the Knicks:</p>
<p>- The Celtics hit more threes than the Knicks did in Games 4 and 5. That is not a thing that should happen. It's been discouraging to watch New York's offensive style and balance unravel simply because Boston is comfortable single-covering <span>Carmelo Anthony</span> and knows how to stop a pick-and-roll. It's been similarly discouraging to watch Boston's ball-handlers-- who fell so deliciously victim to traps and jumped passing lanes in the first three games-- learn to expect pressure and bail out quickly to find shooters. Particularly on offense, it seems Mike Woodson has to make significant adjustments-- not just li'l tweaks-- in Game 6. The stuff that worked early has worn out. <span>Doc Rivers</span> made his adjustments and they worked wonderfully. I imagine some of the new approach should include getting the ball up the floor more quickly and encouraging Carmelo Anthony to establish himself as deep in the paint as promptly as possible. I hope it also includes having sharper back-up plans, because reverting to iso every time a pick-and-roll gets ruined hasn't worked so hot.</p>
<p>And make no mistake: The amount of iso the Knicks are running isn't <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/CoupNBA/status/329979587306090496">normal</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/CoupNBA/status/329983064962891777">healthy</a>. And again: It's not that New York is just handing off to Melo or <span>J.R. Smith</span> and falling asleep every time down. They're doing that too often, but the other problem is attempting initial action-- a basic high pick-and-roll, the double hand-off, or more unusual pick-and-rolls with Melo as the screener or screenee-- failing, then having no other option but to go iso. Play calls get busted for all kinds of reasons-- bad screens, bad spacing, just great defense-- and the Knicks need to be ready to do some other shit when that happens. It's going to happen. It helps to have time on the shot clock, which is why getting the ball up and getting to work early are important. I can't tell you how many times last night I saw <span>Pablo Prigioni</span> or <span>Jason Kidd</span> (it's not just Melo and J.R. who get stuck in one-one-one situations) reset at the perimeter, then glanced at the shot clock and realized HOLY SHIT they had five seconds to get the ball up. I've said this before, but: If you must fail, fail quickly so you can try something else.</p>
<p>So, in short: Quicker, cleaner sets that leave more time for secondary options. I think that's what the Knicks need to get Melo back in rhythm (and/or drawing double teams), get <span>Tyson Chandler</span> involved at least a little, and get themselves more, better three-point looks. Also, guys just need to shoot those threes when they're available.</p>
<p>- I think I understand <span>Mike Woodson's</span> reasoning for leaving J.R. Smith in the game instead of letting Prigioni, <span>Iman Shumpert</span>, Jason Kidd, an olive, or whomever take the minutes J.R. used to pollute the floor with his awfulness. I imagine the thinking was that the likelihood of J.R. suddenly heating up and changing the game was greater than the likelihood of any of those other guys pushing the Knicks over the edge. I thought J.R.'s sloppy defensive rotations, though, were just as problematic as all the missed shots. A lineup without J.R. may have forced more turnovers and given up fewer threes. I dunno.</p>
<p>- Oh, and J.R.'s sluggish outing <a target="_blank" href="http://www.charged.fm/blog/post/3837/video-why-jr-smith-will-play-better">may not have been a random event</a>. Is it bad that, like Ross, I feel more optimistic about Game 6 after having seen that?</p>
<p>- For the second straight game, Shump and Felton made me smile in a very frowny game. I don't want to get too hung up and HEART and shit like that, but Felton just kept pestering Pierce and chugging to the rim at every opportunity and Shump looked genuinely furious at every team defensive lapse. He was also able to limit Pierce a bit in a game that saw Pierce got hot when given room. (Ask Jason Kidd.)</p>
<p>- I wish Kevin Garnett couldn't hit jumpers. His ability to spread the floor almost makes me want to switch Tyson Chandler off him so he can linger around the rim. Let's just put Felton on Garnett and see what happens, eh?</p>
<p>- Moments that would have been funny in retrospect had the Knicks won: 1. Pablo Prigioni ruining a fast break during the 11-0 opening run by simply refusing to shoot an open layup. 2. <span>Kenyon Martin</span> committing two cheap fouls on Garnett, then pummeling Garnett for the third and shouting "THAT'S A FOUL!".</p>
<p>- Both Martin and Chandler gave us a nice mix of fouls on questionable calls and fouls on questionable plays. I was particularly frustrated with Chandler's flying, half-assed slap at <span>Brandon Bass's</span> arm while he was making a layup. Foul trouble ended up not being much of an issue, since the Knicks never went without Chandler or Martin...</p>
<p>- ...except for the <span>Marcus Camby</span> minute! One rebound, 1-1 shooting! Dominance!</p>
<p>- I like the Knicks' full-court press in theory, but then I like it less when a Celtic dribbles coast to coast and gets directly to the basket. Gotta have that guy hanging back.</p>
<p>I don't know. I'm out of things to say. I'm ready to forget about Game 5. I'll get some post-practice notes up soon and Joe and Dylan will arrive at some point thereafter to say actual intelligent things about what happened last night.</p>
https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2013/5/2/4292046/autoflagellation-and-other-knicks-celtics-game-5-leftoversSeth2013-05-01T23:38:45-04:002013-05-01T23:38:45-04:00Recap: Celtics 92, Knicks 86:
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<figcaption>USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Guhhhhhh.</p> <p>Odds are the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.postingandtoasting.com/">Knicks</a> are going to win this series, three being bigger than two and so forth. I understand that. I will say, though, that: 1. It does not feel that way in my tummy even a little. 2. I want to go back to Friday and headbutt the grin off my own face.</p>
<p>Okay. Recap. Okay. The Knicks started this game 11-0. For real. Let's just get that out of the way because it practically didn't happen, like a crippling tumble down a mile-long ski slope that, by the way, began with a back flip. <span>Carmelo Anthony</span> started hot, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.celticsblog.com/">Celtics</a> couldn't hit a jumper, and things felt great for a couple minutes. It did happen, but it really didn't.</p>
<p>What did happen: Melo and <span>J.R. Smith</span> operated primarily in isolation and went unseasonably frigid. Melo shot 3-17 after his 5-7 start and J.R. went 3-14 overall, with all three of those makes coming when the game was all but buried. And as we've seen before, those horrid lines didn't just include bad shots, but good ones, too. Even before <span>Kevin Garnett</span> tried to yank his arm out of the socket, Melo missed everything from lay-ups to contested turn-arounds to jumpers off the catch. And hooooly shit, J.R. Fresh off a suspension and some words that certainly got posted on a Boston bulletin board and/or tattooed onto every Celtic's soft palate, Smith joined the action looking dazed as ever. And he, too, took plenty of good shots to go with the bad ones. The rim didn't discriminate. Nothing at all dropped, and we can just go ahead and extend that to the rest of the jump-shooters. When a team can afford not to double Melo, the three-point looks typically aren't ideal, but even that fails to tell the story. The 5-22 number on the evening reflects misses on open looks, misses on contested looks, and a whole lot of passed-up looks as well.</p>
<p>So, that presented a problem to <span>Mike Woodson</span>, who typically commits a lot of his team's possessions to isolation and expects open jumpers to radiate out of said isolation. The clear alternative was the pick-and-roll-- <span>Raymond Felton</span>, one of the few beating hearts in a white uniform, got so many buckets out of it-- but Woodson could only summon those out of his Knicks in fits and starts. One of those fits came in the mid-third, and it momentarily gave the Knicks life via a series of Felton layups, but that was a mere island in a sea of fetid goop. Blame Woodson's lack of creativity and rotational sense, blame the Celtics' consistently stout defense, blame the players' easy yielding to said defense, and blame plain old missed jumpers. The Knick offense faltered in every regard, and the second-half stylistic turnaround from Games 1 and 2 never arrived in earnest.</p>
<p>And of course, because they exist only to torment us, the Celtics made all kinds of black magic on the other end. Typically, the Knicks' formula for winning a game in which they shoot poorly is to grab offensive rebounds and force turnovers so they can take extra shots. New York did that-- especially in the second half-- but fell victim to what felt like a whole tool belt of dagger jumpers. A group that couldn't hit anything in the first three games got big, deep buckets-- many of them contested-- from Pierce, Garnett, <span>Jeff Green</span>, and <span>Jason Terry</span>. The Knicks made their share of defensive errors, to be sure. They failed to pick guys up in transition, committed foolish fouls, blew rotations off the ball (J.R. in particular), got beat to the rim by guys who aren't supposed to be able to do that (that's <span>Brandon Bass</span>, Melo. Brandon Bass.), and relaxed on too many of their own deflections and busted sets. I still saw a lot of great individual defense-- both Felton and Shumpert did marvelous work on Pierce and <span>Tyson Chandler</span> stifled Garnett when allowed to do so-- that went to waste, and a lot of generally acceptable defense fall short. The goddamn Celtics shot 11-22 from downtown.</p>
<p>So, here we sit. 3-2. All the Knicks must do to end this series is play like themselves, if only just on offense, for one game-- shit, even half a game. All they must do to complete a historic collapse is play unlike themselves while the Celtics hit jumpers in consecutive games. That just happened, so it's certainly possible. I don't know what to expect in Game 6, nor do I know what to expect in Game 7 (besides me retch-weeping myself to sleep for a couple nights) if it comes to that. This is uncharted territory-- a little eddy of advantageous standing and turning momentum. It's a strange spot to be in. If you know where this is headed...well, you understand this team a lot better than I do. All I know is, like I and a lot of you mentioned in the thread, this series is now beating me up the way I initially thought it would, then stupidstupidstupidly thought it wouldn't after a few early wins.</p>
<p>I also know that the next day or two is going to suck. The way the Knicks fumbled Game 4, the way they strutted into Game 5, the way certain notorious individuals have faltered,<a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2562603/boston.gif"> and this bullshit</a> will all color the narrative surrounding a 3-2 situation that mostly boils down to simple basketball stuff: Mike Woodson's lost his grip on the team's offensive identity in the last two games, or maybe he steered it in the wrong direction. Scorers have been unable to execute simple plays. Certain Celtics have found the touch. I don't expect you'll find a lot of that if you open a newspaper or turn on the TV tomorrow, and that is mostly New York's own fault. I just hope the Knicks are past that nonsense and ready to hew themselves back into form at practice tomorrow.</p>
<p>All we can do is wait and search for answers while the Knicks do the same. For the moment, I think we could use one of these:</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1585325/tumblr_m8knwmypzd1rzq8heo1_400.gif"><img alt="Tumblr_m8knwmypzd1rzq8heo1_400_medium" src="http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1585325/tumblr_m8knwmypzd1rzq8heo1_400_medium.gif"></a></p>
<p>And one of these. Stare deep into its eyes:</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1585337/Ojsk3gJ.gif"><img alt="Ojsk3gj" src="http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1585337/Ojsk3gJ.gif"></a></p>
<p>More tomorrow.</p>
https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2013/5/1/4291236/celtics-92-knicks-86-dont-do-this-to-meSeth2013-05-01T21:41:43-04:002013-05-01T21:41:43-04:00Final Score: Celtics 92, Knicks 86
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<figcaption>USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Ugh. To Game 6 we go.</p> <p>I'm gonna throw up. Recap to come. Be nice to one another in this thread, please.</p>
https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2013/5/1/4291844/final-score-celtics-92-knicks-86Seth2013-05-01T18:02:54-04:002013-05-01T18:02:54-04:00GAME FIVE
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<figcaption>USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Back in New York!</p> <p>Cool! Tip-off is at 7! The <a href="https://www.postingandtoasting.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Knicks</a><a href="http://twitter.com/CelticsTown" target="_blank"> ACTUALLY wore all black</a> because they are extremely corny. Whatever. I hope they win so this series can be over and I can stop being nervous. And I am nervous, instinctively. If this game is even close I might pass out.</p>
<p>7:00. MSG and TNT. Comment along here and check out <a href="http://www.celticsblog.com">Celtics Blog</a>. Please don't post large photos, .gifs, or links to illegal streams in the thread. Finish this, Knicks! Please!</p>
https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2013/5/1/4291200/game-5-thread-knicks-vs-celtics-5-1-13Seth2013-05-01T15:05:40-04:002013-05-01T15:05:40-04:00Pre-Game: Knicks vs. Celtics- Game 5
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<figcaption>Al Bello</figcaption>
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<p>Game 5 in New York is tonight at 7. Please win, Knicks.</p> <p>Hello. Today has been quiet in the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.postingandtoasting.com/">Knicks</a> world. There have been some <a target="_blank" href="http://nba.si.com/2013/05/01/jr-smith-new-york-knicks-boston-celtics-nba-playoffs-2013/">interesting</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324482504578454883320787280.html?mod=WSJ_NY_LEFTThirdStories">things</a> to<a target="_blank" href="http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/43016/opening-tip-is-melo-missing-smith"> read</a>, but nothing of substance coming from the Knicks or <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.celticsblog.com/">Celtics</a> themselves. These teams are tired of one another, they probably-- as much as they'd tell you otherwise-- feel like their fates are set, and all that's left is to exchange dorky <a target="_blank" href="http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2013/04/kenyon_martin_t.html">trash</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2013/05/boston_celtics_players_jason_t.html">talk</a>.</p>
<p>There are no new injuries to report, nor have there been any explicit changes in approach. The Knicks know full well they need to play a more dynamic, varied offense than they did in Game 4-- J.R. Smith's return should help with that-- and the Celtics know they need to limit their turnovers and do their best to keep the Knicks off the glass. Beyond that, they'll take any offense they can get.</p>
<p>The Knicks should win tonight. We now know they're capable of slacking enough (and the Celtics capable of conjuring enough offense) for things to go wrong in Boston, but at the Garden, with a fuller lineup, it'd take some pretty thorough crappiness for New York to drop a second consecutive opportunity to clinch. So please don't mess around tonight, Knicks. Not only does each loss increase the chance of a historic disaster, it eats into time that could be otherwise used to recover and prepare. (And on that note, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.peachtreehoops.com/">Hawks</a> and <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.indycornrows.com/">Pacers</a> meet in Indiana to break their 2-2 tie tonight at 8).</p>
<p>Tip-off is at 7. Look for a game thread in a few hours. How are we feeling?</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.tiqiq.com/nba/new-york-knicks-tickets?pubid=1011027">New York Knicks Tickets</a></p>
https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2013/5/1/4290532/pre-game-knicks-vs-celtics-game-5-nba-playoffsSeth