Knicks Win!
The Knicks were without Billups for the third straight game, and also without Turiaf and Billy Walker, went down to Atlanta and beat the team they are chasing. Amar'e scored 26, though Carmelo never really got off after being poked in the eye early. It was the team D they played and the contributions of role players like Fields, Carter, Williams and Mason, that really put them over the top against the Hawks. The Knicks were trading 1 point leads with the Hawks till there were till there were about 9 minutes left in the 4th, and then the Knicks exploded. Huge win! Go Knicks!
posted by Kalel9 @ 5:49 PM
19 Comments:
Props when they are due.
are they due?
I mangled that sentence.
Who is Roger Mason Jr? LOL!!! Atlanta is now a 4th home game for the Knicks behind Miami, New Jersey, and of course the Garden.. Great win with Melo non-existent, need to follow it up tomorrow vs Utah, and hopefully get some bodies back!!
The Rangers, Yanks and Knicks all won today. What a great way to start the week!
A great way to start the week indeed!! I could not believe how many Knicks fans were in Atlanta tonight, just wait until we really start to become a contender and add more pieces.
Just keep playing defense every single game.
Having a defensive 5 would really help.
It would, but perimeter D is important too.
we could commit more to the perimeter if we had a stopper in the back.
Sure, but look at their recent victories. When they challenge shots, they win.
But do those opps increase when they feel that someone's got their back? Hard to say.
Phil
I'm not arguing that what you're saying isn't so. I'm merely saying that given what they have, they need to challenge shots in order to win as many games as possible. That, and continue to improve defending the pick and roll. Hahn says D'Antoni doesn't like his big men to switch, unlike what most coaches do. Either way, figure it out. This team can score. That's not an issue. Their play at the other end will determine how far they can go, along with preventing as many second chance opportunities as possible.
Rich, that's weird, because the players have been saying they are miss-timing their switches. I think it's gonna get straightened out. There's a 2007 Giants feel about these guys.
Phil
This is from behind Newsday's firewall (I assume you don't get it, and this is about as much as will cut and paste here):
There really isn't much strategy to debate: you either switch or you don't switch. Mike D'Antoni generally doesn't like to switch. He prefers the big to show to give the guard just enough time to get over the screen. But he seemed to be going with it for most of the game until that last play, when Stoudemire didn't make the move.
It's basically a pick-your poison, as we saw with Nelson and Davis, when that guard can knock down shots, he can make you pay if you don't react quick enough on the hard screen.
And as we saw with Chauncey Billups, sometimes fighting over those screens can lead to an injury. If Stoudemire had just switched onto Nelson and forced the pass, perhaps Billups doesn't get hurt there. Sure, Nelson could have set up Howard in a mismatch against Billups, but maybe that would give Stoudemire enough time to hustle down to help.
The confusion with the pick-and-roll was notable last week in Cleveland, when Billups hesitated because he expected Stoudemire to step out on Daniel Gibson, but instead, with a second of time and space, Gibson buried a dagger three in that frustrating loss. Billups blamed the play on being new to the system here. In Denver, he said, they always switched.
It happened again on Davis' dagger three with 10.6 seconds left against the Cavaliers. Jared Jeffries was on Davis and dropped off to pick up J.J. Hickson, but Stoudemire again did not make the switch out to defend the guard and it gave Davis enough time and space to bury what essentially was the game-winning shot.
Sure, the switch can backfire, too, especially if it puts Stoudemire on a guard 20 feet from the basket. But the Knicks are going to have to figure out something with Stoudemire on these plays because it doesn't take an experienced scout to figure out how to beat this team in a close game down the stretch.
So it's a combo of Coach D being wary of the switch and Amar'e's poor feel for it?
It could be a number of other things as well: habit (switching is ingrained in most people), emphasis, focus, communication.
betcha time will take care of it.
If not, hello new coach. So it's a win-win for me.
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