Live from Madison Square Garden, on Christmas Day, its the NBA on MSG! Ok, so that’s not as catchy as the NBA on NBC which continues to live on in the memory of every sports fan and Marv Albert that watched basketball in the 90’s, but its still nice for the Knicks to be relevant again and for basketball to be an enjoyable sport to watch again.
Naturally I decided to pull a Bill Simmons and keep a running diary of the Bulls-Knicks game. So for those wondering why I am not bombarding Facebook with posts about this game, there it is.
1st Quarter
TIP OFF- The Knicks and Bulls dressed in festive colors. Ok, so only the Knicks are in those terrible green home unis. I just don’t get teams obsession with over-tinkering with the team colors. I get that its Christmas and with the Bulls and their natural red, aesthetically pleasing the crowd with green jerseys makes sense somewhat, but those jerseys look like green ketchup- its a terrible idea and it just looks wrong.
Knicks control the tip and they immediately go with a set up play with Wilson Chandler trying to alley-oop a pass to Landry Fields and Fields can’t handle the pass. The Knicks have been opening the game with a scripted play to kind of set up their very first basket and I thought about how great this sounded until I watched NBA TV and Chris Webber said that most teams do that in order to get the team off to a fast start. Just another reminder of how much catching up this Knicks team needs to do in order to be a respectable team in the NBA. Clearly they are on the right track, I’m just saying.
Bulls come back and try their own alley-oop and the Knicks contest it and get the steal. The Knicks have recently really been active with their hands and blocked passing lanes which have helped tremendously. Again, yet another example of simple adjustments the Knicks are making and becoming an improved bunch. Stoudemire comes the other way and knocks down a jumper which has been the most surprising part of his game and the reason he’s been an MVP candidate right out the gate this season.
-Kurt Thomas gets called on the double dribble and I got to admit, I’m a Kurt Thomas fan but man does he look old. Not just old but fat. He’s still a Knick in my eyes. Amazing how many injuries had to happen for Kurt Thomas to be starting on a legitemate number 3 seed in the Eastern conference and what it says about the conference as a whole.
– Hard foul on Derrick Rose by Amare Stoudemire but the original call was on Wilson Chandler. Best part of this play? Amare didn’t help up D. Rose. I was reading Bill Simmons book and his conversation with Isiah Thomas as they reminisced on the NBA of the 80’s where Isiah’s Pistons hated Bird’s Celtics and Bird’s Celtics hated Magic’s Lakers and so on and so forth. There was no helping up of the other team and I think the team that most personifies some of that tenseness coming back is the Boston Celtics. That championship year of 2008 I can remember Kevin Garnett doing something as small and insignficant as not allowing an after the whistle blew shot to go through the hoop. It was small and petty but it served a purpose. There would NO baskets whether before the whistle or after on this team. It pissed some people off and he didn’t care. I dont know what happened with Amare and maybe Amare has always been this intense but for him to “get it”, of how Knick fans feel about the game of basketball and how they want some of that toughness restored in New York professional basketball makes him worth the investment the Knicks put in him. I thought not helping him up was great, not because I’m a bad guy, but for what it represented not just to the Bulls but for the rest of the NBA- we will play you tough and there will be no easy buckets. Not the same old Knicks.
– Two steals by Derrick Rose on athletic plays and by athletic i mean, Ed Reed would’ve been proud. The Knicks try to push it and they forget that Rose is faster than anyone on the court so he’ll be able to get to those passes. Speed kills and its killing the Knicks fast break and on the other end, Rose is going by every single Knick defender and pulling up. The Knicks don’t have an answer early on for his speed.
Score is 12-11 Chicago with 4:42 left.
4:20 left- Rose gets the long rebound, and turns on the jets, gets inside the 3 point line pulls the ball to his left to try and get A’mare out of position but the athleticism of A’mare allows him to change position and he easily blocks Rose’s lay up. Then Rose starts chatting with A’mare. Which of course leads to this by Kelly Tripucka on the replay:
“He’s got the jet pack on and he’s flying but how about the big fella A’mare he says no way, not here at MSG and look at Rose giving him the nod saying “ya know, that was pretty good.” ”
I love when white broadcasters try to lip read and act like they know what’s going on between two black players.
– #imjussaying- Luol Deng is singlehandedly trying to ruin any Derrick Rose highlight reel fast break opportunity. I’m sure Jim Paxson doesn’t regret not giving him up to clear cap space to bring in A’mare last year at the trading deadline.
– I love that Mike Crispino says Ronny Turiaf’s name like a malayalee uncle. pronounced “ROA-NEE”
– its 1:40 left and the Knicks already have 5 blocks. Also, two steals as a result of active hands. First by Toney Douglas who was guarding Carlos Boozer on a mismatch but still managed to pick the pocket and the Knicks ended up scoring on that play. Then Gallo picks the pocket of Luol Deng and managed to get to the line and get two points.
– D-Rose closes the quarter with a beautiful stop and fade away. Got to respect his speed.
At the end of the first quarter- Knicks lead 21-20
Knicks open up with Fields, Felton, Turiaf, Shawn Williams, and Toney Douglas.
I like this line up because you have just up tempo guys but the biggest weakness here is- none of these guys can create their own shot which makes the upcoming trade with Carmelo (which I believe will get done with the Knicks) so important. If Melo is serious about coming and wanting to have the extension, the Knicks will have to trade for him and that would mean a guy like Melo could be in this line up and allows D’Antoni who is very strict about his rotation time to allow A’mare to rest because remember A’mare’s has to be kept fresh especially if he needs his legs in the fourth quarter and crunch time. I’ve sort of shifted my position on what the shooting by his teammates does for the team.
A’mare is clearly the focus of this team. The opposition, like the Heat can double and triple team him and take him out of the game offensively which is great as long as the other Knicks aren’t shooting well. If the Knicks have perimeter shooters who can knock down open jump shots (because if you pass the ball around enough you will find one guy that’s open) then the defense has to cool on the double and triple team and respect the shooters. Having a guy like Melo would force opposing defenses to pick their poison. Either Melo takes it to the hole or A’mare does. Having two guys who forcefully take the ball to the basket on almost every position and also has an outside jumper makes it so difficult. This naturally raises the value of Gallo who now can also develop his outside shot and become a better version of a Mike Miller or Kyle Korver- the three point specialist. This is why keeping guys like Wilson Chandler and Landry Fields is so important and crucial. Which is why I’m opposed to trading for Carmelo at the same time. If he wants to come and win with New York, we need him to come and join this present group. This group will help him win. We can’t win after breaking this group up and starting from scratch. It doesn’t happen in team sports like that.
– MSG of course runs the usual promo about what each Knicks favorite gift was and they ranged from skateboards (Landry Fields and A’mare Stoudemire) to Super Nintendos (Wilson Chandler) to politically correct statements about being thankful for everything (Raymond Felton) and then there’s Ronny Turiaf’s story about his mother and him not having much money to celebrate Christmas, instead she was able to cook him Salmon and serve it on a silver platter which he won’t ever forget. Immediately following that Turiaf gets fed and makes the hoop and the foul (shoutout to Marv- may his Knicks mic rest in peace). Turiaf starts whipping someone or something which is very frightening.
8:35 left- Turiaf misses and Landry Fields comes in and puts in the miss. OUT OF NO-WHERE. AND THE FOUL! What a great play by Fields who was behind Turiaf when the shot was going up and no one boxed him out and he came flying in for the put back and a chance for a 3 point play. Yeah, I dont want this guy going ANYWHERE. Guys like him don’t just come along in the second round waiting to be drafted.
7:24 left- A’mare comes in and that’s huge. Allowing him to get a very long rest from the first quarter to 5 minutes into the second quarter is huge. A’mare has played a lot of minutes which is a combination of his effectiveness and also D’Antoni’s hesitation to extend minutes to anyone outside of the 8 he has. He works line ups like a gambler who believes that dealers have hot hands or tables are hot because of some magical force keeping them that way. Once the table/dealer goes cold, the gambler gets up and moves on and so does D’Antoni- you go cold, so does his love for you.
1:48 left- Boozer gets the and one after getting a rebound on his own miss and is very emotional over it and Kelly Tripucka once again tries to interpret what he said.
simple lip reading: Yeah muthafucka!
Kelly Tripucka’s fan friendly (Read: white man) interpretation: his enthusiasm to say “i’m here and i’m not leaving.”
You can’t make this stuff up folks. Why do they ( read white announcers) continue to put themselves in this position?
– Boozer’s physicality is totally dominating the Knick front line. Usually players coming from Duke suck. I mean totally suck. But he’s discovered the simple NBA secret- dedicate yourself to getting rebounds and especially offensive rebounds and get points off misses by boxing out and using your body and you will give people the impression that you are really gifted offensively. But what he’s done which has elevated his value: develop an outside jump shot. That folks will get you $14-$15 million a year in the NBA. That’s all. Just offering some perspective.
– END OF THE FIRST HALF- Bulls lead 54-52
– Knicks open up 3rd quarter by going back to 2 years ago and settling for jump shots instead of attacking the rim which isn’t being guarded by the reincarnation of Bill Russell which has let the Bulls race out to a 6 point advantage.
– Knicks respond with a 7 point surge to get the lead by 1. All led by attacking point guard play by Raymond Felton. Then turn a A’mare block into a Gallo 3 point play.
– The Knicks are being saved by their three point shooting in this quarter. Gallo, and Felton are hot and keeping the Knicks in it.
– I still have dreams of Derrick Rose in a Knick uniform. Most don’t remember that the Knicks had a shot at a lottery pick and the number one pick and of course we missed it. Then in three straight possessions late in the 3rd quarter you see it all: speed, power, spin move…everything. The entire repoirtoire of a great player, not just a point guard. The guy has literally NOTHING stopping him from going where he wants. I’m still not over the fact that David Stern didn’t fix the lottery for us that year to help us get D-Rose.
– Pretty physical play on both sides and the refs are letting them play which brings up the most annoying part of the NBA game which the NBA is trying to curb: the five seconds bitch period. NBA players are NEVER wrong on officiating the game and it gets annoying seeing guys complain about every call and other players flopping because they know they can get away with a call. Its terrible. I don’t agree with the new rule change where any kind of talk or demonstrative act will get a technical but I get why they put it in. Can’t be easy for refs to hear the garbage on almost every play which it seems like happens.
END OF THE THIRD QUARTER- Knicks lead 85-83
– The physical play continues and the Knicks and Bulls are looking around wondering what to make of it.
– Rose sits with 9 minutes left and the controversy during the last game was that he never re-entered the game. But in that game, the Bulls were down by double digits and they were facing the Celtics, Tom Thibodeau’s former team the very next night. But the Bulls second team came storming back with about 3 minutes left and yet, Rose, Noah and co. never came back in which was a puzzling move. Safe to say that I don’t expect Rose to remain on the bench and of course as I type this, Rose comes back in with 7 and a half minutes left.
– This is what annoys me and let me run down the plays to show you what I’m talking about. Rose drives and he and Stoudemire get tangled up (that’s Knicks homer talk, what really happened was, Rose continued to drive despite the offensive foul being called and as he went for the lay-up Stoudemire was about to put him in a headlock which surprise, surprise, he didn’t like. The referees have to separate A’mare and D-Rose from each other which never escalates but the announcers are quick to bring up old school Knicks Bulls games where there used to be actual dislike between the teams. Which is funny and annoying because its an insult to those games for these to even be brought up in the same breath. Next time down the court, Boozer puts a little shove into A’mare and he immediately gets called. A call that was not being made earlier in the game. To their credit, the announcers say that this is just the referees trying to regain control of the game. Why should the referees have ANY control over the game. As far as I’m concerned, they should NOT be controlling anything but fouls, not the flow or tempo of the game but once again the referees are ruining it and trying to regain control which is absolutely what they are doing but exactly what we as fans or players DON’T want. Its a silly play but if the refs were consistent with their calls then this wouldn’t happen.
– 6:04- The Garden is loud, cheering and the announcers put it the best: “The Garden is electric. You got to love this.” By the way- at this point the Knicks have not allowed a Bulls point for the last five minutes.
– As much as we talk about Raymond Felton and A’mare Stoudemire’s presence, its Wilson Chandler who’s been this team’s MVP. He can play and guards 3 different positions and has taken a huge step forward in his progression. He gives them flexibility but his biggest strength has been understanding his role. The best players are the ones that understand their role within their team. Scottie Pippen understood he was the perfect complement to Michael Jordan instead of trying to compete to be the man. Its why the Stephon Marbury-Kevin Garnett marriage never worked. Its what we’re going to guess will either be the best thing or the worst thing for this Lebron-Wade combo. Chandler’s role is to be a spot up jump shooter but he’s added blocks, and rebounds this season more than any other increasing his value. When guys buy in and play well when put in position its when you know its working. He’s clearly buying into his role as all around everything flex guy for the Knicks.
-A little over 3 minutes left- Knicks have a 7 point lead over a legitemate 3 seed in the Eastern conference. Let’s see if they can close it out. This is where defensive stops come in and where most people question whether the Knicks have enough to compete in the grand scheme.
– Interesting switch- Knicks put Landry Fields on Rose on consecutive possessions.
– Knicks do a good job of milking the clock and now Rose appears to be taking quick forced shots which is always what you want to see out of a guy who can take it to the rim at all times.
– Wilson Chandler is taking over down the stretch as he hits a jump shot. 99-89 Knicks lead with a minute and a half to go.
– Scary stretch ensuing 1:34- Boozer drives gets the call but no bucket in 5 seconds. Makes the first free throw and misses the second but the Bulls get the rebound (Kurt Thomas- with five fouls) and Luol Deng hits a 3 and now its a 99-93 lead and every Knick fan senses something could go wrong. Its like Reggie Miller’s voice is echoing from the speakers to every Knick fan.
– Felton takes a horrible jumper but Kurt Thomas wraps a present turnover with under a minute left and hte Knicks with the ball. Wilson Chandler takes a pass on the next possession and hits a lay up on the behind the back pass by Raymond Felton. Chandler has played an excellent 4th quarter with foul trouble perhaps hampering him early on but now he’s gaining confidence.
– :34 left and Boozer puts his own miss back and is now 101-95 Knicks. Felton gets immediately fouled but the Bulls are not over the limit so the Knicks will inbound with :24 left. Chandler can’t get it into anyone so he wisely calls a timeout. Chandler gets the inbound and he gets fouled and he hits both which brings the lead back up to 8. 103-95. 21.8 left.
-21.8 left and Kyle Korver misses the 3 pointer. Knicks get the rebound and Felton races to their side of the court and the Knicks have won it.
So what does this win mean? That they can beat the Bulls. That they can beat a good team. That they can compete and remain competitive against good teams. They didnt win with excellent shooting but did all the other things. We are seeing a defensive identity from this team that we aren’t used to as New York Knick fans and its exciting to see them develop. The Bulls are not as good as the Heat or the Celtics but the fact that for 6 quarters we were competitive against both teams means that the Knicks are capable of playing up to the competition. This is a great confidence builder.
The question continues: is this core worthy of breaking up to get Carmello?
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