Because this is fresh it bears saying so here goes with my instant post game analysis and what i feel like is important to know about this loss
– The Knicks got out rebounded- As a matter of fact, the Knicks looked like a team that wasn’t interested in rebounding and in fact would rather have done anything other than rebound the basketball. They were out rebounded by 14. They had TWO offensive rebounds heading into garbage time when the game was out of hand already. TWO. That told me everything I needed to know. Remember when I put that up the other day about the Knicks rebounding woes and it came back to haunt them. Yes. When the Knicks are shooting well the rebounding edge won’t matter but NOT when they have nights like this when the two stars can NOT buy a shot. The Knicks did not look like they could BOX out. In fact, they looked like they had no idea how to go about boxing out which is almost unheard of because that’s just something basic.
– Knicks interior defense suffered- Not just when Tyson Chandler was out of the game, but also when he was in the game it appeared like Ish Smith got into the paint AT will. Now that goes on the fact that the Knick back court is just over matched it appears on a nightly basis but the fact is, the Knicks had no kind of presence in the middle stopping the drives and in the fourth quarter when Chandler had the five fouls and they were making their move that’s all they did. Monta Ellis drove to the bucket and would hand the ball off to the nearest Warrior who would be positioned right under the basket or cutting to be RIGHT under the basket and then put the easy bucket in. It was almost on cue at certain points. I was just mystified as to how the Knicks could allow this to continue.
– Toney Douglas needs ALOT more work. And let’s face it that’s an understatement. Four different occasions I saw Douglas miss a wide open player in transition and just never looked comfortable in making decisions and always looked hesitant. The window to send a pass is small and Douglas does NOT feel comfortable in making that pass. IF Douglas is to be made into a traditional point guard it has to start with his decision making which has been borderline brutal. The problem is that he takes too long to make up his mind where he’s going with the ball and isn’t a traditional point guard and it hurts the Knicks in the meanwhile because they need a playmaker. We saw Melo was comfortable in just pulling up for jump shots. I saw him try to bring up the ball a few times and he threw some wild passes. The Knicks need a point guard. BADLY. Shumpert AND Baron Davis can’t recover quicker for the Knicks because they lack a presence in the back court that can drive to the hoop and force defenders to draw in so that Amar’e and Melo can get some easy buckets.
– The offense looked stagnant. The game plan must’ve been make two passes, and whomever the ball comes to (Amar’e or Melo) just stand around and stare and wait for them to shoot the ball whether its contested or not. It was terrible and hopefully it wasn’t by design. Because if it were, the Knicks had better reconsider that kind of game plan heading into tomorrow when the Knicks go against the Lakers. The Knicks just seemed to look around and wait for somebody to hit a jumper and that jumper NEVER came. This is the problem for the Knicks that bothers me more than anything.
IF neither Amar’e or Melo are hitting their jumpshots they will continue to try and shoot it and it completely depends on that part of their game working. Melo will get the calls when he drives but Amar’e will force the ball in triple teams and won’t get the calls and that worries me because the other guys on the court are completely ok with standing around and bearing witness. The Knicks don’t have a playmaker. They don’t have a guy who is able to drive to the hoop and draw double teams which is what presumably Baron Davis will do. Again, the Knicks will struggle if BOTH Melo and Amar’e don’t have good games which is worst case scenario. But Melo and Amar’e aren’t the type to jumpstart their offense through other means like defense so that makes it difficult for them to find their touch unless their repetitively shooting the basketball. And if the Knicks don’t rebound the ball its going to get tough to build up confidence in your shot.
– Again, the defensive effort was very inconsistent. In the beginning the Knicks were keeping the lead at a 6-8 point range thanks in part to being very active with their hands and blocking passing lanes and switching off well but again the effort wasn’t consistent. Good teams when they are getting beat by effort, they match the effort of the other team through their defense and they make a run and the Knicks weren’t able to do that because the defense wasn’t there. Defense is all about smarts and effort and the great ones combine the two and make it possible. The Knicks didn’t have that.
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