“Whaddup Tim, Respect.”
“Hello, Amare. Hit the glass, play some defense, and quit making excuses.”
“What?”
“What?”
Amare and the Knicks better listen to Timmy if they want to avoid slumps like this one in the future. When New York can’t score, they can’t win. In three of their last five games they’ve failed to reach 100 points, resulting in three losses by an average of 11 points. Sometimes they can’t win even when they do fill it up. They’ve reached 120+ twice in this losing streak, but lost both times because they gave up an average of 56 points in the paint as well as 55% shooting. The Knicks are a talented team, they’ll end this streak and start winning again, and they’ll be in the playoffs… but that’s about as far as they’ll go. It frustrates me that this team won’t D up. You can play a fast pace, even be undersized, and still play scrappy D. See the ’07 first round series between the Warriors and the Mavs. The Dubs’ firepower was obviously a huge factor in their ability to pull that upset, but they never get it done without great defensive effort from Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, Andris Biedrins, and Baron Davis. I’ve gone way off course here, but honestly, Coach Pringles needs to emphasize defense at least a little bit, or these Knicks will be nothing but a tease… they’ll catch fire and beat good teams, but the long ball won’t fall every night and they’ll go lose to the Cavaliers. Every championship team that I’ve ever witnessed had something to fall back on. Every Mike D’Antoni team I’ve ever witnessed has not.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Parker lobs to R-Gay. Vince Carter throws it in reverse. Dwight Howard HAMMERS it with one hand. Goran Dragic lobs to Channing Frye. Timmy D stuffs Amare twice. Alonzo Gee throws it down. The top 10 includes a few other nice dunks and dishes.
- I spent the entire intro space rambling about the Knicks, so I’ll keep this brief. San Antonio’s taken on a new offensive identity this season, but they can still buckle down and D up. I’m sure the 128 points they gave up to the Knicks on the 4th of the month was still fresh in their minds, and they weren’t about to let it happen again. The Spurs blocked 12 shots and held NY to 37 of 98 from the field, resulting in a 101-92 victory. Amare Stoudemire and Raymond Felton went a combined 16 of 46, while their counterparts Tony Parker and Tim Duncan collaborated on some stellar shooting (17 of 29). DeJuan Blair was excellent with 18 points, 13 boards, four steals, and three blocks. This game can really be summed up with one simple sentence: The Knicks couldn’t put the ball in the basket, or stop the Spurs from doing so.
- Justin Bieber dressed up as some sort of queer homeless man as he attended a 90-59 laugher between the Hornets and Hawks. The Hornets were the ones ROFLing, and in the Hawks’ arena, too. Atlanta is normally a pretty solid home team, but not last night. They shot 29 percent in the game and scored just 25 points in the second half… which was a huge problem, because they were only able to muster 34 in the first half. Some of the hilarious details: New Orleans had a 31 to 5 run. ATL missed 16 of 20 threes. Jason Collins was ejected. The Birds scored 11 points in the third quarter on 4 of 18 shooting.
- Speaking of laughter, the Cavs played last night. They gave up 102 points to the Bucks, who’s issues with putting the ball in the basket have been well documented by myself as well as writers throughout the blogosphere. I honestly think they should feel blessed to have only lost by 14 in a game where they decided to give the Ricky Davis era colors another try. Good luck selling any of those… it’s not that they’re ugly, it’s just that jerseys with Jamison on the back don’t fly off the shelves quite like the ones with James on ‘em. Andrew Bogut took advantage of a fine opportunity to dust off his post game (remember that line) and scored 20+ for the first time since 2010. Three Cleveland starters (Harris, Hickson, and Gee) racked up a total of four points. Upon realizing they couldn’t shoot, the decision victims decided to take the ball to the rack. It was a fine strategy, they got to the line 40 times… it’s just damn near impossible to win an NBA basketball game when you only make 26 shots. Said Dan Gilbert: “You don’t panic when things get tough. You think. You examine. You calculate. THEN you strike. And we will strike.” No, I did not make this up. He actually posted that on Twitter. My thoughts? Fifteen Ls and DEFINITELY counting.
- The Jazz couldn’t beat Washington or New Jersey on the road, so I guess it’s no surprise that they got smacked up in Boston. Both teams’ starters sat much of the second half as the Celtics quickly jumped out to a 59-41 halftime lead. In a heavyweight garbage time battle, Semih Erden imposed his will on Kyrylo Fesenko. Erden made all five of his shots while putting up 14/7 with three steals and a block. Those who tuned in until the final buzzer got to see this gem from Von Wafer.
- If you’ve been reading my daily recaps all season, well first of all, thank you… but anyway, you’re aware that Toronto’s frontcourt gets abused by pretty anyone and everyone over 6’8. If I’m not mistaken, Toronto’s opponent, the Magic, feature a pretty darn good player who stands about 6’10. Not surprisingly, he scored 31 points and collected 19 boards. The Dinosaurs were outrebounded 20 to 44, outshot by 12 percent, and outscored 112 to 72. Fantasy note: Ryan Anderson continues to beast, if he’s still available, get on that.
- The other games: The Nets beat the Pistons 89-74. Devin Harris is listed as “top performer” with 12/5/9. It doesn’t take much to beat Detroit these days. The Suns defeated the Wizards by 18. Channing Frye and Nick Young both scored 25. Zach Randolph did his thing with 29/19, leading the Grizzlies to a 115-110 W over Houston. Kevin Martin dropped 32 on just 15 shots in a losing effort. Denver played what I felt was some extremely uninspired basketball as they lost to the Lakers 107-97 on ESPN. LA killed Denver on the offensive glass (15 to 6), and Kobe Bryant scored most of his 18 points in their 33-point third quarter. The Nuggets kept the deficit around 10 for much of the fourth quarter, but played as if they were down 25. Tyreke Evans scored 35 points and Stephen Curry scored 34, but it was Monta Ellis who was the hero in Golden State’s 119-112 OT victory over Sacramento. Moped hit this shot as time expired in regulation to send the game to an extra period.
Quote of the Day: Is LeBron delusional? Here he is talking about his supposed post game…
“I spent a lot of time on it this offseason. Once I made the decision to come here and realized we had a low-post threat, I kind of backed off a little bit. … With [Chris Bosh] being out, I can go back to it. I just have to dust it off a little bit. It’s no problem.”
“Dust it off a little bit”? You meant to say “debut it”, right?
Photo of the Day: The fact that this little sh!t makes enough money to sit courtside looking like a nerd crossed with a smurf crossed with a schoolbus driver makes my blood boil. F@ckin’ right I’m hatin’. DJ Mbenga should’ve inflicted a flagrant penalty two on his ass for looking like such a clown.
Losing by 41 points… how’s that taste, guys?
“Like sweaty towels.”
