My bad…

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watchingother teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Games 55:  NYK @ Orlando Magic (April 5th, 2012)

Shorter Recap: Calm down there bucko! Your Knicks stomp the Magic. Maybe because Dwightums is dumbums.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201204050ORL.html

Got a little bit chicken little up in here yesterday. My bad. 

Now I don’t know if we want to chalk this one up to Dwight Howard’s saboteursmanship, but we can definitely hand out our Mentos Fresh Game Ball to Tyson Chandler. I’d also like to give him the Knicks MVP, Defender of the Year, and my 1992 dark blue Volvo 240 (call me, I’ll drop off the keys at your convenience.) Chandler polished a fine little 12 and 12 double/double, but more importantly embarrassed Howard with some stout defense, holding him to an undouble/double 8 and 8. QUALITY.

Carmelo Anthony scored points and got rebounds in a win. I swear he only does this after I rant about him.

My man (before Jeremy Lin showed up) Toney Douglas played his most meaningful game of the season. He hit 7 of 12 for 15 points, a number of which we’re awfully pretty floaters, and tallied 6 assists. And he kept Mike Bibby off the court, yay!

Steve Novak do what Steve Novak do (he’s earned that phrase from TD I think). 3 of 6 from behind the arc with the bonus point. 

JR Smith was competent, Landry Fields was competent. The team shot well (.487%, .571 eFG%), outrebounded (a team with Dwight Howard, the center so good he can almost fire his coach, but not win basketball games), outassisted, and kept turnovers down. This was a perfect blowout with plenty of garbage time, against a team that probably hates itself, or at least its star player. Yay.

I will however reserve my right to be displeased until I see this team play solid basketball against a good team and pull out a late 4th quarter win. Sunday against the Bulls?

The Harder They Come…

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watchingother teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Games 53 & 54: Cleveland Cavaliers @ NYK / NYK @ Indiana Pacers (March 31st & April 3rd, 2012)

Shorter Recap: Knicks win, Knicks lose. Who’s starting now?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203310NYK.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201204030IND.html

I’m sorry, what’s going on? The Knicks temporary savior of 2012, Jeremy Lin, is out for the season and the man who’s signing launched the team into a new era, Amare Stoudemire, will be sitting for a while as well. 

Look, Tyson Chandler has probably done more to help this team than anyone this season, and I like the role players on this team alot. But if this is going to be the team on the floor for the rest of season, Melo, Baron and Shump, the Knicks are done toasted. Stick a fork in the toaster and turn it on and use the resulting electric current to pump your heart while the Knicks get burned in the first round of the playoffs. I mean, maybe. Maybe save that for when the Bucks pass the Knicks for the last playoff spot.

Yeah, they’ve won 9 of 12 since D’Antoni got axed, but they’ve also lost 2 starters in the process and are now happy to let Carmelo Anthony shoot the ball thirty times a game (17 of 31 vs. IND). This team can play good basketball, and get wins by grinding teams down, but right now, with Baron Davis running the point, what good is a fast break? What good is a half court offense that dumps the ball to one guy? 

This game, I’m talking about putting a rubber ball in a metal hoop now, cannot be won alone. Yes, the role players on this team do some things very well, but relying on a dude to score all your points (let me rephrase) running an offense through one dude, as opposed to running an offense built on speed, passing, and pick and rolls (as well as defense and fast breaks), is not going to work. Against a poor Cavs team missing their starting rookie of the year point guard, the Knicks didn’t shoot all that well and turned the ball over 17 times and won by a bunch. Against a good Pacers team, the Knicks shot well, kept turnovers down, and lost. When did they lose? In the fourth quarter, in the “crunch time” as they say. They lost when the game ceased to flow freely and Carmelo Anthony took all the shots. 

This just seems obvious to me, which means I’m probably wrong. But without Lin and Stat, be real, this team scares no one.

What’s ugly and isolates? The Knicks.

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watchingother teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Game 50: Milwaukee Bucks @ NYK (March 26, 2012).

Shorter Recap: Knicks win another, this time with “Melo ball.” It was gross.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203210PHI.html

Seriously did anyone watch that game? Super duper ugly. That game was so ugly it made Mike Woodson’s goatee look good. That game was so ugly it made me nostalgic for the fuchsia and turquoise seats at MSG. That game was so ugly it reminded me that this team is not going to the Finals. (Sick, burn.) (Should probably admit both Lin and Amare were out with injuries. Uh oh).

Both teams shot poorly (NY: .351%, MW: .365%), and if you want to credit that to good defense, fine, but you’re wrong. Carmelo Anthony was good in as much as he got layups and free throws. Anything outside 10 feet? 2 for 9. As a team the Knicks hit 7 of 31 from behind the arc for an alarmingly awful conversion rate of .226%. And do you know why? Because this team had no flow, no ball movement, and a thousand of those shots were JR Smith jacking up shot clock clunkers. Seriously, out of 74 shots (granted, many were missed put backs at the rim) the Knicks could only convert 26? In an entire game?! Hi Mike Woodson, that iso offense you want to implement? Please don’t. It fucking blows, and is unenjoyable to watch. For every nice Melo postup and layin, there are 3 stupid Baron/Smith/Shump iso plays that they shouldn’t be trying to make happen. “If Melo can do it, then I should too” is what last night’s game looked like. So, thanks.

Why was Mike Bibby in this game for 12 minutes? When Baron Davis goes 3 for 12 and 9 turnovers, why is Toney Douglas not on the floor?

This game was another obvious of indictment of the BSquad without Jared Jeffries. Dude is the glue that keeps them together. Tyson Chandler gets my Mentos Fresh Game Ball for making his free throws and convincing the NBA to add tip-outs-to-teammates (TOTTs) as a statistical category.

Nice to see another win, but if this is how the Knicks are going to play from now on, no thank you. How much are the Brooklyn Nets season tickets going for?

Too bad I made that “spitting distance” joke already…

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watchingother teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Game 46: NYK @ Philadelphia 76ers (March 21, 2012).

Shorter Recap: Knicks win five in a row, but Melo can’t shoot .400.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203210PHI.html

Why can’t the ESPN shot chart differentiate between Jeremy Lin and all the other guards? How am I supposed to accurately criticize his 4 for 17 shooting performance, weighed against going 10 for 10 from the line, if I can’t see his takes? (Can you tell I couldn’t watch this one either? Starting to think I’m a jinx.)

Anyway, it looks as if he missed all his jumpers, but got to the line 5 times, and hit four from the paint. I’m gonna pass on faulting the dude, although, maybe don’t take 9 15+ foot jumpers if you’re cold? Don’t Melo and JR Smith jack enough for the team combined? 

Still, Lin kept his turnovers in check, and while not adding many assists, it’s definitely a continued improvement.

Looks like Amare Stoudemire dominated again on back-to-back nights, which probably says something about his condition, “explosiveness,” and you know, being a good basketball player again. 21 pts, 9 rebounds, and a .571 eFG%. He went for 2 for 5 on his jumpers outside the paint, and 6 of 9 from inside. I like that ratio. Keep em honest with the pull up, but doin most of his work inside. Yay. This feels good to type.

Carmelo Anthony’s shot chart looks like this:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nuff said.

JR Smith got the majority of Landry’s minutes it seems, but stat wise was rather lackluster…which leads me to the most interesting fact of the night!

Knicks shot just 13 threes, hit only 2, and Novak not a 1. Perhaps because this was a bit of an ugly grueler (they tell me), but I’ll be looking for a trend here in the coming days. With the absence of Mike D’Antoni, does the three ball lose its importance to a team with a handful of deadly snipers? Maybe that’ll be a good thing. To live and die in threebalLA they say. Will stout defense, transition buckets, and methodical halfcourt success be enough to propel the Knicks past the 76ers to take the Atlantic Division lead? (Starting to feel like the V.O. dude in the Batman TV series now…)

Same Knicks team, same Knicks channel friday?

Canadians travel to States, lose, prolly cool with it…

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watchingother teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Game 46: Toronto Raptors @ NYK (March 20, 2012).

Shorter Recap: Knicks win four in a row, but Melo can’t shoot .400.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203200NYK.html

I want to start with Volvo salesman Jeremy Lin. It seems that the blend of D’Antoni’s latent open offense and Woodson’s new schemin’ has propelled Lin back into his efficient scoring, assist notching point guard play of the early Linsanity days. I’m going to conjecture that taking the ball out of his hands a little more than before is helping him hold possession. 6 of 10 shooting for 18 points (second behind Amare); 10 assists; 1 steal; 1 block; and only 3(!) turnovers in 28 minutes. Granted, Lin performs best against weaker teams that let the Knicks run their offense unimpeded, but this recent stretch has been a great relief to the Lin/D’Antoni lover in me. Yay.

Amare Stoudemire found a groove against the Raptors and dug in it, scratching up their Pat Boone LP real good. 8 of 13 shooting and 12 rebounds for the Knick’s second double-double of the night. After a game like this, I think I’d always take Stat over Melo (because someday I’ll have a time machine and be able to rebuild this team into an elite championship winner, for real).

CARMELO! STOP. Look, I love your 8 boards, your 5 assits, your 3 steals! Those are super duper sweet team plays. You unarguably helped your team to win. Thanks. But 5 of 15 shooting? Fucking fix it. Fix it! Fix it! (2:18)

12 team steals! KEY POINT. Continue this please.

And kudos to all y’all other dudes. Keep winning cause you can’t get any more coaches fired this season. I think.

Glad to see Toney D get some garbage time. TONEY!

Peace.

Bobcats win! I mean the Knicks, yeah, the Knicks won too.

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watchingother teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Game 44/45: Indiana Pacers and NYK, Home and Home (March 17 & 18, 2012).

Shorter Recap: Knicks light up a good team, twice.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203160NYK.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203170IND.html

Entering the fifth season of this wild and wacky 2012 campaign (1. Lockout, 2. Losing, 3. Lin, 4. Losing, 5. Woodson) it’s hard to put any faith these New York Knicks. Well, not as hard as it is to put in the Mets, but still pretty damned difficult. And yet, while acknowledging that the win over the Blazers last week was a mulligan, I’m finding my inner optimist again. Anybody got something else they want to sell me?

Jeremy Lin has 5 turnovers in 2 games, and the team gave away just 11 in each encounter with the Pacers, while forcing 15 and 17 respectively (including in total 20 forced steals). Add that to the slight advantage in total rebounds and the pattern of winning Knicks basketball emerges again. Who knew protecting the ball and playing defense mattered?

[Aside: For all the gruff old men give the NBA for not playing defense, fuck off. The 2012 NCAA Tournament is fascinating for just two reasons: My Ohio University Bobcats are in the Sweet Sixteen, and I’m winning the office pool. Grow up, grandpa.]

There’s a definite caveat that needs to be thrown in this gear box of love and admiration. And that’s the fact that both Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have still managed to whatever the word for not at all excelling is. Granted, I missed both of these games, so maybe there was some excellent D, some witty off the ball movement, and their 8 (combined, total) assists were saintly. But now that the Scape Goat’oni has been exiled, it’s time for some motherfuckers to hit shots. I don’t care if they are garbage time halfs, and despite the fact that I admire him, quit letting Lin outscore you. Make your fucking shots.

I’ll end this belated catch up post here, try to catch the entire Raptors game tomorrow, and hopefully come up with a little better read on this new Mike Woodson Knicks team.

Ps. James Dolan, I know you got a google alert, here: Fuck off. Dick.

Pss. Mike D’Antoni, I know you got a google alert, here: Teach me basketball? I’m 6’3”, maybe it’s time to be a pro point guard? Call me.

Quick, before the body gets cold…

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203140NYK.html

Just as Mike D’Antoni’s resignation does not signal the end of this very talented Knicks team as we know it, the 42 point rout of a sad Blazers team does not imply a phoenix’s rebirth either. I don’t believe that these numbers will mean much of anything, as this game was over in the second quarter and turned into a carnival by the third, but let’s have a look.

This was the only result that wasn’t going to get Carmelo boo’ed off the court tonight. Fortunately for him, he got to ride the bench after an efficient 24 minutes, shooting 6 of 12 and notching 7 assists. It’s incredible the stark difference you can see between team-first Melo and me-first Melo. Jeremy Lin deferred early and, for once, Melo was able to hit his open threes. But he also missed a couple, and all of his isolation jumpers. The rest of his points came in the paint. The most interesting statistic is really the 7 assists. I truly believe Melo’s ego got in the way of playing D’Antoni’s system, because his play in this game was exactly what would have thrived in it. Move the ball. Take the open shot. Find the open man. 

I’m afraid we’ll see the early-January, late-February Melo again soon, shooting under .330, and stopping the team’s momentum. But let’s hope the honeymoon lasts long enough to climb out of the 8th seed cellar.

Amare Stoudemire looked princely this game, starting out 8 for 8 from the floor and grabbing 8 rebounds. Again, in reduced minutes Stat was very effective, and while his jumper is still a ways away from working, he was unstoppable inside the paint. 

Earl Swish and Steve Novak lived up to their perimeter shooting reputations tonight, going a ridiculous combined 13 for 24 from beyond the arc. It got a little sad at the end, but obviously this team needed a cathartic beat down. Swish and Shump’s theatrics certainly helped down the stretch. A lot will be said about sportsmanship today, and I’ll agree with all of it. But it can’t be ignored just how badly this team needed to make a statement. Not to the poor, pitiful Blazers—cause that’d be uncool—but to themselves. Shump’s windmill, and JR’s dumb 40-footers were exclamation points on a feel good, we’re still here, so long coach, game. I’m cool with that.

In the course of being bummed that D’Antoni resigned this afternoon, I forgot how ridiculously talented this group of Knicks are, and how good they can play. Let’s hope that Mike Woodson keeps the ball flowing, and a little best of both world’s style coaching might keep the rest of the season as entertaining to watch as it was tonight.

Jared Jeffries absence proves disastrous

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watching other teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Game 40: NYK @ Milwaukee Bucks (March 9, 2012).

Shorter Recap: Knicks lose without Chandler in Wisconsin.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203090MIL.html

I’m in South Florida with no league pass, and frankly I’d rather watch the Mets lose than type a recap on this fucking iPad. Who likes these things?

But here’s a shot.

Whatever metrics I’ve come to find useful in explaining a game I haven’t seen have finally stumped me in this one. Maybe you could say the narrow margin of this loss proves them inconsequential (and thus this excercise) but in a game that the Knicks shot better, rebounded and assisted on par, gave up just a few more turnovers than they forced, it’s hard to believe they still managed to give it away in the end. Must be the defense. Next time I’ll investigate some advanced D stats.

Jeremy Lin’s 20 points and 13 assists are reassuring and frankly I’m just very happy to see a good line out of him after the last week he’s had.

Melo had a great game, Stat had a great game, Landry had a surprisingly productive game. Those three starters went a combined 27 for 45, scoring 67 of the teams points.

Fuck it, I’m going back outside and watching baseball now. Somebody fix these guys.

Too busy fawning over the Erving banner in Jersey…

MSG and Time Warner have conspired to deny me my god givenly rightful Knicks games. Fuck a internet stream. I’m consuming this season by watching other teams on NBATV, highlights, Posting and Toasting recaps, and now, ineptly analyzing the box scores from Basketball Reference. (PS. Am now enjoying the Knicks on TV again).

Game 39: NYK @ San Antonio Spurs (March 7, 2012). 

Shorter Recap: Let’s just forget this one?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201203070SAS.html

The Pat’s Kids crew did not watch this game. Not out of protest, you see, though looking at this box score let’s just say we were, but in fact, we could not pass up the opportunity to see Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and the Los Angeles Clippers live in Newark. You can follow our formerly-live tweets of the action on the newly minted Pat’s Kids twitter. Our ten sexy lady bot followers want your company.

As for our beloved and bewildered Knicks: It looks like Carmelo Anthony has found his mid-January form, by shooting “well” (12 of 24) and not doing much else, while taking almost twice the number of shots as the rest of the team. That kind of form. I realize if they had won this game, I’d be cheering his returned shooting prowess, but let’s be real, y’all lost by 13. 

I gave Jeremy Lin short shrift (what’s a shrift?) yesterday, and he probably deserves the same for his performance in this game. I don’t love seeing him take 15 shots, but his .533 eFG% is encouraging, as is the single turnover. Assists were low, while Baron Davis’s were high. Maybe a little Voltron-Point Guard action would help.

We should really mention the spectacular play of the Spurs here, since I’m getting tired of ragging on the boys in blue and orange. The Spurs shot a crazy .582 eFG%, out rebounded the Knicks by 12, and still won despite +5 turnovers. On NY1 this morning the “highlights” of the game were three shots of Tony Parker whirling past his man and getting an easy layup (Hey Pat, you need a new sports package editor?). He was also 6 of 10 on jumpers. I can also see in mind’s eye Timmy Duncan banking his mind out. Stupid good basketball players.

Earl Swish looks like he made himself efficient of the bench? That’s nice. 

Please write in and tell me the Knicks just phoned this one in, and are preparing to throttle Milwaukee. I’d be ok with that.

Newark highlights TK!