- Balkman's heroics to start the
4th saved the Knicks. Dude kept the energy up all game.
- If the Knicks continue to rely on streaky offense instead of actually playing
D, it's going to a long season.
- A lot of questionable calls in the Knicks' favor...
- Knicks should be running the offense through
- Despite some good buckets here and there, Curry is a still a bum who
continues to disgrace Oakley's #.
- AI is bananas.
Oh, funniest moment of last night -- the Garden screen that displays
celebrities during timeouts (last night's "stars" were Jadakiss and Trina), shifted to two Jets players (one was Thomas Jones) and the Garden
erupted in boos and yells of "Shouldn't you be at practice", prompting
the display to change after a second or two instead of lingering. A minute
later Plaxico was shown to super loud cheers. Me and the people in my section
all felt bad for the Jets dudes.
The Curry/Randolph front court is already paying off dividends, far ahead of schedule. In fact, since the talk from the press about the Knicks was centered on how they could share the ball, here are the numbers from last night's game:
Zach Randolph: 22 points, 17 rebs. 9-15 shooting (60% FG).
Eddy Curry: 24 points, 8 rebounds. 11-16 shooting (68.8% FG).
Jamal Crawford: 25 points, 8 assists.
Stephon Marbury: 21 points, 9 assists.
70 points were scored in the paint by the Knicks. 70!
And the star of the game: Renaldo Balkman. His fourth quarter energy was the difference in the game. He locked down Carmelo Anthony (only 5 points in the second half), and finished with this stat line:
11 points (5/6 shooting), 4 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 steal, 1 assist, almost all those stats in the 4th quarter.
The weaknesses for the Knicks are still there - defense, for example. The Nuggets scored 50 points in the first 16 minutes. Jamal Crawford continues to get burned by inferior guards way too often. Linas Kleiza scored 18 points on 8-13 shooting yesterday. In the Minnesota game on 11/4, starting SG McCants (21 minutes) and backup Buckner (another 27 minutes) scored a combined 26 points on 10-20 shooting. Crawford played 42 minutes that game, so most of that was on him. In the season opener against the Cavs, Larry Hughes didn't do much damage, though Boobie Gibson did (24 points on 8/12 shooting). In all these cases, a good chunk of the blame may also fall on Marbury's defense (particularly on Gibson).
FT shooting was once again horrible. The Knicks went 17-29 at the line (58.6%). They need to make those shots. Randolph and Curry went a combined 6-12 at the line. They are going to go to the line quite a bit this season, so they are gonna have to put them in. The good news is that Randolph is historically a good FT shooter, so he's probably going to get better. What's scarier is that Crawford and Marbury both missed crucial FT late in the game that should have finished the game.
Turnovers were a problem for the Knicks in the first half. They had 12 turnovers by the half, but finished with only 18, meaning they did a much better job of holding on to the ball in the second half. In fact, the second half was more in line with what the Knicks have been showing this season - about 12 turnovers a game. This bodes well for the team....
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