I remember watching in old interview of Carmelo Anthony in which he stated that the only coach he gets motivated to play for is Lala.
My thoughts were as they have been before : when Lin is removed from the game and doesn't get time to establish a rhythm or aggressively attack the opposing team over the course of a game - our offense begins to stagger. Our bench is capable when it can hit shots - to do great things but it felt like this 3/23/12 raptors came mainly focused on giving Baron Davis impact minutes. When Lin finally did come back into the game at the end - it was mainly garbage time, and he was taken out shortly when Woodson realized it was too late for Lin to change the game - especially with Jr Smiths costly 2 turnovers for easy scores in less than 10 seconds. (JR Smith has done this before.. he shouldn't be a primary ball handler)
* everyone seemed to be out of it - chandler wasn't ready or able to score
* Amare missed alley-oops showed he was out of it - butter fingers as well
* Melo could not really hit any shot outside of 3 feet
The entire team was a little off.
Landry Fields should not be allowed to shoot 3's until he practices his shooting.
* I think the day-off really hurt the team - they need to at least have shooting practice.
Lin - should be given 40-45+ minutes in tough games - not 20 real minutes and a few extra garbage minutes.
* The team shouldn't ignore him. There were minutes that went by where he didnt touch the ball for a few posessions.
The guy can create shots for his teammates.
Woodson largely ignored the Lin/Novak connection in this game.
Felt like Jeremy Lin needed to be forced onto center-stage. In crunch time - the guys with the best 4th quarter mental-toughness need to be on stage. JR Smith has issues under pressure.
Summary:
Off-night for the whole team, day off was not wise.
Baron Davis getting a huge chunk of impact minutes 2nd and 3rd quarters - sticking Lin back in TOO LATE - then realizing it was too late for Lin to do much, especially with JR SMITHs comeback killing turnovers.
* I'd have to say that Woodson didn't notice the BD issue from the last game. Finally experimented or got to give BD serious minutes when it was most important, it blew up in his face
* Lin off the court hurts the team a lot. Lin/Novak connection needs to be exploited. Seems like we moved too far away from Knicks strengths concerning whose on the court - at the same time - for key periods in the game.
I always thought that if D'antoni really wants to get pay back on Melo and the Knicks he should ask for the Toronto coaching job after this season. I'm sure he is certain that the Raptors are a team that gives a 200% effort on both ends of the floor when they play the Knicks.
Missed the game wtf happened tonight out there
Well it looks like the old Knicks are back. I've never seen an NBA team shoot that bad. What a disgrace! I can only remember the Knicks hitting about 3 shots not in the paint.
On top of that they were lazy on D, not moving without the ball, not fighting through screens, throwing lazy a$$ passes, not boxing out and giving up on D. They went back to switching almost every damn time as well. Total crap. I hope this game is a wakeup call to them. This was our chance to get back over .500 and we get blown out by a crappy Raptors team that couldn't hit a shot.
Instead of goofing around 10 hours before the game, maybe our team should be out shooting the basketball trying to improve their shots and win games. I'm so frustrated if you can't tell.
THIS ASSESSMENT WAS RIGHT ON THE MONEY.
Woodson's simplified rotations work well when the Knicks are leading or the game is close, but needs to up the minutes of the best players when things are not going so well.
By the way, has anyone noticed that Lin held Calderon to ZERO FGs in that game? (His only two points were scored with Lin on the bench.)
Yeah, they probably thought that since they beat the Raptors a few nights ago that they could beat them today without giving half the effort. Or they probably thought that since they gained a half a game in the standings yesterday that they were already guarenteed a playoff spot.
Im not gonna trip bout tonight even tho it was disappointing... But...If we dont take care of business vs Detroit tomorrow...son........
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