New York Knicks vs New Jersey Nets Game Thread

MSGKnickz33

The Gold Mac
Good aftternoon, Im MSGKnicks33 and thanks for joining me for my pregame thoughts and analysis of tonights matchup. The New York Knicks take on the New Jersey Nets in New Jersey at 7:30. The Nets have owned the Knicks the past couple of years. The 5-11 Knicks could be without Stephon Marbury when they play the 8-9 Nets.

If Marbury does not play, Isiah might slide Crawford down to the point guard position and bring in Fred Jones as the starting shooting guard.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Stephon Marbury and the Marbury family. Marbury e-mailed the New York Post yesterday and had this to say: "I walk by faith and not by sight. JESUS lives in me, and he will guide me through this. This (too) shall pass." You can click the link below to get the full article.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042007/sports/knicks/painful_loss_for_marbury_594164.htm?page=1


Now, Lets take a look at the starting Lineups for tomorrow nights game.

New York Knicks vs New Jersey Nets

Stephon Marbury? vs Jason Kidd
Jamal Crawford vs Vince Carter
Quentin Richardson vs Richard Jefferson
Zach Randolph vs Malik Allen
Eddy Curry vs Jason Collins


Even if Stephon Marbury plays, its still going to take a strong team effort to beat the Nets. Lets take a look at what they need to do to win tonight:
  • Get back on defense: Jason Kidd loves to run the fastbreak and find open teammates. Knicks need to get back and play defense.
  • Dont let big guys score: The Nets have a tough 1 2 3 punch with Kidd, Carter and Jefferson. They cant let the other guys have big nights.
  • Dont force the ball in to Curry: Magloire and Collins are both good, physical defenders. Curry needs to get good positioning before he gets the ball to prevent turnovers and offensive fouls.
  • Move the ball and look for good shots: Guys like Crawford and Nate Robinson need to step up on offense. Curry usually struggles against the Nets so the Knicks will need all the offense they can get.

Every player is going to have to step up tomorrow night!!!!!

If theres any guard on the Knicks that has a chance of slowing down Jason Kidd its Stephon Marbury. If he plays, he will have to get back on defense and slow down Kidd who will be looking to run the fast break and dish it off to an open teammate. Marbury also needs to look to attack Jason Kidd and get to the basket. The Knicks will need his offense.

Jamal Crawford will have a tough time guarding Vince Carter. Vince is a tough matchup even for good defenders so Jamal has to have a good offensive game for the Knicks to win. He should look to break down the defense with his ballhandling skills and find the open man. Crawford needs to take the right shots at the right time. He will be a factor in the outcome of tonights game.

Quentin Richardson has a big oppertunity tonight. So far this season, he has struggled with his all around game, especially his jumpshot. As I mentioned before, the Knicks are going to need offense. Hopefully that elbow or whatever the cause of Q's low shooting percentage is better tomorrow night. He'll be going up against one of the best small forwards in the game, Richard Jefferson who has been on a tear so far this season. If Q-Rich can slow down RJ and put some points on the board, it will erase his bad performance defensively against Grant Hill on Sunday night and it will increase the Knicks chances of beating the Nets.

According to ESPN.com, the starting powerfoward for the Nets is Malik Allen. Sean Williams has also had a couple of starts so I'm not sure who Zach Randolph will have to face tomorrow night. Malik Allen is not well known but he is a rough and physical defender who can give Z-Bo some problems. Sean Williams has been one of the most exciting rookies to watch so far. His athletic ability and timing allows him to be a great shot blocker. He usually has a couple of highlight dunks everytime he plays. Sean doesn't have the size to stop Zach Randolph down low and Malik Allen cannot defend Zachs jumpshot. In other words, Zach needs to use whatever works to his advantage depending on whos defending him. He also needs to play less selfish. When the double or sometimes even triple team comes, he needs to pass immediately instead of looking to score. The selfish play needs to stop.

Eddy Curry might struggle offensively. Jamal Magloire and Jason Collins are both physical defenders who do a good job on Curry. Curry should forget about offense for one night and focus on getting back on defense and playing good help defense. Its a good oppertunity for Curry to work on his defense. Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson do a good job of getting to the rim and Curry needs to look for them and be ready to challenge them.

The bench needs to do what they do best and thats play with energy and have an immediate impact. Jones and Balkmen need to be ready to come off the bench and play some good defense on Carter and Jefferson.


Knicks fans know this game will not be easy, but if they stick to the gameplan hopefully they won't be turning their TV's off and leaving the game early. Catch me tonight at halftime for the 1st half stats and analysis. I'm MSGKnicks33 and I thank everyone for joining me.




R.I.P. Donald Marbury, 1939-2007
 
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Kennedy Curse

Cutest Guy Here
Yea one thing i know is that the nets will alwais pwnt us...we never can beat them dont know y thats y team i believe well get swept by...we need 2 D UP on richardson he alwais has big games against us and we need 2 let carter shoot shots better than him driving and drawing fouls
 

theknicks3

Benchwarmer
Yea one thing i know is that the nets will alwais pwnt us...we never can beat them dont know y thats y team i believe well get swept by...we need 2 D UP on richardson he alwais has big games against us and we need 2 let carter shoot shots better than him driving and drawing fouls

Do you mean Jefferson?

Anyways

Knicks front court >>>>>>>>>>>>. Nets
Nets backcourt >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..Knicks
 
We should let Crawford play the point , move Q to the 2 and start either Balkman or Jeffries. Thats what I'd like to see at least. This whole unfortunite Marbury situation at least lets another good defender into the starting line up if we go this way. Q on Vince and Jeffries or Balkman on Jefferson sounds better then Crawford on Vince at least. Kidd we weren't stoping anyway so lets just put our weakest backcourt defender on him... Crawford maby he can come up with a steal or two , he's got quick hands as long as he can stay in front of his man.
 

MSGKnickz33

The Gold Mac
We should let Crawford play the point , move Q to the 2 and start either Balkman or Jeffries. Thats what I'd like to see at least. This whole unfortunite Marbury situation at least lets another good defender into the starting line up if we go this way. Q on Vince and Jeffries or Balkman on Jefferson sounds better then Crawford on Vince at least. Kidd we weren't stoping anyway so lets just put our weakest backcourt defender on him... Crawford maby he can come up with a steal or two , he's got quick hands as long as he can stay in front of his man.

Crawford Staying in front of his man? YOur joking right? Crawford couldnt stay in front of Dan Dickau.
 

GetRealistic

Starter
We should let Crawford play the point , move Q to the 2 and start either Balkman or Jeffries. Thats what I'd like to see at least. This whole unfortunite Marbury situation at least lets another good defender into the starting line up if we go this way. Q on Vince and Jeffries or Balkman on Jefferson sounds better then Crawford on Vince at least. Kidd we weren't stoping anyway so lets just put our weakest backcourt defender on him... Crawford maby he can come up with a steal or two , he's got quick hands as long as he can stay in front of his man.



I'm right with you on that. Crawford is a bad defender but hes probably allittle better than Nate. Not to mention for some reason it seems like Nate is in the dog house. WFAN did report that Marbury hasn't been offically ruled out yet, not that'd hed help. But hey sports is one big game of story lines, as awful as it sounds maybe the death of his father will motivte Marbury to play great in his fathers memory.
 
I said "maby" and "if" MSGKnickz33 :). I also think Steph will come back motivated GetRealistic and I'm not even a very big Starbury fan. I would like to see him take at least a week off to get things right in his head , but maby the only place like many athletes his mind can take a break is on the court,feild,rink ect. I hope things work out for Steph one way or another. The things he does with the shoe's and clothing is under appriciated by many along with all the off court drama, deaths in the family and the on going circus at the garden... this guy needs to catch a break.
 

MSGKnickz33

The Gold Mac
I said "maby" and "if" MSGKnickz33 :). I also think Steph will come back motivated GetRealistic and I'm not even a very big Starbury fan. I would like to see him take at least a week off to get things right in his head , but maby the only place like many athletes his mind can take a break is on the court,feild,rink ect. I hope things work out for Steph one way or another. The things he does with the shoe's and clothing is under appriciated by many along with all the off court drama, deaths in the family and the on going circus at the garden... this guy needs to catch a break.


I was just jokin with you, You said "as long as he can stay in front of his man" and I knew that you probably meant maybe he can stay in fron of his man. I like what you said about Marbury. It seems like what he does is underappreciated, the media would rather sit around and wait for contreversial quotes then talk about all the good hes done.
 

LJ4ptplay

Starter
I am looking forward to watching Sean Williams play. I have not had a chance to see him yet. I was hoping that the Knicks would have drafted him because I felt that the Knicks needed to address their lack of shot-blocking or their lack of 3-point shooting during the offseason. Typical of Isiah to not recognize these weaknesses and not address them. Has anybody heard about Sean Williams? Is he playing well? Is he causing any offcourt/oncourt problems?
 

Kennedy Curse

Cutest Guy Here
lmao yea jeffreson! well he alwais kills us and doubt marbury is going 2 play if he does i think he has 2 much in his head 2 play good
 

MSGKnickz33

The Gold Mac
They said that he might come off the bench unless you heard that more recently then I heard what I sed, but I just hope its not another embarrassing loss to the Nets.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
I dont care what anyone say, but Q.Rich got to go (Trade him), this guy is like all them leaves in front of my house that been giving me more work to do each weekend bagging them up.
We got 6.2 Fred Jones now to replace Q.Richardson.
It upsets me to see Q.Richardson standing next to a real SF like Richard Jefferson who adds a little of everything for his team.
 
Funny..

Knicks playing much better defense with Curry out of the lineup. The bigs are rotating and stringing the gaurds to the sidelines before running back to their man, or switching and resetting, like good defensive teams need to do. Don't necessarily need to block a lot of shots or steal to make defensive plays, as witnessed so far in this first half. Mostly every shot the Net's make are tough shots. And most of that is due to Lee and Zach helping appropriately to give the gaurds time to recover. If Curry does not see this is what he needs to also do, he will ultimately be the downfall of Isaiah. I have never seen a more clueless person in the NBA in my lifetime on defense than Eddy Curry. It's laughable how inept he is on that side.
 

MSGKnickz33

The Gold Mac
Knicks playing much better defense with Curry out of the lineup. The bigs are rotating and stringing the gaurds to the sidelines before running back to their man, or switching and resetting, like good defensive teams need to do. Don't necessarily need to block a lot of shots or steal to make defensive plays, as witnessed so far in this first half. Mostly every shot the Net's make are tough shots. And most of that is due to Lee and Zach helping appropriately to give the gaurds time to recover. If Curry does not see this is what he needs to also do, he will ultimately be the downfall of Isaiah. I have never seen a more clueless person in the NBA in my lifetime on defense than Eddy Curry. It's laughable how inept he is on that side.

And i thought eddy was the franchise player. This shows that Eddy is the #1 problem with the team, they always play better defense with him on the bench. Take your time with that injury, Eddy. Fatass.
 
And i thought eddy was the franchise player. This shows that Eddy is the #1 problem with the team, they always play better defense with him on the bench. Take your time with that injury, Eddy. Fatass.


I thought Curry would progress into at least a serviceable defensive player. Im not looking for him to be Dwight Howard. But I am looking for him to rotate correctly and protect the basket more than he does. If he at least did this, we'd be a force. It's up to him.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
The Knicks supposed to be up by 15 on the Kiddless Nets.
Why has Isiah been benching Nate Robinson, did Nate go out with his daughter? Nate is the Man 5 points in 4 minutes.
Q.Rich just stole another rebound from Zach
 
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