Protecting the house
It's been a major issue all season long for the Knicks and amazing that it hasn't been exploited by opposing teams more than it has. In the loss to the Nets on Sunday, there was a point in the game -- let's call it the entire second quarter -- where Jersey seemed to score at will on drives, dunks and layups.
Nine of the Nets' 12 field goals in the quarter were either on drives, dunks or layups and, in fact, all nine came in succession betwen a drive by Devin Harrish with 8:51 left in the quarter to make it a 36-32 Knicks lead until an alley-oop layup by Harris with 1:15 left to make it a 49-48 Knicks lead. Harrish, who finished with 35 points, actually had five of the nine baskets.
The Knicks keyed a little more on stopping Harris' dribble penetration in the second half by using more of the quicker Nate Robinson against him. But while the Nets were busy swatting eight blocked shots as a team (pogo stick Sean Williams had four), the Knicks, who were without 6-10 Jared Jeffries (sore knee) for a third straight game, had zero presence in the paint.
Jeffries also gives them some better options on defense because he can usually defend opposing point guards and switch off to the bigs in pick-and-roll situations. Without him, and without a shot-blocker in the paint to deter intruders, the Knicks tend to drop off on the perimeter and try to give up low percentage jump shots.
"The way they play defense, they try to bait you into shooting jump shots and you don't want to settle, especially on the pick and rolls, the switches and the mismatches," Harris said. "We wanted to be aggressive and try to get points in the paint, get to the foul line so we could slow down their break on one end and try to make them play a halfcourt game."
The Hawks did this through most of Wednesday's game, but then, as Harris said, fell for the bait and suddenly turned more and more to the easy jumper, which failed to drop with the same frequency. The 76ers were another team recently that just continually got right into the heart of the Knicks defense with dribble penetration. Andre Miller knew he could get there any time he wanted to . . . and did.
It's no secret the Knicks will be in the market for a veteran presence in the paint to address their interior defense issues and there will be some interesting options to consider this offseason. Both Marcus Camby and Rasheed Wallace are two possible candidates, along with Mikki Moore, that the Knicks could target, depending on whom would be willing to come for a reasonable price.
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