Yes, it could be worse, but we keep losing absolutely winnable games. When KP and Melo go cold we're toast (there's absolutely no excuse for shooting 21%, looking at you Melo). You can't win a game if your only player with a positive PER is Noah.8-9 record... 13/17 teams played above .500.... it could be worse for Knicks, I guess
I'm going to start posting these stats after every game. You can get them from ESPN's Chrome extension that you can download.
Knicks
Fast Break Points: 8
Points in Paint: 46
TOs (Opp Points Off TOs): 5 (8)
Flagrant Fouls: 0
Technical Fouls: 0
eFG%: .429
TS%: .498
2P%: .417
FTM/FGA: .275
TOV%: 4.6%
Mid-range pts: 14
Pace: 92.6
OffRtg: 111.2
DefRtg: 121.0
NetRtg: -9.8
ORB%: 26.1%
DRB%: 62.2%
OKC
Fast Break Points: 14
Points in Paint: 66
TOs (Opp Points Off TOs): 14 (13)
Flagrant Fouls: 0
Technical Fouls: 0
eFG%: .556
TS%: .572
2P%: .559
FTM/FGA: .133
TOV%: 12.5%
Mid-range pts: 10
Pace: 92.6
OffRtg: 121.0
DefRtg: 111.2
NetRtg: +9.8
ORB%: 37.8%
DRB%: 73.9%
this could have been a great win to put us over .500, but we couldn't match their physicality. roberson played some really good defense on melo, but number 7 still should've been able to score at least 2 or 3 more buckets off of him. add to that the fact that KP also went cold earlier in the game at the same time and being out-rebounded as a team... that's not a good recipe for success. and then on top of that their bench outplayed ours'. but i think what really killed us more than anything was the disparity in rebounds, especially down the stretch in the final minutes of the game. this was a game where we sorely missed RoLo. we were within 2 points in the 4th quarter if i remember correctly, and then they just bullied us around. it's ironic that noah was our only player to be in the positive with +/-, despite the fact that we got manhandled under the basket.
but i'm not hitting the panic button yet. the good news is we have 4 EXTREMELY winnable games coming up next. anything less than 3-1 will be real cause for concern at this point. hopefully we take our frustration out on the wolves wednesday night. as everyone knows our road record is pretty awful. this next road game is a must win. and if we can bring them back to the garden and beat them again, that will help wash away the bad taste left from this one.
The Knicks need a tougher coach, Hornacek seems like too nice a guy. I want a guy that will get in a guys face and tell Melo look I don't want you walking the ball up, it allows the D to get setup, give the ball to Derek or BJ or make an outlet pass. Let the playmakers make the plays.I'm not anti-Melo, but this is really frustrating seeing him play like this. I don't get it. Last season, when the team was playing good, he was looking and finding his teammates. After that good run when they were disappointing, he still didn't iso too much and was getting his teammates involved. He truly CHANGED. Now with a fresh team, a lot more talent, progressing and winning, he's probably worse with iso than I've ever seen him on the Knicks. Why is he doing this? It's ok once in a while, nobody's perfect, but this is just ridiculous. I don't want him to not be confident, but the predictable ball-stopping is just bad team ball.
a lot of stuff to chew on with these posts. kiyaman, i understand your point about beating lottery teams, but the fact of the matter is those are the teams we absolutely should beat. what bothers me about beating those teams is that, at least historically, it seems to take away our sense of urgency when we next face a team with a similar record to ours. it's as though they feel they can rest on their laurels even though they haven't really proved all that much. the thunder were a good example of that. that was the only game that night that didn't have a point spread. they were even. they knew the thunder were going to be physical, but they probably figured that their firepower alone would be able to win them the game. but they were wrong.
we do have a lot of road games coming up and it's pretty clear we're not performing well in those. this stretch coming up is a big time opportunity to change that around. they absolutely have to approach those games with the mindset that the season is on the line. i'm getting the feeling (it's more like hoping honestly) that the way they lost this game to the thunder was the final straw and that they will approach these games coming up with a much better and more confident attitude.
i'm not a melo hater, but he definitely has to learn to stop taking things so personal and learn to put the team first. he's shown signs of it before, he has to apply it again and continue applying it. roberson was all up in his mud, and melo felt that he HAD to prove he could score on this guy, even if it meant ignoring his team mates for a series of possessions. he has to stop doing that. he finished the game with 4 assists, i believe, which shows that he does look for his team mates, especially the bigs when they're rolling to the basket. he did that a lot last season with RoLo and he's doing it again this year mostly with hernangomez. but when a defender consistently gets the better of him, it's like he just puts the blinders on and forgets everything else. he has to stop doing that. i don't think hornacek, or ANY other coach for that matter will be able to make that happen. that's something that his team mates are going to have to do. freeze HIM out when he starts acting up like that. don't pass him the ball. easier said than done of course, but i really feel that would be the only way to get the message through in those kinds of situations.
hopefully holiday's shoulder is feeling better, and hopefully our Eurokids show up to play with a little more moxy during this stretch. this is a perfect opportunity to turn things around.