Game 4: NY Knicks @ Sacramento 12/31/2011

We didn't have a game thread for the Lakers-game, so I fancied a go. It's very basic and universes behind Crazy8's game threads, but better than nothing I guess.


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Knicks vs Kings in Sactown


Projected Starting Lineups:

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Tyson Chandler
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Carmelo 'Melo' Anthony
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Landry Fields
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Toney Douglas
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Mike Bibby



VS


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Demarcus Cousins
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Chuck Hayes
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John Salmons
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Marcus Thornton
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Tyreke Evans


Injured:

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Amar'e Stoudemire
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Baron Davis
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Iman Shumpert


Kings Record so far: 1-2 (Including an Opening Night victory against the Lakers).

Knick in the focus for this game:


1975.jpg
Carmelo 'Melo' Anthony

With Amar'e apparently out for this game, and no Davis or Shumpert, Melo is our only offensive weapon. If Melo has a huge night we have a chance, if not it's gonna be close to impossible to win this one.


:gony: Keys to victory:


- Rebounding, we've been outrebounded in each of the 3 games so far. We need to establish some kind of solid defensive rebounding and prevent the other team from getting so many offensive boards and second or third chances.

- Offensive flow, our offense has been well discussed on this board. It's plain and simple, we need to score and get back to some kind of offensive flow and rhythm. Amar'e out might actually help Melo to be more effective.

- Defense, for some strange reason, we've played great first quarter defense in each of our 3 games so far, but played very bad defense in the second half. In order to actually hold on to leads or bounce back from defecits, we need to play defense for 48 minutes and especially in the 4th quarter.


- Overcome lack of depth, with Amar'e, Baron Davis, Iman Shumpert and Jared Jeffries all out, our depth is pretty much non-existing for this game. We need big games from Melo, Bibby and Chandler to win this game.


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Let's GO Knicks!!!!!
 

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
IMO our starting lineup won't include Bibby, we need someone big to play at #4, maybe Harrellson? But it doesn't really matter if D'Antoni didn't adjust his strategy, I won't get through another downtown shootout.
 

Red

TYPE-A
No JORTS in the starting line-up?

Rather move Melo up?

I like the idea of starting JORTS, he's a lunch pail type of guy and will help Melo and others get into their zone. He doesn't need the ball, plays defense, and will probably help out on the boards. This could be a blessing. IMO.

Looks like D'Antoni isn't so clueless...

?A little bit of it is, we?re pressing,?? D?Antoni said. ?We?re thinking we have to be that great team right now and we?re not. We?re a little bit tight. We?ve got to loosen up. We?ve got to get the spacing better, get rotations better. We want it too bad. We?ve got to calm down and relax.??
The Knicks? 1-2 start is disappointing but not completely surprising, considering the lockout-shortened camp. The team is trying to adapt to a lot of new pieces, including chemistry issues between Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire.
Jeff Van Gundy?s Knicks, trying to blend in Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby during the 1999 lockout, had a subpar regular season and finished as the eighth seed before their Finals march.
The new league buzz is the Knicks won?t be very good until playmaking point guard Baron Davis returns and that appears ? depending on whom you talk to ? to be late January at the earliest.
?We?ve got to win games in the meantime,?? D?Antoni said. ?And we can do that.??
D?Antoni said the team hadn?t adapted to his ball-movement concepts before the season opener against the Celtics. But they escaped 106-104, as Stoudemire and Anthony starred.
The Boston win was ?a little bit of fool?s gold,?? according to D?Antoni. ?That was individual talent,?? he said.
Stoudemire needs more room to operate, and he needs to be smarter.
?We definitely need spacing for him,?? D?Antoni said. ?If he only becomes a jump shooter or is driving into a crowd, that?s not good. We?ve done that. We?ve got to lessen the crowd up and he? trying too hard to take it on himself instead of relaxing. If he?s in a crowd, start kicking.??
One concern is Stoudemire is not being used in the pick-and-roll any longer, with Anthony and center Tyson Chandler running it.
?What he does best is the pick-and-roll,?? D?Antoni said of Stoudemire. ?We have to find out how to get him ball the ball, spaced out. He has space, he?s really good.??


We're such a new team that I think time without everyone in the line-up may help in the long run. Missing BD IMAX and STAT should help MELO and TC create chemistry. Might help Fields too.

He at least knows to get the star the ball.
 

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
I can't believe it was MDA who said that all, IMO or someone else wrote him down what to say or he's got enlightened... or he's reading KO board.
 

Red

TYPE-A
I can't believe it was MDA who said that all, IMO or someone else wrote him down what to say or he's got enlightened... or he's reading KO board.

He says the right things at times, like last year with defense.

Its the actions and results we're looking for. Thinking about it, most coaches are rated based on their ability to get players to buy in and motivate them, it just takes time with Mike. Takes time to see the results... maybe he's not the best communicator.

And maybe NY is the best place for Mike to improve because we demand more, and our media is large. There's no hiding or bullshitting like in PHX.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Get it right....

He says the right things at times, like last year with defense.

Its the actions and results we're looking for. Thinking about it, most coaches are rated based on their ability to get players to buy in and motivate them, it just takes time with Mike. Takes time to see the results... maybe he's not the best communicator.

And maybe NY is the best place for Mike to improve because we demand more, and our media is large. There's no hiding or bullshitting like in PHX.


Cut the BullShit....Mike is a BUM!
Our superstars performance has showed no-leadership with their cheap
teammates....this is the first step at getting a headcoach FIRED.
Do Grunwald have that power?

Watch the matchup between Tyson Chandler -vs- Demarcus Cousins.
Watch which Kings player will have a fields day scoring on Melo.
Watch our shitty team-defense lead the Kings to having a season high in assists.

Can we beat the Kings for a Knicks WIN? HELL YEAH! if Melo start moving
without the ball going around screens set by Tyson, Jorts, and Jordan.
Melo have to stop faking like he's playing defense, and learn how to pass the
ball to moving players like TD & Fields. Melo have to show confidence in his
teammates. Melo will be getting 40 minutes of playingtime vs the Kings so I
direct the Knicks WIN (or lose) on Melo.

P.S. Dantoni career in Phoenix, Shawn Marion averaged 40 minutes of playingtime
each season to Steve Nash 35 minutes of playingtime each season.
Do the math
 

Seba

Benchwarmer
I'm a little scared that melo playing the four is going to result in foul trouble. Hayes is all about contact.
Luckily we are playing a team that, despite it's good offensive players, their offense works a bad as ours. We have to be able to stop them
!
 
Great game thread Sprewell-Houston!

I'm a little scared that melo playing the four is going to result in foul trouble. Hayes is all about contact.
Luckily we are playing a team that, despite it's good offensive players, their offense works a bad as ours. We have to be able to stop them
!

This is true, Sacramento has the same problem as us on offense because they have Thornton(I think that's how you spell it) and Tyreke as their starting backcourt. I really hope our offense isn't as stagnant and we get Chandler and Fields more involved.

“A little bit of it is, we’re pressing,’’ D’Antoni said. “We’re thinking we have to be that great team right now and we’re not. We’re a little bit tight. We’ve got to loosen up. We’ve got to get the spacing better, get rotations better. We want it too bad. We’ve got to calm down and relax.’’
The Knicks’ 1-2 start is disappointing but not completely surprising, considering the lockout-shortened camp. The team is trying to adapt to a lot of new pieces, including chemistry issues between Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire.
Jeff Van Gundy’s Knicks, trying to blend in Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby during the 1999 lockout, had a subpar regular season and finished as the eighth seed before their Finals march.
The new league buzz is the Knicks won’t be very good until playmaking point guard Baron Davis returns and that appears — depending on whom you talk to — to be late January at the earliest.
“We’ve got to win games in the meantime,’’ D’Antoni said. “And we can do that.’’
D’Antoni said the team hadn’t adapted to his ball-movement concepts before the season opener against the Celtics. But they escaped 106-104, as Stoudemire and Anthony starred.
The Boston win was “a little bit of fool’s gold,’’ according to D’Antoni. “That was individual talent,’’ he said.
Stoudemire needs more room to operate, and he needs to be smarter.
“We definitely need spacing for him,’’ D’Antoni said. “If he only becomes a jump shooter or is driving into a crowd, that’s not good. We’ve done that. We’ve got to lessen the crowd up and he’ trying too hard to take it on himself instead of relaxing. If he’s in a crowd, start kicking.’’
One concern is Stoudemire is not being used in the pick-and-roll any longer, with Anthony and center Tyson Chandler running it.
“What he does best is the pick-and-roll,’’ D’Antoni said of Stoudemire. “We have to find out how to get him ball the ball, spaced out. He has space, he’s really good.’’
Good find Red, this is really great to hear. Stat and Melo definitely need to start having more chemistry together and get some P&R going already.
 
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Sage

Rotation player
It'll be new years day for me and I'll probs just be rolling out of bed in time for this one.
 

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
Who said Carmelo's going to play at #4? It's a thought of one of our users, there are no official starting lineups yet and personally I think D'Antoni will start Jorts at power forward.
 
This game may very well expose the ramifications of our failure to address a back-up for Amare during the offseason (I know we had a million other things to address as well). Only logical options, other than moving Melo to the 4, are starting Novak, Jhorts, or Balkman (or Jefferies if he is healthy). If I had my pick, I'd go with Novak at the 4 and leave Melo at the 3, but that makes us even more one-dimensional on the offensive end without a facilitator at point guard. In the end, this is yet another situation where having a capable pass-first point guard would solve a lot of the problems.
 
I feel like we lose this one. They havent showed anything to say we wont.

I still believe that even with the current disarray all it takes is one guy in addition to Melo to have a big game and we can beat anybody. With Amare out, not sure we have that other guy who can have a big game though. Maybe TD, but I wouldn't bank on it.
 

MusketeerX

Rotation player
Jorts is starting. I think it is a good move. Some banging and hustling is what we need. Hopefully he can grab some boards and hit an open jumpshot... Hopefully our offense isn't isoplays and a crappy pick and roll.

We cannot sleep on this Sac team. They have a bunch of cutters and that has already proven to be our Achilles's heel.
 
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