Game Thread: Boston Celtics @ New York Knicks 12:00 pm 12/25/2016

Those are 3 good posts Mafra. Refs are bad, did you see the Warriors/Cavs, KD throws down and glares at some Cavs player no tech, RJ throws down, glares at a Warrior player gets T'd up. Lebron throws down and hangs on the rim, no T and Mark Jackson says he's never seen anyone hang on the rim as long as LBJ did.

Too many of the seasoned refs have retired it seems and the replacements don't have the experience yet.

From what Ive seen , Boston's coach knows the knicks personnel to well .

They scored to many easy buckets based upon the extra pass.
I'm down on Hornacek...Mismanagement of Melo's minutes still...Kuz in the game getting abused too long..Team play no defense..No time out when Crowder is launching wide open threes..No time out when we have a big possession and Melo with a big turnover at a critical time..I keep seeing Jennings in with the starters down the stretch and can't see the benefit..Knicks make a comeback after he was taken out and I think because of better spacing becuase Lee is a three point threat..

This team has way too much talent for this type of showing..

I watched the end of it when the Knicks came back and tied it just to watch Melo CHOKE yet again.

Trade him already so this team can get better!!

tiger0330 said:

Those are 3 good posts Mafra. Refs are bad, did you see the Warriors/Cavs, KD throws down and glares at some Cavs player no tech, RJ throws down, glares at a Warrior player gets T'd up. Lebron throws down and hangs on the rim, no T and Mark Jackson says he's never seen anyone hang on the rim as long as LBJ did.

Too many of the seasoned refs have retired it seems and the replacements don't have the experience yet.

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I did see that.... just like they missed the Durant charge. Refs and the altering of league rules has
made the sport a joke. I barely watch NBA games anymore (other than NYK).... if it weren't for ESPN's ridiculous contract (which makes that joke of a network push the sport, and talk about it 24/7), the sport would be barely above the NHL.

Again, how that ref awarded a timeout on the IT turnover is one of the worst calls I've ever seen. If you make that call, you shouldn't be officiating professional games. O well, what can we do.

I'm all for dealing Melo, I'm just not sure what we can get that helps this team moving fwd. I would rather have Rose over Melo moving fwd tho. Melo is awfully selfish and I'm done defending him.

mafra said:

Knicks 3-10 vs teams with records above .500 (including at least 5 blowouts).... this tells
me either we are a team learning about ourselves and maybe we become a threat for the 4-5 seed, and to be competitive in the second round (winning a playoff series).... or we are just good enough to beat half of the teams in the NBA....
but will finish around 40 wins, grab the 6-8 seed (if lucky).... and lose 4-1 in the first round).

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This game vs a .600 team showed we are best when we run a complete 10 man rotation (with a DNP Lance Thomas). We are not going to beat any elite team by having the majority of our starters in every lineup throughout the game. Our ISO-Starters are clueless of playing team-defense they gave the Celtricks so many easy baskets throughout the game.
I had to give this Christmas Loss to Horn substitution coaching for giving 4 of our starters 35 or more minute playing-time in our Christmas home game to the Celtricks.
If our intentions are to make the post season games to win a series or two then we must start trusting in a bench lineup throughout the regular season games to have 10 co-existing players on the same-page .. we have strong defensive depth on our bench in the frontcourt in (F/C-Quinn, F/C-Willy, SF-Kuz, SF-NDour) we need to start trusting in our bench backcourt players Jennings, Holiday, and Sasha to lead our bench-lineup.

Kiyaman said:

This game vs a .600 team showed we are best when we run a complete 10 man rotation (with a DNP Lance Thomas). We are not going to beat any elite team by having the majority of our starters in every lineup throughout the game. Our ISO-Starters are clueless of playing team-defense they gave the Celtricks so many easy baskets throughout the game.
I had to give this Christmas Loss to Horn substitution coaching for giving 4 of our starters 35 or more minute playing-time in our Christmas home game to the Celtricks.
If our intentions are to make the post season games to win a series or two then we must start trusting in a bench lineup throughout the regular season games to have 10 co-existing players on the same-page .. we have strong defensive depth on our bench in the frontcourt in (F/C-Quinn, F/C-Willy, SF-Kuz, SF-NDour) we need to start trusting in our bench backcourt players Jennings, Holiday, and Sasha to lead our bench-lineup.

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I can't argue with this.... you can't get this little from your bench on your home floor..... this is what D-Rose said afterwards (and why I like this player....
way more than Melo)....

(NY Post)

Since he returned from back spasms, Rose has averaged 22.7 points and four assists.
In one stretch of the fourth quarter he scored nine straight Knicks points. If he continues to play like this, he could join Anthony as a second go-to option at the end of games.
“It’s not my call. My job is to go out and try to win a game,” Rose said. “We had Melo with the ball [today]. If coach wanted me to have the ball, I’d have the ball.”


OH... and back to the crappy refs:

There was one controversial play in the fourth quarter in which Porzingis blocked a Jae Crowder attempt by the basket, pinning the ball against the backboard for a moment before the ball came free and the Knicks gained possession. Or so they thought. The whistle blew and a jump ball was ruled, drawing the day’s loudest boos.
“They don’t call that in Europe,’’ Porzingis said. “I thought I had a block and everyone was running and the crowd was so loud and you couldn’t hear anything.’’

Playa2 said:

From what Ive seen , Boston's coach knows the knicks personnel to well .

They scored to many easy buckets based upon the extra pass.
I'm down on Hornacek...Mismanagement of Melo's minutes still...Kuz in the game getting abused too long..Team play no defense..No time out when Crowder is launching wide open threes..No time out when we have a big possession and Melo with a big turnover at a critical time..I keep seeing Jennings in with the starters down the stretch and can't see the benefit..Knicks make a comeback after he was taken out and I think because of better spacing becuase Lee is a three point threat..

This team has way too much talent for this type of showing..

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So True .. from "the Celtrics knowing the Knicks personnel to also knowing the exact last minute crunch-time plays will be ISO Melo holding the ball .. to "This Knicks team has way too much talent for this type of showing.
The Celtrics are a young team looking to excite a sold-out Christmas day crowed by having a young Isiiah Thomas run a quick uptempo offense on a older veteran Knicks team throughout the game.
Isiiah's 33 minute uptempo game were to quick for all our starters .. we loss giving our bench players spot-minute of playing time throughout the game in varous lineups with 2 or 3 of our starters running the show.

This was a tough loss and we continue to play poorly against teams with winning records, but we're 30 games into this season and instead of being a laughingstock, we're 2 games above 0.500. This is the best I've felt about this team since the 54 win season 5 seasons ago. Barring injuries, I think this team has a ceiling much higher than its floor going forward. 50 games from now, if our current roster and rotations stay intact and grow together, we have a real chance to bring some excitement in the playoffs.

In our previous game vs Orlando Magic i thought coach Horn were finally learning a lot about the team and players, and what it takes to win when Horn gave 5 of our bench players (Quinn/Willy/Kuz/Holiday/Jennings) 20 minute each of playing time to outscore the Magic in all 4 quarters. I even gave the MVP of the Magic win to coach Horn. Now i know the win was a fluke when Horn did the opposite the next game on Christmas day.

htr10 said:

This was a tough loss and we continue to play poorly against teams with winning records, but we're 30 games into this season and instead of being a laughingstock, we're 2 games above 0.500. This is the best I've felt about this team since the 54 win season 5 seasons ago. Barring injuries, I think this team has a ceiling much higher than its floor going forward. 50 games from now, if our current roster and rotations stay intact and grow together, we have a real chance to bring some excitement in the playoffs.

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The team has met my expections of a 45 win season so far. We've had unexpected surprises like O'Quinn, Kuz, Holiday and WHG who comprise a decent bench rather than what I called the worst bench in the NBA which I expected to be bolstered by a trade at some point. We also have Randle up in Westchester who might be contributing if not for that pre-season injury. 10 day contracts start in Jan. so I expect that he'll be called up then for the Knicks to get a look at him.

Noah has played better the last several games so he might be more than dead weight for the team if he can keep up his recent play. I expected DRose to have an outstanding year because this is a contract year for him and he hasn't disappointed and KP has shown improvement from his rookie season.

Only disappointment because he's been inconsistent is Melo, who has been bad in some of the losses but has also carried the team in some of the wins, if only he was like Lebron, who the Cavs when he plays have a .750 winning pct and .180 pct when he doesn't play. LT has also been a bust who I hope they can trade at the deadline for a playoff run.

Still looking at the talent on the Knicks, I get the feeling they can be better if they can pull it all together.