Game Thread: New York Knicks vs Orlando Magic 7:30 pm 1/2/2017 [Game#34]

rady

Administrator
Staff member

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(15-20) -- (16-17)

VenueTVTIME
Madison Square Garden, New York, NYMSG7:30 PM EST


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Injury Report

Orlando MagicNew York Knicks
Evan Fournier - Right heel contusion (QUEST)Kristaps Porzingis - Sore left Achilles (DOUBT)
Damjan Rudez - Strained right calf (QUEST)Carmelo Anthony - Sore left knee (DAY 2 DAY)
-Kyle O'Quinn - Flu-like symptoms (DAY 2 DAY)
-Courtney Lee - Sore right wrist (QUEST)


Game Preview

NEW YORK -- The New York Knicks enter the new year under .500 for the fourth straight season and 12 out of the past 15 seasons, excluding the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign.

New York (16-17) will try to get back on track after dropping three straight in a southern road swing when it hosts the Orlando Magic (15-20) Monday at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks defeated the Magic at the Garden, 106-95, on Dec. 22.

The Knicks surrendered at least 100 points in their recent three-game road slide, losing to the Atlanta Hawks (102-98), the New Orleans Pelicans (104-92) and the Houston Rockets (129-122). New York has the sixth-worst defensive rating in the league.

"We have three guys (Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick Rose) on this team that can score with the best of them. If we can just somehow find a way to build defensively, I think we can really make some noise."

The Knicks could be without two of them on Monday. Porzingis sat out the loss to the Rockets with an Achilles injury. His condition is day-to-day.

"I don't even know how it happened," Porzingis told the New York Post. "It's a situation that finally got a little sore from playing I guess. I'm not too worried. Just a little soreness. Keep doing treatments, ice all that stuff. It will go away pretty soon."

Anthony, who is averaging 21.9 points a game, left the Rockets game with a left knee injury. His status against the Magic is uncertain.

The Knicks could also be without starting guard Courtney Lee, who has missed the last three games with a wrist injury.

If the Knicks want to make a run for a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs, this is the month to start. New York's first seven opponents in January have a record of at or below .500 and are a combined 31 games under .500.

The Magic dropped a 117-104 decision to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. Nikola Vucevic led Orlando with 18 points off the bench. Jeff Green and Serge Ibaka each added 17 points.

Ibaka has led the Magic in scoring eight times in the first 35 games of the season. During seven seasons with Oklahoma City, Ibaka led or tied for the team lead in scoring just 10 times.

They could be missing their leading scorer, guard Evan Fournier, who is averaging 17.8 points. Fournier missed his fourth consecutive game on Sunday with a right heel contusion.

Orlando is also struggling defensively. It ranks 17th in the league in defensive rating.

The Pacers shot 50 percent (43 of 86).

"We didn't play a truly tough-minded defensive game," said Orlando coach Frank Vogel, whose team shot 43.3 percent.

"It started on the basketball on the perimeter. We weren't very good. On the press, we weren't containing the basketball."

Vogel said his team has had trouble matching up defensively the past few weeks.

"Until that turns around and we change our fortunes there, we're not going to be very good."

(cbssports.com)
 

tiger0330

Legend
Thanks for the game thread Rady. Happy New Year to everyone.

Not sure Melo is playing or should play, he seemed to be laboring in Houston and I think he hurt rather than helped the team, I appreciate him being a warrior and playing with an injury but if he's not moving around 100% at shootaround Horn should rest him.

Must win game, the next 3 MIL IND and NO are not easy wins. The Magic is the easiest game of our next four opponents and we need a W to get back to .500 and get back that 8th seed.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Nice read on GameThread Rady ....

Please .. dont anyone get optimistic bout this easy Knicks win over a beatup Magic team at the Garden.
Unless ...we begin n finish the game playing team-defense well and passing the ball around in a uptempo system
 

tiger0330

Legend
Nice read on GameThread Rady ....

Please .. dont anyone get optimistic bout this easy Knicks win over a beatup Magic team at the Garden.
Unless ...we begin n finish the game playing team-defense well and passing the ball around in a uptempo system
What easy game? This is the Knicks, they're passing the ball well enough and Melo is posting up tonight more instead of just taking that mid-range but the defense is not good once again allowing the Magic to shoot 60% from 3 and 51% overall. That's right they're better shooting 3s than from 2. 67-59 at the half Magic.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Melo gets criticism because he gets paid big money and it was only one play but he stayed back to complain about a no call before jogging up the court to defend the play. The Magic scored before he got back to defend and I think it was Meeks who scored so it wasn't his man but Melo the Magic are on pace to score 130 pts get back and don't take plays off.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Melo gets criticism because he gets paid big money and it was only one play but he stayed back to complain about a no call before jogging up the court to defend the play. The Magic scored before he got back to defend and I think it was Meeks who scored so it wasn't his man but Melo the Magic are on pace to score 130 pts get back and don't take plays off.


Melo gets criticism bc he's an individual-scorer who doesnt have any leadership qualities but forces management to let him call the majority of plays on the court.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Its over 18 pt lead about 3 left to play. 5 game losing streak with tougher teams than the Magic next. Too many layups and 3s, we don't have enough athletes and shooters on this team.

Really think its time to move on from Melo but with that no trade clause it ain't happening. That maybe PJ worst move giving Melo that no trade in exchange for a few million off his max deal.
 

tiger0330

Legend
At the end of 3rd qtr .. Knicks 15 assist, Magic 29 assist
Kiya you got to stop with the assists are a problem. They allowed a bottom 5 team in scoring to score 67 pts in the first half after letting the Rox score 69 the game earlier and that was w/o Fournier in the lineup.

Harden goes off for a career game and Meeks has his season high for the Magic. The Knicks not passing the ball is minor next to how soft they are on D.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
We loss this game at tip-off .. coach Horn put the worst-worst performance player on the roster in the starting lineup Lance Thomas. Coach Horn defensive strategy gave another opponent 50% fg shooting again.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Kiya you got to stop with the assists are a problem. They allowed a bottom 5 team in scoring to score 67 pts in the first half after letting the Rox score 69 the game earlier and that was w/o Fournier in the lineup.

Harden goes off for a career game and Meeks has his season high for the Magic. The Knicks not passing the ball is minor next to how soft they are on D.


Yep .. Tha's the same lazy defensive strategy we had in the last game and in the past 5 head coaches
 

WVKnickfan

Rotation player
Its over 18 pt lead about 3 left to play. 5 game losing streak with tougher teams than the Magic next. Too many layups and 3s, we don't have enough athletes and shooters on this team.

Really think its time to move on from Melo but with that no trade clause it ain't happening. That maybe PJ worst move giving Melo that no trade in exchange for a few million off his max deal.

I know one way that he would drop that no trade clause.If you sit him on the bench EVERY GAME sooner or later he would want out of town.
 

tiger0330

Legend
I know one way that he would drop that no trade clause.If you sit him on the bench EVERY GAME sooner or later he would want out of town.
Trautwig was talking about a play where Melo went iso and showed Horn looking disgusted and walking away when Melo missed the shot. He speculated Horn wasn't happy that Melo called an isolation play.

Post game Hornacek seemed to have no problem with Melo saying shooters get into slumps. He's a players coach so he's going to stick with Melo and Noah for better or worse. He likes NY and at this stage in his career I'm not sure winning a ring is all that important to him, its his decision ultimately.
 

mafra

Legend
Hornachek ripped the team afterwards, saying perhaps this group was just incapable of playing defense. He said they're trying but maybe they just can't do it. he went on to say the coaches will have to come up with schemes and exotic traps to do something. Hearing what his coach said, Melo acted indignant saying something about it sounds like the coach is given up on them after only 33 games.

love what JH is saying. Melo just doesn't mind losing. dropping 8/10 and missing playoffs for 3 years and Melo doesn't seem to mind. Our only hope is for JH to make life miserable for Melo that he accepts a trade. It's time to accept reality and rebuild. This means lottery and making the right selections.... hopefully we can deal Melo and Tose and get something of value.

also, JH has to lighten up in the minutes he is playing KP.... we can't burn the kid out and risk long term injury trying to win now. There's nothing to gain playing KP over 30 minutes hoping to win 43 games instead of 36.
 

mafra

Legend
After arguably their worst loss of the season Monday, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek lowered the boom, delivering his most damning assessment of his team’s defensive woes, admitting perhaps this roster is “not capable’’ of playing better defense.
It used to be the Knicks couldn’t beat the winning teams. Now they can’t beat anybody and Hornacek’s frustration bubbled over after their fifth straight loss — a 115-103 crusher to Orlando at the Garden.

Ten days ago, the Knicks ripped the Magic at the Garden but that team has gone missing along with its defense, which allowed Orlando to shoot 15-of-31 from the 3-point line.
“I don’t think our guys aren’t trying — maybe they’re not capable,’’ Hornacek said. “I don’t know. That’s what we have to figure out. Maybe play some other guys and mix the lineup somehow.
“We have to find someone to play some defense. You can’t come out at the beginning and their first three baskets are 3s. You have to have better pride than that. … I think they’re trying — they must not be good enough defensively.’’
Hornacek suggested the coaching staff may need to come up with new, tricky schemes to compensate.
“We might figure out ways to trap,’’ Hornacek said. “Coaches are going to have to meet and try to figure it out, defensively, what is going to help us out.’’
The Knicks defense ranks sixth-worst in the NBA and turned a career reserve Jodie Meeks into James Harden Lite as the Magic (16-20) cruised all night. In losing eight of their last 10, the Knicks have dropped to two games under .500 at 16-18.
Playing on a sore left knee, Carmelo Anthony was sluggish on both ends, continuing a recent slump and finished with 19 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
Anthony appeared taken aback when he heard Hornacek mentioned the club may not be capable of being better on defense.
“I hope he ain’t giving up — what 33 games,’’ Anthony said. “I might as well just pack my stuff now — giving up already.’’
Anthony declined further comment.
“I’d rather talk to Jeff about that — see where he’s coming from,’’ he said.
Hornacek also questioned the team’s toughness, bemoaning the Magic “ripped rebounds’’ out of his players’ hands and said the club may need to “get in the weight room a little more.’’
“They went and took it from us,’’ Hornacek said. “That’s toughness.’’
Returning from his West Coast sabbatical, team president Phil Jackson was back in his customary eighth-row seat after missing the previous 3-game homestand and what he saw in 2017’s first game must have had him longing for Los Angeles.


Orlando racked up 67 first-half points and 92 after three quarters with the Knicks defense inactive as ever. After allowing 21 3s in giving up 129 points to the Rockets on Saturday, the Magic feasted from the 3-point line in the first half alone, making 8-of-11 3-point shots (72.7 percent).
Meeks made a rare start and drilled 6-of-7 3-pointers for 23 points. He was averaging 8.3 points on 38 percent shooting entering the night.
The only excuse is the Knicks played their second straight game without Kristaps Porzingis, nursing a sore Achilles tendon. But the Magic were without swingman stud, Evan Fournier (heel).
After a soft first half, the Knicks’ defense came out for the third quarter and immediately allowed Aaron Gordon to crank an open 3. Gordon had a big second half to finish with 22 as the Knicks fell behind by 17 points in the third quarter.
“Whatever’s messed up can easily be fixed — it’s fixable,’’ Derrick Rose said, countering Hornacek’s remark.
After Orlando point guard Elfrid Payton drove for a high-arcing banked layup with 7:49 left to put Orlando up 16, the Knicks called a timeout and Brandon Jennings threw the ball high in the air. Hornacek looked exasperated on the sidelines all evening.
On the 3-point defense, Hornacek said the club is “not closing out quick enough” and “helping when you shouldn’t, taking chances.’’
“Our guys were scrambling little bit and we just didn’t get out to them,’’ Hornacek said.
Anthony was 3-of-8 from the field in the first half and two steps behind on defense. Orlando’s Serge Ibaka scored on two straight possessions against Anthony, who lost the former OKC big man inside to allow a layup and then faied to track him at the 3-point line.
“We got to keep working and get back to the basics,’’ Anthony said. “Sometimes — I’ve been in this league a long time — you have to take a step back and go back to the drawing board.’’

NY Post
 

tiger0330

Legend
Missing KP hurt the interior D badly. Need to get him back, let's see how it goes when KP is back and CLee. Melo is hopeless as a defender.
 

and1

Rotation player
yeah, this was probably the most disappointing loss of the season so far. i was so ready to go all in with this squad, but now it's starting to look like the same old crap again. i'm not throwing in the towel just yet though. one thing's for sure though when it comes to the very near future. if they had this much trouble with the magic tonight, they're going to have their hands full with the bucks over the next two games. this did not at all look like the same team that won 7 out of 10 games, or whatever it was, not too long ago. they're scoring enough points to win games, for the most part. hopefully they've finally gotten it through their heads that simply trying to outscore their opponents is not going to work most of the time. this is going to be a rough month.
 

mafra

Legend
Yeah.... ORL played last night and still had way more energy than NY.... and game was at MSG. Knicks are 0-6 on second game of back-2-back (and have 3 of those coming up). I was just hoping for 48 wins and a first round playoff victory. Not asking for too much. Oh well.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
In our last 10 games our poor defense gave every opponent above 100 pts plus 8 wins ..
Our record is 2-8 and we were held under a 100 pts 4 times in last 10 games ..

Phoenix 113
GS 103
Denver 127
Indiana 111
Orlando 95
Boston 119
Atlanta 102
NO 104
Houston 129
Orlando 115
 
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