Game Thread: Atlanta Hawks @ NY Knicks Thursday Oct. 29 8PM

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tiger0330

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MSG New York, NYOct. 28, 20158 PM ET


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Injury Report

NY KnicksATL Hawks
Arron Affalo out (hamstring)Thabo Sefolosha out (ankle)
Kevin Seraphin out (knee)
Lou Amundson out (back)


Tonight will be another test for the Knicks to prove to the skeptics that this team is for real. They play one of the teams from last year's EC finals the Atlanta Hawks. The Knicks have a great opportunity to knock off the Hawks because of their size advantage, the Hawks brought in Tiago Splitter in the off-season to shore up their front line and to provide more rebounding but in their loss to Detroit Tuesday night they were out rebounded 59-40. I think the Knicks can repeat what Detroit did and dominate inside.

Even if the Knicks come away with a win tonight, you do have to remember last season when the team won 2 of their first 3 and the seasaon went to hell from there. The first month will more likely tell you how good this team is with 11 of 18 games against playoff teams from last year.


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Hawks-Knicks Preview
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The NBA season may be only one game old, but the New York Knicks appear to have narrowed the gap between themselves and the Atlanta Hawks.

When the Eastern Conference's best and worst teams from 2014-15 square off Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks will be the ones coming off a successful opener.

A franchise-worst 17-win campaign brought on sweeping offseason changes to the Knicks' roster, ones that certainly paid off Wednesday at Milwaukee. Free-agent pickup Derrick Williams scored 24 points and rookie Kristaps Porzingis had 16 as New York led the Bucks by double digits most of the way in its 122-97 rout.

Williams and holdovers Langston Galloway (16 points) and Lance Thomas (13 points) led a second unit that outscored Milwaukee's reserves 73-32, helping New York withstand an off scoring night from Carmelo Anthony in the All-Star's first game action since February.

''They have a comfort level and the trust with each other even though it's early,'' coach Derek Fisher said.

Anthony, limited to 40 games last season by a left knee injury that required surgery, finished with 11 points on 4 of 16 shooting.

Atlanta, which won a club-record 60 games to capture the East's regular-season title, more resembled the team that was swept by Cleveland in conference finals in its lid-lifter. The Hawks struggled badly on the boards and from the perimeter in a surprising 106-94 home loss to Detroit on Tuesday.

The Hawks went 8 of 27 from 3-point range and allowed the Pistons to make 12 of 29 shots from beyond the arc, with Detroit owning a 59-40 rebounding advantage in a game it led by as many as 19.

''They were very good tonight. We weren't,'' Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer said.

Kyle Korver, the league leader in 3-point percentage last season, was just 1 of 5 in a seven-point effort. Kent Bazemore, starting at small forward in place of offseason departure DeMarre Carroll, was scoreless in 21 minutes.

Carroll, signed to a four-year, $60 million contract by Toronto in July, was the lone notable defection to an Atlanta roster that returned mostly intact. The Hawks traded for Tim Hardaway Jr. on draft night as a potential replacement, and the ex-Knick is expected to be uniform Thursday after being inactive for the opener.

Hardaway, New York's first-round selection in the 2013 draft, averaged 10.8 points in two seasons with the Knicks. He was acquired for the draft rights to Jerian Grant, who contributed 10 points and five assists in his debut Wednesday.

Hardaway could draw into the Hawks' rotation with Thabo Sefolosha ruled out for Thursday's game. The defensive specialist hasn't still fully recovered from a broken ankle suffered during an altercation with New York City police outside a Manhattan nightclub in April.

Arron Afflalo, another of the Knicks' free-agent newcomers, will miss a second straight game with a left hamstring strain.

Hardaway had 23 points and Galloway scored a career-high 26 in New York's 112-108 victory in Atlanta on April 13, which snapped a three-game series losing streak. Korver averaged 21.0 points in last season's three meetings, making 13 of 27 shots from beyond the arc.
 
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There's really no need to play Calderon. I really don't get it, it seems so simple to me. We showed signs of porous defense in preseason so not surprising tonight to see what's taking place.
 
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Pretty lousy game for us so far, but Porzingis is making some plays here in the first few minutes of the third quarter to get the crowd excited.
 
Broadway said:
There's really no need to play Calderon. I really don't get it, it seems so simple to me. We showed signs of porus defense in preseason so not surprising tonight to see what's taking place.
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Calderon is a sieve and if he's not scoring 2 pts for every bucket he gives up he's worthless.
 
If Calderon could stop opposing pg penetration it would allow his teammates to focus on the player there defending.
Teague & Schroder embarrassed Calderon tonite.
Our next 3 game opposing point-guards are Wall, Parker, and Mo Williams .. how long will Fisher act clueless to Calderon performance???
 
Kiyaman said:
If Calderon could stop opposing pg penetration it would allow his teammates to focus on the player there defending.
Teague & Schroder embarrassed Calderon tonite.
Our next 3 game opposing point-guards are Wall, Parker, and Mo Williams .. how long will Fisher act clueless to Calderon performance???
Click to expand...

Calderon has been absolutely horrendous. He makes Prigioni look like Magic. We can only hope his injury-plagued year has him off to a slow start. He's never confusedly mistaken for even a decent defender, but you could live with that because of the fact he was elite in two key areas (3-point shooting, and assist:TO ratio). But, with him giving you nothing on offense so far, he's playing his way to the bench quickly.

Not much to say here... ATL was 8-13 from downtown in the first half (NYK shot 3-15 from three), and they converted our unforced turnovers (ill-advised passes) into points. That gave ATL a commanding lead, and it pretty much knocked us out. We tried to mount a run or two in the second half, and our perimeter defense helped bring their shooting % from behind the arc down to respectable numbers... But Carmelo couldn't find any rhythm and spark this team, and nobody could stop Teague or Schroeder.

Also, once again, we're reminded that the Knicks plays 82 road games. Geez, not even on opening night does the home team get benefit of calls. Our star player strip the ball away and dives for the loose ball... And he gets called for a foul. Maybe not one call or two specifically, but the aggregate of all the 50/50 calls going the opponent's way is what is annoying.

NYK couldn't hit open shots, shot poorly from 3... While ATL was lights out.

Calderon-Sasha backcourt is arguably the worst starting G combo in the Western Hemisphere. What else is new. Porz was brutal in the first half... Carmelo a complete non-factor.

The good news is that Lopez was a force on offense, and we attacked the offensive glass (unfortunately we couldn't convert those into second chance points). Thomas and Sasha continue to look like quality depth guys.

NYk kept it close for much of the first half.... But they hit a flurry of 3s and we went cold... I knew it was a bad two minutes in the third away from a 15 point lead ballooning into a 20 point deficit (which it quickly dud). We looked tight, tired, and mired in lethargy.

Anyway... I give them credit for not letting this become a laugher. ATL a 60 win team last year... Melo still trying to get his groove back (and if he doesn't, we stand no chance anyway)...

Grant and Porz, naturally, had some jitters... But regardless of results, both rookies continue to pass the eyeball test (yes, even when playing poorly). Porz has a sweet stroke from deep (shots will start falling).

O'Quinn may have a negative vertical leap. Wow.

Without Affalo, and with Porz a rookie, Melo rusty, and Calderon with 1 foot in retirement... This is a work in project, and if our second team cannot dominant the other team's seconds stringers... We are at the other team's mercy... And AtL exposed that.

Again, not much to read into here. The 3-point shooting disparity combined with a pathetic Melo... And we lose.

as rotoworld stated:

"Carmelo Anthony made 10-of-27 from the field for 25 points with seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and one turnover in 32 minutes against the Hawks during a 112-101 loss on Thursday.

After a hot start in the preseason, his jumper is off big time. During his first two games, Anthony has made just 4-of-25 (16 percent) on shots from beyond three feet. He'll heat up soon enough, so his fantasy owners should just be hoping he stays healthy."
Oct 30 - 12:14 AM
 
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We're 1-1 just like ATL and CLE, fans would love for the Knicks to reel off a 10 game win streak to start the season but its a tough schedule the first month. Around .500 ball is what I'm looking for as the benchmark going into Dec.

Fisher does need to make some adjustment with Calderon, he's playing him less than 20 mins now but he needs to not play him at all esp against teams with up tempo PGs like Teague, Wall and Westbrook. I was actually imagining him going to Fisher and him saying "Coach I'm hurting the team, could you please bench me", he's playing so bad. Its a fantasy though, DFish is going to have to make that decision for him or PJ trades him. The Knicks lost their window Sept 1 to get the max benefit for "stretching" him so that's probably not going to happen. DFish just needs to bench him quickly like he did when he pulled that quick trigger on the second unit in the Bucks game.
 
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