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| For the Nets to leave MSG with a win, Deron is going to need to make his shots |
Each of these teams looks to right their respective ships tonight with a win against their hated rivals and soon-to-be crosstown foes when the Nets make the move to Brooklyn next season. We will see if Anthony Morrow can continue his unconscious shooting stretch and if the vaunted Knicks “Dream Team” with Amare, Carmelo, and Chandler can beat a team that most people view as their subordinates but are only a half game back in the standings.
Background on New York
In my opinion, the Knicks are the most disappointing team int he NBA right now as they undoubtedly have a ton of star-power and aren’t seeming to be doing anything with it. The Knicks, with stars Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony, and Tyson Chandler, are only a half-game ahead of the Nets in the standings even with the Brook Lopez injury and the fact that on most nights, the only consistent Nets’ scorer is Deron Williams. With that being said, the Knicks still have a lot of talent of offense that, against a poor defensive team like the Nets, might usurp their widely-noted struggles on defense. The Knicks haven’t been playing well lately, but they are very dangerous nonetheless and aren’t a good match-up for the Nets at all.
Previous Game
The Knicks, like the Nets, lost last night in excruciating fashion against the Celtics at the TD Garden in Boston. After leading for most of the game, New York only scored 34 points in the 2nd-half en route to losing their lead on a Ray Allen 3-pointer with 4 minutes left in the game. Paul Pierce and Allen took over late and the Knicks had no answer for them while New York’s own stars couldn’t come through when they needed to hit big shots. The loss was the Knicks’ second in two nights and they play for the third-straight tonight in their first back-to-back of this season.
The Nets home loss to Minnesota last night was really tough but wasn’t nearly as heartbreaking as the Knicks’ one was. The T-Wolves led most of the way in this game and were even leading by 14 points at one time in the game. Anthony Morrow’s career-high shooting night (42 points, 8 threes) wasn’t enough for the Nets to win as centers Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Love combined for 47 points and 21 rebounds and were simply too much for the undermanned Nets to handle in the paint. Deron Williams had an off-game but Minnesota was just the more-prepared team in the game and showed a lot more desire to win than the Nets did.
Probable Lineups
Three Keys to a Nets Victory
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Look for Morrow- In all likelihood, Anthony Morrow won’t carry his hot shooting-touch from last night’s game but he might come close to it. If he can find his shot at all, then the Nets, especially D-Will, need to get him the ball because he has been one of the Nets’ most consistent forms of offense so far this season. If Anthony can get his fair share of shots, then he will probably make his fair share of shots and if he does that, then the Nets have a decent chance of coming out with a win.3. Stop the fastbreak- The one good thing that the Knicks do on defense is force turnovers and when they do this, they can easily get into a fastbreak situation that normally leads to an easy basket for them. A solution for preventing or limiting these easy points is to designate one of the five players on the court to act as a defensive cherry-picker of sorts. I think that whoever is playing point guard for the Nets when the Knicks go on fastbreak should stay as close to half-court as possible during the possession so they can get back on defense the quickest. This would in turn save the Nets some points as it would lessen the amount of points that the Knicks can convert on their fastbreak.
I would love to act as the eternal optimist but I don’t see a way that these injured Nets squad beats a star-studded Knicks team that isn’t missing anyone that important currently due to injury. Knicks, 103-93.
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