The Knicks are struggling for more than just the ball these days.
Note: All records and data are accurate through March 3, 2014.
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| Team | Season Record | Last Week’s Record |
| Brooklyn Nets | 29-29 | 3-1 |
| What a roller coaster this season has been for the Brooklyn Nets. More like a sideshow actually. Not only has the team blatantly ignored the luxury tax threshold, let alone the salary cap, but they’ve brought in a collection of older stars, a first year coach and former superstar, as well as the NBA’s first openly gay player in an attempt to become an instant contender and appear on ESPN daily it appears. However, the season has been an even crazier circus as the team struggled in the beginning to find any sort of consistent winning ways and appeared to be headed towards the lottery with by far the most talented team not in the playoffs. After juggling with a spot in the top 14 for this summer’s draft, the Nets have finally started to piece things together.The Nets didn’t start the week off too well however. They began by visiting Portland and suffering their largest defeat of the season, 124-80. It’s very clear why they lost this one, aside from the fact that Portland is playing much better than Brooklyn this season. They were out-rebounded 53-29, lost the assist battle 29-18, and shot just 18% from 3. The Nets had 3 players in double-figures, yet nobody scored more than 12. It’s nearly impossible to win in the NBA like this, and the Nets suffered about as much as any team could with their poor play. Obviously, the team didn’t allow this loss to linger for long as they were able to defeat the Denver Nuggets on the road the very next night. It’s a true testament to the team’s work ethic and talent that one of the oldest teams in the NBA could perform so well in the tail end of a back-to-back on the road. The Nuggets went down easily, losing 112-89 in a game that wasn’t close after the Nets only allowed 8 points in the first quarter.
Brooklyn made one final stop on their road trip as they were hosted by the Bucks, owners of the NBA’s worst record. The Nets didn’t need Kevin Garnett, who was out with back spasms, as Marcus Thorton and company were able to put away a surprisingly pesky Milwaukee team that was, and has been, without their starting center (Larry Sanders) as well. Defensively, the Bucks did little to stop the Nets as they allowed 42 points in the paint, and Andray Blatche absolutely dominated down low, scoring 19 and grabbing 13 boards. In fact, he essentially took over the 4th quarter himself by scoring 8 points and securing a whopping 10 rebounds, a feat that most don’t accomplish in a full game normally. It was impressive for a team without one of its best players for the night, though the Bucks are hardly rigid competition this season. Finally, the Nets played what could easily be a preview of a playoff series next month. Chicago visited Barclay’s Center for the 2nd time this year and final game in their head-to-head series, with Chicago taking both previous matchups. This time, however, Brooklyn appeared ready to take on the challenge. Chicago’s performance could only be described as sloppy; they allowed the Nets to steal the ball 19 times (tying a league-high this season for team steals). The Nets did well to convert these turnovers into 30 points over the course of the game. The Nets shot better from the field this contest, but yet again had trouble with rebounding and three-point shooting, two things that will very likely haunt them in the playoffs if the troubles continue. In this match, the Nets simply took advantage of their opportunities and didn’t let the Bulls recover from an absolutely horrid performance, capping off a 3-game streak for the Nets. |
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| Lottery Spin | ||
| In all likelihood, the Nets will make the playoffs, presumably as the 5th or 6th seed as they now hold secure leads over the Bobcats and Hawks (7th and 8th, respectively) and a pretty massive lead over Detroit, currently on the outside looking in. Barring a major losing streak, the Nets have officially made it out of the Lottery discussion for this year. | ||
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| Team | Season Record | Last Week’s Record |
| New York Knicks | 21-40 | 0-4 |
| Disappointing. That’s the word that comes to mind when asked about the Knicks. Considering how talented this team is (yes, I’m counting JR Smith, Amare Stoudamire, and Tyson Chandler in that pool of talent), expectations were definitely higher than Lottery for this season. However, things haven’t gone the right way for the Knicks and now they’re struggling to even be in the playoff race at this point. In their first contest of the week, Batman (Lebron) and the Miami Heat embarrassed the Knicks en route to a 108-82 victory mostly due to 4-23 shooting from downtown and allowing the Heat to light up the scoreboard with 60% shooting from the field. The very next night, the Warriors came to Madison Square Garden and put on a shooting display of their own, making 14 of 35 from beyond the arc and putting up 126 points against a New York defense only allowing 100 points per game this season. The Knicks actually shot better from three this game than they did with two-point field goals, hitting 40% from 3 but just 37.9% shooting overall. Oh and let’s not forget, Steph Curry owns MSG. After putting up 54 last year, he casually strolled to a triple-double in only 3 quarters of action against the Knicks this game. He joins Lebron James as the only other visiting player EVER to score 50+ points and put up a triple-double at the current MSG.After being manhandled in their own arena by Curry’s triple-double and the rest of the Warriors, the Knicks faced a similar situation in Chicago. Joakim Noah registered yet another triple-double, his 5th this season, and the Bulls easily handled the Knicks on the way to a 109-90 victory. It’s been documented on this site how bad the Knicks are on defense, and this game didn’t do much to expel those thoughts. Even though Tyson Chandler had, by a defensive savant’s standards, a fantastic game (8 points, 22 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots), he and the interior of the Knicks’ D allowed 48 points in the paint to the Bulls. Interior defense should be a specialty with a rim protector like Chandler playing down low, not a liability.
Finally, the Knicks played a winnable game against the Pistons.. or so they thought. Coming into this game, the Pistons had lost 4 straight and 7 out of their last 8. They were battling the Knicks for lottery position deep in the Eastern Conference, but Andre Drummond manhandled his way to an astounding 17-point, 26-rebound performance that led the Pistons over the Knicks 96-85. Tyson Chandler was all over the boards as well, grabbing 18 himself, but it’s nearly as if the Knicks don’t want to play down low on defense anymore. The Pistons, like the Bulls, scored 48 points in the paint and without Chandler healthy, you have to think that it could have been nearly 70 points in the paint. Losing the battles down low will not lead any team to success, and the sting of these defeats has been especially painful for this team considering the lofty expectations before the season began. |
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| Lottery Spin | ||
| New York is finished. At least for this season they are. Even with Atlanta currently reeling and Charlotte not being able to put together many winning streaks of their own, the playoffs are unofficially out of reach for New York this season, which puts even more pressure on the thoughts in Melo’s mind on whether or not he should stay a Knick after this year. Given the state of the Eastern Conference and how poorly the Knicks are doing currently, I would predict that they will pick around 5th in the upcoming draft. All bets are off on who they will select though as virtually every position outside of Melo (if he stays) is in a state of flux in the upcoming offseason. | ||
By Jon Elliott
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