Post Game Thread - vs New York Knicks, Away

[bobheckler]

To me this game highlights the difficulty in putting together a Championship team.  The Knicks have Melo, Rose, Porzingis and Noah.  That's 4 pretty good players:  A superstar, a former superstar and MVP, a 21st century prototype and a former DPOY.  Rose has lost some of his game but he is still quite potent.  Melo is on the back 9 but he still got game, Porzingish is a 7'3" SF and Noah is still Noah, an unathletic but highly intelligent basketball player with a hausfrau hairdo and the ugliest shot in the history of the NBA.  Despite this they are barely over .500 at 16-14 with over 50% of their games-to-date being at home.  We are 18-13 with 19 of those games on the road (61%).  We are ahead of them in the standings, we beat them in MSG and we have more home games left but who do we have?  IT, a leprechaun on methamphetamines and a Napoleonic Complex and Al Horford, a 6'10" Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.  Bradley is a stud, but is he a Championship team stud?  Maybe, but he has never been an All-Star.  He might be coming into his own this year, I love his play, but we are 2 1/2-3 studs while they are 3-4.  But who would you rather be, a Knick or a Celtic?  Aside from being a Celtic fan in the first place, I would rather be in green.  We are obviously on track to somewhere and it is higher than where we are now.  We need pieces, but we can also see what is working, what is not and Brad is a tweaker.  

Some evidence of that was seen yesterday with the insertion of Gerald Green.  A very solid 12 minutes for Green.  8 points on 3-6, 4 rebounds 2 of them offensive.  He seemed to be everywhere.  Great energy.  Not having a great year even when he does get in but he got it done yesterday.  

In fact, after sucking for weeks our bench finally stepped up.  Kelly had 16 points on 7-9.  There was Green's 8.  Smart had 15.  Garnish with Jerebko's 2 and that's 41 points from our bench.  The Knicks' bench?  19 points.  We had trouble containing Zinger, Melo and DRose but their bench were big fat zeroes.

We have to figure out how to fool Marcus Smart into thinking the shot clock is winding down and it's the late 4th quarter ALL the time.  He is a clutch player, a clutch shooter but shouldn't shoot when the pressure is not on.  One of the things we have seen more and more over the last week or two is Smart posting his man up.  He is so strong that the defense has to collapse to stop him from dominating and he hits an open man for a shot.  He is becoming a pretty good half court PG.  He isn't fast enough to be a good full court one, like IT or Rozier, but in half court?  He's doing a very good job.

93 fgas is very good.  Only 6 TOs is excellent.  They took 27 ftas vs 20 for us.  25 assists on 45 fgm is nice, not great.  11 assists on 41fgm is ME-ball and that's the Knicks.  Melo, Zinger and Rose took 59 of the Knicks' 87 fgas, 68%, and no Knick had more assists than DRose's 3.  Not only was PG Derrick Rose not much of a point guard, NOBODY on that team was feeding ANYBODY.  For us Horford, our center, had 5, IT had 4 and Mahcus Smaht had 7 dimes.  That's 3 players with more assists than their top guy.

The refs missed a blatant defensive goal tend by Horford.  They are really, really bad and I'm saying that as a fan of the team that got away with it and won the game anyway.

Nevertheless, there is work to be done.  We were up by 9 points with 2:24 left and they tied it with 1:06 left.  That's an 11-2 run in just 1:18.  It took a clutch Smart 3 to fuel a 7-2 run by us to help close this out and turn back what could have been a very embarrassing finish to this game.

The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA.  Like I said, if you could be a Celtic or a Knick, which would you rather be?


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899898














bob


.

[bobheckler]

Additional note:

I forgot to mention Bradley's steal on Melo with :18 left and us up only 3.  Melo was beyond the arc and had a 6'2" player on him.  He was also red hot.  If he had risen up and hit a 3 over Bradley the game would have been tied.  As it is we got fritos and made it a 2 possession game.  Bradley deserves all the credit for defense he gets.

Horford's block of Zinger's 9' baseline jumper with 6 seconds left wouldn't have changed the outcome, we were up 4 at that point, but it was quite impressive.  A 6'10" player blocking a 7'3", and looong, player from 9'.  Horford with 2 blocks and 3 steals, btw.

We are 12-4 with a healthy starting unit and would have a 6 game winning streak if Russell Westbrook hadn't turned into Michael Jordan.


bob




.

[swish]

Great name recognition for Anthony, Rose and Noah - but other than Anthony's 4 all star selections in the last 5 years not much recent success. Last All league selection - Anthony-2012-13,,,, Rose-2010-11,,,,Noah-2013-14.
Not likely a serious contender.

swish

[bobheckler]

btw, the video of Marcus Smart mic'd up is fun.


bob


.

[beat]

Also of note we are tied for the third most road wins with 12.  Of course we have also had the most opportunity by having the most road games too.

The 11 assists by the Knicks is the low in the league this year

[steve3344]

To me this game highlights the difficulty in putting together a Championship team.  The Knicks have Melo, Rose, Porzingis and Noah.  That's 4 pretty good players:  A superstar, a former superstar and MVP, a 21st century prototype and a former DPOY.  Rose has lost some of his game but he is still quite potent.  Melo is on the back 9 but he still got game, Porzingish is a 7'3" SF and Noah is still Noah, an unathletic but highly intelligent basketball player with a hausfrau hairdo and the ugliest shot in the history of the NBA.  Despite this they are barely over .500 at 16-14 with over 50% of their games-to-date being at home.  We are 18-13 with 19 of those games on the road (61%).  We are ahead of them in the standings, we beat them in MSG and we have more home games left but who do we have?  IT, a leprechaun on methamphetamines and a Napoleonic Complex and Al Horford, a 6'10" Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.  Bradley is a stud, but is he a Championship team stud?  Maybe, but he has never been an All-Star.  He might be coming into his own this year, I love his play, but we are 2 1/2-3 studs while they are 3-4.  But who would you rather be, a Knick or a Celtic?  Aside from being a Celtic fan in the first place, I would rather be in green.  We are obviously on track to somewhere and it is higher than where we are now.  We need pieces, but we can also see what is working, what is not and Brad is a tweaker.  

Some evidence of that was seen yesterday with the insertion of Gerald Green.  A very solid 12 minutes for Green.  8 points on 3-6, 4 rebounds 2 of them offensive.  He seemed to be everywhere.  Great energy.  Not having a great year even when he does get in but he got it done yesterday.  

In fact, after sucking for weeks our bench finally stepped up.  Kelly had 16 points on 7-9.  There was Green's 8.  Smart had 15.  Garnish with Jerebko's 2 and that's 41 points from our bench.  The Knicks' bench?  19 points.  We had trouble containing Zinger, Melo and DRose but their bench were big fat zeroes.

We have to figure out how to fool Marcus Smart into thinking the shot clock is winding down and it's the late 4th quarter ALL the time.  He is a clutch player, a clutch shooter but shouldn't shoot when the pressure is not on.  One of the things we have seen more and more over the last week or two is Smart posting his man up.  He is so strong that the defense has to collapse to stop him from dominating and he hits an open man for a shot.  He is becoming a pretty good half court PG.  He isn't fast enough to be a good full court one, like IT or Rozier, but in half court?  He's doing a very good job.

93 fgas is very good.  Only 6 TOs is excellent.  They took 27 ftas vs 20 for us.  25 assists on 45 fgm is nice, not great.  11 assists on 41fgm is ME-ball and that's the Knicks.  Melo, Zinger and Rose took 59 of the Knicks' 87 fgas, 68%, and no Knick had more assists than DRose's 3.  Not only was PG Derrick Rose not much of a point guard, NOBODY on that team was feeding ANYBODY.  For us Horford, our center, had 5, IT had 4 and Mahcus Smaht had 7 dimes.  That's 3 players with more assists than their top guy.

The refs missed a blatant defensive goal tend by Horford.  They are really, really bad and I'm saying that as a fan of the team that got away with it and won the game anyway.

Nevertheless, there is work to be done.  We were up by 9 points with 2:24 left and they tied it with 1:06 left.  That's an 11-2 run in just 1:18.  It took a clutch Smart 3 to fuel a 7-2 run by us to help close this out and turn back what could have been a very embarrassing finish to this game.

The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA.  Like I said, if you could be a Celtic or a Knick, which would you rather be?


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899898














bob


.
"The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA."

The tie-breakers for draft position are decided by coin toss, not head to head record.  Only playoff position ties are decided by head-to-head records.

[steve3344]

To me this game highlights the difficulty in putting together a Championship team.  The Knicks have Melo, Rose, Porzingis and Noah.  That's 4 pretty good players:  A superstar, a former superstar and MVP, a 21st century prototype and a former DPOY.  Rose has lost some of his game but he is still quite potent.  Melo is on the back 9 but he still got game, Porzingish is a 7'3" SF and Noah is still Noah, an unathletic but highly intelligent basketball player with a hausfrau hairdo and the ugliest shot in the history of the NBA.  Despite this they are barely over .500 at 16-14 with over 50% of their games-to-date being at home.  We are 18-13 with 19 of those games on the road (61%).  We are ahead of them in the standings, we beat them in MSG and we have more home games left but who do we have?  IT, a leprechaun on methamphetamines and a Napoleonic Complex and Al Horford, a 6'10" Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.  Bradley is a stud, but is he a Championship team stud?  Maybe, but he has never been an All-Star.  He might be coming into his own this year, I love his play, but we are 2 1/2-3 studs while they are 3-4.  But who would you rather be, a Knick or a Celtic?  Aside from being a Celtic fan in the first place, I would rather be in green.  We are obviously on track to somewhere and it is higher than where we are now.  We need pieces, but we can also see what is working, what is not and Brad is a tweaker.  

Some evidence of that was seen yesterday with the insertion of Gerald Green.  A very solid 12 minutes for Green.  8 points on 3-6, 4 rebounds 2 of them offensive.  He seemed to be everywhere.  Great energy.  Not having a great year even when he does get in but he got it done yesterday.  

In fact, after sucking for weeks our bench finally stepped up.  Kelly had 16 points on 7-9.  There was Green's 8.  Smart had 15.  Garnish with Jerebko's 2 and that's 41 points from our bench.  The Knicks' bench?  19 points.  We had trouble containing Zinger, Melo and DRose but their bench were big fat zeroes.

We have to figure out how to fool Marcus Smart into thinking the shot clock is winding down and it's the late 4th quarter ALL the time.  He is a clutch player, a clutch shooter but shouldn't shoot when the pressure is not on.  One of the things we have seen more and more over the last week or two is Smart posting his man up.  He is so strong that the defense has to collapse to stop him from dominating and he hits an open man for a shot.  He is becoming a pretty good half court PG.  He isn't fast enough to be a good full court one, like IT or Rozier, but in half court?  He's doing a very good job.

93 fgas is very good.  Only 6 TOs is excellent.  They took 27 ftas vs 20 for us.  25 assists on 45 fgm is nice, not great.  11 assists on 41fgm is ME-ball and that's the Knicks.  Melo, Zinger and Rose took 59 of the Knicks' 87 fgas, 68%, and no Knick had more assists than DRose's 3.  Not only was PG Derrick Rose not much of a point guard, NOBODY on that team was feeding ANYBODY.  For us Horford, our center, had 5, IT had 4 and Mahcus Smaht had 7 dimes.  That's 3 players with more assists than their top guy.

The refs missed a blatant defensive goal tend by Horford.  They are really, really bad and I'm saying that as a fan of the team that got away with it and won the game anyway.

Nevertheless, there is work to be done.  We were up by 9 points with 2:24 left and they tied it with 1:06 left.  That's an 11-2 run in just 1:18.  It took a clutch Smart 3 to fuel a 7-2 run by us to help close this out and turn back what could have been a very embarrassing finish to this game.

The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA.  Like I said, if you could be a Celtic or a Knick, which would you rather be?


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899898














bob


.

"The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA."

The tie-breakers for draft position are decided by coin toss, not head to head record.  Only playoff position ties are decided by head-to-head records.

[bobheckler]

To me this game highlights the difficulty in putting together a Championship team.  The Knicks have Melo, Rose, Porzingis and Noah.  That's 4 pretty good players:  A superstar, a former superstar and MVP, a 21st century prototype and a former DPOY.  Rose has lost some of his game but he is still quite potent.  Melo is on the back 9 but he still got game, Porzingish is a 7'3" SF and Noah is still Noah, an unathletic but highly intelligent basketball player with a hausfrau hairdo and the ugliest shot in the history of the NBA.  Despite this they are barely over .500 at 16-14 with over 50% of their games-to-date being at home.  We are 18-13 with 19 of those games on the road (61%).  We are ahead of them in the standings, we beat them in MSG and we have more home games left but who do we have?  IT, a leprechaun on methamphetamines and a Napoleonic Complex and Al Horford, a 6'10" Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.  Bradley is a stud, but is he a Championship team stud?  Maybe, but he has never been an All-Star.  He might be coming into his own this year, I love his play, but we are 2 1/2-3 studs while they are 3-4.  But who would you rather be, a Knick or a Celtic?  Aside from being a Celtic fan in the first place, I would rather be in green.  We are obviously on track to somewhere and it is higher than where we are now.  We need pieces, but we can also see what is working, what is not and Brad is a tweaker.  

Some evidence of that was seen yesterday with the insertion of Gerald Green.  A very solid 12 minutes for Green.  8 points on 3-6, 4 rebounds 2 of them offensive.  He seemed to be everywhere.  Great energy.  Not having a great year even when he does get in but he got it done yesterday.  

In fact, after sucking for weeks our bench finally stepped up.  Kelly had 16 points on 7-9.  There was Green's 8.  Smart had 15.  Garnish with Jerebko's 2 and that's 41 points from our bench.  The Knicks' bench?  19 points.  We had trouble containing Zinger, Melo and DRose but their bench were big fat zeroes.

We have to figure out how to fool Marcus Smart into thinking the shot clock is winding down and it's the late 4th quarter ALL the time.  He is a clutch player, a clutch shooter but shouldn't shoot when the pressure is not on.  One of the things we have seen more and more over the last week or two is Smart posting his man up.  He is so strong that the defense has to collapse to stop him from dominating and he hits an open man for a shot.  He is becoming a pretty good half court PG.  He isn't fast enough to be a good full court one, like IT or Rozier, but in half court?  He's doing a very good job.

93 fgas is very good.  Only 6 TOs is excellent.  They took 27 ftas vs 20 for us.  25 assists on 45 fgm is nice, not great.  11 assists on 41fgm is ME-ball and that's the Knicks.  Melo, Zinger and Rose took 59 of the Knicks' 87 fgas, 68%, and no Knick had more assists than DRose's 3.  Not only was PG Derrick Rose not much of a point guard, NOBODY on that team was feeding ANYBODY.  For us Horford, our center, had 5, IT had 4 and Mahcus Smaht had 7 dimes.  That's 3 players with more assists than their top guy.

The refs missed a blatant defensive goal tend by Horford.  They are really, really bad and I'm saying that as a fan of the team that got away with it and won the game anyway.

Nevertheless, there is work to be done.  We were up by 9 points with 2:24 left and they tied it with 1:06 left.  That's an 11-2 run in just 1:18.  It took a clutch Smart 3 to fuel a 7-2 run by us to help close this out and turn back what could have been a very embarrassing finish to this game.

The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA.  Like I said, if you could be a Celtic or a Knick, which would you rather be?


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899898














bob


.

"The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA."

The tie-breakers for draft position are decided by coin toss, not head to head record.  Only playoff position ties are decided by head-to-head records.

And I don't think we should be concerned about their playoff seeding.

Nice catch, Steve.


bob


.

[dboss]

Nice road win.  Now if they can improve at home we may be able to hold on to the third spot in the East.

This assumes that the Cavs and Raptors maintain their positions.

Wish we could bottle up the way the bench played.  Unfortunately we cannot consider their contribution as a glimmer.

Still in search of consistency from that group.

dboss

[bobheckler]

To me this game highlights the difficulty in putting together a Championship team.  The Knicks have Melo, Rose, Porzingis and Noah.  That's 4 pretty good players:  A superstar, a former superstar and MVP, a 21st century prototype and a former DPOY.  Rose has lost some of his game but he is still quite potent.  Melo is on the back 9 but he still got game, Porzingish is a 7'3" SF and Noah is still Noah, an unathletic but highly intelligent basketball player with a hausfrau hairdo and the ugliest shot in the history of the NBA.  Despite this they are barely over .500 at 16-14 with over 50% of their games-to-date being at home.  We are 18-13 with 19 of those games on the road (61%).  We are ahead of them in the standings, we beat them in MSG and we have more home games left but who do we have?  IT, a leprechaun on methamphetamines and a Napoleonic Complex and Al Horford, a 6'10" Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none.  Bradley is a stud, but is he a Championship team stud?  Maybe, but he has never been an All-Star.  He might be coming into his own this year, I love his play, but we are 2 1/2-3 studs while they are 3-4.  But who would you rather be, a Knick or a Celtic?  Aside from being a Celtic fan in the first place, I would rather be in green.  We are obviously on track to somewhere and it is higher than where we are now.  We need pieces, but we can also see what is working, what is not and Brad is a tweaker.  

Some evidence of that was seen yesterday with the insertion of Gerald Green.  A very solid 12 minutes for Green.  8 points on 3-6, 4 rebounds 2 of them offensive.  He seemed to be everywhere.  Great energy.  Not having a great year even when he does get in but he got it done yesterday.  

In fact, after sucking for weeks our bench finally stepped up.  Kelly had 16 points on 7-9.  There was Green's 8.  Smart had 15.  Garnish with Jerebko's 2 and that's 41 points from our bench.  The Knicks' bench?  19 points.  We had trouble containing Zinger, Melo and DRose but their bench were big fat zeroes.

We have to figure out how to fool Marcus Smart into thinking the shot clock is winding down and it's the late 4th quarter ALL the time.  He is a clutch player, a clutch shooter but shouldn't shoot when the pressure is not on.  One of the things we have seen more and more over the last week or two is Smart posting his man up.  He is so strong that the defense has to collapse to stop him from dominating and he hits an open man for a shot.  He is becoming a pretty good half court PG.  He isn't fast enough to be a good full court one, like IT or Rozier, but in half court?  He's doing a very good job.

93 fgas is very good.  Only 6 TOs is excellent.  They took 27 ftas vs 20 for us.  25 assists on 45 fgm is nice, not great.  11 assists on 41fgm is ME-ball and that's the Knicks.  Melo, Zinger and Rose took 59 of the Knicks' 87 fgas, 68%, and no Knick had more assists than DRose's 3.  Not only was PG Derrick Rose not much of a point guard, NOBODY on that team was feeding ANYBODY.  For us Horford, our center, had 5, IT had 4 and Mahcus Smaht had 7 dimes.  That's 3 players with more assists than their top guy.

The refs missed a blatant defensive goal tend by Horford.  They are really, really bad and I'm saying that as a fan of the team that got away with it and won the game anyway.

Nevertheless, there is work to be done.  We were up by 9 points with 2:24 left and they tied it with 1:06 left.  That's an 11-2 run in just 1:18.  It took a clutch Smart 3 to fuel a 7-2 run by us to help close this out and turn back what could have been a very embarrassing finish to this game.

The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA.  Like I said, if you could be a Celtic or a Knick, which would you rather be?


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899898














bob


.

"The Brooklyn Nyets, thanks to their loss to Philly a short while ago, loses that tiebreaker-to-date and now owns the worst record in the NBA."

The tie-breakers for draft position are decided by coin toss, not head to head record.  Only playoff position ties are decided by head-to-head records.

Mooted somewhat with Brooklyn beating Charlotte. Brooklyn is now .5 games higher than Philly.


bob


.

[k_j_88]

The Knicks are a perfect example of a talented team haphazardly put together.

Boston, on the other hand, is heading in the right direction but I think I'm seeing the plateau here. The need for an elite wing and an athletic, physical big are as prevalent as ever.


KJ

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