Knicks 112 Hawks 104 -- A Lilliputian In Full Bloom
Another good win for the Knicks against the Hawks on Wednesday night, and yet again it was Nate Robinson with an exceptional performance, crossing over, dishing, finishing, alley-ooping, strutting and saluting his way to 20 points in the fourth quarter. On to the notes:
• Knicks took a little while to wake up in this game. The starters held their own in the first quarter, but the second quarter was a struggle for the 2nd straight game. With Houston the other night, the Knick bench couldn’t match the energy of the Rockets' high quality second five; in the case of the Hawks, there is no high quality second unit. – only Mo Evans and Flip Murray average significant minutes, and Pachulia has been replacing Horford in the starting lineup.
Actually, the Knick unit at the start of the 2nd quarter was a lineup I can’t remember D’Antoni ever using before for many minutes – Robinson, Gallinari, Chandler, Harrington, and Thomas. Outside of Robinson, this is a “big” and (based on recent performances) a reasonably potent lineup offensively. They looked ragged together though, and on defense, Nate and Gallo were punished by Murray. Offensively, this lineup did alright (+4), but you sensed a shift in momentum that continued once the starters returned – as D’Antoni said in the postgame, the Knicks were soft in the 2nd quarter and allowed the Hawks to dictate rhythm.
It was a different story in the second half, and just about every Knick brought the energy to overwhelm the Hawks, who lost their ability to get stops apart from the occasional block from Josh Smith.
• In general, other teams seem to be honing in more on Gallinari’s inexperience and tendency to use his hands on defense – several times the last few games, Gallinari’s man has taken it right at him and drawn a foul. The referees seem to be giving him the rookie treatment as well – there was an awful call in the 4th quarter where Marvin Williams barged right into Gallinari, and not only got the foul, but Williams got two shots even though he didn’t look close to attempting a shot.
• I’ve noted the dwindling of Jeffries’ minutes maybe a bit too gleefully recently, but I have to give him credit for contributing more positively than he has in a few games – he was very active on the offensive boards, got deflections, and even managed to get an "and 1" from Josh Smith after getting rejected. He also teamed with Chandler to defend Joe Johnson effectively. I still like to see him at under 20 minutes, but this was a good game for him.
• I like the Hawks, but they are yet another team that the Knicks have been fortunate to catch in a mid-season slump (and minus a key player). Joe Johnson’s struggles this month have been well documented, but Bibby’s shooting has gone just as far south. Josh Smith and Marvin Williams had good offensive games, but the Hawks as a whole played with little cohesion or spirit, were hapless on the boards and were atrocious at the free throw line.
• Nate seemed to take the abuse he was taking from Murray early in the game (as well as on a couple of possessions in the second half) personally – his eruption in the fourth quarter was as dynamic as he’s been all season outside of the Laker game in December. His posing on the alley-oop pass from Duhon was, even by Nate standards, a bit much (Mike Breen on MSG could barely conceal his disdain), but he backed up the bravado with one heady drive after another, and his jumpers were all falling smoothly and generally came within the flow of the game. Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the offensive fireworks is that Nate shot rather ordinarily the first 3 quarters, but didn’t allow the misses to affect his energy…and once he got hot, he just kept it going.
• Minor surprise in the stat sheet: Harrington, who has struggled at times with his role in the offense given D’Antoni’s more liberal experimentation with a nine man rotation, played well and logged 41 minutes, the first time a Knick outside of Duhon or Lee has led the team with 40+ minutes in over a month. Al had a good shooting game with 16 points and 9 rebounds and didn’t force much; Thomas, whose productivity has contributed to the Knick run, had his first sub-20 minute game since the win against the Bulls, when he was coming back from missing a couple of games with the flu.
Pacer preview and some links to share will come in the following posts.
• Knicks took a little while to wake up in this game. The starters held their own in the first quarter, but the second quarter was a struggle for the 2nd straight game. With Houston the other night, the Knick bench couldn’t match the energy of the Rockets' high quality second five; in the case of the Hawks, there is no high quality second unit. – only Mo Evans and Flip Murray average significant minutes, and Pachulia has been replacing Horford in the starting lineup.
Actually, the Knick unit at the start of the 2nd quarter was a lineup I can’t remember D’Antoni ever using before for many minutes – Robinson, Gallinari, Chandler, Harrington, and Thomas. Outside of Robinson, this is a “big” and (based on recent performances) a reasonably potent lineup offensively. They looked ragged together though, and on defense, Nate and Gallo were punished by Murray. Offensively, this lineup did alright (+4), but you sensed a shift in momentum that continued once the starters returned – as D’Antoni said in the postgame, the Knicks were soft in the 2nd quarter and allowed the Hawks to dictate rhythm.
It was a different story in the second half, and just about every Knick brought the energy to overwhelm the Hawks, who lost their ability to get stops apart from the occasional block from Josh Smith.
• In general, other teams seem to be honing in more on Gallinari’s inexperience and tendency to use his hands on defense – several times the last few games, Gallinari’s man has taken it right at him and drawn a foul. The referees seem to be giving him the rookie treatment as well – there was an awful call in the 4th quarter where Marvin Williams barged right into Gallinari, and not only got the foul, but Williams got two shots even though he didn’t look close to attempting a shot.
• I’ve noted the dwindling of Jeffries’ minutes maybe a bit too gleefully recently, but I have to give him credit for contributing more positively than he has in a few games – he was very active on the offensive boards, got deflections, and even managed to get an "and 1" from Josh Smith after getting rejected. He also teamed with Chandler to defend Joe Johnson effectively. I still like to see him at under 20 minutes, but this was a good game for him.
• I like the Hawks, but they are yet another team that the Knicks have been fortunate to catch in a mid-season slump (and minus a key player). Joe Johnson’s struggles this month have been well documented, but Bibby’s shooting has gone just as far south. Josh Smith and Marvin Williams had good offensive games, but the Hawks as a whole played with little cohesion or spirit, were hapless on the boards and were atrocious at the free throw line.
• Nate seemed to take the abuse he was taking from Murray early in the game (as well as on a couple of possessions in the second half) personally – his eruption in the fourth quarter was as dynamic as he’s been all season outside of the Laker game in December. His posing on the alley-oop pass from Duhon was, even by Nate standards, a bit much (Mike Breen on MSG could barely conceal his disdain), but he backed up the bravado with one heady drive after another, and his jumpers were all falling smoothly and generally came within the flow of the game. Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the offensive fireworks is that Nate shot rather ordinarily the first 3 quarters, but didn’t allow the misses to affect his energy…and once he got hot, he just kept it going.
• Minor surprise in the stat sheet: Harrington, who has struggled at times with his role in the offense given D’Antoni’s more liberal experimentation with a nine man rotation, played well and logged 41 minutes, the first time a Knick outside of Duhon or Lee has led the team with 40+ minutes in over a month. Al had a good shooting game with 16 points and 9 rebounds and didn’t force much; Thomas, whose productivity has contributed to the Knick run, had his first sub-20 minute game since the win against the Bulls, when he was coming back from missing a couple of games with the flu.
Pacer preview and some links to share will come in the following posts.
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