Bucks 100 Knicks 95: Still Slogging
The Knicks cleared the air on their internal issues, then went into Milwaukee for one of those 3pm afternoon starts in late March that's usually death for quality play. For one team, it was nearly death after only 12 minutes - the Knicks looked like they were keeping an eye on all the NCAA tournament basketball games and marking off their brackets while the energized Bucks were running and gunning and playing real basketball, and before you knew it the score was 16-4 Bucks, then 26-7, culminating in a 32-9 quarter.
It was simultaneously embarrassing and typical of past Bucks beatdowns of the Knicks, and a team with New York's offensive talent should never score just 9 points in a quarter. ("THIRTY-TWO - NINE! OMG, WTF" ) But watching it, I felt weirdly serene.
It was simultaneously embarrassing and typical of past Bucks beatdowns of the Knicks, and a team with New York's offensive talent should never score just 9 points in a quarter. ("THIRTY-TWO - NINE! OMG, WTF" ) But watching it, I felt weirdly serene.
Here is the thing about D'Antoni teams dating back to Phoenix -- extreme lows on offense are typically followed by extreme highs. The last time I recall this incompetent a start on offense was against the Kings in November, when the Knicks shot 5 for 23 and had five turnovers against Sacramento to trail 27-14. The Knicks had lost six straight to fall to 3-8 to start the season before the Sacramento game, and starting like that against the *Kings* wasn't exactly a good sign. The Knicks followed that putrid start against the Kings with a 40 point second quarter (and 59 point second half) and went on to win.
There was no such happy ending in Milwaukee yesterday, but the Knicks managed a 32 point second quarter and 31 point third quarter to get back in the game and put themselves in a position to win. They never should have started that poorly, but keep in mind that the Bucks are the 3rd best defense in the league. The Knicks scored 33 against the Bucks in the first quarter of Carmelo's home opener at MSG right after the trade back on February 23rd; since then, the Bucks had allowed only two 30+ point quarters in the following 48 quarters of play over an 11 game period (to the Bulls and Suns). Going back even further: through the first quarter yesterday, the Bucks had allowed four 30 point quarters in the last 99 spanning 25 games.
So there's your silver lining. The Knicks have 99 problems but offense ain't one, nine point quarter be damned. (Holding on to leads and late game execution, that could use a little work)
But this is why you keep hearing the team and coaching staff talk about defense endlessly, no matter how ridiculous it sounds after some games, and how daunting the challenges are with their personnel -- there may still be issues with offensive chemistry and keeping everyone happy and moving the ball and streaky shooting, but the Knicks can be slumming and scuffling and still put up points without a second thought. Finding a way to keep other teams from putting up crooked numbers (at the very least, the ones they should beat) can make the difference between close painful losses against the likes of the Pacers, Pistons and Bulls, and comfortable wins.
After the polar extremes of scoring and futility in the first three quarters -- which were fitting in a game against the Bucks, one of the most painful teams to watch in the league on offense -- the game turned into a slogfest in the fourth quarter. The key segment of the game came at the 5:46 mark of the fourth quarter, when Carmelo made a jumper to cut the Buck lead to 84-81. After a couple of empty possessions on both sides, there was a significant moment of chippiness between Anthony and Bogut that resulted in double technicals. The officials subsequently decided to take a strong stand on any contact, and made the wrong decision more often than not -- both sides were victimized in the process and the choppy gait of the game became positively clubfooted.
Specifically - after the double Ts, Delfino was bumped by Anthony after coming off a screen and was awarded foul shots on a dubious decision to consider the foul in the act of shooting, followed by an Anthony offensive foul where the refs felt he jumped into Delfino (had the call been against Delfino, Melo had the opportunity for a three point play). Billups in turn got a layup blocked, then drew a foul on another drive and got FTs, then fouled out on a loose ball after a missed Melo jumper
The four minute period folllowing the Knicks cutting the lead to 84-81 saw the momentum shift to the Bucks and ended with a backbreaking Delfino three point jumper to give the Bucks a 91-84 lead. (It was not a grand run: the Bucks outscored the Knicks 7-3). The Knicks didn't do badly on defense for most of the fourth, and the most significant plays that beat them were legitimately tough shots (the Delfino three pointer, a Jennings jumper with 26 seconds left to seal it). But they couldn't score or catch a break when the game was there to be taken. and despite 3 three pointers in the final minute, they ended up with another tough loss.
I had expected that the result of this four game in five day stretch would be a split, with the first two being wins and the games against the Bucks and Celtics being losses, but now it looks like the home win against the Grizzlies may be the only win. The loss to the Pistons on Friday is the one that really hurt -- this Bucks loss doesn't strike me as unexpected. The Knicks are going to have to find a way to get a win at some point, though -- it would take a massive losing streak to fall out of the playoff race, but an additional sense of urgency will have to kick in at some point to salvage some confidence and some results for the effort they're putting into establishing a team identity on both ends of the floor.
Game notes:
* All the focus was on Carmelo, and his 23 points on 14 shots looks pretty good in a 95 point game. His best contributions came in the second and third quarter when the team was digging itself out of its hole, with the highlight being a steal of a crosscourt pass and a coast to coast layup. He still didn't feel very integrated in the offense - some of this was the Buck defense keeping the Knicks on their heels, some of it was his teammates still figuring out how to find him. The "Mike D'Antoni' system that Amare talked up so much the other day will produce situations where Melo gets less shots on some nights, but Amare with twice as many shots (28, including 11 in the 4th quarter) isn't a very good balance, especially when Amare is as inefficient as he was yesterday.
* Chauncey Billups cut his turnovers dramatically and got to the FT line more, but he and Amare probably contributed the most to the wretched first quarter in terms of shaky shot selection. Billups also had a hard time staying with Jennings early on. He recovered well and was a big part of the comeback with 20 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but he committed too many fouls and ended up fouling out. Toney Douglas had another of his brutal road shooting lines (3-13 FGs), though he had a 9 assist game, with 5 of the assists coming in the fourth quarter.
* The Shelden Williams experiment was short-lived, and I have no problem with that...but if you really look at that awful first quarter, it's hard to say that Shelden was the biggest part of it. The real issue is how poorly the whole team came out. Unfortunately, Jeffries didn't do that much better, and ended up playing only 8 minutes and got 3 fouls, an assist, a turnover, and zero rebounds. D'Antoni spent longer than usual answering pointed questions in the postgame, and the bluntest statement he made was that the hole in the middle is going to be an issue that the team will never really address satisfactorily -- it's up to the coaches to find creative ways around it, but there's no magic solution to the lack of size the rest of the season.
* Lack of size means continued issues with rebounding and fouling - the Knicks were outrebounded 50-39 and they gave the Bucks 37 free throws (Delfino had 8 FTs after only 7 in his previous 7 games, Mbah a Moute had 13 FTs). The saving grace for the Knicks was their abiliity to force turnovers while keeping their own in check -- they got 19 points off 15 Buck turnovers. These rebounding and fouling issues are so troublesome because they've made the difference in some of the losses to bad teams -- giving up offensive rebounds and hustle points in close games have made the difference in the last two losses (or in college coaching parlance, "50-50 balls").
* The Knick offense had its highlights against a tough defense, as I noted earlier, but the Bucks deserve a lot of credit for keeping the Knicks out of their favored plays in the halfcourt: this was the first game I can ever remember where only 15 percent of their offense involved spot up jumpers (the season average is 22 percent, according to Synergy Sports). The biggest percentage of plays were isolations and the ballhandler on the pick and roll taking the shot; they got only four points off post-ups and the pick and roll man (their average is ten for a 100 play game). How the Knicks ended up with 22 assists in a game where so much was taken from them is a mystery.
Tonight's game against the Celtics will be a good test of how motivated a tired, troubled and talented team can be against a quality opponent. The Celtics have been going through a slight rough stretch of their own the last week, but they remain a very difficult matchup, and they're the Celtics. It would be just like the Knicks to play their best game of this stretch tonight, and I would welcome it.
But this is why you keep hearing the team and coaching staff talk about defense endlessly, no matter how ridiculous it sounds after some games, and how daunting the challenges are with their personnel -- there may still be issues with offensive chemistry and keeping everyone happy and moving the ball and streaky shooting, but the Knicks can be slumming and scuffling and still put up points without a second thought. Finding a way to keep other teams from putting up crooked numbers (at the very least, the ones they should beat) can make the difference between close painful losses against the likes of the Pacers, Pistons and Bulls, and comfortable wins.
After the polar extremes of scoring and futility in the first three quarters -- which were fitting in a game against the Bucks, one of the most painful teams to watch in the league on offense -- the game turned into a slogfest in the fourth quarter. The key segment of the game came at the 5:46 mark of the fourth quarter, when Carmelo made a jumper to cut the Buck lead to 84-81. After a couple of empty possessions on both sides, there was a significant moment of chippiness between Anthony and Bogut that resulted in double technicals. The officials subsequently decided to take a strong stand on any contact, and made the wrong decision more often than not -- both sides were victimized in the process and the choppy gait of the game became positively clubfooted.
Specifically - after the double Ts, Delfino was bumped by Anthony after coming off a screen and was awarded foul shots on a dubious decision to consider the foul in the act of shooting, followed by an Anthony offensive foul where the refs felt he jumped into Delfino (had the call been against Delfino, Melo had the opportunity for a three point play). Billups in turn got a layup blocked, then drew a foul on another drive and got FTs, then fouled out on a loose ball after a missed Melo jumper
The four minute period folllowing the Knicks cutting the lead to 84-81 saw the momentum shift to the Bucks and ended with a backbreaking Delfino three point jumper to give the Bucks a 91-84 lead. (It was not a grand run: the Bucks outscored the Knicks 7-3). The Knicks didn't do badly on defense for most of the fourth, and the most significant plays that beat them were legitimately tough shots (the Delfino three pointer, a Jennings jumper with 26 seconds left to seal it). But they couldn't score or catch a break when the game was there to be taken. and despite 3 three pointers in the final minute, they ended up with another tough loss.
I had expected that the result of this four game in five day stretch would be a split, with the first two being wins and the games against the Bucks and Celtics being losses, but now it looks like the home win against the Grizzlies may be the only win. The loss to the Pistons on Friday is the one that really hurt -- this Bucks loss doesn't strike me as unexpected. The Knicks are going to have to find a way to get a win at some point, though -- it would take a massive losing streak to fall out of the playoff race, but an additional sense of urgency will have to kick in at some point to salvage some confidence and some results for the effort they're putting into establishing a team identity on both ends of the floor.
Game notes:
* All the focus was on Carmelo, and his 23 points on 14 shots looks pretty good in a 95 point game. His best contributions came in the second and third quarter when the team was digging itself out of its hole, with the highlight being a steal of a crosscourt pass and a coast to coast layup. He still didn't feel very integrated in the offense - some of this was the Buck defense keeping the Knicks on their heels, some of it was his teammates still figuring out how to find him. The "Mike D'Antoni' system that Amare talked up so much the other day will produce situations where Melo gets less shots on some nights, but Amare with twice as many shots (28, including 11 in the 4th quarter) isn't a very good balance, especially when Amare is as inefficient as he was yesterday.
* Chauncey Billups cut his turnovers dramatically and got to the FT line more, but he and Amare probably contributed the most to the wretched first quarter in terms of shaky shot selection. Billups also had a hard time staying with Jennings early on. He recovered well and was a big part of the comeback with 20 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but he committed too many fouls and ended up fouling out. Toney Douglas had another of his brutal road shooting lines (3-13 FGs), though he had a 9 assist game, with 5 of the assists coming in the fourth quarter.
* The Shelden Williams experiment was short-lived, and I have no problem with that...but if you really look at that awful first quarter, it's hard to say that Shelden was the biggest part of it. The real issue is how poorly the whole team came out. Unfortunately, Jeffries didn't do that much better, and ended up playing only 8 minutes and got 3 fouls, an assist, a turnover, and zero rebounds. D'Antoni spent longer than usual answering pointed questions in the postgame, and the bluntest statement he made was that the hole in the middle is going to be an issue that the team will never really address satisfactorily -- it's up to the coaches to find creative ways around it, but there's no magic solution to the lack of size the rest of the season.
* Lack of size means continued issues with rebounding and fouling - the Knicks were outrebounded 50-39 and they gave the Bucks 37 free throws (Delfino had 8 FTs after only 7 in his previous 7 games, Mbah a Moute had 13 FTs). The saving grace for the Knicks was their abiliity to force turnovers while keeping their own in check -- they got 19 points off 15 Buck turnovers. These rebounding and fouling issues are so troublesome because they've made the difference in some of the losses to bad teams -- giving up offensive rebounds and hustle points in close games have made the difference in the last two losses (or in college coaching parlance, "50-50 balls").
* The Knick offense had its highlights against a tough defense, as I noted earlier, but the Bucks deserve a lot of credit for keeping the Knicks out of their favored plays in the halfcourt: this was the first game I can ever remember where only 15 percent of their offense involved spot up jumpers (the season average is 22 percent, according to Synergy Sports). The biggest percentage of plays were isolations and the ballhandler on the pick and roll taking the shot; they got only four points off post-ups and the pick and roll man (their average is ten for a 100 play game). How the Knicks ended up with 22 assists in a game where so much was taken from them is a mystery.
Tonight's game against the Celtics will be a good test of how motivated a tired, troubled and talented team can be against a quality opponent. The Celtics have been going through a slight rough stretch of their own the last week, but they remain a very difficult matchup, and they're the Celtics. It would be just like the Knicks to play their best game of this stretch tonight, and I would welcome it.
one hundred and eighty-fourth, thus one spot. Want to know the former one hundred’s poison
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