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January 30, 2008

Knicks at Jazz

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 5:27 pm

Still feel the sting from giving the lakers the victory yesterday, but I guess we move on and go to Utah tonight to face a Jazz team with a top-notch home record.

Our old pal Stu Jackson just announced that Renaldo Balkman will be suspended for one game for the flagrant foul elbow he threw at that sissy Laker Sasha Vujacic or however you say his name.  Taz will not be available to play tonight due to the 1-game suspension.

I read some of the defenders implying that David Lee was the cause of the loss last night and I urge you to revisit the game.  David Lee was one of the players keeping the Knicks in the game.  If you’re looking for someone to blame, perhaps look in the direction of the bench.

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January 29, 2008

Knicks at Lakers

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 12:53 am

Paging Mardy Collins…  You are required to check in at the scores table for Knicks defensive purposes tonight against the Los Angeles Lakers… 

Renaldo and Nate had good games statistically off the bench for the Knicks Sunday night against Golden State.  But I agree with Harlem in Md, the Knicks-Warriors game should have been a win and we let it slip away.  Certainly seems like a theme this year when you put aside the early blowouts.

Great effort throughout the game though, yet I think in the fourth quarter we went away from what we were doing well and we allowed them to take it from us.  I did think Nate was shooting the ball fairly often, but at the time, everyone else on the floor was very hesitant to shoot it for the knicks, so Nate was needed at the time to create for himself and keep us in the game.

Upon replay of the fourth quarter, it is worth noting that Quentin had a good look at the basket and missed an uncontested three pointer, David Lee got the offensive rebound and kicked it back to Q who was WIDE OPEN for another three pointer but instead he chose to pass it to Jamal Crawford, who unfortunately couldn’t buy a long-range shot during the fourth quarter and bricked a baseline three point shot.  With that miss and loss of possession, the game was essentially over.  Nate made a three pointer on the next play, but it was too little too late for the knicks.

Only four teams in the eastern conference are playing over .500 basketball in their last 10 games, boston is 5-5 in their last ten as are the knicks.  Now is the time to make a run if they have any moxie to do so–this west coast road trip may prove even more fateful than the last one.

The Knicks have half a season to try and crawl their way out of the immense hole they have dug for themselves in the watered-down eastern conference.  Moral victories will not in any way help get them into the playoffs, and incidentally, Isiah, neither will excuses.

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January 27, 2008

Knicks@Warriors

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 8:43 pm

Warriors…  Come out to playyyyy.

Rematch.  They blew us out last time and they didn’t even have their whole squad at the time.

Warriors are an interesting team to me because they continue to play well in the western conference despite certain handicaps I thought they had:

1. they lost a big part of their offensive production when Jason Richardson was sent packing to the Bobcats.

2.  their rookie Belinelli, who was tearing up the summer league, has not been a factor thus far in the regular season.

3.  the guy they got back for Jason Richardson, Brandan Wright from North Carolina, has not been a factor yet either.

So how does Nellie’s squad do it, you ask?  Well, the have Baron Davis healthy and playing tremendous basketball, they have the kid Isiah was thinking about drafting Monta Ellis (or as I like to call him, Iverson, Jr.) picking up the slack and contributing with his scoring ability and of course they have two great players in Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington doing their thing on the court.  They have the making of a real team, and although their defense isn’t that great, they’re averaging just under 110 ppg, so this team just tries to out run you and out gun you.  Biedrins is their answer to David Lee, very similar double-double hustle player, but Biedrins is a little taller and blocks a couple more shots every now and then.  They also have our old friend Matt Barnes, who will probably hit at least one three tonight against us, and another role player named Azubuke, who can score the basketball.

Anybody catch the second half of the Lakers-Cavs game?  They had Van Gundy, Mike Breen and Mark Jackson calling the game together.  Talk about people familiar with dolan-signed paychecks.  Yet there was no mention of the knicks, no cheap shots like there were during the Boston Massacre, probably because Kobe vs LeBron is enough entertainment for one night.  That was a good game.  I thought for sure once Varejao got hurt with the ankle injury that the Lakers would take it, but LeBron is basically unstoppable and even locked down Kobe on a few plays in the fourth (sorry DVJ).  They had some problems with the shot clock that altered the outcome of the game but down the stretch, the lakers could not get a final shot off to send the game to OT.  Kobe got out Kobed by LBJ…

So here we go, game one of the second half of the season for this Knicks basketball team.

LGK!

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January 26, 2008

New, enhanced features on Knicksdefense.com

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 6:52 pm

What’s good defenders? Glad to get the W last night against the Sixers. We should have done that the first two times we played them, but I’ll settle for a season series tie. Tomorrow’s game against the Warriors will be a great measure of how far we’ve come in January because Golden State is just the type of team the Knicks have not been able to compete with this year up until recently.

We have a few new wrinkles here at knicksdefense.com, just wanted to go over them briefly.

First, the forum I’ve been mentioning is now up and running. Click on the link at the top right corner of the home page to visit and create new threads on your New York Knicks. Customize your profile, post on old school Knicks, current Knicks, debates, polls–anything Knicks goes, so check it out, and let me know how you like it.

Second thing I wanted to mention is that we put a banner up to help cover the hosting fees for knicksdefense.

And finally, we’re going to have knicksdefense contests with Knicks related prizes, so keep us bookmarked because we have the hookup for our defenders.

*update: memphis beat gonzaga.  espn.com had the game listed for 8pm on espn2 but apparently the game is already over.  sorry to bronx and everyone who was looking forward to it like I was…

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January 25, 2008

Knicks Defense Progress Report

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 2:27 am

Twenty-four defenders responded with completed surveys. Thank you for your time. Two defenders, perhaps drunk at the time, submitted blank surveys (boo!). Their halfhearted Curryesque effort has been omitted from these results.

Remember that this survey was complied from real die hard knicks fans, so this data is far more valuable than the payed actors in the MSG TV commercials that claim to be real knicks fans.

Here we go!

One word to describe the Knicks’ effort this season:

sad
upcoming
Pathetic
Suspect
half-hearted
hopeless
pitiful
Lax
Heartless
Lacking
minimal
disappointing
improving
defenseless
putrid
pathethic
sketchy
embarrassing (in some cases, “F” = “incomplete” below)
Nauseating
Frustrating

Pie Chart Grades (click to enlarge):

stephon.jpgcrawford.jpgquentin.jpgzach.jpgeddy.jpgnate.jpgfred.jpgjerome.jpgdavid1.jpgrenaldo.jpgwilson.jpgmardy.jpgjared.jpgmalik.jpgrandolph.jpgisiah.jpgmark.jpgherb.jpghanners.jpgdolan.jpg

Survey Title: Mid-season Knicks Progress Report

Page 1

1. How many Knicks jerseys do you own?
Answer Count
3-4 3 (13%)
0 11 (46%)
1-2 10 (42%)
5-6 0 (0%)
7 or more 0 (0%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
2. With the Knicks at 13-28, what single word would you use to describe their effort thus far?
People who answered question: 20 (83%)
People who skipped question: 4 (17%)
3. Grade the Knicks
  A B+ B C+ C D+ D F Count
Stephon Marbury 0(0%) 1 (4.55%) 0(0%) 3 (13.64%) 3 (13.64%) 3 (13.64%) 5 (22.73%) 7 (31.82%) 22
Jamal Crawford 1 (4.17%) 6 (25%) 10 (41.67%) 6 (25%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 0(0%) 24
Quentin Richardson 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 2 (8.33%) 3 (12.5%) 6 (25%) 6 (25%) 6 (25%) 24
Zach Randolph 0(0%) 6 (25%) 8 (33.33%) 4 (16.67%) 6 (25%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 24
Eddy Curry 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 2 (8.33%) 6 (25%) 3 (12.5%) 4 (16.67%) 8 (33.33%) 24
Nate Robinson 3 (12.5%) 7 (29.17%) 13 (54.17%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 24
Fred Jones 0(0%) 1 (4.35%) 5 (21.74%) 8 (34.78%) 9 (39.13%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 23
Jerome James 0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 1 (4.17%) 22 (91.67%) 24
Renaldo Balkman 1 (4.17%) 1 (4.17%) 3 (12.5%) 10 (41.67%) 6 (25%) 2 (8.33%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 24
Wilson Chandler 0(0%) 1 (4.35%) 3 (13.04%) 2 (8.7%) 10 (43.48%) 3 (13.04%) 1 (4.35%) 3 (13.04%) 23
David Lee 2 (8.33%) 8 (33.33%) 8 (33.33%) 4 (16.67%) 1 (4.17%) 1 (4.17%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 24
Mardy Collins 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 6 (25%) 5 (20.83%) 4 (16.67%) 8 (33.33%) 24
Randolph Morris 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.35%) 0(0%) 8 (34.78%) 1 (4.35%) 6 (26.09%) 7 (30.43%) 23
Jared Jeffries 0(0%) 1 (4.35%) 3 (13.04%) 8 (34.78%) 5 (21.74%) 3 (13.04%) 3 (13.04%) 0(0%) 23
Malik Rose 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 7 (29.17%) 2 (8.33%) 4 (16.67%) 6 (25%) 4 (16.67%) 24
Isiah Thomas 1 (4.17%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 2 (8.33%) 2 (8.33%) 2 (8.33%) 8 (33.33%) 9 (37.5%) 24
James Dolan 4 (16.67%) 2 (8.33%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 1 (4.17%) 1 (4.17%) 6 (25%) 10 (41.67%) 24
Herb Williams 1 (4.17%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 4 (16.67%) 3 (12.5%) 2 (8.33%) 7 (29.17%) 7 (29.17%) 24
Dave Hanners 1 (4.17%) 2 (8.33%) 0(0%) 4 (16.67%) 7 (29.17%) 1 (4.17%) 5 (20.83%) 4 (16.67%) 24
Mark Aguirre 0(0%) 0(0%) 0(0%) 4 (17.39%) 3 (13.04%) 0(0%) 7 (30.43%) 9 (39.13%) 23
People who answered question: 24 (100%)

People who skipped question:

0 (%)
4. Should the Knicks make another risky move before the deadline or bite the bullet and go with what they have now?
Answer Count
no trade 13 (54%)
trade 11 (46%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
5. Do you think the Knicks will make the playoffs?
Answer Count
yes, they can turn it around 7 (29%)
no, it’s lottery city 17 (71%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
6. Do you want the Knicks to make the playoffs?
Answer Count
yes, we can make noise against the Celtics or Detroit 9 (38%)
no, might as well get a top-talent rookie out of all this losing 15 (63%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
7. Who has been the most stable player for the Knicks this season?
Answer Count
David Lee 7 (29%)
Nate Robinson 4 (17%)
Zach Randolph 2 (8%)
Jamal Crawford 11 (46%)
Stephon Marbury 0 (0%)
Quentin Richardson 0 (0%)
Eddy Curry 0 (0%)
Fred Jones 0 (0%)
Malik Rose 0 (0%)
Renaldo Balkman 0 (0%)
Jared Jeffries 0 (0%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
8. Has Stephon Marbury played his last game in a Knicks jersey?
Answer Count
he’ll be back 7 (29%)
see you in Italy 17 (71%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
9. Who is most to blame for this year’s lack of success?
Answer Count
Eddy Curry 5 (21%)
Stephon Marbury 2 (8%)
Quentin Richardson 2 (8%)
Isiah Thomas 14 (58%)
Jamal Crawford 1 (4%)
Zach Randolph 0 (0%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)
10. When the regular season is over in April, how many games will the Knicks have won?
Answer Count
20-24 5 (21%)
30-34 3 (13%)
35-39 3 (13%)
25-29 12 (50%)
40-44 1 (4%)
19 or less 0 (0%)
45 or more (no, seriously…) 0 (0%)
People who answered question: 24 (100%)
People who skipped question: 0 (%)

 

                           
     
     
     
   
   

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January 23, 2008

Knicks Progress Report

Half way through the season defenders and I won’t lie to you: it has been a tough season for the orange and blue. I want to know how everyone sees this going down, check out this survey and please take the time to be honest about these knicks.

survey2.jpg

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January 21, 2008

MLK game: Celtics at Knicks

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 3:43 am

Game time 1pm.

What better way to honor the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., than with a victory over the Celtics–and don’t tell me I have a dream, we can beat this team if we show heart and play smart.

Expert Frank Isola was on NBATV tonight sounding much like Lives saying the team has turned a corner. He said that he expects the Knicks to put up a good fight tomorrow (still Isola said the C’s would win, but who wouldn’t on national TV?). He did that very same kind of backpedaling at this time before, didn’t he? “I always thought this would be a playoff team,” was the exact quote during the 6-game streak if I recall correctly. Isola the jellyfish fence-straddler needs to just pick a side and quit calling loyal Knick fans everywhere “male groupies.”

I missed that Nate Robinson dunk in the first half of the Miami game, fortunately Alan Hahn found the video on youtube, check out Knicks Fix if you wish to revisit the footage. Somebody please tell nate if he uses his supreme talent to focus on defense he’ll have plenty of opportunities for more dunks in the game. Anticipate passes, read the passing lanes, he’s been studying Steve Nash tapes to become a better playmaker and that’s great, but he should supplement that with some Muggsy Bogues tapes if he has the time. Anyway, Nate has been doing a great job lately so I’m happy for him.

That’s two dunks for Nate in Miami thus far in his career. Does Nate even have a shoe sponsor yet? Would Steve and Barry’s possibly be interested?

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January 19, 2008

Knicks@Heat

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 2:02 pm

For those of us who were wondering how long the streak could last, our questions were answered last night:  three games.

I have to admit something to my defenders this saturday afternoon.  I missed the game.  I was going to watch the game, but I accidentally locked us out of our house last night.  Thirty degrees out, I was just answering the front door, and for some reason the door that I’ve been using for four years seemed to react differently to the air pressure in the room and shut behind me.  We ended up playing Texas Holdem at my cousin’s house five blocks from here while we waited for Robin to arrive with the spare keys to save the day.

So tonight we’ll try again with one of the few teams with a worse record than the Knicks this season, the Miami Heat.  Every additional second Jerome James plays is a new season high because let’s face it, since he came to the Knicks, he’s been one of the league’s most expensive bench ornaments.

Q found his touch from the looks of the box score.  Good news for Q, bad news for Jeffries, Renaldo and Lee because Isiah will play Q, we should concede that by now regardless if we understand IT, or agree with IT.

We could still finish with a .500 record for the month of January if the knicks bounce back and do the right thing tonight against the Heat.

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January 18, 2008

Knicks@Wizards

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 2:14 am

Hey, regardless of exactly why, the knicks are winning so let’s keep the ball rolling New York and learn how to win one on the road. In time, we’ll know the exact reasons why we’ve had three solid wins against top teams, because we’ll either keep winning, or revert back to what we’ve been doing for the majority of the season.

You know Caron and company are going to come out strong, because we just beat them, so lets see good continuity from tip-off to the final buzzer.

Force MD’s, please represent our Knicks defense brotherhood with orange and blue colors in D.C. and I’ll do my best to do the same from the pub down the street. Who knows, in time maybe we’ll have our defenders in every NBA city showing up at game time, I know there are truly knicks fans everywhere.

So Stephon’s having surgery. Good luck to you, Steph. Looks like Isiah’s sustained, season-long effort to paint you as the scapegoat for this team’s struggles is nearing consensus, but I’m not buying it. Truth is, he is just now playing the guys that SHOULD have been getting burn all season long. That’s a conspiracy to me. MSM asked Isiah why Balk didn’t play for six weeks and Isiah made up some fake crap up that Balk didn’t even understand when they asked him about it. Quite frankly, Isiah is more Machiavellian than some of the dudes running in the primaries right now. Hope you prove them wrong Steph while the knicks keep this winning thing going. However, if it turns out down the road that the knicks can’t win with you, it will be time for you to go. But we’re not there yet in my eyes because I can’t even remember a time when you and Balk were on the court together, let alone you, Nate and Balk.

Anyone heard anything about the injury Jeffries sustained last game against the Nets?

In keeping with DVJ’s reverse prediction trends, I’m going to change things up and hope that Chandler DOES NOT play tonight, and see if that makes a difference.

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January 16, 2008

Knicks@Nets

Seems like we have some defenders representing at the knicks games lately with African at the Wizards game and DVJ attending tonight’s game in Jersey against the Nets. DVJ has informed us that he’ll be sitting directly behind the knicks bench–sweet seats man, how’d you score them? We’ll be looking for you–perhaps you could help us out and hold up a Knicksdefense sign during the timeouts to let us know it is you.

Last time we played this team they didn’t have Kidd and we took them for a victory. Now that Kidd is back, we don’t have Marbury–not necessarily a bad thing depending on how you interpret the team’s season-high two game winning streak coming into tonight’s battle for the Hudson River.

This Knicks team moved the ball and had an impressive collective assist to turnover ratio at 26:9. I don’t want to get overly excited about a two-game win streak, but if the Knicks keep that up for the rest of the season, we won’t be talking about being in the lottery come April.

Jamal was 6-7 from three point land and had 29 points on the night. That’s great production, hope he keeps up with the good shooting percentages.

Nate continues to impress me this month and I especially like the improved passing and decision making with the basketball. Now if we can get him to read those passing lanes and use his superior quickness to steal the basketball, we’ll see more dunks from Nate then he amassed in two NBA dunk contest finals.

That reverse dunk from David Lee in the fourth was sick like the flu (C. Mack).

Q had a dunk!! also, Q was on fire in the first half and eventually shot 50% through the game finishing with 13 and 7. Nice to see Q rediscover his touch and hope he can continue to give us that kind of production at the small forward position. Just think how good the Knicks would be if Q were in that kind of form all season long?

Randolph Morris saw daylight during the last minute of the game and committed a foul. David Lee jokingly came over to congratulate him for getting a mark on the stat sheet. What can I say, the guy should be in the d-league learning and getting good exercise.

No minutes for our unsung hero Wilson Chandler.

Caron reminds me of Artest in some ways. He’s a hell of a ball player.

Did you see Jeffries getting those consecutive blocks? Reminded me of charles Smith in the playoffs except he was scottie pippen and they were the knicks! Jeffries is my favorite Knick this year. Last year it was Mardy and Balkman. Speaking of Mardy he played 40 seconds and got an assist.

Zach might not be the problem at all, I concede, but we have to be careful not to blame this entirely on Stephon’s absence from the team. I’m not going to stick up for Stephon, however, I do think Isiah is finally making the changes that have been so obvious to some of us in terms of who should play (Nate, Lee, Balk, Jeffries) and who deserves to sit, depending on the players’ performances and not on their salary level or veteran status. Bottom line? If your best lineup last night is Nate, Crawford, Balkman, Jeffries and Lee, those guys should see minutes every night and should not rot on the bench as they have during stretches this season.

This is what I took from the Isiah post-game interview. Without naming names, he blamed this season’s poor performance on the player’s attitude. He said the losses were due to trying to manage some of the personalities on the team who care more for the name on the back of the jersey instead of the name on the front of the jersey. He could have been talking about Curry or Randolph, both players have been called selfish at times in their careers, but from watching the post game interview, it seems Isiah is “going though the process” to make sure certain people “fall by the wayside.” Anyone come to mind?

Should the knicks get a “W” tonight in Jersey, I might consider his point of view as plausible. As of right now, it seems to me Isiah is just now playing the players he should have been playing when the ball first went up in November. Just blogging.

And another reason I’m glad they won: I was beginning to think Kenny Smith calling Knicks games was a jinx for this team.

As far as tonight, you know when you play the Nets it is the big three you have to be concerned with: Carter, Kidd, Jefferson. Kidd especially because he was out last time. They dislike us, and we dislike them. But they haven’t played very well this year relatively speaking, so can the Knicks make it three in a row? Depends on how much energy I see from the orange and blue in the first couple minutes of the basketball game. You’ll know by then if this Knick team wants to do what it takes to continue to win, or if they’re content with winning a couple before going back to sleep at the wheel.

standings.jpg

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