The Knicks’ coordinated, scrambling defense in Game 2 was effective, but more for how it executed than for the ingenuity of the scheme. The Pacers will no doubt respond Saturday with their own adjustments. For instance, sending more cutters to the basket when the Knicks are rotating will make it tougher to cut off passes to the perimeter. - Beckley Mason, NYT (all italics)

The switches and rotations demand instant recognition, but more important, lateral quickness. The feet must always be moving like a featherweight boxer. The hands also must be active, as defections are the only rewards for extra effort. Lateral quickness.

If turnovers are the Pacers’ fatal flaw, inconsistency has been the bane of the Knicks’ defense all season. Having surrendered home-court advantage, it will take a string of disciplined, intelligent games to overcome the Pacers, whose top-ranked defense has not missed a beat all season.
Game 2 offers a blueprint for how the Knicks’ defense can disrupt and befuddle the turnover-prone Pacers, but even fulfilling it is not a guarantee of victory.

Transition basketball and treating every possession with care. Stoudemire must know what he wants tondo with the ball in advance. His compatibility with Melo would be perfect, if there was a 48 second shot clock.

The Pacers still found good shots when they were able to elude the double teams. Despite 15 turnovers through the first three quarters, the Pacers were right in the game until their catastrophic meltdown in the fourth.

Nice timeout coach Vogel. We who are about to take a well-deserved nap, salute you.

Amare can sit with Quentin Richardson and enjoy the view.

Defense

misterearl wrote:... Or can he?

The Knicks’ coordinated, scrambling defense in Game 2 was effective, but more for how it executed than for the ingenuity of the scheme. The Pacers will no doubt respond Saturday with their own adjustments. For instance, sending more cutters to the basket when the Knicks are rotating will make it tougher to cut off passes to the perimeter.

The switches and rotations demand instant recognition, but more important, lateral quickness. The feet must always be moving like a featherweight boxer. The hands also must be active, as defections are the only rewards for extra effort. Lateral quickness.

If turnovers are the Pacers’ fatal flaw, inconsistency has been the bane of the Knicks’ defense all season. Having surrendered home-court advantage, it will take a string of disciplined, intelligent games to overcome the Pacers, whose top-ranked defense has not missed a beat all season.
Game 2 offers a blueprint for how the Knicks’ defense can disrupt and befuddle the turnover-prone Pacers, but even fulfilling it is not a guarantee of victory.

Transition basketball and treating every possession with care. Stoudemire must know what he wants tondo with the ball in advance. His compatibility with Melo would be perfect, if there was a 48 second shot clock.

The Pacers still found good shots when they were able to elude the double teams. Despite 15 turnovers through the first three quarters, the Pacers were right in the game until their catastrophic meltdown in the fourth.

Nice timeout coach Vogel. We who are about to take a well-deserved nap, salute you.

Amare can sit with Quentin Richardson and enjoy the view.

Defense

guy is clueless on defense, but we can use his 80% fg shooting and 10-15 points off the benchc

Can Rust-Stat offer anything with some booster minutes in the second quarter to reverse that particular trend?

Defense - No
Boards - No
Short Range J - Yes

I honestly don't see what he's going to provide.

Hide the fire extinguishers.

IronWillGiroud wrote:Amar'e, that's Amar'e,

guy is clueless on defense, but we can use his 80% fg shooting and 10-15 points off the benchc

Exactly. He can't defend but, if he CAN'T be defender either, it's a wash. If dude can produce in his 15MINUTES, then we can complain. He wasn't hurting us on defense before this latest procedure. If anything, he was putting more effort into Defense than I have ever seen in him before

SupremeCommander wrote:

jrodmc wrote:Since I'm getting what amounts to painful radiation treatments from Spero Adidas and his sidekick, they constantly moan and gripe about the second quarter, and not finishing strong going into halftime.

Can Rust-Stat offer anything with some booster minutes in the second quarter to reverse that particular trend?

Defense - No
Boards - No
Short Range J - Yes

I honestly don't see what he's going to provide.

Hide the fire extinguishers.

low post scoring - his work with Olajuwon paid off... if he can bang with Hibbert and get him to pick up an extra foul or two, that's a huge advantage

Agreed.

Also, the Pacers have quick rotating guards who close out quickly and rarely need to double down, so our shooters basically have 0 daylight and that is our bread and butter and has been all season. With Amar'e even as a threat on the block during limited minutes would, at the very least, enable the shooters a bit more time when guards begin to cheat to get some solid open looks and I know one guy on this team that would probably benefit from this - JR.

Just getting JR outta his menstrual cycle would all but end this series.

If he could provide any of this though, it would be PHENOMENAL!

Those knees ain't springing like it's 2004.

Hope and pray for the mid range jumper and a few nice passes to Chandler for easy dunks. Add 5-6 rebounds and 1 or 2 really noisy blocks, and it's Christmas/Channukah in May!