First off, there's no reason in the world Eddy shouldn't have had a 40-point game today. Easily. Maybe more. He had a 20-point 1st half, and he should've had 30. Nobody on the Raptors could stop him. Araujo? Loren Woods? Come on, he was eating those guys for breakfast...How does he only get 26 minutes? If he was hurt that's one thing (I know he knocked knees with Joey Graham or took a knee to the thigh but he looked like he was alright). Then the second half...What happened? I don't buy the 'lack of conditioning/outta shape' thing anymore, not when he contributed mightily at the very end of the marathon triple OT win against the Suns and again in another long OT win against Dallas. We wouldn't have won those games, in fact, if not for Eddy. I know he's got some developing to do, but man I tell ya, he's an absolute beast down low and the Knicks need to realize exactly what they have with this guy. Establishing him early is good, but then why the hell do they go away from him after he starts rolling? Foul trouble is one thing, but not today - only 2 fouls. Can't understand it. Remember the Clippers game out in LA? He was dominating that one like a madman, having a great game, then we stop going to him down the stretch and lose. Establish him early then KEEP GOING TO HIM!! Don't stop. It ain't rocket science. He was easily the best player on the court in the first half - I don't want to hear nothing about Mo Pete and Rose. I can't wait to see Eddy dominate AN ENTIRE GAME START TO FINISH not just the 1st quarter. Such an obvious advantage we had today that wasn't exploited nearly enough.
Second, our defense STINKS!!! IT'S THE PITS! Especially on the perimeter. We made guys like Peterson and Rose look like Larry Bird and Reggie Miller. Listen, if a guy like Bosh beats you, he beats you but you gotta take these other guys out of it. Jalen Rose doesn't even play anymore for Christ's sake! Guys like that aren't nearly as effective if you got a hand in their face. It seems like if you make only 2-3 passes around the perimeter, these teams always get a good look against us and that just can't happen. You gotta want it man. Remember that block Jamal had on Ben Gordon's 3-pt. attempt right in front of the Knick bench the last time Chicago was in. That's what I'm talking about. Beautiful. Challenge those guys. Same thing for Wally Szczerbiak tomorrow. Whoever's covering him tomorrow SHOULD NEVER LEAVE HIM!!!! DON'T GIVE HIM ROOM TO BREATHE OUT THERE, LET ALONE MOVE!!! Get in his grill and stay there! Remember the Sonics game? Good win right? Exciting right? You know how pissed off I was that Steph left Ray Allen wide open for that 3-pt attempt after that timeout? Not to take anything away from Steph - he played fantastic. But not on that play. I couldn't believe Allen didn't drill that shot. How 'bout Allen's comments after the game (in substance): "I couldn't believe how wide open I was. I even had enough time to take a dribble." Speaks volumes if you ask me. Maybe we should total abandon zone-type defensive schemes altogether and just play good, old-fashioned man-to-man. No switching unless your covering a pick and roll set. Otherwise, get out there and stick to your man on the damn perimeter. Always know where your man is. Man, they tell you that in 3rd grade! Guys are turning their heads and totally losing sight of their man. I don't know. Maybe I'm overreacting and I'm excited to death that we're finally starting to come together a little but we gave them this game today. Gift-wrapped with a little bow on it. Let these teams earn everything they get. Don't give them anything. We can't afford to lose games this way. I don't wanna just hand over an awesome lottery pick to the Bulls because we don't feel like playing smart and doing the little things to win.

[Edited by - finestrg on 01-16-2006 09:58 AM]

Curry didn't drop 40 for two reasons: Toronto went zone and the Knicks didn't know how to feed him the ball and the game was all but over mid way through the third quarter. Knicks have an afternoon game Monday so Larry figured he mind aswell rest Curry, and Marbury for the Twolves rather than have them expend energy in a blow-out game.

As far as the perimeter D, your right about 2-3 passes by the other team and they always get a good shot. The knicks aren't very quick laterally on the perimeter. Crawford is not very fast laterally, Lee is too slow to guard Sf's, Marbury is always turning his head and getting lost and Frye isnt very quick laterally either.

Another thing I noticed about the Knicks on D, the weak side defenders always sag off of thier man to cover the paint area in case of penetration form the strong-side. The perimeter players can't keep anyone in front of them, so when a man breaks towards the paint and kicks it to the weak side, the shooter is always open because guys like Frye, and crawford aren't fast enough to recover from a help defensive position to get out on their man to adequatley contest the shot on the weakside.

2 options that may help. Maybe the Knicks need to stop helping so much. This will make everyone play thier man straight up (think Duke, the was they over play the passing lanes). Everyone is resposible for thier own man. Problem is, Knicks have trouble keeping anyone in front of them.

Other option is use your offense as your defense. Slow the game down and milk the clock (similar to what Memphis and Utah do, and even the old Princeton teams). This limits the possessions. It would be hard to watch (and I would hate to watch it) but it may help.



[Edited by - bigbeast on 01-16-2006 01:42 AM]

Big Beast - the reason why we don't play guys straight up is because we don't have good man to man defenders... the help is there to cover up our defensive flaws (hah). About your comment regarding slowing the game down, Brown was using this strategy throughout the losing streaks early this season, which has backfired in our faces

Posted by BigC:

Once the Raptors went zone, it was over with Curry dominating in the post.

BigC, I hear ya to a certain extent bro, but there's just no way he gets 20 in the first half then goose egg for the second half. That can't happen. They can't except that. They can't settle for that and say 'oh well.' Even when a team goes zone and he gets the ball and gets doubled quickly, no problem. Kick it out, swing it, find the open man. He'll probably wind up getting the ball back a few seconds later anyway if they're patient and show some good ball movement. Let the defense scramble. Shit, we get caught scrambling all the time and our defense suffers because of it.
The most important thing to me, though, is that he's got to be on the court. Period. Give him his breaks, yes. But yesterday, he plays only 26 mins, taking only 13 shots. Take a look at the best power players around the league that do most of their damage inside. Shaq, Tim Duncan, Elton Brand, Jermaine O'Neal... There's no way you're totally neutralizing those guys for an entire half. Their teams wouldn't allow it. At the end of the game, every one of those guys are going to get their touches regardless of what the defense is doing. Now I'm not comparing Eddy to those guys overall as players yet. They're all all-stars and he's got some work to do. But their games are all very similar. Eddy's game really does remind me of Shaq's. Unless Eddy really pulled up lame there after he took that knee to the leg in the first half and really couldn't go, they've got to re-establish the guy in the 2nd half. I'm also not buying the back-to-back scenario as much as you guys. So being down by 15 midway through the 3rd quarter means the game's over because we gotta play tomorrow? No way...Garbage time is garbage time, but that game wasn't over then. Not by a long shot. We had about 18 mins. left to jump back in that thing. It's the NBA man; every team makes a run. How are we gonna make a run with Eddy on the bench? You always try to win the game at hand - worry about tomorrow TOMORROW! Plus, today's game against the Wolves IS AT HOME. Close game, late, crowd behind them, they'll find a way...No guarantees of course, the Wolves are a solid team, but come on, that's not going through Larry's mind? It was going through mine. Bottom line is we threw the towel on that Toronto game by not going back to Curry in the 2nd half, I'm sorry...

[Edited by - finestrg on 01-16-2006 1:24 PM]

[Edited by - finestrg on 01-16-2006 1:26 PM]