Knicks switch themselves into oblivion
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS, NEW YORK KNICKS | COMMENTS
It was written on the white board in the Bobcats’ locker room before Wednesday’s game against the Knicks in New York: “They will switch a lot. Attack mismatches.”

And boy, did the Knicks switch a lot — and in all kinds of different ways. Let’s take a look at the photo evidence from the Knicks’ 118-110 loss.

Switch No. 1: Covering for Amar’e Stoudemire on the pick-and-roll

Stoudemire has never been a good defender, especially in space, and he returned Wednesday night after a two-game absence because of a sprained ankle. The Bobcats attacked him relentlessly on pick-and-roll plays, confident he wouldn’t have the mobility to jump out, cut off Charlotte’s point guards and then return to find his man rolling in the paint.

More at the link.

Will be interesting to see tonight.

My guess: With Iman defending Augustine STAT will not as often be forced to switch to DJ.

martin wrote:

SteveSmith wrote:The last games it was the same switching going on, but especially for the big lineup, it didnt lead to as many problems.

Will be interesting to see tonight.

My guess: With Iman defending Augustine STAT will not as often be forced to switch to DJ.

Didn't the Knicks play a ton of Zone in Detroit? I thought it looked especially good.

Im never to sure about our defense being zone or just switch heavy. I know the classical zone from europe, and ours is more a hybrid in that regards. But anyway, it certainly did look good. We have the personal for it with all those long mobile guys.

Happy days coming? I do think so

K22 wrote:http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/01/05/knicks-switch-themselves-into-oblivion/?sct=nba_bf2_a4

Knicks switch themselves into oblivion
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS, NEW YORK KNICKS | COMMENTS
It was written on the white board in the Bobcats’ locker room before Wednesday’s game against the Knicks in New York: “They will switch a lot. Attack mismatches.”

And boy, did the Knicks switch a lot — and in all kinds of different ways. Let’s take a look at the photo evidence from the Knicks’ 118-110 loss.

Switch No. 1: Covering for Amar’e Stoudemire on the pick-and-roll

Stoudemire has never been a good defender, especially in space, and he returned Wednesday night after a two-game absence because of a sprained ankle. The Bobcats attacked him relentlessly on pick-and-roll plays, confident he wouldn’t have the mobility to jump out, cut off Charlotte’s point guards and then return to find his man rolling in the paint.

More at the link.

It's true, we did switch a lot (almost every time!) our first games, but the worrying thing was when D'Antoni said they weren't actually meant to- it happened when players missed their defensive assignments! Considering how many times that happened, that's really worrying! Last game was better, lets hope we keep it up!

A good man-to-man defense looks like a zone away from the ball (help-side defense)... The match-up zone resembles what we years ago called a "switching man-to-man", where defenders switch freely with one another, so that your defensive big men stay down low and your quick guards are on the perimeter.

This was VERY effective and they seemed to get better at it the more the game went on.

SteveSmith wrote:

martin wrote:

SteveSmith wrote:The last games it was the same switching going on, but especially for the big lineup, it didnt lead to as many problems.

Will be interesting to see tonight.

My guess: With Iman defending Augustine STAT will not as often be forced to switch to DJ.

Didn't the Knicks play a ton of Zone in Detroit? I thought it looked especially good.

Im never to sure about our defense being zone or just switch heavy. I know the classical zone from europe, and ours is more a hybrid in that regards. But anyway, it certainly did look good. We have the personal for it with all those long mobile guys.

Happy days coming? I do think so

We were definately playing the 3-2 Zone.

We looked really good and I thought this covered a lot of Amare's faults in defense. When Jorts was in for Amare we went back to man-to-man. I like it. Amare also got a lot of his rebounds in zone.

nixluva wrote:I just like how the Zone helps to keep our bigs near the basket for rebounding and doesn't expose them to the PnR constantly.

Amare looked like a man possessed rebounding the ball.

airchibundo507 wrote:

loweyecue wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:We were switching a lot and being very slow to recover. However; Diaw, Mullins and Henderson didn't seem to be missing anything that night, even when they did have a hand in their faces. That game was meant to be a loss, one way or a another, for the Knicks. Lets just hope we pick it up and learned from that debacle. If they do, I'll get back to feeling better about this team.

Yup, I doubt they shoot 60% again. That day they would have beat the Bulls or Heat as well. You can't defend when they everything they throw up goes in. We have had games like that lady season before the trade where Gallo, Chandler, TD et al couldn't miss. Of all our other losses this one was as much due to their outlandish shooting form as it was due to our defensive ineptitude.

Boris and Henderson had good shooting nights, but that compounded with pitiful defense and wide open shots made them have career nights (efficiency wise). That doesnt happen against the Bulls and Heat, defenses that contest nearly every shot and protect the basket. A good shooting night against them would look more lik 7-13 FG instead of scoring at will on 11-13 FG.

That's important because the Heat and Bulls make you work for your points, almost discouraging you from shooting the ball. When you drain shot after shot against the Knicks you feel more confident down the stretch in a close game and continue to sink shots, even contested looks, when they matter most. The more shots you hit the bigger the hoop is to you.

We gave up wide open shots in the first half due to bad defense. In the second half they were drilling contested shots like our defenders didn't even exist.

nixluva wrote:Well the good thing to me is that the Defense looks like it has more a sense of purpose and chemistry. You see everyone facing the ball and seeing the floor. They're helping to shutdown lanes and close out on shooters better, cuz now they're not so out of position that they can't get to their man. They just need to keep that up and keep improving on it.

Not to be a negative nancy but I know this team too well. Tonight Bobcats are going to rape us. We are going to play man and switch our self's into mismatches. We are going to fall behind and start chucking three's. But hey I hope I'm wrong. I really do. I just feel this team takes one step forward on D and 3 steps back.