So I noticed there’s been a lot of players who seem to do really well against the Knicks lately.  I decided to do a little research and find out how many players have had their highest scoring game this season against the Knicks.  The list got big enough that I decided to call this trend the Knick Effect (formerly the Golden State Warrior Effect).  So far this season 22 players have benefited from the Knick Effect.

Brandon Roy – 10/30 – 29 points
Taj Gibson – 11/4 – 18 points
Gary Forbes – 11/16 – 19 points
Derrick Brown – 11/23 – 12 points
Tayshaun Prince – 11/28 – 31 points
Rodney Stuckey – 11/28 – 29 points
Brook Lopez – 11/30 – 36 points
Andrea Bargnani – 12/8 – 41 points
Goran Dragic – 1/7 – 17 points
Ben Gordon – 1/30 – 35 points
Elton Brand – 2/4 – 33 points (Is this the Elton of 2005)
Jameer Nelson – 3/1 – 26 points
Quincy Pondexter – 3/2 – 14 points
Luke Harangody – 3/4 – 18 points
Al Jefferson – 3/7 – 36 points
Derrick Favors – 3/7 – 16 points
Tyler Hansbrough – 3/13 and 3/15 29 and then 30 points
Carlos Delfino – 3/20 – 30 points (career high)
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute – 3/20 – 19 points
Brandon Jennings – 3/25 – 37 points
Anthony Morrow – 3/30 – 30 points
Ed Davis – 4/5 – 22 points
Stephen Graham – 4/8 – 12 points

The list almost doubles if you add the 2nd highest game of the season:

Blake Griffin (44 points)
Trevor Ariza (21 points)
David Lee (28 points)
Amir Johnson (22 points)
Jerryd Bayless (23 points)
Paul Pierce (32 points)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas (14 points)
DeAndre Jordan (17 points)
Randy Foye (29 points)
Beno Udrih (29 points)
John Salmons (27 points)
Dahntay Jones (18 points)
DeMar DeRozan (36 points)
Thaddeus Young (25 points)

and let’s not forget Kevin Love’s epic game (31 points and 31 rebounds).

So that’s 37 players that love playing the Knicks.  Over 50% of the games played since the Melo trade have had Knick Effect games as well.  That’s something to keep an eye on.  It seems like more than a coincidence at this point.  At first I was thinking that maybe the Knicks pace had something to do with it, but if that were the case then wouldn’t the list be full of normally high scoring players like Kobe, LeBron and Nowitzki?  How come a good portion of this list is filled with names like Pondexter, Forbes and Harangody?

I guess the point is the Knicks need to learn to play some defense and they need a big man. That was  a lot of research to make that quite obvious point. Now I am going to go watch tape of the games to figure out how the Knicks could be better on defense…oh wait, I am probably just going to open a can natty light and try to forget how much I love this team.