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Knicks beat Lakers, D’Antoni is still a good coach according to his wife

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This is not a very happy bunch…

The Knicks crushed D’Antoni’s dreams of having a victorious return to the Garden last night. The Knicks dominated the game until the closing minutes when they decided to let up and make things interesting. Though there were brief moments of concern Felton, JR and Chandler eventually said “not going to happen Lakers.” This was another fun one though we had a minor scare from Melo. Instead of sharing my thoughts on the game, here what the players/coaches were thinking last night:

  • D’Antoni – “The system works…the system works…the system works. It’s the players fault. The system works…”
  • Woodson – “These guys are definitely running laps tomorrow. A win by less than 10 is a loss in my book.”
  • D.Howard – “I don’t want to make it awkward. I will just ask to be traded and that management fire D’Antoni and then I will get ready for the second half.”
  • Kobe – “Do you think this season is somehow payback for Colorado?”
  • Melo – “Wow, I am so on tonight. Take that D’Antoni. Nothing could go wrong tonight…” Continue reading →

Knicks beat Nets: Go back to Jersey and get your shinebox

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Some thoughts from last night:

  • Great game, these two teams are, to my disappointment, pretty evenly matched up when they play one another.
  • If JR Smith had actually lost a limb during the 4th quarter, would he have let Woodson take him out?
  • It was aid before the season that the Knicks would be pretty good if the year was 2003.  Looks like Jason Kidd things it is 2003 at least based on the way he has been playing.
  • It has to be so awful as a Nets fan to watch Kidd – one of your arguably top 3 players all time – hit a back breaking 3 pointer against you while playing for your big city rivals. The closest equivalent for Knicks fans would have been having Ewing drop a double double on us while wearing a Sonics uniform.
  • Hey Nets fans, Deron is a very good point guard. Carmelo is an MVP candidate. I hope you understand the difference. Continue reading →

Jay and Marc on the Popblerd Podcast

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Marc and Jay join GG and Big Money on the Popblerd Podcast.  Lots of laughs as Jay and Marc try to make as many Pelican, Nets and Lakers jokes as we can.  Some actual basketball commentary in there as well.

The Knicks Bench Beat the Heats Starters, improve to 14-4

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I’m starting this recap early and commenting as the game goes:

  • Kurt is making the most out of his obligatory 5 minute starting role.  4 boards.  Too bad we won’t see him again tonight.
  • Sheed is getting cheers in Miami.  I didn’t realize how loved he is, he gets cheered in every stadium.
  • A lot of 3’s, most of them good looks.
  • Took 9 minutes for the first shady call.  JR Smith fouled LeBrons shoulder with his face.
  • Another good defensive stand by JR, LeBron traveled…nope blocking foul on JR AND a tech.  How has there been no investigation into Ed Malloy and Joey Crawford?
  • 3.5 minutes into the 2nd and one basket by either team.  NY is playing Prigs, Sheed, Novak, Kidd and White so that’s understandable, Miami still has Bosh out there.
  • White and Prigioni coming up huge in the 2nd quarter.
  • If you want to score on the Knicks just do a back door cut.
  • Novak back to back buckets just when you get the feeling Miami might make a run.  LeBron 3 and Felton 3 in the final 30 seconds, AND if there was .1 of a second more on the clock LeBron would have scored again.  Great game so far.
  • Felton and Kidd got on a 9-0 run to start the 3rd!
  • An 11-0 run after a 9-0 run and 8 made 3’s by 5 different players.
  • LeBron with a monster dunk.  He looks super pissed out there.  He’s also the only player on the Heat who isn’t sucking.
  • Smith has been getting mauled all quarter.  Foul on Smith.
  • LeBron is about 2 uncontested layups away from going postal on his teammates.
  • One of these years Rasheed is going to hit one of these 3’s.
  • 3rd 9-0 run of the game, Knicks up by over 20.
  • I heard Stern almost fined the Heat $250K tonight until he realized that Bosh and Wade actually played tonight.

Knicks are the number 1 seed after having beat the #2 seed twice this season by a total of 40 points!

Around the league after the first month

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The first full month of bball has just ended so lets take a look around the league and see what’s going on:

Eastern Conference:

New York Knicks – 13-4 after playing one of the hardest schedules in the league. As expected they are banged up; Amare, Shumpert, Camby and Kidd are all out and Felton looks like he’s going to play with a bone bruise in his hand. This hasn’t stopped them from holding a 20 point lead in 8 out of their first 16 games. Tough D, Melo averaging the most points per 36 minutes and Chandler on pace for the all time highest FG% for a season have been huge reasons why the Knicks are on such a tear. By the end of the month everyone except Shumpert is supposed to be back so it will be interesting to see if that makes them better or provides chemistry issues. And hopefully Rasheed Wallace can stay on the court more than 90 seconds next game without getting ejected.

The Brooklyn Nets are right behind the Knicks in the standings, however they’ve played a much easier schedule. They did survive an attack by Rajon Rondo. Even though they have the worst crowd chant and the worst mascot it looks like they are going to be a good team.

Andrew Bynum hurt his knee (the supposedly good one) bowling. There is no timetable for his return. Is it possible to be a part of a three team trade where all 3 teams got worse?

Rondo was tied for the second longest double-digit assist streak in NBA history before he attacked Mr. Kardashian. His team is still reeling too. Avery Bradley can’t come back soon enough.

The Toronto Raptors are a very bad team. Kyle Lowry has been the one bright spot. Landry Fields has been terrible but something tells me he’s going to be just fine.

Fortunately for Chicago they are in the worst division in the NBA. It’s totally possible for them to steal a #4 seed without Derrick Rose and then have him healthy for a playoff run. Continue reading →

Ball Don’t Lie

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I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Rasheed Wallace got ejected after yelling “Ball Don’t Lie”  I wasn’t aware that this has been Rasheed’s catch phrase for a while so I did some research and found out what it means:

“Ball don’t lie” is said when a player misses one, two or all three of his free throws after a questionable (read as: bullshit) foul call is made by an official. The ball is, essentially, the unbiased judge who will not reward the player by going in if the apparent foul was indeed bullshit.

*Andrew Bogut locks arms with Rasheed Wallace and trips over his own feet, prompting a foul call from the referee

* Rasheed: That’s BULLSHIT, man!

*Andrew Bogut toes the line and proceeds to miss his first free throw

*Rasheed: BALL DON’T LIE!

*Bogut then attempts a second free throw and misses again

*Rasheed: BALL DON’T LIE, DAMNIT!

Game Recap: The 12-4 Edition

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The Knicks beat the Suns to maintain their Atlantic Division lead.  About 6 minutes into the game the Knicks had built a big lead and seemed to get bored and decided to make things interesting.  They let the Suns come back, then went up by 20, then let them come back again and so on.  At the end a win is a win but it would have been nice to go up by 20 and then stay up by 20.

  • Speaking of going up by 20; this was the 8th time in 16 games the Knicks have had a 20 point lead.
  • Rasheed Wallace got a technical for yelling “Ball Don’t Lie” which resulted in his ejection.
  • JR Smith had another terrible game.  He was also on twitter at 2 and 4am.  I’m noticing a trend here.
  • Copeland had a career high in every category.  If Camby and Thomas can’t stay on the court it looks like the Knicks have another option.
  • Dragic is 13th in the league in assists per game.  Imagine how many he’d average if he didn’t have to pass to Morris and Beasley.
  • The Knicks had 7 turnovers all game and only one in the 2nd half.  They also forced 17.  Lines like that are going to win a lot of ball games.
  • I thought Stern was about to fine the Suns for resting their players until I realized that’s their actual team.
  • Felton has been on a tear since the New Jersey Nets of Brooklyn game.  Portland fans have to be getting pissed.

Knicks Win Because That is What They Are Supposed to Do!!!

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The Knicks won by 21 points tonight against the Bullets (I hate calling them the Wizards). The game was never really close and the Knicks did what they are supposed to do, show no mercy on lesser opponents. It is hard to remember a time when the Knicks consistently blew out their opponents. There is more I could say about the Knicks performance but instead I am just going to spend the rest of this recap insulting the Bullets/Wizards.

  1. David Stern announced big sanctions coming against Washington for playing the actual guys on the roster.
  2. Washington thought they had a chance tonight because they misread the inactive and active list and thought they would be playing against Jason Kidd by himself…and, even then, they only thought they had a chance.
  3. Washington is nicknamed the Wizards because it would take an actual Wizard to turn this franchise around.
  4. The Wizards are so bad that they have been asked to replace the Generals so the Globetrotters can have an easier opponent.
  5. How can the Wizards cut Blatche and actually get worse? Continue reading →

Brooklyn Hipsters knock off the New York Isolations…This one hurts way more than Houston

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HEY FELTON, STOP FREAKIN’ SHOOTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Knicks played retro ball tonight and by retro ball I mean they played like it was last season. They played all iso ball all the time. There were times I thought Melo was going to break out a cape he was playing so much hero ball. This loss may be their worst all season. It is not because it was against the Nets. This one can’t be blamed on bad refs or too much travel. The Knicks didn’t catch a crazy performance from a Chandler Parsons type tonight. The defense was all right but they were ugly on offense throughout. It was every man for themselves on offense with the exception of Tyson Chandler who cleaned up and had a monster game on offense, keeping this team in the game. This loss kills me because we should not be about to enter December with this team reverting to all their bad habits. Let’s hope the real reason they lost was because Jason Kidd was out. Here are my thoughts:

  • Did JR Smith wear Felton’s number tonight because that is the only explanation for Felton’s 3-19 performance?
  • Did Rasheed re-retire before tonight’s game and not tell anyone? How does a guy who should only be shooting from inside the paint go 2-11?
  • Hey Melo, STOP TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING BY YOURSELF!!! You have teammates and unless you trust them you are never going to win.
  • Chandler was 12-13 from the field with 28 points, all of which seemed to be off of teammates misses. Does anyone want to run some pick and rolls for this guy? Chandler could have scored 40 tonight if the Knicks made any effort to get him involved in the offense. Continue reading →