chasson randle

New York Knicks at Detroit Pistons – 3/11/17 – Game Recap

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New York Knicks at Detroit Pistons
March 11, 2017
Pistons 112, Knicks 92

Written by Eric Weinstein – @ericcweinsteinn

Same game, different day.

In what will be the final time the Knicks face the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the Knicks once again failed to show up on the road. New York came out flat and allowed the Pistons to jump out to an early lead, one that was too much to overcome. New York showed fight and cut the deficit over the next three quarters, but were blown out at the end of the fourth.

Kristaps Porzingis led New York with 18 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. He set up Willy Hernangomez on a number of nice bounce passes while set up in the post, passes that become possible through the triangle offense. Carmelo Anthony was invisible for another game, only scoring 13 points on 4-9 shooting, to go along with 4 assists. Chasson Randle made great use of more extended minutes to score 12 points, pull down 3 rebounds, and dish out 3 assists. The Knicks may have found something with this kid and he needs to see the floor more as the season comes to a close. Long Island product Tobias Harris led Detroit with 28 points, and Andre Drummond scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

It’s just more of the same with the New York Knicks as we keep rolling along here, with the team not being committed on defense, as well as having difficulty with an often stagnant offense.

When Carmelo has nights like tonight, where he doesn’t seem to even be interested in the game, really, it’s going to be tough for the Knicks offense to get going. When the top gun struggles, the team will struggle.

I turned the game off midway through the fourth quarter. It’s just too painful.

After today, the Knicks are currently six games back of Milwaukee with Charlotte, Miami, and Chicago ahead of them. Barring a miracle, this team is not making the playoffs, and that’s easy to see. It makes sense for the Knicks to go into this last stretch of the season seeing what they have in some of the guys who don’t play much. Guys like Randle, Ron Baker, Mindaugus Kuzminskas, Marshall Plumlee, among others, should all be playing more than they are. The Knicks know what they have with guys like Derrick Rose and Courtney Lee, so why not see if these other guys have a future with the team? It’s an easy answer, one that the Knicks don’t seem to understand.

Another back to back situation on Sunday, as the Knicks fly home, but will need to hop on the subway to Brooklyn for a Sunday evening affair with the Brooklyn Nets. This game should be renamed the tankapalooza, considering the participants. Chin up everyone, it’ll all be over soon.

26-40.

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Recap: New York Knicks at Orlando Magic

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New York Knicks at Orlando Magic

March 6, 2017

Knicks 115, Magic 105

by Eric Weinstein

 

Yo, didn’t they just play the Magic?

 

After another home loss on Sunday, the Knicks immediately hit the road and went back down to Central Florida to take on the Orlando Magic once again. On March 1st, the Knicks defeated the Magic 101-90, and this game had the same end result, a Knicks victory. This game went a little differently, as New York had to play the catch up game for the first three quarters, without Carmelo Anthony, only to pull away in the fourth. Kristaps Porzingis, Courtney Lee, and Lance Thomas, all stepped up in Carmelo’s absence to get the Knicks a win, 112-105. Lee led the Knicks with 20 points, and Porzingis and Thomas combined for 31 points. Maybe the biggest story of this game was undrafted rookie Chasson Randle, who was playing his first extended minutes as a New York Knick. Randle filled the stat sheet with 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, and was an astonishing +27. To compare, Derrick Rose was a -23, for all those who think the Knicks should resign Rose in the off-season. Evan Fournier led the Magic with 25 points, and Elfrid Payton ended his night with a triple double. 16 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, and 1 awful haircut for the Magic point guard.

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New York Knicks vs Toronto Raptors – 2/27/17 – Game Recap

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New York Knicks vs Toronto Raptors
February 27, 2017
Raptors 92, Knicks 91

Written by Eric Weinstein – @ericcweinsteinn

Once Rose got switched on DeRozan, you could see the end result coming.

An old school, defense first, Eastern Conference matchup took place at the world’s most famous arena tonight when the new-look Toronto Raptors came to town. Both teams would be without important players tonight, with Kristaps Porzingis out for the Knicks, and Kyle Lowry out for the Raptors. The Knicks were also without Joakim Noah, who will miss the rest of the season, and Brandon Jennings, who was waived earlier in the day. Chasson Randle replaced Jennings on the roster, and he did not see any action tonight. This was a battle of all-stars as DeMar DeRozan had another game where he could show off just how gifted an offensive player he is. DeRozan finished with 37 points on 25 shots, including the game winner over Derrick Rose with 1.9 left in regulation. Carmelo Anthony had a tough shooting night, but led the Knicks with 24 points on 9/26 shooting.

If you’re somebody who wants the Knicks to tank on the rest of this disappointing season, then this was the perfect game for you to watch. An entertaining, down to the wire game was just what the tank enthusiasts were looking for, just for entertainment value alone. Games like this can almost make the idea of tanking again, bearable.

There were positives all over this one, starting with Lance Thomas, who was once again inserted into the starting lineup to replace the injured Kristaps Porzingis. Lance put up decent numbers, he scored 12 points and pulled down 6 rebounds, but the intangibles he brought to this game were what the Knicks wanted when they resigned him this past summer. Diving for loose balls and solid defense was the key to Lance’s game tonight, and that’s something to watch moving forward. Along with Lance, Courtney Lee continued to prove he was worth the money as well, and he finished with 16 points, 3 three pointers, 5 steals, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. Lee also drained a three pointer late in the fourth quarter that gave the Knicks the lead before DeRozan took it back from them. Lee and Thomas were the two best players on the court tonight for New York, and these guys will be important for next years team.

The real problem for the Knicks tonight, and this season, has been a lack of killer instinct. Once again, the Knicks had a 17 point lead over their opponent, and weren’t able to finish the job and leave with a win. The Knicks did everything right on the defensive side of the ball, holding a talented Raptors squad to just 92 points, which is well below their seasons average of 108.5.

They were hustling and sticking with their man, and showed the type of fight we’ve all been looking for all season, and it still wasn’t enough. Credit to Toronto to the moves they made last week, because the acquisitions of PJ Tucker and Serge Ibaka are going to do wonders for their team defense. To see those guys every night and have to deal with them defensively is going to be tough for any Eastern Conference team in the postseason.

Depending on what side you’re on, you left this game with a sigh of relief, or a broken heart.

Knicks and Magic, Wednesday at 7 PM. Talk to you all soon.

By the way, if you like college basketball, seeing Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet defending one another was pretty cool. Those guys were a lot of fun to watch at Wichita State, and they played in a ton of big games. Shoutout to the Wheat Shockers.

2016/17 Knicks Roster Power Rankings – Week 14

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The Knicks went 2-2 since the last rankings.   If they keep up a pace like this it’ll be enough to just miss the playoffs while also ensuring we don’t get any of the 4 amazing PG’s in this years draft. Knicks!
Rank Player Comments Last weeks Rank
1 Anthony, Carmelo Melo continued his hot streak on offense this week. He’s been very good..on offense. Offensively Melo is really good. 1
2 Rose, Derrick Rose is also really good on offense. Well not so much the passing aspect, but he can take it to the hole at an elite level. 2
3 Hernangomez, Willy You might have noticed that I’ve been ignoring the word defense. Since the Knicks ignore it I figured I should too.   Anyway (B)Willy lit it up the 2 games he got actual minutes. No reason Noah should be getting more minutes than (B)Willy at this point. 9
4 Holiday, Justin Hi, my name is Justin Holiday. You might recognize me as the guy who digs the starting lineup out of a 10+ point defecit literally every single game. Might have something to do with that D word the guys in the top 2 spots hate so much. 5
5 Lee, Courtney Lee got way too much flac for not taking the final shot against the Wizards. There was literally a guy standing right next to him on the court yelling and waiving his arms. You’d think that was another player too. 7
6 Baker, Ron You might look at Bakers numbers and wonder why he is so high on the list. It’s not that he’s a great defender, but he does look like Gary Payton compared to Rose and Jennings. 3
7 O’Quinn, Kyle O’Quinns minutes have been all over the place lately, but in his lone start of the week he was really good. 8
8 Jennings, Brandon Jennings plays juuuust good enough to keep his spot in the rotation, but that’s just because the Knicks backcourt is a flaming dumpster fire. 10
9 Porzingis, Kristaps Porzingis has looked pretty bad. He had a 1 rebound game this week. Playing injured or sophomore slump? 11
10 Kuzminskas, Mindaugas Pretty bad week for Kuz, but I have a feeling he’ll bounce back. He looks pretty confident when he’s on the court. 4
11 Noah, Joakim Hi, I’m Joakim. I’m hot garbage at everything except rebounding. I airball free throws. I also start over 2 guys playing way better than me. 6
12 Plumlee, Marshall Given a few more minutes Marshall could end up being the 3rd center on this team who is better than Noah. 13
13 Thomas, Lance Now that Lance has been out I realize just how little I miss him. 12
14 Vujacic, Sasha It’s a good thing we have Sasha taking up space on the bench instead of taking a chance on guys like Chasson Randle. 14
15 Ndour, Maurice Same comment as above but replace Sasha with Maurice. 15

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