Marc and Jay talk about the last 2 games, the state of the tank race, playing vets in a lost season, what the heck is Phil doing, upcoming schedule, draft prospects and much more
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Marc and Jay talk about the last 4 games, Phil teaching the triangle, upcoming draft, overstepping boundaries, top PG’s of the last 10 years, and much more
Listen to The New York Knicks Podcast on ITunes
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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.
New York Knicks at Orlando Magic
March 1st 2017
Knicks 101, Magic 90
Written by Eric Weinstein – @ericcweinsteinn
flagrant2blog.blogspot.com
The Orlando Magic are a bigger mess than the New York Knicks, if that’s possible.
The Knicks began a stretch of road games in Orlando on Wednesday to take in the Magic, and what a thrilling game it was. If you couldn’t pick up the sarcasm, the Knicks won a snoozer in the amusement park capital of the world and defeated the Magic, 101-90. Kristaps Porzingis returned from a two game absence to lead the Knickerbockers in scoring with 20 points and 9 rebounds. KP pulled down 9 rebounds, knocked down 2 three pointers, and showed little rust in his return to action. Carmelo Anthony had another off game, scoring 17 points on 4-16 shooting.
Derrick Rose finished with 19 points. Evan Fournier led the Magic with 22 points.
If you watched this entire game, you deserve some kind of recognition. This was just a bad game that included two bad teams with nothing to really play for. If you think that the Knicks have anything to play for, you’re just wrong. The Knicks began the game shooting well from the perimeter, with Melo, KP, and the rest of the Knick shooters starting out hot. The shooting allowed the Knicks to get a nice double digit lead to get some space in-between them and the Magic. As we’ve seen all year, the Knicks love to let their leads go once they get them, and that was the case tonight as well.
The difference tonight was that New York was playing Orlando, who are in full blown tank mode for this season, so the Knicks were able to hang on and pull away for the victory.
There’s really not much to say about this one, other than the fact that the Knicks won. Nobody played all that well, and nobody really stunk up the joint either. This was just one team who was clearly better beating another team who was clearly worse. The fact that the Magic can’t even compete with the Knicks shows just how badly it has gotten in Orlando. That city is where basketball goes to die.
Also, Marshall Plumlee scored, and that’s just fun for the entire family.
The Knicks road trip takes them to Philadelphia for another date with the 76ers, Friday night at 7 pm. The Joel Embiid-less Sixers are another squad currently attending tankapolooza, so we should be in for more bad basketball on Friday. Can you feel the excitement. 25-36.
Marc and Jay talk about Melo vs. Phil, the Charly Rosen article, Porzingis still injured, Courtney Lee moved to the bench, and much more
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| Yeah I know I know, I missed the first 12 weeks of the season. Better late than never. These rankings are based on the last week of games. | |||
| Rank | Player | Comments | Last weeks Rank |
| 1 | Anthony, Carmelo | Slow start to the season, but Melo has been very solid the last 2 weeks. Of course Knicks being Knicks, Melo met with Phil today to discuss Melo’s future with the team. Stay tuned. | – |
| 2 | Rose, Derrick | Derrick Rose has proved this month that he can still drive. He can drive to the basket. He can drive around in Chicago while the Knicks have a game. Unparalleled when it comes to driving. | – |
| 3 | Baker, Ron | I’m not going to be unrealistic, Baker would probably barely play on any other team, but he’s been really solid for the Knicks. He’s turned 30 point blowouts into 10 point beatings a number of times already. | – |
| 4 | Kuzminskas, Mindaugas | Another pleasant surprise, Kuz has the ability to score from inside and out. Defense isn’t great, but it’s not like pretty much anyone on this team is great at that. | – |
| 5 | Holiday, Justin | If the Knicks decide to blow this team up I hope Holiday is one of the few pieces they pick out of the rubble. | – |
| 6 | Noah, Joakim | This week Noah has been rebounding like a guy who gets paid 18M a year. Now if he can re-learn to defend, shoot free throws, and stay on the court more than 20 minutes a game we might have something here. | – |
| 7 | Lee, Courtney | The Knicks can’t defend anyone. So when it was time for a starting lineup change the only starter who is good at defense got benched because Knicks. | – |
| 8 | O’Quinn, Kyle | The Knicks have been almost not losing lately and O’Quinn is often the reason for the Knicks almost not losing. | – |
| 9 | Hernangomez, Willy | Willy looked great the first 6 weeks of the season and now he can’t get any minutes. Considering Porzingis has been out this isn’t a good sign. | – |
| 10 | Jennings, Brandon | Hey it’s that guy who looks great once every 2 weeks and completely disappears the rest of the time! | – |
| 11 | Porzingis, Kristaps | Every night I pray to the basketball gods that KP’s achilles heals 100%. | – |
| 12 | Thomas, Lance | When I was thinking of all the possible injuries the Knicks will have this season, broken face wasn’t among them. | – |
| 13 | Plumlee, Marshall | Knicks are obeying league rules that state every team has to have a Plumlee or a Zeller. | – |
| 14 | Vujacic, Sasha | Sasha is so happy Ndour is on the team because now there is someone ranked below him. | – |
| 15 | Ndour, Maurice | Trying to end on a positive note. Ndour has been looking good in the d-league! | – |
Marc and Jay try to make sense of all the rumors swirling around, Melo may be willing to go to a couple teams, Phil might be leaking that he wants Melo gone, Lance Thomas is injured, Porzingis has injury problems, a petition to the basketball gods, a visit from Joey Knicknuts, a caller, much more
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Watch us live on Usteam Sundays at 8:30pm EST
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New York Knicks vs. New Orleans Pelicans
Game 39: January 9, 2017
Pelicans 110, Knicks 96
Written by Eric Weinstein – @ericcweinsteinn
flagrant2blog.blogspot.com
Where do I start with this one?
After getting their butt’s handed to them in Indiana, the Knicks showed the same type of effort against the Pelicans tonight at the Garden, dropping this one 110-96. The score shouldn’t have even been that close at the end of regulation, since New York went down by as much as 30 points during this game. The biggest story in this one was that nobody had any idea where the starting point guard was for the entire game. Derrick Rose was literally missing. After the game, it was found out that he flew home to Chicago, only without getting permission from team officials. I, for one, hope that everything is okay with Rose and there aren’t any real issues going on. His replacement in the starting lineup, Brandon Jennings, led the Knicks with 20 points to go with his 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Carmelo Anthony scored 18 points, and also came away with his league leading 3rd ejection of the year. Kyle O’Quinn was also ejected, and also brought nothing to my Draft Kings lineup. Anthony Davis was his usual monster self, finishing this game with 40 points and 18 rebounds.
Takeaways from this game
I refuse to repeat myself:
Do we have enough evidence yet? This team, as currently constructed, does not have a chance to compete in the Eastern Conference. It’s a bad mix of guys on the court, as their games don’t really do anything to compliment each other. To start the year, the guys were moving the ball and at least competing a little bit on defense. That hasn’t been the case of the past 2-3 weeks, as the Knicks just show they don’t give a crap about what happens on the defensive side of the ball. The Knicks have fallen from the 3rd spot in the East, to 10th in just a matter of weeks, and it’s sad to watch, which leads me to…
Blow it up:
Trade Rose, see what you can get for O’Quinn, and try to start from there. Like I said, this tem isn’t really going anywhere, so why strive to get swept by Cleveland in the first round? Enter the lottery, and maybe the ping-pong balls will fall in the right direction for once for the New York Knicks. There is no shame in admitting that this isn’t the year for this team, and it might be worse to enter Sacramento Kings territory and think that the team actually has a chance to compete. We see it game in and game out, this team has some good pieces, but not enough to get past teams like Cleveland, Toronto, and Boston. Kristaps Porzingis is the future, right? Why not do what you can to get some young players to build around with him? It just makes sense, this team isn’t winning any type of postseason series as currently constructed. Sorry Carmelo, that’s just how it is.
Next game is Wednesday against the 76ers, who have won 3 of their last 4 games. If the Knicks don’t defeat Philly next game, I’ll have officially started the countdown until baseball season. The optimism I had a few weeks ago is starting to fade, but let’s go Knicks? 17-21.
New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers
Game 39: January 7, 2017
Pacers 123, Knicks 109
Written by Eric Weinstein – @ericcweinsteinn
flagrant2blog.blogspot.com
If the Knicks don’t give up 120+ did they even play?
On the second night of a back to back, the Knicks spent the night in Indiana to take on the Pacers. New York has yet to win on a back to back, and that trend continued as the Knicks were defeated by the Pacers, 123-109. The Knicks were getting outplayed from the start in this one, and once again fell behind by double-digits early in the first half. Unlike last time in Milwaukee, the Knicks couldn’t muster up enough to complete the comeback. New York tried to make a game of it in the fourth quarter, but the deficit was just too steep. Brandon Jennings, after a rough game against the Bucks, led the way with Carmelo Anthony for 17 points apiece. Kristaps Porzingis finished with 16 points and 4 rebounds. The Knicks fourth quarter lineup of Jennings, Ron Baker, Mindaugus Kuzminskas, KP, and Willy Hernangomez was incredibly effective, with the other four starters watching from the bench. For the Pacers, Paul George and Jeff Teague each contributed with 19 points. Thad Young contributed 16 points for the Pacers.
Takeaways from this game:
New York Knicks at Milwaukee Bucks
Game 38: January 6, 2017
Knicks 116, Bucks 111
Written by Eric Weinstein – @ericcweinsteinn
flagrant2blog.blogspot.com
Finally, a win.
The Knicks finally ended the six game losing streak tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks After a heartbreaking loss on Wednesday thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Knicks returned the favor and took down the Bucks, 116-111. Kristaps Porzingis returned after a three game absence to score 26 points for New York. Carmelo Anthony led the way with maybe his best all-around game of the season with 26 points, 10 assists, and 6 rebounds. 17 assists in the past two games for Carmelo, which is the highest assists count over two games he has had in his career.
Most notably, we had a Ron Baker crunch time minutes extravaganza with him finishing 6 points and 4 assists, all in the fourth quarter. Bravo Ron, Bravo. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker both led the Bucks with 25 points each, and Greg Monroe had 19 points off the bench.
Takeaways from this game: Continue reading
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