The Knicks decided to hand the fans a lump of coal on Christmas day in the form of a poorly coached and equally poorly executed game from everyone except Kanter. Jack and Beasley were the standouts for poor play, but nothing was more evident than how thoroughly outcoached Hornacek was. Kanter was putting it on Embiid, so Embiid took some early breaks and came back in against KOQ who was an easier match-up on both ends thanks to height. The Sixers were successful out of multiple timeouts...the Knicks had Michael Beasley turn the ball over on consecutive inbounds plays with just enough time to make a comeback if they executed. As a matter of fact, I should save it for the coach breakdown let's get into this...
Kanter: First up on the queue is Kanter with an absolute top notch performance in a big time match-up. Kanter was 12/21 and pumped in 31 pts and 22 boards over 36 minutes out there. The Sixers are one of the few teams that play big all game, so the Turkish nightmare was able to stay in the game and make people in Philadelphia know what Erdogan has figured out, you can't stop Enes Kanter but only hope to contain him. Humor aside, he made Embiid work and in spite of the Process having some success, Kanter won their match-up. Defensively, he showed really nice timing to disrupt Embiid's handle but one bit of Kanter's game that irks me is how often he pulls back instead of keeping his hand out there on block attempts. It's an "I don't want to pick up a tacky foul" instinct but it also prevents him from changing shots the way he potentially could. Besides that, this was a showcase game for a very talented big who deserved a post-up or two with the game on the line.
KP: We're fully turning KP into a jump shooter at this point. He doesn't get many plays going to the basket drawn up for him and his bread and butter is a play that requires a switch so he can shoot over a guard at the elbow. Speaking of elbow, his jumper simply isn't what it was at the start of the season consistency wise and you wonder if that bursitis is the problem. 22 pts, 7 boards and 5 blocks on 6/19 where he missed some gimmes, some "he usually makes that" and some tough ones too. Where the boy did shine is the place where he absolutely stands above the rest of the big prospects right now...teams going big let KP prowl the paint and it wasn't just the 5 blocks, all emphatic, that told the story. There were times where Sixers would pass up lanes because KP was close enough or they'd alter lay-ups and miss. The brilliance of KP's help defense when he doesn't have to worry about three point shooters a vision. I hate to say this after a career game for Kanter, but my personal preference of KP being utilized more in pick and rolls as well as my view of KP's interior defense means the conclusion everyone had before the season still stands. To maximize his impact, KP will be best off at Center sooner than later.
Lee: It's weird to think I'd complain about a 20, 3 and 2 outburst with 2 steals and 8/13 shooting to boot from Courtney Lee. He was steady, made some baskets when we were running dry and did a lot of his normal work...but he got outCourtney Lee'd by JJ Reddikk. Reddikk was the more aggressive version of Lee; a veteran presence making the big plays when his young guys needed a boost and it was enough to win the match-up. Lee was solid, Reddikk got the match-up. On a sidenote, my dad can't stand Courtney Lee's game and gave me five good minutes of "Tim Hardaway wouldn't go out like that" anger over coquito last night.
Lance: Lance played 24 minutes and was pretty good on D while giving virtually no production aka it was a typical night. 2 points, 1 board and we've reached the point in the season where defenses are ignoring him so badly that his one score was a drive from the top of the key for a pretty finger roll as the Sixers ran to guard the other four guys on the floor. Lance's saving grace in this one is that Beasley was much worse.
Jack: Jarrett Jack was 0/5 with 0 points and played awful defense from start to finish with highlights including a turnover on one end followed immediately by giving JJ Reddikk three free throws on the other end. He's not just too slow laterally to guard PG's at this point, wings are a risk to blow by him or beat him through screens for open looks. He's hard to hide. 7 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals in 21 minutes shows some productivity; but it's been happening in early bursts while his efficacy fades heavily with fatigue. You know what that sounds like? A player who should come off the bench. Also, I'm gonna guess his assist to TO ratio is creeping up because recently it feels like he gets assists early and turns it over late.
Frank: Early in the game, Frank turned the corner through a screen and finished a nifty lay-up driving. Unfortunately, he had some real struggles the rest of the way. 4 pts, 3 asts, 2 rebounds on 2/8 from the field from the rookie. TJ Mcconnell really got into the youngster and put some pressure on him. Now it wasn't all bad, Frank made some more drives including a patient read from the paint to find an open three point shooter in Lee on the baseline. But he was still hesitant at times and defensively his impact wasn't as stated as it is when he's hitting all cylinders. It didn't help that his kickout option was Beasley, who really didn't seem interested in shooting the ball from deep last night. At least Lance pulls that jumper. You know what...
Beasley: Just when he gets Knicks fans feeling good, Hornacek thrusts Beasley into a bigger role and the wheels come off. Beasley gave 10 and 5 in 23 minutes on 5/12 from the field. It's not the worst looking statline in the world. But he was 0/2 from three and passed up or hesitated on a myriad of really open looks. The Sixers played off of Beas all night and meant their help defense came easily and the lefty had no place to drive. Some of those plays where Lee gets a screen, they gave Beas some similar opportunities to either create or choose his own number as if those two have a similar IQ in any way shape or form. This all came together in crushing fashion with the closing front court unit of Beasley/KP/Kanter where there wasn't much spacing, execution was miserable and Beasley inexplicably was tasked with inbounding the ball in crucial minutes...I've gone hard on Lance being the inbounder before, Beasley is an even riskier proposition. Oh yeah and outside of a couple of defensive bursts, he was typical on that end which is below average.
Doug: 2 of 6 for 5 points in 15 minutes. Nobody came back down to Earth harder than Doug in this one. He couldn't get his usual open looks and hasn't been as active creating or rebounding lately. Usually he does make it up with some nice defensive moments but in this one he barely registered a blip on either end.
KOQ: 11 minutes with 4 pts, 3 boards, 1 ast, 1 stl but Embiid's rotations were staggered just to use his height advantage on KOQ. O'Quinn's minutes were cut accordingly thanks to the combination of tough match-up and ascendant Kanter play.
Baker: In terms of disasters, Ron Baker's play would fall somewhere between Dante's Peak and Sharknado levels of keeping me entertained by being so bad. In 13 minutes Baker was 0/4 for no points, 3 assists and one steal. Not only did he get his own man open by overplaying passing lanes...but he inexplicably managed to overplay lanes on two occasions that caused him to trip up teammates. He was setting offensive foul-like screens on his own teammates. The "Frank has to drive" memos have clearly gone to the wrong guy too. Baker drove it for his misses but didn't show any vision in those moments and had zero lift to finish. He's a player that can't just be aggressive, he has to mix in clever decisions none of which happened yesterday.
Hornacek: The thing about Hornacek is that he seems to find something that works and then overdo it. Like a guy who makes a funny joke and recycles that ish to every stranger you come across while your eyes roll. In this one, that came about by trying to get more offense from Beasley even though the dude was struggling all night. As if that wasn't a failure enough, he kept putting the ball in Beasley's hands late for more failure. He did this to Lee for a while too, seeming to demand too much aggression for Lee's comfort. While Brown saw success mixing starters in to attack our second unit; Hornacek didn't see Frank's early success with KP as an indicator that he might get the French kid going by going back to the tandem sooner than the fourth. I know that last year, the Knicks started off the season with strong statistics coming out of Timeouts but it feels like this season has been awful for that. Poor execution, poorly drawn up plays and giving up buckets to opponents when they use TO's all showed up in a close loss. The one thing I can't blame Horny for is the Knicks leaving a ton of points at the free throw line but there were plenty of ways to overcome that if Hornacek wasn't getting outcoached in this one.
The heart and Soul of this team brehs
