The Spurs are a well oiled machine and Knicks, away on game two of a back to back, just didn't have the fire power to keep up for four quarters. Watching the polished execution of a team like the Spurs is like having the case for tanking laid out in front of you; the Knicks just don't look ready to compete with the elite teams in the league yet. 119 points given up, 51% from the field, 45% from three, and 39 trips to the free throw line gift wrapping points for a team that didn't have their star player. We're struggling without our second option, the Spurs are contenders without Kawhi Leonard at full health yet. That's not to say there weren't some promising performances, especially our lottery pick rookie. Let's dive in...
KP: The Knicks don't have a go-to play to get KP easy baskets unless you count elbow jumpers on a switch. He makes them look easy, but a lay-up or dunk off a set piece would be nice to see from time to time. Isolations for KP have been predictably ending with contested jumpers for a while now and he's not drawing fouls with the frequency of his early season onslaught. Again, that could be helped by more attempts at attacking the basket and his man instead of shooting over him. 18 pts, 7 boards and 6 blocks jump off the stat-line. He struggled with his shot, but my God was an eraser out there. His first two blocks were on three pointers and he added blocks on dunk attempts from guys as big as Pau Gasol. The kid's offense has come back to Earth, but his defensive impact is reaching new levels. There's true potential two-way dominance but he needs go-to moves that are more efficient.
Lee: Courtney Lee continues to play respectable ball, but just doesn't have the extra gear a typical second option has to pump up an offense. 18 pts, 2 boards, 1 ast to 2 TO's for Lee over 39 minutes. This dude deserves a night off on principal. When THJ returns and Lee can be a third option or even fourth on some nights, we'll be able to fully appreciate his impact.
Kanter: Enes Kanter had a tall order and responded with a forgettable but not bad performance. 12 pts and 6 boards over 17 minutes on 50% from the field for the big man. Gasol got the better of him match-up wise but the minutes disparity makes the gap between the two look worse than it was. The real issue is that Kanter couldn't really get the momentum plays he normally does to pump up the team and on the road, you need those. Kanter without those big offensive boards or And-Ones is pedestrian.
Lance: If you read these, you're used to my Lance critique by now. 13 minutes with a point, 2 boards and 2 assists is actually decent production by his standards. I liked Hornacek using him to shadow the biggest mismatch on the Bulls. I won't say defensive specialist, but Lance is great at being pesky and physical. On a sidenote, why bother giving a guy a start if you play him less than 15 minutes?
Jack: Jarrett Jack is probably the king of the "well that doesn't look so bad, you must be exaggerating" stat-lines. 8 pts, 5 asts, 4 rebounds and not a single turnover in his 31 minutes. That's not a great line but it's not awful. The awful is 3 for 11 from the field, an inability to create when the defense tightens up and prolongs spells where the team's pace fades. The defense on Tony Parker gets it's own category. Call it Red Carpet defense, the lane never looks as inviting to a ball handler as when Jarrett Jack is on them and there's a screen within 5 feet. When Jack is picking up the man at the point of attack, the defense is handicapped.
Frank: The brightspot of the night was Frank's performance against a super talented opposing team, albeit one that doesn't have the best defensive PG's. 9 pts, 11 asts, 3 boards and 3 steals over a 32 minute run where Jeff again refused to give the kid a break in the first half once he hit the floor. Frank is 19 and forcing the coach to keep him out there. He's becoming more aggressive and last night there was more pace to his attack. Watching Frank use head fakes or dribble into space so he can be a screener as well as assist man is fun, because we haven't had PG's making clever decisions like that in some time. He faced a PG that started playing in this league when he was 3 years old, that's how young this cat is...also how old Tony Parker is to be fair. The TO's are all but gone, his one turnover in this one was a result of overpassing but he responded to that by pulling jumpers instead on the next couple of possessions. Oh and by the way, I'm not talking defense because you know already. Our defense is night and day with him harrassing ball handlers, the kid has stopper potential before he's even in NYC long enough to buy everyone Timbs for Christmas.
Beas: After the struggles in the past couple of games, Beasley got down to business in this one. 23 pts, 12 boards, 4 asts, 2 steals, a block and just one turnover in 33 minutes. He was hyper-efficient, 9 for 13 from the field and 5 for 5 at the line. Defensively, the whole Knicks team got cooked most of the night, so hard to single out anything from him. The real highlight was his passing though. He has great rapport with KOQ that comes down to Kylo knowing the baseline cut is available and Beasley knowing to find him. The addition of heady passes is a pleasant surprise to Beas' game.
Doug: With Beasley balling out, Doug's first promising game in a few didn't get to be the big comeback party. He played 16 minutes of productive ball; 9 pts, 2 asts, 3 boards and 50% from the field. He's still really fighting his three point shot which is what we expected to be his bread and butter but he gets at least one backdoor lay-up a game. He actually had to defense a LMA post-up at one point and did so respectably well, got the stop. It was a good game, not great but good.
O'Quinn: Another night where he was productive with the minutes that he got. Kylo 8 pts, 4 boards, 3 asts in 17 minutes on 4/6 from the field. He also played pretty good defense on Gasol and LMA when they matched up but those guys finished some tough baskets over him. He could stand to get a bigger opportunity while this team is struggling and his energy hasn't waned over a couple of games. The energy might sink again but while it's high, ride that.
Baker: Baker's best moment of the game was drawing a foul on a full court heave. That's the kind of night it was for him, not much impact so an opponent's mistake was his spotlight. 9 minutes for 2 pts, 1 board and 1 assist. He wasn't bad, just wasn't doing anything to stand out either. He was just a cog in the machine. That's fine offensively when he is making standout plays on D but lately his defensive impact has been muted.
Hornacek: Night two of a back to back and he's got a road game in San Antonio. I don't envy Hornacek for the challenge. Though the Knicks got burned in the end, Jeff kept the team competitive through two and a half quarters. That mainly came down to just leaving Frank in as long as he could in the first half, but whatever it worked. I didn't see any major line-up moves or defensive adjustments that were going to stop the sort of execution that the Spurs bring. Eventually our guys just didn't have the gas to keep up. That said, the Spurs are the example of a well coached team. They started the game on three easy baskets out of set pieces. I don't need Hornacek to become Pop, that's like asking KP to become Kobe; but I want the Knicks to be able to execute out of Timeouts and breaks effectively. That's at least the first step in becoming a team that can methodically build to a win without having to ride some hot hand or breakout performance.