Best game of the season so far with the Knicks rolling on both ends. The collective of young C's did well enough to hold their own against Howard who has been one of the best Centers in the league so far. The defensive play really rode great efforts from D-Rose and Melo while Lee and KP did better jobs of chasing players off the three point line and forcing dribble pull up jumpers or drives from their men. Melo sparked the team early, KP was a steady force and the staggered starting and second unit line-ups worked out really well. Gotta give the Knicks credit for holding down home court with real pride, but they have to bring that energy on the road with them if they want to be taken seriously as a team. Can't have trash effort once every 4 games and expect anyone to respect you.
Rose: Wasn't efficient shooting, but did a good job of breaking down the D, pushing the pace and making smart passes. He played a very controlled game and even his misses were mostly solid to good looks. 7 assists is the one to watch, he really helped the team ball movement.
Lee: After a two game slump, Lee really came out with a determined effort. He made some timely jumpers (especially in the third) and was really great moving the ball. 14, 5 and 5...2 of 3 from three and while Korver's statline looks pretty; Lee chased him off the three point line repeatedly and trusted the rotations which were air tight much of the game.
Melo: 12 for 22 and the continuing trend of midrange dominance finally coupled itself with efficient three point shooting. The difference between hitting 30+ instead of 22-25 points as well as +50% instead of 40-45% was 4-8 from three. Melo's effort on defense and the boards was back after taking a night off too. He really D'ed up with energy and got the Garden on it's feet with a rebounding effort that ended on some Donkey Kong smash ish (next time give him the foul ref, Timmy didn't deserve that concussion).
KP: Struggled from range, still shot over 50% from the field for 19 points and grabbed 11 boards. He didn't log a block, but like the others; his defense on Milsap was impressive (Paul Milsap is a monster and gonna get his but you gotta make him work). It felt like a lot times when Milsap would make something happen, KP would come down and respond with his own play.
Kylo: 8 and 8 on 4 of 5 shooting in 17 minutes. He came out and played inspired ball whenever he had an opportunity. It was nice to see that opening the game, the Hawks gave him space and he knocked down a midrange jumper. Dude said, "you're not getting away with that pack the paint ish" from jump street.
BJ: 5 points, 3 assists, 4 boards and 3 steals...did a bit of everything. It was the Rose show, so when they shared the floor, BJ really acted as a secondary ball handler and let Rose do work. His defense seems like it'll never be any good, but the harassing and poking the ball stuff is actually nice to have from a guard off the bench plus sparked some nice runs for the Knicks.
Holiday: Shot 2 of 8 from the field but it somehow didn't make him look bad because he was playing strong defense, not forcing the shot attempts he took and played fairly smart ball. Not a particularly good game for him, but he had a positive impact even in a weaker performance than his recent output.
Kuz: The man was great for ball movement when he got out there. He had 6 minutes to produce a board and a couple of assists, but was a positive presence in that bit of time and I wouldn't have minded seeing a bit of real second half burn.
Willy: Put up 7 and 8 on 3 of 4 from the field and outside of poor free throw shooting, it's hard to find anything to complain about from him. The stand out sequences were obvious, Dwight tried to bully the kid in the post and got shut down on consecutive possessions then lashed out when Willy also beat him for an offensive board. The kid is big, strong and a better defender than advertised (which is to say he's been solid to really good instead of being somewhere from bad to average). KOQ has been playing good ball, but this rookie has been so good that he's taken the majority of freely available minutes and run with 'em.
Plumlee: There was an early play for him where he grabbed a defensive board, kicked it out for a break and tucked his head to go into a full sprint just so he could keep up with the play and be involved. You have to LOVE that sort of effort. That said, for the most part he spent his 5 mins out there being overwhelmed by a tough match up in Dwight Howard. This was a welcome to the league moment and I give him props for not backing down from the challenge, but not much else to report on him.
Jeff: No Noah or Lance made it easy to tighten up the rotation a bit. Jeff rode hot hands while they were hot; kept Melo and KP out there in staggered line-ups for much of the game; and still managed the game well enough to have KP at 31 mins and Rose at 30 mins without the team losing ground during their breaks. At one point a 15 point lead dropped to 11 and he called a quick TO plus redirected the offense to refocus on the alpha scorers. This was a really well coached game all around.
Random: My favorite part of the night was Wally trying to do a Clyde impression and failing miserably. On a replay of a big man working in the middle he dropped a "that was nasty and n...nice." Good effort Wally; and shout out to the optimism of calling games without the long term trauma that you can sense sometimes from Walt. Walt will be on some "here we go again" but in a rhyme and it's hilarious but relatable. Wally on the other hand has that wide eyed "don't worry, teams come out flat 5 times a season and we've already got three of those out of the way" speech going for Breen's every mention of the Wizards debacle.
Second aside, the reports about the players meeting and speaking with coaches and Phil were nice. Hearing that Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah did most of the talking is one of those "that's why we paid" bits that warrants mentioning as the torches and pick forks build toward Noah. I don't like his contract, but if he can establish a leadership presence it won't be a complete loss.
