Short Version: God bless the Sixers fans man, years and years of crap but they stick around. This one's tough to judge all that much because the Knicks went up against a squad made up almost entirely of quality bench players, you'd watch Covington, Sampson and Mcconnell and think "he'd be cool as part of a nice bench rotation" and then hear dude is the second leading scorer on the season for his squad. The Knicks still ran into a typical quarter of attrition in the third but Philly was equally bad and the Knicks actually came away with an even bigger lead thanks to NCAA Grant making his first NBA appearance since preseason (the full version not the watered down one I mean). Fish tightened the rotation to 10 in meaningful game time which was nice. Melo shoulda took another night off, but AA REALLY stepped up through 3 and then the 4th quarter was the KP show (and he faced an actual quality defender while he cooked too). This wasn't the prettiest win in spite of a pretty cool box score, but it was what the Knicks probably needed to get some things on track.
Melo: Coming back from strep throat it turns out he came to shoot arounds without being certain he'd even be able to play. He played like a sick dude. He had some good ideas on passes but threw them late or poorly and had bad TO's all night. He got jumpers in money spots, close to the basket and open or barely defended and bricked all night. It just wasn't a pretty one, but I respect the effort this dude put in at least. I won't judge him on a performance where he's sick, coming off a fairly long layoff and still getting back from the knee surgery to boot. 12, 2 and 6 with 4 TO's; get well soon Melo, we'll be needing sooner than later.
AA: My dad was pissed that AA kept looking off KP in the first half but dude was like 5/7 at the time. AA might be the smartest player on the floor for us a lot of the time, he finds pockets and makes cuts that get him where he needs to be. His post play last night was some of the best we've seen all season; he uses upper body fakes to throw defenders off balance and then his long follow through allows him to get the ball up even on delayed releases. He was isolating a lot but he had so many mismatches that there's no reason to be mad at it. He felt like a reliable go-to guy any time things seemed like they MIGHT get out of our control. 13 pts and 8 rebounds, I don't mind the 0 assists like I said; but I do think he needs to draw some fouls. A face up attack will throw defenders even more off balance when he's cooking 'em in the post consistently; it'll really have 'em confused.
KP: Through three quarters he kinda felt left out even though he was balling. Dude was knocking down jumpers like butter and the post was wide open for AA and KS because nobody wanted to stray from 3'6 Latvia. Defensively he's blocking shots and not fouling, not tricked by pump fakes, keeps his feet and goes up straight when he does have to jump. During the third, while everyone struggled, his touches were the most impactful and effective. In the fourth when he was the focal point, he rose to the occasion. Nerlens Noel is a good defender, rangy and smart; but KP went right at him. In one on ones, KP didn't always beat Noel, but he didn't force much and knew to kick out. KP had a Center guarding him and dragged the guy out to three, never settled for jumpers even if he had a bit of space and just attacked off the dribble over and over until that big dunk on the drive manifested. 17,10 and 4 blocks; it's getting almost too common for a damned rookie to do this. An added touch though were the 2 assists he had that were both really pretty passes. The first was a lead pass to Calderon that dropped right over his shoulder and gave him an easy lay-up and the second was out of the post; a bounce pass to a cutter like Seraphin has done recently (I swear the kid's a sponge).
Calderon: This was a solid game, he made some nice passes and showed a concerted effort to get into the paint. We're talking a couple of fast break points, off ball cuts to get lay-ups and a few trips through the paint that collapsed the D. I wasn't happy that he looked off KP kinda often, but I get it because KP was dragging a big man out to the line and the deep post was pretty damned open. That's more, me wanting to see KP get work more than anything (and it happened in the fourth any way). Calderon was solid; 11,5 and 2 with a couple of steals in the passing lanes.
RoLo: Wtf is the scorekeeper doing with that one block stat-line? Nerlens Noel tried to attack him a few times and it felt like RoLo had hands on the ball every time, Noel was on the floor afterward most of the time and no foul was called any time. RoLo did really well on defense and had one of his best post passing games of the year. He was good around the basket (hasn't been recently) and 5 boards in 20 minutes is solid too. One thing that's nice to watch is how he seals off the lane when he's in the deep post and cats get on the wrong side of him. He's makes more space for a drive. At one point he had two men sealed and AA coulda prolly drove for a lay-up but he took a more difficult (still easy though, he was open) jumper...but it was a make so no complaints, just tryna provide an example of the plays that RoLo makes which people tend to miss out on because they're away from the ball and not near the action points.
Jerian Grant: So he just got in the game and caught a pass near the elbow where he did this one dribble step back jumper that was reminiscent of a more vicious version he had off the dribble in college. Next shot he took went in too. Then it was just off to the races for the most part. In the first half, Grant was in the lane any time he wanted and kicking out to open shooters but they literally didn't make one shot (Galloway's off, Lance Thomas gets hot once every 5 games as a jump shooter and Dwill is streaky as they come too). His 12,2 and 2 probably should look more like 12,5 and 2. Even with KS occupying the lane most of the time, Grant just managed to be really effective. I think he'd be even bigger trouble with KOQ in KS' spot but that's pure theory. Anyway, the coast to coast full speed attacks at the rim that drew multiple defenders; the acrobatic finishes on power drives and the willingness to take a jumper off the dribble were all reminiscent of ND Grant. Give him space and the kid is a nightmare; I really don't think this just correlates with his confidence. It correlates with D-Will and Lance Thomas taking PF time instead of KOQ which meant two bigs in the lane at all times for an open floor player.
Seraphin: He played well but seems like a strange fit in the second unit. He straight up bullied cats early and got off to a hot start but kinda faded from there. He was happy to set more high picks for Grant which we hadn't seen all that much of recently and was nice. His post game is really pretty and he still makes some nifty passes too. It just seems like he's effective in short bursts and then ineffective for just as long. Defensively he tries, but he's not great laterally and his timing isn't great either so even with effort he's mostly average but the effort is great to see. 8,6 and 3; if he's our bench C then the 17 minutes he got is about right. He can have his times to showcase and attack, but he's not out there long enough to become a defensive liability or slow the offense to a plodding pace.
D-Will: Started slow but his game picked up more and more the longer he was out there. The faster Grant played the more effective D-Will seemed to get. Dude sees a slasher and cuts weakside every chance, he sees a break and keeps up whenever it's there and he's almost impossible to keep off the line when he plays full speed. The key here is "full speed." Unless his jumper is falling (which takes time and rhythm most nights), he needs the game moving fast to be effective. 8 points, 2 boards and 1 assist in 19 minutes won't blow you away but it was a strong performance. The dunk off Lance's air ball was one of those freakshow plays he was pulling nightly in the preseason.
Lance: Weirdly effective game from the guy. He'd make a really nice play, a really dumb play and follow it with a play that looked dumb but had a positive result. I really liked that he wasn't settling for jumpers and he actually was effective in the post in spite of how ugly that ish looks. He drew FT's and got some close shots off imposing his strength. He really couldn't shine on defense because there wasn't a match-up to worry about. 10 points, 2 boards and an overall effective game in 22 minutes of play. Still more minutes than my liking, but the result was good on this one.
Galloway: 0-5 and maybe 1 of those attempts was a bad look. The rest were either wide open or with enough space to fully set and shoot but still bricked. His defense was pesky and he got back to fighting for boards even with big guys (actually fouled someone fighting for a board) but his jumper has abandoned him. He got to the line late and knocked down a couple of FT's, what I'd like to see is more driving and trying to get to the line early on. Maybe that'll get him going and into a rhythm when he shoots.
Sasha: Why he got off the bench before Early in a blowout, I'll never understand. He literally had a turnover before his feet hit the actual court. Dude managed a travel with 0 seconds played. He took smart shots except that when you shoot that badly there's no such thing as a smart shot except for a lay-up. He even stole a rebound from KOQ when he coulda broke out for a fast paced counter. I doubt Phil or Fish will tell him, but he should prolly just retire or fake an injury and let that roster spot go to somebody with a chance to develop.
KOQ: Got three minutes and grabbed 2 boards...bricked his only look but it wasn't a bad look. Not much to judge, but I just think the places he operates and his comfort in face up situations further from the basket would really compliment Grant, D-Will and Lance Thomas better since all three are better when they can get close to the bucket. That said, KS is playing solid ball and until he stops, deserves to keep his role. I'd rather see KS with 17 and KOQ with 3 than KS with 9 and KOQ with 7.
Early: Got 3 mins in his second game of the day thanks to D-League. He sprints through the system which shows that he at least is confident with where he's going. He makes the same simple and safe passes that Lance does. He immediately got a block when he got out there. He also got another wide open look from the baseline three that just didn't drop. I wanna see him get over 5 minutes for a few games running just to get a taste of what he might contribute.
Fish: His rotation was down to 10 in the main frame of time which I love. Things got off the rails in the third and he kinda failed to fix it but the Sixers atrocity and Grant getting going solved the problem before it really hurt us. I didn't like subbing Sasha in over a young developmental guy like Early but I LOVED featuring KP every time down once the game was in hand (and boy did KP respond well). He's complained about losing pace and adjusted by moving D-Will back into the back-up PF role more often; which in turn has helped the whole unit offensively. He's cut down on minutes where one of Melo, AA or KP is off the floor and I'm hoping it becomes 0 minutes with all three off before long. There are some good signs, but this was against a piss poor team and that third quarter coulda killed us against stronger opposition. Still a solid game from him, not too much to hate on him for when we win by that much and the contributions are so well distributed.
Random: I really like Covington's game. He's a big dude with legit range to get hot and he's quietly effective on defense because of wingspan use. Mcconnell looks legit as a rookie. Sampson, Holmes and Grant are all cool as 8th men on a unit imo. Noel's offensive game is pretty ugly though. Philly really needs to get those two top picks if it's gonna be something; the pieces just don't fit together well and that was without Okafor who makes the pieces fit together in an even stranger nature.