The New York Knicks seemed at least a second late on most of their rotations and closeouts against the Atlanta Hawks yesterday afternoon. This was a major reason why the Knicks ended up losing the game by nine points. I think Jamal Crawford’s dagger that extended the Hawks’ lead to 15 points with about 4:30 left does a good job of showing what the Knicks did wrong the entire game:
Here, the Knicks were double teaming Joe Johnson as he tried to make a move in the post. Initially, this is a very good double team. The Knicks’ do a good job of trapping Johnson, not allowing him to turn an face the basket. The rest of the Knicks do a good job of zoning off the rest of the court, giving up the skip pass to Mo Evans. This is the correct pass to give up, because if Joe Johnson makes the cross-court pass, it allows the Knicks to recover easily.
After a Carmelo Anthony meltdown that allowed the Knicks to get back in their game against Denver, the New York Knicks found themselves down two points with 1:45 seconds left on the clock. A late show from Danilo Gallinari on the Nuggets’ pick and roll lead to a big dunk that put the game out of reach:
Nene is going to come over and set a screen for Chauncey Billups. As Billups comes off the screen, Amar’e Stoudemire shows hard, not wanting to give Billups an open look (he just made a jumper to break the 111-all tie). When the court is spread like this (the Nuggets did a great job doing this) and when the defense shows hard on the screen, the most important defender is the man on the opposite block, in this case Danilo Gallinari.
Even though the Bulls allowed the Knicks to shoot 66.7% (16-24) from the three point line (more on this in Court Vision later), you saw some good things from Chicago on the defensive end, especially when it came to the Bulls’ defense on Amar’e Stoudemire.
Coach Tom Thibodeau’s strategy was actually very interesting as he took his best low post defender (Joakim Noah), and actually took him off of Amar’e. For a large portion of the game Stoudemire was either being covered by Taj Gibson or Brian Scalabrine. The reason why Thibodeau did this is that he wanted to bring Noah from the weakside and having him help strong and challenge Amar’e shot attempts. Basically, Thibodeau felt that he would rather have Ronny Turiaf or Timofey Mozgov (who Noah got switched onto) beat him instead of Amar’e. Even though it sounded like this wouldn’t it work, it was actually really successful as Stoudemire scored just 14 points on 21 shots with 8 turnovers. The defense worked with Gibson or Scalabrine playing Amar’e straight up, and then Noah came and showed help anytime Amar’e was in position to attack the basket.
In the above clip, Amar’e sets first screen, and as that happens, Joakim Noah sinks into the paint to prevent any roll to the basket. Now, Amar’e was never really a threat in this clip (they were running a set that had him setting back to back screens), but this shows you the general concept of the defense.
With the help of Jordan Farmar scored 21 points for the Nets, and made a fantastic play off of a missed free throw to even give the Nets’ a chance (more on this play later today), but when they needed to get a stop, it was Farmar making the key mistake that resulted in a Toney Douglas three pointer.
As the pick and roll gets started, Jordan Farmar walks towards the middle of the court to get himself in help position.
Can He Bounce Back? Is a new series here at NBAPlaybook, and in it we will be looking at players that had a rough 2010 and determine whether or not it was a fluke or a start of a trend.
After a strong 2007-2008 season with the Wizards (shooting 39.8% from the three point line), Roger Mason established himself as one of the best three point shooters in the NBA for the San Antonio Spurs in the 2008-2009 season. Mason was the guy who the Spurs looked to in any situation when they needed a three pointer. In nearly 400 attempts (394 to be exact) Mason knocked down 166 for a shooting percentage of 42.1%. Mason, who started 71 of 82 games also was able to reach career highs in assists and rebounds as well.
2009-2010 was a completely different story however. Mason saw his number of minutes decrease significantly as the Spurs started to give his playing time to George Hill. After playing over 30 minutes per game in 2009 (30.4), Mason didn’t even reach 20 minutes per game in 2010 (19.2). Despite the steep decline in minutes, Mason didn’t really see his usage take a hit, as it dropped from 18.91 to 17.21. That means the Spurs were still using him in a similar manner as they did two years ago and it showed when you see he got up 264 threes while only playing under 20 minutes a game. The problem? He only made 88 of them for a shooting percentage 33.3%.
By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas. Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.
Timofey Mozgov is a 24 year old center signed as a international free agent by the New York Knicks for $10 million over the course of three years. Mozgov is a big boy at 7’1″ and 270 pounds, but he isn’t a stiff. Mozgov has bounce to his step, and he is pretty mobile for his size. Mozgov has spent the last four years playing for the Russian club Khimki Moscow Region.
Note: Mozgov wears #25 for his team, Khimki. You will recognize him in the clips by his high socks.
Strengths
He Can Run The Floor
Some Knicks fans are probably wondering why the Knicks signed a 270 pound big man to play in their run and gun style offense. Despite his size, Mozgov doesn’t lumber up and down the court:
Mozgov doesn’t get the ball on this fast break, but you can see he can keep up with his point guard in transition. He isn’t going to run by anybody on the break, but he can fill the lane in transition, making himself available to his PG in the middle of the paint on fast breaks.
After a ton of blowouts during the early portion of the Las Vegas Summer League, we are now getting our close games. In addition to the Wizards-Hornets game and the Cavs-Bulls game last night, we saw an overtime between the Wizards and the Knicks today. With just under ten seconds left, Tony Douglas was at the free throw line looking to expand the Knicks’ one point lead. Douglas ended up missed both of him, but he was still able to come away the hero:
Instead of pouting after the miss, Tony Douglas got back on defense and got himself in position to take the offensive foul. Was it a bit of a flop here? Sure, but credit to Douglas for reading Cartier Martin’s move and jumping into position to take the charge. Also, once Martin’s arm swings out when the contact is made, it’s foul no matter what.
Now, Sam Cassell was livid after the play, and it wasn’t with the officiating. According to the announcers calling the game, Cassell was giving it to Lester Hudson for not getting the ball and bringing it up. I get the logic, Martin isn’t a point guard while Hudson is. Hudson probably would have been more comfortable bringing the ball up late (Martin looked a little tentative then picked up the offensive foul). However, the way the situation transpired, Martin was the only option for the Wizards.
Sure, Hudson could have came down and me the ball, but he still would have been double teamed. Good work by the Knicks here, they identified the primary ball handler and made sure they didn’t let him catch the basketball. This is what allowed for Tony Douglas to take the offensive foul.
Against the Rockets (and some former Knicks), the Knicks ran out to a pretty big lead, but the Rockets were able to climb back in it. Part of it was because the Rockets are a pretty good team, but the Knicks helped out big time. The Knicks made a couple of mental errors that lead to easy baskets for the Rockets:
Poor Outlet Passing
On two separate occasions, the Knicks turned the ball over in the backcourt. The first comes after a Rockets three pointer:
Now, both J.R. Giddens and Chris Duhon are at fault here:
This is because Trevor Ariza is hanging around and it should have been noticed by either guy (or at least 1). This is something that a lot of teams do to get the ball out of the PGs hands, but it rarely turns into a steal. However, Giddens grabs the ball out of the net and just tosses to where Duhon is without looking. For his part, Duhon floats away from the basketball as it comes to him instead of meeting the ball and ensuring the catch. The Rockets went from being down 14 to being down 9 after this. This was a huge 5 point swing in this game as the Knicks went from pulling away to trying to hang on to the lead.
The title of this post isn’t a joke, as one would assume. The Knicks were up by 1 with the ball and about 20 seconds left, but they turned it over. The Hawks were now breaking down the court with the chance for a win. How did the Knicks stop them? Let’s look:
As Crawford brings it upcourt he uses a smooth behind the back move to put Toney Douglas on his hip, Crawford gets himself into the lane. Al Harrington (Al Horford’s man) steps up to greet him in the paint. Also arrowed is Wilson Chandler, the man who ends up making the block to save the game.
Ever since the return of Kevin Martin, the Kings record has taken a bit of a nose-dive. This has lead to many people to say that Evans & Martin will not be able to work together. I think that is crazy. You put a great shooter (Kevin Martin) with a guy who can get to the hoop (Tyreke Evans), and it should work. In the closing moments of the 4th quarter and the start of overtime, you started to see how these two playing together can work.
Tyreke Evans Dominates Late In The 4th
The biggest effect Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin being on the court at the same time has on opponents is on the defensive end. Defenses have to figure out how to cover both Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans. The Knicks really struggled with it last night. This is what allowed Evans to go off late in the game:
One big factor in Pacer demise against a 3-man Heat team? Tyler Hansbrough. Three terrible first half shots & two huge second half travels 15 hours ago
James and Battier came over to remind Wade that Battier wide open from the corner is a better option than Anthony finish at the rim. 15 hours ago
