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Knicks @ Hawks

benhillboy

By benhillboy
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benhillboy Grand Master

benhillboy

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The Knicks are a differet team without Lin in many areas, so no one will know strategy until his status is certain. With him, the ball moves and the offense flows better, without him, the defensive intesity is a little higher. All I know is we're favored by 3 despite both teams coming off two blowouts: just happens the Knicks were the blowers and we were the blowees. I wanna say we'll win, but my better judgement tells me that Woody knows exactly how to expose the weaknesses of everyone he coached, and the Knicks just have more guys who play hard and know their role, as Joe alluded to like he periodically does in the media coverage of this game, throwing a brick at Josh and hiding his face.

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yungsta Enthusiast

yungsta

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Im predicting this is gonna be one of the ugliest game of the season for us. They have been destroying teams since they got woodson as head coach.If you think we got outfanned during the bulls game its gonna be even worst tonight.MELO playing PF is gonna be a match up problem for us. Plus they have tyson chandler who i am predicting is gonna have 15+ rebounds and atleast 5 putbacks dunks. Which is gonna get the crowd going early and they are gonna feel real comfortable.I think this is gonna be one of the those where they get an early big lead and we dont fight back. Yall might laugh at me but I kinda fear the knicks.

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lethalweapon3 Grand Master

lethalweapon3

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The scalpers’ will be in full swing tonight in the vicinity of Philips Arena. No Jeremy Lin, no Amar’e Stoudemire. But there is one name on the bottom half of the marquee that should still intrigue attendees. Of course, I’m talking about Mike Woodson.

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnIdvDWRqkQ

Left largely for The Living Dead by Atlanta fans and media, after a near two-year exile, Woodson is now riding high in Manhattan with an 8-1 mark in place of the dispatched Mike D’Antoni. AJC’s article today (on The Big Chill between Woody and his Brute, Larry Drew) notes that the Knicks’ defensive efficiency has gone from not-really-that-bad to pretty-doggone-good. Yesterday’s article in Newsday expands on that, and notes that Woody is actually learning when to (not) pull the switch:

http://www.newsday.c...odson-1.3632396

Under Woodson, the Knicks have held seven opponents to fewer than 90 points. They're allowing an average of 86.0 in those nine games compared to 96.5 in the first 42. Also, the Knicks are plus-84 in rebounds after being minus-46 before Woodson took over.

Woodson has made some subtle but substantive changes since replacing D'Antoni, including fewer defensive switches on pick-and-rolls. On offense, Woodson is posting Anthony more, giving him the ball inside and letting him make plays.

Relying more on defensive wizard Tyson Chandler to protect the paint and keying their transition offense has helped. But the Knicks like to cut off passing lanes and force ballhandlers to take shots. Only opponents of the Celtics possess a lower assist rate than the Knicks’, and only Grizzlies opponents turn the ball over more often. The Hawks cannot afford to get lackadaisical with the ball, either with ball handling or halfcourt passing.

The Knicks turn the ball over quite a bit themselves (15.9 per game), behind only the Thunder. Even without Lin (3.6 TOs per game) on the floor, look for opportunities to convert in transition when Baron Davis (2.7), Carmelo Anthony (2.6), and Iman Shumpert (2.0) cough up the ball. They taketh away what they giveth as well, being 2nd in the league in steals per game (9.6).

New York takes the 3rd most three-pointers per game (22.6), but they are the 4th worst shooters at that range (31.4%). They haven’t cooled off or improved with these shots under the Woodsonian era (25.4 per game, 74-for-229, 32.3%). It’s Steve Novak or bust, pretty much, as he is the only one making such shots regularly (a gaudy 48.2%). Over 82% of his shots are from this range. And thank goodness for that, since none of the remaining players hit more than a third of ‘em, and only one of the top seven shooters after Novak makes more than 30% (Bill Walker, go figure).

They’re far more effective at the rim (5th in shots per game, shooting 64%) and this is where they’ll miss Amar’e’s presence. Tyson Chandler (75 FG%, 6th most dunks in the NBA) will get a lot of touches. In addition to Melo posting up more, keep an eye out for Landry Fields and Walker attacking the hoop as well. Ivan Johnson may be able to break the Hawks’ record for charges absorbed tonight if he gets enough minutes out there.

While the Hawks seem to be the team struggling players look to in order to shake out of slumps (see Deng, Luol), thankfully the Magic and Bucks may have already shaken Iman Shumpert out of his. He shot 14-for-29 in those past two games, and the combined number of threes (7, out of 16 shots) is equivalent to his entire production from that range in February (7-for-31 in February; 4-for-16 in March before his last two games). His production will be critical to pick up the slack in scoring, assists, and rebounding in Lin’s, Stoudemire’s, and Jared Jeffries' absence.

To help stop the Woodsanity, small forwards need to give Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia help on the offensive glass. The one Woodsonian Knick loss so far (against Toronto) is the only game where New York was edged in the area of offensive rebounds (largely thanks to Raptors small forward Gary Forbes, with four).

Also worth watching -- will Jonesboro's Toney Douglas escape the doghouse (originally created by D'Antoni) tonight? Or will we see even more of our old friend Mike Bibby facing off with Jeff Teague and Kirk Hinrich?

Go Hawks!

~lw3

Edited by lethalweapon3
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Gray Mule Grand Master

Gray Mule

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Jeff Teague can't play the point guard. He's only good for bench filler.Woody didn't say that, but he sure acted as if he had. JT spent mostof his time under Woody either on the bench or, even worse, in the doghouse.Was Woody correct or can our JT play a little bit of the PG for the Hawks?Perhaps, tonight we find out.GO HAWKS!!

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benhillboy Grand Master

benhillboy

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I didn't feel good about this game, glad I was wrong. Joe was a little more aggressive than usual around the paint, shooting 6-7 from the line and 50% from the field with 6 rebounds and 3 assists: solid nights work. Josh was beasting as usual sans the Carmelo schooling, and Willie is a consummate pro. His .457 shooting and .422 from three is much appreciated. Killed the Knicks on the boards, transition points, and bench points. An efficient 13 and 7 with 2 blocks and steals from Marvin is almost unbelievable. And is Teague the best shot-blocking point or what? They were banged up pretty good, but so are we and everybody else. Let's Go.

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Diesel Grand Master

Diesel

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0-5 from 3-pt line?

I was referring to the post play of Josh.

His lefty dunk from the low post... brought a tear to my eye!!!

Point is, hopefully he sees how successful we are when he plays inside and he sees how unsuccessful his outside game is.

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Sothron Grand Master

Sothron

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Im referring to how everyone on this board knew that and no one was hating on joe. You create the hate when bring up your stupid joe hater club bs. Give it a rest. No one hates joe, even the ones who dont think he is the best player on the team.

lol ok there troll account. There are several people on this site who can't stand Joe and have zero qualms about telling the rest of us how much they don't like him.
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High5 Collaborator

High5

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Im referring to how everyone on this board knew that and no one was hating on joe. You create the hate when bring up your stupid joe hater club bs. Give it a rest. No one hates joe, even the ones who dont think he is the best player on the team.

He's a troll, you just got to ignore him.
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