Official Game Thread: Hawks - Knicks Part I

[lethalweapon3]

“Yeah, you're back. But is Jesus Shuttlesworth still available? 'Cause We Still Ain’t Got Game!”

Brand Nubian. The Georgia Highway Patrol. Gregg Popovich. The Beatles. Clyde Carson. Steve Clifford. Selena Gomez. Loose Ends. Frank Vogel. Derek Fisher. All of them want you to Slow Down.

With tonight’s game (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth) the Atlanta Hawks will have played four of the NBA teams in the bottom half of the league for pace, and the fifth, Toronto, ranks 15^th. None are more gruelingly slow than the New York Knicks, who the Hawks play in a home-and-home series, the follow-up game on Monday in Madison Square Garden. Their 91.0 possessions per-48 is the lowest pace of play in the league. Before picking things up a little last night in Brooklyn, the Knicks’ pace would have extrapolated into the lowest by any team in the past six seasons.

It’s kinda nice to see Fisher in a suit and tie, and not flopping all over the hardwood and hitting the occasional backbreaking three. The rookie coach’s competitive goal is strangulation by triangulation. It’s going to take a lot of trial-and-error, and patience, for the Knicks to master the execution of the Triangle Offense, and gurus Fisher and Phil Jackson hope fans and opponents alike will Excuse Their Mess while they sort things out on the court.

Aside from two critical endpoints of the Triangle, Carmelo Anthony (career-lows of 37.9 FG%, 19.5 PPG and 4.0 RPG through six games; career-high 4.3 APG) and the injured Jose Calderon (calf strain), Fisher is relying on a lot of players who will not likely be around for the long haul. Whenever the Knicks wear down the shot clock, if nobody’s open for a decent shot, they’ll just kick the ball to Anthony, clear the heck out, and hope for the best. If the Knicks (109.8 defensive rating; 3^rd worst in NBA, worst in the East) can play just enough defense to keep teams close to the vest, they can get to Melo Time (43.5 FG% for Anthony in the fourth quarter, 8 of his ten FGs unassisted) and find out if it’s enough to eke out a victory.

It’s hard to tell if a return to modest mediocrity is in the offing anytime soon for the Knickerbockers. They seemed surprisingly impressive spoiling jittery Cleveland’s home opener about five or ten assists ago. But three of their four defeats have come by double-digits. The common thread in their two victories (against the Cavs and Hornets) so far was making at least half of their field goal attempts through sound team execution, whereas they’ve shot just 39.6% on 2FGs in their four losses. Former Yellow Jacket Iman Shumpert’s long-range shooting (60.0 3FG%) and scrappy Quincy Acy’s second-chance production (17.5 O-Reb%, 2^nd in NBA) have kept the offense from becoming a disaster of a Kobeian scale.

The Knicks are playing their fourth game in five nights and their third in four nights, technically, on the road, after dropping their inter-borough scrimmage with the Nets last night in Brooklyn. In that game, Fisher sat both Jason Smith (59.5 FG%) and Samuel Dalembert after early foul trouble. Both big men should be well-rested to play big minutes today, but the Knicks are imperiled if these two succumb to fouling issues again. Without their defensive presence in the paint, perhaps the one thing that’ll keep Atlanta from hanging 120 points on the Knicks is the double-overtime drama the Hawks went through right up I-85 less than 24 hours ago.

New York's defense against three-ponint shooters has gotten regressively worse with each game: 29.2 3FG% against the Bulls, 37.5% against Cleveland, 40% against Charlotte, 44.4% versus the Wizards, 47.8% against the Pistons (the Pistons!), and then the Nets went 14-for-24 from deep (58.4%) last night. It could be Bombs Away again tonight if the New York's forwards stay packed around the paint and leave it to Shumpert and Tim Hardaway, Jr. to close out on Hawks perched around the perimeter.
J.R. Smith returns after a one-game suspension for whacking Glen, Jr. in the Rice-a-Roni during the Knicks-Wizards game. Pablo Prigioni remains questionable after missing the Nets game with an ankle sprain. Andrea Bargnani would give the Knicks an offensive spark, but he’ll remain out for both games against Atlanta as he continues to deal with a strained hammy.

With Dalembert and Amar’e Stoudemire, the latter looking occasionally impressive with modest floor time (29.0 D-Reb%, 5^th in NBA), New York will want to exploit Atlanta’s league-low 17.2 offensive rebounding percentage to their advantage. That percentage may extrapolate out to become the lowest in recorded NBA history (i.e., since at least 1974).

While the Hawks’ shooting accuracy (52.8 eFG%, 6^th in NBA) could be used as an excuse, the five teams out-shooting Atlanta from the floor so far have O-Reb percentages ranging from 20.1% (Golden State, 28^th in NBA) to 29.1% (Houston, 7^th in NBA). Through four games and a combined 247 minutes, Pero Antić, Elton Brand, Kyle Korver and Shelvin Mack are still awaiting their first offensive rebound of the season. Korver and DeMarre Carroll must find ways to balance their sniping skills with the need to help the bigs on the interior.

Keeping the Knicks in the ballgame will involve keeping the Hawks offense limited to one-and-done possessions. With players needing rest, Fisher may try and Wear down the Hawks with a surprise pickup from training camp, 6-foot-10 forward Travis Wear, who started out Summer League with Atlanta before impressing the Knicks’ brass.

New York’s Triangle Offense is dependent on players taking up multiple roles in halfcourt motion, and so far Anthony and J.R. Smith (4.2 APG) lead their team in assists. Jeff Teague will need to apply defensive pressure on second-year point guard Shane Larkin (2.7 APG, 1.5 TO/G), who’s filling in admirably for Calderon and Prigioni, and make it difficult for the Knicks to get the ball to the forwards to set up the plays they want. For Atlanta to get their second win on the season, the best point guard on the floor for New York has to be Derek Fisher.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

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[Guest]

Few thoughts...

1. Loved the Spike pic..looks like a whiney lil brother buggin Melo.

2. The Selena Gomez reference was gold. (Bania)

3. Travis Wear is on the Knicks? Wow!

4. Triangulation is a real word? I have a lot to learn.

5. I'd like to dub lw3 as the Bill Belichick of game threads, his attention to detail is absurd. (Ya, I watched "a Football life" as well as "Cleveland Browns 95", I am hoping to become an Ozzie Newsome to lw's hood by reading his game threads.

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!

[lethalweapon3]

Tonight completes the first of 20 back-to-back games for the Hawks, tied with ten other NBA teams for the most in the league schedule. Only the Hornets (22 back-to-backs) and the Bucks and Jazz (21) have more.

 

~lw3

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Kick the Knicks!!!

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

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[Randy]

That's gotta be one of the funniest pictures ever.  BTW - good thing Woody coached the Knicks for a while - they have the ISO Carmelo down.  He's sort of a one man triangle.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Randy

[Guest]

Another reason I want a win badly tonight is because Carmelo decided to stick his big fat nose in the Hawks business this summer by saying the free agents won't be going to Atlanta because of Ferry's comments. Worry about your own issues Melo.

Game time folks!!!!

LETS GO HAWKS!!!!!!

[Afro]

Having Antić camp out on the 3 point line is a huge reason our rebounding sucks.

[kurupt]

Schröder can´t buy assists yet again...

[Bonkers]

Hawks look like a steaming pile vomit

[MrMeltdown]

getting beat up on the boards again

[ViperXX79]

Looks like we'll pull this one out but looked God awful doing it.  The Knicks aren't good and I'm starting to think we're not even middle of the East good anymore.

[benhillboy]

Good comeback, but I'm still waiting for a solid 48 minutes. They can turn the defense on when they want, how about all the damn time. And is Kyle getting better?

[GameTime]

Looks like we'll pull this one out but looked God awful doing it.  The Knicks aren't good and I'm starting to think we're not even middle of the East good anymore.

 

Knicks  beat the "Best team in the east" the Cavs......

[CTann]

Started off very sloppy.

 

Nice adjustments in the 2nd half for a Hawks win. 

Schröder looked pretty good. 

[Guest]

We missed so many layups.

Gave up 61 points in 1st half - 35 points in 2nd half

Defense was great in second half - Thabo and Dennis.

Korver with 3 blocks. He said Bud got into them at half time.

Dennis with a back to back good games. Said coach trusts him and put him in. Confidence is great. No second thoughts, Said last season he thought about it every time he had the ball. 5 steals. Dennis is getting better at finishing at the rim and he can finish with either hand. You can see the improvement in the mechanics in his shot.

Teague started slow - but picked it up late in game. I like the combo with him and Dennis.

Sap did a good job defensively on Melo in 2nd half (even the NY broadcast gave Sap props) - 6 points.

Al has a rough shooting night but hit some big one late.

Still too many missed freethrows.

[bumpyphish1]

Who wants to call Dennis a wasted pick now??

[bumpyphish1]

We won guys.  We covered.  Enjoy it.  Nice win.  We look like know what we are doing out there....

[Guest]

I like the combo with him and Dennis.

I played it in 2k15 yesterday and it worked really well. Didn't think it was realistic for Bud to try it in a real game but it works well in stretches.

Speed kills-Nique

[Atlantaholic]

After the Charlotte game and the way Schröder has been on a roll I thought we should give the Teague - Schröder backcourt a go. I liked the results tonight. I think it's something we can do in stetches to get Dennis a few more minutes of PT.