The New York Knicks are in the rare position of both being at the bottom of the standings and not being hurt in any way by winning basketball games. Utah owns their first-round pick this summer, so winning and losing is really meaningless to the Knicks at this point. It must be liberating. Preview and game thread after the jump.
Honestly, this must be a liberating season for D'Antoni. There's zero pressure on him to win games. He doesn't really have to worry about player development either. Sick of a player's act? Bench him for a month or so, like he did with Nate Robinson, and more recently with Chris Duhon. He's only got three players who figure to see any minutes next season: Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler and Toney Douglas. Everyone else on that roster is basically a dead man walking, and D'Antoni can treat them as such. The Knicks are putrid, yet still second in the league in attendance and they've seen a huge uptick in season ticket sales. When they lose, no one cares. When they win, everyone is shocked and amazed by D'Antoni's genius. Seriously, coaching the Knicks in 2009-2010 is probably the best coaching job in all of sports.
As for their play, well, they have the exact same record as the Sixers, who most definitely have something to lose by winning, gain by losing. The Knicks, who have done everything in their power to get rid of contracts (and talent) in an effort to position themselves as free agent players this summer, have the same record as the Sixers. The same Philadelphia 76ers who have, until very recently, actually been trying to win games. It sickens me.
Anyway, reasons to watch (beyond the critical lottery standings):
- Jodie, Jodie, Jodie. Meeks saw first quarter minutes last night. I'm thinking we may see even more of him tonight. Maybe he'll actually do something when he's on the floor.
- Kapono? 25 minutes last night, led the team in scoring, contributed pretty much nothing but scoring. More of the same?
- Three-point defense? The Knicks will shoot enough threes to make you cry. If they're hitting, we're in trouble.
- No defense needed. This game will probably not be for the faint of heart, but I am expecting some monstrous dunks. The Knicks don't blow assignments so much as completely ignore them. Run a little bit of offense, you can get to the rim.
This is your game thread. I don't need to impress upon you any further how useful a win would be for the Sixers. Join me if you can stomach it.
UPDATE: Lou Williams is out with a back strain. Starting lineup is Jrue, Iguodala, Thad, Brand, Sam. So add this lineup to your reasons to watch. Our odds of losing just decreased, I believe.
Lou Williams is out with back spasms tonight, so Thaddeus Young will start at the 3 and Iguodala will move to the 2.
I asked Iguodala walking out of the locker room about starting at the 2. "I was always at the 2," he replied, despite that not seeming to be the case.
Cute. Iguodala's sort of like one of those centers who wish they'd been born small forwards.
Jordan was asked before the game if he would've expected the Sixers to be 23-43 at this point of the season. "I'm not in the prediction game," he said. "I'm a day-to-day guy. I'm trying to be here six months from now. That's what I'm trying to do."
can anyone locate the article quoting Eddie Jordan in response to Brandon Roy. the events went something like this... .
Roy was asked what he thought about playing the sixers that night, and said something along the lines of "these guys are good players. they are a lot better than their record shows". Eddie Jordan was asked about Roy's comments and his response was, "that's his opionion". i really enjoy this quote and i wish i could read the entire story and save it. i dont think he realized it but the guy backhanded his own players to defend his lousy job.
Underway, and I completely forgot that Brand could easily score 40 against this sad sack team.
Brand on Danilo, wow, that's a bad matchup on the other end.
4 quick ones for EB, all three shots.
Jrue threads the needle to Brand for his third FG.
Lee looks like he wants to tank, trying to drive from halfcourt. What was he doing, Sam could have blocked that with his elbow.
Jrue and EB on the P&R, looked good, shot in and out, though.
Gallinari drove right by Brand and Iguodala on the help on the other end.
Fast Eddie? was that really his nickname? i prefer the Thief of Baghdad
Yep, fast eddie. I can think of about 50 we've come up with this season that fit better. Pigfucker being the best.
That was really bad transition D off of that miss by Thad. They got beat and were forced to scramble which left T-Mac wide open.
Does Dalembert get the assist for McGrady's second three? He should.
10-0 run for NYK. How do you get shutout for any extended period of time by this lineup?
Jrue with a missed three :(
Aaannddd that's it for you Jrue.
Good shot by Jrue, EB and Sammy will be able to clean up a lot of misses against this front line.
A turnover and a missed three gets Jrue the quick hook.
Rediculous, The turn was half Thad's fault with a BS underhand pass and the three was a good look.
Nice look by AI9.
Funky lineup here: JH, WG, JK, AI, SD.
Alright got Jrue back in again with Kapono. Can't go zone against Jrue, Willie and Kapono :)
Green has the court vision of a cyclops.
There's a three off the dribble for Jrue.
AI9 blew the bunny. Come on.
Douglas looks pesky on defense. Anyone know if the Knicks seriously think he can man the point going forward for them, or if he's just the last warm body they have?
Damn that was a tough shot that Jrue beat the buzzer with. You see what I mean though, it was only off one dribble. That shot wasn't a good example because it was tough, but it's basically off one dribble.
This lineup has no prayer on defense.
It was sort of a mini p&r w/ Iguodala, though. Really tough shot.
I wanna see more of what he does manning the point, in the middle of a drive, and then he decides to pull it. He might be the only guy on the team I care about. Degree of difficulty on the last one was a 9.5 though.
Is Iguodala on Harrington now? Nope, Sammy, with no prayer of keeping up with him off the dribble.
Sammy padding his o-board numbers.
Not a great pass that Sammy had to handle, but nice read by AI9 there.
Attaboy Willie.
Zumoff was wrong about Bill Walker if anyone's listening to the Philly broadcast, he played with Mayo in Cincinnati, not WV.
I've got Clyde the Glide.
Down by one, after one. Sixers only trailing because of horrible shooting from the line.
26-25, NYK.
First time in a while the Sixers haven't give up 30+ in the first quarter, though. If memory serves.
Uh oh, JK's heating up.
Kapono with the three. Could you imagine if he actually helped to win a game at this point?
There you go. Nice jumper off the dribble for Jrue.
And another.
Oh baby, Jrue heating up off the dribble!
Wow, nice drive and teardrop by Jrue. He's sort of taking over here.
What a run by Jrue, if Kapono had one ounce of athleticsm, that last pass would have been a dunk as well.
I think there's a better chance that I dunk in an NBA game than Kapono does.
Suffocating defense. Heh.
Jesus, Jason Smith is grabbing defensive boards. Willie can't miss. Up by 8 now.
Man, the Knicks are terrible. I understand Jrue beating you, but Willie and Kapono? That's awful.
Gallo had all day to set that shot up and had a foot on the line. Scrub.
At least that was a 2 for Jrue...
AI9 0 for 6 now. His 3pt% is ridiculously low at this point. Below 30%.
He wasn't even close on the last one, barely grazed the rim.
AI9 gets on the board with a nice drive, lefty finish & 1.
Jrue has 6 boards, I believe.
Gotta get his dimes up, outside chance at a triple double.
Willie is on fire?
Go figure, huh? Nice D by Thad.
Good work Thad, soft foul leads to an And One.
See, Iguodala really should've driven on Gallo there. That's a huge fucking mismatch and he settled for the 20-footer. Hate that.
Ah, Jrue already knows he has 10 points, he was looking to give that one up.
lol, looks like eddie tossed last nights game so that he could focus on winning tonight. Explains kapono's minutes heh.
lol, nvm, misread the box score, thought kapono had 0 minutes, not 10.
Sixes up by 11 at the half. Monumental collapse upcoming, or just screwing themselves out of a high draft pick?
55-44, PHI.
They actually have 10 assists on their 20 FGs, that's more than I thought. A lot of one on one tonight, and some great shooting. And no, this is not the PO.
21 FGs actually. EB only with 6 minutes too.
Clyde said he had something on his knee. Don't know if it was an injury or just something he normal puts on when he's rotting on the pine.
Portland star Brandon Roy, remembering losing both games last season to the Sixers, said he was taken aback by the Sixers' poor start.
"They have good players," said Roy, who began the day averaging 22.8 points a game. "I was surprised by their record. I don't even look at them, like, I don't approach this game looking at their record, I approach it as, 'Look, this team is good and they have talented players.' "
At yesterday's shootaround, Sixers coach Eddie Jordan dismissed Roy's comment, which seemed somewhat innocuous.
"That's his opinion," said Jordan when asked if he felt his team had more talent than its record indicated.
Jordan said nothing more.
Class act, that EFJ.
Willie was +18 in the first half :)
NY broadcast is taking a close look at Jrue's first half after the break.
I fucking hate Willie Green. Of course he can't miss tonight. ugh...
EB isn't hurt. He's back in there.
5-0 run to start the third.
Sammy doing some hard work on the offensive glass to end that.
Oh man, Thad went back to the locker room again.
Sweet pass by Kapono.
There's the Kapono we all know. Passed up 3 open threes there.
Who looks older, McGrady or Brand?
I'd say Brand. McGrady wasn't moving that fast when he had the ability.
brand
JK=not kidding............LMFAO!!!!!!!
Air ball Gallo.
Why dribble there EB?
Good question. Jrue got him the ball right in front of the hoop on that cut. Go right up with it.
He may have been shocked that the pass was timely.
Man, Sixers aren't even putting up a fight on the defensive end right now.
Nice find by Jrue.
Gotta love the Lee, Gallinari, Kapono 2 on 1. An embarrassment of athleticism.
Great find by Jrue to Kapono.
There's 150 guys in the army from Kentucky. A couple of guys have "We want Meeks" signs.
Nice. EFJ probably won't play him, even though they make up about 10% of the crowd :)
Jrue pushed that one. Foot on the line?
ESPN has it as a three. Still 2-4 tonight.
One-point game, folks.
One-point game, the other way. Nice work, Willie.
I kind of underrate how bad of a ball-handler Willie is at times. He's got no handle whatsoever.
No handle, no court vision. Playing the point. I love it.
Man, the spin on AI9's jumper is ugly right now.
Better get Iguodala out of there if you want this loss, EFJ.
Take a careful look at yahoo's NBA front page right now, you'll notice something funny.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba
Hmmn, lumping the Sixers in w/ the Pacers instead of mentioning either NJ or MIN as horrible franchises. Carney saying the Sixers aren't tanking, or in the fine print, Gasol getting his braces removed.
Too many things to choose from.
I just liked that under the caption for the tanking article, there's our score. Like the essence of tanking is a Knicks/Sixers game.
Nothing but long jumpers in the half court.
Ouch, a 29-14 quarter there. That's tanking for you right there.
Down by 4 heading into the fourth. Lost the third by 15 points. EFJ, tankmaster general.
Gotta like Kapono matching up on Harrington...
Kapono lets guys blow by him with good spirit and effort though
What about the harmony?
Haha of course . I love how Joran said pregame that he didn't want the Sixers to play the Knicks game, yet they've taken 20 3's and hit 6
Hey, the first drive in approximately 30 shots, goes in! Who would have thought?
Carney may be too competitive to keep in this game for too long.
Good call. Got yanked for Thad.
Wow, the refs apparently got the tanking memo. He was moving.
AI9 is 4-17, this is brutal to watch.
EFJ wants him to shoot more, to prove he's good.
May as well get Meeks some burn, no?
Willie is slowly but surely erasing that +18 from the first half.
Oh man, Jrue with the sick block. In and out three on the other end.
Damn I thought that Jrue three was going down.
Gallo tried to take Jrue down on the blocks. Heh. That's a mismatch, but not in the way you'd think, Clyde.
Jrue has the best basketball IQ on the team by far. Good that he's young and already has a good head on his shoulders, bad because he shouldn't have that title as a rookie.
Mini-run here for the Sixers. Iguodala can cut it to four at the line.
Horrible D by Jrue on that drive.
I can't believe I'm rooting for a NY team right now...whatever they haven't been good since i was in the 5th grade and CHarlie Ward was their PG
Watching them lose to the Bulls and then in the finals when Jordan was retired, highlights of that basketball era for me.
I started getting really into bball around the time the Knicks upset Miami in the first round. Still remember Van Gundy hanging onto Alonzo Mourning like a small child in the middle of that brawl
That was awesome. I used to hate what JVG did to the Sixers, that's mainly why I want him as a coach.
He'd be a great fit here. Might actually gain the respect of the players. I think the city would embrace him too, always fall in love with coaches not afraid to speak their mind. We both know the Sixers are too cheap to actually hire JVG though
Willie's line- 17, 2, 1, 2 TO's. Pretty complete effort by his standards.
Someone tell Pinckney that Hassan Whiteside won't be in the tournament. Marshall isn't good.
This game is up for grabs if AI9 and Jrue are in there.
Iguodala has 16 fucking rebounds. Holy shit.
AI9 can't shoot for shit tonight, but he's playing his ass off. 16 boards.
ESPN had that FT down as a miss about 4 minutes ago in the play by play. Guess they don't have to change it.
Good lord, what a finish by Jrue. He loves that left hand.
Clear path? Nice pass, by the way, Thad.
Iguodala must be in on the tank. I don't have a clue why he would keep shooting threes.
Iggy sure loves that 3 ball.
That's ball game, folks.
I think the killer was that TO by Thad. Iggy got the O Board and had Jrue for an open three. Instead he held it and passed to Thad. Oh well, a loss is a loss.
Yup. Thad's passing was pitiful tonight. He had that underhand bullshit to Jrue that wound up in a turnover. He threw a crosscourt dribbler at one point that should've been picked off, then that weak shit.
Only question, will it be their 12th loss by 10+ points since the All Star Break?
Well done job guys. You ain't coming back now from ten down w/ 1:27 left. As much as I despised watching that crappy effort and putrid shooting in the third, you guys didn't fail me tonight. Lay another egg vs the Nets and you'll really make me happy. But happy in a fucked up kind of way.
Wooooo, that's an L folks.
jrue with the right hand. Is Meeks gonna get some burn here? Ouch, its clear that Eddie Jordan hates America
Jrue fucked his 3pt% in garbage time, again. Hope he does't miss another here.
Way to pay attention, Smith. That better not be Jrue's turnover.
And Iguodala had to finish it off in style. Hoisting up a last ditch three that went.....................oh, you all know...........BOINK! right off the backboards. heh
big loss !!! ! unexpected but appreciated. these guys really stink
Damnit, they did give Jrue the turnover. that's horse shit.
Martelli's on Post Game Live. He goes, "Can we change Post Game Live to Post Game Dead?"
What's with all the negtivity? You guys are acting as though they didn't just beat the fifth seeded Toronto Raptors last week...how quickly you all forget...
We just keep brushing that aside.
Alright, a much-needed loss. The Knicks are officially a game ahead of the Sixers in the standings now. For the moment, the Sixers are tied for the 6th worst record in the league with Sacto.
This was a huge loss and if we can pull off another loss to the nets on wednesday then I am feeling another loss to the knicks on friday and then we could start making some real progress on that ping pong ball list.
Iguodala- 20 % threes in last 10, 13 % threes in last 5.
Loved the observation by Martelli where, after the Knicks took the lead in the 3rd quarter, what did the Sixers do with the next two possessions?
Back-to-back threes.
Nice job, guys. We've GOT to get to the 5-spot.
“The biggest issue right now is we look terrible,” Dalembert said. “As a team and for yourself, you have to have some pride. I’m trying to help us win some games so we can get out of this mess.”
Only one way out of this mess... draft a future star. This current roster won't go anywhere unless you add a top player to take the load off of everyone else.
Let Iguodala do what he does best. because being a high volume scorer ain't it.
Iguodala + Jrue grabbed 25 rebounds.
Thad + Brand combined for 5 in 50 minutes.
Iguodala was 0-for-7 from 3-point land, making him 1-for-21 beyond the arc over the past five games and 29 percent (76-for-262) on the season.
Jordan: "If you turn down an open 3-pointer, it’s just a bad play. If you get 17 rebounds, any mortal human being’s legs will go on you."
Iguodala: "I had some open looks and they just weren’t going down. A couple of them felt really good, but didn't go down."
Why is it that the players' comments make more sense than the coach's comments? The players knew their shot selection was poor, but Jordan didn't. We can make it to 5 with the "Tank Commander" at the controls!
My thoughts from the game:
Most of the players mailed it in. It was hard to see over the TV because its so easy to get distracted of the terrible basketball, but once your there it's impossible not to see.
Rodney Carney looked so frustrated for almost the entire game (except for his brief time on the court subbing in after Thad had to leave). I wonder if EFJ let's the player's he's going to arbitrarily DNP know his plans before hand.
While Iguodala et al. may be playing "hard" there clearly not focused. The number of offensive possessions that didn't have a single pass involved was staggering. When combined with the number of times players would just pound the ball with no offensive movement its shocking that they broke 70 pts.
The defense scheme this team uses seems to be focused on creating mismatches for the other team to exploit. It seemed like every possession Willie Green ended up trying to guard David Lee. I remember at least once after a bad defense play Jrue seemed to bark at EFJ. At least the players seem to recognize that the scheme in place isn't working.
It seemed like the only people in the stands who actually wanted to be there were Knicks fans. Apparently all the people who voted T-Mac into the all-star game were in attendance. The group of people who seemed to have the best time were the two sections filled by the Army. Although to paraphrase my brother: They fought for our country and we repay them by sending them to the Sixers Knicks game?
Yup. That's the basic premise. EFG rules.
Eddie Fucking Gordan?
Heh. Don't know where the G came from.
Elton Brand: 7 points, 3 rebounds, 5 years, 80 million.