Knicks’ New Approach Begins With A Whimper Not A Bang, Get Clobbered By Chicago Bulls
Word is that the Knicks’ have chosen to go in a new direction since they clearly no longer have a shot at the playoffs after their month-long visit with mediocrity (actually mediocrity’s too good a term for them, let’s substitute that with suck-itude). No, that new direction alas, is not “let’s play well” or “at least pretend to play some defense,” but rather “we suck so much, why don’t we at least let the rookies lose for us so we can see how they are.” Thus last night we went out and made the Chicago Bulls look like they still had Jordan & Pippen, losing to them by a mere 33 points.
In fairness, Derrick Rose came out on fire, and I believe shot 9-for-9 for 19 points in the first half before he even missed a shot. Rose, not know for his jumper, had it going last night, which makes him nearly unguardable. Of course the Knicks’ persist in using Jared Jeffries to defend opposing teams’ point guards, which basically means he backs off and dares them to shoot the jumper. If they hit ’em, like Rose did, then we’re outta luck. Actually, even when Jeffries plays up on ’em, then if he gets beaten off the dribble it leaves players like Chris Duhon, Danilo Gallinari & David Lee to help out, none of whom are shot-blockers or particularly good at help defense. It’d seem smarter to have Jeffries on one of the big men so that he can be the one who helps out. Not only is he (sadly) the Knicks’ best shot blocker (out of the players who get minutes), but he also actually leads the league in drawing charges. Meaning if Rose was to beat Duhon off the dribble, Jeffries could position himself so Rose would have to run him over, forcing Rose to commit a foul.
When Rose went out at the end of the first quarter, the Knicks actually battled back and looked like they might make a game of it. That lasted until about midway through the second quarter, and then I believe they lost interest when they saw a shiny object. Or maybe they started to think about what they’d type if they were on Twitter. Perhaps I’m short-changing them. For all I know, they could’ve been contemplating the tragedy of Haiti. Regardless, the focus was definitely on the game.
However, particularly with Nate Robinson out, the two kids we drafted (Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas) got some run. Heck, the game got so out of hand that even Marcus Landry and Jonathan Bender got to jog up and down the court a few times. Oddly, with the game clearly out of hand, Coach Mike D’Antoni still kept starter Chris Duhon in. Maybe it was his way of punishing Duhon for his awful play the last two months. And y’know even putting aside the fact that Du hasn’t hit a shot since the first Gulf War, it seems like all Duhon does offensively is run pick-and-rolls with David Lee. I got nothing against pick-and-rolls, but how about doing some with Gallo, Wilson Chandler or Al Harrington?
Anyway, the good news is that we won’t have to play Chicago again for at least a few more hours. Yup, they’re coming to the Garden tonight.
These last few months may end up being very, very long…