Category: General NBA insight

How long has it been since a Knick team won their home opener? A little over six years, a time that is so long that Jeff Van Gundy was coaching and Michael Jordan was playing.

It’s so long that none of the central figures in the 97-93 win were remotely close to the scene on October 30, 2001.

For example, Jamal Crawford led the Knicks with 24 points. The last time the Knicks won their home opener, he was on the injured list, which has since been replaced by the inactive list.

Zach Randolph, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds in his home debut, including a key defensive rebound down the stretch, made his NBA debut for Portland and played one minute in a loss to the Lakers.

Eddy Curry had not even made his debut, that came a night later in 12 minutes off the bench for the Bulls where two of his teammates were Charles Oakley and Greg Anthony.

Stephon Marbury was starting over this time with the Phoenix Suns and scored 14 points in a 98-96 win over the Nuggets.

Isiah Thomas was coaching across the river for the Pacers in New Jersey. His team blew an 11-point deficit and wilted in the fourth quarter of a 103-97 loss.

You get the idea.

The quality of play may not have been the greatest but there was enough things to like if you happen to root for the Knicks.

Jamal Crawford – 24 points, 49 in his first two games. The totals in the previous three seasons were 33, 15 and 26. Might this be a sign of a breakout? One thing that is certain is he has bulked up and can absorb that contact a little better.

Fourth quarter – 20 points allowed, big defensive rebound by Zach Randolph, who has two doubles-doubles already.

I’m not going to wax poetic about this one. It’s not Game Seven of a playoff series, it’s game one of 41, game two of 82 but anyone associated with the Knicks will take a 97-93 victory or similar.

From an entertainment standpoint, this game is about a B. Watching Crawford was exciting, waiting to see if and when the other shoe would drop (a collapse by the Knicks) was interesting and seeing Randolph beat Ryan Gomes for that rebound was nice to see.

I thought the shoe would drop when Eddy Curry forgot that when the shot clock is turned off, all you have to do is pass it out and let the perimeter guys milk it. D’oh. He picked up an offensive rebound, had his shot blocked and Antoine Walker missed a three-pointer that would have tied it, forced overtime probably and given the Knicks more chances for the shoe to drop.

Those things put a player, especially a new one on the plus side with the tough New York crowd.

As for Minnesota, this is a young team with an interesting collection of players. Craig Smith is a nice little bruiser down low, I’ve always liked Gomes and of course Al Jefferson is solid, although he has to score more than six points after the first quarter.

The theme with them is forging an identity of a team that is coming to scratch and claw and be successful some of the time (probably 25-30 times this season).

Anyways back to the rest of the association:

Not counting watching the ending of Boston-Toronto and Atlanta-Detroit on the internet, I caught some of that Lakers-Jazz game.

From that, I saw a lot of hustle plays as they pulled away for a 119-109 win over Utah. It was so impressive that even Kobe Bryant got into the act, blocking a dunk attempt by Andrei Kirilenko. That would have made it a five-point game but it was not a coincidence that minutes later the Lakers went up by double digits.

Had I been hanging out on the couch and not at the Knick game, I probably would have watched the Hawks-Pistons game. The Hawks were solid Friday against Dallas and for three quarters were the same in Detroit. We’ve seen that before, the Pistons tease their opponent into thinking they can win and then get it rolling in the fourth. Of course they may or may not have been jipped by the refs (again that comes down to earning the respect, which teams such as them and the T-Wolves will get by playing hard and competing) .

So how did the nine-point lead evaporate?

Well with 11:27 remaining, Josh Childress puts in a layup for a five-point lead. Six turnovers and eight missed shots later, they’re down by six. And the linked text will cover the rest of the details.

It looks like we’ll have to add the Heat and Sonics to the 0-3 club .

The Heat fell 90-88 to the Bobcats and until “Flash comes back, who’s getting the ball in clutch situations. Here’s who got the ball in the final six minutes when Charlotte almost squandered a 16-point lead. Shaq got it twice for a dunk and free throws, Chris Quinn then had two free throws, missed a three, Haslem missed a 17-footer, Wright hits a jumper and two from the line but misses a three. Ricky Davis hits a three and Haslem gets another crack. I’m sure Pat Riley is eagerly anticipating me writing a post where Wade is the one, maybe next week in New York.

The Bobcats are 2-0 for the first time and I’m not getting the bubbly just yet. After all, they won the first game against a team who had a player forget what the score was (Maurice Williams) and almost coughed up a 16-point lead before. If anything I’d celebrate the final minute on defense because Sam Vincent was obvious in saying our inepxerience showed there.

So how’s PJ doing? It was another fourth quarter to forget for the 0-3 Sonics. They haven’t been this bad since 1985-86. Kevin Durant is obviously good, but those fourth quarters need fixing. It was 37-25 today in favor of the Clippers and through three games, it is 98-66 in favor of Seattle opponents in the fourth.

It sounds a little frustrating for PJ doesn’t it?

“We need to develop a little more aggression than we have right now, especially in the fourth quarter,” Carlesimo said. “Our defense is lousy, but every game it’s 20-something turnovers and 25 points. It’s just not bad half-court defense. It’s giving up 25 points in transition.”

I won’t tell you what the article contains but you can find out that Durant is averaging four points in the final 12 minutes.

And finally, I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far without discussing the Raptors-Celtics game. Sounded like fun as it went to overtime and Ray Allen won it with a three-pointer. Our condolences to Doc Rivers, who had to miss due to his father’s death. But imagine having those three choices to get the shot and none would have been wrong, that’s a nice problem to have.

By the way, I’d have watched that game over the football – even Patriots-Colts.

Less than a week into the new season, there are five teams that are 0-3, including three that many project to be in the playoffs.

The teams are as follows:

Washington – @ Indiana, @ Boston and vs. Orlando

Chicago – @ New Jersey, vs. Philadelphia, @ Milwaukee

Golden State – vs. Utah, @ LA Clippers, @ Utah

Two of the teams are not projected to be in the playoffs:

Portland – @ San Antonio, @ New Orleans, @ Houston

Sacramento – @ New Orleans, @ San Antonio, @ Dallas

So what does this mean, is the season doomed? Off the top of my head I couldn’t tell you but I know where to get the evidence.

2006-07

Boston – 0-3 finished with 24 wins

Denver – 0-3 finished with 45 wins lost to Spurs in the first round

Dallas – 0-4 finished with 67 wins lost to Warriors in first round

2005-06

Philadelphia 0-3 finished with 38 wins, two games out of the eighth seed

Toronto 0-9 finished with 27 wins

New York 0-5 finished with 23 wins

Atlanta 0-9 finished with 26 wins

Orlando 0-3 finished with 36 wins

2004-05

Cleveland 0-3 finished with 42 wins one behind the eighth-place Sixers

Chicago 0-9 finished with 47 wins, lost to Washington in the first round

Atlanta 0-4 finished with 13 wins

New Orleans 0-8 finished with 18 wins

Memphis 0-4 finished with 45 wins, lost to Phoenix in the first round

Golden State 0-6 finished with 34 wins

Sacramento 0-3 finished with 50 wins, lost to Seattle in the first round

2003-04

Miami 0-7 finished with 42 wins, lost to Indiana in the second round

Atlanta 0-3 finished with 28 wins

Cleveland 0-5 finished with 35 wins, one behind the eighth place Celtics

So in the last four seasons, it happened 18 times and six times team recovered. That being said, how are these teams feeling about it

Washington – Their league-worst field goal percentage got worse after a 34.8 showing in the loss to Orlando but they say they’ll be fine:

“We’ll bounce back,” Eddie Jordan said. “If this was three in a row in January, then it wouldn’t be a red flag. But because it is three in a row at the beginning of the season, it stands out. We’re not in a bad way. We feel good, and we’ll bounce back.”

“We’ll find [the offense]. No one is panicking,” Caron Butler said. “We know what this nucleus is capable of, and the coaching staff is great at making changes on the fly. We’ll just have to tweak it a little bit — a tweak here and a tweak there and we’ll get back at it.”

Chicago – Perhaps the recent trade talks and lack of contract extension have factored in. Ben Gordon was the only starter to reach double figures and it came on a 31-percent shooting night and a 14-turnover night. The tone from the postgame is considerably different than that from Washington.

Scott Skiles: “I felt like we were just bored with preseason. But maybe we just weren’t very good.”

Kirk Hinrich: “We’re not the same team right now.

Golden State: The Warriors have allowed 133, 120 and 117. They have scored 110, 114 and 96. The first two losses resulted in a lineup change as Al Harrington became a starter and Monta Ellis became a reserve. That kept Carlos Boozer somewhat quiet but the Jazz guards made plenty of noise.

The mood is not doom and gloom but the knowledge they can’t screw around much longer is apparent:

“We made that crazy run last year, but we can’t afford to get off to an 0-3, 0-4, 0-5 (start),” Warriors forward Matt Barnes said. “No one can afford that. We have to straighten this out somehow. It obviously starts on the defensive end. We’ve got to tighten up our defense, and we’ve just got to win us some games.”

Portland – Putting a rebuilding team on the road against three better teams to start is always difficult. It can cause many weaknesses to be exposed and while the talent is there, it doesn’t provide them with ample opportunities to prove it. In the three games, they fell behind by a combined 52 points before halftime.

“The thing I recognize is we have some things to work on — and this road trip showed that,” forward Martell Webster said. “The chemistry on this team is fine — we just have to figure out a way to put together four quarters. I mean, you can see that it takes us being down 15 to 20 points for us to dig down in a stance and start playing people.

Sacramento – I doubt anyone is surprised that the Kings are where they are. Even with Ron Artest and Mike Bibby, the Kings are expected to be among the league’s worst teams. Things have fallen so far the Arco Arena did not get a vote in the GM’s poll of the best homecourt advantages. Their third loss had to make anyone involved with the Kings nautious as they allowed the Mavericks to shoot 65 percent.

“Everybody knows we’ve got a long ways to work and this is just the first three of 82 games,” Mikki Moore said. “But a (butt)-whupping is a butt-whupping. I’m not saying we’re getting used to it, but we’re just trying to keep each other up.”

Detroit @ Orlando – Tayshaun Prince followed his 34 points vs. Miami with a steady 17 point night on 6-of-9 shooting. He was one of six Pistons to reach double figures and those players combined to make all but seven of Detroit’s 43 shots. Orlando was led by 21 points but he only took 11 shots. Supposedly J.J. Redick is improved well tonight was not an indicator as he played just four minutes and has yet to score in 12 minutes this season. Trevor Ariza has established himself a little more than Redick but was supposed to have more of a role, thus far he has five points in 14 minutes.

Miami @ Indiana – Ohio State had three guys drafted Mike Conley and Greg Oden are the ones we hear about most often but Daequan Cook had quite a debut. Cook played 28 minutes and scored 17 points. That was a positive for a locker room filled with negatives. As for the Pacers it was Jermaine O’Neal’s debut but it was also another solid night for Danny Granger. Granger hit four three-pointer and is 9-for-15 this season. He was 2-for-9 from downtown through the first two games of last season and going back to 2006-07 Granger is 12-for-18 in his last four. Six points do not often get a mention but when they’re a pair of threes they get the mention, which is what Kareem Rush had during the late 12-0 run.

Milwaukee @ Charlotte – The Bucks are now 0-2 and it’s very clear that Yi Jianlian is going to be one of those work in progresses. He finished with two points and picked up four fouls in 15 minutes. Michael Redd and Maurice Williams scored decently but six turnovers apiece isn’t going to cut it. It was Jason Richardson’s debut and he finished with 21 points. The stat line of the night in Charlotte belongs to Raymond Felton, who had 26 and 12 assists, his 18th such game.

New York @ Cleveland – The tandem of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph seemed to work decently. Curry had 18 points and seven rebounds and took 16 shots. Randolph scored 21, grabbed 10 boards and took 23 shots. They played the first 8:47 of the first and scored six points apiece. Curry scored four more points before Randolph returned to start the second. Curry was on the bench for the first 7:39 of the second and Randolph scored two points. They played the rest of the half and Curry scored four more points and Randolph scored two. They started the third together and played the first 7:26 together with Randolph scoring four and Curry scoring two. In the fourth, Curry started on the bench and Randolph scored just one basket until Curry came back with 6:38 remaining. Randolph scored three and Curry two in that span. So to conclude when they were on the court together Curry scored 14 while Randolph scored 15, so night one of this was not too shabby. It was some of the same issues as last season, poor rotation on three-point shooters and foul shooting. The Cavs hit 12 threes and the Knicks missed nine free throws.

As for the Cavs, there was no chance LeBron James was going to finish with 10 again. He could have been facing Anthony Mason or Charles Oakley but he was going to get his. He wound up with 45. The support for James came courtesy of Daniel Gibson, who often shook free or blew past Stephon Marbury and hit six threes en route to 24 points. From what I saw the problem was Knick defenders unsure if they should double up on James and that meant a half-hearted attempt to rotate towards Gibson once he was free in the corners.

Dallas @ Atlanta – Numberswise there is not much to crunch from the Mavericks side of the equation, but a minus-14 differential on the glass often results in a loss. That might be not be why Dallas lost but it certainly did not help especially since the margin was 14-7 in favor of Atlanta in the fourth.

As for the Hawks, the last time they won a season opener they made the playoffs so good omens are happening (remember they went 7-1 in the preseason). But it’s a lot better than some of the previous results this early (a combined margin of defeat of 120 in season openers since 1999). It was the usual Joe Johnson 28 points with help from Marvin Williams (16 points, a number he has topped in six of his last seven regular season games), 18 and 11 from Josh Smith and a steady 14 from Tyronn Lue. Al Horford’s debut saw him get nine points while Acie Law finished with eight.

Toronto @ New Jersey – The score should say it all, but what it and Chris Bosh say is don’t overlook the Raptors. But in case you want a refresher this is what Bosh said “We have to let people know we are still here,” Bosh said. “Eventually they are going to start talking about us, but we can’t worry about that. We know we are one of the top teams in the division and we’re not going to make it easy for everybody. We want to win too. We feel we are one of the best teams in the East and we are going to play like it.”

On the Nets side of things, what can you say? Not much. Richard Jefferson had another nice game but it would have been nicer if the Nets did not allow 16 straight points and then 18 in a row in the third.

Portland @ New Orleans – And this is what happens when LaMarcus Aldridge goes 4-of-12. As much as Brandon Roy can do (23 points on 10-of-15). Of course the awful showing again by the point guard Jarrett Jack isn’t going to help, 20 minutes, zero points and 0-of-4 from the field. This is what growing pains look like, especially when the centerpiece is out.

As for the Hornets, they’re running and led by the motor of Chris Paul, who had 19 points. They also got improved bench play as Rasual Butler (11 points) and Bobby Jackson (14 points) were decent. Only 9,817 showed up but some might have more important things to be concerned with than shelling out money for the NBA.

Washington @ Boston – Gilbert Arenas’ confidence on his blog about his team was not translated over to the court. Arenas finished with 21 points on some ugly shooting 5-of-21 and 0-of-5 from three. The Wizards were “Agent Zeros” from downtown where not one of their 16 attempts went down. That broke their record of 15 misses from downtown without a make set last year in New York. And in case you’re wondering, 10-16 is Washington’s record when Arenas attempts a three and makes none of them.

It seems lately that none of the sports teams in Boston can do nothing wrong and the debut of Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce was as good as advertised. The trio combined for 67 points on 24-of-46 shooting. I get the feeling that Doc Rivers won’t be uttering his amusing three in a row quote anytime soon.