Hawks 91 Knicks 85: And The Downward Spiral Continues

Words cannot explain the amount of disappointment I have as a Knick fan. In case you missed it, the Knicks lost their fifth in a row tonight to fall to 2-6. The worst part about it? They lost to the Atlanta Hawks twice in three days.

Being a Knicks fan feels 100% just like this:

Tonight’s game was similar to most; solid first half, fall behind in the third, and play catch up in the fourth. While the third quarter only saw the Knicks be outscored by 5, they still refuse to win that daunting quarter out of the break. Even at home they struggle coming out in the second half. Derek Fisher needs to find a way to get his team to not come out flat.

Like I said before the game, Al Horford and Paul Milsap will not be shut down in back-to-back games. Tonight they got the best of the Knicks for 12 and 19, respectively. The Knicks defense wasn’t actually that bad tonight as they held the Hawks to 38% shooting from the field. However, the Hawks made up for it at the free throw line, where they made 27-28 attempts, whereas the Knicks only attempted 12. New York has to find a way to get to the free throw line. I get that Carmelo Anthony lost weight, but that shouldn’t keep him from attacking the basket. He lead the team with 5 free throw attempts tonight, but that is still under his 7 attempt average from last year.

Jeff Teague was held in check. He didn’t make a shot the entire night, but Dennis Schroder came off the bench and scored 14 for the Hawks. That can’t happen.

There is so much wrong with this New York squad. While they have plenty of talent, it never seems to click all in one night.

Some Highlights…

• Melo was slightly better shooting wise. I can deal with him shooting 11-25 for 25 points when he leads the team in assists with 7. He also had 9 rebounds, which was good enough for second on the team. Again, not a great shooting night, but it was better than the last four. Babysteps.
• Iman Shumpert continues to thrive this year. Shump is impacting the game in all aspects, and most notably has been an effective scorer and distributor. On the night Shumpert scored 18 points on 8-12 shooting to go along with 5 assists. The Knicks may regret not signing him while his market value was low.
• Pablo Prigioni was healthy and some-what effective.
• Tim Hardaway Jr. continues to provide additional offense. He had 15 points on 6-11 shooting.

Some Low-lights…

• Quincy Acy got a DNP Coach’s Decision. That’s never a good sign.
• The offense grinded to a halt in crunch time as the Knicks reverted to iso ball with Melo. I know it’s tempting to get the ball to the best player at the end, but when you are relying on him to create his own shot, more times than not Melo is going to force up an ugly looking shot.
• The players seem to be losing confidence out there. They still have that look of “oh no here we go again” when things go wrong.

Will the Knicks ever win another game? Probably, but when that happens is still up in the air. The Knicks get a chance to end their skid when a fellow 2 win Orlando squad comes to New York on Wednesday.