Knicks 87 Cavs 90: Another Blown Game

The Knicks are finding new ways to lose every game. Tonight, we decided to try and let our best player shoot his way out of a TERRIBLE game at the expense of crushing any momentum. As you can imagine, that backfired quite a bit. The Knicks had this game won, but again watched a win slip right through their fingers.

The effort was there tonight. It actually felt like the Knicks wanted to win for once. Instead of getting booed off the court like they did against Brooklyn, the fans actually cheered for their team tonight! Call me crazy, but I think the Knicks are better than the Cavs. Outside of Kyrie Irving (I’ll hit on that soon), LeBron was held in check and Kevin Love was a non-factor (in his terms). The Knicks led with 5 minutes to go and then choked the lead away.

There are going to be growing pains with this team (boy, we’ve heard that a lot this year), but things need to start to turn the corner. Derek Fisher is in WAY over his head. How do you watch a guy score 16 points in 10 minutes, and then take him out of the game? That will make the low-lights for sure.

As painful as it was to watch that game, there were a lot of positives that need to be remembered.

Some Highlights…

• Amar’e Stoudemire had another good performance. In 30 minutes, Stoudemire had 18 points and 8 rebounds on 8-13 shooting. He also had some vintage jams, including posterizing Anderson Varejao. STAT was +8 on the night.

Here’s Stoudemire posterizing Varejao.

• Tim Hardaway Jr. cashed in on some early playing time tonight. He was lights out shooting the ball. In 22 minutes, THJ shot 8-14 for 20 points, including 4 three pointers. He gave the Knicks the offensive spark they needed tonight with 16 points in his first 10 minutes. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to play enough to win them the game. THJ was +10 on the night.
• Quincy Acy enjoyed a nice night. A rare offensive explosion out of the bearded man for 15 points on 6-8 shooting.
• J.R. Smith contributed off the bench. Smith had 9 points and 3 assists and was +13 in his 19 minutes of action.

Some Low-lights…

• Carmelo Anthony was atrocious on offense. He missed more shots (15) than anyone else took. In the game’s deciding possessions, Melo had a travel and a missed iso three to end the game. I have always been a big Melo supporter, and still am, but when a guy is having a bad night, go to someone else!
• Jose Calderon‘s defense. He and Larkin combined to give up 37 to Irving. It was like no one was guarding him.
• Iman Shumpert put up a goose egg on offense. He also got absolutely TORCHED by Irving on the final Cleveland possession. He has had a brutal past few games. He contributed a solid -16 tonight. Oh and he is the one who replaced THJ with 5 minutes to go. Hmmm…. 0 points for 20 points….
• Derek Fisher is not ready to be an NBA coach. There are way too many situations that he is struggling with. How about a play out of a timeout? How about playing the hot hand instead of the one who can’t make a shot? The team is so undisciplined on both offense and defense is hard to watch. At one point Cleveland played a zone, yet the Knicks were all going one-on-one. Need a better game plan.

I’m still horrified at how that game ended. It was literally a time bomb waiting to go off. The Knicks were actually winning! They managed to find a way to lose it. A trade is imminent with this group as this team is certainly playing for the lottery.

All I want for Christmas is for the Knicks not to suck.