Posts Tagged ‘Raymond Felton’

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Game 2: Knicks-Celtics’ Changes Afoot

April 22, 2013  ·  10:12AM

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NEW YORK – They say that every game in a playoff series has its own personality. And a couple of rotation changes should give Game 2 of the Knicks-Celtics’ series (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET, TNT) a new look.

The Knicks hope to have Pablo Prigioni back from a sprained ankle for Game 2. And if they do, he will start and join Raymond Felton in the backcourt. The Knicks went 15-1 with the two point guards starting together in the final month of the regular season.

The Knicks have been incredibly efficient offensively, scoring almost 120 points per 100 possessions in 298 minutes, with Felton and Prigioni on the floor together. And after a game in which they scored 85 points on 88 possessions, they could certainly use an offensive boost. After assisting on just 13 of their 32 buckets in Game 1, the team hopes that Prigioni will bring better ball movement.

But the lineup change could have an adverse effect on the other end of the floor. Woodson said Sunday that if Prigioni is back, Felton will guard Paul Pierce to start the game (the original plan had Prigioni been healthy in Game 1), with Iman Shumpert defending Jeff Green.

Shumpert was guarding Pierce to start Game 1, and the Celtics posted Pierce on three of the first four possessions. When the Knicks doubled the post, the Celtics got a jumper for Kevin Garnett and a layup for Avery Bradley.

Mismatches on Pierce were a big part of the Celtics’ offense all day Saturday. Later in the first quarter, they ran the same play several times to get J.R. Smith switched onto Pierce at the foul line. And they had some more success with Pierce posting Jason Kidd on a few possessions midway through the second.

With their lineup change, the Knicks will be handing the Celtics a mismatch from the start. And Boston will obviously go to Pierce in the post early and often. New York will send double-teams, and it will be up to Pierce’s teammates to make them pay.

Green was a pretty good corner 3-point shooter (45.7 percent) in the regular season, but didn’t attempt any shots from the corners on Saturday. As a team, Boston was just 1-for-5 from the corners, an obvious area for improvement in Game 2.

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Doc Rivers plans on making some rotation changes of his own. He went only eight deep in Game 1, using just three guards — Jordan Crawford, Courtney Lee and Jason Terry — off the bench. The trio combined to shoot 0-for-7.

Rivers said Sunday that we could see a big man off the bench — presumably Chris Wilcox or Shavlik Randolph — on Tuesday. If it’s Wilcox, it will be the first playoff appearance of his 11-year career.

We’ll have to see if that results in less minutes for Brandon Bass or if Rivers plans on playing with two bigs more than he did in Game 1. The Celtics were a plus-1 (and particularly strong on the defensive glass) in 21 minutes with both Bass and Garnett on the floor on Saturday, and a minus-8 in 27 minutes with one of the two on the bench.

The Celtics weren’t very good defensively, allowing 104.7 points per 100 possessions, in 396 regular season minutes with Bass and Wilcox on the floor together. And the Garnett-Wilcox pair played just 73 minutes.

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Rivers also wants to see a bigger role for Crawford. Amazingly, Crawford didn’t take a single shot in his 10:46 on Saturday. And it surely goes without saying that it was the first time in the gunner’s career that he’s played at least 10 minutes without taking a shot.

The Celtics probably don’t want to get to the point where Crawford’s shooting determines the outcome of any particular game, but he can help make the Knicks pay for double-teams on Pierce if he’s aggressive and looking to make plays for his teammates as well as himself. He can also take some of the ball-handling duties from Bradley.

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Posted in 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (17) /

Knicks Turn Up The D To Win Game 1

April 20, 2013  ·  7:57PM

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NEW YORK – The New York Knicks have dreams of winning a championship this season.

After the first half of Game 1 of their first round series against the Boston Celtics – in which the Knicks allowed a bad offensive team to score 51 points on 47 possessions – those dreams looked like a joke.

In the past 11 years, only one team – the 2005-06 Dallas Mavericks – has ranked outside the top 10 in defensive efficiency and made The Finals. The Knicks ranked 17th defensively this season. So while they’re a 2 seed that went 3-1 against the Miami Heat, they still have a lot to prove.

And they weren’t proving anything in the first 24 minutes on Saturday, allowing the Celtics to get the mismatches they wanted and failing to rotate fast enough when the ball moved to the weak side. To make matters worse, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year was not himself. Trying to play after missing 16 of the final 20 games of the regular season, Tyson Chandler clearly still felt the effects of a bulging disc in his neck.

But even without their defensive anchor, the Knicks managed to buckle down in the second half, holding the Celtics to an anemic 25 points on 42 possessions to pull out an 85-78 victory. It’s the first time the Knicks have held a playoff series lead since May 2, 2001.

The Knicks’ offense had been rolling at the end of the regular season, but the playoffs are a whole new ball game, and the Celtics are a terrific defensive team. Carmelo Anthony scored 36 points in Game 1, but needed 29 shots to do it. The Knicks got a total of three points out of three of their other four starters and the fourth, Raymond Felton, shot 5-for-13. The Celtics took away the Knicks’ pick-and-roll game most of the afternoon, forcing New York – who totaled just 13 assists – into a lot of iso-ball and late-in-the-clock pull-up jumpers.

For both teams, the best offense came from their defense. The Celtics one good stretch in the second half – 13 points on eight possessions late in the third quarter – came when they got some stops and got out in transition. The Knicks scored 20 points off those 21 Boston turnovers. Neither team was very successful in their half-court sets.

Boston was especially dreadful in the second half. They still got the switches, mismatches and double-teams they wanted, but the Knicks just had more energy and activity defensively. It helped that neither Kevin Garnett (4-for-12) nor Jason Terry (0-for-5) could buy a bucket, but Boston got just seven shots in the paint in the second half after getting 19 in the first half.

A final score of 85-78 is Eastern Conference playoff basketball at its best. And ultimately, the Knicks proved they can win ugly. They were held under a point per possession offensively and still managed to win by seven. It was the first time they’ve won all season when scoring less than 87 points (they were 0-6 in the regular season).

The Celtics believe this was more about their offense than the Knicks’ defense. They looked disjointed most of the afternoon and committed 21 turnovers, nine of them in the fourth quarter when the game was in the balance and the Knicks were leaving the door open for them to steal home-court advantage.

“I thought our spacing was horrendous in the second half,” Doc Rivers said. “I thought each guy held the ball and tried to make their own play, and I talked about that before the game. That’s not who we are. We can’t be that way, and we tried to play that way in the second half.”

While the Knicks deserve credit for forcing a lot of those turnovers – Jason Kidd still may have the best defensive hands and instincts in the league – Boston was careless with the ball. So they believe they can get Game 2 (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET, TNT) by just executing better.

“We stopped playing the right way. I thought each guy was trying to win,” Rivers said. “I don’t think that’s hard to fix. I really don’t.”

Game 2 is both an opportunity for the Celtics to fix the turnovers and another opportunity for the Knicks to prove that their championship dreams are legit.

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Posted in 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (22) /

The Numbers On The East Playoffs

April 19, 2013  ·  12:17PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – The playoffs are here. And to get you ready, we’ve got statistical nuggets for each series, courtesy of NBA.com/Stats.

Eastern Conference basketball was slower and less efficient than Western Conference hoops. Five of the eight East playoff teams ranked in the bottom eight in pace, while four of the eight ranked in the top seven in defensive efficiency.

Yet, a couple of these series (Knicks-Celtics and Nets-Bulls) can be seen as offense vs. defense.

Pace: Possessions per 48 minutes (League Rank)
OffRtg: Points scored per 100 possessions (League Rank)
DefRtg: Points allowed per 100 possessions (League Rank)
NetRtg: Point differential per 100 possessions (League Rank)
The league averaged 94.4 possessions (per team) per 48 minutes and 103.1 points scored per 100 possessions.

Miami (1) vs. Milwaukee (8)

Miami Heat (66-16)
Pace: 93.0 (23)
OffRtg: 110.3 (1)
DefRtg: 100.5 (7)
NetRtg: +9.9 (2)

Overall: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups
vs. Milwaukee: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups

Milwaukee Bucks (38-44)
Pace: 97.3 (3)
OffRtg: 100.9 (21)
DefRtg: 102.3 (12)
NetRtg: -1.4 (18)

Overall: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups
vs. Miami: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups

Five notes:

New York (2) vs. Boston (7)

New York Knicks (54-28)
Pace: 92.0 (26)
OffRtg: 108.6 (3)
DefRtg: 103.5 (17)
NetRtg: +5.1 (6)

Overall: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups
vs. Boston: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups

Boston Celtics (41-40)
Pace: 94.0 (17)
OffRtg: 101.1 (20)
DefRtg: 100.4 (6)
NetRtg: +0.7 (14)

Overall: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups
vs. New York: Team stats | Player stats | Lineups

Five notes:

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Posted in 2013 NBA Playoffs, NBA.com/Stats / Comments (17) /

Blogtable: Pacers Or Knicks No. 2 In East?

April 3, 2013  ·  10:22AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 23: Taking Spurs or Thunder? | Pacers or Knicks No. 2 in East? | Team ready to pull a playoff upset?

Who’s better at full strength, the Pacers or Knicks? Who do you see as the No. 2 seed in the East?

Steve Aschburner: It’s hard to say how good Indiana would be at full strength because we never saw Danny Granger back and carving out a role in the Pacers’ new Paul George-oriented pecking order. I still maintain that would have been mostly good. And the Pacers’ bench issues are going to recede now with the playoffs looming. Indiana has a more favorable schedule to the finish, in my view, so I’m liking them at No. 2 — and as one half of a solid Eastern Conference finals.

Fran Blinebury: We know already that the Pacers won’t be at full strength since Danny Granger is lost for the season. But I still give what’s left of the Indiana lineup an edge over the Knicks. You’ve always got to take good defense over good offense and the Pacers have the best defense in the league. Never mind the Heat and Spurs juggling their lineups to get rest for the playoffs. Pacers coach Frank Vogel says his team is driving for the No. 2 seed to get as much home-court advantage as possible.

Jeff Caplan: Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen the Pacers more recently and the Knicks have been banged up for a while, but I really like what Frank Vogel has got going with his bunch (yes, I saw the near-meltdown at the Clippers). Paul George is sensational and David West is playing at a high level. Their defense is smothering and now that Roy Hibbert is playing better, this team is multidimensional and dangerous. As for the Knicks, this nine-game win streak is nice, and needed, but there’s a lot of fluff in there. I just don’t see how the elder Knicks hold up in a seven-game series with either Indy or Miami, and frankly, I could see Chicago (with a healthy Joakim Noah and Marco Belinelli) pushing New York to the limit in a potential 3-6 first-round series. So mark me down as picking the Pacers to take the No. 2 seed.

Scott Howard-Cooper: Pacers and Pacers. While this is the perfect time to ask the question, with both teams playing well, Indiana is more dependable with its success based on defense and rebounding. New York needs to beat people with shooting, often 3-point shooting, and that is not as reliable.

John Schuhmann: Even if you take Danny Granger out of the equation, the answer has to be Indiana. The Pacers have been a much better defensive team all season, and they’ve been just a hair worse than the Knicks offensively since the All-Star break. They’ve got a guy — Paul George — who can take on the Melo assignment and, by far, the best 3-point defense in the league, which is obviously a huge factor against the 3-point-happy Knicks. The Pacers can certainly have some ugly stretches offensively, but New York hasn’t shown any kind of defensive consistency all season. I feel much better about this pick than my Spurs-over-Thunder pick.

Sekou Smith: The Pacers seem like the more stable pick, the more reliable group in terms of the consistency they bring on a nightly basis. But at full strength, I’m going with the Knicks. They have, in Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith, two elite scorers capable of taking games over at any time. They also have a defensive anchor in Tyson Chandler as well. Much has been made this season, and rightfully so, about the job Frank Vogel has done with Indiana. But I’d argue that Mike Woodson has done as good a coaching job of anyone in the league when you factor in the games his players have missed to injury and the fact that he’s working with half a roster that could star in “Cocoon 3.” The Knicks are the No. 2 team in the East.

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Knicks Finding (Again) That Two Point Guards Are Better Than One

March 30, 2013  ·  11:51AM

 

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – After three full months of mediocrity, the New York Knicks have seemingly woken up. They’ve won seven straight games after Friday’s 111-102 victory over the Bobcats, keeping themselves a game in the loss column ahead of the Indiana Pacers for second place in the Eastern Conference.

All seven wins have come without defensive anchor Tyson Chandler, and the one that got the Knicks started on this run – a critical victory in Utah on the second night of a back-to-back – came without Carmelo Anthony.

The streak hasn’t come against the toughest schedule – four of the wins have been over Toronto, Orlando and Charlotte – but it has included a win in Boston and a win over the Grizzlies. And it’s mostly been an offensive run, though the Knicks’ sketchy defense has held three of the seven opponents under a point per possession…

Knicks efficiency

Timeframe W L OffRtg Rank DefRtg Rank NetRtg Rank
Through Dec. 16 18 5 111.1 2 102.3 16 +8.8 3
Dec. 17 – March 17 20 21 104.6 11 103.8 15 +0.8 11
Since March 18 7 0 117.1 1 101.9 8 +15.2 2

OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions

The Knicks’ resurgence has been keyed by a couple of unlikely contributors. Kenyon Martin wasn’t in the league five weeks ago, but has filled in admirably for Chandler as a 6-foot-9 center. And Pablo Prigioni, a 35-year-old rookie who was signed last summer to be the third-string point guard, has stepped into a role no one could ever have imagined him playing.

Both Martin and Prigioni have started all seven games of the Knicks’ winning streak. But the winning started when Prigioni started, for the first time in his NBA career, alongside Raymond Felton in a two-point-guard lineup.

Two point guards playing at the same time is nothing new for the Knicks, who started Felton and Jason Kidd for 22 of the first 28 games this season, mostly because they didn’t have another shooting guard to start. And as long as both were healthy, Mike Woodson basically started Felton and Kidd together through the end of February.

But Kidd really struggled at the end of that run, shooting a brutal 7-for-52 (13 percent) from 3-point range between Jan. 26 and March 1. So Woodson went with just one starting point guard for a stretch of 10 games. And because he refuses to start J.R. Smith under any circumstances, he had either James White or Chris Copeland in the lineup.

To no one’s surprise, that didn’t work too well, so Woodson decided to go back to the two-point-guard lineup, this time with Kidd coming off the bench and Prigioni, who had been given three DNPs earlier in the month, starting.

So far, so good. The Knicks are now 30-13 in games in which they’ve started two point guards and 15-13 in games in which they’ve started just one. Felton’s 12-game absence in December and January has something to do with that mark, and starting lineups sometimes play no more than 10 minutes together, but the Knicks have proven to be much better with two point guards on the floor, whether they’re starting together or not.

Knicks efficiency

PGs on the floor MIN OffRtg DefRtg NetRtg +/-
Felton + Kidd + Prigioni 17 159.6 70.6 +89.0 +29
Felton + Kidd 1,003 109.6 103.3 +6.3 +106
Kidd + Prigioni 204 107.1 103.8 +3.3 +10
Felton + Prigioni 139 119.4 101.4 +18.0 +47
Two PGs 1,346 110.2 103.2 +7.0 +163
Only Felton 837 108.2 108.0 +0.2 +18
Only Kidd 559 102.9 102.8 +0.1 -20
Only Prigioni 650 105.6 97.9 +7.8 +63
One PG 2,046 105.9 103.4 +2.6 +61

Note: The three-point-guard numbers are obviously a small sample size, and they’re a bit skewed by a crazy 3:27 stretch at the end of a Dec. 21 loss to the Chicago Bulls. Anthony, Chandler and Woodson had all been ejected and the Knicks scored 21 points in the final 3:27 with a lineup of three point guards, Copeland and White, turning a 13-point deficit into a more respectable, four-point loss.

The big difference between two-point-guard lineups and one-point-guard lineups has been on offense. And the key has been turnovers and 3-pointers.

The Knicks lead the league in turnover ratio, coughing the ball up just 13.2 times per 100 possessions. And that number is even lower – 12.9 – when they’ve had two point guards on the floor.

And when they have two point guards on the floor, they shoot and make more 3s.

Knicks 3-point shooting

PGs on the floor 3PM 3PA 3PT% %3PA
Two 324 868 37.3% 37.8%
One 422 1152 36.6% 33.5%

%3PA = Percentage of total FGA from 3-point range

Even though Kidd’s shooting went into the tank in February, the Felton-Kidd combo still has great numbers over the biggest sample size of any of the combinations. And the new Felton-Prigioni combo has only been better, though in just 139 minutes. Kidd, meanwhile, has shot a more respectable 34.4 percent from 3-point range since being benched on March 1.

Amazingly, Prigioni has the best per-possession plus-minus on the team, with the Knicks having outscored their opponents by 9.7 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor. And it’s been on defense where Prigioni has made the biggest impact.

The Argentine is just 6-foot-3 and rather slight, but he’s a real pest on the ball and in the passing lanes (a few examples here, here and here). The Knicks have forced 18.0 turnovers per 100 possessions when he’s been on the floor, a rate which would lead the league by a good margin (the Clippers are No. 1, forcing 17.4).

Woodson alluded to Prigioni’s plus-minus when asked about his newest starter this week.

“He’s a student of the game and the fact that he’s kind of waited and he’s watched and he’s learned,” Woodson said. “He’s played the minutes that I’ve given him. His minutes have always been pretty positive. If it was five minutes, it was five good minutes. And I think the fact that he is very knowledgeable of the game, he has patiently sat and waited and now his minutes have grown a little bit, and he still looks like he belongs.”

The Knicks’ schedule is about to get much tougher, with their next five games against playoff teams, a stretch that includes visits to Miami and Oklahoma City. Chandler’s continued absence (with a bulging disc), meanwhile, isn’t exactly encouraging.

But the Knicks are certainly rediscovering their offensive rhythm at the right time, which has helped them stay comfortably on the right side (the 2-3-6-7 side) of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket. And while they certainly can’t maintain the level of offense they’ve been playing over the last seven games, this run has certainly established both Martin and Prigioni as valuable contributors going forward.

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Westbrook Killing It As He Hits Garden Stage

March 7, 2013  ·  12:50PM

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HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – Delivering world-class performances on a nightly basis, Russell Westbrook brings his act to the world’s most famous arena for a sold-out, one-night-only engagement.

Call him controversial. Call him hot-headed. Call him a ball hog. On any other team without Kevin Durant (or LeBron James) you just might call him MVP.

That’s how good Westbrook, the brash Oklahoma City point guard, has played for the better part of two months and particularly so since the start of February, a span of 14 games in which he’s averaged 27.4 ppg, 6.2 apg, 4.6 rpg and has shot 50.9 percent (136-for-267) overall while averaging 19.1 shots a game.

So break a leg — – and hopefully not an ankle – Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd and whoever else New York throws at the 6-foot-3 lightning bolt — when the Thunder and Knicks clash in a marquee matchup at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET, TNT).

“Take away the first month of the season, he didn’t shoot the ball well, but other than that he’s been on a nice offensive shooting streak the last 15-20 games,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “But his leadership, his ability to control the game and manage the game is improving every game.”

There might not be two better examples than the Thunder’s last two wins against Los Angeles’ two teams. OKC beat the Clippers in L.A. In the final 2:51 with the game hanging in the balance, the edgy Westbrook scored six of his 10 fourth-quarter points and delivered two of his three assists to take the 108-104 victory. He finished with 29 points on 11-for-20 shooting (55 percent), 10 assists and six rebounds.

“That game was one of his best performances considering who he is playing against [Chris Paul], who we are playing against and on their floor in a crazy environment,” Brooks said. “He just kept doing his job at a very consistent level, just form a point-guard team leadership and managing the players.”

Two nights later, he crushed the Lakers for 37 points on 15-for-29 shooting (51.7 percent), 10 rebounds and five assists. He scored 15 of OKC’s 26 third-quarter points and had 18 in the second half to keep the Thunder ahead as Kobe Bryant rallied the Lakers to within five points with six minutes to go and Durant struggled to just six points in the second half.

Afterward Kobe praised the former UCLA Bruin who was in third grade when Kobe broke in with Westbrook’s hometown Lakers.

“It’s always fun to go up against him,” Kobe said. “Some nights I get the best of him. I’d argue with him that most nights I get the best of him. But tonight he did his thing, he did his thing. He was very tough to control. He’s a fantastic player.”

A few moments later as the Lakers pulled out of town, Kobe tweeted about Westbrook: “He’s got mamba blood runnin thru his veins . You gave it to me tonight lil bro. C u down the road!”

Since Westbrook and Durant have paired their polar personalities in OKC, with the more reclusive Westbrook seemingly thriving on anger and the all-inclusive Durant nurturing ego harmony, the perception of the past was that that the two won’t co-exist for long. The idea was Westbrook can’t submit to Durant, that he gobbles up too many shots that should go to his mega-star scoring champ.

Only no one with the Thunder has ever laid down such parameters.

“He has the ball in his hands a lot and he picks and chooses his spots really well, when to score, when to pass,” Durant said. “He’s done a great job.”

With a size, quickness and athletic advantage over most of his counterparts, Westbrook is a devastating penetrator and has become even threatening to get to the rim as he’s developed his stop-and-pop, high-rising jumper from the free-throw line and elbow. As tremendous an offensive season as Durant is compiling, Westbrook’s 23.6 ppg and 7.8 apg, the highest point-assist combo of his career, can be overshadowed.

But it can’t be overlooked.

The three-time All-Star is well on his way to a third consecutive All-NBA team spot, and is threatening to turn his two previous second-team selections into a first-time first-team nod.

“Nothing new,” Durant said of his partner. “He’s been a leader all year for us, vocal, keeping the game composed, everybody on our team, keeping his cool and controlling the game from both ends of the floor. He’s been great all season.”

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Can ‘Stubborn’ Woodson Step Up?

March 6, 2013  ·  2:34PM

 

HANG TIME, Texas — Stubborn is refusing to take the fashion hint that it’s not OK to wear that plaid shirt with those striped pants. Stubborn is not letting the guy in the next lane with his turn signal on get in front of you during rush hour.

The admission by Knicks coach Mike Woodson that he ignored a request by Carmelo Anthony to come out of the game against the Cavaliers would seem to go way beyond stubborn to that other word that begins with “st.”

In an interview with ESPN New York 98.7 FM, Woodson said that Anthony had asked to be removed from the game due to knee discomfort before suffering an injury in the second quarter.

Woodson decided to leave Anthony in the game and his leading man aggravated the right knee injury when he tripped without contact. Anthony went to the locker room with 6:42 remaining in the second quarter and did not return to the game, which the Knicks rallied from 22 points down to win.

Anthony officially has been diagnosed with a sore knee and is listed as questionable for tonight at Detroit and could miss Thursday’s high-profile showdown at Madison Square Garden against the Thunder.

“Melo was hurt,” Woodson said on The Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco Show. “For him to ask me to come out of the game before he actually took that spill made me realize that something wasn’t right. He’s never ever, ever, even hinted about coming out of the game [before Monday]. I play him too much in that regard. Melo’s a trooper — he’s a warrior, he’s a tough kid.”

Asked why he chose to leave Anthony in the game after the request to come out, Woodson said: “I should have [taken him out]. Stubborn coach — I just didn’t.”

It is almost inconceivable that a head coach would blow off such a request from his star player, which has led some to speculate that perhaps Anthony was looking for a quick exit after an 0-for-4 first quarter and ultimately a 1-for-5 shooting performance that left him with a season-low six points.

But considering that Anthony could be on the shelf now for the next two games, that cover-up hardly seems likely.

There is also the matter of Woodson leaving Amar’e Stoudemire on the bench for the final eight minutes on Sunday when Miami was making a comeback from 16 points down to beat the Knicks.

Woodson said after the game that he stuck with his lineup of Anthony, J.R. Smith, Jason, Kidd, Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler because he liked the Chris Bosh-Chandler matchup when the Heat went small. But he has since changed his mind.

“Bad coaching,” Woodson said. “You can blame that on coach. Hey, you live and you learn. I learned from it.”

In the little over a month since Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert have returned from injuries, Woodson has handled his rotation like a one-armed juggler, grasping wildly at anything.

At a time when the Knicks should be gearing up for the playoffs with the confidence that comes from a solid identity, they have neither. That’s on the coach.

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Knicks Turn Up The D After Halftime

February 2, 2013  ·  10:27AM

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NEW YORK – If we only counted stats after halftime, the New York Knicks would be the best team in the league.

Like the Miami Heat, who seem to be fine with playing their best in only half of their games, the Knicks have a version of cruise control. They don’t start defending until after halftime.

On Friday, the Knicks allowed the Milwaukee Bucks to score 53 points on just 44 first-half possessions. And then, they held the Bucks to just 33 points on 45 second-half possessions to pull out a 96-86 victory.

The improvement was sparked by an adjustment with the Knicks’ pick-and-roll coverage. Early in the third quarter, Mike Woodson switched it up, because the Bucks’ quick guards were taking advantage of Amar’e Stoudemire on switches. New York started trapping the pick-and-roll, forcing the guards to give up the ball.

“They were trying to get [Monta] Ellis on a big,” Jason Kidd said afterward. “You want to protect Amar’e from having to see that on a repeated basis. We decided to start trapping it, and it changed the whole game around.”

Sometimes, an adjustment like that can elicit more energy from a team. It seemed to work on this night.

“That kind of jump-started us from a defensive standpoint and got us back in the game,” Woodson said.

But this was nothing new, really. Through Friday, the Knicks rank 28th in first-half defense, allowing 106.2 points per 100 possessions. And they rank seventh in second-half defense, allowing just 99.5. That’s the second biggest discrepancy in the league.

Biggest difference, first and second half defense
(points allowed per 100 possessions)

Team 1st Half Rank 2nd Half Rank Diff.
Washington 103.9 19 96.3 3 -7.6
New York 106.2 28 99.5 7 -6.8
Atlanta 104.2 20 98.2 5 -6.1
Charlotte 111.3 30 105.5 25 -5.8
Brooklyn 105.9 27 101.6 11 -4.3

Knicks coach Mike Woodson is plenty aware of the discrepancy between his team’s first-half defense and its second-half defense. But that doesn’t mean he knows why its happening.

“I wish I could explain it,” he said after the game Friday.

The Knicks basically do everything better defensively in the second half. They defend both 2-point shots and 3-points shots better, they rebound better, and they force a lot more turnovers.

It’s not like Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler only plays in the second half. In fact, he’s played 723 first-half minutes and 724 second-half minutes.

The Knicks most-used lineup in the second half has been Raymond Felton, Kidd, J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony and Chandler. And it’s been excellent defensively, allowing less than 89 points per 100 possessions in 99 second-half minutes. The same lineup has allowed 101 points per 100 possessions – good but not great – in 52 first-half minutes.

“For some odd reason,” Kidd said, “after halftime, we tend to pay a little bit more attention to the defensive end.”

Maybe, like the Heat who know they can flip the switch when they need to, the Knicks know that they can beat certain teams as long as they don’t get totally blown out in the first half.

But they’re still better when they defend early. Though they managed to come back on Friday, the Knicks are 14-2 when they allow less than 101 points per 100 possessions in the first half.

The New York offense is always going to be there. They rank fourth in first-half offense, first in second-half offense, and third overall. But they’re a below average defensive team, ranking 16th overall, because, on most nights, they don’t bring focus on that end until the third quarter.

“That’s something that we understand,” Chandler said. “We can’t just play great defense against the Miamis and San Antonio Spurs of the world. We’ve got to pick it up every single night. Especially after this All-Star break, that’s one of the things that we really have to focus on.”

Knicks efficiency by half

Half OffRtg Rank DefRtg Rank NetRtg Rank
First 108.3 4 106.2 28 +2.1 13
Second 109.1 1 99.5 7 +9.6 1

OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions

***

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Celtics’ Sounds Of Silence Speak Loud

January 25, 2013  ·  10:59AM

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HANG TIME, Texas – It was a two-point game with three minutes left to play. There was all the set-up for another contested and contentious finish.

After their squabble from 17 days earlier, would either Kevin Garnett or Carmelo Anthony wind up down on the floor?

As a matter of fact, K.G. did hit the parquet at T.D. Garden. But there was a pleasantly accommodating ‘Melo to lend a helping hand to get a brother back onto his feet.

The only thing missing was a chorus of “Kumbaya” in place of the national anthem as the Knicks-Celtics blood feud tip-toed quietly into the night, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com:

“There’s no grudges between myself and KG,” Anthony said. “He fell, and I helped him up.”

No one knew exactly what to expect, but an outbreak of politeness and a tepid home crowd were not on the menu. Other than a few benign shoves between Garnett and Tyson Chandler in the midst of the fourth quarter and a handful of rogue heckles referencing Garnett’s supposed infamous insult, there was nothing extraordinary.

“I was expecting it to be a hostile environment,” Anthony said. “It was kind of quiet.”

Said Amar’e Stoudemire: “I was thinking the crowd was going to be a little more rude.”

This could be either the city of Boston rejecting hundreds of years of reputation or — and this is much more likely — a fan base and a Celtics team that had bigger worries than meting out retribution for a guy who stood half-menacingly in a loading dock surrounded by a dozen security guards as Anthony did back on Jan. 7.

In other words, rather than the anticipated clamor of a Melo-K.G. Showdown II, was this the sighing sound of the Celtics running into reality while the Knicks gallop onto bigger things?

At this point, these are two teams circling in different orbits. Boston lost its fifth straight game, is under .500 and walking with one foot in the gutter of the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

So much for the effect of coach Doc Rivers flipping his usually cool lid and threatening to buy one-way tickets out of town for any of his players who didn’t buy into the program and start playing better.

A lot of us have been looking at that storied name across the front of those green-and-white jerseys, read the famous and accomplished names across the back and been trying to convince ourselves that it was only a matter of time before Boston shifted into gear.

But maybe this is as good as it gets for the Celtics. While Rajon Rondo put up a triple-double and Paul Pierce played showed some of the old fire, the reason that the Garden was so quiet — dare we say it, so meek? — was perhaps the fans understand that there is no torch to be passed. It has already been extinguished.

On the other hand, after four losses in six games, the Knicks could be out of their funk and back in the business of resuming their chase of Miami for the role of top dog in the East (while holding off the charging Nets).

Even with a loss on Monday night, the Knicks still split the season series with Brooklyn and got their best game to date from Stoudemire. They could get Raymond Felton (broken finger) back in the lineup as soon as Saturday at Philly.

Coach Mike Woodson’s new challenge could be finding time and space for all of his healthy players and, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:

Felton’s return will result in the Knicks having all their guards healthy for the first time all season.

Shumpert is expected to remain in the starting lineup, and Woodson hinted that he may play Shumpert at small forward and start Felton and Kidd in the backcourt.

“I don’t know,” Woodson said. “I’ll have options when Raymond comes back. And I’m not saying that Kidd’s possibly going to go to the bench.”

The original plan was to use Kidd as the first guard off the bench while limiting his minutes. In all likelihood that’s what Woodson will do, because a starting lineup with Anthony, Shumpert, Kidd and Felton makes the rebounding-challenged Knicks small.

“I’m killing Kidd in terms of not having Raymond in a uniform, playing him a lot of minutes,” Woodson said. “We need Kidd for the long haul.

“If it means starting him or coming off the bench, Kidd’s going to play.

“I don’t care if he starts or if he comes off. I don’t think it really matters to him either. He’s going to play because he’s a big piece to what we do.”

Of course, those are the good kinds of problems to have in New York. Plus, it’s far different from what’s going on in Boston, where the sounds of silence speak volumes.

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Keeping A Watchful Eye On Kidd’s Minutes

January 8, 2013  ·  1:24PM

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HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – Jason Kidd is piling up heavy minutes and it’s only the second week of January.

With injured point guard Raymond Felton sidelined until at least later this month, New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson must find ways to win games — they’re 3-3 without Felton following Monday’s heated home loss to Boston — while not running Kidd into the ground.

In the six games since Felton fractured his right pinkie on Christmas against the Los Angeles Lakers, Kidd’s minutes have actually decreased slightly to 30.7 minutes a game from his rugged December workload of 33.2. That, however, is thanks to a 21-minute outing in a rout of the San Antonio Spurs, the one game in his last 10 that Kidd hasn’t logged between 31 and 35 minutes.

Take away the Spurs game and he’s averaged 32.6 minutes in Felton’s absence, same as his season average during the 2010-11 title run with Dallas. His minutes per game dropped to a career-low 28.7 last season, but he’s averaging 29.8 mpg this season and that figure is rising.

Overall, Kidd’s minutes have skyrocketed since the season’s opening month and it’s certainly worth monitoring as the All-Star break nears.

In 12 November games, Kidd played a very manageable 26.1 mpg and logged 30 minutes or more just three times. In the 18 games he’s played since, Kidd has gone 30-plus minutes 14 times, and 10 times he’s played at least 34 minutes. Last season, Kidd hit the 34-minute mark just 13 times in 48 games as he fought a rare spat of three separate injuries. Those were perhaps more a result of a shortened training camp and rushed start to the season following the lockout than being the league’s oldest starting player (and historically one of its most durable).

Still, as Kidd approaches his 40th birthday on March 23 and is in the midst of his 19th season, it would seem detrimental for him to continue to log such leg-sapping minutes.

So far, it has not affected his shooting. Of Kidd’s 196 shot attempts, 150 are 3-pointers and he’s made 66 of those for 44.0 percent, fifth-best in the league. He’s went 17-for-38 in his last six games, including 8-for-15 in his last two games following a potential red-flag pair of games when he missed 7 of 8 shots.

Woodson will likely have to continue to lean on Kidd. But once Felton and eventually Iman Shumpert return this month, it will be wise for Woodson to ease off the old man and begin planning for the stretch run and the most important Knicks postseason since 2000.

KIDD’S MINUTES BY MONTH

Month              Games  Avg min.    30+

November        12             26.1              3

December         14             32.9             11

January            4                30.5             3

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