Also that spacing on the Melo and 1 bucket is atrocious. 3 Spurs defenders legally in the paint, for some reason both Amare and MWP collapsed into the paint as Melo was posting up. Can't do that.
So SAS has one possession left in the half, Woodson pulls Bargs for defense, smart. He puts in AMARE?!, who then fouls Duncan.
Knicks down 16 at half, not as bad as it should be. I wonder why we haven't seen either of defensive centers and instead have seen Amare? Makes no sense to me. JR is passing well, but his shot is still rusty. Bargs is shooting well, MWP And Shump's defense has been generally good. We saw no Pablo except for the 1st 5 minutes of the game, not sure why as he's our 3rd best perimeter defender after MWP And Shump.
Spurs extend their lead to 26 and now 21. Knicks needed to cut into the lead in the 3rd Q, but just let Spurs extend it. The switching isn't very effective, gotta fight over screens
Woodson should look into his defensive strategy without Tyson. Smart teams like the Spurs just run a bunch of pick and rolls to create mismatches everywhere and confusion because the Knicks just switch.
Oh and burn these orange jerseys. Haven't won in them and they look dumb. I like the classic white uniforms for home games
Woodson has some coaching to do, and some strategy changes, and now that JR is back, figure out a lineup an rotation until Chandler comes back
Yeah Cole needs some more minutes. If Bargs comes out, and KMART can't play, how do you go to Amare as your center? You are already playing a bad defensive center in Bargs to start, why compound it by playing an ever worse defensive backup center? Cole definitely needs more playing time. Toure is a good filler if you suffer a PG injury. Good defense PG. Hopefully with JR back, Woodson can establish something. I hope to see a rotation of Beno, Pablo, Ray JR, Shump, MWP Melo Bargs, Cole, KMART/Amare That's a 10 man rotation with THJ chipping in during blowouts and foul trouble.e
I was at the garden...Spurs tore the Knicks asshole. Fire Woodson chants started midway through the third in section 200's. Terrible loss...Jeez, on a bright note I like Bargs. The team is a mess though
Frank Isola @FisolaNYDN 1h Mike Woodson just left his meeting with James Dolan. (For Woodson that was probably more painful than the game.) Awesome. Woodson is CAA, not sure what Dolan can tell him.
He did a very good job last season. That team clearly overachieved. This season, he has some obstacles like the Tyson injury, the overturn of the roster, and now the Tyson injury. He's going to have to go away from his normal defensive strategies and things that made him a good coach for so many years. Right now it isn't cutting it, the whole switching the lineup to match up to opponents and etc. We'll see if he can adjust. D'Antoni was very stubborn and that's what ended up with the Knicks moving onto Woodson. Ironically enough, the D'Antoni offense would probably proposer with the small lineups the Knicks ran the last two years, Woodson seemed to learn a ton of offensive things last year that we are seeing less of this year.
The Knicks seriously need to work on fast breaks. They constantly cough it up and find ways to blow them. Fast break points are supposed to be easy. When you have a 2 or 3 on 1, you gotta pass the ball around. I hate seeing 3 on 1 only to see the leading guy force a really difficult shot instead of just passing to the open man. On the flip side of that the Knicks are allowing fast break situations in too many places. Something as little as a missed 3 often turns into fast break points for the other team. I know it's tough without Tyson, but these dudes need to focus better. I couldn't even watch after midway through the 3rd. It was disgusting.
