Record: 1-4
Box Score
I was sitting in the Garden, in the 3rd quarter, Knicks up 7, thinking of the glowing things I would write about the Knicks intense defense, crisp ball movement, and David Lee's dominance. Unforunately, the Knicks somehow, inexplicably, let the Pacers come back and take the lead. When Danny Granger fouled out with the Knicks down by 4 and over 3 minutes to go, I again began imagining writing how this was the turning point of the game, how the Pacers could not function down the stretch without their only good player, and how the Knicks to stormed back and win the game.
But here I am, once again trying to find bright spots in a game that the Knicks should have won, but let slip away. Playoff teams don't lose like the Knicks lost last night. They should have extended the lead and put the Pacers away, but they let them hang around and ended up losing. They only scored 33 points in the second half! 3 players on the Pacers had double doubles, and the Knicks were frequently beasted on the glass by the likes of Roy Hibbert, Dahntay Jones, and even Solomon Jones. Hibbert was allowed to just stand under the basket without anyone getting a body on him, an finished with 7 offensive rebounds. Offensive rebounds are usually a result of leaping, hustle, and strenght, but for Hibbert, it was a matter of being really tall and just standing under the hoop. The Knicks did a good job of defending Danny Granger, but he was essentially the only player on the Pacers worth paying attention to, with Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, and Tyler Hansbrough all out with injuries. TJ Ford hit some tough shots down the stretch to help the Pacers pull away, and Dahntay Jones had a high flying, rim rocking slam, but the Pacers didn't play very well really, and there is no excuse for the Knicks not to wipe the floor with a lowly Pacers team missing 3 of their best players.
David Lee had 18 and 12 at halftime for the Knicks, and I was envisioning a huge 40 20 game for him, but he only ended up with 20 and 19. Lee was still the best player for the Knicks, as everyone else pretty much sucked. Lee was the only player on the team over 50% from the floor, and the rest of the team was at 36%. Danilo Gallinari and Al Harrington were pretty bad, going 10-26 combined, and 2-9 from downtown. The Knicks seemed to be playing well, moving the ball on offense and moving off the ball well also, but they did take some misguided shots.
I'd still like to see Gallinari get more involved in the offense. There were a bunch of times when he was being guarded by guys like TJ Ford (5'11"), and Brandon Rush (6'6"), and yet the Knicks never looked to get the ball to Gallinari in the post. I think the 6'10" Gallo could have made easy work shooting midrange jumpers over these shorter foes, but I guess he is told to just stay beyond the arc. Interestingly enough, Gallo was the only Knicks player to have a positive +/- rating on the game at +3.
Larry Hughes was back to his usual self, going 2-10, and Chris Duhon was just lobbing the ball toward the rim and hoping for the best, going 4-13.
At least the Knicks played solid defense, with 7 blocks (2 each for Lee and Harrington), and 8 steals. Too bad the Pacers one upped them with 8 blocks and 9 steals.
I left the garden with my head down, dejected, depressed, and disappointed in what I had witnessed. If the Knicks can't beat a banged up Pacers squad, I can't imagine what is going to happen tomorrow when the Lebronaliers come to town. Hopefully they muster whatever led them to that comeback against Philly, or the win against New Orleans, and bring their A game on Friday. Let's just hope this is Lebron's last game at MSG as a visitor.
One more note: My section got chosen to play crowd volleyball, where 2 adjacent sections battle it out by smacking beach balls back and forth over a net between the sections. My section won of course. Our prize? Thunder sticks for everyone!
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