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Game Preview: Celtics at Knicks
 |
vs. |  |
|---|---|---|
| 3-9 | Record | 9-4 |
| 101.1 | PPG | 97.7 |
| 108.0 | PPGA | 88.4 |
| 43.7 | FG% | 48.7 |
| 49.3 | Opp. FG% | 43.8 |
| 39.9 | Rebounds | 38.3 |
| 21.0 | Assists | 24.8 |
| 15.4 | Turnovers | 14.5 |
| 8.2 | Steals | 8.8 |
| 4.4 | Blocks | 4.8 |
| Point Guard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Chris Duhon |
Rajon Rondo | ||
| Shooting Guard | |||
Toney Douglas |
Ray Allen | ||
| Small Forward | |||
Wilson Chandler |
Paul Pierce | ||
| Power Forward | |||
Danilo Gallinari |
Kevin Garnett | ||
| Center | |||
David Lee |
Kendrick Perkins | ||
| Sixth Man | |||
Al Harrington |
Rasheed Wallace | ||
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Madison Square Garden, 1:00 p.m.
TV: CSN New England
RADIO: WEEI 850 AM
The New York Knicks said no to Allen Iverson, and with that, they may have said no to turning around their early season struggles. Just two days after Knicks brass opted not to make Iverson a free agent offer, New York will have to think long and hard about a few other superstars that are visiting them this afternoon.
The Big Three will lead Boston into Madison Square Garden for a 1 p.m. afternoon matinee with hopes of getting back on track after a 83-78 loss to the Orlando Magic Friday night.
Boston sits atop the Atlantic Division standings while New York is ahead of only the lowly New Jersey Nets, whom they beat to last night. Many Knicks faithful believed that their young players would bring plenty of bright spots this season, but thus far, their 2009-10 campaign has been awfully shadowed. The Knicks enter today's game with a 3-9 record after a promising 5-2 preseason. To turn things around, New York will need to improve in various areas of their game.
First, they'll need to find a way to score efficiently in Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo offensive system. The Knicks are ninth in the league in scoring, and that's great, but they are running their offense at an incredibly inefficient rate. There are only five teams in the league that score less points per 100 possessions, and much of that is due to New York's lack of consistent shooters. To make things worse, it seems as if they haven't realized that they are lacking those consistent shooters.
The Knicks lead the league in 3-point attempts per game, at 27.6 a night, but are making only 30.8 percent of those shots. As you could imagine, the continual attempt to do things that your team struggles with isn't going to translate into many wins. The problem is, New York is struggling with just about everything.
Which brings us to their defense, which is 1-A on the Things To Improve On list. The Knicks are getting sliced up defensively and enter today's game allowing 108.0 PPG and 49.3 percent shooting from their opponents. Golden State and Toronto are the only teams allowing opponents to score more points and the Warriors are the only team allowing opponents to shoot a higher percentage from the field.
With D'Antoni at the helm, the odds are that New York's offense will find its groove before the defense. Boston will have plenty of mismatches to take advantage of this afternoon, most of which are in the post, and should be able to score at will. The fact that Boston is eigth in the league in offensive efficiency had to bode well for them heading into a matchup against one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
Eddy Curry, just in time?
How many NBA followers would have thought the Knicks would be saying anything like that this season? The slimmed down Curry made his season debut Wednesday night and looked surprisingly solid in the post. Taking on a Celtics team that boasts Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace and Co. on the block means that the Knicks are going to need Curry to step up today.
With Curry out of the lineup for the majority of the past two years, David Lee had been forced to play center on a full-time basis. That experiment worked out well for Lee's numbers and helped the Knicks play small ball against a lot of teams, but without Curry, there were no big bodies to defend the paint or be a post threat on the block. Without that inside presence drawing double-teams, Knicks shooters have been guarded tightly, resulting in their poor shooting percentages.
It's unlikely that anyone believes Curry is the savior of the Knicks' season, and it's too early to tell how he'll contribute this season, but he will provide a presence around the lane, something New York has sorely lacked.
Rebounding
One deficiency the Celtics have seen so far this season is in the rebounding department. For an elite NBA team, they have not yet shown that they are great on the boards.
Although the C's have great size, length and depth in the frontcourt, they are not attacking the boards like many would hope. Rasheed Wallace's role on this team is one of the reasons those numbers are lacking. Sheed currently ranks 49th among both centers and power forwards in rebounding rate, which calculates the percentage of missed shots a player rebounds. Since Wallace is often on the perimeter and hoisting up 3-pointers over his defender, his ability to rebound around the basket is heavily hindered. He did grab 13 boards against the Magic Friday night, and his hustle played a large role in Boston's comeback attempt, but it hasn't been a regular occurrence this season. The Celtics know that they have the ability to dominate the boards if they put their mind to it, so we'll see if that happens today.
In New York's case, it's a slightly different situation. They are ahead of only Golden State in rebounding rate and their only player averaging more than 5.5 RPG is Lee, who is pulling in 9.3 a game. Even his numbers have dropped since last season, as he is down a hefty 2.4 RPG from his 2008-09 average.
Since both teams have been less than impressive on the boards so far this season, crashing the glass will be especially important today. If either team can wind up with a rebounding margin nearing, or exceeding, double-digits, it may be the key that unlocks a win.
48 minutes of basketball
Doc Rivers has been adamant that his team needs to put together a four-quarter performance. He's growing weary of his team playing two or three mediocre quarters and using one well-played quarter to open up a lead. In the mind of any NBA coach, a full 48 minutes of solid effort and play is what is preferred.
For the majority of this season, the third quarter is where the Celtics have come out with fury and dominated their opponents. What Paul Pierce wants is for his co-starters to make that a habit in the first quarter. He noted after last Friday's game against the Hawks that the starters are playing a bit lackadaisical to begin games, and that's not a habit winning teams allow to persist.
If Boston can put together that solid first quarter and continue their dominant second half ways, they may get as close to a complete game as they have all season. The Celtics bench players have stepped up when needed, and their solid play will show even more if the starters can take care of the start of both opening period and second half.
