Post Game Reaction: Pelicans 104 Knicks 92
The New York Knicks tumble continues as they lose another one. The Pelicans beat the Knicks 104-92. This was a hard one to watch as the Knicks did not look like a playoff team as they played very little team basketball on offense and put very little effort on defense. Here are a few of my observations.
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Knicks defense another no-show. The theme of this season has been the lack of defense played by the Knicks. They are towards the bottom in almost all the different defensive stats. Tonight was no different. They let the Pelicans hit 12 threes, score 30 fast break points and 46 paint points. They did not limit the Pelicans from the perimeter or stop them from scoring layups and on top of that let them get a ton of points in transition. The Knicks did not look to interested in stopping anyone tonight.
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Anthony Davis vs. Kristaps Porzingis. We got to see a great-matchup between two of most exciting bigs in the league. Davis finished with 23pts and 18rebs, while Porzingis had 21pts and 12rebs. The two played really well. The big difference to me is that Davis's game is more polished than Porzingis. The Pelicans consistently switched on all screens and Porzingis had numerous chances to score on a smaller player and most of the time struggled to take advantage of it. Porzingis should take this tape and just watch the way Davis played and the way he got to his spots where he was most comfortable.
Knicks continue iso-ball on offense. Another night where the Knicks went heavy iso-ball. They may have finished with 18 assists but on too many possessions the Knicks would come down the court and make one pass or none and just shoot the ball. The Knicks do not make the defense even work. It is just a merry-go-round between Melo, Rose and Porzingis taking turns shooting the ball. Melo, Rose and Porzingis combined for 9 asts and that is not going to cut it. They have the ball in their hands for most of the time, they need to do better and set-up their teammates.
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Poor effort. The New York Knicks are on a little of a slide losing 3 straight and 6 of their last 8 games. This was a very winnable game and it was a poor showing. You expected a little more urgency as they had lost 2 straight. The Knicks really need to improve the effort on defense and the stars need to do a better job getting their teammates more involved on the offense.
The New York Knicks play again tomorrow night against the Houston Rockets. Hopefully they play a little better or they could be blown right off the court.
