New York Knicks: Improvement Against Celtics A Positive Sign

As the New York Knicks discovered in their preseason opener against the Boston Celtics last Wednesday night, they can talk all they want about their newfound commitment to ball movement, being active without the basketball and locking in defensively, and it won’t mean much until the results of those notions are evident on the floor.

But if the way the Knicks bounced back against the Celtics three nights later is any indication, the early returns are positive on how New York’s learning curve might be progressing under a new regime of team president Phil Jackson, head coach Derek Fisher and his entire new coaching staff, and several new key pieces on the roster.

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The differences between the Knicks’ first and second preseason games, each against Boston, were as stark as New York’s 54-win, Atlantic Division title season two years and its subsequent, underachieving, 37-win season a year ago.

Most obvious was the 36-point turnaround, from an embarrassing 20-point loss (106-86) in Hartford, to a very solid 16-point victory (96-80).

What led to that was more awareness, better spacing and more crisp passing offensively, all of which helped the Knicks go from poor 40.6 percent (28-for-69) shooting from the field to a much better 52.6 percent (41-for-78).

Franchise forward Carmelo Anthony was far more efficient, scoring 16 points while making half of his shots (7-of-14) after posting 10 points and making only a third (3-of-9) of his field goal attempts a game earlier.

Playing the same 19 minutes off the bench, guard J.R. Smith was also a lot better, scoring 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting after settling for just seven points on 3-of-8 shooting as a starter.

Doing the opposite, going from the bench to the starting lineup, newcomer Quincy Acy was a bright spot, with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting after scoring five points and missing all but one of six shots in the previous game.

Missing the first game with a hamstring issue, guard Iman Shumpert started (as forward Andrea Bargnani sat, after he played the first game, but missed the second with his own sore hamstring) and contributed six points on 3-of-6 shooting in 15 minutes, while already showing a propensity of being more aggressive than the often passive way he played in the Knicks’ offense last year.

And while New York’s 19 turnovers in the second game against Boston needs to come down, it was a vast improvement over the atrociously sloppy 28 times (14 via Celtics steals) the Knicks lost the ball in their previous contest.

"“I know it’s preseason, but for us to make those adjustments… it was pretty good,” Anthony acknowledged to the media, as seen at Knicks.com. “It’s day and night, what we did the last game, to [the next].”“We haven’t even broke the tip of the iceberg yet as far as this [new triangle] offense goes… (in the second preseason game) it seemed like everybody felt a little bit more comfortable being in this system, and we’ll get better day by day.“(After the first preseason game), we saw some opportunities where they tried to double team [against] the triangle, and some things that were open that we didn’t get to. (In the second game), we got a chance to get to that… as long as the floor is spaced [properly], there’s a lot of things that can happen out there.“With this system now, you’ve got to be alert, you’ve got to be on point, If you don’t have nothin’ in a second, a second and a half, the ball is out. So there’s no holding [the ball], it’s movement, a lot of ball movement, so you’ve got to be ready for it.”"

While the Knicks’ offense was a lot better, it only produced an extra 10 points between the two games against the Celtics. Where New York was most impressive was at the other end of the floor, while limiting Boston to 26 fewer points the second time around.

Overall, partly because of the pace, the Celtics attempted 16 fewer shots (64 versus 80) and made 15 fewer (24, after sinking 39).

Those differences yielded 37.5 percent shooting after 48.8 percent the game before, as Boston went from making half of its 22 3-pointers to just 29.2 percent (7-of-24) in its next outing against New York. The Celtics also turned the ball over 20 times, five more than the prior game.

Although center Jared Sullinger exploited the Knicks inside in each game, New York did a much better job of containing guards Marcus Smart, Evan Turner and Marcus Thornton. That trio combined for 32 points on 50 percent (13-for-26) shooting in Boston’s win, but worked a lot harder for its 31 points on just 29.1 percent (7-for-24) shooting in the Celtics’ loss to the Knicks.

As Anthony said, it’s only the preseason, and just two games in, at that. But since that’s all there is to go by thus far, the preliminary signs are that Knicks players are listening, buying in to the overall new plans at each end of the floor and learning from their mistakes. And if New York’s culture is to ultimately change for the better, it has to start with that.

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New York Knicks: Improvement Against Celtics A Positive Early Sign

By Jonathan Wagner | Oct 13, 2014