A recent four-game skid has seen many hop off the New York Knicks’ previously popular bandwagon, but a visit to the Philadelphia 76ers might be the perfect thing to right the ship for Carmelo Anthony and company.
The New York Knicks entered this season with, quite literally, no expectations.
At best, some felt this team might be able to sneak into the playoff discussion if absolutely everything went the right way. At worst .. .another disastrous season that could see a trade involving Carmelo Anthony.
Well hey, the latter of those two seems like a distant nightmare!
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Anthony and the Knicks hopped off to a white hot start, going 8-6 and riding a four game win streak into last week. Kristaps Porzingis was dunking on fools with all of the ferocity of a Latvian bulldog (do those exist? I hope so. Maybe that should be KP’s nickname?), while the young backcourt of Langston Galloway and Jerian Grant led a second unit filled with potential.
Most importantly, though, was the simple fact that the Knicks were winning.
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It had been a year or two since the Knicks had even been passable as an NBA franchise and much longer since there had been a genuine feeling of hope surrounding the franchise, but with this sudden youth infusion and Carmelo finally seeming comfortable in his role as team leader, the Knicks were considered to be amongst the leagues top young franchises.
Four consecutive wins, including a couple of road victories against the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, had some feeling that the Knicks could not only be in the playoff race, but easily capture a spot in the Eastern Conference and who knows, maybe even make a run come this spring.
Just kidding!
While things in New York continue to look good for both the near and distant future, the Knicks have reverted back to the young and inexperienced team they still are lately.
A four game slide has seen the Knicks fall down to 8-10 on the season, which is still something of an achievement when you consider the fact that the team didn’t have this many wins until late January last season.
After looking so good though, the expectations around this team have suddenly changed. After all, this is New York baby- we want a winner.
At the core of the Knicks’ recent struggles have been their shooting numbers, as they’ve shot less than 40 percent in three of the four losses, finally finding their stroke in the most recent game against the Rockets that saw them squander a late lead.
The loss was painful, as the Knicks carried an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter despite not having Anthony, who was out with an illness. A pair of Marcus Thornton free throws with one second left would send the game to overtime though, where Arron Afflalo‘s 31 points couldn’t push New York to a victory.
Frustrating, regardless of whether the Knicks best player was on the court or not.
But hey, New York may be running into the best possible team to fix their woes–the Philadelphia 76ers!
The Sixers may have picked up their first victory of the season against the Los Angelas Lakers on Tuesday night in a stirring 103-91 win that saw Kobe Bryant say goodbye to his hometown, but they’re still 1-18 for the year, which pretty much says everything about Philly.
They are bad, very bad. The Knicks are not bad.
This should go our way.
With Carmelo saying he’ll be good to go for the Wednesday night clash at the Garden, this feels like the perfect opportunity for this young team to get it’s bearings and right the ship.
Despite losing to the Rockets, they did manage to find their shooting strokes again, as New York shot 58 percent from the floor. The game against Philly will provide the perfect opportunity both to continue that hot shooting (Philly ranks 21st in defense) while also figuring out their defense, which allowed 116 points their last time out.
The Sixers are down right futile offensively, ranking dead last in offensive rating and points per game, which should create plenty of opportunities for the Knicks to force turnovers and run in transition. That fast paced offense will hopefully kickstart the struggling Galloway as well as keep some of the pressure off the returning Anthony.
The Knicks triangle offense is absolutely still a work in progress, as the team ranks just 22nd in offensive PPG. It’s games like these that will give New York an opportunity to work out kinks and try some new things while also picking up what should be an easy win.
Plus, we’ll get another look at the Kristaps v.s Jahlil Okafor matchup that was so much fun to see in Summer League action! Release the Kristaps!
It might not be sexy or glamorous, but it’s games like these that allow for young teams to continue the building process.
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Hey, at least their isn’t the pressure of having to face an 0-19 team. God knows it would be the most Knicks thing ever to lose to an 0-19 team. Shoutout to Kobe for taking 17 3-point attempts to ease up the pressure.
All statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com/Stats