Monday, February 20, 2012

Some Pre-Game Thoughts - At A Glance

On February 4th, JLin came off the bench against the Nets to have a breakout game with 25 points and 7 assists in 36 minutes in his first extended action of the season.

Sixteen days later you know the rest.

Now it's rematch time against All-Star Deron Williams and his crew. This will be the first "rematch" game for JLin against any of the teams the Knicks have faced since February 4th so it will be interesting to see if the Nets try to defend JLin differently than they did two weeks ago. Gotta think they will try some of the same traps and double teams that others have been trying.

Also of note, tonight's game should mark Melo's return from a seven game absence. Melo's last full game was against the Nets.

The Nets will have Brook Lopez In the lineup for the second time this season but will be without Jordan Farmar who had 19 points against the Knicks on February 4th.

ESPN has an interesting analysis of JLin's impact on the Knicks.

34 comments:

  1. Brook Lopez should be out today...according to the Nets notes. The plan was to play him Sunday and sit him Monday to ease him back into the line up from this injury,

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  2. also deron wasn't too impressed after lin's breakout game. they'd probably be double or triple teaming lin now. with melo back, this game will be interesting.

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  3. I expect Deron Williams to score big against Lin the way John Wall did.

    On the other hand, the Knicks are now playing 10 guys every night. With the ShuHowGun of Harlem, the Knick minimum wagers have become big time NBA contributors. It will be tough for the Nets to win, as Kris Humphries and Marshon Brooks are the only other solid contributors for the Nyets.

    I expect Lin to have low numbers but high efficiency in a blowout victory.

    By the way, Steve Nash is now calling himself the "Canadian Jeremy Lin"!

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    1. Honestly, don't care about Lin's individual performance vis a vis Williams.

      Hopefully he focuses on TEAM offense and TEAM defense, and Knicks get a win.

      Let Deron Williams do a John Wall on Lin, as long as the Knicks win, and hopefully coast to victory tonight.

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    2. Well, so much for the blowout victory.

      Deron Williams had a monster night. When top players like Williams have nights like this, there is little anybody can do.

      Tonight Williams took Lin to school!

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    3. The Knicks were missing Shump badly. Every team needs a defensive clamp down guy like that. Lin did that last time because he still had a lot of fuel in his legs and fire in the heart. Not this time.

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  4. Reggie Miller said let's see what he does vs better point guards like Rose, Westbrook, and Rhondo. Typical answer for a shooter. This is a team sport. You are looking just stats Reggie vs a great point guard; what does that prove. Facing a tough defensive team is really the measuring stick like the Mavs, Celtics, Spurs, and Heat (Wade & James shut down Rose last playoffs). Just watching how Mavs came back from 12 point deficit yest when Lin on bench was proof in the pudding.

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  5. Off topic, but does anyone here know where I can find a jlin road swingman jersey that ships before May? lol. I even tried calling the NBA Store in NYC who said they might be getting them this week, but about a few minutes ago someone there told me they might not even be getting them at all. And the one on nyknicksstore.com ships on May 20.... It's either I go w/ a replica or buy a swingman on ebay from overseas (NO), lol.

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  6. nice behind to back pass of to Novak with 3 seconds left at the end of the 1st qtr. Wasted just enough time, so the basket didn't count - lol.

    Nice screen and shoot it up by JR Smith miss 3 pointer with like 19 seconds left on the shot clock. Just really a good way to mess up team fluidity on the offensive end. lol.

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  7. Ronsta - If NBA Store and nyknicksstore doesn't have it, you may be stuck. I would suggest Modell's (as I bought Warriors stuff before) but did not realize they were based in NY too so their stock (like all other options) are limited. If you haven't looked, even the replicas are on back order too.

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    1. Thanks for the reply. Dang, I wish they had more. I'll look around.

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  8. there you have it folks. Lin less touches on the ball, and boom less TO just like we wanted. Uhmmm wait, that means more touches for the likes of JR Smith and Melo and we got 23 TO. Oh man. Oh man. "Houston, we have a problem".

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  9. At least Carmelo Anthony is back.

    The Knicks will make adjustments and work everyone together.

    Good win by the Nets. And Kris Humphries does not deserve to be booed.

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  10. The Nets shot 48% from (15/31) but only 39% FG (32/82), showing the Knicks did defend well inside the arc. I thought everyone was playing hard and hustling, but the knicks were rusty offensively. Maybe it's because of the new players added to the mix (Melo, Davis, JR), the team just didn't exactly "click" after the 1st quarter.

    This may sound crony, but I wish Jeremy would had been more assertive to the game. After all, he has been the reason that catalyzed the chemistry of the team all this time. The team isn't short of talent now, except they really could use a defensive stopper like Shump on Deron the way he clamped down Jose Calderon. Baron is a veteran PG, definitely serviceable off the bench for 10-15 min, but it's Lin who needs to lead the team. The team is depending on him as well. Melo's shown (at least for today) the will to blend into the Lin-mix; while we don't know how long that would last (losing could change anything), this is definitely something positive from the game.

    As a whole, the Nets played well as a team behind the leadership of Deron, and the Knicks spent too much time blending and learning how to play with each other. The loss is almost like a tuition fee for some credit courses. Hopefully this will pay off in the next 2 games against the Hawks and the Heats.

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    1. Thanks a lot, KHuang, it means a whole lot from a veteran fan like you.

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    2. You're welcome.

      What I DIDN'T say is that your post was so good that I couldn't write anything.

      You are every bit of a veteran fan like me too. We love the NBA, not just Lin.

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  11. If you are into Jeremy Lin, check out these quotes about Linsanity http://qtrs.co/yHd3wB

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  12. Really disappointed in the tonight's lost (now that I've been converted from a Warriors to Knicks fan). Overall, Lin had a good game. If he had played 45 minutes, perhaps he had a chance for a triple-double. Although he missed a bunch of lay-ups in the first half, he may not have been getting the calls. Still, he's been playing great defense....4-5 steals in each of the last 3 games, and only 3 turnovers tonight.

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  13. If you look, Lin was only -1. Meaning the Knicks were right there with the Nets while Lin was in. Baron was -12 and JR -16. The 2nd unit was the issue here more than Jeremy.

    I think D'Antoni made a mistake by putting ALL of the 2nd unit in at the same time with none of the starters. That was boneheaded.

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  14. once Lin feels the comfort of running the team w/o worrying about making sure Melo always gets his touches and keeping him the lead scorer he can focus a lot more on creating imo but this is nothing more than a stepping stone. Brush it off and im sure the knicks will get this win over the Hawks and over the Heat :)

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  15. Can anyone tell me who was that Asian female reporter in the postgame interview? She asked some stupid questions that made people want her to shut up. She even referred Nets as a "No Good Team"!

    Is she from Taiwan or Korea? Or?

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    1. I think she's Taiwanese. Definitely not a Korean accent.

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    2. Can anyone find out which company she works for? We need to tell her boss to send someone else who knows basketball and can ask some meaningful questions.

      It is such a shame that she was there and made Jeremy Lin embarrassed for the questions she asked!

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    3. She could also be a Chinese journalist from China. If she's from Taiwan, it'd certainly be a shame. Previously Lin just asked the media in Taiwan to respect the privacy of his relatives, now here's a Taiwanese journalist making a joke out of herself while pissing the whole Linosphere off.

      China or Taiwan, those questions were certainly very unprofessional for a sports reporter. I really wonder which company does she work for.

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    4. Dude this is like the 3rd game in a row where she asked stupid freaking questions. I'm so embarrassed for her. Is there a way we can write to her company and ask for a different representative? If we collectively complain enough it may work

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    5. Promise me you'll be "calm," "rational," and "objective."

      service@ettoday.net

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  16. Somebody just found out that she is Ms. Wong and is from Taiwan News ETTODAY.

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    1. Done. Ms. Wong's got a bad rep.

      This is just sad. Shame on ETTODAY for putting a non-sport journalist out there and without noticing how terrible of a job she's been doing. Jared Max of ESPN radio complained about this "foreign press" after the Kings game as well.

      Shame on ETTODAY.

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    2. Here is ETTV America Facebook page.

      If the lady report's face on the second YouTube video is the one we are talking about here (the picture shows she was sitting in the postgame interview and asked Jeremy Lin questions), we should call that company and talk to her boss (there is a toll free number on the contact page).

      https://www.facebook.com/pages/東森美洲電視-ETTV-America-Corp/134783568415

      http://www.ettvamerica.com/o_contactus.html

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  17. I'm originally from NY and had to deal with this kind of stuff all the time. Thus I'm much meaner and crueler than Lin is.

    The first time a guard did that to me, I would have politely reeducated him. Then I'd have marched up to the front office and said "I may be a nobody, but I play in the NBA and I am not a trainer. Please inform your personnel that I am on the team".

    Then if somebody did that again, I'd rain Asian hell on the perpetrator. My agent would be on the phone, and loud too. And if the team fought back, the presses would be next especially if I were waived out of the league for insubordination.

    I am sure that MSG took the proper steps. Otherwise Lin's agent would have been in attack mode.

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  18. Yesterday I wrote a letter of complaint to ETTODAY America. I collected comments from here and MSG.com, summarized it with a line "If ESPN can fire the journalist for that offensive title, why can't ETTODAY at the very least replace her with someone with decent understanding of the NBA and English proficiency!?"

    Just got a non-automated reply:


    Dear Customer,

    Thank you for taking the time to share your comments with us!

    We apologize for any inconvenience that was caused by the inappropriate language used in the Knicks' post-game conference. Your opinions and thoughts were highly appreciated and valued. Let this incident be a valuable lesson to keep our promise of bringing the most accurate, professional and unbiased news to all of our viewers.

    Should you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at news@ettvamerica.com.

    ETTV America Corp.
    News Department


    We'll find out if this would actually change anything at the next Postgame conference.

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    1. Good going, Hans!

      I am appreciative of your efforts.

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