Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Knicks vs Raptors Game Thread

24 comments:

  1. He got robbed by the ref right before the half. He hits a three pointer and only is given 2points.

    Bull crap.

    I am really getting annoyed by carmello asking for the ball 30 feet from the hoop. The idiot is shooting 3 for 8. Now he is dribbling it up the court!

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    1. It was actually a 2 pointer. His foot was on the line.

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  2. Lin's foot was on the line. Too bad because he is really solid from downtown especially when open. 1-2 instead of 2-3 from downtown now. I thought Lin was robbed on 2 steals but it will probably even out over the season.

    Lin keeps taking vicious hits, the refs aren't calling the blows to the head when attacking the basket and the dirty picks on him when he's on defense. Lin was gushing blood on a towel in the 1st quarter but this kid is TOUGH as nails.

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  3. By the way F--K Stephen A "the racist" Smith for still saying on the radio a few days ago that Jeremy Lin was a marginal NBA bench player at best, and for complaining that in ONE game since Melo came back that Lin shot more than him. Now what can Stephen A say? Lin still scores almost twice as much as Melo and takes almost half as many shots. Melo shooting 39% on the season now.

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  4. Coach Woodson trying to keep Lin's minutes way down. Calderon is torching any Knicks player not named Lin, the Knick defense and offense seems to collapse without Lin on the floor. Bibby is no comparison, he's just shooting jumpshots and not making any.

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  5. i'm happy jlin not playign too many minutes today. will need all his energy for philly tomorrow. all round solid game. linsanity is not dead!

    y'all are too harsh on melo. you should be happy overall he's playing unselfish and dishing...and he's smiling and having fun. it could be a lot worse.

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    1. Melo was great today. But he wasn't before.

      During this 4-game run, he's been an outstanding team player. Passing, rebounds, even high intensity defense!

      If this Melo keeps showing up, we'll all be his biggest fans.

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    2. Ditto...We all knew Melo was fast and is capable, just he made everyone mad by not doing anything to contribute. Maybe its because he's holding out to oust D'Antoni, or he felt disenfranchised with D'Antoni favoring Lin...Probably the latter or some combination of both. Woodson clearly isn't having any of that and it shows...Its like watching Melo 2.0

      I can't tell if Woodson is trying to limit Lin's minutes or not, but when he benched Lin it was always when Lin did something wrong consecutively (e.g. that bad pass and subsequent foul)...Might be a good idea to cool their jets. STAT was on a roll, explains why he had 34+ minutes.

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  6. Superb game from Jeremy and the entire team. Including Melo. Defense has been amazing these past 4 games. Including Melo!

    Jeremy probably could have been credited for 2-3 more assists if he had Rondo's boxscore luck.

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  7. Nevermind, Knicks are leading by 20 pts, it's garbage time, give Jeremy, Melo, Chandler, and Amare some rest, the very tough 76ers are tomorrow night.

    Coach clears the bench and puts in Tony Douglas, who hasn't played in like 14 games. Tony is a much better defender than Bibby. I wish Knicks would just cut Bibby.

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  8. Jeremy Lin with his 7th double-double... in only 32 games. Good enough for 7th amongst all NBA PG's... and he's played less than everyone ahead of him on the list...

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  9. What a night for Jeremy! What a night for the Knicks! You guys agree with me on how fun this game was to watch. To be honest, even if the knicks had LOST, I would have enjoyed this game. Obviously, not as much. But check out Stat diving after the loose ball. Look at Carmelo dishing to Lin for the Tre! And what about the blood stain on Lin's Jersey. Jeremy's got so much heart. You can't teach that.
    And I'm not even talking about the numbers... Lin: Damn... 18pt on 10 fta (60%!) , 10 Assists! 3 rebounds and ONLY 3TO! All-star stats! certainly better than 5/15 by Melo

    I know that coach Woodson may not have won over some of you guys yet, but believe me... He's a championship caliber coach. In fact, he DID win the hardware w/ Detroit. If you saw tonight's game, you may have seen how Woodson benched Lin after a horrible pass that lead to his third TO. I thought that was a brilliant move. Also, after Melo shot a long lazy shot, Woodson benched his ass too. Neither of them came back in the game till much later.
    That's good coaching folks. Not necessarily to punish players for bad mistakes (although it may serve that purpose as well) but more importantly to help the players regain their focus by rest or by simply helping them refresh their mental energy.
    I remember noting after the knicks lost to the Heat, how Dantoni is not a championship caliber coach. (check out my comment after that game) Because the Heats were gang raping Lin and Dantoni didn't do squat in terms of setting plays to help him. After the game, Dantoni basically said: "Oh he'll figure it out on the court. He's learning." That's bad coaching folks. He's only a single player on the court. He can't figure his way out of that kind of pressure on his own. He needed the coach to do that. That's the Coach's damn job! He needed set plays to help beat the press with the whole team.
    Woodson is a different coach. He understands that ONE player never wins a championship. And Jeremy, although a great all-star caliber player in the making, cannot do it himself. Sometimes I think Jeremy tries too hard in that regards. That's why you see Melo bring up the ball some times. That's why you see Jeremy sitting on the bench more than before. You can't "ride him like the Secretariat..." for god's sake. Let's get one thing straight. Dantoni did not make Jeremy. and Jeremy was never the result of the "system." Lin was played by Dantoni out of desperation; not out of insight. I always thought ppl who stated Lin was the result of Dantoni system were really insulting Jeremy's talent. Also, players when asked about Jeremy who respond by saying: "It's a great story..." blah blah are actually insulting him. I liked Kobe's reponse. "How the F#@% did any team miss this guy? They should be fired..." To say that Lin is a great story is like saying that the survival by the Jews during the Nazi Germany is a great story. (ok a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point) It's NOT a great story. He's a great PLAYER for God's sake. NOT a great STORY. The fact that he was overlooked was the result of a Blatantly racist system. And the fact that he's playing at such a high level is acting as a crystal clear mirror that reflects the overt racism from both blacks and whites against asians. That's a not a great story... it's an ugly one. But, Lin IS a Great player and out of his great plays on the basketball court, a great story can emerge. And that story is much bigger than basketball.
    So, guys, when these NBA stars say Jeremy is a great story, think again. They're slighting him of the compliment that he IS a great PLAYER. And worse, they ignore the ugly side of how he got here. I respect Kobe for that.

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    1. Agree with you, especially regarding the game vs. Heat.

      Only the gravity of Linsanity can break the racial barrier in pro basketball, but once Jeremy earned a solid foothold in NBA, Linsanity should retire. Otherwise he would soon be burning out, with those out-of-proportion pressure, burden, and focus on him.

      He has a long way to go in NBA. He needs time and good coaching to further develop his skills, build up experience and somehow learn how to avoid serious injury. Now being coached by Woodson seems like a good thing to him after all.

      I’m very happy Jeremy had a good game with high efficiency. He even had 1 block! It’s also a well balanced game – everybody has his fair share, and happy. That’s a way to keep the team in good chemistry and healthy.

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  10. But I digress. Back to Woodson... I know it's a small sample size for me to crown Woodson w/ coach of the year but he's showing all the signs of great coach. For now, can't wait till tomorrow. It'll be a damn good game. We may not win... to be honest but if they play like they've been playing last four games... It'll be fun to watch. It WILL be close. I say about 3-8 pt differential. Have fun guys and gals.

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  11. 18 points on ten attempts. That is really efficient and accurate. Sounds like lins shooting is coming around, which is only gonna give him huge boost in confidence. Once he makes it on a regulat basis he'll be unstoppable, as the defender won't know whether to give him space our get up in his face n risk being burnt. I'd like lin to incorporate more fakes, like fake right n go left n vice versa. He's got the vertical game down, his shot is coming, next is jiggling n wiggling n the faking n baking. Then the postups. Damn, he's come a long ways in a short time!

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    1. Yeah, I would like to see Jeremy learn how to use a pass fake or a "head fake" to get to the rim.

      It's basically like a pump fake, except he doesn't need to give up his dribble to fool the defender into jumping.

      All he needs to do is raise his head and shoulders to make the defense think he's going to shoot, keep the dribble, then drive around them when they go airborne to block the shot.

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    2. you mean like this?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUp1k03_PsQ&t=0m28s

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  12. In a way jeremy is like a writer of his own story. He's setting the pace to his career the way he has already imagined to be. To make people believe his skills were undeniable, he created Linsanity by scoring insanely night after night. However he recognizes that anything that blows up so fast will also flame out fast so he slows it down a bit. Whats after that? who kniws, we just git to stay tuned.

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  13. Jeremy got hit in the nose by Demar Derozan and got a nosebleed in the 1st quarter, but he played through it. This is the 3rd or 4th time that's happened. Maybe other teams are using that as a defensive strategy, go for the nose. I'm just glad he hasn't broken it and wearing a facemask like Kobe.

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  14. what I really liked about jeremy's game today was his solid defence. He really stuck to his guy in spite of them trying to do multiple screens, really limited Calderon. In the 3rd quarter you could tell that the raptors were scared of passing to Calderon even if he was wide open. He was always jumping for the loose ball as well

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  15. With each passing game, Jeremy Lin is looking more and more like Micheal Sugar Ray Richardson.

    Now I see Jeremy starting to use his size to dribble down low and shoot a turnaround jumper going to his right. He has always done that, but now he's getting a chance to show it. Sugar had that same postup turnaround jumper, although Sugar often let it fly from 3 point land.

    Both Jeremy and Sugar have that right hand reverse layup that ends in the right side. Like Jeremy Lin, opponents used to play Sugar to the left. Sugar and Lin will use a strong crossover to beat right leaning defenders, but Sugar also used a spin dribble that Lin will eventually learn too.

    Best of all, Lin is starting to toughen up. Sugar was one of the toughest and most feared players in the NBA, and Lin is right there too.

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  16. I think at this point, every sportswriter or columnist or talk show talking head needs to shut up about Jeremy not being a good point guard in the league. He's a TOP TEN PG in the league. PERIOD. END OF DISCUSSION. Now treat him with the respect he deserves.

    Fine, point out that he struggles with his left, but also point out that even with a passable left hand, MOST guards in the NBA fail to get to the rim as consistent at Jeremy does. Sure, everyone loves to point out his turnovers, and it seems like every time his stats are mentioned, they always include turnovers (like against Toronto, someone had to mention he had 18 and 10, oh and 3 turnovers). GET OVER IT PEOPLE. He's effecitvely a rookie still and still learning the game and it's not an obstacle he won't overcome. Turnovers are a part of the game and definitely show up when people are aggressive in driving to the hole. They keep bringing up TO's like it's a legit reason to say he's not an elite PG.

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    1. They just intentionally ignore the fact that PG usually has higher TO. Steve Nash, an all-star PG with 15-year experience, had 7 TO when played against Heat, Lakers, clippers and his average TO is 3.6 so far this season, same as Lin's 3.6. When Nash had 7 TO yesterday, they didn't say anything about it. They criticize Lin based on a standard stricter than that for an all-star.

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