Knicks Show Progress In Win Over Sixers

All through the preseason, New York Knicks head coach Derek Fisher has downplayed the value of wins and losses, instead focusing on the development of his team.

This remained true on Tuesday night, even after the Knickerbockers notched their second preseason win, an 84-76 triumph over the Philadelphia 76ers at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Afterward, the first-year coach praised his team’s willingness to share the ball and the way his squad has improved throughout the first four exhibitions.

“We had 22 assists again tonight, and we’re still not playing our best, most efficient basketball,” Derek said. “I think it shows you how teammates are making each other better.”

Just 24 hours after the Knicks fell on their home floor to the Toronto Raptors, they turned around and played their third game in four days—this one in Syracuse, where Carmelo Anthony made his stamp on the collegiate game by leading the Orange to the NCAA title in 2003.

Prior to the game, Coach Fisher noted that he would try to get Anthony more playing time in his old stomping grounds after limiting him to just 15 minutes the night before against the Raptors.

“We’ll try and play him a little bit more tonight than we did last night,” Fish said. “Not just because we’re here (at Syracuse), but this will be our fourth (preseason game) and you have to start to ramp it up a little bit in terms of when the regular season starts. Hopefully without injury or foul trouble, he’ll play 30-plus minutes a game.”

Coach Fish came through with his promise, giving Anthony 27 minutes, which he parlayed into a team-high 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

However, New York’s early scoring on Tuesday night came from an unexpected source: center Samuel Dalembert. The big man who averaged just 6.6 points per game last year hit the Knicks’ first three buckets.

After Dalembert’s strong start, Anthony heated up, which helped New York overcome an early deficit. Once the Knicks had taken the lead, they held it with suffocating defense as the Sixers scored just one point in the final five minutes of the frame.

The Knicks were able to push their lead to double digits in the closing minutes of the frame and with less than 30 seconds left in the first quarter, they executed D-Fish’s triangle offense to perfection for one more score.

Melo received the ball at the top of the arc, at which point the man defending Knicks big man Jason Smith moved over to double team the dangerous Anthony. But Anthony was ready for the double and quickly dished to a wide-open Smith for an easy 2-pointer that gave the Knicks an 11-point lead and a lot of momentum going into the second period.

Afterward, Coach Fisher remarked on his star’s quick thinking.

“He’s not just relying on his talent and his skill. He sees the basketball game in a complete way,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have that type of superstar player.”

Although Anthony was the star of the night, D-Fish kept up his preseason trend of distributing minutes evenly to his team and giving many of his role players the chance to learn the complicated New York offense. Of the 13 active players who were active on Tuesday, 10 logged at least 20 minutes of action in the contest.

Shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. was another bright spot for New York. The second year scorer tallied 13 points and knocked down both of his 3-point attempts. Hardaway Jr.’s best play was another example of the triangle working to perfection. With the Knicks holding a 13-point lead midway through the second quarter, the New York offense moved the ball fluidly to three different players before Iman Shumpert found Hardaway Jr. standing wide open for a triple.

The second quarter was another dominant one for New York, highlighted by Hardaway’s pair of threes, as well as strong play from Shumpert and Quincy Acy, who got his second consecutive start for the Knicks. The scoring of that trio and some strong defensive effort gave the Knicks a 16-point advantage going into halftime.

Learning the triangle offense has been a major focal point for the Knicks, but Fish has made it clear his team needs to play cohesively on defense as well to succeed. In that regard, they excelled again on Tuesday and the coach gave credit to his team, which has now held its last two opponents under 82 points and at or below 40 percent shooting.

“I thought that the effort was there during some stretches. I thought guys were communicating and doing the right things,” Coach Fish said of his defense. “Philadelphia is still a young team, and they’re trying to find who they are, but I think overall our mentality towards defense in trying to make it more difficult for teams to score is in the right place.”

After halftime, it was the Knicks offense that came out firing.

Antony knocked down the first two shots of the quarter and was followed by Acy, then Shumpert in the scoring parade as New York pushed its lead to 21 and force a Sixers timeout with less than five minutes gone by in the frame. Shortly after the timeout, Anthony hit a shot off a feed from Acy to push New York’s lead to its highest point at 22. The two linked up again less than two minutes later as Anthony canned a 15-footer to make it 62-40 with 4:40 remaining in the third.

As Coach Fisher slowly began substituting his reserves into the game over the final four-and-a-half minutes of the quarter, the Sixers put together a furious rally and cut New York’s lead to 11 points.

Philly kept applying pressure in the fourth, and brought the lead down to seven and six points on several occasions. However, every time the Sixers threatened, the Knicks responded to keep them at arm’s length. While it was a bit close for comfort at times, New York closed out the seven-point victory.

Although he is encouraged by the team’s success over the last few days, as the Knicks moved to 2-2 halfway through their preseason slate, Coach Fisher said he doesn’t put much weight in the outcome of exhibition games.

“The team is going in the right direction,” he said. “We won’t really overreact to winning or losing a preseason game, it’s really about our habits and we’re doing some good things.”

NEXT UP

After playing three games in four nights, the Knicks (2-2) have several days of practice before they return to the court on Monday to take on the Milwaukee Bucks (1-3) at Madison Square Garden.

Tip-off of Monday’s game between Milwaukee and New York is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and can be seen on MSG.