Knicks Snap Skid With Weekend Split

By | 2016-10-28T19:35:35-08:00 November 18th, 2014|News|Comments Off on Knicks Snap Skid With Weekend Split

Derek Fisher and the New York Knicks welcomed two Western Conference foes to Madison Square Garden over the weekend, and the two-game slate brought both a heartbreaking loss and a much-needed bounceback victory.

An improved Utah Jazz squad came to town Friday night and sunk the Knicks on a buzzer-beater by Trey Burke, handing Fish’s squad its second straight two-point loss.

But on Sunday night, the Knicks left no room for a heartbreaking last-second loss, as they used a 31-8 second-quarter barrage to cruise to a comfortable 109-93 victory over the Denver Nuggets.

Denver Nuggets v New York Knicks

The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak as the Knicks prepare for a road back-to-back on Tuesday and Wednesday. Afterward, D-Fish was happy for his players, that they were able to stop the skid on their home floor.

“I feel good for (the players), especially on our home floor,” Fish said of snapping the losing streak at MSG. “I think the fans have continued to be patient with us during this transition and some of the unfortunate injuries that we have, but I just feel happy for our guys that they can win on their home court before they get out this week.”

HEARTBREAK VS. SALT LAKE

Utah Jazz v New York Knicks

Friday night, New York’s tilt with Utah took a quick downturn, when Iman Shumpert left the game with a leg injury less than one minute after the tip. The Knicks’ top on-ball defender landed awkwardly while attempting a jump pass under the rim, and Fish’s squad was forced to soldier on without Shumpert or Amar’e Stoudemire—who sat for recovery purposes—on top of the litany of injuries it has already sustained this year.

Without that pair, New York needed someone to step up and take over the game, and Carmelo Anthony was the only Knick who fit that description. The N.Y. star ripped off a monstrous 46 points and seven rebounds, giving the team the spark they needed to keep themselves in a tough game against a budding Utah club.

“I was just trying man,” Melo said of his valiant Friday night performance. “I don’t like to lose, and tonight was just one of those nights where we just try to will our way to a win.”

Utah Jazz v New York Knicks

The Knicks were in a bit of shock in that first quarter, particularly without Shumpert’s presence on the defensive end. Meanwhile, the Jazz weren’t about to wait up, as they shot 64.7 percent to take a 31-23 lead.

Fish’s squad then made some excellent adjustments in the second. Derek called upon all seven of his reserves to come on, and they held the Jazz to just 17 points. Meanwhile, those bench players combined for 13 points to cut their deficit to just one, 48-47, at the half.

In the third quarter Melo took over. He waged an incredible battle with Utah’s top scorer, Gordon Hayward, The head-to-head match up began to heat up in the third and boiled over in the closing stretch of the game, and afterward, Hayward praised the play of Melo on the night.

“He’s a competitor, man,” Hayward said of Anthony. “He’s a scorer. I love playing against guys like that. It gets a little physical down there, but that’s kind of the nature of who he is. He’s hard to guard. We put multiple guys on him and it still doesn’t seem like it works.”

Anthony worked his way past whatever the Jazz sent his way in the third, going 5-of-7 from the field for 13 points. Melo did anything and everything he could to spark the New York offense, which also saw solid production from Pablo Prigioni and J.R. Smith, who scored 13 and nine points respectively. Melo repeatedly found himself working the post in the third quarter, where he sunk multiple and-ones that kept the Knicks contending throughout the game.

But for whatever Melo and Co. did, Hayward and Co. seemed to have an answer, as the visitors took a 27-25 lead to the fourth. By the end of three, Anthony and Hayward had combined for 49 points, and that total only inflated.

Utah Jazz v New York Knicks

With eight minutes left in the fourth, Prigioni found himself with the ball down 75-74 with 9:34 remaining on the clock, sprinted toward the basket, and faked a pass to the outside before rolling the ball in with his left, putting New York ahead of Utah for the first time since they led 2-0 when Shump went down with an injury. He promptly followed that with a trifecta to stretch the lead, but Utah answered behind Hayward to reclaim the lead.

Utah’s top scorer had 13 points in the fourth, but Anthony spoke louder. No. 7 scored 17 of the Knicks’ final 19 points. The Jazz led 100-97 with less than 10 seconds to go, and the night appeared to be over, but the Jazz forgot one thing; Melo had the ball.

With the clock ticking away at four seconds, Melo stepped up from beyond the arc, and banked home an improbable 26-footer that send MSG in a frenzy and tie the game at 100.

Unfortunately, Anthony’s enormous shot was one-upped by Utah’s Trey Burke, who took an inbound with two seconds to go and launched a baseline step-back jumper at the buzzer to win the game.

Even despite the heartbreaking loss, Derek was energized by the way his team battled through injury, showed fantastic enthusiasm and fought all the way to the end.

“Excitement (and) belief in who we are and what we’re made of,” Derek said of his team’s mindset following the tough loss. “That was New York City right there, that was New York City. You show up to the arena and you find out Amar’e is not playing, and we already got two guys out. First play of the game, Shumpert goes out and you gotta be wondering if somebody’s playing a game, that they would continue to throw that kind of stuff at us.

“Guess what these guys did? They went out and they fought as hard as they did all season.”

DENVER DOMINATION

Denver Nuggets v New York Knicks

Derek and the Knicks spent no time licking their wounds, and took theat positive energy straight into Sunday’s match against and the Denver Nuggets back at the Garden.

With Shumpert still out with a hip contusion, Coach Fish made the call to move J.R. Smith into the starting lineup, and the decision paid off in a big way. Smith went of, tying Anthony with a game-high 28 points off 10-of-16 shooting, adding four assists, four rebounds and two steals.

After the game, Derek talked about his decision to tab Smith as the starter.

“With Shump out, we could’ve gone either way with JR or Tim at the two guard,” D-Fish said. “We thought that J.R. would be able to give us some punch within our offense early, not just with his ability to make shots but his ability to make plays within the offense. I thought he was aggressive early, attacking, turning the corner and making some plays for himself and for his teammates.”

Denver Nuggets v New York Knicks

Derek continued, explaining that his decision to start Smith started during Saturday’s practice session—a trend he hopes trickles down through the rest of the roster.

“I thought today started yesterday for J.R. He had a workout after practice for maybe 10 minutes that was as intense and as hard as an individual player can work during shooting session that I thought raised his level of intensity and pace in the game today,” Coach Fish revealed. “Those are the messages that we’re trying to send them that performances on the Garden floor doesn’t start then. They start the day before or the week before in your practice habits and what you do before the game starts.”

Both Smith and Anthony were hot from the start, as they combined to go 8-of-12 from the floor in the first, each tallying eight points. New York shot an incredible 70 percent in that first frame, though Denver matched its 31 points exactly.

In the second, however, Fisher’s squad took off and left the Nuggets behind. The New York defense held Denver to an unthinkable 6.3 percent shooting (1-of-16) from the field and just eight points total. The Knicks took a 62-39 lead into the half.

“I thought defensively, that was the difference in the quarter,” Fish said. “We scored 31 points in the first quarter as well, even though it may not have looked as pretty as it did in the second quarter, but some way we found a way to hold them to eight points. And I thought that was the difference in the game.”

Offensively, Anthony and Smith continued to rip the Nuggets, this time combining to shoot 5-of-7 for 16 points. The two sharpshooters buried the Nuggets by going for a combined 20-of-30 from the field. It was Melo’s fourth straight game with more than 25 points and his third straight game above 58 percent shooting.

“We spoke a couple nights ago about finding a better balance for himself, in terms of when to be the prolific scorer that he is and when is it time to take a step back and allow the offense work so his teammates can find some rhythm,” Fish said of Anthony’s recent surge in efficiency. “As each game goes by he’s getting more comfortable and more aware of when those times are. I’m sure he’s watching film and also physically he’s getting used to the amount of movement involved in the offense and where the shots come from within it.”

His big night allowed for a great two-man game with Smith, and J.R.’s big night offensively led to some major strides on the defensive end.

Known for his killer three ball, Smith made his mark defensively by coming up with suffocating blocks in desperate moments for the Nuggets. Down 77-54, Denver’s Aaron Afflalo backed Smith toward the basket before spinning away to his right to take a turnaround jumper. Smith, however, read Afflalo like a book and completely destroyed his shot. The block turned into a steal, which turned into more points for the Knicks.

Smith came back moments later to make an offensive contribution, by draining another trey to extend the lead to 82-59.

“We just knew we had to do it together, especially on the defensive end,” Smith said following the game.

The night was also something of a coming-of-age moment for Smith within the new offensive system. Normally one of the club’s most lethal scorers, J.R. has been relatively quiet early in the year, not posting a single 20-point game until Sunday. However, on his big night against his former team, he learned that he just needs to be himself.

Denver Nuggets v New York Knicks

“It was just about me being more aggressive,” Smith said. “I think I’ve been real passive in the first nine or ten games, and I’ve just got to be aggressive and play my game.”

That big second quarter allowed the Knicks to close out the win without too much worry. And after Coach Fisher spent the last seven games helping his squad to learn lessons from their losses, he was glad his team could finally see those lessons pay dividends.

“For the players (winning) helps to just continue to put money in the bank because you get something back when you get a win,” Derek said. “There’s some feedback that, OK, the things I’m being asked to do…that works, that’s OK.”

NEXT UP

After snapping their seven-game slide at home, the Knicks (3-8) will take to the road against one of the Eastern Conference’s rising teams, the Milwaukee Bucks (5-5).

As Stoudemire said after Sunday’s win, the Knicks are ready to head away from Madison Square Garden and continue their winning ways.

“Let’s take this show on the road and try to build off this win,” Stoudemire said.

Last year, the Knicks went 3-1 against the Bucks, splitting the two contests in Milwaukee. It’ll be an interesting coaching matchup, as Fish will go against another young, former championship point guard, Jason Kidd.

Kidd was with the Brooklyn Nets last season, and the Knicks went 3-1 in the Battle of the Boroughs with Kidd leading that squad.

So far this year, the young Milwaukee team has been outstanding defensively. The Bucks are first in the league in scoring defense, allowing just 92.6 points per game.

Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET from the BMO Harris Bradley Center, and the game will be broadcast on the MSG Network.

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