1. MOST IMPORTANTLY – HIS MINUTES IMPEDE ON THE PROGRESSION OF SHUMP

Nothing should be more important to this team than seeing Iman Shumpert out to his full potential. The Knicks showed every bit of their age throughout a roller coaster season of injuries, re-injuries, and extended shooting slumps (cough! cough! Jason Kidd!). While the veteran based, win now method proved to be successful in hindsight, the playoff roster age of 31-plus years must be addressed. Shump showed that he can be a force offensively in the postseason, regaining his three-ball, throwing down one of the nastiest dunks of the year, and even stepping in to the J.R. role rather handily in the Knicks fateful Game 6 against Indiana last night. Having Smith on the floor not only takes shots away from Shump (and everybody else in the arena for that matter), but also forces Shumpert to play more time at the three, away from his natural position. Remember, he wasn’t able to improve his offense last offseason while rehabbing his ACL, so a summer’s worth of jump shots could make his game even more lethal. Everyone knows of his defensive tenacity, but we won’t get to see him evolve into one of the league’s best defenders if he’s often being subbed out for the offensive minded Smith.

2. HAS HE REALLY MATURED?

It was a nice story for most of the year. The new mindset that Coach Mike Woodson instilled in Smith was touching enough to make most fans laugh off the “You trying to get the pipe?” moments and non-stop partying, but his actions in the postseason were downright inexcusable. The fact that anyone has to even question if you’re playing the game hungover is suspicious and the disrespect he showed to Jason Terry and the Celtics may even be worse. If you thought you should’ve been out playing golf, go out there and prove it J.R.. Don’t waken a sleeping giant and then no-show a couple of close out games. Smith seemed to turn a corner throughout the season, but the most important time of the year showed the worst of his behavior.

3. HIS PRESENCE ENCOURAGES ISO-BALL

Isn’t one ball stopper enough? A bad shot from Melo is probably better than a good shot from most others, but the same doesn’t apply to Smith. Despite having a breakthrough statistical year, Smith showed no progression in passing the rock. His 2.7 assists per game were the second highest total of his career, but it took him a career-high 33 minutes, over five more per game than his second highest season, to get that done. The Knicks offense was at its best when the ball was flowing in the two point guard set, and Smith’s presence takes a passer away and replaces it with someone carrying a career average of 2.1 assists. The numbers say it all.

4. HE’LL BRING A HEFTY PRICE TAG

Amar’e Stoudemire’s contract is currently eating more salary cap than Eddy Curry is burgers, so it’s going to be tough for the Knicks to do anything too major this offseason. Brandon Jennings will be the prize guard come July, and will probably set the market with a near-max contract. Come to think of it, these two would be as perfect of a match as you can make for locker room negativity. It would be worth the price of admission just to see who could get up the most shots on a game-to-game basis, while nursing hangovers. Anyways, I digress. New York can only offer Smith a maximum of 4 years and $24.8 million, which could be blown out of the water by any number of teams with cap space. For the $2.8 million he made this year, we were willing to put up with his shenanigans, but the more that price goes up, the less patience will be had.

5. NO-SHOW? NO THANKS

The bottom line is you can’t perform like that in the postseason and expect to get paid. In the NBA, you earn your stripes in the playoffs, and for the most part, Smith shrunk in the moment. He’s certainly not the only reason why the Knicks were sent packing before most planned for them to be, but Melo had no support offensively, which was J.R.’s sole purpose in their success. Against Indiana, Smith averaged 12.7 points on 38% shooting from the field. His performance was purely unacceptable and shouldn’t be rewarded.

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When looking back on this series, it really came down to a few factors. Roy Hibbert completely dominating a likely injured Tyson Chandler. JR Smith being awful. Ray Felton being inconsistent. Mike Woodson making questionable line-up decisions. Tonight featured just about all of those things.

The Knicks played a weak first half and got themselves down by 12 midway through the 3rd quarter. The only reason it wasn’t by 24 was because Carmelo Anthony was utterly phenomenal up until that point…then Iman Shumpert caught fire, knocking down 3 three pointers and leading a charge that tied the game heading into the 4th quarter. The game was tied with about 4 minutes left but the Knicks got sloppy late, with turnovers, poor clock management and misused fouls.

Anthony wasn’t great in the 4th, only hitting 2 shots and having 2 bad turnovers but tonight wouldn’t have even been competitive without his 39 points (15/29 shooting) and 7 rebounds. Iman Shumpert had 19 points, including 16 points in the third quarter charge. Chris Copeland knocked down 3 three pointers, including two in the fourth quarter.

JR Smith? 4/15. Lazy defense. Lazy chasing after loose balls. Stupid…poorly played basketball to cap off an awful series and post-season for him. Ray Felton was a no-show and 0/7 from the field. 0/7 from your starting point guard, yikes. Tyson Chandler had 2 points, 6 rebounds, a couple of missed lay-ups, a missed dunk and fouled out. Roy Hibbert had 21 points and 12 rebounds.

We’ll get more into this disappointing series and the questions that are up ahead for the Knicks in the upcoming week. But for tonight, let’s just try to shake the images of Lance Stephenson and Roy Hibbert dominating the Knicks out of our heads.

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The absence of Indiana starting point guard George Hill is likely and is an enormously important factor. It is also worth noting that starting shooting guard Lance Stephenson is a little banged up with an ankle injury sustained late in Game 5. Indiana is thin in the backcourt and thin in general off the bench. It is hard to see them scoring much more than 80 points, if they even crack that number at all without Hill.

Putting their backcourt injuries aside, the Knicks STILL haven’t had a big offensive game this series, namely Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith. There is a relatively simplistic fact in this series: if the Knicks can get a big night from Anthony and/or Smith, notably with them combining for 40% from the field…they are going to win, as pointed out by Moke Hamilton in our roundtable yesterday.

JR seems to be on the right track but the focus is always going to be on Anthony. Aren’t we due for one of “those” games from ‘Melo? If he can gut out a vintage 32-36 point performance in a relatively efficient manner, we are going back for Game 7 in Madison Square Garden. He must continuously attack Roy Hibbert by driving to the basket, the best defense for Hibbert is getting him on the bench with foul trouble.

It sounds like Mike Woodson is going to do the sensible thing with his line-ups, which is of course stay with Pablo Prigioni as a starter and give him extended minutes at the expense of Jason Kidd, along with play Chris Copeland off the bench instead of Amare Stoudemire. There is no reason Copeland and Prigioni shouldn’t be playing 20-25 minutes each tonight. If Pablo does Pablo things and Copeland can crack double digits again, the Knicks will have enough support for their lead scorers.

Raymond Felton had a strong second half in Game 5, after playing too tentatively in the first half. He needs to attack the paint from the opening whistle and thoroughly win the point guard match-up against DJ Augustin, who is overextended as a starter. He lacks the defensive presence of Hill and struggles to facilitate the offense in the same way. Stephenson is a borderline disaster when he is forced to handle the ball too much and Paul George’s game becomes somewhat limited offensively if he is forced to continuously bring the ball up.

It is beyond critical for the Knicks to start fast tonight. A quick lead will get the Pacers crowd out of the game and tighten up a young Pacers team that much more. They will be staring at going from a 3-1 lead to being forced to head back on the road for a Game 7, potentially without their starting point guard. Again this a young team, who has been sloppy with the basketball and at the free throw line. If the Knicks can get them flustered early, they will be in good shape.

The Knicks dug themselves into this hole by playing substandard basketball all series. They played far from their best game in Game 5 but gutted out a win. A strong effort will be needed tonight to extend their season, can they rise to the challenge in hostile environment?

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Give one reason for optimism on the Knicks taking Game 6 in Indiana

Moke Hamilton, SNY TV/Sheridan Hoops - Two-fold. Without George Hill, the Pacers pick-and-roll defense suffers mightily and they miss another “take the best shot available” shot-maker in their halfcourt sets. Even if he is available on Saturday (which is a long shot, given the NBA’s new concussion policy), he will probably be limited.

Also, Chris Copeland. Like he did in Game 5, If he can give the Knicks another highly efficient 13 points in Game 6, they will have a good shot of forcing a Game 7, so long as Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith can make 40 percent of their combined attempts.

The dirty little secret here: the Knicks can play an extremely mediocre offensive game and still win. It’s hustling and rebounding, and in Game 5, with their backs against the wall, they found something.

Joe Caporoso, Turn On The Knicks - The absence of George Hill should be expected and is a nice boost to the Knicks chances. Indiana’s offense struggles enough to score points and without Hill they are led by a Guard trio of DJ Augustin, Lance Stephenson (who could be limited tomorrow with a ankle/leg injury) and Gerald Green. Their bench also gets that much shorter (only 10 points in Game 5) without Hill. The Knicks got away with another genrally sluggish offensive performance on Thursday and mostly won due to 19 turnovers and 57% free throw shooting from the Pacers.

At some point, as I think all of us reiterate here, the jump shots have to start falling and Carmelo and/or JR will put together an efficient night from the field. Mike Woodson took a step in the right direction with his lineup last night and let’s hope Saturday sees even more Pablo Prigioni and Chris Copeland, with even less (if any) Jason Kidd and Amare Stoudemire.

This is a young Pacers team who has been tough at home but could be a little tight from letting the Knicks hang around another game. If the Knicks can jump out to an early lead, it will suck the energy out of the building and the Pacers will get that much tighter.

Seth Rosenthal, Posting and Toasting - I guess it’s promising that New York has now beaten Indiana twice with sub-par performances, but the main source of (sick) optimism is the fact that George Hill might still be hurt. And…uh…maybe those open jumpers will start falling at some point!

Chris Celletti, Turn On The Knicks - If George Hill remains out, that helps a lot because he’s such an effective two-way player that presents match up problems on both ends. Indiana’s pick-and-roll defense was relatively lost without him last night. Even if Hill suits up though, I’m optimistic in that there are still shots the Knicks are leaving out on the floor. Despite the win in Game 5, the Knicks still struggled to shoot. While Indiana’s defense is great, there were large periods of Game 5 in which the Knicks merely clanked open jump shots. If those start going down, the Knicks can keep winning. I’m a big believer in being due, and I hope that I’m right in saying that the Knicks are simply due to have a big shooting night. They’re also due to win in Indiana, and Indiana is due to lose a home game. At some point, these things happen, right?

Matt Falkenbury, The Knicks Blog - The effort and energy that seemed to go missing in games three and four are now back for the Knicks after the win in game five. They kept the rebounding edge for Indiana to a minimum and with Hill out, they won the turnover battle 19-10. If they can do those things again then they should be able to get the win in game six. Indiana has not shot better than 41% in the last three games and have lived off of second chance opportunities. If you cut those off like the Knicks did in their two wins, then the chances of winning go up. It won’t be easy, but they have the formula which gives me my optimism that they can win and if they execute it, then they will win and head back to New York for Game 7.

The post TOK New York Knicks Game 6 All-Optimism Roundtable appeared first on Turn On The Knicks.

Indiana starting point guard George Hill was a late scratch with a concussion and not having him was a critical blow to the Pacers offensive rhythm. Indiana racked up 19 turnovers and was forced to give extended minutes to DJ Augustin and Gerald Green. Raymond Felton also had a big second half without Hill’s length pestering him, scoring 10 of his 12 points then and dropping off a few key assists.

It was a balanced attack from the Knicks offensively, as Mike Woodson finally pulled the plug on Jason Kidd’s minutes in the second half after five more scoreless first half minutes from him. He also didn’t play Amare Stoudemire in the second half, while giving Chris Copeland the extra time he deserved. Copeland responded by being the Knicks second leading scorer with 13 points, including 3 three pointers, 2 steals and 4 rebounds in 19 minutes. Pablo Prigioni was back in the starting line-up and also played 19 minutes, finishing with 3 points, 3 assists and 1 steal.

It wasn’t a dominant night for Carmelo Anthony but he gutted out 28 points and 6 rebounds on 12/28 shooting, including a few big buckets in the final five minutes. JR Smith took a few steps in the right direction with 13 points. It was only on 4/11 shooting but he did grab 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and a block.

The Knicks managed to limit Roy Hibbert’s effectiveness, as he struggled with fouls all night. Compared to what he has been doing all series, his 7 rebounds and 9 points were easy to stomach. Paul George had a nice game with 23 points but the Pacers bench only scored a total of 10 points. They will continue to struggle with their offensive output with Hill on the sideline.

It is now on to Saturday night in Indiana for Game 6. Just like tonight, the Knicks need to focus on one game at a time. It sure as hell won’t be easy getting a road victory but if they can get by against a young Pacers team, you can imagine how tight Indiana will be Monday night at Madison Square Garden for Game 7.

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It sounds like Mike Woodson is going back to his normal starting lineup, which he never should have deviated from in the first place. Chris Copeland is also reportedly going to see an increase of minutes, especially in the first half which will provide needed floor spacing and outside shooting. If we could just get a guarantee of MAS PABLO and less Jason Kidd, you’d have even more reason to feel confident for tonight.

The Pacers have proven themselves to be the better team through 4 games. Yet, you need to hang your hope on two primary things for tonight – First, the Knicks inevitably are going to start hitting more open jump shots. Second, the Pacers are a young team trying to win a series clincher on the road.

Take away the daunting proposal of winning three straight and just focus on getting one game, extending your season two more days and putting a little more pressure on an inexperienced, young basketball team. The Madison Square Garden crowd should bring it tonight. Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith are both beyond due for a big game. Besides them, the team’s role players should be more comfortable at home than they were on the road. And really, how many more monster games does George Hill have left in him? How many more three pointers is Lance Stephenson going to knock down?

It may be naive to think the Knicks can win this series but it is far from naive to believe they can get a win tonight and that is all that matters for right now.

Other Game 5 TOK Content

Knicks…Play Like Yourselves

Searching For Answers

Throwback Thursday  

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This second round series against the Indiana Pacers indeed hasn’t been a good thing for the New York Knicks, as they find themselves on the precipice of a really disappointing end to an otherwise memorable and refreshing season. Throughout four whole games, the Knicks have been battered and beaten by a team with a crystal clear identity. The Pacers want to slow you down, defend you, out-rebound the heck out of you, and madden you on offense by using the open guy as their “go-to guy”. They’ve done all of those things to a T for just about every minute of this series save one quarter, the fourth in Game 2, the Knicks’ only victory thus far.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel said after Game 4 that the Pacers are who they are, and that they don’t adjust their game regardless of their opponent. At this point, the Knicks should heed that message: “Be Yourself”.

The Knicks didn’t accidentally win 54 game in the regular season. They too had a very distinct identity. While they ran isolation plays more often than anyone else, they also shot and made more 3-pointers than anyone else, too. They weren’t a great defensive team, but they almost always won the turnover battle. While the Knicks didn’t shut teams down with their defense all season, they disrupted them constantly. Causing turnovers helped the Knicks out-possess their opponent all yeah, and because of their offensive efficiency, that generally translated into outscoring their opponent. Or, you know, winning.

In the playoffs and namely this second round grind against the Pacers, the Knicks have been replaced by a foreign version of themselves. Individually, J.R. Smith has done a 180 from the final month of the regular season, the period that won him the 6th Man of the Year award. There’s a good chance Jason Kidd actually died a few weeks ago but nobody noticed. Tyson Chandler, despite battling injuries all year, never figured to get this badly outplayed and outmuscled and totally fooled by Roy Hibbert.

And then there’s the team as a whole, which in some ways can fall on an individual, Mike Woodson. In Game 4, Woodson made it clear he was ditching the small-ball identity by employing a starting Kenyon Martin instead of Pablo Prigioni, which moved Carmelo Anthony to the small forward position…a position he barely played all season. In what world does it make sense to change the position of your superstar, scoring champion franchise player, in Game 92?

And while Woodson has had a bit of a shocker in this series, it still does fall on the players, too. The Pacers deserve a ton of credit for how they’ve played, and it’s worth recognizing that they gave the Knicks fits all season and might just be the better team. In sports and especially in basketball, the better team usually wins. But the Knicks haven’t helped matters, both by straying from their identity but also from simply sucking. some of the hobnobbing around the Pacers’ defense hasn’t included the fact that the Knicks have missed a lot of open jumpshots, shots they made most of this season. The Pacers do a great job of disrupting your offensive rhythm, but it’s the playoffs; if the shots are open, they have to go down or you’re going to lose.

Judging by the interweb’s reaction to the disasters in Indiana, I think I speak for most Knicks fans when I implore to the Knicks to be themselves. We all want Pablo Prigioni back in the starting lineup and playing about 10 times more than he did in Game 4. for better or worse, we all want to see minutes for Chris Copeland and Steve Novak, guys who played and helped during the regular season. We all want the ball to move on offense, to facilitate through Carmelo Anthony and into the hands of 3-point shooters who aren’t afraid to take them. We all want those shots to simply go in. We all just want a win.

The Knicks have won a lot of games this season playing a certain way. We all just want to see that again.

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14 years ago to the date, the New York Knicks made NBA history by joining the 1994 Denver Nuggets as the only eight-seeds to upset a number one. The best-of-five format made pulling off the unthinkable much more feasible in those days, but a gritty Knicks squad featuring the late game heroics of Allan Houston was able to get the job done. I remember celebrating this shot with “Knicks fans” who all jumped ship when the going got tough just a few years later.

The Heat are bound to cruise to a championship this year, so if nothing else Knicks fans can find some joy in seeing Zo and company at one of their lowest moments.

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WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE?

Let’s start with the Indiana Pacers who DID have the NBA’s best defense this season and statistically one of the best defenses of the past 10-15 years. It isn’t like the Knicks are struggling to score points on the Charlotte Bobcats. The Knicks have mixed up their looks and approaches on offense and there has been open shots for Carmelo Anthony’s supporting cast…open shots that were made all season…open shots that are being missed now.

This is of course led by JR Smith, the team’s number two scorer all season and Sixth Man of the Year who has devolved into the worst version of himself. He is shooting at a higher volume than ever with a progressively worse shot selection and can’t even hit 30% from the field.

Jason Kidd had stretches of being a knock down three point shooter this year. He is currently mired in an epically long and brutal funk. Seven games. Seventeen shots. ZERO points. Ray Felton has had a strong post-season but laid an egg in Game 3. Iman Shumpert has had a strong post-season but laid an egg in Game 4. Tyson Chandler is being man-handled by Roy Hibbert.

Pablo Prigioni has had his minutes inexplicably cut back. Chris Copeland is barely in the rotation. Steve Novak is out of the rotation.

The out-put around Carmelo Anthony isn’t enough and Anthony himself isn’t playing well. His efficiency has dropped off in the post-season and been nonexistent in this series, outside of one quarter in Game 2. He has been shut down completely in the fourth quarter of the previous two games and is struggling with the Pacers defense collapsing on him, along with dealing with Paul George constantly on his hip. Just like his supporting cast…he hasn’t been good enough.

The superstar hasn’t been good enough. The supporting cast hasn’t been good enough. The head coach hasn’t been good enough. Substituting Kenyon Martin into the starting line-up was a flawed, knee-jerk reaction. You don’t mess around with the line-up and style of play that got you 54 wins. You aren’t beating Indiana at their own game. You beat them with your game.

So now the Knicks head back to Madison Square Garden down 3-1. If I’m Mike Woodson, I’m looking in the mirror and congratulating myself on my facial hair THEN I’m going back to my two point guard starting line-up with Pablo Prigioni and Ray Felton in the backcourt. Jason Kidd is playing half of his usual minutes, with Prigioni seeing extended time. JR Smith is playing his usual  minutes and Chris Copeland is coming off the bench, not Amare Stoudemire. Play your small ball. Shoot your 3s. Have Prigioni harassing George Hill the full length of the court and hope a young Pacers team doesn’t have the needed killer instinct on the road.

Just get one win. Live to fight another day. Every game that passes without Indiana closing you out…that much more pressure shifts back on to them.

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Do the Knicks even have one more win left in them at this point? 

Joe Caporoso - I’m going to put on my Orange and Blue Glasses for this Roundtable and try to be optimistic. The Pacers are a young team going on the road to close out a series against a higher seeded team. It is reasonable to assume they won’t play with the desperation and poise necessary to end the Knicks season tomorrow night. Some of the Knicks jump shots have to fall at some point and role players generally feel more comfortable at home compared to the road. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Knicks won tomorrow, which sets them up to be one upset away from hosting a Game 7 against a Pacers team that’d be very tight by that point. Unfortunately, it is almost unfathomable to see how the Knicks would win that Game 6 on the road with how they’ve been playing. Game 5 seems more realistic and you like to think there is still some pride floating around that locker room and they won’t want to have the season end on their home court.

Chris Celletti - The Knicks very well may have three wins left in them. They may have seven wins left in them, or 11. They also may have a big robust ZERO wins left in them. I have no freaking clue. I’m done trying to figure this team out.

Based totally out of reality, I think the Knicks will win Game 5. I have no empirical evidence to back this prediction up. There’s barely any real confidence behind this line of thinking, either. I just think they’re due to hit a few shots, they were a good home team all season, and at some point George Hill and Lance Stephenson are going to miss a few of those open looks that they get. It very well might happen against the Heat but, mark my words, it will happen at some point. If it doesn’t happen, the Pacers can win an NBA title.

How do the Knicks win a game? By being themselves. They played a certain style all year, and they’ve freaked out and made knee-jerk adjustments instead of trusting in the players and system that won them 54 games during the regular season. Yes, the Pacers are a great defensive team, and have proven throughout the season that they’re a horrific matchup for the Knicks. So maybe that’s just what it is, that the Knicks could play a 47-game series against Indiana and have no chance. But if you’re the Knicks, you have to go down swinging with your best shot, and to do that, you just have to be yourself.

That means going small at the risk of getting out-rebounded. That means varying the offensive sets; high pick-and-rolls, side pick-and-rolls, and isos when it makes sense. It also means simply hitting open shots, which the Knicks have not done except an 8-minute span in Game 2. J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd and Iman Shumpert hit open shots basically all season. Now that they’ve stopped, the Knicks are in serious trouble. And if they don’t start getting shots to go, the Knicks will be officially done and it won’t be any mystery as to why.

Matt Fritz - .As bad as the Knicks have played, I can’t see them losing game 5 on their home floor. Ultimately, I think they bounce back and win that game, and force a game 6 back in Indy. Can the Knicks find a way to win three straight and claim the series? Yes. Will they? Well there is just no reason to believe that they will. As poor as the Knicks have played, I think what’s more is the fact that the Pacers are just a better overall team. This is just not a good matchup for the Knicks, and it is clearly showing. With that being said, the Knicks sure did pick a poor time to start shooting terribly. Unless guys like J.R. Smith, Jason Kidd, and Iman Shumpert start to finally shoot out of their slumps (J.R. may have at the end of game 4) this series will be over in Indy in game 6.

Kevin Smith - Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but much like the Celtics didn’t roll over and die for the Knicks, they won’t do the same for the Pacers. This team is littered with experienced vets who won’t throw in the towel just because the odds are stacked against them. I think the Knicks defend their home court in Game 5, but judging by the way they’ve performed so far this series, there’s no chance they can push it any further. Not that I’ve totally given up on the season, but I’m appreciative of the best year I’ve seen from the New York Knicks in over a decade. I just hope they can reward the home fans with a show on Thursday night because we all know how cruel the crowd can be at The Garden. The boo birds will be out in full force if things get ugly quick.

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