Why are the Knicks Good Exactly?

Let’s take a look at what the keys to New York’s success has been thus far:

Hot Starts & Smart Shots

The Knicks as a whole are the second highest scoring team in the first quarter (although the Lakers have been buoyed by scoring a combined 75 1st quarter points against the Suns & Rockets).

Carmelo Anthony is shooting a very impressive 54.9% from the field (28/51) & 53.3% from deep (8/15) in the first quarter. Outside of the first, he’s shooting 37.9% from the floor on 39 of 103 shots.

JR Smith, who seems more focused on the game of basketball this season, has been more selective in his shot taking. His career-high in FG percentage is 46.1% from the 2007-2008 campaign with Denver but he’s got it up to 48.1% in this young season. He’s also rebounding the ball at a much higher rate as opposed to leaking out, with 5.4 rebounds (again, the season is in its infancy & Amare & Iman Shumpert will come back & those numbers will probably go down but it’s still a good sign). As it stands right now, JR Smith is playing some efficient basketball (38th best in the league), contributing across the board; to put that in perspective, Chris Paul, Paul Millsap, Kevin Garnett, Anderson Varejao, Rajon Rondo & many others fall below Smith in terms of efficiency so far this season.

Anyway, talking about JR Smith allows me to bring this up again. His was the very first behind the back dunk I saw executed and I’ve always loved it. Iggy, Pat Ewing Jr & John Wall all impress but JR originated (45? For real?).

Jason Kidd has been starting at the 2 so far. It’s been paying dividends with his assist to turnover ratio in the tops of the league. Kidd’s also up there in steals with 1.8 steals per game at only 24.9 minutes per game. While doing all of that as a youthful 39 year old, he also leads his team in True Shooting percentage (a measure of shooting efficiency that takes into account field goals, 3-point field goals & free throws) at 78.2% and an offensive rating (estimated number of points produced when the player is on the floor per 100 possessions) at 153. Basically, if you’re not a numbers guy, that means that J-Kidd is doing a lot really well when he’s on the floor.

Speaking of backcourts. Raymond Felton & Pablo Prigioni have generated 34.2 & 30.1 assists respectively when they are on the floor. This means that there is a field goal created from a pass when the players in question are playing, meaning to say that ball movement is infectious & when Jason Kidd only have an assist percentage of 17.7, it means Pablo & Ray are doing work.

A little Prigioni magic.

All of this has accounted for an impressive 7-1 start, leading the league in field goal percentage, field goals made & leading the league in point differential with +10.5.

November 2 2012 Part II

Right back in it:

UTA-NOH

I’m sure you know about Anthony Davis’ possible concussion by this point so I don’t need to speak to that. I will talk about how he was on his way to having A GAME: 8 points (4-6 shooting), 6 rebounds (2 offensive), 1 steal & 2 blocks in 14 minutes is pretty good.

You’d think that with Al Jefferson, Enes Kanter, Derrick Favors & Paul Millsap (and with the Unibrow out for New Orleans), Utah would dominate the paint. They didn’t. The Hornets outscored the Jazz 56-36 inside.

Greivis Vasquez had 8 points, 6 rebounds, 13 assists and missed the three pointer late to put them up against the Spurs last game but he sure made up for it this game. 13 points including the game winning layup, 4 boards & 10 assists.

Austin Rivers went 1-9 from the field but 5-6 from the line for 7 points, 2 assists & 3 turnovers in his debut against San Antonio. His decision making improved somewhat this game picking up 2 points, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers. Those two points came from the free throw line so that means that this remains Austin’s ONLY field goal in the NBA:

POR-OKC

Kevin Durant has been working on his rebounding and passing. KD had 23 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists against San Antonio & continued against the Blazers with 23 points, 17 rebounds & 7 dimes. Hopefully at this rate, we’ll see a 30-20-10 game.

This was the battle of the point guards. The battle of the number 0. As a rookie point guard (and my pick for ROY), Damian Lillard help up pretty well against the most explosive (and arguably best 2 way point when he plays smart) PG in the league in Russell Westbrook. The rook had 21 points on 9-19 shooting, 2-6 from deep (only 1-1 FTs), 7 assists, 1 steal & 1 turnover compared to Westbrook’s 32 (13-24, 0-2 from 3), 5 reb, 6 ast & 1 turnover.

Kevin played way more minutes than Russell (42 to RW’s 35) but got up 10 less shots. KD went 7-14, 8-12 from the line & Russ went 13-24, 6-8 FT. I don’t know about you but when I have the best scorer in the game today, I’d rather have him take more shots than my PG.

SAC-MIN

This game was about Minnesota’s bench. Yes, Brandon Roy & Andrei Kirilenko are back after both missing last season (they combined for 20 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists) but Minny’s bench DID WORK. The Wolves bench account for 55 points, which is 3 more than the Kings starting 5 had. If you’re wondering, the Kings bench had 28.

The Kings starting 5 had 23 rebounds & their bench had 20 (Chuck Hayes accounted for 11 of those) for 43 overall. The Wolves brought down 53 boards (the starters had 27, the bench had 26) so they’re making up for Kevin Love by committee.

MIA-NYK

The Knicks were playing inspired basketball, especially Carmelo Anthony, who had 16 points (6-10 from the field, 4-5 from deep) and 4 boards in the 1st quarter and actually looked locked in on the defensive end. Melo cooled off after the hot start, going 1-9 in the 2nd.

After the 1st, it looked like the Melo of old was back, taking contesting jumpers and just forcing shots overall. He shot 4-18 in the last 3 quarters, although 4 of his shots did get blocked. Here are 2 of his better shots because they were actually at the rim:

Pablo Prigioni, the 35 year old rookie point guard (and one of my personal favorites), checked in with 4:20 left to play in the 1st. When he got in the Knicks had 19 points. When he checked out with 8:23 left in the 2nd, the Knicks had 41. Take that as you will.

At one point, the Knicks had a lineup of Prigioni, Jason Kidd, JR Smith, Steve Novak & Kurt Thomas. They didn’t score very much but the ball movement for this group was very impressive. I don’t know that we’ll see this group again but I certainly hope we do.

There was also this gem: 

DET-PHX

Marcin Gortat was impressive this game with 16 points, 16 rebounds & 3 blocked shots.

Phoenix only had 15 assists all game. They won so it’s hard to argue with the results but 15 assists just isn’t enough I feel, especially not when 10 of them come from Goran Dragic.

Correct me if I’m wrong on this one but Sebastian Telfair took the last shot in the game against the Warriors right? Why was he even out on the floor then? When you’ve got guys like Jared Dudley, Dragic, Luis Scola & Mike Beasley (I didn’t include Gortat because Telfair took a 3 & I’m not entirely comfortable with him taking 3’s), why would you need him out there? Well, whatever the reason, Alvin Gentry had him out there last night too. He went in for Gortat to stretch the lead at the line with under 5 seconds to go but I still want to know why Gentry trusts him. I watched A LOT of Alvin & his Suns over the years so I know he knows what he’s doing but I’m just not confident with Bassie in the clutch.

Speaking of assists coming from your starting point guard, Brandon Knight accounted for 10 of the Pistons 20 dimes.

The stat of the night is obviously rebounding: the Suns banged on the boards and brought down 52 compared to the Pistons’ 39.

Andre Drummond hasn’t been getting very much playing time but today he made the most of em: 5 points (2-3 FGs) 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in 18.5 minutes.

MEM-GSW

The Grizzlies starting 5 nearly out-rebounded the ENTIRE Warriors team. Zach Randolph had 14, Marc Gasol had 6, Rudy Gay had 8 & Mike Conley & Tony Allen had 3 apiece for 34. The boys from the bay pulled in 36.

Stephen Curry was looking good last night. In the Warriors first game, Steph went 2-14 but  against the Grizz, he got 26 points on 10-20 shooting, 6-10 from deep (but he did miss his only free throw attempt, I’m NOT okay with Curry missing free throws).

I don’t know if anyone else is interested but I wanted to do a Steph Curry/Klay Thompson vs Brandon Jennings/Monta Ellis stat line: the Warriors duo had 37 points & 12 assists (with 5 turnovers) compared to the Ellis/Jennings line of 35 points & 17 assists (with 4 turnovers).

LAC-LAL

What can be said about the Lakers? Well, Kobe Bryant & Dwight Howard combined for half (6 & 4 respectively) of the Lakers 20 turnovers. On the opposite end, Chris Paul & Jamal Crawford accounted for 3 steals apiece, which is good for half of the Clippers 12 thefts.

Pau Gasol took only 9 shots this game, with no shots at the foul line. There’s been a decline every game in his attempts. He went 8-19 (6-8 FTs) against Dallas, 7-14 (2-2 FTs) against Portland and 5-9 (0 FTs) against the Clippers. I know Kobe had 40 & Dwight had 33 the game before that but COME ON, get Pau the ball more.

Chris Paul had a crazy statline: 18 points (7-15) 15 assists, 6 rebounds & 3 steals. That’s not fair.

Have you ever seen someone basically kick the net after a dunk? Well, DeAndre Jordan’s got something for you: