My Knicks Rant: Start Slow, Finish Fast...?

What on God’s green earth are the New York Knicks doing every night?

I don’t understand how they can honestly say that they come to the arena ready to play every night when they consistently, without fail, get outplayed in the 1st and 2nd quarters.

If you watched the Knicks on Monday when they squared off with the Utah Jazz, you had to be as disappointed as I was. The Knicks were getting absolutely destroyed early on in the game. The Jazz scored 25 points in the 1st quarter, and outscored the Knicks 23-13 in the 2nd quarter to take a 17-point lead into the locker room at half time.

After halftime was over, the Knicks finally came to play.

In the 3rd quarter, the Knicks scored 33 points. And in the 4th quarter, the Knicks outscored the Jazz 29-17. They ended up turning a 17-point halftime deficit into a 2-point loss that came down to the final shot of the game. While some might be excited by the heart the Knicks showed in the 2nd half and in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter, I’m completely outraged at the fact that the Knicks forget how to play basketball during the first half of games.

What is going on?

Do we have the wrong starting lineup? That’s certainly a possibility. Clearly, the starting frontcourt of David Lee, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler isn’t scaring anybody out there. And while Larry Hughes is a decent defender, Chris Duhon can’t stay between a rock and hard place, nevermind a point guard and the basket. Perhaps the players coming off the bench to give the Knicks a 2nd half push are the ones that need to start the game.

Or maybe the Knicks just aren’t shooting well enough. However, that was never a problem with the Suns. Granted, they lost games when they didn’t shoot too well, but they weren’t routinely getting blown out of the water and going on endless losing streaks. So as poorly as the Knicks have shot, and they didn’t shoot that bad Monday against the Jazz, I don’t think that’s the real issues.

Whatever the problem is, the problem needs to be fixed with a quickness. I’m sorry, but Mike D’Antoni was supposed to come to New York and make the Knicks an instant offensive success, and here we are with a team that has trouble getting the offense going for long periods of time. Maybe Nate’s absence is to blame. Maybe this whole experiment with Al Harrington coming off the bench is to blame. But you can’t tell me that the Knicks talent isn’t there to the point where they can’t compete, because that’s just not true. Something must be changed, because if the Knicks keep playing like this, they won’t be able to get any free agents—at least not any worth the money the Knicks are going to pay them.

Related Posts by Categories

Check out our... Homepage | Podcasts