A New York Shakeup

[ewing6]

Defense Leads Knicks to 2nd win over Pistons

box.jpg

Whiteside came out hot and got 6 early points, but after that it switched to a duel between DJ Augustin(12 points) and Irving(15 points). They combined to go 5-5 from three and were trading shots the whole quarter back and forth in entertaining fashion. We had the shooting edge(47% TO 37%), but 9-10 from the line lead the Pistons to a 26-25 lead after one.
We had a big second quarter on offense scoring 32 points on 55% to take a 8 point lead into the half. Our scoring came from unexpected sources as Smart got 12 and Sabonis scored 8. The Pistons only shot 45%, but stayed close thanks to 3-4 from downtown lead by 2-2 from KCP.
Both teams struggled on offense in the third, but we were worst. We only got 14 points on 33%. Thankfully we played strong defense holding them to 22 points on 41% as they tied the game heading to the fourth. Augustin led all scorers with 6 and had 20 off the bench through 3.
The defense continued into the fourth quarter. We only scored 18 points on 35% while they only got 16 points on 27%. We got our to a 7 point lead with 3:22 left on a KP three, but didn’t score the rest of the game. The Pistons chipped away, but our defense held firm. They finally cut it to 2 with 27 seconds left, they went for the stop and got the ball back with 1.9 seconds left. We denied all their options on the inbounce play so they had to throw it to Drummond for a midrange jumper which was an air-ball and we held on a for a win despite only scoring 32 in the second half.

Stats:
pisto.jpg

kni.jpg

Recap:
Our whole team struggled on offense, Sabonis had the best game getting 12 off the bench in terms of efficiency, We were so hot early in the year the shooting was prone to cool down. Thankfully we got lock down defense holding them to 37%. KP and Whiteside combined for 9 blocks and showed their potential as a duo. Augustin and KCP had strong games, but we locked down Jackson(helped out by bad shooting as he went 0-13!!!) and Drummond which put a damber on them getting anything going. Our offense will play better and the other teams will shoot better most nights, but games like this show our potential defensive identity.

Around the League:
Lavoy Allen, Muday, MKG, and Ruby Gobert return from injury
Pacers lose Turner for 4-6 weeks
Magic lose Hezonja for 1-2 weeks
Blazers lose ED Davis for 6-8 weeks
Wiggins scores 42 and Towns gets 22 points and 21 rebounds in a win over the Bucks despite 25 points 12 rebounds 7 assists 2 steals and 3 blocks from the Greek Freak
28 from Korver and 20 points and 16 rebounds from Robin Lopez leads the Hawks over the Pelicans
32,8 and 10 from KD, and 22 each from Kanter and Payne lead the Thunder over the Suns
CJ scores 30 and Lillard scored 28 in a blowout over Denver
Klay scored 30, Curry scored 28, and Green got 23 points 15 rebounds and 12 assists in a blowout over the Bulls as the Warriors are 7-1
22 from Harden gets the Rockets their win first after a 0-7 start as they beat the Clippers
Lebron scores 29 in a win over the Jazz as the new big three are now 8-0
38 from KD leads the Thunder over the Hornets
30 and 15 from Cousins leads the Kings over the Heat
34 from Lowry leads the Raptors over the Celtics

Next up: @ Mavs(2-5)

[ewing6]

Parsons leads Mavs over Knicks

kkk.jpg

Chandler Parsons came out and destroyed our defense early scoring 12 points early as Dallas opened up a 20-10 lead. He came out of the game and our defense settled down allowing us to get back in the game hanks to 12 points and 4 assists by Irving as we cut it down to 29-26 after one quarter despite the Mavs shooting 50% 2-3 from three and 7-8 from the line. In the second both teams shoot an identical 12-21(57%),the Mavs ended up with the 3 point edge, to open it up to 6 at half. KP(8) and Fournier(9) had big quarters for us Dirk(8) and Hield(6) led the Mavs.
The third quarter was ugly. We slumped big time scoring 20 points on 33% from the field and 2-10 from three. The Mavs stayed red hot scoring 29 points on 52% to open up a 15 point lead going into the fourth. Parsons continued to lead the Mavs finishing the third with 22 points for the game.
We finally found defense in the fourth holding them to 18 points on 44%. Irving scored 8 early in the fourth and combined with the defense we cut it to 5 with 4:25 left. The Mavs responded with a 6-0 run that put us away. Our offense cooled off once again and we lost by 9.

Player of the Game: Chandler Parsons 27 points 7 rebounds 12-16 FG 2-5 3PT

Stats:
knick.jpg

mav.jpg

Recap: Irving had a big game. We shot well, despite KP’s struggles. Scott had a big game off the bench, but we contiune to struggle to get anything from our backups besides Scott scoring wise. Our big issue in this game was our defense, Parsons got whatever he wanted shooting 12-16 as the Mavs shot 51%. We gave up too many easy shots.At 6-2 we are sitting pretty, but this was a pretty bad lose to a team we are better than.

Around the League:
26 from Thomas leads the Celtics over the Hawks
29 and 12 from Wall leads the Wizards over the Kings
22 from Gordon leads the 76ers to their first win of the year over the Raptors
Rockets improve to 2-7 by stunning the Warriors behind 21 from Harden
Jaylen Brown gets 28 points and 10 rebounds in a Denver win over Detroit
33 from DeRozan and 21,7, and 10 from Russell lead the Lakers over the Bulls
Wiggins(33, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 steals) and Towns(29 points 10 rebounds 4 blocks) beat Curry(38 points) and the Warriors in OT
26 from Booker leads the Suns over the Clippers

Next up: @ Lakers(5-4)