Sunday, November 25, 2012
Pre-Game News and Notes
Detroit Pistons vs. New York Knicks
The Knicks are coming off a very
disappointing stretch of six quarters in which their defense was non-existent,
giving up 196 points over that span. The
Knicks will look to get back on track Sunday afternoon against the 3-10 Detroit
Pistons, a winnable game that the Knicks cannot over look with a big matchup
with the Brooklyn Nets the following night.
-Get Back to Basics
The Knicks have suffered severe lapses
for parts of the past six quarters and it has hurt them, as they are on their
first two game losing streak since Mike Woodson took over as head coach. Role players such as Chandler Parsons and
Omer Asik dominated the Knicks Friday night in addition to the big name players
Jeremy Lin and James Harden.
The Knicks need to get back to trusting
each other on defense, as there was no help defense given Friday night. Tyson Chandler needs to get back to his
Defensive Player of the Year ways, as he has become Charmin Soft in the middle
at times this season.
Chandler has a lot of his plate, as
Woodson has not been matching up his players well at points, leaving Chandler as
the only big on the court a large portion of time. Chandler has not been protecting the rim well
recently either, as foul trouble has deterred him and caused him to be less aggressive.
-Crash the Boards
One glaring problem Friday night was the
thumping the Knicks took on the boards, as the Rockets out rebounded them
49-30. That is a trend that needs to
change even though the Knicks have been successful thus far this season with an
8-3 record.
The Pistons sport a huge front line in
Greg Monroe and Jason Maxiell in the starting lineup and have Andre Drummond
coming off the bench. Monroe is becoming
a household name in the NBA and Maxiell has been a menace on the boards since
entering the league. Drummond has been
quite impressive thus far in his rookie campaign, averaging 5.2 rebounds in
only 16.2 minutes per game.
It will take a team effort from the
Knicks to win the rebounding battle, as the Pistons are not going to just roll
over; head coach Lawrence Frank will have his young team ready to roll Sunday
afternoon.
-Offense Needs to Flow
The Knicks offense does not garner a ton
of assists because of the post-ups that Woodson runs for Carmelo Anthony and
Rasheed Wallace; that does not mean the ball movement is always there though.
The ball has been stopped multiple times
in the recent games, as Anthony has turned the ball over seven times in each of
the last two games. Anthony was featured
heavily Friday against the Rockets because of matchups, but teammates became
spectators and were standing around watching most of the game, causing for a
stagnant offense.
If the Knicks can get the ball movement
and flow back in their offense this should be a relatively easy game before
heading to Brooklyn Monday night.
