JR to start as Knicks look to bounce back from embarrassment

via SportingNews.com

On Wednesday the Knicks head to A-Town to fulfill their owner’s guarantee and get a much needed win. We all know what happened on Sunday (we’ll forget it happened). We all know James Dolan is very upset. We know Mike Woodson is on a scalding hot seat. Word leaked out Tuesday that the Knicks we also be without Amar’e Stoudemire per Ian Begley of ESPN New York. 

The Hawks are coming off an impressive win against Charlotte in which they had 26 assists as a team and scored 100 points for the seventh straight game to start the season. This is not the type of team you want to face when you’re as thin up front as the Knicks. Andrea Bargnani, Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony are definitely going to have their hands full keeping Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Elton Brand off the glass. Look for a lot of Metta World Peace in this tonight as he was one of the few Knicks that showed up to play against the Spurs on Sunday and his energy will be relied on. It’s going to be a very long game if Bargnani puts on an encore performance on how to get put on waivers. Against the Spurs he had one more rebound than Spike Lee and looked like a man with no country on the defensive end. Both Al Horford and Paul Millsap are all-star level forwards and have the ability to grab 20+ rebounds if Bargnani and company don’t show up again.

In what seems to be the theme of Carmelo Anthony’s career the main storyline on offense is who is going to help Anthony score.  J.R. Smith will make his first start of the year tonight, coming in at SG to replace Prigioni. The move may surprise some, as the starting line-up will be extremely scoring heavy and not very defensive. However, with Tyson out and the team struggling to put up buckets, Woodson is forced to get creative. Putting your 5 best players on the floor together is his best choice right now.

Rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. remains one of the only constants on Coach Woodson’s bench as he was one of the four players to crack double digits in points against the Spurs. On defense Felton and J.R. will have their hands full with speedy guards Jeff Teague and rookie Dennis Schroder as well as a red hot sniper Kyle Korver who is currently shooting a scorching 54 percent from downtown per Basketball-Reference.com.

All of this means nothing without effort; something that was absent Sunday and has changed on a game by game basis. This is either going to be a grind out win that the Knicks need now more than ever. If they come out flat and get blown out of the gym again expect the beginning of wholesale changes to follow.