It might be time to push the button. After yet another loss in Washington Saturday night, the team is now 3-9 and heading into a tough west coast road trip. On Monday the Knicks go to the Rose Garden to take on a sizzling Blazers team led by Damian Lillard. John Wall destroyed the Knicks with not much of a jump, so you can imagine what last season’s Rookie of the Year will have in store for Beno Udrih and Pablo Prigioni who will be taking the place of an injured Raymond Felton.
After a heart-breaker on Wednesday night when the
Knicks were a finger-tip away from beating the best team in the Eastern
Conference - the Indiana Pacer - they followed that with a loss to the Wizards. The Knicks defense in the second half was terrible as Wall, young sniper Bradley Beal and
Martell Webster had their way, scoring 31, 18, and 19 points respectively. It
was very familiar to Wednesday night’s game when Paul George torched the Knicks
in the second half scoring 23 of his game-high 35 points in the fourth quarter
and overtime alone.
The team simply has not been on the same page on
either offense or defense. The buckets aren’t dropping. The rotations are too
late. Coach Woodson has to grab control of this spiraling team before those
Calipari whispers become chants. Woodson’s favoring of playing Smith with a big
lineup and putting Shumpert on the bench is just not working. Last year’s team was
at its best when they had Melo at the four, Shump at the three and Smith at the
two. These big lineups are too clunky. For a second straight night Andrea
Bargnani did not shoot the basketball well, putting more pressure and double
teams on Melo. Smith was especially awful, missing all four of his free throw
attempts in the fourth quarter in addition to a couple of mental mistakes that
cost the team late. Amar’e Stoudemire had his best game of the year posting 12
points, but only two of those coming in the second half.
This upcoming week the Knicks face two top Western
Conference teams in Portland and the Clippers followed with a Melo homecoming
at Denver. If Woodson doesn’t make some changes and get everyone on the same
page the Knicks might be 3-12 heading into December.
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