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A Lakers Blog. Thoughts, reflections, and the odd rant on the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA (even the Clippers).

Preview and Chat: The New York Knicks

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Records: Lakers37-16 (2nd in West), Knicks 26-25 (6th in East)
Offensive ratings: Lakers112.3 (2nd in NBA), Knicks 110.2 (7th in NBA)
Defensive ratings: Lakers105.0 (10th in NBA), Knicks 109.8 (23rd in NBA)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers:Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
Knicks: Raymond Felton, Landry Fields, Danilo Gallinari, Amar’e Stoudemire, Timofey Mozgov
Injuries: Lakers: Matt Barnes & Theo Ratliff (out); Knicks Kelenna Azubuike & Eddy Curry (out), Ronny Turiaf (questionable)

The Lakers Coming in: The Lakers have won 3 games in a row – all on the road – and just vanquished the Celtics. Needless to say, things are going well right now. And while it’s easy to look at the fact that the Lakers have been playing better on offense (keyed by a resurgent Gasol and the continued brilliance of Kobe) the key to the recent strong play has been the Lakers defense. We saw it last night when the team held the C’s to only 33 second half points and we saw it in Memphis when the Grizz only tallied 84 points when they fell to LA. In fact, in the Lakers’ last 4 games only one team has cracked 90 points and that was the hot shooting Hornets, but even that game ended with a fizzle as New Orleans only scored 13 points in the final period.  If the Lakers can continue to put the clamps on opponents, I’m pretty sure we’re going to keep seeing victories.

The Knicks Coming in: At this point, I think it’s safe to say that the Knicks have issues. They’ve lost 3 of their last 4 games and since losing to the Lakers back on January 9th, they’ve lost 10 of 15. They now sit only one game over .500 and seem to be scrambling to find their lost mojo.

One theory that I have in regards to the Knicks struggles is the fact that they’re now the team engulfed in Carmelo Anthony trade rumors. If you think back to when the Nets pulled their name from the list of teams actively pursuing ‘Melo, one of the reasons their owner cited was that the players were distracted by having their futures with the team always being put front and center. We all think of trade rumors as part of the business of the NBA, but when the media and fans are speculating about you suddenly no longer being on the team, that can have an adverse affect on a player’s performance. Right now, that’s the reality for the Knicks. Fans at MSG are chanting “we want ‘Melo”, and the discussions about Knick ‘X’ moving on to Denver or Minnesota in a trade to acquire Anthony are always present. None of this can be good for the mental health of a ball club and I think we’re seeing the repercussions of this with the Knicks’ recent slide.

Knicks Blogs: Check out Knickerblogger for all their great insight, then visit their stats page for more good information on the teams around the league. And if you want even more of me, you can see the Q & A I did with them in the lead up to tonight’s game.

Keys to game: Can the Lakers keep their high going? Big wins can often be followed by big let downs if you’re not careful. The Knicks are more than capable of playing well and you know they’ll have a great crowd for the Lakers’ only visit of the year, so the Lakers must not suffer from any lack of focus tonight. MSG will be rocking and the Lakers better be prepared for the atmosphere that they’re walking into.

Offensively, the Lakers must attack inside. Gasol and Bynum have major advantages against Amar’e in the paint and while Mozgov is a hustling big man that is active on D, he’s not Mutombo in the middle. Much like last night, I’d love to see the Lakers work the ball to their big men early and allow Kobe to hang back and pick his spots.

That said, Kobe also should not go into a shell on offense. Fields is a good defender but he’s still a rookie and hasn’t yet seen Kobe’s full bag of tricks. I’d love to see Kobe continue to attack the paint, force help from STAT and Mozgov and then hit his bigs for easy buckets. I also think he’ll be able to go into the post at the weak side elbow and force the Knicks to either double team or be beaten by turnaround jumpers from Kobe’s sweet spot. This action will be more available when Odom replaces Pau or Bynum and Kobe can move out of the two guard front of the Triangle and onto the wing/post, so look for that change when Phil calls to the bench.

Defensively, we’ll see what type of approach the Knicks take tonight. The last time these teams played I thought the Knicks did themselves a major disservice by going away from the P&R in favor of Amar’e isolations at the elbow. The Knicks did try to get creative by running hand off sequences with Amar’e initiating offense but by going away from their bread and butter of the Felton/STAT P&R, they limited their options on O and forced Amar’e to continuously drive into two 7 footers looking to block and alter his shot.

Tonight, I expect the Knicks to go back to the P&R as they’ve now got their spacers back. With Gallo and Fields camping in the corners, the Knicks will likely look to try and space out the Lakers’ D so that Amar’e has a free path on dives to the rim. In order to counter this action the Lakers will need to have good backline rotations by their big men and wing defenders will have to help off shooters while still showing the ability to recover back to contest shots if the ball gets kicked out. The Knicks aren’t quite at the Suns’ level in running this play but we know that D’Antoni is still trying to duplicate that success.

The other key areas to watch tonight are rebounds and transition baskets. The Knicks rank as one of the weaker rebounding teams on both backboards so the Lakers should be able to take advantage of this fact by hitting their O glass hard. NY relies heavily on guards to get dirty and hit the defensive glass so the Lakers bigs should recognize that they have an advantage inside by moving aggressively to the boards and getting extra possessions.

And by making the Knicks stay home to protect their defensive glass, here’s hoping the Lakers can control the pace of the game. The Knicks play at the 3rd fastest pace in the league (with D’Antoni at the healm this shouldn’t be a surprise) and will try to run at every opportunity. Unlike his old Suns teams, though, the Knicks don’t always just run to the three point line. Chandler, Fields, and Felton will all happily attack the basket in the open court so the Lakers must actively build a wall against those players and block off the paint. Galinari however will almost always run to the three point line so he must be marked in the open court as he drifts to the extended wing and corner to get off open threes.

In the end, this game is one that should be won by the Lakers. The Knicks a game opponent, but they’re a wounded team that does not have the highest confidence. I know the Lakers will be a bit spent after playing an emotional game and when combined with the Knicks want to push the ball they may be more tired than normal tonight. That said, the Lakers strengths directly challenge the Knicks’ weaknesses and plan of attack needs to reflect that. Let’s keep this streak going with another win.

Where you can watch: 5:00pm start time out West on KCAL. Also listen at ESPN Radio 710am.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Anonymous says

    Interesting you said that Aaron because I was just talking to a friend yesterday (who is a huge suns fan) about Bynum and he said amare owned Bynum in last years playoffs. I don’t remember it that way at all but is that even remotely true?

  6. Chownoir says

    Okay, new tradition is the 13th comment for Warren. It worked for last night’s game.

    Darius, can you keep an eye on the moderation to do that? LOL!

    Bynum taking it to Amare and Lakers winning in 07 Christmas game against Phoenix was the first real indication to me that the Lakers had turned the corner and on their way back to respectability. Lakers looked so good in that game with Bynum dominating the interior and Kobe doing his thing. The rest of the team played their roles. That game was when I finally started believing the hot start wouldn’t be a mirage like it was the previous year.

  7. Chris J says

    Drew owns Amare — I still look back on the Christmas game in 2007 when it was almost as though, if you listened closely, you could hear the entire Suns organization saying, “Oh, s—, the Lakers now have a center.”

    Phoenix’s window to the west slammed shut that day, cracked open again when Bynum got hurt against Memphis a few weeks later, then slammed shut for good on Feb. 1, 2008.

    They knew Amare couldn’t handle Bynum, nor Pau, which prompted the panic deal for Shaq, thus speeding up the end of the Mike D-Seven Seconds or Less Suns.

  8. lakersfanwithnoTV says

    anybody know where i can stream the game? I enjoy watching the lakers play at new york but I don’t have a tv anywhere near me now.

  15. Reign on Parades says

    Let the record show that Kobe did a very good job facilitating that first quarter but our guys just kept bricking open jumpers and scrwing up at the rim or getting fouled, preventing him from accruing assists

    Also he found Bynum on an early seal that ended up in a dunk that would’ve been a Chris Paul assist in N’awlins

    Just for the boxscore watchers out there

  16. Igor Avidon says

    Man, that arena has superb acoustics. Works really well for their crowd, too. I’m starting to kind of want to see a basketball game there.

  17. Zephid says

    Everytime Shannon Brown leaves his feet for a dunk in transition, I always think “Wait, that’s way to early- …nevermind.” Dude can seriously fly. It’s a shame he sucks in dunk contests.

  25. sufian says

    Man, if you dont have a really solid defender on kobe, your team will lose. If you put a really solid defender on kobe (which 80% teams dont have), you better have good team defense. I’ve been telling all my friends kobe is still the best player in the game and i thoroughly believe that. Kobe is still better than lebron.

  26. Andreas G. says

    Zephid: And despite the fact that it was directed at Pau (I assume), I totally agree with him. What the **** was that? Pau totally forgot that players can miss free-throws – even at the end of quarters.

    Oh well, some beautiful stretches of basketball during that half. One of the advantages with the Lakers not caring every now and then, is that you really appreciate when they actually try.

    I actually become somewhat bored with winning during long win-streaks, as horrible as that may sound.

    Anyway, when the Lakers do turn it on, they are un-frickin-stoppable. Like I’ve said here many times before: If you combine the league’s best frontline with Kobe – it’s game over.

  27. Mamula says

    24. Lamar totally fell asleep on that play… It’s amazing how Odom totally sends his focus on a mini vacation and produces brain fart plays… But I guess that is also a defining characteristic of the guy and such a likable person. Lamar is a chilled dude

    Kobe’s F-bomb was spot on directed at Lamar

  28. Mihms the Word says

    It’s streaming on espn3, or you can use channelsurfnet.eu (I think that’s the new site).

    A couple of our big men finish inside and kobe has a bunch more assists… I’m liking the look of his stroke tonight though!

  30. Simonoid says

    That was a crafty move by Kobe to draw the charge on Amare. Cheap, and Fisher-esque (maybe even Divac-esque), but very very crafty.

    Might even be the first charge he’s taken this year. He gets a bonus for it being off the ball.

  31. Mamula says

    29. You are probably right. Pau has his brings his own dosage of brain farts from time to time as well

  32. Jordan says

    I missed the start of the game.. Where is jeff van gundy?

    My one wish more of jeff and less of Reggie miller. What a bad commentator Reggie is

  34. Andreas G. says

    Jordan: Agreed. I know many people on this site don’t like JvG, but I find him hilarious. And yes –Reggie is by far the worst commentator on national TV.

  35. Zephid says

    someone needs to summarize for me how the game ends, because I just lost my stream and I’m supposed to write the recap tonight

  37. Andreas G. says

    I can really recommend NBA league pass broadband – at least in Sweden it’s sooo worth the price. We get all the games there though, maybe you guys have some of them blacked out due to broadcasting rights issues?

    Lamar is an evil man btw – always wants to humiliate the opposing team by doing fancy stuff when the Lakers are winning big:D (I suspect Phil doesn’t really appreciate it the way I do though.)

  40. JM says

    What did LO do? My ESPN channel cut to the CLE/LAC game and I was too lazy to change the channel to KCAL. LOL.

  42. R says

    Sorry, I’m just giddy that the Lakers actually beat the stuffing out of a team they should beat. Almost as pleasing in its own way as the W over the Celtics.

    Now let’s hope they handle Orlando on Sunday.