Knicks Drop One to the Nets 100-92

Added by Stephen Zimkouski on February 21, 2012.

To say this weekend has been a roller coaster ride for the Knicks is an understatement. After an atrocious let down loss at home 85-89 to the very bad but hotter as of late New Orleans Hornets squad, the Knicks were able to bounce back with what looked like a statement victory 104-97 on national television against the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

The Knicks would take the momentum from that game and get Carmelo Anthony and Baron Davis in the lineup. However, they would drop what looked like a ‘W’ on the schedule to the New Jersey Nets.

Some notable statistics were Deron Williams 38 points. Jeremy Lin had another great statistical output with 21 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and only three turnovers while shooting poorly at only 7-18. The poor shooting also touched Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire as they only shot 4-for-11 for 11 points and 7-for-17 for 21 points respectively.

The Knicks had no answer for Deron Williams as he dropped in 38 points, including eight three pointers.

Now before we go and throw Melo under the bus, he admitted that he was rusty. Anybody that watched the game could see that Melo did not look sharp and that’s fine because he was making somewhat smart decisions while not overly disrupting the flow of the offense. The difference is that he shot poorly but did not necessarily take that many poor shots. You know he’s going to take poor shots but with his scoring ability you’ll have to live with that as a healthy Melo can get you 25 points on any given night.

Another thing to note about last night’s game is that Iman Shumpert did not dress. I don’t think Deron Williams would have scored as often and efficiently as he did tonight if Shumpert was in the lineup. It was clear that Deron was hot but Shumpert would’ve been able to hound him with his aggressive and effective on ball defense. This would’ve made him give up the ball rather than sink 8 threes on the Knicks defense.

Now that the Knicks have their full compilation of players I think the minutes should be distributed similarly to tonight. However, Baron Davis and J.R. Smith as they get more accustomed to the team should see an increase. I feel that the addition of J.R. is huge and could be extremely vital to the Knicks success as the season continues. I have always said that J.R. is one of the most natural and gifted scorers in the game. At times he can carry a team and the Knicks will have to ride his hot streaks out and live with the cold ones.