<div align="center"> @ Knicks (3-7) @ Bobcats (3-8)</div> <font size=""3"">Date: 11/23/2005 Time: 7:30 PM (Eastern Time) TV: MSG, WJZY, NBALP</font> Season Stats: Knicks Record: 3-7 (.300) Standings: Fourth, Atlantic At Home: 1-2 At Road: 2-5 PPG: 88.2 Opp PPG: 90.5 FG%: .427 Opp FG%: .425 RPG: 44.6 Opp RPG: 40.8 Bobcats Record: 3-8 (.273) Standings: Fourth, Southeast At Home: 2-3 At Road: 1-5 PPG: 96.3 Opp PPG: 97.5 FG%: .406 Opp FG%: .465 RPG: 40.1 Opp RPG: 44.9 <div align="center"><font color="darkorange">Knicks Starting Lineup</font></div> <div align="center"> PG: Stephon Marbury SG: Jamal Crawford SF: Malik Rose PF: Antonio Davis C: Channing Frye </div> <div align="center"><font color="Darkorange">Bobcats Starting Lineup</font></div> <div align="center"> PG: Brevin Knight SG: Kareem Rush SF: Gerald Wallace PF: Emeka Okafor C: Primoz Brezec </div> <div align="center"><font color="darkorange">Backcourt Match-up</font></div> <div align="center"> and VS. and Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford vs. Brevin Knight and Kareem Rush</div> Stephon Marbury, coming off a season-high 27 points, looks to continue this production against the Knight, Rush backcourt. Joining Marbury in the backcourt is Crawford who is learning not to settle for jumpers. Although his numbers suggested he was struggling from the field on Sunday, the second-year Knick was taking strong to the bucket and attempted more midrange jumpers and some in the paint. Also, for the first time in his 6-year career, Crawford is attempting more free throws than three-pointers. It isn?t all good for Crawford, though. Crawford is committing far too many turnovers. Both Marbury and Crawford will need to keep their turnovers to a minimum because the 9-year veteran, Brevin Knight is averaging 2.4 steals per game and ranks seventh in the league in steals per turnover. This Stanford product is a true-blue point guard, and knows how to get his teammates involved. In addition, he takes great care of the ball and almost has a 4.0 assist to turnover ratio. Although at a diminutive 5-10, Knight is a great defender and cannot be taken for granted by Marbury or Crawford. <div align="center"> VS. Antonio Davis, Channing Frye, Malik Rose</div> <div align="center">vs.</div> <div align="center">Emeka Okafor, Primoz Brezec, Gerald Wallace</div> Although the average age of the Bobcats? starting frontcourt is 24, their players play extremely hard night-in and night-out. This athletic bunch can cause havoc for the Knicks. The high-flying Gerald Wallace is an athletic swingman who is much quicker than Malik Rose and is capable of giving him problems. At age 31 (today?s his birthday!), he simply won?t be able to keep up with Wallace during one-on-one situations. This means the Knicks need to rotate on defense. Guys like Quentin Richardson and Maurice Taylor have been sensational drawing charges. This will be needed for the likes of Wallace, a frequent driver to the goal. Okafor must be forced into offensive situations. The 2005 Rookie of the Year is struggling on offense and is shooting 39.9% from the field. That?s a bad percentage for a guard so you can imagine how it must be for a big man. His best asset, rebounding and shot-blocking, must be controlled today. Frye must continue stroking the ball well to keep Okafor out of the paint and open things up for Stephon and Jamal who have been looking much more aggressive. With Curry injured, expect Lee and Frye to see more minutes. We must be much more aggressive rebounding the ball with us lacking a big man. Wallace, Okafor, and May are excellent rebounders so this will make it even tougher for us. Prediction: The Knicks mustn?t think of Charlotte as a pushover team. The team tries hard every second they?re in the game. In fact, The Indiana Pacers ? an Eastern Conference contender ? learned this the hard way and fell victim to the Bobcats. The Knicks need to play this game as if they were playing the Spurs, Pistons, or any other contender in this league. The true key to the game for the Knicks is to play hard. Because of our lack of size this game, I think Larry Brown will get our team playing hard which is why I?ll take them to win this game 90-86.
Wow, when we need JJ he's hurt. Hate that bum. I think we can still take this game as long as they play hard and move the ball. Marbury has to come out like he did saturday and lead the team to victory. 4th victory in sight.
What is the matter with the knicks? No one on this team wants to play defence. They let charlotte have open shots the whole second half. The play that sums up the whole game is when the bobcats scored on a 1 to 5 fast break. The guy ran stright to the basket and nobody stepped up to take the charge. I honestly thought they would be a better team then they were last year. Larry Brown is gonna start playing all of the youngsters bigtime if this continues past january. Isaih has simply gathered a bunch of lazy bums on this historic franchise. I was rooting for the knicks because i thought this team had potential. Thats why the bobcats get much love from every one in the league because win or lose they are respected. Because if you beat Charlotte youve beat en a team that has given it all they got. The only thing that is keeping the knicks from being a winner is EFFORT! Dive for balls, Take the charges, give out some hard fouls, fight for some rebounds. GL Knicks
This was a step in the wrong direction. There is absolutely nothing positive to take out of this game. Curry or no Curry we should have beaten the Bobcats. We gave up too many offensive rebounds and turned the ball over way too much. In fact I believe we had more turnovers than assists. Larry Brown has a lot of work left ahead of him. Anyway I think Isiah Thomas should be fired.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting michiganave17:</div><div class="quote_post">What is the matter with the knicks? No one on this team wants to play defence. They let charlotte have open shots the whole second half. The play that sums up the whole game is when the bobcats scored on a 1 to 5 fast break. The guy ran stright to the basket and nobody stepped up to take the charge. I honestly thought they would be a better team then they were last year. Larry Brown is gonna start playing all of the youngsters bigtime if this continues past january. Isaih has simply gathered a bunch of lazy bums on this historic franchise. I was rooting for the knicks because i thought this team had potential. Thats why the bobcats get much love from every one in the league because win or lose they are respected. Because if you beat Charlotte youve beat en a team that has given it all they got. The only thing that is keeping the knicks from being a winner is EFFORT! Dive for balls, Take the charges, give out some hard fouls, fight for some rebounds. GL Knicks</div> Well, the Knicks didn't have a good night yesterday, but I think Curry's injury definitely had something to do with it although some of the things the Knicks did such as leaving Gerald Wallace open all those times were simply inexcusable. The reason why Curry would have been valuable is because of the Bobcats' center situation. Primoz Brezec and Jake Voskuhl aren't the best of defenders, so it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine Curry with a big night offesnively. His defense and rebounding has also improved a lot under Larry Brown. I knew from the get-go the Bobcats weren't a pushover team. They blew out the Pacers by 32 not too long ago. That just shows the effort they play with. Speaking of effort, it's not surprising when Brown inserted the rookies in the lineup we went on a quickn 12-2 run. The same thing happened against Golden State. Everyone in the Atlantic division lost yesterday so we didn't lose any ground in the standings - we just missed an opportunity. We need to produce better results Saturday against Philadelphia.
