<font color="darkorange">New York Knicks(13-21)</font> vs. <font color="teal">Minnesota Timberwolves (17-17)</font> Madison Square Garden, New York Monday, Jan. 16th 1:00pm, MSG, FSN-North, NBALP <div align="center"> @ </div> <font size="2">With a blowout loss against the Toronto Raptors the streak has finally come to an end. So, what to do? Start a new one. The annual MLK day game features a Timberwolves club on a 7-game road losing streak. Will Stephon and the Knicks make a statement and rebound from yesterday’s performance, or has Toronto put a dent a permanent dent in their confidence?</font> [div=50%] <font size="3"><div align="center"><font color="teal">Minnesota Timberwolves</font></div></font> Projected Starters <div align="center"> </div> Backcourt [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/marko_jaric.jpg[/imgl]<font color="teal">PG – Marko Jaric </font> 10.5ppg, 5.4apg, 42.3%fg Five years? Forty million? Yeah right. Yeah right. That’s what Sam Cassell had to say about Mark Jairc, NBA 2K6’s most overrated player. At 6’7”, he plays point guard, so along with his quickness, he’s a problem for many guards. Strangely, with his extra size, he doesn’t use it to see over his opponents’ head. That makes him just an average playmaker instead of a great one. [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/trenton_hassell.jpg[/imgl]<font color="teal">SG – Trenton Hassell </font> 8.5ppg, 2.2rpg, 2.1apg He’s a very good defender, but on offense he’s somewhat of a liability. Don’t let his 50% three-point shooting fool you; he’s only it 4 out of 8 attempts. I guess Minnesota decided to start him in order to set a tough defensive tone in the game. FrontCourt [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/wally_szczerbiak.jpg[/imgl]<font color="teal">SF – Wally Szczerbiak</font> 20.4ppg, 4.6rpg, 2.8apg If we have any hopes of winning, we must play defense on Wally. Just take a look at his percentages: 50.7% from the field and 43.7% from downtown. The Knicks were about to trade him for Kurt Thomas a few summers ago, but one thing holding back the deal was Wally’s awful defense, a reason David Lee or maybe even Qyntel Woods might should be good offensively. [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/eddie_griffin.jpg[/imgl]<font color="teal">C – Eddie Griffin </font> 5.1ppg, 6.1rpg, 0.7apg Eddie Griffin is still very young, but I just don’t ever see him being an effective center. He’s only 6’10” and is out on the perimeter way too much. He’s shooting just 38.2% from the field and 19% from downtown. His career averages aren’t far away from those numbers, so it’s not like he’s having a slump this season. He’s doing his thing on defense, though. I’ll give him that. [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/kevin_garnett.jpg[/imgl]<font color="teal">PF –Kevin Garnett </font> 22.2ppg, 11.2rpg, 4.9apg You don’t find much of these, but Garnett is pretty much a flawless player. He can post up, he can shoot from the outside, he can dribble, he can pass, he can rebound, he can defend, he can block shots, and steal the ball. Question is: what can’t he do? He’s probably the 534th player rumored to the Knicks, but if this trade ever went down, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d be one happy homer, though. <u>Keys To Game</u> <font color="teal">Confidence:</font> Losing 7 straight on the road can deflate confidence and coming into another road game in a hostile environment like MSG won’t make anything better. It will be up to the Wolves to come out confident, because they MSG is no joke … or at least it hasn’t been recently. <font color="teal">Rebounding:</font> Garnett can’t do it all by himself. Everyone has to contribute. Collectively, the Wolves average 38.9 rebounds per game. The Knicks can’t get second chance buckets at home. [/div] <font size="3"><div align="center"><font color="darkorange">New York Knicks</font></div></font> Projected Starters <div align="center"> </div> Backcourt [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/nate_robinson.jpg[/imgl]<font color="DarkOrange">PG – Nate Robinson</font> 8.9ppg, 3.0rpg, 1.9apg Consistency has been the biggest issue with Nate. Sometimes he’s hot other times he’s cold. Nate averages 3 more points in home games, though. Hopefully that will get him going. As strange as it seems, the most energy comes from the smallest player. We’ll need that against Minnesota. [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/stephon_marbury.jpg[/imgl]<font color="darkorange">SG – Stephon Marbury</font> 18.9ppg, 6.9apg, 3.4rpg Starbury is going up against his former team. Last time he met with them, Marbury put on a show and the Knicks moved onto 16-13! Think we’ll get three games over .500 this year? That’s a thought for another day, but for today, Marbury will have to continue finding the scoring and dishing balance. He’s done a good job of it lately and I hope it continues. Frontcourt [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/david_lee.jpg[/imgl]<font color="darkorange">SF – David Lee</font> 5.2ppg, 5.1rpg, 0.7apg Lee is shaping up to be a real steal for the Knicks. With that new and improved jump shot, Lee is becoming a threat on the baseline. One thing about Lee I have to comment on more impressive than his rebounding, is his field goal percentage. Isiah certainly can draft. I know I wouldn’t have drafted David Lee. [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/eddy_curry.jpg[/imgl]<font color="darkorange">C – Eddy Curry </font> 14.6ppg, 6.7rpg, 1.0bpg Curry has becoming the post up threat we’ve needed him to be, but he needs to remain in the game for longer stretches. Sometimes he doesn’t seem as concentrated as he was before. Going up against Griffin, he’ll have an advantage. He’ll need to exploit the mismatch and give us a presence in the middle. [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/antonio_davis.jpg[/imgl]<font color="darkorange">PF – Antonio Davis</font> 4.7ppg, 4.8rpg, 0.29bpg Do you think he can contain the Big Ticket? I just hope Garnett doesn’t drop 30/20/10 on us. It’s not like those numbers are farfetched either. Garnett can do that on any given game. Hopefully this isn’t one of those games. <u>Keys To The Game</u> <font color="darkorange">Contain the Big Ticket:</font> There’s no significant weakness to Garnett’s game, so that means there’s no way to stop him. The only thing we can do is try and keep him to his ridiculous averages and hope he doesn’t get any more. <font color="darkorange">PERIMETER DEFENSE:</font> This needs to be capitalized extra because of yesterday’s Toronto loss. From downtown, the bucket was as big as an ocean for the Raptors. Let’s not make it any bigger for Wally and the rest of the Wolves. Prediction: Post them below.
Too much time was wasted trying to come into the game instead of fighting back. Also, that turnover by Crawford was a killer. Troy Hudson was killing in that game and that lucky three he hit won the game for them. Hopefully we come out strong against Chicago.
I didnt even know the knicks played today. It says Monday Jan 16. The 16th is tomorrow. Did the knicks win or lose this game?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BobbyEscobar:</div><div class="quote_post">I didnt even know the knicks played today. It says Monday Jan 16. The 16th is tomorrow. Did the knicks win or lose this game?</div> The 16th is today and the Knicks lost.
hudson....... thats all i can say he was too lucky to make that 3 at the end and he been ******** on nate the whole game
Caught the highlights on ESPN this morning...how's Steph's shoulder? That was a tough pick Wally put on him.
