It's not just them hitting their shots, it's the Blazers hitting theirs; if the Blazers are taking and missing jumpers, leading to NY rebounds and long outlet passes we could end up looking really, really stupid tomorrow night. If the Blazers can successfully play inside out and collect any of the misses at a high rate they'll mow the Knicks down.
Portland will win as long as they do exactly the opposite of what they did in Golden State a couple of weeks ago. If they use the same game plan as they did in that game, they will get beat by 20.
I don't think Portland will have any problem with this game. Sure, they could come out flat and NY hot. But that's pretty much required for NY to win. Seriously though, Curry hasn't played at all this year? I knew Marbury hadn't, but I didn't know Curry was in the same boat. I know he's not a D'Antoni player, but I was under the impression he wasn't quite the huge knucklehead that Marbury is and thus would at least get some token minutes. Interesting.
This New York team scares me a little more than the Raptors. They're streaky and can get hot in a hurry. However, the Blazers have been playing great ball lately and we're far more talented than they are. Should be a good one.
why's everyone so worried about the game's tempo? The faster it is the better, because it means more possessions for each team, and the Blazers easily have the more talented roster.
I know our bigs will have to chase Harrington and Lee around, but they will have to go down low and bang with our bigs! How is Lee going to guard Greg? I hope he has a great game in front of this media circus!
He'll flop, just like Maggette did against LMA. If the refs want to allow flops, it will be a bad night for the Blazers. If they call it legit, the Blazers should win easily.
NY has gutted their roster of talent and is doing everything they can to lose, lose, lose and get a lottery pick. Their only wins since Zach departed came against defenseless teams with similar aims. We can't possibly lose this game.
Agreed. They've proved they just want to tank the next two seasons. It'd suck to lose this game.. and looks like the Marbury situation is still a distraction, which is a good thing.
Marbury isn't playing and might affect the teams general attitude (hence the link below). I also think the team is shakened up with Z.Randolph gone and will be going through a transition period.. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-knicks-marbury&prov=ap&type=lgns
This is no gimmie. That team does not have a lot of talent, at least among the players that D'Antoni puts out on the floor, but they play together, which is a lot more that can be said for previous Knick teams.
We are just going to pound it inside and get them in foul trouble. They won't have 5 players on the floor by the end of this one.
This game is a bit of a worry for me also, because of the way they play... they like to score, play fast, and play together for the most part. I'm really lookin' forward to the game though.
I worry about the attitude that Portland "should" win a game. They "should" have beaten the Kings easily at home and we know what happened. I'll take a one point win, I'm not proud, but the attitude of "we should win" gets teams into trouble. Hopefully Nate is keeping the team from a "should" attitude.
I'm probably headed to the game too. I guess the blazers aren't hot tickets arounds here... or maybe that's the knicks doing but lots of good tix available on stubhub.
No no no. If it is a fast paced game, that plays to NY strengths. If you go down the list of stuff that Portland is good at, you will notice that fast breaks, is not one of them. Portland will only win this game if they dominate the middle, use their size, and don't let happen what happened in the Golden State game. In fact when it comes down to it, that Golden State game should answer your question for you. Is Golden State more talented than Portland? Well how did they win then? That is right, by running Portland out of the gym, and playing to their strength, running the break, keeping the tempo high.
GSW did not win because it was a fast-pace game. They won because of these issues: 1. Anthony Morrow was channeling Reggie Miller circa 1996 and could not miss 2. GSW could not miss a FT 3. The Refs were all wearing bi-focal glasses with the part that looked at fouls on Portland missing. 5. Aldridge was in his shooting slump hitting only 2 of 7 The game still came down to the wire. Add the fact that GSW is a much more talented team than NYK - I can't see this kind of a perfect storm happening again.
