Gettin' right into it,
Short Version: This team won't beat elite squads unless Melo is making his shots, which he wasn't even making the easy ones. To make matters worse, he let the Spurs physical play get in his head and it effected his effort on both ends. Worst game so far for him and it came at a time when his supporting cast really just needed that one bucket to get over the hump on multiple occasions. The Spurs always had the guy to make the momentum killer; it was mostly LMA but Kawhi, TP, Duncan and at one point the ghost of Manu all did their part to stop a team that felt like it was on the brink of coming back. That said, Knicks fought and were propelled at times by the two rookies. KP may have put the league on notice with that one "won't be as long as you think" and Grant was the missing piece damn near every time we looked flat. This was a loss, but showed promise.
KP - His effort combined with his height was overwhelming on the boards at times which is astounding considering his competition. Defensively he was a bit a terror out the gate with 3 steals and 2 blocks. He still hasn't gotten fully comfortable with the game speed, proven by some rushed jumpers but it didn't matter. The put back dunk he had is going to be talked about all day. 13 points, 14 boards, a nice assist to Melo and when he's fully adjusted I expect his efficiency to start shooting up too. Gotta hope the hit he took doesn't take him out for long.
Jerian Grant - Screw the rest of the starters for a second, this guy was the one player who made our offense look right at times. Someone told him about the Wizards game in the film room, because he kept his dribble consistently and it led to a couple of easy buckets. While every other player struggled with the Spurs pressure and man to man, this guy was getting where he wanted on the floor. 12 points, 3 assists, 4 boards and he should have had more minutes to continue to produce. He gets into the lane like no one else on the team can.
Carmelo - Let the physical play get to his head, became to reliant on the refs for his points when he realized it was another off night and was all too often packaged with players that waited for his move instead of trying to give him options. He had the old "I'll argue with the refs while we give up a 4 on 5" mentality at times. Kawhi really outplayed him. 19 points, 7 boards, 1 assist and a bad overall performance...if there's one thing I can say positive it's that he's getting fouls at will when he locks in. Oh, and abysmal effort against screens. Dude wanted a moving pick foul every time down and let Kawhi be free or mismatched due to it on a ridiculously consistent basis.
R-Lo - Another fairly steady performance from him. When the Knicks needed buckets, he manufactured a couple off of sheer effort on the glass and passing. As usual, he was more effective than his stat line would have you think although he wasn't the impact player of the Washington game. Led the team in assists (scary) with 4 (worse). 10 points 5 boards 4 assists and a solid game.
Calderon - He needs to be paired with Grant. They actually looked like a reasonable pair, unlike any other backcourt partner with Jose last night. I like that Fish put Calderon on Green at times to try and hide his inability to stop Guard penetration. The guy doesn't break down a defense and without someone else to do it, all the smarts in the world make zero difference. The offense looked stagnant too often with him out there...but when Grant came on...Jose looked serviceable. 6 points and 2 assists from our starting PG...wtf
Sasha - Can't keep shooting bricks and trying to make up for it with effort. He wasn't particularly bad anywhere else, but just wasn't close to good enough to make up for his lack of scoring punch. 2, 3 and 4 from our starting SG. That's 8 points 4 assists from our starting backcourt all game. That's inexcusable production.
KOQ - The Spurs did well to not let him control the energy while he was out there. That said, he's already our most reliable rebounder with 5 in 19 minutes. When things were stagnant, he wasn't afraid to attack his defender to varied results. Defensively, his high energy style got him pump faked a couple of times but he was good and willing every chance he got. Good game, 6 points 5 boards.
Galloway - A bit uneven of a performance. He's a "take what they give me" kind of player which means the Spurs quality defense held him back a bit. He didn't create much for others, which has a few variables...Grant was the one rocking when he was out there, the offense wasn't up to snuff and Galloway just didn't have the same edge as last time. He was still dependable and solid though. When he couldn't create things offensively, he turned up defensively and played aggressive but smart defense. 6 points and 5 boards from him with 1 assist.
Lance Thomas - This is Lance against a quality defense that doesn't need to cheat off him to contain others. 16 minutes, 2 points and no other discernible contribution. We needed offense imo and D-Will shoulda took some of his minutes.
D-Will - He was 3 of 7 and had 2 boards in 11 minutes. We needed scoring punch and penetration, but he seemed handcuffed to the bench. When he came in with the second unit early, he made a bit of noise...unfortunately he didn't get much chance after that. He made a couple of defensive mistakes which may have contributed to benching (also the Spurs size helped I'm sure). On one play he gave up a back door cut because he was ball watching and lost his man for instance. Regardless though, we needed scoring and he seemed like a good potential answer; especially true when you consider how many FTA's Melo got by driving.
KS and Early - Not enough time to say much, KS looked like he wanted to turn it on but he couldn't hit wide open jumpers from fairly short range. His size would come in handy if he could get any type of offense going ever. Early, literally had no time to do anything.
Fisher - After a great coached game, he got a bit stubborn with some guys. Grant was our best PG, but didn't get a reward of minutes. D-Will really hasn't done anything to be in the dog house and looked like he could drive and finish some. Fisher did a poor drop of reigning Melo in when his head was gone as well. He made one really smart call as the offense was struggling out of a time out, by having Melo gun for a deep post up and easy basket...but I wanted more of that. The offense couldn't get things going and I wish he'd have drawn up a few things to help them out but this system is mostly free wheeling so I won't hold that against him too hard. When the guys aren't shooting well, he doesn't have a lot of ways to pick us up. That said, if he'd given D-Will more minutes and let Grant be the spark for longer, we might not have won but I think we'd have been more competitive.
