Short Version: This was a frustrating game. The Knicks played lackluster D throughout the first half, stepped up a bit in the third and immediately got off to a big lead. Fish took that as an opportunity to trot out one of the worst combinations of skillsets that we've seen on the floor together and the Sixers pulled a huge comeback and would have handed us a horrific loss if they could have hit their FT's. The coach and players let up and that meant extra minutes for Melo on an injured ankle, a new foot injury for KP and another round of bizarre attempts to rationalize why Sasha Vujacic has a roster spot in 2016 on any NBA team when he probably couldn't drop double digits in a CBA game against a non-Marbury led opponent.
KP: Was really on his way to a massive impact game. He opened with a couple of dunks and hustle plays as well as just a ton of rebounds but ended his night early. He was also passing the ball really well, he has one flaw that worries me in that sometimes he decides his move before he's received the ball, you see it in some of his passes which are telegraphed...but he's such a threat to both pull up and drive that he gets away with it and sometimes makes a highlight reel touch pass off of it. 16, 12 and 4 with 3 blocks in 34 minutes. He could have had huge numbers if not for the foot injury inside of regulation.
Melo: The shooting numbers were ugly and when cutters stopped moving off the ball he fell into old ISO habits; but the guy really gutted his way through the game and willed us to victory. His scoring was missing and his timing was way off on drives, but when we needed a basket, he found a way to make it. More importantly, in spite of the bad shooting he got some nice boards (with very little push off that bad ankle) and really orchestrated well. 19, 7 and 7 with his late block on Ish Smith in first OT somehow not credited. He probably coulda used the day off to rest up for tougher match-ups, instead he gave 49 minutes of burn and was limping around by the OT periods...but still playing hard. It was a nice show of leadership imo.
AA: I honestly managed to overlook his production a bit because it seemed like he was taking a lot of questionable shots. Late in the game though, he stepped up and made the important baskets to take some of the weight off Melo. 25 and 7 boards with no assists...he's good at making contested jumpers when he gets space which can make his shot selection a bit frustrating when he misses but he was really big yesterday. I also felt slightly better in cases where he switched with Calderon, but I'd feel that way about any player switched with Calderon at this point.
RoLo: Started the game going after a poor defender in Okafor and keeping pace with the kid. He did well offensively but got eaten in post defensive play. He also kept getting dragged out to try and stop Ish Smith's drives which meant a nice lane for easy offensive boards or catch and lay-up plays. His defense in double OT was inspired though. 16,10 and 2 with a pair of blocks as well.
Jose: Had a really nice first half that was punctuated by getting into the lane a few times and creating off of it. He even took a screen with the clear intention of getting his own shot off. Defensively he was able to get by funneling Ish into a big man for most of the night but as soon as D'Antoni went small ball, spread court, high pick and roll the defensive liabilities of Calderon were on full display. When he goes under, he doesn't have foot speed to recover and challenge a jumper or keep up with quicker guys even though he's gone UNDER. When he goes over the screen, he's just plain beat off the dribble. On fast breaks his defense is even more deplorable as he has never been taught to force the ball handler to pick the ball up, so he just runs beside them and watches easy lay-ups go in (10 extra hate points for the times he looks at forwards like it's their fault for not keeping up with a guard on a full court sprint). He had 8, 5 and 3 plus 3 steals but yet came across pretty clearly as the biggest problem we've got right now.
D-Will: Is never gonna be effective without spacers out there and Lance doesn't get much respect even with his improved shooting while Sasha is literally one of the worst shooters in the league statistically. Compound that with Galloway never forcing ranged shots and KOQ needing closer looks and you've got one of his worst stretches of ball in a long time in that fourth quarter collapse. But he also went out with the starters in the first half and did some really nice things, getting to the line on his first touch and using one of those off ball back door moves to slam home a dunk. He only got 15 minutes and put up 7, 2 and 1 which isn't awful but isn't good. If there aren't spacers or guys who demand defensive attention, he's not useful out there.
Galloway: He pulled the heroics off mainly by making the right decisions. He fed mismatches in the post late for easy buckets, he pushed the pace without forcing his way all the way to the rack (an improvement) and when he had a lane; he made his way to the basket for easy finishes. 8, 3 and 3 but he was way more than the numbers show, just by going over screens and recovering somewhat well; he forced the Sixers into uncomfortable possessions that helped us catch up and win the game.
Grant: Had 7 largely ineffective minutes. He seemed to guard Mcconnell well for 20 seconds of the shot clock but lose him late. He wasn't nearly bad enough to excuse the Sasha substitution. Rookies are gonna have ups and downs, to replace him with a completely ineffective vet in meaningful minutes was just a poor decision. Sasha was never gonna be better and if you have to choose between one ineffective guy and the next, go with the one who is at least capable of playing respectable defense and won't force jumpers.
Lance: His numbers look way better than his effectiveness in this one. 12, 4 and 2 in 31 minutes isn't the worst look. But he had two absolutely horrendous TO's; he gave too much space to a three point shooter twice in a row in crunch time that should have cost us the game; and he really only started to shine when his conditioning allowed him to outhustle tired guys in OT.
KOQ: One of the strange ones for this guy. When he does the things he can do, he's really fun to watch especially as a passer. In 7 minutes he had 4 points, 3 boards and 2 assists; all of it looked good too. But defensively he's slow on rotations and unless he improves his instincts and decisions that won't change. He also tries to do too much sometimes and it winds up in TO's, he had one yesterday too. He's a give and take guy, who needs to get his defensive play back to his early returns if he wants to warrant rotation minutes.
Lou: Got out there and hustled...that's about it...he's not good by any stretch, but he plays hard and when you have tired guys out there he can at least give you some added energy.
Sasha: I said recently that any game where Sasha plays meaningful minutes is practically a forfeit. In this one, he turned garbage time into meaningful minutes with just 6 minutes of play and 18 point lead that managed to evaporate when his presence combined with Lance and Galloway for poor spacing as well as D-Will and KOQ for a lack of solid defense and Sasha's ability to do everything badly...you've got Philly with so much momentum that not even the starters can slow it down. 3 of his 4 attempts were bad decisions; At one point KP had an under 6 footer guarding him in the post and Sasha looked that option off to reset to Calderon; and the guy even managed an air ball with plenty of shot clock time available. If he plays from now on, Fisher gets an F grade for coaching that day. If he plays, Phil automatically gets a few points taken away from his personnel decisions. He might not hold his own in the celebrity game at all star weekend and has no business on an NBA roster...probably wouldn't do well in the D-League bad.
Fisher: The guy preaches effort for 48 minutes from his guys, but then puts in a light line-up as soon as the team seems like it's pulled away. If he's gonna let up on the gas, he can't expect his players to keep the pedal pressed. He combined poor spacing and poor interior defense into a unit that would struggle with the D-League Select squad at summer league. He also didn't come up with an answer for the spread offense pick and roll attack that D'antoni employed until a couple of plays into over time. It had killed him for the entire fourth and the first defensive set of the OT until it dawned on him that Jose wasn't holding his weight. Walt Frazier actually asked where Grant was to stop Smith and than wondered aloud why it took so long to put Galloway in after it was working. This is a nice example of the too late decision making that hurts the team. When he's making snap decisions and coaching like every second counts, he does well, but when he's playing the "let me experiment" style coach with meaningful minutes to be played it is extremely detrimental to this squad. Even his last play call lacked the creativity he had shown in the past few games, he just gave it to Melo and did a top of the key isolation...it worked though, so that one I can't hate too badly.
Random: Okafor would eat really well in our system, but his defense still needs so much work. Ish Smith is a nice example of a pure pick and roll PG, dude is ineffective in all other facets of the game but he's a really tough match up in PnR situations. Shout out to Clyde and Hahn for both making playful comments about the weird rotation choices, probably woulda got in trouble if they were blatantly critical.