Good game Kevin Knox (8-17, 21 pts). High-arcing 3 pointers, attacking the basket with venom. An open-court full-court drive by Kevin Knox early on followed by a fantastic alley oop slam dunk on the break on a pass from Tim Hardaway Jr. later on. Every day, Kevin Knox looks closer and closer to Bernard King. Knox is 19 yrs old.

Good game Tim Hardaway Jr (7-16, 27 pts); raised trade value? (Dallas reportedly interested).

Good game Damyean Dotson (6-11, 14 pts)

Frank Ntilikina 1-7 from the floor. He made a great defensive play fronting Ben Simmons early in the game but that was about it for his highlights. T.J. McConnell had no problem with Ntilikina’s defense; attacked at will and distributed. Knick shooting guards defended J.J. Redick.

Hard to envision Knicks being good defensive team in forseeable future. Philly set their high for points in a regular season game this season with the 131.

Boxscore:

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071138

The post Game Log – Dec 19, 2018: Philadelphia 131 New York 109 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrated by:

• Dave DeBusschere became Knicks GM, and there was an in-flight rebuild.

Highlights:

• Hubie Brown was brought in as coach, stressing Defense.
• Micheal Ray Richardson was traded for Bernard King. The trade made sense at the time as it seemed the Knicks were getting a slightly better player; by then it was known Richardson had a drug problem and King had an alcohol problem. We didn’t know how much better this trade would make the Knicks until King quickly rose to become one of best players in the game.
• Maurice Lucas was traded for Truck Robinson at the end of the 1982 season — at the time this didn’t make any sense at all. Lucas averaged 16 pts and 11 rebounds for the Knicks. But new coach Hubie Brown may have preferred Truck Robinson‘s defense.
• 30 years later we learned the 1983 Knicks were under FBI investigation for fixing games to pay for their cocaine habits. You can only wonder if the trades the Knicks made in the 1982-83 time frame were due to management knowing they had a cocaine problem. The whole league had this problem, but Knicks management may have been getting rid of their more notorious imbibers.
• Bottom line — the dynamic duo backcourt of Ray Williams & Michael Ray Richardson was gone — a new course was set with Bernard King and Hubie Brown.
• Rory Sparrow was acquired to run the point.
• Trent Tucker (#6 overall pick in 1982 draft) was the young stud shooting guard — defense & great 3-pt shooter but the wait was on to see if he could learn to penetrate to basket, which he never did.
• Minor trade for Louis Orr turned out great as he became key reserve forward, along with high 1st-round draft pick Sly Williams.

Results:

• The Knicks went 44-38 the first year under Hubie Brown, and then 47 wins in 1983-84.
• Bernard King led the Knicks deep into the playoffs in ’84, beating Detroit and Isiah Thomas in a fantastic 7-game series.
• But the Knicks really had no chance against Boston — the Knicks would edge out home playoff wins, then get smashed in Boston.

The End:

• In 1984-85, Cartwright was lost for the year with a fractured foot. Truck Robinson went down for the year with a toe injury. King — leading the league in scoring — went down with a horrific knee injury. Before you knew it the Knicks had Ken Bannister and Eddie Lee Wilkins as their big men and a horrific season — which resulted in the famous Dave Debusschere lottery pick and the #1 pick in the draft, and rebuild #4…

Your Thoughts? 

Your thoughts on any of the above? Additional comments? Please feel free to provide your feedback below.

The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title in 1973: Rebuild #3 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Emmanuel Mudiay took over.

First Half

Knicks were getting KILLED in this one — down 21 in the first half and it seemed like 40. They were doing nothing right. Dribbling the ball off their foot, playing no defense. At one point I tweeted “Ron Baker should coach this team” — a frustrating ode to Coach Fizdale saying Baker would be a good coach one day after the Knicks released Baker the night before.

Kevin Knox was the lone bright spot in the first half — scoring at will and racking up 17 points by the half. He keeps reminding me of Bernard King in the way he shoots with no hesitation and loves taking it to the rim.

Mitchell Robinson had a vicious alley oop slam dunk in the first half and was playing well before coming down with a sky-high rebound on Frank Kaminsky‘s foot for a sprained ankle.

Second Half

After halftime the Knicks came out with a new fervor and started chipping away at the lead. And then they unleashed Luke Kornet. The 7-foot Kornet has been eating up the G league with his 3-pt shooting and shot blocking. We saw him briefly at the end of last season and everyone was impressed.

Kornet

Kornet not only blocked shots against Charlotte he was very active defensively inside — patrolling right and left — and shouting out orders to other teammates on where to go on D. On offense he was MONEY from 3 (overall 4-8, 3-5 from 3, 13 pts, 6 rebounds 3 blocks and a +19 in 24 minutes).

Mudiay

Emmanuel Mudiay took over on offense — play after play down the stretch — driving, stopping for the little jumper. 34 points.

Kornet with Defense to the End

Nicolas Batum kept hitting 3’s like a crazy man (5-8) to keep Charlotte right there with the Knicks. It went to Overtime — on the final play of the game Kemba Walker drove the court for a possible game-tying layup at the buzzer but Kornet was back and there, to cause Walker to alter his layup and miss.

Boxscore:

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071102

The post Game Log – Dec 14, 2018: New York 126 Charlotte 124 in OT appeared first on Knicks.City.