Before Freak and I bring you the first Final Tape collaboration, we would like to pause the Final Tape for a moment to salute the city of Boston for its heroic efforts and resilience in the wake of the recent tragic events.
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Resume play.
Finally, the day had come. After a wild 82 games of preparation, the New York Knicks would embark on their post-season quest for NBA supremacy. Currently playing on the Knickstape: Boston Celtics, volume 1. As the players and fans both know, this track is not skippable. You must remain alert for 48 minutes, endure the Piercing Bass and tune out the aggrevating ad-libs. I recommend eating your Wheaties (or Honey Nut Cheerios, if you prefer) for best results.
- Former Nets come up big
Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin were the players of the game today, coming up with huge plays down the stretch in the second half. Martin played the majority of the big man minutes late in the game. Woodson made the right call here: Chandler, in his first game back from injury, was looking a little lost while Martin was playing well and Woody decided to keep K-Mart in the game which ended up being a great decision. K-Mart had some huge hustle plays in this one, grabbing key rebounds, tipping the ball out, and blocking shots. He also played excellent defense, shutting down KG for the most part in the second half. I'm looking forward to seeing a Martin-Chandler frontcourt for an extended period of time.
What more can you say about Jason Kidd? At 40 years old, he's still got it. Timely threes. Key steals. And overall, just making the right basketball decisions. Seems like we've been saying this about him this entire season, and pretty much for his whole career. But today was special, in a game where we played like shit in the first half and things looked like they were going Boston's way, J-Kidd helped steady the ship and steered us to victory.
Ten years ago, we hated these two guys with a passion. A decade later, and they're the main reason why the Knicks are up 1-0 in this series.
- Defense in the second half
The Celtics scored 53 points in the first half. They had 25 the rest of the way, including only 8 in the fourth quarter. The Knicks defense simply SHUT THEM DOWN. Suddenly, all 5 Knicks on the floor were locked in on defense, hustling for loose balls, and interfering the Celtic passing lanes. The game was coming down to the wire and while the Knicks were hitting timely buckets, they weren't letting up on the defensive end. Kidd, Smith, Melo were all getting clutch steals and overall the team defense was fantastic in the fourth. This is what Woodson has been pleading for and as stated in the game thread, this was
Minkaveli wrote:CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL DEFENSE.
- Stagnant offense
Boston dictated the pace for much of the game and as a result, the Knicks resorted to an offense eerily similar to the one we loathed in January: atrocious floor spacing, little ball movement and iso-Melo. This led to forced, contested shots and rendered Chris Copeland and Steve Novak useless. Carmelo started the game 4/4, but was gobbled up by Jeff Green and got caught up in the action, not allowing the game to come to him. As he held on to the ball until the shot clock was down to single digits, you could count on either a heavily contested brick or turnover. He did not recapture his groove until the fourth quarter when transition offense fueled the final run. The impact of Pablo Prigioni's loss became increasingly apparent as NY's lead dwindled and Boston's ballooned.
Fortunately, the Knicks have mental fortitude and persevered. To break an offensive stupor like this one in the future, the basket should be attacked. After Felton's tremendous steals he swooped to the hoop for easy finishes. J.R. was able to get to the line after slick moves and draw fouls on Garnett. Furthermore, despite offense being the team's strong suit, making up for the lapses on defense would prove to be fruitful.
- Tyson Chandler
The Knicks should utilize zone defense for a portion of the game. Tyson Chandler was not himself today, even though he said he felt the best he has felt in a long time. He looked like a guy that missed however many games he has missed. Engaging the comfort zone he was in during his stellar run with Dallas could get him back on track and also stop me from cringing every time Novak is attempting to defend by calling out switches he should be making.
The Knicks did what they needed to do by protecting home court in game one. There is clear room for improvement and the goal should be to make Boston play at the Knicks tempo, not vice versa. After some incredibly dubious calls (how was Monty McCutchen allowed to officiate another Knicks-Celtics Game 1?!?!), maintaining composure is vital in a series that you know will become more and more physical as the games wear on. Unfortunately, in the case that the Knicks do continue to argue blown calls, do not expect them to come up with a steal on the same possession, like J.R. Smith. Speaking of J.R., I wish him a happy 4/20. I saw a tweet by him earlier mentioning he was studying this game tape repeatedly, but I'm sure he's tryna smoke the pipe, which is fine as long he continues giving the pipe to the Celtics.
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Game 2 is on Tuesday night back at the Garden, giving us a few days to rest up and help heal some injuries/broken bodies. Hopefully Prigioni will be ready by then to be reinserted into the starting lineup. Copeland looked shook today in the starting lineup, and as a rookie that's expected. I think a healthy Prigioni can bring some stability. And let's hope Chandler is back to his old self on Tuesday. As great as Kenyon Martin played today, we've got to get a bigger contribution from Tyson.
This was a great Game 1 test for us. It showed us that these are the playoffs and nothing can be taken for granted. Every minute matters. The butterflies are out of the way now and we survived taking a 1-0 lead, let's hope Game 2 is a bit easier.
