Wizards @ Knicks: Game Thread/Preview

[Ming637]

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<font color="blue">Washington Wizards</font> vs <font color="orange">New York Knicks</font>


Date: 11/4/05
Time: 7:30 pm eastern
TV: MSG, CSN, NBALP

Washington Wizards

<u>2005-2006 Preseason Statistics</u>

Record: 3-4
Points Per Game: 89.9
Rebounds Per Game: 44.3
Assists Per Game: 16.3
Steals Per Game: 9.9
Blocks Per Game: 5.0
Field Goal PCT: .407%

Washington Wizards Head Coach

Eddie Jordan

Washington Wizards Starting Line-up

<font size="1"><u>(Gilbert Arenas,Antonio Daniels,Jared Jeffries,Antawn Jamison,Brendan Haywood)</font></u>

Key 6th Man

Michael Ruffin: This is a great oppurtunity for Mike Ruffin to show what he can do against some nice down-low scorers like Eddy Curry and Channing Frye and this will one of Mike's early challenges of the seasons off the bench. I should expect to see him pull down 7 rebounds off the bench and 2 blocks.

Bench

Chucky Atkins
Etan Thomas
Jared Jeffries
Jarvis Hayes
Calvin Booth

<u>Wizards Keys to the game</u>

Defense: The Knicks look like a team who can score quickly with their legit shooters Quentin Richardson and Jamal Crawford. Caron Butler and Antonio Daniels can limit some damage easily with their awareness on the court and doing that will be a key to the Wizards defense.

Chemistry: The Wizards brought a lot of new faces on the court and working together is gonna be a factor here early on in the season and doing that will give them an advantage against the Knicks.

Turn On Your Seasons!: Getting a good start will boost their confidence and a win against the Knicks will help that.

Team MVP

Projected Stats: 19 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds

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New York Knicks

New York Knicks 2005-2006 preseason statistics

Record: 3-4
Points Per Game: 91.6
Rebounds Per Game: 44.4
Assists Per Game: 17.6
Steals Per Game: 10.6
Blocks Per Game: 3.1
Field Goal PCT: 451%

New York Knicks Head Coach

Larry Brown

New York Knicks Starting Line-up

<font size="1"><u>(Stephon Marbury,Jamal Crawford,Quentin Richardson,Eddy Curry, Jerome James</u></font>
Key 6th Man

Nate Robinson: He's shown in the preseason that he can become a great leader off the bench and he can lead the Knicks back in at times, so I think he'll be a factor off the bench for the Wizards to watch out for.

Bench

Trevor Ariza
Nate Robinson
Matt Barnes
David Lee
Mo Taylor
Malik Rose
Penny Hardaway
Channing Frye
Jackie Butler

<u>New York Knicks Keys To The Game</u>

Control The Paint: The Wizards have an agressive front court on and off the bench and the Knicks need to control the boards, stop the big men and produce some points down-low themselves. I think the outcome will change doing that.

Stop Arenas: Arenas obviously will be lighting up the scoreboard shot after shot, maybe assist here or there, so the Knicks will need to put some pressure on Arenas and force him to pass the ball to limit those chances and doing that will be a big help to the Knicks.

Get Open Shots: The Knicks have a good shooting line-up and they need to pass the ball around to find that open guy to make the shot for them. Doing that will get them the most important aspect in the game..points.

Don't Commit Fouls: Paul Pierce was at the line 20+ times last night. That's unacceptable defense by the Knicks and if they want to win, they can't do the same against the Wizards.

Team MVP

Projected Stats: 17 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds



My Prediction:

I think this game will go back and forth and it's probably going to be a coin flip at the end of the game. Both of my favorite teams are going at it and I think the Knicks will be able to take this one with a nice bench, home court advantage, and the energy the Knicks will bring.

Knicks Win 88-84</div>

 

[j0se]

Nice preview, good job

 

[Mr. J]

This is ridiculous. What's up with the defense??? I hope this isn't like last year with Boston.

 

[Ming637]

Yea, I'm also watching the game and the Knicks defense was pretty terrible in the 1st quarter, but the Knicks are doing a bit better now off the Wizards turnovers, but oh crap, a technical from Ariza.

 

[Beat]

What happened to all that energy they played with earlier in the second? They need to play like that all game.

 

[TnNeG]

Wow, this is horrible. The 1st quarter, the knicks didn't play any defense... At least towards the end of the 2nd quarter they caught up.

 

[Ewings2ndcousin]

OK The Knicks have finally stepped up their defense. It took a quarter and a half but now it looks like they are doing better. What was once a 19 point deficit is now down to 8 at half.....Good Job blue!

 

[Knicks Analyst]

Not the best game. Ariza showed that he should be starting. I think LB started Barnes in the first two games to reward him for the effort he put forth to make the team, and also to motivate Ariza. Ariza sure as hell showed he is deserving of the starting spot. Ariza was sensastional. Frye was fantastic, he got more and more aggressive as the game went on, very good to see. Jerome James - 3 fouls in 3 minutes, gotta love that.

Davis had 13 boards, but he got very lazy on defense to end the game, and his shooting was awful.....1-9.

Frye and Mo both played well. Mo played some very good defense in the 2nd quarter, I was very impressed. Obviously Mo wants to see some minutes, he realizes his oppurtunity is now. Frye is making a case for himself to see some minutes. Rose is only destroying his chances, he's just awful.


Anyone else notice that Jarvis Hayes in a short period of time goaltended, comitted two offensive fouls, and traveled. He played awful later too, he's a total scatterbrain.

Curry had five turnovers to go along with his five rebounds and four fouls. *sigh*

 

[Buckets]

Curry dissapointed me but I liked Channing Frye's line, I didnt think he was that good of a rebounder because of his size, but I guess Im wrong. Ariza did pretty good but Im dissapointed with the play of Jamal Crawford.

 

[Sir Desmond]

Jerome.

Hehe.

 

[Mr. J]

In the first quarter our defense was horrible. We allowed the Wizards to score 32 points shooting 70-something percent from the field. I think that right there lost us the game. As Frazier always says, “It’s frustrating playing catch-up.” We kept the game pretty close all throughout, but that first quarter came to haunt us at the end of the game. Also, those missed free throws killed us, too. We only shot 68% from the line with many of those misses being crucial. Marbury, Crawford, and Curry all missed some big free throws in the fourth. There also wasn’t much ball movement. We only got 11 assists with our leading assist man being Stephon Marbury who got 3.

I’ll stop my ranting though because along with these negatives, there are some positives we can get from this game. Larry Brown really got into the heads of the players. After a poor rebounding effort in Boston, we came back and outrebounded Washington by 24. We also tied our franchise record for most 29 offensive rebounds in a game. Antonio Davis was simply a beast on the boards and got 14 in 33 minutes. With the exception of Crawford, everyone on the Knicks had at least one rebound. I was also impressed with the young players on this team. Ariza was great for us. He had a great stat line with 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals, but he was much more effective than that. He and Nate Robinson resurrected this dead Knick team in the second. He played great defense took advantage when he wasn’t guarded on offense. I was also impressed with Mo’ Taylor’s defense. He didn’t score and only had 3 rebounds, but those charges he drew were impressive. That was probably the best defense he’s ever played in his career. Frye was also nice. 18 minutes, 7 points, 9 rebounds, and a block.

The Knicks are still a work in progress, so I’m not about to push the panic button just yet, but I think they’re going to have to beat Golden State to start of their west coast trip strong. T was also nice to see how receptive the Knicks were to Larry Brown and his rebounding. If they continue learning so quickly, the Knicks will be fine. They just need to know how to play the right way. Larry will teach them.