NBA Free Premium Play 04/06: New York Knicks @ Miami Heat

New York  at Miami

NBA - 501 New York Knicks @ 502 Miami Heat ***FREE Premium Play*** We can expect this contest to be a “brutal” half court game because both teams are playing @ ridiculous slow pace lately. The fact that this contest will be a slow paced one isn’t anything “new” because we are dealing w/ ranked #29 (NYK) and #26 (MIA) teams in terms of Pace Factor. However, both teams (especially Miami) are playing even slower lately! According to my numbers, MIA Pace Factor season number = 89.9 vs. L10 games = 84.8! You can see the difference… Regarding the matchups… both teams aren’t particularly sharing the ball as of late… MIA is averaging just 19.9 assists per game in L7 games, while NYK = 18.2 assists/game in L5 games! Carmelo Anthony is banged up (he looked awful in the last game vs. NYK!) and the Knicks will now face an improved MIA perimeter defense that is allowing just 31.9% from 3pts in L10 games = #2 best mark in the league behind only the Bulls! On the other side, D. Wade is still OUT for this contest and this is some good news for NYK’s awful perimeter defense. Still, note that NYK defense has been a bit better lately, they have allowed 84, 83, 81 and 90 points in the L4 games! The correlation between the matchups & expectation of this contest being a pure slow paced half battle = fair line = 184 points = proper edge to take the Under in here as my Single Dime Play! Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 501/502 Under 187 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

NBA Free Premium Play 03/31: New York Knicks @ Utah Jazz

New York  at Utah

NBA - 747 New York Knicks @ 748 Utah Jazz Play #3 Because the Hawks are imploding down the stretch, the Knicks have a great chance to grab the final seed for the playoffs but they just have to win games like today’s contest @UTA. Both teams are playing @b2b spot and both had to travel so we are dealing w/ similar physical spot for both of them. I understand that we should not trust the Knicks to be consistent but they really have a favorable matchup vs. the Jazz in here. UTA’s perimeter defense is atrocious! In the L10 games, they are allowing 49.1% from 3pts land – FORTY NINE PERCENT! Obviously, this is the worst mark in the league during that stretch by a wide margin (ranked #29 DEN is allowing 40.7%). We all know that NYK attempts a ton of treys per game so I expect them to explore this massive UTA’s defensive weakness. Also, after facing Andre Iguodala last night, Carmelo Anthony will face R. Jefferson in this contest – also a favorable matchup. On the other end, UTA keeps playing w/ Kanter & Favors as their starters on the frontcourt. With both players on the court at the same time, UTA’s offensive numbers have been terrible because their floor spacing is subpar in a similar way of HOU’s situation w/ Howard & Asik early on the season. Amare Stoudemire has been decent lately and I expect NYK’s to match well vs. UTA’s big men. With NYK having a substantial edge on the perimeter, I expect them to win this contest by a safe margin. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 747 New York Knicks (-3.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes

NBA FREE Premium Play 02/22: New York Knicks @ Atlanta Hawks

New York  at Atlanta

NBA - 507 New York Knicks @ 508 Atlanta Hawks ***FREE Premium Play*** ***DOUBLE DIME PLAY*** ATL has now lost 8 straight games! Their L5 losses were essentially due to some bad defense w/ 118.8 Def. Rtg. Primarily, their lack of options on the frontcourt is the main culprit as ATL can’t protect properly the basket and that was pretty clear, because DET simply crushed them: “DET ended the game w/ 53.4% reb/rate%, 66 points in the paint while Monroe & Drummond combined to shoot 20-28 FG - a 71% mark! That was exactly why I had Detroit last night as my Best Play!” Fortunately for them, ATL won’t be torched defensively in this area tonight, because the Knicks really don’t have any “interest” in pound down low vs. their opponents! Note that last night, despite playing 2 OT’s vs. ORL, NYK was able to score just 28 points in the paint! ATL’s defense will be focused only in stopping NYK’s perimeter game and NYK’s is mired in a bad spot w/ 4 games in 5 days while last night’s game vs. ORL had 2 OT’s: Melo played 50 min, JR Smith 49, Hardaway 45, Felton 45 and Chandler 42 min! On the other side, like the Knicks, the Hawks really don’t have any interior game right now. They rely almost exclusively w/ their perimeter to be efficient but we are dealing with a team that lacks confidence right now. This will be the 4th and final H2H game between these two teams, and the first 3 games were all SLOW PACED affairs. I expect this contest to be quite similar in terms of pace factor and w/ both teams coming from bad physical spots and without any inside game, I’m taking the Under in here as my Single Dime Play. Pick: 4 units (Double Dime Play) on 507/508 Under 202.5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Betonline

NBA Free Premium Play 02/18: New York Knicks @ Memphis Grizzlies

New York  at Memphis

NBA - 509 New York Knicks @ 510 Memphis Grizzlies ***FREE Premium Play*** I expect the Knicks to be extremely competitive tonight... note that they are not better than the Grizzlies, but they match up well vs. MEM and especially, I think that MEM’s won’t be sharp in this spot. Marc Gasol is not 100% healthy… you just need to watch some MEM’s games as of late to watch him being slow @ everything. Yes, his presence down low is still a major factor but against a jump shooting team like NYK is, I don’t expect him to offer much value to his team. Mike Conley returns to action after some time being injured…it’s the second time that Conley has been injured this season and in the first one, Conley struggled a bit in the first games after being healthy, so I expect him to be “rusty” tonight. Now that Tyson Chandler has been decent on the defensive end, I expect him to protect the rim vs. MEM frontcourt. The X factor of this contest is related w/ MEM defense vs. NYK offense… MEM defense has been struggling on the perimeter as they are predicated to “protect the basket” and so, NYK’s outside shooting can cause some serious problems to MEM’s defense and this contest will be a close one. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 509 New York Knicks (+5.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

NBA Free Premium Play 02/09: New York Knicks @ Oklahoma City Thunder

New York  at Oklahoma City

NBA - 801 New York Knicks @ 802 Oklahoma City Thunder Play #1 OKC is coming from an unexpected loss @ORL in their last game. I had ORL+10 in that game but I really didn’t expect OKC to lose outright the game especially by being outscored 14-23 in the fourth quarter! OKC was able to shoot 50.7% FG but what really hurt them was the fact that they were clearly outrebounded (ORL had 55.8% reb/rate%) and also, ORL had more FT’s than OKC (26 vs. 19). On the other side, NYK is coming from an easy win vs. DEN in a terrific offensive performance w/ 56.5% FG and some great offensive flow. For this contest, obviously I expect OKC to be more focused than @ORL this past Friday. However, by playing small ball right now, NYK can be a tough matchup for OKC in my opinion… How long will coach S. Brooks adjust to the fact that Perkins will be useless in this contest?! Melo @PF is a tough matchup for Ibaka that doesn’t feel comfortable defending @perimeter. PG Reggie Jackson is struggling a bit lately w/ 41.7% FG & a poor 4.8/3.3 A/TO ratio in L4 games and so, R. Felton won’t be torched in this positional matchup. My fair line for this contest is OKC-6/-7 points and therefore, I’m taking the New York Knicks in here to be relatively competitive today. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 801 New York Knicks (+9.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Betonline

NBA Free Premium Play 02/05: Portland Trail Blazers @ New York Knicks

Portland  at New York

NBA - 707 Portland Trail Blazers @ 708 New York Knicks Play #3 POR is struggling a bit right now w/ 1-3 SU in the last 4 games and the main culprit IMO for this bad run is related w/ the lack of production of their offense. In those 3 losses, POR had a subpar avg. Off. Rtg. = 92.3 vs. 113.8 of their season average. They need L. Aldridge to be effective down low, and especially, they need their Pick n Roll game to be sharp and this has been a problem for them lately. However, these struggles are easy to understand IMO, as POR simply has faced some elite defensive teams vs. Pick n Roll's and obviously it's tougher to have great offensive numbers. Defensive P&R Ball Handler rankings of POR’s L4 opponents: GSW #8 MEM #25 (but w/ Gasol back, they are “another” team) TOR #3 WAS #2 So, what about the Knicks’ P&R defense? You might ask… Well, they are dead last in the league by allowing 0.89 PPP, and they are coming from a game in which Brandon Knight completely torched them w/ 25 points & 7 assists, enough said... We can expect D. Lillard and POR’s backcourt to completely torch NYK’s backcourt unit of Felton, Prigioni, JR Smith and Tim Hardaway JR.  Obviously, NYK will have some edge on the offensive end vs. POR poor defense but I expect Batum to be a tough matchup for Carmelo Anthony, while NYK’s on and off the court problems have been another distraction for the team: Amare Stoudemire wants to play more minutes & Mike Woodson’s firing saga is returning to action… I’m taking POR tonight as my Single Dime Play. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 707 Portland Trail Blazers (-2) @ -110 / 1.91 on Betonline

NBA Free Premium Play 01/16: New York Knicks @ Indiana Pacers

New York  at Indiana

NBA - 503 New York Knicks @ 504 Indiana Pacers ***FREE Premium Play*** IND is 19-1 SU at home this season and they are winning their home games by an average of 15.2 points per game! This is a primetime contest against a hated rival and they are super fresh w/ tonight’s game being only their second game in L6 days… we can expect them to be motivated and fired up for tonight and so, good luck Knicks! NYK is indeed playing well as of late… their defense has improved a bit while they are shooting better from long range. The problem is that IND has the best perimeter defense in the league! IND is allowing just 31.3% 3pts% in L10 games and with Melo playing as Small Forward, we can expect Paul George to be his matchup while IND will completely shutdown everyone else. NYK was more competitive in the playoffs vs. IND when they played @small ball but their lineup lately is featuring Melo @SF w/ Bargnani + Chandler/Martin in the frontcourt. IND offense is streaky but they are confident right now after a terrific display in their last game vs. SAC. Chandler isn’t 100% healthy so, I expect Roy Hibbert to have a nice edge down low. Note that Al Jefferson completely owned the Knicks in the Knicks’ last game vs. CHA: 14-20 FG, 7-8 FG for 35 points. IND defense will dominate the game (as usual) while offensively, I expect them to control the paint and score some easy points down low for a blowout win. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 504 Indiana Pacers (-9.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

NBA Free Premium Play 12/25: Oklahoma City Thunder @ New York Knicks

Oklahoma City  at New York

NBA - 803 Oklahoma City Thunder @ 804 New York Knicks Play #1 The Knicks are coming from a “nice” win last game @ORL in a pretty favorable matchup for them. ORL defensive scheme is focused to protect the rim while their lack of athleticism on the wings don’t allow them to be a good perimeter defensive team: they are ranked #21 defending Pick n Roll ball handler plays & 26 spot up plays. So, what happened was that the Knicks almost didn’t try to score down low against the Magic, they scored just 26 points in the paint! At the same time, 62% of their shots were from +16 feet where ORL defense struggles. Obviously, the Knicks were able to be efficient on the offense end. However, note that despite scoring 103 points, NYK had just 19 assists in 39 FGM for a subpar 48.7% assist/rate% and just 3 fast break points – no transition game or whatsoever! This might work against a bad P&R & Spot up defensive team like ORL....However against an OKC defense that in those 2 areas is ranked #4 & #3 in the league, this simply won’t work! The supreme athleticism of OKC isn’t comparable vs. ORL and so the Knicks offense without a good ball movement and lack of transition game, will be in trouble in the half court vs. OKC defense. Despite the return of Tyson Chandler, NYK defense is still bad, especially w/ their team help defense concept. Their 1*1 defense down low is actually pretty decent but when it comes to rotate and make the right defensive decisions, they are a mess. A decent aggressive guard will torch them off the dribble and you can consider Russell Westbrook as one of those “decent” guards. OKC was playing their best basketball of the season when they went @SAS and beat them with some ease (I had OKC+3 in that game) but, then in a b2b home game they completely relaxed and overlooked the Raptors, and ended up losing the game for their first home loss of the season. The loss was so bizarre especially considering that OKC was leading the game by double digits points in the 4th quarter! They finished the 4th quarter shooting 5-25 from the field – a comical 20% FG mark! Raymond Felton is OUT for today, so the Knicks have only Beno Udrih to play as natural PG. Obviously HC Mike Woodson will have to find some solutions for this position but regardless who plays the position, Russell Westbrook will just destroy the Knicks today. OKC superior bench play, superior talent and superior “motivation” will be just too much for the Knicks today. The Knicks have already on their backs some blowout losses against “lowly” teams like the Celtics or the Cavaliers, now they will face a OKC fired up team, good luck with that! Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 803 Oklahoma City Thunder (-9) @ -115 / 1.87 on Betonline

NBA Free Premium Play 12/05: New York Knicks @ Brooklyn Nets

New York  at Brooklyn

NBA - 501 New York Knicks @ 502 Brooklyn Nets Play #1 This is a game between two ridiculous Eastern teams that had high expectations for this season. For tonight, I believe the Knicks have better conditions to pound the Nets than the opposite. Brooklyn have Brook Lopez back and he is the only consistent player on the team's offense, but he needs some time to get back into his top form after an injury lay-off. However, Brooklyn is forcing a lot to try to feed Lopez down low. This is why the Nets had 22.9% and 24.8% volume of post ups on their last two games. They had efficient numbers on this play, but their offensive flow keeps being awful. This is actually good news for the Knicks' defense that is a nice post up defensive team by being #6 in the league with 0.76 PPP allowed. Andrea Bargnani isn't a weak individual defender, even though he is terrible on awareness and team help defense. The Knicks struggles on defending transition plays and they are coming from allowing 19 fast break points from the Pelicans, while their team help defense keeps struggling and so, they keep getting pounded by the opposing aggressive guards. However, they will be on a nice spot tonight, as Brooklyn is #29 in the league on fast break points with just 9.3 per game, while Deron Williams is still out and that will be a relief for the Knicks' guards. On the other side, Brooklyn's perimeter defense has been awful and they are #30 on pick and roll defense and #28 on spot up defense. The Knicks have been inconsistent on outside shooting this season, but the Nets will give them enough conditions for them to a nice outside game tonight. Therefore, I believe the Knicks have the better matchups to win tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 501 New York Knicks ML @ -105 / 1.95 on Bookmaker

NBA Free Premium Play 11/23: New York Knicks @ Washington Wizards

New York  at Washington

NBA - 705 New York Knicks @ 706 Washington Wizards Play #4 Washington lost yesterday's game at Toronto once again because of their bench, as their starters had all positive team +/- numbers, excluding Bradley Beal. Toronto had an expected edge against the Wizards' poor interior defense with 20-29 FG at the rim and 50 points in the paint. On the other hand, John Wall had a big game and that seemed to make him forget about sharing the basketball, as Washington had just 17 assists during the whole game. This won't be an easy spot for the Wizards, as all their starters are playing super heavy minutes and this will be their fourth game in five days. A physical letdown seems inevitable in my opinion, as their second unit is terrible as seen on last night's second quarter. On the other side, the Knicks are coming from their best of the season so far at home against Indiana. They only didn't beat the Pacers due to a late foul of Iman Shumpert on Paul George. The Knicks even rebounded well with Kenyon Martin and Andrea Bargnani on the frontcourt! Washington is a decent matchup for the Knicks, as John Wall isn't normally a great outside shooter and this will give some rest to the Knicks' guards. With the Wizards being on a poor spot with no bench against the rested Knicks, I expect the NY team to take advantage of that for a good win tonight. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 705 New York Knicks (+2) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

NBA Game Preview 11/10 - San Antonio Spurs @ New York Knicks

NBA Game Preview - San Antonio Spurs @ New York Knicks

The Knicks had finally a good offensive game on their last game when they decided to use their small lineup once again. They had a season-high 25 assists and a season-low 12 turnovers for a great 25/12 A/TO ratio! The Knicks gained ability to stretch the floor and they had a lot of pick and pop plays with Andrea Bargnani that Charlotte couldn't defend, allowing Bargnani to shoot 11-25 FG! As always, the Knicks' offense was perimeter-oriented, but they had a proper floor spacing this time. It was very easy for the Knicks to defend Charlotte's offense, with the Bobcats having another poor 4-16 3pts on another subpar outside shooting game for them. As Charlotte has an one-dimensional offense, they had to attack the rim, but the Knicks' defense packed the paint waiting for them, heck even Andrea Bargnani had 5 blocked shots!

J.R. Smith will make his season debut today and with him, the Knicks have another crazy shooter but who will still be much better than Tim "Shoot" Hardaway Jr! The Knicks will then create some problems to San Antonio that will have Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter on the frontcourt. I believe that sooner or later Gregg Popovich will be forced to use a small lineup on his own as well. San Antonio keeps winning games, but always with some problems. Their key has been their excellent defense and they only struggled defensively at Portland. No wonder they lost that game. However, the Spurs has been struggling a bit on 3pts defense and they are indeed #30 on spot up defense and also #24 on pick and roll roll man plays! These two kind of plays are a huge part of the Knicks' offense so the Knicks offense might have an edge in here! On the other side, the Knicks' defense won't be dealing with the lowly Bobcats again. San Antonio has in Tony Parker a PG who will penetrate into the basket and force the Knicks to collapse into the paint, something that will give space to San Antonio's shooters that are much better than Charlotte's shooters! The Spurs are coming from three subpar games on this area with 4-16, 6-16 and 5-19 3pts, but I expect some improvement on this area tonight.

I have a small lean on Over in here, but the line doesn't allow me to put the trigger in here. I'll be passing on this game.

NBA Free Premium Play 11/08: New York Knicks @ Charlotte Bobcats

New York  at Charlotte

NBA - 501 New York Knicks @ 502 Charlotte Bobcats Play #1 Charlotte won their game at NY against the Knicks last Tuesday, where they took advantage of Tyson Chandler's injury early in the game to pound the Knicks down low with quick penetrations that sent the Bobcats a lot to the free throw line, as both Andrea Bargnani and Amare Stoudemire are poor defenders and couldn't stop the Bobcats' guards to penetrate into the basket. On the other hand, Charlotte struggled on pick and roll ball handler plays with just 3-12 FG and 0.59 PPP, as I had expected. However, the Knicks' defensive positioning was so poor that the Bobcats crushed them on transitions to get the win at the end. On the following day, the Bobcats played at home against Toronto in a game where they should have easily won and not by just two points. The main reason for this short win was the terrible 17-30 FT from them! They also struggled on treys with 3-15 3pts and the Bobcats continue being too perimeter-oriented with Al Jefferson still sidelined. They construct well offensive plays (19-26 FG at the rim and 11-22 FG from 16-23 feet), but they are too predictable and have no confidence on their 3pts shooting. On defense, the Bobcats continue showing their improvements in comparison with last season by limiting very well the one-dimensional offense of the Raptors, led by the ball hogs DeMar DeRozan (5-16 FG) and Rudy Gay (8-21 FG). So, tonight we have a rematch from last Tuesday when Charlotte defeated the Knicks at NY. With Tyson Chandler still out, the Knicks are bound to struggle on defense, however they held the Bobcats to just 38 points on the second half when Kenyon Martin replaced Amare Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani at the Center position. The Bobcats' overall offensive numbers on last Tuesday's game weren't that good with 42.3% FG, 12-24 FG at the rim and 17 assists, however they had 34-42 FT. So, I believe the Knicks on a nice spot tonight will be more successful in avoiding the Bobcats' average offense to pound them like they did it on the second half of last Tuesday's game. On the other hand, the Knicks will go small tonight, with Andrea Bargnani at Center, Carmelo Anthony at the PF position and Iman Shumpert as their SF. With the return of small lineup, I expect the Knicks offense to be more effective, while they should do a better defensive job tonight as well. Therefore, I expect the Knicks to get revenge from their loss last Tuesday with a solid win tonight. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 501 New York Knicks (-3) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

NBA Premium Play 10/31: New York Knicks @ Chicago Bulls

NBA - 501 New York Knicks @ 502 Chicago Bulls

Play #1

The Knicks faced the Bucks last night and they left a bad sign for tonight's game, considering that they will face the fired up Bulls. It was clear that the Knicks were on their last legs down the stretch yesterday and this isn't good news for them at all, as they will be on a back to back spot tonight. So, the physical conditions of the Knicks might become a key factor for this game, especially against a physical team like Chicago. I understand that the Knicks were up by 24 points early on the third quarter yesterday, but that was due to some very favorable factors. First of all, it's important to realize that Milwaukee won't be a quality team this season and things only got worse for them with starting Poing Guard Brandon Knight getting injured on the second minute of the game and with his usual back up Luke Ridnour out of the game with back spasms, Milwaukee was forced to unleash the rookie Nate Wolters. 

This was super favorable to the Knicks who put pressure on the Bucks' guards, something that allow them to force 24 turnovers! On the other hand, with Nate Wolters and Gary Neal on the backcourt, the Knicks' potential bad backcourt defense formed by the banged up Raymond Felton and the slow footed Pablo Prigioni wasn't explored in yesterday's game. Things will be completely different on tonight's game with the Knicks having to face Derrick Rose, who is coming from a poor performance against Miami, but where he looked really good physically. Raymond Felton tweaked his hamstring during yesterday's game, but managed to play through the injury. On the other hand, Pablo Prigioni also played yesterday through an illness. Therefore, these two players will have a nightmare matchup against Derrick Rose tonight!

Another reason that explains the Knicks' big lead yesterday was Larry Sanders getting into foul trouble early in the game and being able to play only 12 minutes. Without one of the best interior defenders in the league, Milwaukee got exposed and the Knicks scored 50 points in the paint, something really unusual for a jump shooting team. With Kenyon Martin still very far from being at 100% right now, Coach Mike Woodson used Andrea Bargnani almost always at the Center position. Once again, things will be completely different against Chicago imponent frontcourt unit tonight. On the 15/20 minutes that Bargnani will play at Center, the Knicks will get crushed on the boards battle by Taj Gibson. The Knicks managed to get a slight edge on boards last night, but they will get crushed tonight on this area.

Chicago's loss at Miami last Tuesday was humiliating, but there are certain things that need to be taken in consideration. Miami had a mega 17-0 run in the second quarter that allowed them to get a 37-18 advantage. However, that happened due to Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler being in foul trouble, something that made the Bulls' normally excellent perimeter defense struggle. In fact, if we look at the boxscore to the CHI +/- team points, we see that Deng had +6 and Butler +10! Tonight one of these two great defenders will guard Carmelo Anthony, while the Knicks will struggle as they won't be able to force so many turnovers or score in the paint like they did last night. The Knicks's second unit without the suspended J.R. Smith lacks scoring punch as well, so Chicago has all the necessary conditions to bounce back and get a double digit win tonight. I'm taking the Bulls in here.

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 502 Chicago Bulls (-8) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

New York Knicks NBA Team Season Preview 2013-14

NEW YORK KNICKS

Season Review 2012/13:

Advanced Stats
	Numbers	Rank
Pace	89.8	26
Offense	111.1	3
Defense	106.3	18
Rebound	50.3	14

4 Factors
Offense	Numbers	Rank	Defense	Numbers	Rank
eFG%	51.5	8	eFG%	50.8	23
TO%	11.7	1	TO%	14.8	5
Reb%	25.6	19	Reb%	25.3	4
FT%	19.6	21	FT%	21.6	24

Monthly Performance
	Record	OffRtg	DefRtg
November	11-4	115.6	104.2
December	10-5	112.8	109.5
January	7-6	111.4	108.9
February	6-5	112.3	108.7
March	12-6	111.7	106.3
April	8-2	117.1	110.1

The Knicks had a brilliant regular season, way ahead of the best expectations around them. I remember that the oddsmakers had the Knicks as the #6 best team in the East with a line of 45/46 wins at the start of the season, but the Knicks ended the regular season with the East’s #2 best record, only the Heat was better than them.

Coach Mike Woodson did a tremendous job not just in managing the players’ egos throughout the season, as he also created an offensive system that was able to get the best out of his players. On his tenure in Atlanta, the Hawks were known by the “ISO Joe” due to the absurd number of isolation plays that Atlanta’s offense used. Mike Woodson brought that number of ISO plays to New York and applied them on Carmelo Anthony, when he had favorable matchups to explore. The decision of putting Melo at the PF position was a success, with him ending in the #3 position at the MVP race.

The Knicks were a veteran team and Woodson turned them into the best team in the league when it came to taking care of the ball (11.7 TO/rate%), so his players wouldn’t need to waste energy in running back into defense to avoid the opposing transition plays. Finally, the Knicks (as usual) shot a lot of treys during the season:

Knicks' 3pts Machine
Month	3FGM	3pts%
November	11.7	41.6
December	11.0	37.1
January	10.2	36.0
February	10.3	33.5
March	10.2	37.0
April	12.2	40.0

Despite winning 54 games during the regular season, we can’t say that the Knicks were a consistent team throughout the season. They had three different runs during the regular season: a 18-5 start, then a mediocre 20-21 stretch on the following 41 games and finally, a 16-2 run on the final 18 games of the regular season:

	Offense					Defense
Runs	OffRtg	eFG%	TO%	Reb%	FT%	DefRtg	eFG%	TO%	Reb%	FT%
18-5	115.9	52	10.3	23.0	19.9	106.5	50	15.3	25.6	21.4
20-21	109.1	49	12.6	26.7	20.5	108.1	51	14.2	24.0	21.2
16-2	119.5	56	11.7	25.2	18.5	108.6	51	15.4	26.8	23.8

If we look at the team’s evolution during the season, it was clear that the “main culprit” for the Knicks’ mediocre run was the fact that the Knicks weren’t able to shoot as well behind the line as they did at the start and at the end of the season. It’s like they always say: “you live by the 3, you die by the 3”…

Nevertheless, the Knicks got hot at the right moment: right before the playoffs and as they were the #2 seed in the East, they had a favorable matchup on the first round against the Celtics. They had some issues in scoring against an underrated Boston defense, but when you hold your opponent to 78, 71 and 76 points, you are in a good place to win games and so, the Knicks won the first three games of the series. Then the “JR Smith story” happened, he got suspended for one goal and since then, he heavily struggled with a 34-117 (29%) FG mark!

On the second round against Indiana, the Knicks got in trouble because they would not only face the best defensive team in the league, as the whole matchup was terrible for them. The Pacers had clearly the best 3pts defense in the league with just 32.7% 3pts allowed and so, this would be terrible for the Knicks’ offense. On the other side, Indiana had a PF in David West who would punish Carmelo Anthony down low and that would force the NY team into a lot of defensive adjustments. At the end, Indiana won the series in six games and they were clearly the better team in that series.