Sheridan: Knicks autopsy: Looking at what Woody left on the bench

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Chris CopelandNEW YORK — After Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin fouled out of Game 6 against the Indiana Pacers, a third-string center was needed to match up against Roy Hibbert.

Mike Woodson had two at his disposal, Marcus Camby and Amar’e Stoudemire, — or three if you count Earl Barron, who was signed as an insurance policy in case the Knicks needed a center at a moment of desperation.

But the call went to rookie Chris Copeland, who turned out to be a fine 29-year-old rookie who gave the Knicks a boost with his shooting and his confidence.

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StatBox Playoff Breakdown: Knicks lucky to be alive and how San Antonio eliminated Golden State

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The conference finals should be set. If not for Indiana’s horrid Thursday night performance against the Knicks, San Antonio’s Game 6 victory over Golden State would have ended the NBA’s second round. How did the Spurs end up taking the final game of what looked like an incredibly tight and engaging series?

Knicks are lucky to still be alive

Miami Heat v Indiana Pacers - Game FourLet’s not sugarcoat this: The Knicks are lucky to be in the playoffs right now, and are only still alive because the Pacers laid a complete egg in Thursday night’s Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.

Indiana shot 36.2 percent, missed 14 free throws and committed 19 turnovers in its 85-75 loss to New York, one it will want back if it somehow loses the next two games (and the series) to the Knicks.

“We’ve just got to play more solid. There’s no other way to put it,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. That’s putting it mildly.

The Indiana frontcourt of Roy Hibbert, David West and Paul George shot a combined 17-for-42 and the Pacers still only lost by 10. The Knicks didn’t really help themselves in any way either. Consider these facts:

  • New York got VoluMelo instead of Carmelo Anthony, with the Knicks star shooting 12-for-28 from the field while only attempting four free throws.
  • Despite forcing 19 turnovers and finishing a plus-eight on that front, Indiana still scored more points off turnovers, 14, than the Knicks’ 12.
  • The Knicks were out-rebounded by three and took 16 fewer free throws than the Pacers, but won because Indiana totally coughed up the game.

woodson“I was totally impressed because we met the challenge,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “I think as a coach you come into games like this and you want to see who’s going to step up and make plays, and I thought we did that tonight. We were the better team in terms of doing that.”

Did Woodson watch the same game everyone else did? The Knicks, other than Chris Copeland, who Woodson decided to finally play after exhausting all his other options, and Kenyon Martin were pretty dreadful offensively. J.R. Smith shot 4-for-11 and was praised for his strong performance, truly indicating that Smith’s standards have been lowered. Ima Shumpert shot 2-for-10, Pablo Prigioni has been marginalized, and the Knicks only won because no Indiana player shot better than 50 percent from the field besides for Ian Mahinmi, who hit both his field goal attempts.

The Knicks could choose to look at this game through rose-colored glasses, but it’s extremely unlikely that Indiana will play this poorly at home on Saturday night. Unless Woodson and his team get its act together, reality will quickly strike and end New York’s season. They’re truly fortunate to still be in this series.

How San Antonio eliminated Golden State

Stephen Curry On Sunday, Golden State seemed to have figured San Antonio out with a rousing overtime win to knot the series at two games apiece. Several Warriors were making crucial contributions, there was teamwork, balance and perseverance. Some Sheridan Hoops guy even wrote a column about how Golden State had a realistic chance of beating the vaunted Spurs.

So what changed over the last two games? Two key Golden State players basically ran out of gas.

As much as Stephen Curry has deserved the heaping helpings of praise he’s received this postseason, it was clear his ankle hindered the hobbling star enough to really affect the Warriors. Take a look at his splits from the first four games to the final two games of the series:

Curry Minutes FG % 3 FG % Points Assists FTA
Games 1-4 45.5 42.5 41 26 6.75 4.25
Games 5-6 37.5 35.9 20 15.5 7 0

Andrew Bogut Tim DuncanThe minutes played are distorted because of the two overtime games in the first four, but Curry’s huge drop-off in 3-point field goal percentage and points scored can be logically attributed to his ankle injuries. As sensational of a player Curry is, he needed to be the focal point of Golden State’s offense to have a chance to knock off the Spurs. He didn’t shoot a single free throw over the final two games, a stat that encapsulates his limitations on Tuesday and Thursday.

The other major factor in the Warriors’ demise is the Andrew Bogut injury finally catching up to him. “I was running on fumes the whole series,” Bogut told the AP after Game 6. After averaging 15.4 rebounds in his previous five games, Bogut was limited to just 40 total minutes in games five and six. After going 2-for-5 with 18 rebounds in Game 4, he went 2-for-5 with 13 total rebounds in the last two contests combined.

It was a tremendous series for Golden State, but injuries to Curry and Bogut caught up with them and ultimately led to the Warriors’ unfortunate ouster.

Shlomo Sprung loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

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StatBox Playoff Breakdown: Knicks’ guards key big run and assertive Conley guides Grizzlies

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Tuesday night’s games were all about guard play and righting a set of wrongs from Game 1. The Knicks’ guards didn’t do enough to overshadow the strong play of Indiana’s frontcourt, but Pablo Prigioni helped New York rectify that problem during a historic fourth quarter run. And Memphis needed a boost from Mike Conley after a subpar Game 1 performance, and Conley redeemed himself during the Grizzlies’ huge Tuesday night road win. Let’s discuss these themes as part of the StatBox Playoff Breakdown:

Knicks exploit backcourt advantage
Prigioni featured imageAt the outset of the series, I wrote that both the Knicks and Pacers have advantages they will need to exploit in order to advance to the conference finals. Indiana’s big men led the team to a big Game 1 road win, but it was New York’s guard play that gave the Knicks a resounding 105-79 Game 2 win on Tuesday night.

While the Knicks had an incredible six turnovers all game as a team, and finally got a relatively efficient shooting night from Carmelo Anthony, the key Indiana trio of Paul George, David West and Roy Hibbert combined for 11 of the team’s 21, seven of them from George himself! The turnovers and dip in production from the Pacers’ best players were key factors in their loss.

Pacers Frontcourt FG % Points TO FTA
Game 1 50 53 9 15
Game 2 50 39 11 8

The Knicks’ three-guard lineup of Pablo Prigioni, Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert paid dividends in Game 2, after an average first game. It was Prigioni and Felton who helped key a 30-2 run in the third and fourth quarters to turn this contest into a laugher.

“I think I was trying to make a statement,” said Shumpert. “I just wanted to win this game real bad. We needed this game.”

Besides for the volume-shooting enigma J.R. Smith, Shumpert, Prigioni and Felton were guards who were instrumental in New York’s bounce-back win. Look at what those three did in Game 2 compared to Sunday’s series opener:

Knicks Key Guards FG % 3 FG % Points Assists Rebounds TO
Game 1 50 40 29 10 6 4
Game 2 66.7 71.4 39 10 12 1

Since it will be hard to deal with Indiana’s size, the Knicks will have to compensate with top-level play from their starting guards in order to win three more games in this series.

Memphis needs Conley the Conquerer
Mike ConleyIn the food chain of NBA point guards, there’s no question that Russell Westbrook was the predator to the prey who is Mike Conley. Exit Westbrook and enter Reggie Jackson and a huge advantage for Memphis in this series. If the Grizzlies would get the Alpha Conley in this series, they would have a good chance of winning it. Alpha Conley, or Conley the Conquerer, did not show up in Game 1, but he sure did in Tuesday night’s Game 2 win.

“We needed to have somebody on the perimeter do something,” said Memphis Head Coach Lionel Hollins. He started getting to the basket a little bit and scored some big jump shots late.”

Conley was far from his assertive self in Game One, but really took the intiative in Game 2 and really willed the Grizzlies to a 99-93 win.

Conley FG % Points Assists Rebounds TO
Game 1 33.3 13 3 5 2
Game 2 50 26 9 10 2

“The last game, we didn’t execute down the stretch, didn’t get the stops when we needed them and tonight we did vice-versa,” Conley said. “We got the stops, got the rebounds, made big shots and free throws.”

Conley, whom Tony Allen called a top-five point guard after the game, can talk about the stops and the rebounds all he wants, but it was his assertiveness and overall conquistadorian nature that guided Memphis to an enormous win that could set them up quite well for the duration of this series. If Conley continues,

Shlomo Sprung loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

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Hamilton: Pablo Prigioni and Jason Kidd Are Unsung Heroes In Knicks Game 2 Victory

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NEW YORK — Call it irony, but with Floyd Mayweather watching from Madison Square Garden’s expensive seats, in the third quarter, the New York Knicks began to resemble a spent prizefighter.

Prigioni featured imageAnd although Carmelo Anthony turned in an inspiring performance, it was the combination of Pablo Prigioni and Jason Kidd that made the Pacers throw in the towel.

Prigioni will turn 36 years old later this month and Kidd, at 40 years old, is older than Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, who is 39.

Yet Mike Woodson’s two elder statesmen combined to ensure that the series would head to Indianapolis tied up, 1-1.

And together, they helped the Knicks dismantle the Pacers, 105-79.

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SH Blog: Prigioni likely for Game 2; Clippers beat Grizzlies at own game; Cavs casting wide coaching net?

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David LeeWe’re one and a half-days into the playoffs, Miami and Milwaukee just tipped off, and so far there haven’t been any big surprises result-wise. But like last year, when Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the first playoff game, one team has already lost a key contributor, with the Warriors’ David Lee going down to a hip injury.

For more details on Lee’s injury, head over here. Also on Sheridan Hoops, we’ve got a roundup of what we learned on the first day of the playoffs from Chris Sheridan, and a column from Jan Hubbard on the Thunder-Rockets matchup.

Now here’s all the latest NBA news and rumors as we wrap up the first weekend of the playoff season. There’s lots more to go, folks.

 

  • In what was anticipated to be perhaps the tightest of the first-round series, the Clippers knocked off the Grizzlies in Game 1. Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes: “It wasn’t exactly the bruise-fest we expected it would be. The officials didn’t really allow for that, calling 57 fouls and four each on Blake Griffin and Zach Randolph well before the end of the third quarter. It seemed every time Griffin and Randolph were about to go at it, one was called for a foul that led them to the bench. Griffin eventually fouled out with 3:32 left after scoring only 10 points and grabbing five rebounds. Clippers center DeAndre Jordan had an equally subpar game, scoring three points, grabbing eight rebounds and sitting out nearly the entire fourth quarter. Despite those performances, the Clippers not only dominated the game but dominated the boards, outrebounding the Grizzlies 47-23. “It’s going to be physical every single game, that’s the way he likes to play and that’s the way you have to play him,” Griffin said. “As long as at the end of the game we’re winning that rebounding battle and we’re up, I’m cool with it.” “
  • Marc Gasol: "We got beat at our own game."
    April 21, 2013 2:13 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
    @MadelynBurke
    Madelyn Burke

Some more interesting Clippers talk:

CP3 on Bledsoe: "There’s no way he can be here next year because we probably won’t have enough money to pay him."
April 21, 2013 4:49 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@ArashMarkazi
Arash Markazi

CP3 on Bledsoe: "He should be a starting point guard in this league next year.”
April 21, 2013 4:50 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@ArashMarkazi
Arash Markazi

CP3 won't talk about his future but the way he's talking about Bledsoe's would lead you to believe CP3 is here long-term.
April 21, 2013 4:50 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@ArashMarkazi
Arash Markazi

Bledsoe is under contract next season at $2.6 million but Clippers will certainly be in the market to deal him after CP3 re-signs.
April 21, 2013 4:52 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@ArashMarkazi
Arash Markazi

  • Another one of the more exciting matchups on the first day of the playoffs (on paper, going in) was the Nets and the Bulls, and in this one, the Nets came out on top. Here’s Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: “(Deron) Williams ripped Chicago’s defense to shreds, finishing with 22 points and seven assists, highlighted by that jam in the third quarter that would have been unthinkable just one month ago while he battled ankle injuries. “It just happened,” Williams said. “I just was trying to show some guys in the NBA I might be able to compete in the dunk contest next year. My legs feel good, my ankles feel good right now. I’m excited to be back in the playoffs.” Brook Lopez, competing in his first playoff gamer, pounded the paint, adding 21 points and five rebounds. The Nets shot 56%. “Brooklyn hit us with a haymaker,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.”
  • Noah's foot is absolutely killing him. He iced it twice in the locker room. He says he will play Monday but it looks hard for him to move.
    April 20, 2013 11:36 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
    @NickFriedell
    Nick Friedell
  • Here’s Marc Berman of the New York Post with some Knicks news: “Knicks coach Mike Woodson said if yesterday had been a Game 7, starting guard Pablo Prigioni likely would have suited up on his balky right ankle in the first-round playoff opener against the Celtics. Woodson said he believes Prigioni will be ready for Game 2 on Tuesday and for the Knicks, that is a good thing. That’s because Woodson started Chris Copeland at the wing, and he appeared hampered by a recent shoulder surgery and seemed a bit overwhelmed in his playoff debut. Copeland, recently a scoring beast, was scoreless in 12:46, going 0 for 3 in the Knicks’ 85-78 win.”
  • Jennings on comments: "What am I supposed to say? Let's try our best and hope to win a game? Everybody's writing us off anyway."
    April 21, 2013 12:15 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite
    @EthanJSkolnick
    Ethan J. Skolnick

  • Bob Finnan at the News-Herald in northern Ohio looks at some candidates for the Cavs’ now-open coaching job, which he notes is widely rumored to be led by Mike Brown: “A source close to former Miami and Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said Van Gundy has no interest in coaching any of the three current openings in the NBA: in Philadelphia, Detroit or Cleveland. Ex-Portland and Seattle coach Nate McMillan might have some interest in the Cavs’ job, but if the Sacramento Kings move to Seattle, he’d be earmarked for that position. Former Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles is available. He’s hard-nosed and a defensive coach, but he is known to wear down everyone around him with his relentless style. There are several up-and-coming assistant coaches who could draw interest from Cavs general manager Chris Grant. One of them could be Denver assistant coach Melvin Hunt, who spent several years on Brown’s staff in Cleveland. Hunt also worked under Phil Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is currently Nuggets coach George Karl’s lead assistant and is well-respected around the league. Hunt has a good background in coaching defense and in developing young talent. He works very closely with the Nuggets’ young stable of big men.”

  • Byron Scott will be candidate in Milwaukee if interim coach Jim Boylan not retained, Bucks sources say.
    April 21, 2013 12:58 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
    @SamAmicoFSO
    Sam Amico
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