San Antonio Spurs embarrass the New York Knicks at the Garden

Danny Green

To say that the San Antonio Spurs only won against the New York Knicks is giving the Knicks a lot more than they deserve. The Knicks simply couldn’t keep up with the smooth flowing offense of the Spurs.

Danny Green scored 24 points and recorded a career high 10 rebounds while shooting 6-9 from beyond the arc. Tim Duncan had a double-double of his own with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Kawhi Leonard chipped in with 18 points off the bench and Tony Parker had 17 points in a game that was nothing short of a blowout.

Here a few talking points from the game.

A disappointing return for J.R.Smith

The embarrassment spoilt the return of last season’s Sixth Man of the Year who was suspended for the first five games of the season for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program.

Playing in just one pre-season game following knee surgery over the summer, Smith’s post-season shooting slump carried over to this season as he missed all shots in the first half. In 20 minutes played, Smith committed 4 turnovers and scored only 5 points.

His game was so rusty that he even failed to successfully deliver an alley-hoop pass to Carmelo Anthony on a fast break. He shot 2 air balls in the first half and a three pointer with 8:43 left in third period was his lone basket in the game.

Danny Green hot from long range

You really don’t need a scouting report to know that Green is one of the most dangerous perimeter shooters in the league. Yet the Knicks left him open a number of times. His misses were also clean and open looks.

Green made the Knicks pay by draining six of his nine 3-point shoots, accounting for half the offense the Spurs had from long range. Knicks were so focused on stopping the pick and roll that they double teamed off Green, when his man should be the last stepping in.

At the end they could neither trap the pick and roll nor stop Green from getting open looks. Perhaps a more detailed study of the scouting report would benefit the Knicks.

Tyson Chandler’s absence hurting the Knicks

Ever since his injury, the Knicks have been a disaster on the boards. It goes without being said that the Knicks will miss the height of Chandler in the paint. Although his rebounding and defensive presence cannot be replaced, the Knicks have to find a solution and fast.

They were outscored 51-33 on the boards and with no rim protection Tony Parker weaved his way through the defense to easy buckets. When they did manage to help on the penetration, the Spurs would simply hand the ball to their devastating perimeter shooters to do the damage.

When you have nobody to protect the paint, you would expect the team to be solid on their transition defense but the Knicks disappointed once again as Leonard was able to leak out for number of uncontested layups.

Knicks thoroughly outplayed

Spurs offense fired, the Knicks didn’t. Spurs played great defense, the Knicks didn’t.

There was not one positive Knicks head coach Mike Woodson can take from this game. The Knicks shot a dismal 37.8% from the field and 27.3% on three point attempts. Meanwhile the Spurs percentages were much better at 53.9% and 42.9% respectively.

The Spurs defense was suffocating, forcing jumpers and not allowing drives to the basket. You could give the credit the Knicks for helping the Spurs by trying to generate points without putting the ball on the floor. They looked totally out of sync, However the Knicks offense being absent on Sunday had nothing to do with the absence of Chandler.

Carmelo Anthony shot 50% from the field and was 6-8 from the charity stripe but for the reigning scoring champion to put up just 10 shots at the basket in 35 minutes of play can be considered a huge disappointment. Nobody is asking him to play hero ball, but he is an excellent player at attracting the double team and dishing it out to teammates for open looks.

“We didn’t compete tonight, it’s just unacceptable,” said Knicks head coach Mike Woodson. There were chants of “Fire Woodson” on the upper decks of the Garden but there were just a lack of execution on the part of the players. Woodson alone cannot be held responsible for the performance of the players Sunday night.

The Spurs will travel to Philadelphia and put their 5 game win streak to the test against the 76ers, a team who has lost 3 straight after starting the season 4-0 while the Knicks will fly to Atlanta to play the Hawks on Wednesday night.