Knicks without the rim-protecting, shot-blocking menace who is Tyson Chandler are as vulnerable as New York City without a crime-stopping presence.
Chew on that for a second. New York rapidly became the safest city per capita, post-9/11.
Look at how dismal and effort-free the Knicks defense has been since Chandler was relegated to the role of spectator.
Now, Chandler is reduced to providing nothing more than moral support.
It’s hard to support a team, however, which is routinely bludgeoned on the glass. It’s hard to support a team which severely lacks offensive fluidity.
Once buoyed by a spread-the-wealth offense pioneered by Jason Kidd and veteran leader/Chris Copeland mentor Rasheed Wallace, the Knicks look as listless offensively now as they did during the 2013 playoffs.
The onus is on Carmelo to create his own shot, since the ball movement is fractured. The Knicks now have a virtually invisible post to feed, limiting the viable options.
It’s hard to support a team which looked so crisp sharing the ball and committing to that extra pass last season, only to flounder with early shot clock heaves this season.
Difficult to get the sideline adrenaline flowing, especially for a team lacks lacking a serviceable big man. Adding salt to the wound, the Knicks seem incapable of diminishing constant forays to the rim.
NYK was absolutely shredded and slayed by Spurs guard Tony Parker, who carved up the lane.
The French guard effortlessly slid past porous defenders like a mid-town cab circumventing drunk, green-clad pedestrains on St. Patty’s Day.
Then it was Houston’s James Harden and Chandler Parsons, feasting on an unmarked interior with surges to the rim.
Jeremy Lin’s return to Madison Square Garden was the appetizing subplot, ableit Carmelo’s would-be 4-point play was waved off.
That was the sizzling story. An epic game-winner that would evoke Larry Johnson comparisons all morning, called off.
Knicks fans certainly had their suspicions after the game.
The Rockets shot 44 free throws and the Knicks shot 25. The off-balance 3-pointer that Carmelo Anthony (season-best 45 points on the whole enchilada of 3-pointers, medium range rips, and drives, at a 17-for-30 clip) drained following contact allowed the Garden to erupt as it hadn’t at during this lackadaisical start.
The refs elicited a wild reaction with severable calls and no-calls.
Perhaps sporting their Jeremy Lin jerseys, the throwback Hakeem Olajuwon and Otis Thorpe and Robert Horry jerseys under the shirts which robbedfrom Foot Locker, the boys-in-zebra ruled the foul was established first.
It was a tough one to swallow. A win would have been the signature-style win, sought after win, a win pulling the Knicks over early identity speed bumps.
Now, the Knicks were reverting to their old ways, “chirping” as Woodson likes to call it, about the putrid officiating.
There was no time for bitching about give-or-take calls following an overtime loss to the Pacers, the East’s hottest team.
The Pacers possess position-to-position weapons. They feature an emerging superpower in prolific scorer Paul George.
Simply put, the Knicks not knock down critical shots in the waning moments.
If there is one silver lining, Beno gave an accurate account of what he’s capable of.
How many performances of that caliber can you get from your backup point guard?
How many times are those unconventional, circus-like shots going to drop?
Sure, the veteran without the naked fingers of Carmelo, Shumpert, and now relied-on shootist Bargnani, has a wealth of experience.
In a game of that magnitude, however, Melo must drill shots in crunch time. Bargnani’s 4-for-16 dud simply won’t cut it.
A win against Indiana, the Indiana hell-bent on bouncing back from its lone loss of the season, could have propelled the Knicks out of this prolonged pothole.
This losing streak, these home servings can be attributed to myriad issues.
At the apex of all concerns is rim protection.
Without Tyson manipulating, influencing, and changing the trajectory of shots in the post, life has been anemic for the reeling Knicks.
Melo has become much more active on the glass, with a 30-point and 18-rebound performance against Indiana serving as primary proof.
You can’t however, expect to ride one hot hand throughout the season. More steady offensive production is needed out of the supporting cast.
The most mind-boggling fact is that this core is very similar to last year’s.
Sure, there is no Rasheed Wallace drilling straight-away 3-pointers or Jason Kidd orchestrating the offensive symphony.
Sure, they are not spreading the ball around or playing an iota of the suffocating brand of defense which keyed last year’s scintillating 18-5 start.
Still, there’s no argument that the Knicks’ primary problem has been the void in the paint.
Rewind the pages of your calendar back to the Houston game. The carnage was truly inflicted in the open seams near the bucket, where Harden and Pasons attacked the rim with relative ease.
They feasted on the Knicks the way thugs would feast on banks throughout the five boroughs if an uptick in police personnel wasn’t an option.
If the city was run rampant by criminals and gangbangers, if folks with laces in their shoes actually listened in on songs like Cypress Hill’s “Pigs” and Ice T’s “Cop Killer” and the diverse police force were not a presence, pulling off major heists would be as easy as Al Horford barreling his way to the bucket.
The aforementioned Parsons even embodied Brent Barry circa 1996, seizing the open space as he floated near the free throw and cranmmed a filthy one-fisted dunk.
The clear, “All Visitors Welcome pathway to the basket was even more astonishingly wide open against the Atlanta Hawks. Bolstered by relative balance in the scorebook, the Hawks featured eight players in double figures.
Everyone ate off the plate. With Metta World Peace relegated to the role of spectator, salt was added to the already gaping wound.
You can’t deny the immense importance of Chandler’s presence in the middle.
The broken vaccum in the frontcourt is the most pressing issue pumping fear into Knicks nation. Not the refs, even if a love tap foul from Iman Shumpert results in three straight Paul George free throws and a nightmarish overtime session.
Are there any silver linings you can pull out of this mess right now? Sure the Division is weaker than a Kenyan in a bench press competition, albeit the Knicks have had difficulty closing out games and staying engaged through four quarters.
J.R. Smith, who has been as enigmatic as he has been electrifying throughout his NBA livelihood, seemed to regain his touch against Indiana.
Smith has always battled with a feast-or-famine habit. When he’s off, Smith has a tendency to hunt for his shot regardless of how much it hampers the team. Against Indiana, with Smith’s momentum rolling and confidence soaring, he finally buried pivotal shots. His erratic play came to a screeching halt.
The reigning Sixth Man and the watermark for Knicks controversy (his Twitter page can explain that), Smith seemed to rediscover his old self.
Ever since Smith clocked Jason Terry with a vicious elbow in the 2013 NBA playoffs, a ghost slithered into JR’s jersey. Firing up a barrage of bricks at an alarming pace, the ghost’s wrath was felt.
There was everything short of a search warrant out for the electrifying guard, a critical energizer who is as contagious when hot as he is dreadful when cold.
The Knicks are paying a stiff price without the lack of a potent rim-guarding cog in the trenches. Though it’s too early to hit the panic button, there’s no question Mike Woodson’s days at the Garden are numbered. Last year, a renewed commitment to ball pressure and team defense sparked 13 wins in 18 games. This season, the evaporation of the frontline has made for some extremely nauseating basketball in the Mecca of basketball.
