There’s no question the New York Knicks have a lot of really good players other than Carmelo Anthony. But without J.R. Smith in the lineup for the first five games, they lack a quality second option on offense in order to succeed against the league’s better teams.
Who knows? The Knicks may end up struggling even when Smith returns from his season-opening five-game suspension.
On Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks struggled mightily in the first quarter, when Minnesota raced to a 40-19 lead and held on for a 109-100 victory to move to 3-0 for the first time since 2001.
It was one of the more lopsided opening quarters you will see. While Minnesota shot 66.7 percent, New York shot 7-of-23 and committed six turnovers. Anthony was 1-for-5, Felton was 1-for-3, and Andrea Bargnani and Metta World Peace shot a combined 1-for-7. New York never led thereafter and fell to 1-2.
When asked who New York’s second offensive option was, several Timberwolves, including Corey Brewer, Kevin Martin, Derrick Williams and rookie Shabazz Muhammad, hesitated a bit before agreeing on point guard Raymond Felton. Their answer wasn’t exactly a concrete one.
“Oh man, I would probably say Raymond Felton,” Williams, the former second overall pick, told Sheridan Hoops. “The point guard has the ball in his hands 70 percent of the game and he could score the ball, shoot the three, get to the basket, quick and shifty. I look at him as the second option.”
Felton really wasn’t the second option, scoring eight points on 3-of-12 shooting. He did have 12 assists. In an early hole, the Knicks missed the explosiveness of Smith.
“He’s a kid who averaged 18 points for us last year so you miss all of that,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “He’s a big piece of what we do. We’re going through what we’re going through because of what happened.”
For all the talk about finding a second scorer, the primary scorer got off to a slow start. Anthony began shooting 2-for-9 from the field. Brewer drew the main defensive assignment on Anthony and he wanted to “make it tough on them all night, and I feel like we did that.
“We denied him like crazy. Everything he got was tough. He ended up making some shots down the stretch, but all in all we did a great job on him tonight.”
After an 8-for-24 shooting night Thursday against Chicago, Anthony finished this one shooting 8-for-21. For the season, he is below 38 percent as opponents load up on him.
Meanwhile, Tyson Chandler took just four shots. Ditto for Kenyon Martin. In addition to Iman Shumpert, New York’s two most efficient offensive players were Bargnani and World Peace, who were invisible at the outset.