The first time the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets met this season back in Dec. 5, both teams were a total mess as they failed to meet expectations in monumental fashion. The Nets proved to be the bigger mess at the time, suffering a humiliating 113-83 loss on their own home floor.
Just a little over a month later, not much has changed in the sense that both are still trying to find a way to reach the .500 mark. The Nets (17-22), at least, are starting to show some sense of consistency: they are an impressive 7-1 in January and holding opponents to 92.5 points. On Martin Luther King Jr. day, the New York teams met for the second time this season and the Nets flipped the script on the Knicks for an impressive 103-80 blowout win in MSG.
The Knicks – now six games behind the Toronto Raptors for the Atlantic Division lead and three games behind the Nets – are a mess again in the lockerroom. Carmelo Anthony doesn’t know what to do, Tyson Chandler is unhappy with the team’s defensive schemes, and one player wants to be traded. Scott Cacciola of The New York Times has details:
“I didn’t think we would be in this situation,” said Carmelo Anthony, who spent the final moments of the fourth quarter sitting on the sideline with a towel draped over his head, shielding himself from the spectacle of another blowout loss. “Honestly, I don’t really know how to deal with situations like this. I’m learning.”
Anthony said the Nets continually found “mismatches.” Tyson Chandler was more pointed in his postgame remarks, saying the Knicks had been “outschemed.” “I don’t want to switch,” Chandler said. “I personally don’t like it. I think you come with a defensive plan, and every guy kind of mans up and takes on his responsibility. I think switching should always be a last resort.”
Raymond Felton was quite frank about how he has been playing:
Felton: “I’m playing like some crap. I got to pick it up.”
— Scott Cacciola (@ScottCacciola) January 20, 2014
Beno Udrih appears to have had enough of Mike Woodson and the oft-dysfunctional team, according to Ian Begley of ESPN New York:
New York Knicks point guard Beno Udrih has requested a trade, sources told ESPNNewYork.com.
League sources say the 31-year-old veteran communicated his wishes to the Knicks in recent days and the team will try to honor the request.
Udrih signed with the Knicks over the summer for the veteran’s minimum at $1.27 million. At the time, Udrih hoped to be a part of the Knicks’ three point guard rotation along withRaymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni.
For whatever this may be worth, Woodson has the support of Avery Johnson, from Stefan Bondy of Daily News:
What do you make of the Knicks’ struggles? I had a chance to talk to Mike Woodson when he was in town, when he was at the SMU-UConn game (on Jan. 4) and a lot of his players have been injured and one of his players hasn’t had the type of season he had last year in JR Smith. And I think once they get that solved and whether they’re going to move forward with him or not, that’s going to be a big key. Stoudemire started to play really well off the bench and now he’s injured again. Chandler has been in and out of the lineup. Felton has been in and out of the lineup. So even though it’s not an excuse, coaches just coach. Like I told Mike, I don’t think any the problems that they’ve had – and I’ll say this on ESPN – I don’t necessarily think it has been his fault, even though he has been scapegoated. They’re in a situation where once they figure out how to minimize some of the distractions that they’ve been having, I think you’ll see him perform more on a consistent basis. And once they get healthy.
CHARLES BARKLEY SOUNDS OFF ON TODAY’S NBA:
Barkley is never shy about expressing how he feels about today’s NBA and some of its players compared to his era of basketball. He dished on how much better his era was, as well as who LeBron James has to reach first before being compared to Michael Jordan, from SlamONLINE:
How do you think your teams in the ’80s and ’90s would fare today? “We’d kill these little girly teams they’ve got today. Come on. The Miami Heat, the best team today, they make Roy Hibbert look like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”
When LeBron, Melo, D-Wade, and Bosh were all on the court together in the playoffs, people said the ’03 draft was the best ever. How do you compare it to yours in ’84? “I like our draft class better, to be honest. No disrespect to those guys; they’re all terrific players. They have LeBron, who is a once-in-a-lifetime player, but we had Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, John Stockton. But any discussion about this stuff is dictated by LeBron James, because he’s just special.”
Do you think he could go down as the best ever? Jordan says he would have taken LeBron one-on-one. “I haven’t put LeBron past Kobe Bryant yet. He’s won a couple of rings, and now everybody is trying to compare him to Michael, who won six. What happened to Kobe? Kobe’s still got five. LeBron has to win three more championships before he’s in the Kobe Bryant class.”
And speaking of Bryant, the guard actually said similar things about today’s NBA and the NBA that used to be, from Mark Medina of Daily News:
Bryant also voiced his dislike on how the NBA has become more of a “finesse” game and employs “small ball,” a philosophy Bryant conceded Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni largely speaheaded. Bryant voiced his preference for the rugged style played in the 1980′s NBA. Bryant also insisted the harsher rules hadn’t made much an impact in prolonging his 18-year NBA career.
“I like smash mouth old school basketball,” Bryant said. “That’s what I grew up watching. It’s much less physical. Some of the flagrant fouls I see called nowadays makes me nauseous. You can’t touch a guy without it being a flagrant foul. I see some of the negatives too.”
Can the game revert back to the past?
“I don’t know,” Bryant said. “Kids might be too sensitive for that nowadays.”
OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:
It makes you question wheehtr Josh Kroenke’s involvement is a hindrance more than a help and if his new GM is able to assert himself this early in his tenure. Donnie alluded to their lack of knowledge about the Knick roster add that to the Nets trade fiasco and it seems like amateur hour in Denver’s front office