Super dud from Knicks
Derek gets boxed out with his triangle talk
IF THERE’S one trigger point for the Phil Jackson regime, it’s any commentary against the triangle. Derek Fisher took his defense of that system to another level Sunday while insulting Rajon Rondo, but the Knicks coach may want to check his facts. Responding to Rondo’s quote from Friday that the triangle is not a good system for his style of play, Fisher got personal.
“You can’t ask a player who wasn’t very suc- cessful playing against it if he wants to play in it,” Fisher said after questioning Rondo’s status as an elite player. “That’s your opinion whether or not he’s an elite player,” he said.
Fisher has either forgotten or chose to ignore the 2008 NBA Finals when Rondo’s Celtics beat
the triangle-running Lakers in six games. Two years later the Celtics lost to the Lakers in seven games as Rondo averaged 13.6 points, 7.6 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals. Fisher averaged 8.6 points and two assists in that series. Regardless, it’s now even clearer that Rondo won’t be coming to the Knicks as a free agent this summer, at least with Jackson and Fisher in place. “The triangle’s not really a good look for me,” he said.
That may be fine for Jackson and Fisher A SEASON that started with promise is slipping away.
The reeling Knicks lost for the ninth time in their last 10 games on Sunday afternoon, flopping at home against the lottery-bound Nuggets, 101-96, after Carmelo Anthony missed an off balance 3-pointer that would’ve tied it down the stretch.
Derek Fisher took “some” responsibility for the team falling into another early hole and its “overall l ack of readiness,” but then claimed he wasn’t surprised by the fall to eight games under .500. The coach was big on problems and short on solutions as the Knicks (23-31) dipped to 12th in the Eastern Conference. “I’m not necessarily surprised,” Fisher said. “Unfortunately, it is disappointing. There are always reasons why. The reality is that we have chances to win these games but we are not winning them. … We have never been truly consistent. It seems like the issues have bounced around some but the reality is until something changes, it won’t change.”
Anthony returned to the lineup after missing Friday’s game with knee soreness, struggling with his shot (7-for-19) while scoring 21 points. His biggest miss occurred with 11.8 seconds left and the Knicks trailing by three. Fisher again opted against calling a timeout after the Knicks grabbed a defensive rebound, and Anthony took his 3-point attempt very early in the possession.
“I was a little off-balance,” he said. “I felt it. I thought I got a good look at it. It almost went in. I got the look I wanted.”
Anthony said doctors confirmed his lingering knee problems are a — and a ball-dominant point guard is not a good fit for the triangle — but Carmelo Anthony is probably disappointed. The Knicks star, who returned to the lineup for Sunday’s game after sitting out Friday with a sore knee, told the Daily News that he once common consequence of his surgery recovery, but that’s been amplified by the load he’s shouldering on the court as the team’s lone All-Star. As the Daily News reported, Anthony had two MRIs done on his knee recently, not just the one that the Knicks revealed.
“I’ve talked to everybody I needed to talk to, the technical staff. Other people who’ve been in this situation or had the same procedure. Other doctors, just trying to get advice about what I’m dealing with. And everybody says it’s part of the recovery, part of rehab,” Anthony said. “In most situations, people wouldn’t have that load I’m putting on. So for me it’s kind of no rest, get out there and play.”
Despite the need for rest, Anthony said he’ll be going to All-Star Weekend in Toronto and will continue his rehab there before participating in the Valentine’s Day Game.
“It’s not going to heal in a week or a couple days or even two weeks. What I had done, the procedure I had done (on his left patella tendon), that’s going to take time to heal,” Anthony said. “I wanted to get an MRI for my own sake to make sure that what I was feeling wasn’t nothing structural, just general soreness.”
On Sunday, the Knicks overcame an early 19-point deficit to take a lead in the fourth quarter. Kristaps Porzingis, who started the game shooting 0-for-6, led the comeback with 13 points in the third quarter, hitting four straight shots at one point.
But then he disappeared as the Knicks went cold down the stretch, losing this one similarly to the previous three: by overcoming a slow start only to fail in crunch time.
The Knicks missed 14 of their 19 shots in the fourth quarter. Porzingis finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds.
“It’s the same story almost every game lately,” said the rookie. “We start off slow and missing shots and not having energy. Then it takes a lot of energy to get back into the game. That is very frustrating.”
Denver rookie Emmanuel Mudiay, who was considered by the Knicks in the draft and was picked two spots below Porzingis, scored nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets (21-31) took 28 free throws and had 16 fast-break points – 13 more than the Knicks. recruited Rondo to New York.
“I’ve talked to him kind of behind the scenes, kind of doing what I do best. Tried to get him to think about playing in New York,” said Anthony, who attended the same high school as Rondo in Virginia. “There was a time where he wanted to come. It was out of my hands at that point.”
It’s strange that Fisher would hold his tongue amid the Matt Barnes character attacks and then choose to respond to an innocuous comment from Rondo.
Can’t recover after awful start