Noah: Time for Knicks to get defensive
JOAKIM Noah doesn’t quite move like he once did, but the former Defensive Player of the Year still knows right from wrong on the basketball court.
And while the Knicks’ lack of ball movement and isolation-heavy offense came under fire following their Christmas Day loss to the Boston Celtics, Noah identified a problem at the other end of the floor that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
“You can’t say that we’re doing one thing great,” Noah said on Tuesday. “If we want to be where we want to be at the end of this, we definitely have to pick it up and I think we’re capable of it. We have three guys on this team that can score with the best of them. If we can just somehow find a way to build defensively, I think we can really make some noise.”
Noah’s best years with the Chicago Bulls were under Tom Thibodeau, a coach who stressed defense first and foremost. Not surprisingly, another former Bulls player, Derrick Rose, also raised concerns about the Knicks’ defensive lapses on Sunday.
The Celtics scored 119 points on Christmas Day, including 97 over the final three quarters. For the season, the Knicks are allowing an average of 107.9 points per game. Only five teams are giving up more points and those five teams all have losing records.
The Knicks are 16-14 heading into a three-game trip that begins tonight in Atlanta and will finish with games against New Orleans and Houston on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Getting a good result against the struggling Hawks is crucial since the Knicks will be matching up against Anthony Davis on Friday and a Pelicans team that is 5-5 in its last 10. The last thing the Knicks need is to enter the final day of 2016 in danger of falling one game under .500. Their toughest test will come Saturday against the Rockets, who have thrived under former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni and point guard James Harden. Houston (239) scored 131 points in Monday’s victory over Phoenix. Meanwhile, Harden is putting up numbers that put him right at the top of the MVP conversation. The Knicks have also struggled against teams with winning records. They are 3-10, and that includes two losses each to the Celtics and Cavs. Cleveland played the Warriors immediately after the Knicks loss to Boston and benefited from a crucial non-call in the final seconds. In the league’s “Last Two Minute Report” it was determined that Richard Jefferson did in fact foul Kevin Durant on the game’s final play. There were no such controversies in the Knicks’ loss, although a full 48-minute report on their game revealed that Jeff Hornacek’s team certainly could have passed more. The Knicks had just 11 assists on 41 field goals and after falling behind in the final minute, they settled for a long jumper from Carmelo Anthony. On Tuesday, Hornacek defended the Knicks’ style of play, saying that one of the team’s strengths is isolating Anthony in the post.
“Melo gets that ball in the midpost, he’s one of the best in the league,” Hornacek said. “Teams’ strategies are, ‘OK, if Carmelo hits a couple of those, we’ll live with that.’ Once he gets to hitting three or four of them … they kind of leak over (to) help and he’s making passes out of it and we’re getting shots.”
Hornacek added that some teams can actually be guilty of overpassing.
“There are some teams that make six or seven passes and all they get to is the high pick-and-roll, so some of that is probably misleading,” he said. “Yes, OK, it looked all right because the ball moved around. But they move it around and catch it at the top and someone goes up and sets the screen. So what’s the difference if you run right to it?”
KNICKS at HAWKS 7:30 on MSG