No one seems to take more pleasure in knocking the Knicks than Charles Barkley. The TNT analyst has been an outspoken critic of the orange and blue since his good buddy Patrick Ewing left and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
In the aftermath of the Brooklyn Nets overtime win over the …
Brook Lopez had a monster game in the Brooklyn Nets’ landmark 96-89 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Monday night, turning in a team-high 22 points on 9-for-20 shooting, 11 rebounds (including seven on the offensive glass) and five blocked shots in 38 minutes of work. With the eyes of the basketball world trained on the inaugural intra-NYC matchup at the Barclays Center, Lopez looked every bit like the max-contract-worthy big man and standard-bearer that Brooklyn’s front office expected him to be.
Well, except here:
There, he looked like the sort of goofball we’ve long since come to expect Brook and his twin brother Robin to look like. Even in the heat of a much-hyped battle for New York, some things never change.
To Brooklyn fans, tonight’s overtime victory over the Knicks felt a bit like this:
THE NETS WIN THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!
— devin kharpertian (@uuords) November 27, 2012
Let us settle down a bit and merely consider the possibility that Brooklyn is the superior NBA team. Based on what little information we have, I would still err on the Knicks’ side. They have better three-point shooters and a better defensive center. They also have a superior perimeter scorer in Carmelo Anthony (Joe Johnson has not impressed so far). But, Monday night’s game delivered some fodder for Nets fans who claim superiority.
One matchup swings decisively in Brooklyn’s favor: They have a much, much better point guard. Raymond Felton conjured bad New York memories of John Starks against the Rockets in his 3-19 semi-implosion. It was difficult to tell whether Felton’s play was the result of overconfidence or sheer terror, but man, he was awful.
It wasn’t just that Felton was missing shots. It was also that he was missing terrible shots, well out of the offensive rhythm. In pregame, noted Knicks fan @netw3rk made the following observation:
IMO Ray gets sucked into these marquee one-on-one matchups. Happened in the Houston game too.
— netw3rk (@netw3rk) November 27, 2012
This is a situation worth monitoring, especially when New York faces tougher tests in the playoffs.
On the other end, Deron Williams was a ubiquitous force:
Deron was off on his jumper, but he more than made up for it with his passing. The 14 assists actually belie his impact, as Brook Lopez (and a few other Net players) missed easy conversions off incisive mid-paint Williams passes. Tonight was a big reminder of just why this guy got, and likely deserves, a max contract.
Speaking of max contracts, Brook Lopez will never be Tyson Chandler on defense (Note: Chandler was incredible on Monday), but he’s making strides as a defender. Lopez has five blocks to pair with a good offensive performance. His preseason signing looked brutal, but he’s played up to it in these first few months.
But the X-factor, and main reason as to why Brooklyn can beat New York, made decisive, winning plays in the overtime. Gerald Wallace didn’t have a perfect game, but then again, his game almost necessitates an element of imperfection. “Crash” is an agent of chaos, a wild player who makes his living tripping over defenders in midair. It’s just the cost of doing business for Brooklyn’s most versatile player.
That versatility could give BK the edge come springtime. Carmelo Anthony had a productive offensive game, but so much of the damage came from the free-throw line (on some cheap calls, quite frankly) and from off-the-dribble three-pointers.
When Carmelo Anthony got the ball against Wallace, life became rather difficult. As a hybrid 3/4 player, Anthony usually finds the mismatch against opposing defenders. Against Crash, another hybrid 3/4, there is no defensive mismatch to be found. Wallace will push right back when Anthony backs him down in the post.
Against Brooklyn, the Knicks might not have the mismatch they usually claim. Since so much of what they do is predicated on Carmelo Anthony breaking down defenses and kicking to three-point shooters (The Knicks shot 28 percent from three on Monday), Wallace could pose a serious challenge to the Knicks’ New York supremacy.
Read more Brooklyn Nets news on BleacherReport.com
It started with Carmelo Anthony offering heartfelt words to the sellout crowd, and ended with chants for Rasheed Wallace to enter a blowout victory over the defending champions. Nothing about playing a basketball game in the famous arena on Seventh Avenue will change things for the better or worse around here, but for one night, it had its time and place.
GREENBURGH, N.Y. — J.R. Smith seems to pop up everywhere these days.
He’s constantly on Twitter and Instagram, even during vampire hours; he’s a regular at New York City hotspots; he makes impromptu appearances at different events; and he’s on the front page of the sports section for yet another newsworthy story or quote — like last week’s “I would prefer to start” — or on Page Six for reportedly having a fling with Rihanna.
While Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire steal most of the NYC sports spotlight, Smith could very well be the most interesting athlete in town right now.
Gerald Wallace keeps it simple and low-key, everywhere except on the basketball court. Basketball fans know him as “Crash,” the small forward willing to give up life and limb for a loose ball — the player the Brooklyn Nets will match up against LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant.
Let the NHL have its lockout — this October, the NBA is mercifully free of labor strife. But Ken Berger says that doesn’t mean the Association lacks drama, as both the new Lake Show and the battle for New York begin.
NOTE: This video clip contains some NSFW language when Jackson starts rapping, which begins at the 8:08 mark, so listener discretion is advised.
We already know that San Antonio Spurs swingman Stephen Jackson likes rapping, and that he intends to “do music until [he] can’t talk no more.” So it wasn’t especially surprising to hear him answer a “What do you do in the offseason?” question asked during a Monday appearance on The Breakfast Club, the morning show on New York City hip-hop radio station 105.1 FM, by telling hosts DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Angela Yee, “I rap.”
It was, however, a little surprising to hear what came next.
“I don’t work out. I ain’t worked out my whole career,” Jackson said.
“I don’t think they want to hear that — the Spurs don’t want to hear that,” Charlamagne responded.
“That’s me,” Jackson said. “That’s how I’ve been my whole life.”
“So you don’t play no ball in the offseason?” Envy asked.
“No,” Jackson replied.
“At all? ” Envy asked.
“No,” Jackson said.
“So not one jump shot?” Charlamagne followed.
“I probably shot, probably … it’s online, the only time I worked out this summer,” Jackson answered.
Jackson’s presumably referring to this 44-minute video published two weeks ago by sports/entertainment video channel The NOC, the folks behind that Iman Shumpert iPhone video and the documenters of Jackson’s foray into youth coaching . In that video, Jackson tells former NBA player turned coach T.J. Ford, “This is my first time touching a basketball since the season’s been over with.” Apparently, that wasn’t hyperbole.
“I been doing it so long, so when I go to training camp, I take those three weeks to get in shape,” Jackson told Yee. “I really don’t do too much to my body, so …”
… so only touching a basketball once over the span of four months really isn’t that big a deal. Got it. (That sound you just heard was Spurs coach Gregg Popovich grinding down another set of teeth. That’s OK, though; he has five rows behind the front one, ready to rotate forward as needed for predation.)
We’ve known for some time that Iman Shumpert likes to rap, recording under the name “DeBeau” before the New York Knicks drafted him and releasing more music under his own name after a left knee injury ended his rookie season during the Knicks’ first-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat. We’ve also seen him show the capacity to kick rhymes a capella, coming off the top with no instrumentation at a February party for Knicks season ticket holders that also saw former teammate Landry Fields sing a Travie McCoy song.
Given his skills on the mic, his willingness to go in spoken-word style and his predilection toward dressing like a member of the Native Tongues crew , it’s not much of a surprise to see Shumpert get up on stage at venerable New York City music venue The Village Underground to share a poem he’d written about his late aunt. What is kind of surprising, though, is how affecting it is — even without a clearly overcome Shumpert choking up in midstream, even if you’ve never lost anyone to cancer, even if you’ve never lost anyone at all.
The sophomore-to-be’s got a way with words; it’s just a shame circumstances dictated him showing us this way. Our condolences to Shumpert and his family.
In on-court news, Shumpert is not only upright and walking again (as you can see in the video above), but also dunking off one leg and continues to target a return to the court somewhere between December and February , aiming to provide a second-half boost for a Knicks team that looks thin at the two-guard.
Video via hoopdrive . Hat-tip to Sekou Smith at NBA.com’s Hang Time blog .
On Thursday, as part of a summer program initiative, they finished re-creating Madison Square Garden’s basketball court in their classroom. Then, a few of them played a 2-on-2 game (with their peers watching and a halftime dance routine) to celebrate their hard work. With two players wearing Knicks shirts and the other two representing the Miami Heat, the blue and orange prevailed 106-91.
