Schmeelk: Takeaways From Knicks' Ugly Season-Opening Loss
By John Schmeelk
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There's no reason to panic. No reason to fly off the handle. It's one game. One game against last year's NBA champions when they received their rings in front of their home crowd on opening night. It was a tall task.
But, in a 117-88 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Knicks stunk. They played bad basketball. Things will get better, but here are some things to keep an eye on moving forward based on what we saw Tuesday night.
• The team looked disorganized and sloppy. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that Derrick Rose has been away due to his trial and Joakim Noah missed plenty of practice time with a hamstring injury. Regardless, the offense showed little cohesion. The only time the offense was able to consistently generate high-percentage shots was when it ran in transition or played pick-and-roll.
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• The Knicks turned it over 18 times, which turned into far too many easy transition baskets for the Cavs. New York's transition defense has been fairly horrendous, and that trend continued Tuesday.
• The team did push the ball far more than we have seen since Mike D'Antoni was the coach. Rose scored at the rim by pushing the tempo, and the team created some easy shots. Rose looked fast, quick and explosive getting to the rim. He did have trouble finishing from time to time, but that could very well get better as he plays more.
• Brandon Jennings played very poorly. You could tell he was overexcited and was trying to do far too much. He shot 1-of-7 from the field, and few of those were high-percentage looks. His defense also left a lot to be desired. Jennings can look great sometimes, but like Tuesday night, there will be nights when he drives Knicks fans nuts with his shot selection.
• The team's defense seemed just as disjointed as its offense. The Knicks rarely rotated properly, didn't seem to know how they wanted to guard the pick-and-roll and left the wrong players wide open for easy jumpers. Defense could still be a big problem this season.
• New coach Jeff Hornacek is still trying to figure out who will be in his rotation off the bench. He used Kyle O'Quinn as his first big to enter the game, and he did not respond well. Willy Hernangomez was better simply because he didn't make as many mistakes. Justin Holiday showed why he is considered a good defender, and even hit a couple open 3's. He was a bright spot along with Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who scored seven points and played hard. Ron Baker showed something in garbage time as well.
• There were too many stretches of the game when Kristaps Porzingis was invisible. He finished with 16 points on just 13 shots, but he needs to have the ball in his hands more. Both Rose and Carmelo Anthony took more shots than he did. The team needs to make a concerted effort to get Porzingis the ball. He is virtually unstoppable in pick-and-pop situations, and the Knicks need to utilize him there consistently.
All in all, it was a rough start for the Knicks, but you saw what they are trying to do offensively. There is a plan in place that, if the players execute it well enough, they should be fine on that end of the floor. Defensively, there are just as many questions now, if not more, than there were before the season.
The Knicks now have three days to get their act together and figure things out for the home opener against the Grizzlies on Saturday night.
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