13 replies to this topic

[Diesel]

Lenny plays a game built around Marbury, Van Horn, and Houston.  Lenny gets Thomas to play Physically on Reef.  Lenny plays Deke on Theo and Deke gets about 13 rebounds, 4 blocks.

Marbury will score about 25 with 8 dimes.
Van Horn will score about 18 with 6 rebounds.
Houston will score about 17 with 5 rebounds.

JT will have about 13 points 3 assists.
SAR will have about 27 points, 8 rebounds.
Theo will get about 6 boards with 2 blocks


JT will master the OLAY.

Knicks will win :  110 to 91.

[chillzatl]

JT has always stepped it up with marbury. While his defense doesn't improve, as if it could, he usually matches marburys output, or comes pretty close.

I don't think the knicks have anyone capable of stopping Reef. Especially if he plays like he has the last few games.

I don't think Deke can stop Theo. If Theo uses his quickness against Deke, there's no way Deke can stop him. Now i'm not saying that Theo will score 20. But he should be able to chip in above his average. He will probably get dominated on the boards though.

I don't see a 20pt blowout, not to these knicks. They are a good team, an improved team. But they aren't good enough to beat us that bad, yet. We're playing with as much confidence as they are right now...

I say hawks win by 5.

[phoostal]

Diesel,

Since you love Lenny and the Knicks so much.  And you are so confident they will when.  I will take the 19 spread you are giving.  Just tell me how much you want to bet.

I'm saying the Hawks will win.  But, come on the Knicks will not win by 19.  Evidently you have seen this teams last 5 games.  They have been in every game.  I guess you think all of sudden they are going to get blown.  Just name your bet.  I will take the points.

P

[JTFan31]

My prediction, Diesel is too pessimistic.  

IMO Hawks win this game, they have been playing better basketball and Diesel left out Jax, one of the guys that has stepped up his game tremendously in the last 5 games, this is a totally different Hawks than the one we saw in November and December.

[Focus]

Diaw and Van Horn is the X factor of this game.  
-If Diaw can somewhat shut down H2O and Penny we win.
-Van Horn is not doing very good the last 2 game, hope Jax can somehow manage to slow him down.

If I am Scott I will play alot of JT/Diaw/SAR/Narz/Theo
-JT < Marbury but close(according to history)
-Hope Diaw can shut down H2O/Penny
-Lets SAR get Van Horn in the F trouble and SAR don't have to spend the energy to push w/ Thomas
-Narz < Thomas but close
-Theo vs Deke is a wash.

We have a good chance, lets get this one.

[Dolfan23]

[censored] this might be a game that Diesel actually watches since his hereos Lenny and Deke are playing.

[Diesel]

This is a lesson to you guys like KB who predict stuff and never admit you were wrong.

I was wrong about the final score prediction.

But those points for the players were very close.

Marbury had 25.
Houston 17
Van Horn 18.

Reef had 24.

I was surprised though.  Deke played a very good game.  I think Deke may eek out another year under Lenny.

I think Reef had a very good game in the 3rd/4th.  

However, Chillz, JT has never been able to stop Marbury.  It's the one matchup that has been lopsided from the beginning and tonight was no different.  Marbury hit 2 big threes.  [censored], even Frank Williams came in and hit threes over Terry...

Diaw played a very good game.  It was one time though, I thought... I wonder if Diaw would argue with a Ref if he could speak english better?  He sorta gave the Ref's call a wave and blew it off.

Jackson played nicely too..

My problem.

Coming out of the first Half.  Reef was 4-4 with 14 points.  Why don't we have plays for Reef?

[chillzatl]

my predicitons:

JT and Starbury were neck and neck until the last two minutes. STarbury turned it up and JT didn't. JT always plays good against marbury. Probably because neither really plays any defense.

They had no answer for Reef. Thomas isn't strong enough to muscle Reef.

Theo used his quickness against Deke and bested his average. I was surprised to see him outrebound deke as well.

Jax was the big surprise though. He's been playing great lately.

While we didn't get the win, at least it was a good hard fought game. We haven't seen many of those this year. This team has been playing better of late. More controlled, more focused. Personally I think we're just now getting back to where we were near the end of last season.

I still have my fingers crossed that we'll be in the running for a top 3 pick. But it's nice seeing the effort and hustle out there. GO HAWKS!

[Diesel]

The biggest of which was to tell Diaw to foul Penny.  Penny was about to either call timeout and turn the ball over.

The fact that Reef hit the three at the end really made that foul look silly.

The other was the defense we played but that was throughout the game.  There is no way we can afford to play a 2/3 Zone on NY when Houston, Marbury, and Williams are on the floor.  Houston was killing us.  Running the patented Lenny Wilken's Give and Go they made our defense look worse than a Pee wee League's defense.   Does Glover work on defense at All??  I sware ( I know it's spelled wrong), that Glover was guarding his man the ball left his man and his man moved and Glover was still standing in the same spot.  It's like his feet were in quick sand.  And this wasn't just F. Williams, this was OLD man Penny Hardaway doing this to him.

Babcock's greatest mistake is CC.  I don't see anything that resembles good basketball out of CC.  He's not like Croshere who has ability, CC is just a body.

Lenny made some questionable coaching calls too.  Playing Othello So long???Othello Sucks.  I would have tried to go with Anderson at PF or something else.  However, Stotts should have learned something from coaching against LW.  How to sub players in preparation for a Back to Back.   Both teams have a game today.  I think NY's subbing pattern was better than ours in preparation.

Lastly...  Wally Blaze.  What the [censored] does he do?  Jax went out with the Sprain and I was thinking... .O, this is  a 2 game injury...  But [censored].   Blaze took the kit out... Said a few words, and Jax was back on the court.  I believe we have the best Sports Doctor (trainer) in the League.

[Dolfan23]

Diesel I have heard the Knicks announcer (the moron one) and now you say that you think the Diaw foul at the end was dumb but did either of you look to see that there was only 12 seconds or so left in the game and no shot clock, meaning that they could have called TO, then thrown the ball in and tossed it around and game over.  We HAD to foul at some point.  We tried to trap them and get a TO in the backcourt and that didnt work so wisely Stotts told Diaw to foul him as soon as he crossed half court.  If he hadnt fouled him the game would have been over.  Also that SAR 3 meant nothing because they werent even guarding him since they had a 5 pt lead with 1 second left.  He wouldnt have been open like that had the game been within 3.

[Diesel]

Yeah, I saw that.  But I also saw Penny trapped on the line about to turn the ball over too.  Fouling at that point was DUMB because we were in the penalty and it turned a three point game into a 5 point game that was UNWINABLE.

[Dolfan23]

What makes you think he was going to turn it over?  They had a TO remaining and even the announcers thought thats what he had done.  If Penny had been in danger of turning it over I am quite sure that he would have called the TO and then they would have just inbounded the ball.  Now, we could have prayed for a TO after that, but honestly that foul there only put us down by 3 after his free throws so we were still in it.  JT came out and missed a 3 pointer on that next inbound (by the way that was a GREAT play that Stotts chose to run) and then we fouled again and were down by 5.  That play by Diaw certainly didnt cost us the game.  What cost us what JT missing 3 3pters in the last 3 minutes of the game while Marbury made 2.

[Diesel]

Diaw was on him like a Pitbull.  Even when Diaw fouled him, I thought that Diaw had a very legitimate shot at stealing the ball.  His play all night showed that it was a possibility.

[Dolfan23]

So you would have sat there for another 2-3-5 however many seconds hoping that Diaw would steal the ball from him, which would have left us with less than about 7 seconds on the clock even if he gets the steal?  I just dont agree with that.  There is no reason at all that we shouldnt foul as quickly as possible and then try for a tying 3pter.  If JT just makes 1 of those 3 tries he had at the end of the game we go to OT at the very worst.  Thats what cost us the game.