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All is forgiven for that Pacers game. Sacramento winning. 76ers winning. Mavs winning against us. A great day for the tank after that whirlwind 1 game winning streak.



Melo with 30 pts on 50+% in a loss is gravy.

Yup.

Get that trade value up Melo.
Drose will never let us down, best tank commander since Lance Thomas.
Came up with clutch plays for us in the 4th that sealed us the win

This is a win-win, right?

(1) Melo put up good numbers and increased his trade value; and (2) we lost.

#KnicksTank prevails....Cavs tank gaining steam...

KP had a decent 2nd half

It's back and ugly as ever. The Knicks employed a defense where every play was a switch and got eaten alive for it. Melo managed to ruin a great scoring game with a myriad of turnovers; Rose might not have fought through a single screen all night; and KP looks like the blue monstar ran off with his skills. On the good side, Willy is crazy on the boards; Courtney Lee's aggression is intriguing; and the team seems closer to going with youth every time one of these games passes. I'll edit breakdown in the morning, I'm sleepy after that one.

Rose: Rose has been struggling late in games and with TO's for a while now, but this game was the first time he struggled as a scorer as well. 6/15 for 13 points, just 3 assists to 3 TO's and 3 boards. Late in games, teams have keyed on the fact that Rose is going to attack off the pick and roll almost exclusively and they can wait for him to gather to play passing lanes...well the Mavs kinda just assumed he'd be attacking downhill all game and their strategy worked. Rose was shut down and to make matters worse, I'm LITERALLY not sure if he ever made it through a screen. He switched on 3 of the first 4 positions and the Mavs attacked him via Barnes and Dirk in those situations. There were so many switches,I thought it might be a particularly foolish defensive gameplan from Rambis, but the half time interview suggests that this was just player laziness.

Lee: As ugly as this game was, Courtney Lee was brilliant. 9/13 for 23 points, 6 boards and 1 assist with decent but sometimes shoddy defense. The defense dipping a pinch is probably because of how aggressive Lee was forced to be in the face of an offense that felt completely neutered. Lee's recent run has flashed moments of playmaking, driving past defenders and creating space for jumpers off the dribble to go along with his usual catch and shoots. While KP and Rose went MIA, Lee stepped up and the dude really showed heart.

Melo: Elephant in the room is that Melo had 7 TO's which mar an otherwise great game. 13/24 for 30 points, 8 boards and 3 assists in 39 minutes where he just looked gassed by the fourth quarter because the Knicks rode him all game. Melo's jumper has been nearing unstoppable status for around 15 games now, he's been a willing passer though in this game it led to a lot of TO's on forces and the dude has been playing respectable D (Finney-Smith scored 6 points when Melo made proper rotations to protect other guys which had been rare this season). This wasn't the first time he played really well and the team came up short, but it's probably the best example.

KP: The first half was ugly. Dude got in foul trouble at light speed. The second half showed some promise, with jumpers finally falling for the kid but to steal a Clydeism; he played matador defense throughout the third due to the foul trouble. We're talking about Harrison Barnes going right at KP the whole time and KP having to literally slide OUT OF THE WAY as Barnes went up for lay-ups. In the fourth, KP went back to playing some D and showed that he can still protect the rim but this was an ugly game. 4/11 for 13 points, 8 boards and another no three pointers made game...not sure what's up with him, but it's a bit worrisome.

Noah: 3 points, 8 boards and 2 assists in 19 minutes which somehow felt like too much time for our 18 million dollar player. Nothing new to report here, he's got on boards but so laterally slow that he has almost no impact on perimeter drives.

BJ: 1/6 for 3 points and 3 assists in 21 mins. He was no better than Rose defensively, switching often and giving up plenty of drives. Though he didn't turn it over, he must have had five passes deflected out of bounds and I'm being generous. With Rose struggling, there was a chance for Jennings to help out but he got shut down.

Holiday: In 19 minutes, Holiday was 0-5 and contributed just 2 boards. He was partially a victim of the PG's struggles and partially just ineffective on offense. But where he scores bonus points is in something normally pedestrian but magnified by everyone else's laziness...dude actually fought through screens and stuck with his man. Outside of Baker in the fourth, he was the only player to do so consistently.

Kuz: Teams have adjusted to him, taking away space and he hasn't comfortably answered. 1/3 for 2 points,an assist and a board with 2 TO's in just 12 minutes. Dude is struggling and making room for Lance to come back into the rotation when he gets healthy.

KOQ: Horny's gotta find dude minutes, especially with Noah contributing in just one facet consistently. Kyle got one shot off and missed it in 6 minutes, but he also added 2 boards and 2 assist along with some solid rotations and refusing to allow easy inside scoring. He did well in tandem with Willy last game and he was a plus 6 in this one over just 6 minutes which suggests the combo was doing something right even if you hate that stat (honestly i don't put much merit in it myself). The team needed offense and KOQ can give some.

Willy: Andrew Bogut is a hell of a test for a young rookie who is working toward consistent minutes, but Willy acclimated himself pretty well. 4/9 for 8 points and 16 boards in 24 minutes to go with 3 steals. He's been respectable on defense in this recent run to go with just terrorizing the boards on a nightly basis. He attacked Bogut in the post but didn't have consistent impact there, but he also didn't force too much and kicked it out. He was good again, keep the minutes coming.

Baker: 4 minutes of the best defense on Seth Curry we'd seen all night; an assist, a board and a TO in that short span but he got himself benched by getting a little quick on the trigger. He missed a wide open three and then rushed a brick from midrange the very next possession. These weren't bad looks, but they were early in the shot clock in a tight game and not in the best rhythm. He's a rookie, that'll happen, getting him comfortable can really help this team because defensively he's pretty impressive for a youngster.

Horny: Got outcoached via the gameplan going in. He's gotta stop being nice to these vets. The halftime interview stressed a need to get over screens but he didn't bench Rose, BJ or anyone else for continuing to switch. He finally went to Ron Baker in crunch time but benched him for shooting poorly in spite of the kid actually putting the effort in on D. More importantly, this was another game where he let his PG's flounder without adjusting the game plan. If it wasn't for Melo and Lee, this would have been the ultimate tank blowout. A game where he never held players accountable and let the hardworkers chill on the pine while the lazy cats got extended burn.

Random: It's been a pleasure to watch Dirk all these years. I hope we get another season of dude even if he is depleted.

Melo and Lee need to be playing for a contender

Waive Rose, buyout Noah or something, trade Melo while you can, trade Jennings and Lee, don't look back.

Ha! How can I root for this team. No consistency energy. That's all we ask for at least some spirit. So damn soft. Back on the tank folks. Blow it up

Pew pew

@BillSimmons
I know KP hasn't played well lately but this is such a bad offensive situation for him. He might as well be playing with Marbury + Francis.

Agree 1000%.

A time to win, a time to tank ... there is a season, turn turn turn.

**** u rose

I don't even care because we'll be stuck in this 8-12 spot all season so there's no point to get excited for a tank or excited over wins

I just picture y'all #tank people quietly crying yourselves to sleep. You know it hurts, stop playing yourselves

this is 1 of the greatest stealth tanks of ALL TIME

phenomenal work Phil...spent all that money and somehow made the team even worse than last year's

Where's the tank gifs?

Willy is damn smooth.