Knicks-Celtics Game Two: Knicks Botch Final Two Minutes; Chance to Make Celtics Sweat

Give the New York Knicks a round of applause for battling the way they did in Game Two against the Boston Celtics. Down Chauncey Billups, and with Amar’e Stoudemire injured, ineffective, and out for the second half, the Knicks were able to ride a Carmelo Anthony 42-point supernova to a three-point lead with 2:37 left in the game.

However, for the umpteenth time, the Celtics were able to make key adjustments and execute down the stretch while the hapless Knicks made critical errors.

Here are the events that transpired after the 2:37 mark.

• After a switch, Anthony allowed Paul Pierce to get to the middle of the court with his strong hand. Jared Jeffries was late in his rotation and fouled Pierce. Pierce was able to hit two clutch free throws.
• Instead of taking the chance of getting burned by Anthony late, the Celtics began doubling him at the wing. Anthony made the appropriate pass, but Bill Walker missed a wide open three.
• A Pierce/Rondo 3-1 screen/roll was played poorly by the Knicks. Toney Douglas’ hedge was ineffective while Walker died on the Rondo screen. Instead of switching, Pierce turned the corner and found himself with a wide open 16 footer. Anthony was late rotating, but Pierce missed the shot.
• A Toney Douglas dribble was poked away on a great defensive play by Rajon Rondo for a key turnover.
• Roger Mason Jr. was forced to pick up Pierce in early offense. Pierce vaporized Mason’s defense, Jeffries stepped up to cut off Pierce, but the next baseline rotation—which should’ve been Bill Walker helping off Glen Davis—never came. Pierce fed Garnett for a dunk and the Celtics took the lead.
• With the Celtics doubling Anthony and Rondo playing excellent ball-denial defense on Douglas, Mason was forced to burp up a three late in the shot clock, which clanged off the rim.
• After Jeffries grabbed the offensive rebound and the Knicks called timeout, D’Antoni set Anthony in the middle of the court to stretch the Celtics defense when they doubled. He kicked it to Mason who found a seam to the basket, but bricked the layup. Fortunately for the Knicks, he grabbed his own miss.
• Instead of staying in front of Jeffries with the ball at the left wing, Davis moved to the halfcourt side of Jeffries to prevent an entry pass into Anthony rather than doubling Anthony after the catch. Jeffries took advantage of the overplay, drove to the rim, and took advantage of soft defense by Garnett to hit a clutch, unlikely layup with 19 seconds to go.
• Garnett returned the favor by destroying Jeffries in the post for a right hook. Instead of drawing up something overly complex, Rivers had Rondo enter the ball into Garnett and cut through, while Pierce stood at halfcourt, with Ray Allen and Delonte West on the weak side perimeter to prevent a double team.
• D’Antoni designed a nicely conceived play to generate a two-on-one advantage at the basket. After Jeffries set a down screen for Anthony who received the pass, he cut to the right box. Jeffries expected Garnett to rotate on time, which would’ve left Bill Walker all alone on a cut for a potential layup. Garnett’s rotation, however, was uncharacteristically late and Jeffries didn’t have the passing angle to dish the pass to Walker. A more talented scorer could’ve gone up for a layup as Garnett was on the wrong side to defend a shot, but as a limited offensive player, Jeffries didn’t have the confidence he could make the basket. He attempted a desperation pass. Garnett stole it, secured it, and called time out.
• With four seconds left, down one, the Knicks still had a prayer of fouling and getting a decent look at a last second desperation heave. However, the Celtics inbounded the ball to West in the backcourt and Anthony refused to chase him down, citing afterwards that he “couldn’t get out there,” to foul West. By the time West was flagged down, less than a second remained and the game was over.

What have we learned from the two games?

That Anthony has the talent to destroy one-on-one coverage, particularly when he attacks quickly and gets in an early rhythm. Instead of holding the ball and waiting before making an offensive move, Anthony, for the most part, was more decisive with his attacks. Also, Anthony was much more aggressive in attacking the basket and not settling for long jumpers. Instead of bogging down and having the Celtics dictate what ‘Melo was going to do with the ball, ‘Melo’s more assertive nature kept Boston behind the eight ball for the first 46 minutes.

It should also be noted that the Knicks ran more screen/rolls with ‘Melo, particularly in the second half. Going down the line and looking at what Anthony did with his possessions, we see that he was mostly defended by Pierce in the game. When isolated with Pierce, Anthony allowed the Knicks to shoot 5-9 and score 16 points on 12 possessions. Anthony decimated Jeff Green, shooting 2-2 against him and generating nine points in five possessions, an awesome ratio. The only other player Anthony was isolated against more than once was Davis, and he shot 1-2 against him and generated five points in three possessions, another winning ratio.

Anthony missed a jumper isolating Allen, missed a jumper isolating Rondo, and missed a three isolating Jermaine O’Neal rounding out his iso possessions. For the game though, Anthony generated 30 points in 23 isolation possessions. A one-to-one ratio is usually considered very good in isolations, so Anthony’s points-per-possession ratio was outstanding.

Anthony’s post ups were far less successful, generating only two points in four possessions. He missed a layup against Rondo, threw the ball away against Allen, and two back downs of Pierce led to a pass to Turiaf which turned into a missed layup, and a second pass to Turiaf which turned into two made free throws. Since Boston was easier able to double Anthony in the post, the Knicks weren’t as prodigiously efficient when Anthony tried to operate down there, with a two-points in four possessions ratio dropping Anthony’s total efficiency down to 32 points in 27 possessions.

On catch-and-shoots, Anthony hit two of his five jumpers for six points in five possessions, another strong ratio. Anthony also hit a putback on one offensive rebound possession, and cherry picked in transition for a basket (made possible when O’Neal missed an open shot). This raises his efficiency rating to 42 points in 34 possessions.

Anthony also engaged in a number of screen/rolls, plays that were largely missing from his Game One dud.

With Ronnie Turiaf as the roller, the Knicks scored two points in two possessions, with the points coming on a nice feed from ‘Melo to a rolling Turiaf at the cup. The other Melo/Turiaf screen/roll led to Amar’e missing a wing jumper.

With Jeffries as the roller, the Knicks scored two points in three possessions. ‘Melo was able to beat Pierce and Davis and dunk, ‘Melo missed a jumper off a second screen, and a kick to Walker led to a missed three.

Walker was the roll man on two possessions. ‘Melo used on screen to hit Jeffries for a layup, and went away from a second screen to hit a sweet 20-foot turnaround over Pierce.

Anthony threw the ball away his one screen/roll with Landry Fields, while a Shawne Williams free throw came out of the one time he screened for Anthony.

As the ball handler on screen/rolls, Anthony generated seven points in nine possessions, a mediocre number.

Anthony also was the roll man on two screens with Douglas, with the Knicks failing to convert each time.

I normally don’t incorporate being the screener with using a possession if I’m analyzing an entire team, but since I’m only studying Anthony’s used possessions, let’s go ahead and give him two empty ones. Anthony also hit a free throw off a defensive three-seconds call which would normally be attributed to Amar’e Stoudemire (who was isolating at the time of the call, creating the three-second violation), but again for the sake of this exercise, tack a point on for Anthony without adding a possession. Give credit to Anthony for three points for a cut, and add a possession for a miscellaneous turnover. Also add two points on a tremendous outlet pass to give ‘Melo six points on these five miscellaneous possessions.

Anthony rounded out his possessions by being instantly doubled at the end of the game on four possessions, making passes directly leading to four scoring opportunities for teammates. Walker missed a three, Mason missed a three and a layup, and Jeffries turned it over.

This gives Anthony a rating of 55 points in 52 possessions, which given the circumstances, is fantastic. Anthony turned in a tremendous offensive performance, especially when looking at his one-one-one numbers.

What else did we learn?

• It’s not always about how effective you are as it is when you’re effective. Garnett had only scored two points in five possessions against Jeffries until his final-seconds hook. Jeffries got the better of KG for most of the game, but Garnett bested Jeffries when it mattered the most.
• While New York’s individual defense was okay, and while Jeffries and Turiaf made some respectable rotations and shows on off-ball screens, New York’s perimeter defenders were horrendous. Anthony and Walker too frequently failed to make proper rotations, failed to locate and target Allen on broken plays, and failed to get around screens leading to disadvantageous defensive matchups.
• Toney Douglas’ inability to guard anybody straight up was exploited by Rajon Rondo, who had 30 points and seven assists. Douglas was on his heels, picked off by screens, and even posted into oblivion. Worse, Douglas committed the cardinal sin of not stopping the ball in transition. Combined with awful court balance, this allowed Rondo to score 12 transition points on his own in the first quarter and 16 for the game.
• When overplaying Anthony and denying him the ball, the Celtics had trouble stopping Douglas. This is because the man who would be asked to show on Douglas coming off of ‘Melo’s screen—Paul Pierce—was attached to ‘Melo and unable to show. This led to Douglas turning the corner naked and led to a pair of wide open looks.
• Douglas is soft, attempting far too many 15-foot floaters instead of fully attacking the basket, or taking an under-control jumper.
• Jermaine O’Neal’s help defense is sporadic at best, and would be exposed by a more versatile offensive-team.
• Pierce carried the Celtics with timely shooting in the third quarter to give the Celtics a reasonable lead. While he couldn’t get on track in the fourth quarter, he set several excellent screens that forced the Knicks to switch.
• Likewise, Rondo set several steel screens, and Davis pancaked at least two Knicks on screens.
• Green is another softie who has trouble finishing through contact and isn’t comfortable enough defending up in Anthony’s grill the way Pierce is.
• Green, Delonte West, and Nenad Kristic have given the Celtics virtually nothing.
• Anthony still makes excuses for his focus and effort-based mistakes.

The optimistic will say that the Knicks were a blown call and two injuries away from being up two-love in the series, while the pessimist will point out Boston’s precision execution as always being a step ahead of whatever the Knicks tried to do.

The realist understands that if Stoudemire isn’t healthy for Game Three and if the Knicks don’t clear up all their breakdowns, the Celtics will find themselves in the second round.