EAST RIVER SHOWDOWN
I - BKN 112; NYK 110
A Decisive James Harden Leads Flatbush Against Manhattan Rival
Thus lay the pretext to a tightly contested one-point margin of victory. In the final second of the game, the team that possessed the ball got off one last desperation shot, missed, and lost. That's how closely Tuesday's first showdown this season played out between the host Brooklyn Nets and the East River traversing Manhattan Knickerbockers.
After every game, top players around the league are unavoidably confronted by media and their microphones. They ask questions, even ones they know sometimes are circumstantial or even uncomfortably unanswerable, yet in return, expect some level of inside info. It's part of the job. My point is, James Harden can say anything he wants insofar as telling the media he's still learning when to distribute, orchestrate, or personally seize upon a given possession. But I say all that is just talk for the sake of talk. For James Harden knows precisely what he's doing. It's about other players not named Kevin Durant following Harden's lead and finishing.
Thrust into the starting lineup by Coach Thibs, Alec Burks, and Julius Randle for the Knicks, and Harden and Kevin Durant for Flatbush are the measures of this game. They were the only four with 20+ shot attempts and topped all other players in minutes.
James Harden led all scorers with 34 points and secured a game-high ten rebounds with eight assists in 40 minutes. He was 11/20 from the field and a more customary 9/10 from the line. Otherwise, Harden knows turnovers continue marring his overall performance; this time, he committed a game-high five.
Kevin Durant was 0/5 from beyond the arc but made up for it by shooting 9/9 from the charity line en route to 27 points while (importantly) tying for a game-high nine assists in 41 minutes. Together with Harden, they accounted for 61 (54.4%) of Brooklyn's 112 points.
Alec Burks led the Knicks with 25 points in 39 minutes, and Julius Randle added 24 points and posted team-highs of nine rebounds and eight assists in 40 minutes. Together, they accounted for 49 (44.5%) of the Knicks' 110 points.
The Knicks outrebounded the Nets by four and put up six more shots than Brooklyn. This continues to be a troubling trend for me, but the Nets bailed themselves out, again, outscoring the Knicks by a margin of eleven at the line. And whereas the Nets were outscored in the paint, they outscored the Knicks off fast-break opportunities.
Manhattan had five players score in double-digits. Derrick Rose scored 16 points in 36 minutes, and with 0.17 seconds left in the game, Evan Fournier tied the game at 110-110 as part of a 13 point night. But James Johnson's free throws put the Nets back ahead by two. Afterwhich, Even Fournier missed on a last-second attempt.
The Nets had four players in double-digits. Cam Thomas led the bench effort with 12 points in 21 minutes. However, the Knicks bench outscored Flatbush by a nine-point 36-27 margin.
If a 15-6 record makes me anxious ... it is what it is. Teams nearing (or even matching) the Nets in shooting percentage are very problematic as Flatbush continually allows the opposition more possessions and overall shot opportunities.
It's been my pet peeve all season.
Defense is the main issue with the Knicks. They went from being elite defenders last season to the middle of the pack this season. It's quite the conundrum when this team last season in the playoffs lacked desperately for points.
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