Thought the 20-point lead would hold up, but this one came closer to getting away than it should've. A little hard to fault Carlisle's decision to rest Dirk and Zaza with about 6 minutes to go. They needed to rest the vet starters who've seen heavy minutes, and needed to see if the reserves can hold a lead. Disappointed that they couldn't, but good to see them get out with a win.
Back to the Garden for the first time in a long time. Crowd was decent. A lot of respect for Dirk from the trio of loud drunks behind me, and from the crowd generally. Dirk is a machine. That Q1 was a thing of lethal beauty. So efficient. No wasted movement or motion. Just conserving his energy. Despite the differences in their games, Dirk reminds me a lot of Abdul-Jabbar at a similar point in his career. No longer dominant enough to impose himself, but still able to be very productive.
The matchup with Krispy was a bit overblown--Zaza was taking KP for a lot of possessions in the second half. KP seemed to sleepwalk a bit early in the game, in fact for a lot of the game. Didn't snag a rebound until well into the second half. Despite appearing to be an afterthought at times in the NYKs' offense, he managed to score well, and really poured it on in Q4. Had 14 points over the last 17 minutes of the game. Difficult to imagine KP having a comparable career to Dirk's, but he very much looks to be the real deal. Just scratching the surface of his ability right now.
In a way, Anthony is a bit of a double-edged sword right now for the NYKs and Porzingis. He certainly makes life easier for KP than it would be if KP were the only scoring threat. But it seems a shame that KP is saddled with a second-rate "star" like Anthony. Those two offensive fouls, the two bad shots, and the technical in that critical stretch of Q4 killed the chance the NYKs had to nip Dallas at the end. Anthony basically had a little tantrum, and the NYKs' chances in this game went down the toilet. Anthony does not seem to be loved or even respected by a big swath of the crowd.
Porzingis is too young to lead the NYKs right now, but when Porzingis plays like he did tonight, and Anthony plays like he played tonight, it is not difficult to imagine that some players on the NYKs could start looking to Porzingis as the team leader sooner rather than later.
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Originally Posted by Melonhead
Only watched 2nd half, but does anyone else get a bad feeling when the ball is in Parsons hands?
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Yes.
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Originally Posted by Melonhead
On top of that I have no confidence in anything he shoots.
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There was a 9 year old kid tonight playing in the todddler's game at halftime, maybe 4'6" tall, who hit a pair of NBA 3-pointers. His shots, hoisted from below the waist, were not uglier than Parsons'.
Parsons'shot is not as unorthodox as Jamaal Wilkes' was, but it's not as effective either. Parsons looks like one of those guys out of the crowd hoisting a three in a halftime contest. The difference is he already has the money.
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Originally Posted by Melonhead
Maybe I'm making it a bigger deal than it is. But I see nothing that shows improvement out of him. If he's injured sit him. But he's getting 20 min a night so no excuses for those 20 minutes.
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Yeah, he's injured, so he deserves some slack. But I don't really see much improvement out of him either. Looks like the same flawed player from last year, prior to the injury. Won't be surprised to see Mavs' fans spend 3 years talking about Parsons' potential. I kind of wonder if the Mavericks don't have too much invested in him to let him walk.