The New York Knicks head into a difficult week of four road games in five nights already staring at a five-game losing streak. You have to figure the 3-7 Knicks are unlikely to help themselves much in the Atlantic Division standings this week.
The Knicks travel to 5-4 Denver Tuesday night, where the have to deal with Carmelo Anthony, 3-6 Sacramento Wednesday, 6-4 Golden State Friday and the 1-9 Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. No powerhouses in there, but four road games in five nights is an NBA nightmare. Fortunately for New York, only the Boston Celtics (8-2) are looking like the division's only quality team. New Jersey, Philadelphia and Toronto all limping along like the Knicks.
KnickerBlogger offers an early-season evaluation, and comes away with the conclusion that it is the offense that is dragging the Knicks down.
... as much credit as D’Antoni gets for the defense, he shoulders that much blame for the poor state of the offense. His first priority is to fix the three point shooting mess. ... New York has looked mechanical running the weave-like plays that D’Antoni features, and the pick & roll has been erratic. There’s obviously something amiss with how the Knicks are playing on offense, and it’s up to the coaching staff to figure out what adjustments need to be made to get the offense clicking.
The Knicks may yet be a playoff team. Right now they are 11th in the Eastern Conference, but there is obviously most of the season still to be played and not exactly a group of powerhouse teams in the five or six slots above New York. Clearly, though, this team needs to find itself on offense if it hopes to finish among the conference's top eight teams.
Amare Stoudemire is leading the Knicks with averages of 20.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. The scoring average is almost three points off what he scored in Phoenix a season ago, and his worst since 2006 -- when he averaged 20.4 points in his first season back from micro-fracture knee surgery. Wilson Chandler is next with 17 points per game.