The Knicks suck so bad they even went to overtime with the Milwaukee Bucks.

By Rafik Dimian,

My first thought was "Well, game-fixing is common in Europe, Bargnani is Italian, so he's trying 

to make a profit". But then I realized 

"Bargnani is just plain dumb. He probably doesn't even know how to place a bet".

Watch Andrea Bargnani takes one of the most inexplicable shots you will ever see 

Mike Woodson's days with the New York Knicks are numbered!!!

By Rafik Dimian,
    
      The franchise has played some really lousy games this year, like its 41-point loss to the Boston Celtics, and there have been few signs pointing to a Woodson-led turnaround. Sooner or later, a coaching change will be made. 

 

Coach Mike Woodson Screws Up … Again

Tyson Chandler out 4-6 weeks GREAT!!!!!!!

By Rafik Dimian

New York #Knicks center Tyson Chandler has a small non-displaced fracture of his right fibula and is expected to miss four to six weeks, the team announced Wednesday.

Chandler left Tuesday's game against Charlotte in the first quarter after suffering the injury during a collision with Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker.

Tests Wednesday showed the fracture.

J.R. Smith’s playoff struggles with Knicks the result of ‘pissing the NBA gods off’

Rafik Dimian

When J.R. Smith suffered a one-game suspension against the Celtics after elbowing Jason Terry, his play descended into a free-fall. His jump shot, once feathery, stopped falling last season in the playoffs.

Smith described his struggles that followed the Game 4 ban a case of "pissing the NBA gods off."
But Smith upset more than just the basketball cosmos.
He also pissed off Knicks coach Mike Woodson, who invested so much time and energy in Smith last year only to see Smith find success and then trouble. Smith's latest mishap- a five-game suspension for violating the league's anti-drug program last month - prompted Woodson to come down hard on Smith on Wednesday. The third-year coach said he was "disappointed" in Smith and that it was time for him to "grow up" after his latest lapse, tough words for one of his biggest backers.

By

NY daily news

These Aren't Last Year's Knicks

The Wall Street journal
Rafik Dimian

For the Knicks, last season—from November to April, at least—went about as well as anyone could have hoped. Their 54 wins clinched the Atlantic Division and earned the East's No. 2 seed. Because of that, the Knicks will likely face loftier expectations this season, which begins with media day on Monday and the team's first training-camp practice on Tuesday.

There's just one problem: The Knicks will find it difficult to replicate the speedy lineups, historic three-point shooting and league-best ball security that made them contenders last year. Those things, which helped them overcome an injury-riddled roster and subpar defense throughout the regular season, have quietly been undone by a host of key off-season personnel changes.

Perhaps the biggest change to watch this coming year: the glut of power forwards the team has on its 2013-14 roster, and how that logjam impacts the amount of minutes Carmelo Anthony—who dominated from that position—can play there.

Aside from Anthony, the team has at least four key players who figure to be in the rotation at power forward. That would suggest that Anthony—one of the main cogs of the team's spacing-induced, small-ball lineup—will get less time there.

"I could see [playing at power forward] still being incorporated into the game plan. But for the most part, I don't really see it [being like last year]," said Anthony, who led the league in scoring while spending 80% of his playing time at power forward, according to 82games.com.

Anthony, interviewed Friday at his pitch for Degree Men products, pointed out that for all the success the team enjoyed with him at power forward, he played there last season mostly because of injuries to other big men on the roster.


The three-point shooting that helped power the Knicks to the league's third-best offense a season ago also figures to be far less prevalent.

Biggest Roadblocks in NY Knicks' Championship Pursuit for 2013-14 Season

By Rafik Dimian

Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks face 2013-14 with a little more talent and a lot less room for error. This year, the slightest missteps in the most tightly-contested Eastern Conference of the century so far will be especially costly to New York’s championship pursuit.

In 2012-13, the Knicks almost coasted to the Atlantic title, busting out of the gate with a win against the Miami Heat and a 20-7 record, owning the division most of the season and eventually taking the two seed by a comfortable four-and-a-half games over the Indiana Pacers.

That won’t be the case this season. The Knicks will need to navigate their typical road blocks of the past few years, along with some new and re-emerging (and daunting) ones.

As few as one or two additional losses over the course of the season will have repercussions that reverberate straight into the playoffs…and beyond 

Ref: bleacherreport.com

The Kincks goning for the 13th wins in the last 13th games, Wizards-Knicks Preview

By: Rafik Dimian 4/9/2013

Behind Carmelo Anthony, the red-hot New York Knicks are riding their longest win streak since 1993-94.

Now he can help the franchise accomplish something else it hasn't done since that season.

Anthony's Knicks can clinch the club's first Atlantic Division title in 19 years Tuesday night when they try to extend their 12-game run and defeat the Washington Wizards for the 10th straight meeting at home.

New York (50-26) is enjoying its longest win streak since taking 15 straight from March 1-April 2, 1994. That club won 57 games and a third straight division title.

Now the Knicks can finally add another Atlantic crown with a victory over Washington (29-48) or a loss by Brooklyn to Philadelphia on Tuesday.

"It's the end of the season, the last month. Everybody's fighting for spots. The playoffs are right around the corner,'' Anthony said. "This is the best basketball."

Take NY Knicks Seriously

By:
Rafik Dimian 4/8/2013

New York's 125-120 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder was a statement win, and a vociferous one at that. There were those (like myself) who considered the Knicks a threat in the Eastern Conference, but there were few who believed they could make a championship push this year.

Their victory over the Thunder (in Oklahoma City, no less) extended the Knicks' winning streak to 12 games, the third-longest stretch of perfection in franchise history.

Over the course of the winning streak, New York is averaging 104.2 points per game (second) on 49.6 percent shooting from the floor (second) and 40.9 percent shooting from deep (third). Opponents are scoring just 92.3 points per game on the Knicks (fourth) and they're winning by an average of 12.3 points a night (first).

If this were a five- or seven-game stretch, rants supported by "fluke" arguments would have a place. But this stretch is 12 contests, the fourth-longest winning streak in the NBA this season. These Knicks aren't the product of excessive fortuity. They're for real.

Six of these victories have come on the road, the last five have come against playoff factions, and three have come over the obnoxiously talented Western Conference. That's not luck. It's called peaking at the right time.

New York is the healthiest it has been all season, which is saying something. Why? Because the Knicks haven't been healthy all season. By conventional standards, they're not even healthy now.

Amar'e Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace, Kurt Thomas and Marcus Camby have spent, and continue to spend, ample time on the sidelines. And Kenyon Martin has joined them. And for those who understand what to look for from Tyson Chandler, he's far from 100 percent as well. He's having trouble locating and catching bounce passes, and anything that involves looking over his shoulder isn't as fluid a motion as it should be.

Yet the Knicks are winning. A lot. And by a lot. Just in time for the playoffs, too.Seriously.

Will they battle their way into the Eastern Conference Finals? Past the Heat? Into the finals? Snag a championship?

We can't say that they will, but we also can't say they won't.

New York Knicks Streak Watch: Here comes a new challenger!

By: Rafik Dimian

It’s not a Miami Heat-sized winning streak, we know that very well. But this is a genuine winning streak now because the Knicks finally had a chance to take out a quality opponent and did exactly that when they held off the Memphis Grizzlies in the final frantic minutes at the Garden on Wednesday night.

They’ve been putting beat-downs on undermanned and undersized teams (Boston), bad teams (Orlando and Toronto) and teams that look like they don’t care (Utah). But this was a signature win, with Memphis at full strength, albeit with Marc Gasol playing with a torn abdominal muscle.

“Right now we are rolling," Iman Shumpert said after the 108-101 victory.

It’s not much of a roll, this six-game winning streak, not when you compare it to Miami’s run that finally came to an end at 27 games on Wednesday night against a Bulls team playing without Joakim Noah and Marco Belinelli.

When the Knicks were done with the Memphis Grizzlies, they were crowded around the TVs in the back, watching the Heat lose for the first time since Feb.  1 at Indiana.

Jason Kidd took his time getting treatment, watching with his son, T.J. All the old Lakers, from 1971-72, must be relieved, someone said later to Kidd’s son.

“And you know Kobe Bryant is probably very happy, too,’’ said the younger Kidd.