Knicks lose Chandler, game to Celtics
Last Updated: 10:29 AM, March 18, 2010
Posted: 4:01 AM, March 18, 2010
Comments: 27
PrintBOSTON -- If Wilson Chandler has played his last game this season, did he do enough to convince free agents they should want to team up with him on the Knicks next season?
Probably not.
Chandler has shut it down to rest his lingering strained groin, but will try to return before the season's over.
The Knicks were uncompetitive last night without Chandler, getting routed by the Celtics, falling behind by 27 points in the third quarter before losing 109-97 at the new Boston Garden. The Knicks (24-44) finished their five-game trip at 2-3.
REPORT: GRIZZLIES OWNER INTENT ON KEEPING GAY
Chandler, averaging 15.3 points and 5.4 rebounds, will see team doctors today to decide on a timetable. He rarely has been 100 percent healthy and that's a shame. Part of this campaign was establishing Chandler and Danilo Gallinari as compelling prospects to lure free agents.
"He's struggled to have continuity you'd like to have," coach Mike D'Antoni said. "But he's coming on and he can play. He's an interesting guy at 22. He can be really good."
Neither Chandler nor Gallinari showed a long stretch of excellence, though Chandler outperformed Gallinari. The Italian Stallion was particularly brutal last night on both ends. He finished with 9 points (2 of 9) and was manhandled by Kevin Garnett, who toasted him for 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting.
D'Antoni was seen in Gallinari's ear. "There were a lot of things to talk about," D'Antoni said. "He struggled with Garnett."
Chandler hurt his groin Jan. 18 against Detroit, never fully recovered and hasn't practiced since. He started the season coming off summer ankle surgery, which cost him a chance to work on his game in the offseason and he lacked explosiveness the first month.
Chandler, however, turned it on in December and showed promise. The athletic forward can score from inside and outside and is one of their few hardnosed defenders on the perimeter. But he was too inconsistent.
"I wouldn't say I had a great year," Chandler said. "I had a decent year. I could've done a lot better. But I think I did OK."
The fear is sustaining a major groin injury that would wipe out his summer.
"He will take as long it needs," D'Antoni said. "He needs to have a good summer of work. We don't want to rush him back and risk any injury. I'm hoping two, three weeks. But if it's the rest of the year, it's the rest of the year."
D'Antoni feels Chandler is perfect for the speedball system he'd like to get back to next season. D'Antonio reflected on Phoenix yesterday after the Suns racked up 152 points against Detroit on Tuesday night, with Steve Nash running the show.
But D'Antoni said the Knicks don't necessarily need a star point guard next season to perfect his system.
"That's easiest way to go," D'Antoni said. "You could do it with point guards but you could do it with others."
D'Antoni admitted the Knicks had a team built for the system when he first joined before Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford were traded for cap space.
"We started off with Zach and Jamal, were 6-5 and scoring a lot of points," D'Antoni said. "We started making trades and never got back on track."
Regrets?
"That wasn't our plan," D'Antoni said. "You like to have stability but that wasn't possible where we wanted to be."
*
Swingman J.R. Giddens, obtained from the Celtics in the Nate Robinson deal, made his Knicks debut last night without a practice. Recovering from knee surgery on Feb. 2, he played 13:25, scored four points on 2-of-5 shooting, but the Knicks are excited about his potential D.
"I'm confident in my ability, if I get an opportunity, I'll make an impact," said Giddens, who played 21 games for Boston, which drafted him with the last pick of the first round in 2008. Bill Walker was Boston's second-rounder
Robinson, who visited Knicks' locker room beforehand, scored eight points on 3-of-6 shooting in 20 minutes. Robinson appeared to be making fun of D'Antoni from the bench when D'Antoni argued a call. . . . Below-average night for Toney Douglas, 1 of 6 on 3-pointers, with 11 points, 3 assists, 3 turnovers and 3 steals. . . . Eddie House (sore foot) is out till March 26 (West Coast trip).
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Comments (27)
Post Your CommentKnicksNut
03/18/2010 7:05 PM
@HN...I don't believe that any of us posters could do better; but when you watch D'Antoni constantly become publicly confrontational with as many players as he has, it makes me think of Larry Brown.
Larry Brown won an ABA Chip as a player (PG, in fact ), a Chip as a college coach and one in the NBA with the Pistons and he failed here. D' hasn't anywhere near that body of accomplishment.
Bottom line...Mike D' signed on for this gig as Walsh dictated it was to be and, yet, he's let his REALLY obvious ego get in the way of the goal.
HN
03/18/2010 5:17 PM
As for D'Antoni, you are right, he is doing the hard way. The right way is harder to do most of the time. D'Antoni could have play Marbury, play Nate, play Larry Hughe etc.. but he put his foot down, and accept the consequences. When you breach playing ball the right way, and players are not doing it, you have to take action. Many coaches can't do that, afraid to do that.
Honestly, how any coaches in this league benches the most popular player on the team for 14 games? Bench 20 million dollars players on the bench? Those moves take guts. Most NBA players are a bunch of entitlement cries baby. They hand you the check, that doesn't mean they have to play you.
Honestly, we are all sitting here thinking we'll do a better job and Walsh or D'Antoni. Most people here blame on EVERY single coaches ever came here. Rarely the coach is the problem, most of the time it's the players, but they can't fire the players so they blame the coach. I was one of the biggest fan of Curry and Marbury when they make the trades or watching them play. However, when they face with adversity, their true color shows. I was defending Marbury big time against Larry Brown. I thought Larry was just so arrogant. Now looking back, I was wrong.
So many people who post here loves scorers who doesn't do anything but scoring,yet want Knicks to play D like Larry Brown's teams. I found it amusing.
HN
03/18/2010 5:17 PM
KnicksNut, I understand the frustration or the lack of wins. Every time we look back a draft, and we compare picks especially picks below ours and wonder, and question the ability of management. If Walsh can go back, he probably pick Brook Lopez and not Gallo. Gallo is a solid pick. This year, Walsh was really high on Curry, and he couldn't get him. Rather than gamble on Jennings, he went with the safe pick of Jordan Hills. Can't fault the moves. Minnesota really screw up the picks for Knicks. Johny Flynn or Curry could have been a knicks. Walsh and D'Antoni is doing a fine job, give them another.
abe lincoln
03/18/2010 3:30 PM
HN......N8 was born with a screw loose. What he has in athletic gifts he lacks in common sense. His Mommy never noticed that N8 was running around the 'hood with his head screwed on wrong.
Wanta bet me that by time N8 is 3 yrs out of the league that he is broke and boasting in bars about his glory dayz?
KnicksNut
03/18/2010 2:20 PM
@HN...I don't mean to always be ragging on Gallinari, but with the time-frame of what Walsh is trying to do, it was obvious from the git-go that Danilo was going to need time to make the transition to the NBA. The Traylor injury was unfortunate, but he HAS proved durable this season; which, I agree, is like his rookie year. So he's still a work-in-progress; not a budding young star -- at least yet. It's obvious that when he's being defended tightly, he often has trouble getting a good shot off. When we were winning some games in Dec, the pick-and-roll with Duhon and Lee was a good half-court play. Duhon seemed to do better a half-court game and I would have liked to have seen them run some screen-plays for Danilo on a consistent basis. The guy DOES have good court sense and if he has that extra moment to focus, he's a deadly shooter. IMHO, Gallinari could be a 6'10" Reggie Miller-type but the coach has got to run some plays for him out of a set offense and not ask him to do as much on the fly, like Chandler is capable of -- even with that nagging groin injury.
HN
03/18/2010 1:56 PM
KnicksNut,
True. I like the theory behind the 7 seconds or less, you need a decisions maker, and not particular a point guard. The whole point is to control your destiny before the defense is in place. So, if your offense is good enough, you have easier to score. It's all about control your own destiny. I like the move in the Europe team. One time the European team is up by one and foul the other team so they can have the final possession.
Brooke Lopez seem to be a better pick, don't argue with that. Lopez is a sure all star in the future and Gallo has a chance to be an All Stars. The two picks is not that far off, depending which you like better, offense or defend. Both players are bright young players.
Gallo is a rookie (playing time), where Lopez has a full season under his belt. Also, we don't even know how healthly is Gallo now. He needs to get used to the NBA. next year is a year to judge him.
BigTyme
03/18/2010 12:06 PM
@Knicksfan4life
Can Mike Breen stop calling games???
@Bubbles
There u go tryin to start S h y t about N8, if ur not sure, don't put it out there!
DamPhoni, sounds like to me, threw Old Dirty Biscuit under the bus!
KnicksNut
03/18/2010 11:50 AM
@HN...my point was, D'Antoni seems to go out of his way to do things the hard way. The quote I used had him admitting the "easiest way" was going after a good PG but he cavalierly dismissed it with "you could do it with others."
As far as Nash is concerned, I would offer that the two were made for one another and that Mike and the 7SOL had a lot to do with Nash winning back-to-back MVPs. But for D'Antoni to infer that NYK doesn't need a star PG to run his offense is ridiculous because the ONLY time D' and his offense has been successful in the NBA, is when he had a top-shelf PG running it. The current Suns, under Alvin Gentry, have reverted back to running Mike's offense almost exactly, as Gentry has admitted in interviews. Gentry also stated that having Steve Nash at PG is the biggest reason why this offense works.
I don't know actually who made the call on taking Hill over Jennings in the 2009 draft, but it's fairly clear that D'Antoni was the reason NYK took Gallinari in 2008, a wing player, of which there are many in this league, instead of Brook Lopez, a true center, who scores, rebounds, can run and plays D and is the type of player who is a rare commodity in the NBA these days.