New York Knicks at Los Angeles Clippers
Time: 9:30 PM CT (NBA TV)
Spread: LAC -10
Total: 203
Betting odds c/o Bookmaker
The New York Knicks have taken the long slide to irrelevancy, sitting seven games out of the No. 8 seed and preparing for another trip back to the NBA lottery.
Their opponent, the hosting Los Angeles Clippers, sit No. 4 in the Western Conference at 41-22 and are 21-11 at Staples Center. The Clippers are 10-point favorites in this game with the Knicks just 11-21 on the road this season. The game will air as the second game of a NBA TV double-header.
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Despite its poor outlook towards making the postseason, the Knicks have won two of its past three games, notching victories over the Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns while having fallen to the Denver Nuggets. The most recent affair was a stomping of the Phoenix Suns, as the Knicks won 128-97 just last night. Sasha Vujacic got a chance to start and made the most if it in scoring a season-high 23 points including six made threes. Carmelo Anthony added another 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting and the Knicks shot 56.1 percent from the floor as a team.
Perhaps part of the cause of New York’s struggles has been Kristaps Porzingis coming back down to earth some. He shot just 2 of 10 from the floor last night despite his teammates mostly throwing flames. Porzingis has shot just 39.3 percent from the floor over his past nine games, while averaging 13 points and 4.7 rebounds in 23.9 minutes per game over that span. In the previous meeting against the Clippers he scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but he shot just 23.5 percent from the floor in that game.
Porzingis will still finish first or second in Rookie of the Year voting, but if his recent play continues it is a safe assumption Karl-Anthony Towns will win the award. Even so, on the season Porzingis has shown enough that it is a safe assumption he has “franchise player” potential.
Porzingis is averaging 2.7 steals/blocks per game, and has shown himself to be one of the elite help-side defenders in the NBA, even as a rookie. Over the Knicks last five games, though, his 33.3 percent shooting and 27 percent three-point shooting has been more than a cause for concern.
It also has to be assumed at this point that Carmelo Anthony is beginning the declining years of his career. He is averaging 21.8 points and eight rebounds per game, but Melo has shot just 43.2 percent from the field this season and his scoring average is the lowest it has been since his second season in the NBA in 2004-05.
Anthony’s career shooting average is also 2.1 percent higher than this season’s figure. What is slightly anomalous is the fact he is averaging 1.4 rebounds more per game than last season, and typically when looking at the decline of a player, especially a forward or center, the best way to tell is by noticing a rebounding decline. With Melo that just has not been the case, but he is likely on the descent after 12 NBA seasons logged now.
The Clippers have lost two of its past three games, with losses coming to the Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder sandwiching a victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The Clips fell 120-108 to the Thunder last night. Russell Westbrook was sheerly dominant in the Clips loss, battering L.A. for 25 points, 20 assists and 11 rebounds. Kevin Durant described his game as video game-like, “NBA 2k…on rookie.” Durant said.
The Clippers have been pleased with their acquisition of Jeff Green. Green played well in the loss last night, hitting 10 of 13 from the floor and knocking down three triples en route to a team-high 23 points. The Clippers also got 22 points from 2-guard J.J. Redick, who is having a career year at age 31.
Redick is averaging 16.7 points per game this year while knocking down 47.4 percent from the floor and 48.2 percent from behind the arc. Over the Clippers past 10 games, he has been better still, averaging 18 points per game. Redick is an assassin from three-point range and he is just hitting his prime, albeit somewhat late in his career.
The Clippers are still without star forward Blake Griffin, but he is having his fractured right hand reevaluated in the coming days, Dan Wolke of Orange County Register reported. Griffin injured the hand punching one of the Clippers’ trainers, but despite that showing he was not dealt at the trade deadline because the Clippers were simply asking far too much for his services. But maybe they should have been.
Griffin has shown an elite ability to make plays and is the Clippers’ defining talent, notwithstanding that Chris Paul is the engine to the team. Griffin thrived with Paul on the shelf in the playoffs last year, and there is absolutely no doubt a team could thrive with Griffin occupying a point-forward role. But at this point the Clippers have to question whether Griffin and Paul cooperate or coexist all that well together, given that L.A. has continued to roll without Griffin in the lineup.
