The New York Knicks dug themselves a giant hole in their Eastern Conference semi-final playoff series with the Indiana Pacers by losing Game 4 last night in Indianapolis. The Knicks now trail 3 games to 1 in this best of seven games series. In my last blog post I took a look at the Knicks performance in Game 3 and provided some adjustments they needed to make in order to win Game 4.

This blog post will take a similar format by looking at Game 4 and then looking ahead to Game 5, which is tomorrow night at MSG. The Knicks must win Game 5 to stay alive and force a Game 6 on Saturday in Indiana. If they do not find a way to win tomorrow, their season, and those sky high expectations will be over.

 

What went wrong in Game 4?

The issues with Game 4 for the Knicks were simple, they did not rebound the ball again in their defensive end of the floor, and they did not make enough shots when they had to at critical junctures in this game.

In my last post, I outlined the need for the Knicks to rebound the basketball, and they did not do that well at all in the game last night. I know with the Pacers height advantage they will be hard pressed to get more rebounds than their opponent, but they need to make an effort to not allow the Pacers second chance scoring opportunities.

I wrote that turnovers were going to be critical in this game, and limiting them for the Knicks would be a positive. I also wrote that I would be surprised if the Knicks had another high turnover performance in back to back games. I was right, the Knicks won the turnover battle finishing at +8 for the game last night. Now, I know some fans may not care about the turnover situation because the Knicks still lost the game, but allow me to frame that in a different perspective. Imagine the scenario of the Knicks being minus 4 in turnovers, this game would have been a complete blowout win for Indiana. That type of dominant win would have really tipped the balance of the series to Indiana going into tomorrow night’s Game 5. In this case, the Knicks winning the turnover battle kept the final score respectable and let the Pacers know that they are really going to have a huge task on their hands to win Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.

 

Shot Selection

I knew that shot selection was going to be critical in this game, however, the critical point to make here is that I think the Knicks improved their shot selection overall from Game 3 to Game 4: the problem was the shots they took did not go in the basket. These missed shots are an obviously huge problem. I like how J.R. Smith has taken the responsibility here telling the media today that it is his fault for the team being down in this series. I respect a player for taking it on the chin, and while he is a big part of the problem the Knicks find themselves in at this point, he is not the only one to blame. The whole team is not playing well offensively. How do these problems get fixed?

 

Adjustments for Game 5

1. better ball movement – the Knicks have to pass the ball better and get back to the team that won 50+ regular season games

2. More motion on the offense – the men without the ball have to move around more and make the Pacers work on the defensive end. That will create more open shots which are high quality.

3. Less isolation plays – they have to limit the number of iso – plays for Anthony and Smith in their offense but those two guys need to score more for them to win this series but I think changing other elements will allow for better offensive production than isolation plays at this point.

4. More aggressive play on offense – attack the rim. I wrote this prior to Game 4 and the Knicks did not do much of this at all which surprised me. They need to use Felton differently and attack the rim to create better scoring chances. They also need to use more pick and roll as well as ball screens to be more effective against the Pacers.

5. Adjust their defensive plan: initially the plan for the Knicks defensively was to collapse the paint and clog those lanes and that area of the floor because the Pacers were not known to be a good perimeter shooting team. In this series so far, the Pacers have hurt the Knicks with hitting open 3 point shots from the perimeter. The Knicks have to adjust and deny the perimeter shot and let the Pacers try and beat them by forcing the ball inside to Hibbert (who was 2 for 8 last night from the field) or David West. An idea on limiting the 3 point shooting is to take a similar approach to how the Spurs limited Stephen Curry of the Warriors in their series. They constantly rotate an extra defender so that if the Warriors set a pick or a screen for Curry, another Spurs defender slides over and guards against the clean look from 3 point range.

6. The rotation – the Knicks should look at redistribution of minutes and play guys like Prigioni, Copeland, and Novak more to get legitimate 3 point shooting threats on the floor, which will also open up the floor for Carmelo and J.R. Smith to find better scoring opportunities attacking the basket.

 

Garden Party in Game 5?

I think the Knicks have a chance to win Game 5 and hang in this series if they implement some of these adjustments to their strategy in this series. It is going to be an intense night at MSG, and I hope it will not be the last time that “The World’s Most Famous Arena” will be hosting a Knicks playoff game. I hope the Knicks can push this at least to a Game 7, but we will have to watch and hope that will happen.