Advanced Scouting: New York Knicks at San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs at New York Knicks 7:00 CST January 21, 2011
The Spurs suffered perhaps their most embarrassing defeat of the year at the hands of the New York Knicks on January 4. In that game, Head Coach Gregg Popovich pulled the Spurs starters with the game still completely undecided. The final score of 128-115 must have given Bruce Bowen nightmares. The last time San Antonio allowed that many points in regulation, Tim Duncan was still playing basketball in St. Croix.
My scouting report for the Knicks suggested that the Spurs focus on contesting jump shots and making Felton get rid of the ball when running the pick-and-roll.
Pretty much everything the Knicks did last meeting worked. They averaged at least 1 point per possession (PPP) on every play type (Spot-Up, P&R Ball Handler, Isolation, Screen, Cut, Transition, Post, P&R Man and Offensive Rebound). The Knicks ran the pick-and-roll 39 times, 28 times through Raymond Felton. Felton scored 16 points on 13 possessions he finished himself, but he only created 11 points in the 15 possessions he created for others. Amare Stoudemire created 16 points on 10 isolation sets. Surprisingly, the Knicks only scored seven points on the fast break. Wilson Chandler had a big game, scoring 31 points on 13 of 19 shooting, with four assists and nine rebounds.
The Spurs contested only 13 of 30 catch-and-shoot jump shots, but the Knicks were only 8 for 27 on 3-point attempts. This suggests it could have been even worse! The Knicks only committed six turnovers, five of which were steals by the Spurs.
The Spurs were held to a stalemate on the boards, both teams collected 10 offensive rebounds and the Knicks edged them out in defensive rebounds 28-27. The Spurs should typically hold the rebounding edge against the Knicks.
Offense was not the problem with San Antonio. They only made 5 of 18 attempts from deep, but shot close to 54% overall. Tony Parker created 20 points on 13 pick and roll derived possessions and 11 points in eight isolation sets. Parker finished with 26 points scored on 15 field goal attempts. In only 17 minutes, DeJuan Blair scored 12 points on cuts and finished with 18 overall on 12 field goal attempts. Duncan only managed eight points in 12 possessions in the post. Despite creating nine steals, the Spurs were only able to score 13 points on 14 transition possessions. (Steals can lead to the easiest of fast breaks.)
Key Statistics
New York: 0.09 (16th)
San Antonio: 7.97 (1st)
Key Player Statistics (courtesy of 82games.com (effective January 19, 2011) and basketballvalue.com (effective January 19, 2011):
| Player | Fraction of teams minutes | PER minus Counterpart PER | On court +/-per 48 minutes | Off court +/-per 48 minutes | 2 Year Adjusted +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felton | 0.8 | 1 | -0.2 | 5 | -3.76 |
| Stoudemire | 0.77 | 5.7 | 1.8 | -2.3 | -2.62 |
| Chandler | 0.73 | 4.4 | 2.8 | -4.2 | 1.93 |
| Fields | 0.66 | 2.4 | 4 | -5.4 | 8.32 |
| Gallinari | 0.61 | -2.6 | 1.4 | 0 | 1.61 |
| Douglas | 0.46 | -2.9 | 0.8 | 0.9 | -4.41 |
| Turiaf | 0.31 | -0.4 | 4.9 | -0.9 | 1.32 |
| Walker | 0.21 | -3.4 | 4.3 | -0.1 | 5.08 |
| Williams | 0.21 | -5.9 | -5.2 | 2.5 | N/A |
Most valuable/utilized lineups:
Felton, Fields, Chandler, Gallinari, Stoudemire +80 in 503 minutes (+7.6 per 48 MP)
The Pick
Yep, I’m going with the Spurs again.
After beating San Antonio, the Knicks bested the Suns and proceeded to lose five of their next six games, only exceeding 100 points in two of these games. The Spurs have held opponents under the century mark in each of their last seven games.
