Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers will take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Tonight’s game is a big game for the Knicks simply because they are at home and will travel to Minnesota later tonight. The Knicks are winners of three straight and the story of the week has been Jeremy Lin and his exciting play. Lin has played very well this week and his given the Knicks three straight wins.
The league is now watching the Knicks more closely simply because of Lin. He has proven over the last three games that he can get the team going with great open shots. Lin has gone up against three point guards and has played them pretty well. Tonight Lin will go up against an aging Derek Fisher who he can dominate by taking him to the hoop. If Lin gets hot expect the Lakers to put Kobe Bryant on him to try to limit any of his production.
This game will be packed and possibly sold out tonight as Bryant and the Lakers visit. The Lakers are coming off a win over the Boston Celtics last night. That game went into overtime so the Lakers might be a little tired tonight. So the Knicks will likely have to hold the Lakers bench on check if they have any chance at winning this game.
The Knicks will be without Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire again tonight. So Steve Novak, Jared Jeffries, and Bill Walker all need to be productive on the offensive end. They have all had great games over the last three games. Novak is coming off back to back 19 point games and is shooting the ball really well. He is the beneficiary of Jeremy Lin’s excellent passing. Lin is getting Novak in the spots where he is most potent. The Knicks have received better production from their bench and expect that to continue tonight. This Knicks team needs to come out with energy and run the ball early and often. If the Knicks can get an early lead it would make it very difficult for the Lakers to comeback and win this game.
It will be interesting to see who Mike D’Antoni will go to off the bench tonight. Mike Bibby played most of the secondary bench minutes last game while Toney Douglas sat the entire game. Bibby struggled with his shot and it will be interesting to see if Bibby still gets the same minutes. Douglas on the other hand has hurt his chances of being in the rotation with his lackluster defense and terrible shooting. He will need a miracle to see more minutes.
This is a major game for the Knicks who could get a win against a good team. If the Knicks win tonight and tomorrow they could possibly get their record back to .500 before the All-Star break. If they can accomplish that they would be in the playoff hunt and be poised to make a second half run. Tonight’s game can be seen on MSG or ESPN at 8:00 PM. Let’s go Knicks!
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