Pre-Game: Clippers vs. Knicks 8:00 PM

The New York Knicks will take on the Los Angeles Clippers for the first time this season. The Knicks are coming off a nice win against the Atlanta Hawks in which they continue to hold out hope of capturing the 6th spot in the eastern conference playoffs.

Tonight the Knicks will likely rest Carmelo Anthony as they try to give him some much needed rest going into the playoffs. The Clippers struggle on the defensive end so tonight would have been an excellent time for Anthony to get his scoring average up a little higher. Also it would have given him and Amare Stoudemire another game to work on their chemistry. But the Knicks will not risk getting Anthony injured before the playoffs because of his value to the team.

But the Knicks will have Amare Stoudemire tonight as he looks to continue getting better for the post season. Stoudemire is coming off a very good game in which he scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Those are great numbers from him considering from where he has come from this season. As the post season nears the Knicks are looking to get Stoudemire in rhythm in hopes of him having a great post season.

The Knicks head coach Mike Woodson said that he wants to give Dan Gadzuric a look tonight, so look for Gadzuric to see some type of playing time tonight. Gadzuric could be a nice addition to the team if he can rebound and play defense. Those are the areas the Knicks are looking for prime success from him. The second unit has plenty of scoring and Gadzuric doesn’t have to be a scorer. It will be very interesting to see where Gadzuric’s game is this late in the season.

This game will be on MSG and ESPN at 8:00 PM tonight. It is unknown if Chris Paul will play tonight. but according to multiple sources Paul will not play tonight after being injured last night. The Knicks could possibly win their second game in a row, but they have to play hard on defense and not allow the Clippers to shoot the lights out. This game will come down to the Knicks being able to limit the Clippers from shooting threes and also keeping Blake Griffin out of the painted area. Let’s go Knicks!