Shaking in the Garden, the Fear Within You Grows

I've never been a proponent of the layup line. At the professional level, what need is there to practice a completely uncontested lay-in? I just think time could be better spent warming up some tough shots that you might need to hit during the game.

Well, in the Pacers case, the layup line came in pretty fuckin handy. Harrington, O'Neal, Granger, and Jackson could walk to the basket as they please and literally finger roll the ball right off the backboard. It was inexplicable. Seriously, consider this. How often do you see a layup in a half-court set? It's pretty rare. Well, the Pacers must've had between 8 and 10 of them last night. It didn't help that Curry was getting out-rebounded by the Pacers' guards. Don't look at his stat sheet, cause the only boards he pulled down were cheap ones, off of threes and open-court misses. Anytime an important rebound went to the Knicks, it was Francis or Richardson doing the job.

Yup, that's Curry getting outrebounded by the Slug Lady.
On the other end, the Knicks' offense was motionless and pointless. Basically, they passed the ball around the perimeter for 15-20 seconds, and then either attempted a contested 3 or tried to hit Curry for a shot out of position. People were dropping passes (Curry) and throwing passes away (Marbury) like it was nobody's business. Whatever happened to the get-out-and-run fast break offense? I was disgusted.

It's tough to determine whose fault this is. Marbury was riddled with boos throughout the game, and at least one "Fire Thomas" chant sounded from the upper rows. Both certainly had performances to be criticized, as Marbury looked lost and Thomas didn't seem to attempt any sort of scheme with the offense. I think it's tough to decisively point a finger this early in the season. It doesn't look good, though.

No caption needed.
For more analysis, check out this article from Knickerblogger.