For a post devoted specifically to rubbing our nose in Nate’s big night, here’s a home for you.
A performance for the ages by Nate Robinson tonight, who had 41 points on 18 of 24 shooting, 6 rebounds and 8 assists.
Nate, of course was playing in his first game in exactly one month after being benched by D’Antoni and really earned his time today by playing on both sides of the ball. Within the first few minutes, I noticed Nate put the full-court press on the Hawks, I noticed him get over a screen, and I noticed him penetrate and pass off for an open 3. In fact, until the fourth and overtime when his teammates let him take over the game and carry them to victory, Nate wasn’t the ball stopper he’d been.
Those are the things I always wanted to see from Nate and I was happy to see them tonight. The difference in his play probably has something to do with his being benched, but I’m sure people will argue the opposite, that is, that he shouldn’t have been benched at all because he’d probably have averaged 41, 6 and 8 over the last month. No doubt that if he’d played as well as he played tonight the Knicks 9-6 month might have been a 11-4 or 10-5 month, but would Nate have displayed the same commitment to defense, and at least for a bit, ball movement?
Hahn points out on his Twitter, that maybe not:
Hold up with the D’Antoni criticism. Nate himself admitted the benching made him think about his antics. Let’s see if he has truly learned.
In his on-court Oscar acceptance speech interview with Tina Cervasio, when he thanked everyone from Jesus to Allan Houston to the Hawks fans, Nate included in his praise Mike D’Antoni for delivering a “humbling lesson”.
We’ve said before that on any given night Nate can win you a game. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again. He did it tonight. However, taking all those bad shots and passing up teammates for better looks is a lot less palatable when the circus shots aren’t going in.
Nate had a great comeback game and I hope that he continues to play defense, and share the ball when he should instead of reverting back to old Nate.
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A couple things that got lost in Nate’s big night:
*Knicks couldn’t rebound. With Lee having an off night the team was dominated on the glass. Harrington is a poor rebounder for a 4 but I can’t put it all on him when there are several other forwards that don’t hit the glass as hard as they maybe should.
*Chandler had a great night and had a dunk in the first half that put his ankle surgery emphatically behind him.
*Knicks have been struggling with their free throws for awhile now. Tonight the trend continued with the Knicks missing a bunch of and 1′s.
*How long until Larry Hughes requests a trade?
*What was up with that Marcus Landry sighting?
Chandler really seems to have turned a corner. And not just with his health. He’s taking much smarter shots. I wish he’d completely dispense with the 3s, but at least he’s going towards the basket more and I loved watching him take Bibby down on the block and exploit that matchup.
And he can do even more because he’s still a pretty inefficient scorer. To take the next step he needs to rebound with the ferocity he showed tonight all the time and figure out a way to get the line more. If he was able to do those things it would dramatically improve his long term outlook as a player.
I agree.
I think the next big key for him is to draw more fouls. He’s a good FT shooter. Getting to the line more often would improve his efficiency.
I recently sent an e-mail question to the D’Antonio Show about that. Coach D answered it. He said the coaching staff is aware of the issue. He said there were two problems.
1. WC doesn’t have a quick first step
2. WC doesn’t have a good left hand. So the defense overplays him to one side.
Both make it tougher for him to get to the hoop. That’s why he sometimes settles for jumpers.
The good news is that they are working on both and expect him to improve.
The other good news is that his shot selection has improved a lot already. He still shoots some weird shots though. I think they have too much of an ark on them and sometimes he drifts backwards and kicks his leg out. There’s something quirky with the form that is just not right.
He’s really not that big. For some reason I thought he was bigger, but a lot of the time he looks small next to other forwards. I don’t know how much of a rebounder he can become. He spends a lot of time guarding perimeter players. But he’s good on the offensive boards at following up his own shot. That’s huge. I would be happy with 6-7 rebounds per 36 minutes if he’s playing some SG and some SF.
I had really lost some confidence in him early in the season when he was still chucking like crazy, but he had a very good December.
I also don’t want him to shoot any 3s, but I can live with 1 or 2 a night if he’s wide open. There’s still some time for him to become a better outside shooter.
I just hope that N8 finds a team with a fan base where he will be appreciated…
@ Stallion: Those are interesting observations by Coach D. While he’s clearly a poor ball handler, I’d never realized that Wil doesn’t have a quick first step, probably because he’s so athletic in other respects.
One rejoinder, though: Gallo has those same issues. He’s not exactly quick to get going and, while he can drive with either hand, Gallo has a high, precarious dribble. Yet he still gets to the line a ton in games where he’s aggressive going towards the basket. He just has a knack for drawing contact.
I hope this is the kind of thing that can be taught, as D’Antoni says, but I’m not sure it’s true.