Tip-Off: 12:00 p.m
Where: Madison Square Garden
Starting Lineups
New York Knicks (0-0)
PG: Toney Douglas
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Boston Celtics (0-0)
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Sasha Pavlovic
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Jermaine O’Neal
Look For: Basketball is officially back. I’m a big christmas guy in general, but this is the most excited I’ve been for christmas day in years. The expectations for this team are through the roof during this abbreviated season,which is a nice change especially considering how bleak the outlook has been the past few years.
Mike D’Antoni has the best roster he’s had during his entire tenure though I’m not sure this team fits his style of play and there will undoubtedly be growing pains. D’Antoni will be under lots of pressure in the last year of his contract with their defensive effort the most heavily scrutinized aspect of this team. The addition of Mike Woodson to the staff should make a big difference with their defensive strategy, but as we’ve said here many times before defense is effort pure and simple. The Knicks have talked a big game about their defensive effort all summer, now its time to back up their effort.
Paul Pierce is inactive today and the Knicks will get a chance to avenge their early post-season dismissal by the Celtics last season. This game will be sloppy as most of them will be early on this season with such little time to prepare.
Let’s hope for a Knicks win. Merry Christmas.
Watch the game on MSG and check back to STATandStuff.com for post-game analysis and in-game tweets.
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