The New York Knicks are heading into the 2013-14 season with expectations that they will be making a playoff and championship title run and while it's hard to figure out a team and what they will be in the preseason, so far on the schedule the team is 1-1 and they will be facing off against an 0-3 Boston Celtics team on NBA TV at 7:30 pm at Verizon Wireless Arena in NH.
The game will be live on TV on the NBA TV channel and NBA.com is offering streaming as well as audio coverage of the game. The Knicks have made a number of additions to the roster this season for Carmelo Anthony and Mike Woodson will need players like Metta World Peace and Andrea Bargnani to be healthy and at their best for the team to go far in the postseason. The Knicks won their first preseason game on the schedule, but they lost to Bargnani's old team in the Toronto Raptors Friday night and now they will have another game against the Celtics on Saturday to try and improve to 2-1.
The Raptors pulled out the 100-91 on the strength of DeMar DeRozan, who had 20 points in the matchup and their former player in Bargnani, who was traded for Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson and Marcus Camby this offseason, ended up with 10 points in the game and he looked healthy after dealing with injury issues last season. The Knicks gave up three draft picks along with the players for the former number one overall pick and the team feels that they can be much stronger with him in the lineup as a complimentary scorer for Melo. Bargnani had a few disappointing seasons in Toronto and now he gets the chance for a fresh start with the Knicks.
While he only played 22 minutes in the game, Bargnani had some nice stretches and he thanked the fans and the city after the game, which saw 24 points for Carmelo Anthony and he will obviously be a huge key for the Knicks and what they do this season. New York had a lead in the final quarter but could not hold on and Anthony added eight rebounds in the matchup as well, as the Raptors are now 2-1 in the preseason. The Knicks had issues stopping the Raptors at the end, letting them go on an 11-0 run against the Knicks and that finished off the game.
The team will need to be better defensively overall, but the Knicks showed some good signs, as Anthony and young star Iman Shumpert had three steal each, while the team was able to have 12 steal and they forced 23 turnovers. The Knicks ranked 11th in the league in scoring last year and were in the top 10 in defense, but they ranked 26th in rebounding and that is something they will have to focus on this season.