I am coming to you live from the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks get set for an Eastern Conference showdown with Dwight Howard and the Atlanta Hawks. The Knicks come into tonight's action as the 5th seed in the conference with a 16-14 record. The Knicks are trying to bounce back from their loss against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day. New York has been sharing the ball poorly these last 5 games, ranking 27th in the league in assists over that time period. This must be a top priority for Jeff Hornacek because New York is not creating open shots which provide better scoring opportunities. Hopefully the Knicks will have better ball movement in tomorrow's game. One vital match-up that we should keep a close eye on is Derrick Rose vs. Dennis Schroder. The 2 point guards are evenly matched over the last 5 games; Schroder has been averaging 19.8 points per game while Rose has been averaging 19 points per game during that same span. The disparity between the 2 appears in the assist category. Rose has been averaging 2.8 assists per game while his counterpart has been averaging 6 per game. As a point guard he needs to distribute the ball more to get his teammates more involved. Both teams are also evenly matched when it come to the power forward position. It'll be interesting to see who can get the upper hand tonight when it comes to scoring because Porzingis is averaging 17 points per game over the last 5 games; trailing Millsap by only 2 points per game. Despite trailing Millsap in the scoring department, Porzingis has been putting in the effort on the defensive end, lately averaging 1.8 blocks per game. Let's hope the Knicks can pull one out tonight to keep moving up the Eastern Conference standings and keep Atlanta at bay. You can catch all of tonight's heart-pounding action tonight at 7:30 EST on MSG. Let's go Knicks!
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