It’s beginning to look a lot like… last game. Everywhere you look.
Despite leading 51-37 at the half tonight — and by nine during the 4th quarter — New York lost in heart-breaking fashion yet again, this time by a score of 96-86 to the Boston Celtics.
The Knicks did what they were supposed to do. In a game where players were colliding and bleeding all over the court, the Knicks played defense. They shot the basketball well. They brought energy. They played with toughness. For the first 32 minutes of the game, that is.
There was a noticeable playoff-atmosphere in The Garden, but if this was a preview of the Knicks’ post season, prime time-readiness, it may be time to go over some offensive sets in practice.
Plenty of blame to go around as usual, from Mike D’Antoni’s inexplicable second-half time-out management, to the Knicks’ abominable late-game offensive execution, and of course, the ad nauseum inability to defend an opponent’s best player(s).
The Knicks could learn a thing or two from the Eastern Conference’s best team, whose 4 stars’ combined plus/minus lines read like a fantasy dream: Kevin Garnett (+22), Paul Pierce (+16), Ray Allen (+18), and Rajon Rondo (+17).
Carmelo Anthony poured in 22 points for the Knicks, but neither he nor Amar’e Stoudemire (16 points, 11 rebounds) scored in the 4th quarter. Chauncey Billups added 21, but he looked stiff and uncomfortable for much of the contest.
On the bright side, the Knicks may have rediscovered a viable option at C, as Ronny Turiaf played with furious defensive abandon in the first half (three blocks), but it remains to be seen whether or not his balky knees will allow him to play at least 25 minutes per night.
Things don’t get any easier with Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic coming to town on Wednesday night, but the Knicks are going to have to find a way to run their offense with composure and poise late in games.
From a statistical perspective, the Knicks could conceivably lose out the remainder of their games and still make the playoffs, but the truth is that this team needs to show that they’re learning from their mistakes and growing together as teammates.
Oh, and those “Paul Pierce S*cks” chants? Probably not such a good idea.
Associated Press photo by Frank Franklin II
3 Comments
This team is so horrifically inconsistent. On the nights they play defense, their supposed SSOL system suddenly stops working? Ugh we’ll be lucky if we win a single game in the playoffs, let alone a first round upset.
It’s about time someone is giving blame to Coach Mike (nice work Mr. O’Grady). He’s terrible. I don’t want to hear, “oh, but wait till he has an entire off season to work with these guys…”. Blah Blah Blah. He gives the same lame excuses everytime the Knicks lose, ” We didn’t have heart, we panniced, we need to work on some things.” Geez, they played 16 games with Melo…any chance they could have worked on one or more off of that short list? Isn’t that kinda like…your job?
The C’s came to town and showed everyone who the beast in the East is. Big Pat must be crying on the inside. This is not the Knicks team built on defense and intimidation. Oak Tree, Big Pat, Mase in Yo Face! Much work to do…starting with finding a new coach.
Im not a D’Antoni fan, but I know his offensive system is good and can be part of the solid play of a real championship contender, but there are so many more aspects of winning basketball that throughout his stay in NY have been absent. Aspects from defense, timeout calls, boxing out and rebounding, the use of a traditional lineup along other issues have always caused problems here.
People talk about how D’Antoni needs defensive players to play defense but what happens if they don’t score? They don’t belong in the rotation, no matter how good defensively they are. And another thing is that you don’t necessarily need defensive players players to play basic organized defense. You need a good coach to organize it and make sure players are in the right spots.
I wouldn’t have much of a problem if we got a great assistant coach in charge of making this team really work on defense, but he seems to be too stubborn to allow it.