Thank you, David Stern. Somehow thinking it’s appropriate and necessary to have playoff games span over multiple nights, even though the games will be played in the same gym may help my New York Knicks tonight.After Sunday’s depressing loss, a day off in Boston may actually help the Knicks in game 2 in a series I refuse to accept is over. Playing back to back nights after allowing an alley-oop inbound score, committing a bullcrap offensive foul, allowing a great three point shot, and missing a miserable 3 point attempt (all in about 37 seconds of hoops), a night off may actually help the Knicks.
The extra day off may allow just enough time for the Knicks to get over mourning the loss and focus on doing what built that lead on Sunday. It will also give Mike D'Antoni time to fix some of the holes that lead to Sunday's collapse.
The defense was fantastic. Blocked shots, hard fouls, and hands up defense were all things I doubted this team would ever do under D’Antoni. The problem was the offense. Melo shot like crap, but I’ll let Jalen Rose give you his insightful, “For the New York Knicks to win tonight, Carmelo Anthony needs to have a better offensive game,” sometime before the game. The offense was at its worse when they went into isolation basketball with someone (namely Melo and Billups) holding the ball for 6 seconds and heaving up a bad looking or difficult shot while everyone else just stood around and looking at each other. It looked like the times Kobe goes into “number 8” mode and makes amazing shots at times but the offense as a whole does not seem cohesive. The offense seemed to be its best when Stat was movin' and groovin' (thanks Clyde) and was drawing defenders and getting him the ball.
Mike D’Antoni is considered to be an offensive genius. He’s had an extra day to look at tape and an extra day to get his team in line. I have to think he saw all of that. Now the question lies in whether he can convince his team to listen and start moving, especially with that extra day to prepare. I have some faith he can and say the Knicks win it tonight by 5. If not, Mike D has to go.
One day in between games isn't really out of the ordinary. The two nights between games 2 and 3 should help though.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I want to fire Mike D if they lose tonight's game. It's a big one, but let's let the series play out. If they lose games 4 and 5 at home after 2 days off, then can his ass.
ReplyDeleteI mean games 3 and 4.
ReplyDelete