A Defense for Amare Stoudemire

I have heard about Stoudemire's Dumb Foolery all day and it just got me thinking. He was trying to send a message to his team. The Knicks are down 2-0 to the defending eastern conference champs and as a captain he only took 9 shoots. NINE shots, compared to Mello's 26. I understand that Mello is our best player, but the Knicks need balance on offense and defense. The Heat have 3 amazing players who also play defense, but if they only have to focus on Mello , then its an EMERGENCY! I think this is the point Stoudemire was trying to make by breaking the glass on a fire extinguisher, granted not all went according to plan, the point he tried to get across made him look like a Dumbass, but that is how the media is spinning it. I bet before he smashed that glass he was hooting and hollering about the urgency his team needs now, not in game 4.

Amare I know what you were trying to do, I forgive you and I know the statement you made in that locker room will show in the Knicks next game.

Knicks 90- Heat 89

See you at the garden.

NY Dumbass Hall of Fame: Amar'e Stoudemire

Today's as good a day as any to introduce a new feature at PTU: the New York Dumbass Hall of Fame. New York sports has seen some truly stupid athletes throughout the years, from John Starks to Plaxico to the Mets, but we have to begin with our inaugural inductee: Amar'e "Glass Joe" Stoudemire. As everyone's heard, he followed up last night's invisible performance vs Miami with one of the more idiotic moves in sports history, punching the glass case to a fire extinguisher out of frustration and possibly ending his season. That's next level stupidity, some real Kevin Brown type shit. Does this mean the Knicks season is over? It was probably over already anyway, and it's been proven that Carmelo plays better when Amar'e's not around, so I'm not shedding any tears for his loss. Our 100 million dollar man, however, has now proven that not only does he have a weak body, but his brain is also made out of pudding. Figures that one time the Knicks put up some fight in this series, it's against a fire extinguisher. I actually liked Amar'e last season; he put the team on his back (and in the process probably ran himself into the ground) and brought life back to the Garden for the first time in seemingly ages, but since the arrival of Melo he's been at best a less than complimentary player and at worst an outright liability on the court. There's been thesises written about why Amar'e can't play defense or grab rebounds. Is it because he played for D'Antoni for so long? Did he put on too much muscle? Is it the off the court distractions? Maybe Amar'e just suc'ks at defense. Maybe he's just la'zy. And we all know that he is definitely stu'pid. His corn rows must have been wound too tight, cutting off whatever oxygen he had going to that pea brain of his. And now he's done for the season most likely, but at least we know that he is capable of hitting the glass.

Amar'e, welcome to the PTU NY Dumbass Hall of Fame.

Is A Day Enough To Get It Together?

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.