He was spectacular. He didn't shoot that much in the 4th because the Heat was "showing" some doubles and he was passing. A mistake IMO. He had 27 at the half and the Heat was up 8. Let him drop 50 on you as long as everybody else is in check. But it seemed like Spo was determined to not show anything exotic defensively. A Sure sign that he thinks they have a good chance to get out of their side of the bracket. As for a prospective series, I still like the Heat in 5, but it could easily be 6.
He's got to calm down and also make some better decisions driving to the basket. I think/hope that will come with another season of experience. Seeing his improvement from last season to this one, how can you not?
You survived Bosh and our bench. Enjoy it. I'm giddy that it was enough to beat the West's #1 and play the East's #2 about even.
I am real busy today...so can anyone look up Melo's efficiency rating from last night and compare it to the best scoring performances this year? I know there were a couple of Bron performances that were better....but I don;t think anybody else did better than what Melo did last night. Oh..one more thing...for a terribly dumb basketball player, JR Smith is sure scary. If he ever got a brain transplant, he would be a superstar.
Felton had one of his worst games that I've seen all year, Chandler was obviously rusty, Melo was just insane. Collectively I think that was an overall bad game for the Knicks, The lane was open pretty much all night for the Heat, Miller was as wide open in the second half as the first.....the rebounding was bad as usual. IF Miami and NY meet in the playoffs Woodson will need to devise a gameplan that doesn't allow a constant double team on Melo, unless a guy like JR is shooting well they can do that without consequence. Despite the 9th straight win that game opened my eyes to a lot of holes in NY's game. Losing Amare and His ability to score inside was an even bigger blow than I originally realized. NY would have to play flawless basketball to take it to 6 games.
I think part of the difficulty in a series is that Lebron will muscle up Carmelo in the stretch of every game making his shots more difficult. The Knicks would need a strong secondary offense source to keep with the Heat's closing lineup. I could see a lot of close-ish games at the start of the fourth slipping away from the Knicks as crunch time expires. I am intrigued by a second round matchup of the Knicks Pacers though. Not sure how that would play out.
Incidentally, I hate this time of year. I can't even bring myself to watch the games, the only thing in remotely curious about is how seeds 4-8 play out in the East.
Melo had a great game. Efficient, that's the key word there. Come playoff time he will have to go the the hole more, nobody will just play him man, but he had his shot, gotta give him that. Only issue I really have with him, is his last shot. Game was over, yet he went out of his way to get his 50. Maybe it's just sour grapes on my part (and I don't think so, like I said, he was outstanding yesterday) but that last play sums him up pretty well. As T.O once famously said "I love me some me" That's Mello.
Honestly I don't worry about Carmelo scoring regardless of whose guarding him even if lebron would be a more difficult matchup then say a mike miller or even Shane Battier. I have major concerns about NYs secondary scoring as I've said all year. There's just no consistency behind Melo. JR, Felton, Tyson etc will need to be on point come playoff time.
IMO he's not selfish but I definitely think he knew he was close to his career high when he put up that shot. Plus someone had to shoot it since the shot clock was expiring.
Twitter was made for days like this. Knick fans acting like clowns, and I swoop in to get my troll on. That 4,669 days since a playoff series win line is a killer.
Oh no. it might have finally gotten to them. Knick fans are backing off now. What is going on? You guys better talk to your Knick fan brotheren to step their game up soon, or I am moving on to old reliable's. Celtic and Laker fans.
Because he's still a bad basketball player. Maybe he'll continue to improve and that won't continue to be the case. Or maybe he won't.
Disagree, watching the game he barely even shot the ball in the 4th quarter. I don't think anyone has a problem with that shot he took, it was very well defended the dude just wasn't missing jumpers last night. Besides, what's his alternative? Pass the ball to JR Smith who would've taken an even worse shot? It's not nearly as bad as these QBs today who continue to throw the ball around in non passing situations trying to secure records. Those guys are the worst IMO.
I'm not saying Lebron is going to shut Melo down, but he will be taking tougher shots when Lebron is on him and the scoring will come tougher. I think the absence of a second reliable crunch time scorer will really hurt. I mean JR can score and all, but if I were you I wouldn't want the ball in his hands in a prime time ECF game. I think he'll goo totally hero ball and screw you over.
That's when Woodson needs to keep him on the bench, problem is....like we all agree....without Amare who else can be relied on to score points?? As far as the potential Pacer series the Knicks will need a lot of Martin and Chandler on the floor together so the need for scoring will be even more of a priority.
I think we are pretty much saying the same thing. I feel like a Pacers Celtics series is a toss up in my mind. I'm not sure who I favor. Maybe just whomever has home court advantage.
Agree. No problem with Melo taking that shot. He had to shoot, clock was running down. The guy I have a problem with is the guy that dunks on a guy that is late to help when he had no chance of dunking on him if he actually saw him coming. I am pointing straight at you Kenyon Martin.
I looked it up. Where did that Melo game rank this season? Best offensive games this year: tough to tell. If you rank the best games for total efficiency that is one thing...but if you rank them based solely on scoring efficiency, you get a broad sample of very similar games: Harden x2, Melo x 2, Bron x 2, Wade x 1, Bosh x 1, Curry x 1, Kobe x 1, and get ready for it...Dalembert x1 and Varejao x 1.
If I was forced to find the best 2 offensive games...BOTH belong to James Harden. 11-2-12, and 2-20-13.
What makes Melo's impressive to me is they were almost all jumpers that didnt bother touching the rim.
not "almost". THEY WERE ALL JUMPERS. It was as good a shooting performance as I have seen this year, considering that he took 3 terrible brainfart shots. if he plays smart..he's more efficient and has the clear cut best offensive game. But Harden dropped 46 twice on 19 shots.
JR is better in big spots or tough shots. I am absolutely OK with him taking the last shot or any shot in a big moment provided memo wasn't open. JR is cold blooded like that. Easy shot on the mid third quarter he'd miss but with the game on the line I trust him.
Critique of the Knicks roster (supporting cast)... Pablo Prigioni has decent numbers. But damn is he slow, and his defense is horrific. Kenyon Martin. Very good defender. won't block shots, but will move his feet well. Iman Shumpert, lookign better each time I see him, although he has a fouling issue. Hint: If you stab a man in the eye and eat his eyeball, it is probably a foul. Jason Kidd. He is damn good for an animated corpse. Steve Novak. I don't remember him being this useless before. Chris Copeland. Not sure what to make of him. He has a nice stroke. He's big. He plays 50 feet from the basket. I like the makeup of the team, but I feel as if Ronnie Brewer is much better than many of those guys. I hate their offense as of late..but the Knicks are defending much better. The team is improved. I am gonna upgrade my projection to second favorite to reach ECF's.
Copeland is good when you need instant offense. Useless on d. Novak is good when you need spacing on offense or a space cadet on d.
I don't have the luxury of watching every Knicks game, but the ones I have Copeland has been pretty crappy on both ends of the floor I thought. I think the X factor or NY will be can Felton be the Felton he was earlier in the year. As far as Novak, I'm just hoping he is saving something for the playoffs.
Just throwing this one out there, but kids pretty sick... [video=youtube;5ILbPFSc4_4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5ILbPFSc4_4[/video]
Best part about that kid is he is a very good passer, I watched my nephew play on a fourth grade team and its rare one of those lil bastards actually pass the ball.
This kid has serious vision for a 9-10 year old. Great handles, excellent passes. Was that a mother****ing euro-step move? ...Pat Riley, get on this.
