What an ugly game!! This game was sloppy to say the least. NO check that, this was literally the ugliest basketball game I’ve ever watched. Even when the Knicks got to the basket they forgot how to make layups!! I’ve never seen a professional basketball team miss so many layups. It was embarrassing. This was by far the Knicks worst loss of the season. In case you missed the game, they lost to the Toronto Raptors 92-88 on their own court. On top of the horrid performance, the officials in this game were horrible!! Do you want to know how you can tell the officials had an off night? When there are FIVE technical fouls given out in one quarter, that’s how. See, what happens when you let the “players play” is the game gets physical. And when the game gets too physical, it gets out of hand. That’s what took place in the 3rd quarter of this game. Frustration also set in with Carmelo Anthony. Melo became upset in the 1st quarter when he took the ball to the hole on two separate occasions looking to attack the basket. The defender attacked his arm instead, but the refs let each play go. From then on Melo became his own worst enemy. He proceeded to pick up a technical foul(his 10th if the season), and his rhythm and shooting stroke were both negatively effected. Do you know what Melo blamed for his worst game of the year(5-24 from the field)?!?!? He said he was playing with a dead arm. What the hell does that mean?? Everyone has been talking about his maturity, and is overall improvement this season. I have to be honest I don’t see a difference between 2013 Melo and 2008 Melo. He is still making excuses for his poor play. And if he really had a legitimate injury, then he shouldn’t have taken so many damn shots. He could have tried this thing, it’s a new concept called relying on your teammates. I know, that sounds wild. The bottom line is if he has really changed he would have stood up to the microphone and said, “I stunk it up tonight. This is my team so I put the blame for this loss totally on my shoulders. If I play better, we win, period.” That’s what I want to hear from the “new and improved” Carmelo Anthony. On a quick side note, where did Jason Kidd go and who is this guy wearing his jersey? This guy has been awful! I haven’t seen shooting this bad since Shaq at a free throw line. If there is one positive that can be taken away from this game it is that Iman Shumpert’s intensity seemed to be sky high. He played solid defense, attacked the boards(grabbing 7 rebounds in only 21 minutes), and pushed the ball nicely up the floor. The only question is why Mike Woodson isn’t playing him more than Jason Kidd??
I’ve been telling everyone for weeks that the Knicks are not as good as their record. That certainly is coming to fruition. Nothing has gone right for the Knicks as of late, and this break couldn’t come at a better time. The Knicks need to take some time off, clear their heads, and be ready to kick up their intensity. This will get them back to their winning ways. By the way, Melo is an underrated passer I just don’t think he knows that yet. He draws a double team virtually every time he gets the ball inside 18 feet. Like I wrote in my blog weeks ago, the best play I’ve seen from the Knicks is when Melo is penetrating and dishing to wide open players. Melo is still going to get his 20 shots a night, and believe it or not when you start passing more it opens the floor up for better looks for you too, not just your teammates. Then maybe they will have a balanced attack. I put the majority of the blame though on Coach Woodson’s shoulders. If you want to play a style of basketball that calls for a collaborative effort on both ends of the floor, then you better get your players to buy into that concept real quick. Come on Mike, do you want to take a trip to the NBA Finals, to be coach of the year, and to get a nice pay raise next year?? Then you better earn it!!
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Not even Samantha could save that game :).
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Harsh way harsh
Talking about comparisons … Not fair
I mean SJP is very date–able ,
make up and all … and that game was sloppy bad but ? Even Michael Jordan missed lay ups … and I didn’t count them … but there were at least 3 dinky ones in the last 4 minutes alone. Granted it was hard to see a victory thru that mess but they were still playing defense. Harken back to the days of Walt Bellamy and Howard Comives … we had some pretty awful games back then !!
I can still hear the clang and doink in the back of my mind.
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