#Linsanity aside…the Knicks won’t be able to contend until they begin to play like Miami. Surprisingly, Lebron and DWade have managed to balance their need for the ball or to take over the game and they share clutch moments with the entire team. It seems like it will take forever for Carmelo Anthony to learn that.
I only got to see the last 4 minutes of the Miami game but it looked like a totally different team on the floor. I agree with Charles Barkley, Jeremy Lin looked exhausted. He’s looked like that in interviews for a few days now. The highlights show a number of turnovers [there were only 8] and he was making mistakes. A few trips down the court Lin looked inhibited. The poised threat from the Toronto and Lakers games wasn’t there. However, at the end of the game with 1 minute left he still had some fight in him. The team, not so much. The question is who did they quit on? Was it Lin or Carmelo?
Last week when Lin had the ball in his hands the team was moving. They all knew they were a potential target for a pass. Tonight was different. Lin seemed to be scanning the floor for Carmelo rather than leading the break. When Melo wasn’t trailing he was in the paint blocking the lane rather than posting up waiting for the ball. Melo is the franchise but Jeremy Lin has a HIGH BASKET BALL I.Q.. He makes the team play better. They showed lack of energy on defense and poor rotation on offense. Translation: they didn’t occupy the same side of the floor that Carmelo was on very well.
In the midst of it all, I give J.R. Smith credit for playing like a man with a new lease on life. He was the only other player active without the ball. However, he has an advantage. J.R. has played with the guy that holds the ball for a failed Isolation play with 18 seconds left on the shot clock. His experience with Denver paid off in one of the final plays with a successful post pass to Carmelo. But the approach was wrong. He fell into the 2 man game that has become a cancer within the NBA.
These are my thoughts and those that have heard me express myself know that I am not a fan of Miami or more specifically Lebron James. However, it takes a lot of failure on the Knicks part for me to spend this rare opportunity to post praising Miami’s teamwork. Once Linsanity dies down I hope that the Knicks will begin to play like they did when Carmelo was on the bench. AS A TEAM they were refreshing to watch. Lin was the active ingredient in their chemistry but the entire team won those games. Carmelo’s presence as I expected was a cancer to this new organism that had been growing for the past two weeks. New elements were added to what began in New Jersey but none had the negative effect that Carmelo did.
I could be wrong, I didn’t see most of the game but I would have rather seen Landry Fields on Lebron at the end of the game. The rotations and defensive help would have been better.
