I might be the only basketball fan (that isn't from New York) that thinks the Knicks can actually upset the Miami Heat and the striped shirts that they signed as free agents at the start of the post-season. One of me and my brother's friends is a huge Miami Heat fan or bandwagon jumper (whatever you want to call it) and actually had the cojones to tell me that Miami is going to sweep the Knicks simply because they won by 33 the first game. Now let's take a look at game 1 from a real basketball fan's perspective. In game 1 Tyson Chandler had the flu and scored 0 points, Carmelo Anthony had 11 points going 3/15 from the field and Amare Stoudemire had 9 points going 2/7 from the field. Along with that, the Knicks had 24 turnovers and also had 26 personal fouls and also shot a horrible 35% from the field and 33% from distance. LeBron dropped 32 points (and showed the whole world that John Lucas is more of a man,) to go with Dwyane Wade's 19, and the Heat as a team shot 49% from the field as well as 38% from distance. Now, here is where there's a huge discrepancy in the statistics because a team can deal with turnovers (such as the OKC Thunder who average about 17 turnovers a game) and a team can still keep a game close or even win by defense when shooting a low percentage. The Miami Heat shot 24/33 from the charity stripe on what appeared to be horrible refereeing, at least to me anyways. With Iman Shumpert out, the Knicks lose their best on-ball defender. For the Knicks to compensate, Landry Fields is going to have to play a solid all-around game and the help-defense for the Knicks has to be flawless. I think Carmelo comes out today and makes up for his poor performance last Saturday. He is the center of this team, and Amare's performance as well as the whole team is dependent on how Carmelo plays. I think the Knicks cover a +9.5 spread tonight. The Knicks have to keep the paint locked down, and also have to rotate on the three point shooting where Mike Miller and Shane Battier can shoot lights out. Carmelo HAS to step up today, and I think he does.
Result: Well, there goes the exciting upset that I thought could have potentially happened. Already missing Jeremy Lin, Iman Shumpert and now Amare Stoudemire for getting into a fight with a fire extinguisher, the Knicks' chances at an upset are now slim to none. Carmelo now has full responsibility to operate this team and offensively he could lift the Knicks to get W's, but it's on the defensive end where the Knicks don't really have a chance. This game I said that Miami's three point shooting has to be kept under control and the rotations have to be there for the Knicks. Miami shot 43% going 9/21 from the three point line. Mike Miller took all of his shots from distance and went 3/5 as well as Shane Battier who went 3/5 from distance. The Knicks shot 49% from the field, 33% from three, and actually out-rebounded the Heat 40-33. Dwyane Wade lead the scoring for the Heat with 25, Chris Bosh dropped 21 and LeBron James scored 19, had 7 boards and 9 assists. Melo lead the scoring for the Knicks scoring 30 and grabbing 9 boards. Miami's the favorite this year so if the Knicks lose it's not that big of a disappointment, especially after getting hit with all the injuries.
13-6-1 (loss)
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