[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

Honestly, I thought the Knicks and Carmelo would bring it.  Once again, Melo has been shut down and the Knicks ran out of gas in the 4th quarter.  Does anybody see the Knicks winning game 4 or is this a sweep yet again for New York?

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Get the brooms out…

[GoodbyeChandlerParticipant]

The New York Knicks franchise will be swept in the 1st round for a third consecutive playoff appearance. Is that a record? 

[PAUL125Participant]

17 points for lebron in the 4th quarter. Loved the scoring mindset he had on, thats when he’s at his best. Score first, pass second.

[aamir543Participant]

I was a doubter of the Heat all along, I kept doubting them, thinking that they’ll barely get past NY, and might even lose to Indiana or the Bulls, but the East is over, it’s pointless to even play out the rest of the games, I loved the way Lebron played tonight, with agression and passion, can’t ask for anything more, he really took control in the fourth quater and wanted the ball, he wanted to score.

Miller and Battier are getting their shots, but just not hitting, a combined Chalmers had a huge game today, couldn’t ask more of him, Joel Anthony did the dirty work, I love the way they got Miller and Battier involved, even if those shots weren’t falling, they were 1-10, imagine if they were on their game.

They went small today, and they played well, but one thing that frustrated the hell out of me was that NY was just leaving Novak in a corner, and he rarely got a good look, in part due to the Heat closing out exceptionally well, but can’t they run him off a dozen screens like Chicago and Miami do for Korver and Allen? I said at the begining of the series that JR Smith and Novak had to win one game for them if they wanted even a remote chance of even being in it, but Novak has been completely left out of their gameplan at least for today, and I see Miami finishing buisness easily on Sunday.

[I May Be WrongParticipant]

In my best RUDEBOY_ pun …. The Knicks should have started that fire extinguisher..at least that can contain the HEAT

It’s over ladies and gents. Heat close out and get some rest while Indiana/Orlando battle it out

[KayjayParticipant]

Who saw James swat Melo when he went up for a dunk?

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

^
Kayjay

That was a clean block if I’ve ever seen one.

[aamir543Participant]

^The camera angle is zoomed out so when Melo sees the open and he’s like 12 feet from the basket, we can see Lebron charging toward the basket, but I didn’t think he’d block it, and damn he can still get so high, last year when Wiz of Oz was talking about how Lebron lost ahtleticism I could see where he was coming from but he lost some weight/muscle over the off-season and is just as dominant as ever.

[OldSkoolBasketballParticipant]

13 game losing streak in the playoffs. I believe thats a record. 

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

OldSkool

And it’s going to extend to 14…

Aamir

Yeah, you can really see LeBron put off a couple of lbs from last season.  He was just so strong that he would wear himself out carrying that tank for a body for so many minutes.  

I like that Spoelstra is playing him significantly less minutes than last season.   He played 44 minutes a game last postseason and is playing about 35 this post season.  

The addition of Battier has really helped the Heat.  LeBron doesn’t have to guard the best player on the opposing team that often anymore and can focus on offense.  Last season, he wore himself out by guarding the likes of Iguodala, Pierce, Rose, Deng, and Rondo while playing 44 minutes a game and being the primary scorer.  By the time he got to the finals, he was worn out.  Now he has Battier to help him out.

[TyroberParticipant]

[andxxxParticipant]

 Lebron was bad the first 3 quarters, but beasted in the 4th I’m sure Skip will love to talk about that

[PulseGlazerParticipant]

The poor Knicks are a poorly constructed pale immitation of the Heat.

[mrwehbeParticipant]

 The knicks are over since that game 1 vs heat where everything went wrong.

when you loose your only lockdown defender and the refs were clearly biased.

I think with the right moves in the offseason next year they’ll surely get better because the structure is there.

 

[omphalosParticipant]

 I think the Knicks will be a lot better next season; whoever they hire as head coach will have a full off-season and training camp to gel Melo, Amare and Chandler. If Baron Davis and Amare can stay healthy, they hold onto J.R. Smith and Lin, they could quite easily be a high seed in the East.

I wouldn’t be giving up on this roster yet. They haven’t really had a real chance.

As far as Miami is concerned, I wouldn’t be so quick to hand them the East. Boston is going to have an easy run to the ECF with Philly or the Bulls offering only token resistance, and the Celtics being healthier than they have in a while. Whereas the Heat are going to be facing a very athletic, hard-nosed Pacers team which is going to steal at least one game to extend the series.

That said, Miami is still the overwhelming favourite, and the West is going to be by far the most interesting to watch until the Finals.

 

[PulseGlazerParticipant]

I don’t believe they’ll be able to hold onto JR.  That exception, since their over the cap, will end up with Lin.

[sheltwon3Participant]

This was never a good match up because Heat are gearing for the Finals. With Bulls losing Rose, there is no one really to stop them.  New York should not have lost some dumb games and could have been facing Indy who they could have beaten.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 I was hoping for a melo breakout game or a huge flurry of threes from Novak and smith to win a game. I still think that could happen on Sunday. Amare being out seems to help the team as he is no better than their 7th best guy and he was getting starters minutes. So there is chance to avoid the sweep. Especially if heat get complacent on D. 

Problem is mainly still the point guard position. Davis and Bibby are playing smart and picking their spots, but Bibby can basically do nothing anymore and is getting 20 minutes a game and Davis is limited. Neither are helping attack the Heats worst position. 

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

These guys were inevitably tied together being in the same draft class. In the first few years, anytime someone brought up LeBron James, you had to bring up Melo (Michael Wilbon was a major proponent of this strategy). Charles Barkley may indeed be right that there is no more complete offensive player than Carmelo Anthony, he has a ton of ways to score and makes it look good. Still, his proficiency is not necessarily efficiency. The Heat have done a better job of attacking the rim and getting to the line. Good breakdown here:

http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/why-fouls-are-a-major-factor-in-heat-knicks-series/

Teams that settle tend to not get to the line as frequently as teams that don’t. Ask LeBron James in the Dallas series last year, when he settled his way to 3.7 FT attempts per game in the Finals (yes, I am criticizing him). Carmelo has been more aggressive than LeBron was in his famous disappointing flameout last season, but he has settled and clearly been bothered. Carmelo’s career has clearly gone down a different path than the player he fought for rookie of the year in 2004.

I saw an interesting statistic last night on TNT that pointed to Carmelo’s play-off winning percentage as I believe the lowest for anyone with 50 play-off games. 16-36 makes it 30.8%, compared to LeBron at 59-36 and 62.1%. People almost believed that LeBron and Melo could turn into the new Magic and Larry. Indeed, neither has lived up to the early championship success of either. All in all, LeBron has seemed to be on an entirely different plain than Carmelo. There first play-off battle has been absolutely lopsided, much like their careers past rookie season.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 The problem is mainly that melo uses that offensive skill to settle for hard shots. It keeps his per game average up but lowers his efficiency. He can’t beat a great player like lebron over seven games doing that. Though he should be due for a big game on Sunday. I’m hoping for the best. 

[Author]

Posts