Ok, so this is the first of hopefully many blogs in the weeks and months to come and it couldn't start at a better time in my eyes. Although I would watch basketball a little bit while the Knicks were terrible, it's hard to watch every other team's and their all-stars succeed when your city had none. Not anymore...
For 10 or so years, New York Knicks basketball has been a joke, let's be honest here. After they traded away Patrick Ewing to the Seattle Supersonics of all teams, the Knicks have been the laughing stock of the league and rightfully so. I personally, even as a Knicks fan, couldn't waste my precious time or spend my money watching or caring about what the Knicks did seeing as the NBA is purely a stars driven league.
Lets face it, you can win Championships in the NFL and MLB without stars more so than you can in the NBA. In the last 25 years, maybe only the Detroit Pistons became Champions without a real superstar, but then again they had Mr. Big Shot Chauncey Billups and 3 other NBA Allstars in Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton.
So with Football now mostly revolved around the upcoming lockout and pretty meaningless combine, it's so nice to have meaningful basketball being played now that Carmelo Anthony has joined the Knicks. Yesterday they played a magnificent basketball game despite having a team thats been together less than one week and only having three practices to learn their new teammates styles and offense.
Sunday's game in Miami started out as most figured it would. The Knicks were able to score sure, but the Heat appeared to be on a rampage and hell bent on showing their the force everyone has figured they would and should be. They scored 34 points in the first quarter and were breaking so much that again, all Knicks fans could say to themselves "wow, we have no defense."
Then things changed in the second quarter. Amare Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony know that they are going to have to make it a point to play defense if they expect to bring a title to New York and they did just that. Closing out the second quarter on a 16-0 run to take a one point lead certainly swung momentum in their favor.
Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, everyone knows, is not the defensive minded guy but I also think thats more so his system of play. If your mission is to push the ball up and down the floor, like Miami's is as well, then the pace of the game speeds up and your going to have a hard time slowing anybody down. Case in point, Friday night's loss to the atrocious Cleveland Cavaliers.
Now though, bringing in Carmelo and the best trade throw-in ever Chauncey Billups have given the Knicks something they haven't had since Ewing. They have the pieces to play a slower, half court game as Chauncey can walk the ball up court, and run the offense either through Amare or Carmelo. They held the fast break heavy Heat to only 35 points in the second half! They stepped up their defense sure, but I think the biggest reason was that they slowed the pace down to a level they are far more comfortable.
If your not taking shots within the first 8 seconds of every possession, then the other team can't score as much either. The teams in the NBA considered the best at defense are the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs. What do they all have in common? Point guards that care less about scoring, but can, and great half court offenses! They play a slower paced game and thats also been a standard for winning Championships. No team wins without it...ever.
I am not going to jump to conclusions all of a sudden to say the Knicks can beat the Heat in a seven game series, but they showed that they could at least make it a series if they face them come June. The Heats big 3 are definitely individually better than the Knicks 3, but they don't seem to complement each other the way the Knicks do.
The Heat have two players that are nearly identical in Wade and James, and Bosh is a "big man" who seems lost in the one on one show that Dwayne and LeBron switch off on possession by possession. The Knicks, on the other hand, have the right pieces to be capable of being a better team. They have the big man in Amare, the wing offensive powerhouse in Carmelo and a point guard who is highly underrated but more importantly, doesn't care if he scores 5 points or 25 on any given night.
The Knicks 3 pieces are just a better fit when you play team basketball. Late in the game, the three of them just worked better together then Miami's and helped the Heat to a now 5-11 record this year when the game's go down to the final seconds. At the end of the game I just knew LeBron wouldn't be able to get it done as he has never gotten it done before. Also, does anyone else notice that when LeBron has the ball, Wade just stands there and vice versa?
Again, I am a Knicks fan and love their new look but I also have tempered expectations for this season. But they showed last night that they are a force to not be over looked and will contend for an NBA title in the next four to five years.
Also, the fact that Carmelo Anthony took it upon himself to d-up LeBron James for the final 7 minutes (even though he did foul him on that last Amare block, but I digress) is the type of player the Knicks need. He obviously WANTS to be here, and I certainly WANT to watch him.
Last night's game brought me back to the early 90's and all that was missing from Chauncey's big shot was Marv Albert yelling "YES!"
