DRed:
Where’s ruru tonight?No hockey assists, no Kobeassists from Melo, no shot creators, and we fucking crushed a 12-4 defending champion on the road.How did that happen?

Everyone will play harder in the playoffs. There are structural flaws to their team that are exposed every game.

Still the favorites to win the East? You have to give that to them and they have the best player of all-time who can go 40-10-10 in a series.

Is Wade fading? hard to argue no. Everyone knew it would catch up to him, a guy so reliant on his amazing explosion. I don’t know the last time I’ve seen his patented two-step finish from a screen and roll.

Every once in a while he’ll show flashes.

Also, the Heat’s wing defenders are older than the Knicks. So, we all should laugh when people talk about age issues. Allen, Miller, Battier, Lewis… these guys are old and the Heat rely on perimeter rotations more than any team in the league.

I said the Knicks would make it a long series with Miami in the ECF. I think that these two blowouts are the most important thing to happen all year. Psychologically, it imprints something in the collective minds of both squads that will always be returned to in another game situation.

I think the intimidation and fear is totally gone. Frankly, that was what the Heat relied on last year. They were incredible when they sensed weakness and those runs were pretty much incomparable.

But you give the Knicks 4 chances at MSG, if they can steal one one the road. with that crowd and with core guys hungry for a ring, man, that could be really incredible.

This is the most impressive Knicks win I can remember in my lifetime. Ball movement and assisted 3′s with a sprinkinling of hero shots. That is a recipe for success and they didn’t even have to respect our significant mid-range threats in Melo who has been a beast this season and STAT who is still rehabbing.

I know STAT’s reinvolvement with the team will affect minutes, rotations, starting lineups, etc. If he can fit his game into the system and show the growth defensively he showed last year under Woodson this team can be deadly.

Spoelstra talked about the vertical threat Tyson provides before the game. He is an absolutely integral part of our offense and one that adds a certain cutting edge to the offense in terms of how decisive his actions are.

Felton is just a pitbull. Always probing and attacking and today he just had it going from outside. He really seems to relish the New York across his chest.

Can’t wait to see how good our defense can be once Shumpert is back and if STAT can get it going…

DRed:
Where’s ruru tonight?No hockey assists, no Kobeassists from Melo, no shot creators, and we fucking crushed a 12-4 defending champion on the road.How did that happen?

On the second night of a back to back….

Chandler’s TS%: when Melo doesn’t play: 60%

When you factor in the 2 turnovers (out of the Knicks 7 total) it seems it wasn’t our offensive superstar that filled up the void left up Melo but the mediocre chucker that nobody wanted on this team

The Knicks actually didn’t shoot as well as you’d think, they shot under 50% on 2′s (23/47) 40% on 3′s, which is good but below our season average, and much lower than the last game against the Heat, and they shot a laughably bad 69% from the line. Jason Kidd has actually had a BETTER TS% than Chandler this year, and he had 11 points on 12 shots tonight. The Knicks didn’t shoot well with Melo out, they just managed to avoid turnovers equally well, mostly because Felton was handling everything that Melo usually would and the rest of the team is awesome at making smart plays. But this isn’t much better than the Knicks season average for offensive efficiency, and it’s lower than what the Knicks are averaging on offense when Melo is in the game (a video game like 118 points per 100 possessions)

This loss says just as much about what the Heat look like now than it does about how good our bench is. Again, in extremely similar conditions last week, the Spurs almost won despite benching EVERYONE. Even the biggest Melo nut-hugger would have to admit that losing Duncan, Parker, Ginobli, and Green is a bit more severe than just losing Melo. If you think that this team without Melo is better than San Antonio’s scrubs and Washington’s best players (which I absolutely do) then this result isn’t very surprising.

By the way, the shot creation argument says the team is screwed without a creator that can play like a star. Felton doesn’t have to be a star the rest of the season, but he played fucking amazing tonight, quite simply there’s your shot creator. By the way, nobody is arguing you need to be all that good at shot creation to beat a defense that’s recently given up a 100 to teams like Cleveland, Washington, and the Spurs scrubs. If they can’t guard a simple pick and roll then why are we pretending it means anything that it means anything if they won a championship last year?

DRed: Get the fuck out, ruru.You talk so much shit, so grow a thicker skin and take a little teasing like a man.Are you even a fucking Knicks fan?Ray Felton was absolutely amazing tonight-did I say he wasn’t?Felton’s a good PG, and a really nice fit for this particular team.He destroyed the Heat.But that’s not the point.How did we play so well without Carmelo?Seriously, asshole, got to Meloblogger.com if you’re going to be such a prickly bitch.

Not now, dude. You know exactly what you were trying to do. there was nothing good-natured about it.