Miami gets their statement win here, but the box score doesn’t suggest that they did much other than watch the Magic implode. Udonis Haslem is outplaying Bosh…

Looking forward to the home opener tomorrow, gonna be another extremely tough game vs Portland but Im hopeful they can pull it off.

On D while the 9 blocks was nice the Celtics scored a ton of points in the paint. Mozgov gets lost a lot- I wouldn’t be shocked if Turiaf gets back into the starting line-up. He was +10 though 0 rebounds in 22 minutes is unacceptable.

1) The knicks did not go away. They came back from every celtics run to keep the game competitive. We saw the same thing with Toronto. Each time Toronto threatened, the knicks responded.

2) We thought we were deep at shooting guard, but with Chandler playing the 3/4, Azubuike hurt, and with Roger Mason looking completely incapable of making any shot, let alone a three pointer, we’re left with Bill Walker, who isn’t bad, but doesn’t add much besides the shooting, which hasn’t been working either so far (although I trust that it will come around). He’s not much of a defender, rebounder, passer, or penetrator. If he added one of those skills, he’d be a solid backup.

3) We drew a lot of fouls. Garnett and Davis fouled out, and pierce ended the game with 5 fouls. If we hadn’t fallen apart at the FT line in the 4th, we might have stolen this one, despite Rondo’s 24 assists.

4) Rebounding and interior defense are still problems. More than half the Celtics points came in the paint. I really don’t see why Mozgov can’t play more. He made the one rookie mistake (stepping inbounds on the pass in), and it seemed like that turned D’Antoni against him. In his limited minutes he did a lot of other things well. Most importantly, although he only had one block, he altered a lot of shots on the interior. He moves well with and without the ball on offense. He had a nice put back, and a nice drive that earned him a foul. I can’t shake the feeling that if you just shrunk him down three inches, he’d be getting 10-15 more MPG. D’Antoni just doesn’t seem to believe that a big man, no matter how well he runs, can fit into his offense.

5) Switching. A lot of the time, this is a good idea, because the knicks have athletes that can defend multiple positions, but when you’re playing a team with big time big men, you just can’t always switch, and especially against the celtics, with Rondo’s inability to shoot (in this game, Marquis Daniels’ as well), switching doesn’t get you much benefit.

6) Gallinari will get better. It’s really his second season. A lot of guys break out during that second season, so I’m going to be patient.

6) After the first few disastrous minutes, the Celtics played a pretty strong game. The defense was good, and they got scoring from lots of different people. Allen was a little off, but Glen Davis and Garnett made up for his poor perimeter shooting. This is a good sign, and I think the responsibility right now is on D’Antoni. He clearly has the pieces here of a 40+ win team.

It’s time for all of us to jump on the Nets bandwagon, 2 wins over the playoff bound Pistons and Kings at home!