johnno:
Here’s my glass half full take — the Heat targeted this game for a week and played this game with playoff intensity that, for the most part, the Knicks matched.The Heat are the best, most athletic and hottest team in the league right now.The Heat played well both offensively and defensively.The Heat were fresh and at home.The Knicks played the night before and arrived in Miami at 4 a.m.The Knicks missed a lot of shots that they usually hit.No one on the Knicks played particularly well, their point guards were turnover machines and shot a combined John Starks Game 7 and they certainly didn’t get any calls from the refs (I have never seen a guy get clobbered on as many no-calls as Melo in my life). Yet, with 7 minutes to go, the Knicks were down 8 and a lucky bounce or two away from being down 4.While I was disappointed in the outcome, I think that the Knicks and Lin will grow and learn from this.By the way, I hate the Heat and I am very reluctant to say this but, damn they are good.My worst fears about them are being realized.

+1.

sisterray:
We now know that if a team wants to take Lin out of a game, they can.

no, Dallas has one of the better Ds in the league, tried the same thing, and Lin ate them alive. we know that Miami at their best can, and even that may not be true all season as NY gels and adjusts. that’s a big difference.

I think the biggest takeaway from the night for me was that Lin is human and he can be overcome by humans. Even though there aren’t many teams that can play D like the Heat, there are a lot of teams that are going to copy their strategy against Lin: hard traps and quick rotations. We now know that if a team wants to take Lin out of a game, they can. The task going forward is getting the rest of the team set to pick up the slack when Lin is under attack. If an opposing team wants to double Lin, then Melo and Stoudemire have to be capable of leading a 4-on-3 offense. Melo’s 7-20 shooting nights and Stoudemire’s matador defense have to come to an end.

1) I know it’s harsh to criticize a guy who hasn’t played a game in almost a year, but Baron was horrid last night, and his problems had a lot more to do with decision making than anything else – the part of your game which is least affected by rust. With the teams newfound depth we really don’t need our backup point to be a hero, just to keep running the offense, and Baron failed pretty dramatically in the respect. I’m very, very thankful that we don’t need to rely on him to be a savior, just to be a moderately competent backup guard. Thank god again for Jeremy.

2) Speaking of which, last night was the first time I’ve even entertained the thought that Lin might be a fluke, because he just looked so out of his depth. I’m confident that it was just a one time thing though. Plenty of great PGs struggle against that defense, and seeing it for the first time is definitely a wake-up call. He needs to watch that tape until his eyes bleed.

3) A couple positive signs on Stat as others have noted, but overall he continues to be the biggest area of concern. Those flashes make me believe it’s still in there, but the lack of assertion by him is puzzling. Even when Dirk/Pierce were struggling they were still playing their games for the most part, and just missing their shots. Stat isn’t attacking the rim more than once or twice a game at this point. He’s just playing a different game.

4) Overall, you can’t get too low after that game. They’re the best team in the league, they were clearly pumped for last night’s game, we didn’t play especially well (in fairness, neither did they), and we mostly hung with them. They’re (obvious statement alert!) going to be a very tough out in the playoffs but we’ll cross that bridge when and if we come to it. That seeming like a realistic possibility is something to be thankful for.

Jim Cavan: Which is why it’s hard for me to believe his “skillz” are completely shot. Right now I’m just reluctantly chalking it up to a Dirk / Pierce-like slow start.

the problem is that both Dirk and Pierce have already won titles and have shown that they can be the 1st guy on a title winning team… something Amare hasn’t done yet.

well, this game was just a case of a better team, with an ungodly defense playing 100% motivated at home against a team that was very hyped.

we’ll get better, but D’Antoni needs to find a way to play Novak more on those games, even if it means taking Chandler out for a while (his defense wasn’t even that great in this game anyway).

a lineup of Lin / Smith / Carmelo / Novak / Amare can play offense against anyone.

(1) The Heat are especially good on defense because they (a) rotate better than any other team; and (b) Joel Anthony’s unrelenting quest to block every shot. The Heat are so stacked and Anthony is so not needed on the floor, that the coaching staff allows Anthony to go block EVERY single shot. What an amazing gift for a head coach. Joel Anthony can get in foul trouble – who cares? The Knicks don’t have that. Chandler and Amare cannot go attack every single person in the paint – if they did, they would be on the bench and without Chandler, we would have no defensive presence, no offensive efficiency, and no leader. We would be ruined. But, Anthony, on the other hand, just goes after everyone (fouling them most of the time) without any concern. Its amazing and a testament to how stacked they are.

Second, on the second of a back to back, with PG’s going 1-17 and Lin having the worst game he will ever have in his career, we lost to the best team on planet earth by about 10. It’s not a moral victory by any stretch, but it didn’t keep me up last night wondering about this team. They’ll be fine. Keep chasing the Sixers, it will be fine. I think we’ll catch them.