Comments on: Knicks Morning News (Friday, Apr 27 2012)

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:07:59 +0000

Yeah, we’re discussing that it in the new thread. I sincerely doubt Chandler will actually miss a game because of the flu.

By: ruruland

ruruland — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:06:51 +0000

Chandler: flu-like symptoms, did not practice

By: ruruland

ruruland — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:06:16 +0000

This can’t be real: https://twitter.com/#!/FisolaNYDN/status/195964433560899584

By: ruruland

ruruland — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:59:15 +0000

Brian Cronin: Which is, in and of itself, a key for the Knicks, right?

Yeah, but his ability to space the floor is huge. If Melo and Amar'e action can't be stopped, they'll be forced to change which could create opportunities. I think they'll basically play straight up to start, which is perfect. Another thing about having Melo against Lebron is that it'll be tough for Lebron to get ahead of the pack in transition if he's always guarding the ball.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:53:42 +0000

Which is, in and of itself, a key for the Knicks, right?

By: ruruland

ruruland — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:53:10 +0000

Brian Cronin: I would imagine the biggest difference maker for the Knicks will be if they hit a goodly amount of threes. The Heat are not good from three and don’t defend threes particularly well. Novak and Smith alone could win a game for them if they both get hot.

Novak won't likely get a lot of shots early in the series. I think he'll be a huge focus of their defense.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:51:42 +0000

I would imagine the biggest difference maker for the Knicks will be if they hit a goodly amount of threes. The Heat are not good from three and don’t defend threes particularly well. Novak and Smith alone could win a game for them if they both get hot.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:50:39 +0000

@57 – maybe I’m looking at this through NYK fan goggles, but I feel really good about this team right now, and I am pretty sure that Miami would rather have played any of the other 5-8 seeds rather than us. If they beat us, they will have Indiana, which is a matchup that probably doesn’t scare them. We are probably the toughest series they will have until the conference finals. I don’t think we can even hope they are looking past us.

@56 – agreed re: Amare vs. Bosh. I am pretty sure we will see a very steady diet of PNR involving Wade/LBJ and Bosh if that is the matchup though. Amare had more success post-Woodson doing a hard trap on the ball handler, but I’d be really worried about his ability to stop Wade from splitting that double team.

Tyson did not practice today – that is a big blow. They need to get their defensive strategy set, and only had this one practice to personalize it for the Heat.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:49:33 +0000

Or, if Amare can outscore Bosh and cancel out his production.

By: ruruland

ruruland — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:49:23 +0000

I think the Knicks are in a really optimal position from a collective mentality perspective.

Next year this is probably going to be looked at as the series that decides who moves on to the championship.

This year, the Knicks are really just another underachieving, dysfunctional team — that’s what it looks like on the surface.

But I think they’ll be extremely focused from play-to-play.

Melo has something to prove. Their isn’t a whole lot of pressure.

Game 1 is the easiest to steal. But there’s little to analyze. The fun starts when we start to look at how teams adjust after game 1.