Owen: “Juany8:I know a lot of people don’t really buy that a team needs time to “gel” and come togetherthose people seem to be very quiet here these days, our fearless leader being one of them. I always thought it was ludicrous to doubt such an obvious truth, but hey.”Still here. The Knicks still are what they are, despite the recent hot streak. Still excited to see some playoff basketball. It was clear for a while that our efficiency differential didn’t match our record. (i.e. we were better than we our record indicated.) And Carmelo couldn’t suck incredibly badly forever. Clearly there were some injury/chemistry issues he had to work through. But if someone has to be the gritty, annoying realist, i’ll volunteer for the task. We are only finally being to look like the 45-50 win team that was projected out of the gate. And we are still big underdogs in any 7-8 first round playoff matchups.And the situation would look a lot different if Deng or Rose hadn’t bricked four consecutive free throws. Those misses are basically the difference between this board being in a good mood and being serially depressed as usual….

Having paid very close to attention to 8 45-50 (actually 50- 54) win teams the last 8 years, this team looks significantly better than those teams did.

That doesn’t mean that they’ll beat Miami or Chicago in the first round if they can’t get a better seed, they just don’t have enough offensive versatility right now, but this team is demonstrating that if healthy it should easily surpass 50 wins next year and will be able to battle any team in the league in a series.

I don’t see why any of the projections matter at this point anyway, considering the injuries, the roster changes, the dramatic under-performance and the out-of-nowhere contributions.

JK47:
I’m a Mets and Raiders fan in addition to being a Knicks fan.So I have suffered greatly in recent years.

But I’m really excited about the Mets, and not just because of their 4-0 streak.The Mets are now being run by people who understand and embrace advanced statistics, and they really seem to be getting a lot of things right.It’s really satisfying after watching Omar Minaya flail around for so many years.

jon abbey: we’re still playing without a PG, when and if we get an adequate one, that will be a big boost.

and you’re not wrong on the FTs, but Melo missed one late in regulation too, FWIW.

jon abbey: we’re still playing without a PG, when and if we get an adequate one, that will be a big boost.

and you’re not wrong on the FTs, but Melo missed one late in regulation too, FWIW.

Owen:

But if someone has to be the gritty, annoying realist, i’ll volunteer for the task. We are only finally being to look like the 45-50 win team that was projected out of the gate. And we are still big underdogs in any 7-8 first round playoff matchups.

And the situation would look a lot different if Deng or Rose hadn’t bricked four consecutive free throws. Those misses are basically the difference between this board being in a good mood and being serially depressed as usual….

we’re still playing without a PG, when and if we get an adequate one, that will be a big boost.

and you’re not wrong on the FTs, but Melo missed one late in regulation too, FWIW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHp-uIkXLLI

Owen:
“Juany8:
I know a lot of people don’t really buy that a team needs time to “gel” and come together
those people seem to be very quiet here these days, our fearless leader being one of them. I always thought it was ludicrous to doubt such an obvious truth, but hey.”

Still here. The Knicks still are what they are, despite the recent hot streak. Still excited to see some playoff basketball.

It was clear for a while that our efficiency differential didn’t match our record. (i.e. we were better than we our record indicated.) And Carmelo couldn’t suck incredibly badly forever. Clearly there were some injury/chemistry issues he had to work through.

But if someone has to be the gritty, annoying realist, i’ll volunteer for the task. We are only finally being to look like the 45-50 win team that was projected out of the gate. And we are still big underdogs in any 7-8 first round playoff matchups.

And the situation would look a lot different if Deng or Rose hadn’t bricked four consecutive free throws. Those misses are basically the difference between this board being in a good mood and being serially depressed as usual….

Well, Owen, the Knicks, you recall bricked FTs as a slightly weaker rate than the Bulls. I think the bulls were 71% from the line and the Knicks 70%…If the Knicks make theirs the game doesn’t go to OT. They simply win.
Just to be a gritty realist. :)

jon abbey: those people seem to be very quiet here these days, our fearless leader being one of them. I always thought it was ludicrous to doubt such an obvious truth, but hey.

And yet, I know there are people who make what appear to be devil’s advocate positions in an effort to test more vigorously conventional wisdom. Not saying that was Mike’s intent, but I know I like to challenge some arguments just to test them.
I enjoy this site because of the vigor.

gjknick:
Just rewatched the game – thanks Ruru for the link to the you tube post. I wonder if they should start counting Rose’s missed layups as assists! Invariably he gets to the rim, pulling TC away from his man to contest the shot. Rose misses and then one of the Bulls bigs just lays it back in. He can shoot 8 for 26 or whatever and that tells nothing about the impact he’s having.

Also, the four missed free throws by the Bulls is freaky and we can’t count on that happening again. But Novak burying that 3 and missing it at the same time is pretty freaky as well. That tech on Shump was BS. Throughout every game there are unusual events. That’s sports. It was a tough close game that could of went either way. But there’s only one winner. We’ll see who comes out on top today.

Is there a link that replays all knicks games?