NY Knicks: The Knicks are back in the playoffs, making it two consecutive seasons. Now comes the challenge of facing the Miami Heat and the big three: Wade, James and Bosh. The Heat won all three meetings during the regular season. Now it’s a different season – you throw out the old and start anew.
Early in the 1st quarter it was Baron Davis keeping the Knicks in the game. Davis was 3 for 3 from downtown, keeping the Knicks within striking distance. Carmelo Anthony was out of sync, shooting 0-7 from the field. It was just a bad day for Melo as the Heat defense was able to keep him offd balance throughout the first half.
It appears that officals have looked at past Knicks and Heat playoff battles and decided to control the game with the whisle, making it really diffcult for the Knicks to get into any type of rythm. The Heat shot 33 frees compared to the Knicks 11, lop-sided to say the least. How will the Knicks adjust in the next game ? Can they compete with Heat in this series?
The Knicks lost a key component when rookie Iman Shumpert went down, suffering a torn ALC, out for the rest of the season. Shumpert has been the catalyst on defense, matching up against the opponents’ best players. Now it’s up to the Knicks bench to step it up, to compensate for the loss of Shumpert.
Mike Woodson, during his post game press conference, avoided all questions about the officials. We need to play better, said Woodson, they did what was expected winning on their on home court. Now we have to find a way to a get better offensive flow to allow our shooters to get better looks.
Knicks fans can assure themselves that Saturday’s game will not be the footprint for the series. The Knicks will find a way to turn things around after this embarrassing loss to the Heat 100 to 67.
Vernon McKenzie: PureSportsNY