Watched the first half at the awesomely named "Canz" in Astoria, second half at Blackbird's.
Bill Walker did a great job in the first quarter as a Melo understudy. I was really impressed with Turiaf's play too. Sucked we left points at the line and just didn't get a couple more stops. I really can't even break down the loss much more than that. Looking forward to game 2, might have to see some of you fools out there at Stout or wherever you end up choosing for the UK meetup.
BlueSeats wrote:nixluva wrote:BlueSeats wrote:nixluva wrote:these refs have to get it together and stop allowing the C's to get away with murder, tho I don't expect to get a better whistle. Knicks just have to play thru the bogus calls and no calls. This loss doesn't really bother me. I think the Knicks know now that they really can beat this team. We didn't get a typical Melo game and I expect that we'll see that. The GREAT NEWS was STAT looked great!!!! We need to speed things up just a bit and get into the paint more on the C's. I think that will happen. The C's don't have a lot of shot creators and they're not a great shooting team outside of Allen, KG and Pierce. If you play up on those guys you can hold them down. I thought overall the way we played Rondo was pretty good. We just need to get our offense fixed just a bit and I think we can beat the C's.
Of course the other side of the coin is the Celtics know they can beat us by only playing hard for half the game, and could theoretically crush us if they played well start to finish.
Celtics were playing hard all game. They just can't go that hard for 48. You're giving them too much credit. We got an off 2nd half from Melo, STAT was still killing in the 4th qtr so it's not like the C's D was so much better. We just have to do a better job with shot selection. More drive and less jumper is going to be a big key. C's can't handle our best offensive players. I want to see the Knicks pick up the pace more too, cuz that was more of a C's pace. The one thing we miss from not having Felton is the end to end speed and pushing the ball regularly. Not to mention that he was the best we had to run PnR.
You didn't notice their increased defensive intensity in the second half? It was no coincidence our offense was surging in the second quarter and halted in the second half.
The C's picked up their intensity but IMO that really wasn't the reason we missed some wide open shots, some from point blank range and more over we didn't run the right plays many times. They still couldn't stop STAT and Melo stopped himself. Not to mention that the ref's let the C's get away with murder. I hope they say something to the refs about how Jermaine O'Neal always puts his hand on the shoulder of the guys he's going after to block his shot. He held STAT on the shoulder on a couple of his shots.
I don't believe the C's can play hard on D for 48 minutes anymore. We have to take advantage of that next time and go hard at them a bit more by driving the ball. We let them off the hook when we just jack up jumpers.
I wish I could simply call it a tough loss and move on, but Im too freaking disgusted right now to look at the bright side of another meaningless moral victory. You blame this on the many blown calls by the refs. I blame it on our pathetic third quarter.
Didn't we learn anything from the heartbreaking loss to them after the trade? This was exactly the same. We started on fire, Boston adjusted their defense, we played out of control and scared and finally we gave the game away. Same script. For all the good effort, I can't take anything good when we again couldn't adjust to the Celtics.
Boston played as horrible as a defending east champion can, yet we gave them the game again choking in the second half. What's the point of watching when they will repeat the same script again.
And Melo, cant believe it but tonight proved he isn't even in Pierce's level. How much I hate that guy, but he came up big when his team needed him while Melo disappeared. Wasn't he supposed to be our closer? Weren't the last seconds of game his time?
This was more disappointing than one would've thought. 3his isn't a game we simply lost. We seemed to hit them with our best shot and again lost in the final play. This loss killed 90% excitement of being again in the playoffs. This loss really got to me...
Knicksfan wrote:I wish I could simply call it a tough loss and move on, but Im too freaking disgusted right now to look at the bright side of another meaningless moral victory. You blame this on the many blown calls by the refs. I blame it on our pathetic third quarter.Didn't we learn anything from the heartbreaking loss to them after the trade? This was exactly the same. We started on fire, Boston adjusted their defense, we played out of control and scared and finally we gave the game away. Same script. For all the good effort, I can't take anything good when we again couldn't adjust to the Celtics.
Boston played as horrible as a defending east champion can, yet we gave them the game again choking in the second half. What's the point of watching when they will repeat the same script again.
And Melo, cant believe it but tonight proved he isn't even in Pierce's level. How much I hate that guy, but he came up big when his team needed him while Melo disappeared. Wasn't he supposed to be our closer? Weren't the last seconds of game his time?
This was more disappointing than one would've thought. 3his isn't a game we simply lost. We seemed to hit them with our best shot and again lost in the final play. This loss killed 90% excitement of being again in the playoffs. This loss really got to me...
It was a tough loss for the fans, but not for the team. That wasn't the Knicks best punch either!!! They went into the Lions den and put up a great fight. Now they can relax and feel no pressure the rest of the way, cuz they know for sure that if they just play a little better they can beat the Celtics!!!
Melo had a bad game, but that doesn't mean he won't bounce back and have a great series. I think what really hit me was that they don't have anyone that can stop STAT!!! Melo basically just has to make some minor adjustments, cuz they won't be able to stop him either.
The Celtics are going to have to bring it every single night cuz our team is more potent. They will only be able to get by on guile for only so long before we simply overwhelm them. Jermaine O'Neal can't go hard for 6-7 games. KG and Pierce have to pick their spots. If we can press the pace more in the next game I think we'll wear them down.
Also you shouldn't have your enthusiasm killed so easily. Especially when we haven't even played one home game yet. This series is far from over after one game.
we needed this game, now we are forked.
Fields played some great D on Allen and I think that was key. While Toney may be a better on the ball defender, Allen doesn't play like that. Fields has the height and speed and stamina to stay with Ray and bother him on those jumpers. He also denied him the ball very well. I was dying for. Mike to put Fields back in when Allen was killing them.
Look - nobody is expecting the Knicks to win this series - it would have been great to win game 1 but it would have put a lot of pressure on this team, plus they would be vulnerable to underestimating the celtics for the remainder of the series. This is a learning moment - I would rather take a loss like this in game 1 and make adjustments than in game 7 when everything is on the line.
Hopefully we take game 2 and steal home court but we all know beating the refs is going to be tough. The Knicks have to play smarter and avoid stupid late game fouls that cost them valuable possessions.
Also Hardcore or Orange should make the next game thread - Nalod has bad luck.
Nah Nixluva, its the pain of the moment talking. You know at some point today or tomorrow you go back expecting the best. But this one hurts like no loss in a while. I feel sucker punched. We played (again) well enough to win, but again we played scared in the second half and thats a longterm concern for me. We had no way of playing our offense in that third quarter. And instead of pick and roll or even posting up Melo, we shot horrible shots like we couldn't get back to defense soon enough and let Boston chip in.
We showed we can play with them, but we kinda knew that already. The Celtics, this time for real, look wounded and on the other side of the mountain, but they know they have the upperhand if they can pull out another one tomorrow. We must, like the mustests of musts, win tomorrow. No win tomorrow and there is no close game moral victory.
Its put up or shut up, especially for Melo, who may have been robbed but also shot misserably the second half and couldn't adjust (nor the coach) to the defensive intensity. It was like Boston focused on getting Melo out of the game and they succeeded.
We need to come out strong next game, keep the intensity on D and work our O. Once the second half starts, we need to come out agressive and if our flow is stopped again, we need to run the pick-n-roll with Melo and Amare, with Carter too and even post up Melo. We need o sow them we can close out the game. Never let the refs beable to rob you. How? Don't let the lead fall under 5.
OasisBU wrote:Also Hardcore or Orange should make the next game thread - Nalod has bad luck.
martin did you read this? i quote it to make sure.
oasisbu, your wishes is my commandments.
toney douglas had that boss move step back trey, but i was like "wtf is he doing shooting a step back trey??".
damn.
well i feel like s##t about this loss. a classic combination of depressed and pissed off. i plan to work myself into such a state of advanced irritability/focused mania that i will burn motherf##king stout to the ground tuesday night!!!
I'm with Marv
Douglas was tripped and Garnett is a punk
Great effort buy our guys. Throat really impressed with his D and some nice inside buckets. All the offensive rebounds really killed us. Even when they didn't score it throws the team off their rhythm and tires them out. Despite we almost won. Gotta be worried about how we stalled when Boston turned up the D but stat was looking like early season stat.
nykshaknbake wrote:Great effort buy our guys. Throat really impressed with his D and some nice inside buckets. All the offensive rebounds really killed us. Even when they didn't score it throws the team off their rhythm and tires them out. Despite we almost won. Gotta be worried about how we stalled when Boston turned up the D but stat was looking like early season stat.
Our new guys just learned a first collective lesson in playoff basketball. It was an outstanding team effort on the road. A win would have been delicious but a loss is not the end of the world and Tuesday will be here in a brief moment. Today,we fans need to leave the past in the past and move on to the next game, in the same manner we expect the players to move on.
Every game is different and the challenge is to keep doing what worked, adjust to whatever Boston changes and simply make one more shot.
nykshaknbake wrote:Great effort buy our guys. Throat really impressed with his D and some nice inside buckets. All the offensive rebounds really killed us. Even when they didn't score it throws the team off their rhythm and tires them out. Despite we almost won. Gotta be worried about how we stalled when Boston turned up the D but stat was looking like early season stat.
My autocorrect made turiaf into throat. Lol.
nykshaknbake wrote:nykshaknbake wrote:Great effort buy our guys. Throat really impressed with his D and some nice inside buckets. All the offensive rebounds really killed us. Even when they didn't score it throws the team off their rhythm and tires them out. Despite we almost won. Gotta be worried about how we stalled when Boston turned up the D but stat was looking like early season stat.
My autocorrect made turiaf into throat. Lol.
haha that was funny, i was trying to figure out who you were referring to.
martin wrote:nykshaknbake wrote:nykshaknbake wrote:Great effort buy our guys. Throat really impressed with his D and some nice inside buckets. All the offensive rebounds really killed us. Even when they didn't score it throws the team off their rhythm and tires them out. Despite we almost won. Gotta be worried about how we stalled when Boston turned up the D but stat was looking like early season stat.
My autocorrect made turiaf into throat. Lol.
haha that was funny, i was trying to figure out who you were referring to.
i'm loving it. turiaf is now to be known as throat.
