U may know I'm no MDA fan. I've always thought he was the wrong coach for NY basketball.
However, I have watched the 4th quarter about 3 times, and I have to say all in all, his plan worked.
We were up. Amare was beasting, Melo was taking good shots that were riming out. We were playing tough defense.
We were up three with 37 seconds and had a defensive breakdown that gave them an alley oop, to put 2 points on the board and take no time off the clock. Thats the players fault, and that really really costed us.
Refs cheated us on the Melo foul away from the ball and KG's dirty trick free Ray for the game winning shot.
We were in a position to win. And really if 1 or 2 rimmed out shots fall, we win. MDA's plan worked and I'm sure all of the players have completely bought in realizing this. We can beat them. We should have and we will tonight.
Should a play have been called for Amare in the last 2:32? Probably. Should Melo have taken less jumpers, eh, its hard to call it they were good looks that didn't go all the way in.
Id say this, we need to diversify Melo's looks. He should take good long distance shots. But he should also get looks in the post and on the wings. Give him a chance to get to the line.
Toney Douglas is a baller. That took balls of steal to shoot a step back 3 on Ray Allen with 37 seconds left.
Knicks win it tonight. Book it.
I always wanted MDA to up the defensive intensity and it seems he has. Good for MDA prove everyone wrong and let them know that he can do it all as a coach. I agree with you the Knicks will win this next game and pretty much take the Celtics out of the series look for Knicks to win in 5 or 6. Game one I saw a Celtics team playing extemely hard just to stay in the game and everyone knows when old team play frantic and desperate they either fall short or break down as the series goes on.
The Celtics are in trouble and the know it.
They cannot show the Knicks anything they have not seen before.
Our second best player had an off night. It happens.
I was very happy to see how they played the C's on D. It made perfect sense to dare Rondo to shoot lights out and not give him the drive. Pack the paint and force the C's to become a jump shooting team.
We need to get STAT into the 20's on shot attempts. This needs to be the STAT and MELO show tonight. Hopefully Fields plays harder looking to make up for his lack of offense. He did his job on D, but he missed a lot of easy shots and needs to go stronger.
I need to see them close this team out..I'm tired of beating this team for 3 1/2 qrtrs...why can't we finish them off..
knicks1248 wrote:I need to see them close this team out..I'm tired of beating this team for 3 1/2 qrtrs...why can't we finish them off..
We lose focus. The things we did that were successful they have a tendency to get away from. It's like how we used to ignore Gallo when he was hot. Now we do it to STAT. This guy has to be option 1 or 2 and too many times they don't even get him the ball on important possessions. That just can't happen. If you're the PG on a team that has STAT and MELO at the end of a game and either one is dominating you make sure they get the ball!!!!
