Jeremiah Lin hurting with Marshmellow in the lineup

[airchibundo507]

Did you watch the game? 3rd Quarter. Melo and the first unit took a nose dive and was down 17 before Dantoni had to sub in the complete second unit. 5 man sub. This is what brought the Knicks back. Melo provided clutch moments in the end I don't discredit this, but Knicks at half time was poised to blow this Celtics team apart.

Charles Barkley brings a distaste to my mouth but he stated the truth when Melo/Stat were coming back: They'll figure out ways to score, but these two have to defend. Otherwise it's more of the same.

Melo picked up his fourth foul with 6:30 left in the third quarter. He had had zero shots that quarter and left the game with the Knicks down 4 before it ballooned to 15 with him on the bench.

[airchibundo507]

Melo shot 8-21 from the field. On one possession he missed three consecutive lay-ups, gathering his own offensive board each time, before he was fouled and put to the free throw line. Those three misses were not detrimental to the Knicks at all.

Thus, Melo was closer to 8-18 FG for the night, which isn't bad against an elite defense when he is in a shooting slump.

Had the Knicks prevented Pierce's heroic three pointer, Melo would have been the hero of the night with 23 points on 8-17 FG. He cooled down noticeably in OT as the offense went back to Lin ball with Melo forced to take bail out shots.

[Yanch856]

His stats are down because they've played the Heat, Celtics and a pissed-off D-Will. Are we really gonna blame Melo for Lin getting destroyed by better players and teams gearing up to stop him?

Basically the league has figured out that if you double or trap lin off the pick and roll, you can force the ball out of his hands and beat the Knicks. Why? Cos Lin's ball ends up in the hands of your so call superstars Amare and Melo. Even playing 4 on 3 they go up and still gets blocked consistently by Bass and KG. Come on man. You know Lebron would have dunked that in KG's face.

[airchibundo507]

I really don't know why I bother with this board. I swear this has to be the dumbest NBA forum on the web besides ESPN.

[ImmortalNemesis]

Just wait till J.R Smith comes back. He's our franchise changer.

[Yanch856]

I really don't know why I bother with this board. I swear this has to be the dumbest NBA forum on the web besides ESPN.

Speak for yourself

I don't know why u bother defending Melo. If nothing else it is a vulnerable political position for you. You know the NY media is coming to get him if he doesn't win soon. What exactly are you going to do?

For example, "Knicks D was top 5 in the league before Melo came back". "Melo missed the last shot in regulation. Clutch my a$$" Give the ball to Jeremy Lin.

I mean, you guys can bash Lin all you want, but he's playing a good hand. The reason why you can't play the blame game with Lin is because he's already passed the buck to
Stat and Melo. Soon as they came back, he's heaving praise on his superstars, passing out to Stat/Melo whenever he gets doubled. He's basically saying, ok if we lose, it's on Melo. I did what coached asked me to do as best as I could. Which is true. So you can complain about Lin all you want. he may not be executing as well as he could, but I don't blame him for Knicks loss for sure.

[Dwade305]

Just wait till J.R Smith comes back. He's our franchise changer.

Davis is the savior

[Blue&Orange]

First of all, the fact you cannot recognize the huge improvement without Melo makes you a complete idiot.

With Melo in the lineup, the Knicks (with a stack team I might add) is only as good as the Bucks (a team full of scrubs and brandon jennings).

Second, do you just watch the highlights and look for fancy dunks, iso plays, and fade aways? I know juvenile kids like you get huge boners over that sh*t, but veterans like me (y'know purist aka PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THE F*CK THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT) see something more than 15 second clips.

You have absolutely no argument homie.

10-18 is pretty damn pathetic.

You're so retarded that you make me wanna kill myself. More retarded than you only the people that try to argue with you.

Lin can't run his game with Melo controlling the team.

Melo usage since returning = 21, his career average is 31.
Lin usage still remains one of the highest of the league.

Has he been living under a cave and NOT been watching any Knicks game this year?

Yes because you are a Knicks fan and you see Knicks games.

when

fails

There's always

[June1026]

Lin doesnt fight over screens, he overhelps, and doesnt box out his man. That's all teachable. But his man on man isnt nearly that bad. Rondo couldnt get by Lin on isolations. It was pathetic. He was airballing contested layups. Once they started screening more for Rondo, Lin was lost and Rondo had free reign. Lin and the entire Knicks team needs to work on pnr defense as it destroys them. Calderon killed em the exact same way until the Shumpert/Jeffries combo came in.

Word, Lin's man on man was pretty good yesterday, Rondo couldn't make a lay-up with Lin on him.

[Yanch856]

Lin doesnt fight over screens, he overhelps, and doesnt box out his man. That's all teachable. But his man on man isnt nearly that bad. Rondo couldnt get by Lin on isolations. It was pathetic. He was airballing contested layups. Once they started screening more for Rondo, Lin was lost and Rondo had free reign. Lin and the entire Knicks team needs to work on pnr defense as it destroys them. Calderon killed em the exact same way until the Shumpert/Jeffries combo came in.

But the question is, why isn't the Knicks running the same screens for Lin??? I tear my eye balls out watching him getting trapped game after game now. Then all the haters come out to hate.

[Yanch856]

Alas, let's not forget who we traded for Melo:

1. Gallo.
2. Chandler.
3. Felton.
4. Mozgov.

For Melo??? Gallo alone is playing better than Melo now. Let's just think for a second,

Felton/Lin.
Fields/JR.
Gallo/Chandler.
Amare/Novak.
Chandler/Jefferies.

No melo, but wow.

[Yanch856]

Melo shot 8-21 from the field. On one possession he missed three consecutive lay-ups, gathering his own offensive board each time, before he was fouled and put to the free throw line. Those three misses were not detrimental to the Knicks at all.

Thus, Melo was closer to 8-18 FG for the night, which isn't bad against an elite defense when he is in a shooting slump.

Had the Knicks prevented Pierce's heroic three pointer, Melo would have been the hero of the night with 23 points on 8-17 FG. He cooled down noticeably in OT as the offense went back to Lin ball with Melo forced to take bail out shots.

Yeah but he looked way past his prime. Did you hear the commentator - "Wow" Even the commentator couldn't believe how much athletic ability Melo lost. It's not so much the numbers crushing of his 8-21, but the fact that he just looked old, and fat.

[InfiniteBaskets]

The Knicks have a tough schedule coming up. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they lose all of their next 6 games, or go 1-5.

Coming up they have:

Mavs
Spurs (on a b2b)
Bucks
76ers
Bulls
Blazers

And it's unfortunate, but whether or not Lin starts, comes off the bench or whether Melo is deactivated, they aren't going to win more than 2 of those games (just realistically speaking).

People can point fingers all they want after a loss (and withhold blame during wins), but at some point you just have to realize that NYK isn't that great of a team. They don't have a collective core that's been playing with each other for a few seasons like the Celtics, Spurs, Bulls, OKC etc... and they don't have more than one all-star (in fact nobody on their team is playing like a true all-star). It's unfortunate but if you don't win, you're not going to get good publicity regardless of how well you play.

[konex]

Why? Cos Lin's ball ends up in the hands of your so call superstars Amare and Melo.

From what I've been seeing, his ball ends up in the other team's hands more often than not

[IamRAMBO24]

"Comparing" is defined as "representing as similar." You may want to work on your vocabulary a long with the other evident deficiencies.

LOL stop acting like you are so f*ckin smart. When someone says Kobe reminds them of Jordan, it doesn't mean they think Kobe plays for the Bulls, won 6 championships, has 2 kids, owns the Bobcats, loves to gamble and beat little kids in a game of pickup.

When I say Jennings "REMINDS" me of Iverson, that doesn't mean he literally is Iverson.

STFU and get back to the main point of the argument. 10-18