1.) He is injured. Frankly, he gets injured too much but at least he isn't a pvssy about it. He goes out there and plays through injuries, almost to a fault because he gets crucified for poor shooting when he does it, but at least he cares enough about his team to put their success above his health. Playing at the 4 means more wear and tear for his body, so that's a reasonable explanation for the nagging injuries he had midseason and now.
Why is he playing 4, might I add? Because...
2.) His second option, STAT, is always injured, ESPECIALLY in the postseason. Melo doesn't have a single legitimate scoring option on his team besides himself. JR Smith, the guy everyone thought fit the role of second option is shooting worse from the field than Melo right now. Felton has been playing out of his mind the last few games, but he sees reduced pressure from defenses due to the attention Melo receives. Melo should definitely move the ball more, but the shots he is taking are Melo shots. They aren't terrible looks, they are looks he normally converts at a 44-45% clip on average.
You guys make it sound as if he is chucking up terrible shots left and right, when in reality...
3.) When his jumpshots aren't falling, he adapts and attacks the basket more frequently. Unfortunately, he doesn't get anywhere near as much generosity from refs as guys like Durant and Harden. Hibbert slapped him in the face last game on a ferocious dunk attempt and the refs didn't so much as flinch. Hansborough bashed him on the head on a hard drive and the refs didn't even review it to put flagrant status into consideration. There were a sh*tload of questionable drives with heavy contact that all went in Indiana's favor, until remarkably in the 4th quarter the refs decided to make a game of it when Indy had a near 15 point lead and called things a bit more evenly and moreso in the Knicks favor. That's why Melo had 0 free throw attempts through 3 quarters in the last game, despite attacking the basket more than 8 times.
4.) Thus far in the playoffs, he has played two elite defenses that effectively pack the paint and have an anchor to shadow all of his drives. These are literally two of the top 3 defenses that play him the best (along with maybe Chicago). Of course he is going to struggle when JR Smith disappeared.
So, to sum it up, for a scorer to go up against elite defenses with a clearly bothersome shoulder injury with only one other scoring threat on the team and perform up to par is a feat only Durant and LeBron can dream of achieving, and they are on a tier far above Melo. Is Melo inexcusable? Hell no. He should take on the role of a facilitator. I don't understand why he isn't passing as much as he did in the regular season. He had 5 assists in Game 6 against the Celtics because he played more as a decoy to the Felton P&R. Seems like Woodson should push it in that direction and try to get Melo better looks and on the move.
Regardless, it wasn't the Knicks offense that lost Game 1. 95 points is enough to beat Indiana. It was their defense that allowed an offensively challenged team to get to 102.