The Knicks don't stand a chance. smh

Red said:

C'mon, he knew who they would face.

He also knows they lac size and the better matchup is against a smaller squad.

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Yeah, ofcourse he knew if they were the 3rd seed they would play us, problem is they didnt tank games to become the 3rd seed, they played their starters against Miami (the game that truley decided who was going to be 2nd and 3rd) and they started out hot but Miami just wanted it more.

The Washington game wouldnt of mattered, win or lose. All Miami had to do was win their final two and they would have the 2 seed regardless what Boston did. If Boston REALLY wanted to play us than they would of tanked the Miami game, just saying.

TR1LL10N said:

Not everyone is hating! Props to Thibs.



I think the big question moving forward is whether or not to go small and fast against Boston. Yes, they lost Perkins but if Shaq and JO are healthy combined with Kristic, KG and Big Baby I don't see how the Knicks can win playing "their" game. I believe for us to have a shot we need to put Amare at the 5 and Melo at the 4 and run these old farts ragged! It would be unwise to get into a slowed down half court game with Boston as that is their strength. I don't think they can run with us for 7 games so if we can keep the D decent while running and gunning I think we have a real shot.

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This. I would love to see Amare at the 5 and Melo at the 4 and us just running on them. There is no way that their bigs can hang in there if we run for 7 games and keep the defensive intensity up.

Yeah^^ we just need to make those shots when we are running and gunning. We hurt ourselves when we miss those rush shots because guys aren't in position for rebounds and our defense is suspect.

No offense, but realistically: we win one game and lose the series, 4-1. With no big man and a coach that puts all his stock in offense, we can't pull this off, in my opinion.

Still, I am glad to finally see the Knicks in the playoffs. I believe next year, with a few adjustments, we can beat this team.

Crazy⑧s;174601 said:

Take a bow!!

Boston have been weakened at the 1 & 2 spots as well, SHAQ's not even close to 100%, Rondo hasn't been for months.

KG will shut down STAT? Myeh....He'll hinder him no doubt, but it won't be anything pivotal to our success, IMO.

Our one, and it's a big one, concern is the front court combination of Big Gaby, Green, SHAQ(?) and J O'neal.

You know Melo is going to do a Mr Whippy all over Pierce.

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Like you said in your match ups posts--Chauncey needs to mug Rondo every chance he gets. I suggest anyone Ray-Ray guards does the same. We've got youth on our side, we need to make sure Boston is banged up from the get-go.

Also agree with your major concern. Ronny's gonna seriously earn his pay check starting Sunday. I can't see JJ even bothering Shaq so Ronny will have to step it up; MDA may want to put JJ on Jermaine. Shelden and Shawne rotating on Big Baby? I like Shawne's chances on the offensive end though, if they put Davis on him.

On the upside, and I think it's huge for us, they got no one to throw at Carmelo.

Lastly, OUR DEFENSE HAS TO HOLD UP.

It'll be all uphill for sure, but I ain't bailing on the Knicks: WE TAKE IT IN 6.

:gony:

This was not the post I thought it was going to be from Red. I am pleasantly surprised at how much I am agreeing with the OP.

I think we match up very well with the celtics. Every team in the east was afraid of the Knicks matchup and the celtics knew when they lost to miami they were going to be playing us. That is why they wanted the rest for the last 2 games.. They know our athletic team is going to run on them all day. Boston has injuries, a struggling offense, a slower, weaker bench then pre-trade and they will have to face the knicks at least 2 times in MSG.

I see the series going down like this:

game 1 - boston win- close game but with the rest they have it'll be hard for the knicks to run them off the floor.
game 2 - NYK win - knicks surprise everyone, melo drops 40 points and the C's get beat up and down the court.
game 3 - NYK win - Knicks come out blazing, the crowd goes nuts, rondo throws a hissy fit and MELO takes the bow on our court.
game 4 - NYK win- last minute will decide this game. KG calls Spike Lee a bitch and gets a chair over the head from Roger Mason jr. mason is ejected the crowd goes nuts. KG misses the free throws.
game 5 - Bos win - the bench finally get it done for boston but it's too little too late
game 6 - NYK win - NYK win! NYK WINNNNNNN!

I'd love it if our team went into the series with the mentality that they have something to prove. Especially Melo. Remember during our slide when the home crowd was booing him? After that he went on a ridiculous tear playing defense like a madman and getting 10-15 rebounds every game while scoring 30+ points. We need that kind of angry intensity from him every night and I think it will fire up his teammates as well.

The big question is how sharp Amar'e is come Sunday. He looked pretty horrible against the Celtics except for some decent drives to the basket. His little 15-18 foot shot was wayyyyy off by his standards.

Also, there's a lot of talk about Shaq but realistically how sharp will he be coming off a really long injury layoff? We all saw what just a week off did to Amar'e. Granted, Shaq's shots are much more high-percentage, but hopefully he'll be thoroughly rusty. And can he cope with getting up and down the floor with our team? I say anytime Shaq is in the game we just run the floor non-stop. More often than not Shaq will be huffing and puffing his way past the half-court line by the time we get our shot off, and that will nullify any defensive post presence he has to offer.

As for defending him, the term hack-a-Shaq wasn't created for nothing. Combine a rotation of Shelden, JJ and Ronny consistently fouling and harassing him whenever he touches the ball with help D from Billups/AC/TD/Fields to make sure he can't get set into any sort of rhythm. Remember that we can live with Rondo making jumpers so his defender should be looking to help on Shaq whenever the ball comes to him.