Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Miami Heat 7:00pm 1/6/2016

Impressive win. Melo was efficient and did more than just score once again. Robin Lopez was a force scoring in the paint. Whole team played good defense. If this was the only Knicks game you had watched this year, you would swear that we were a top team in the East.

Every time it seems like the wheels are going to come off, this team has manned up and made a run to get us back close to 0.500. We just need to sustain it for more than a few games and maybe we can start talking 8th seed sooner rather than later this season.

jimkcchief88 said:

Melo 9-11 hmmmm hey haters

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Yes Kudo's to Melo for finally making the best of his game.......Not just looking to score and shoot and cary the team on his back....Instead what we have seen is him making all the players around him better and the BEST part is that Melo has energy and legs in the 4th........
Chief are you not seeing a Melo these past few games be different to then what he was............even last night when he started doing isolation with a few minutes left Clyde called him out on it.....Its simple make your teammates better and that makes you better......I pray Melo see's whats going on and keeps playing this way.....His pass under the hoop tonight and his drive yesterday and switching to his left hand is as good as it gets......

htr10 said:

Impressive win. Melo was efficient and did more than just score once again. Robin Lopez was a force scoring in the paint. Whole team played good defense. If this was the only Knicks game you hqad watched this year, you would swear that we were a top team in the East.

Every time it seems like the wheels are going to come off, this team has manned up and made a run to get us back close to 0.500. We just need to sustain it for more than a few games and maybe we can start talking 8th seed sooner rather than later this season.

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Thanks for your great recap htr10, missed you in the game thread for the last few games. Only caught the last minute but that was a great win, I had some hope after that ATL win at home following that bust in Chi, I said it wouldn't be easy to win the last 3 but it could be done but they needed to play with consistency esp on the D end when good defensive teams like the Heat limited how many points you could get.

They've been up and down all season but I see a better team that may be on the verge of breaking out, big reason is Fish has shortened the rotation and has his starters playing 30 mpg and the improved play of Lopez along with Melo having a multi-faceted game as big factors. On to.SA, that's a statement game, manage to beat them and we're in the conversation again for not only the playoffs but maybe a high seed.

Kiyaman said:

Lopez doing his thang!!!!!

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Fabulous game...missed 2 really easy shots or he be in the twenties instead of 19 points. Great shot blocking and passing in this game but the game ball to MELO. Tonight they looked like 22 million and 12 million respectively. I wonder if PJ had a talks with LOPEZ and MELO

That SA game is going to be impossible. They killed the Jazz sitting LA and Parker and didn't skip a beat scoring over 120, that's like 3 games they scored 120 in past couple of weeks. Where do they find guys like Simmons and Anderson?

I'm in shock. 5-5 in a ten game stretch vs teams all above .500 (and 6 were road games). Wow. We're really playing with house money in SA. Knicks actually have a slim chance to host GSW end of the month above .500.

Hear that Phil? Make a move and improve this club.

ROLO and Melo were terrific... Would be nice if Lopez occasionally stopped a penetrating guard from an easy layup... But... Nobody is perfecto.

Folks... Going back to that game in POR... Melo playing his best BBall as a NYK since we won 50 games.

Williams was HUgE again in the 4th... His 3-pointer and dunk saves us from a charging MIa and pretty much kept us with our comfy cushion.

PORZ had a rough night. This was a doctorate level course he took tonight. I though Fisher should've sat him in the 4th...

Tough night for AA. Chasing Wade wore him out.

Love that we only hoisted 8 threes.

How is it Melo only had 4 assists? I counted at least 7? Odd.

Grant was awful and never got back in.

Let's be real... Most teams let up when they see us. This is gonna change now...
We are a halfway decent team. NYK better raise their focus and preparation and bring this type of effort every game. We saw this week they are capable.

2 games in a row, on the road, against the EC elite teams and we led wire to wire but a comfy 8-15 point cushion.

We even got a Calderon steal-breakaway layup!

(NY Post)

Fisher said he won?t commit to it, but he has recently stumbled on essentially a newfangled nine-man rotation. He has severely cut down the minutes of Kyle O?Quinn and Kevin Seraphin. Fisher is rolling with Porzingis as a backup center and finally giving starter?s minutes to Lopez.

O?Quinn played just 4:41 Wednesday when Porzingis got in foul trouble, and Seraphin did not play. For the first time, Fisher acknowledged smaller may be better.

?Sometimes as a rotation sharpens, players are in better rhythm,?? Fisher said before the game. ?They feel more comfortable about their minutes than they were earlier. That kind of helps forming an understanding how to play together as a group and how to help each other. Those things can be better as the rotation is tighter.?

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?I thought there was a level of composure and poise the guys showed, even when we had a bad possession?? Fisher said. ?We were intense, but there was a relaxed look as if we were in control of what we wanted to do.??

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Miami coach Erik Spoelstra sensed this could be trouble despite easily handling the Knicks twice previously.

?They didn?t even look like they were fazed by a good defensive team in the last two games,?? Spoelstra said of the Knicks? wins vs. Atlanta. ?They look like a different team than when we last played them.??

mafra said:

I'm in shock. 5-5 in a ten game stretch vs teams all above .500 (and 6 were road games). Wow. We're really playing with house money in SA. Knicks actually have a slim chance to host GSW end of the month above .500.

Hear that Phil? Make a move and improve this club.

ROLO and Melo were terrific... Would be nice if Lopez occasionally stopped a penetrating guard from an easy layup... But... Nobody is perfecto.

Folks... Going back to that game in POR... Melo playing his best BBall as a NYK since we won 50 games.

Williams was HUgE again in the 4th... His 3-pointer and dunk saves us from a charging MIa and pretty much kept us with our comfy cushion.

PORZ had a rough night. This was a doctorate level course he took tonight. I though Fisher should've sat him in the 4th...

Tough night for AA. Chasing Wade wore him out.

Love that we only hoisted 8 threes.

How is it Melo only had 4 assists? I counted at least 7? Odd.

Grant was awful and never got back in.

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Unreal reversal, it was Jan. 1 after that loss in CHI that I said we'd be 2-8 after the Miami game and that it was put up or shut up time to play these teams at .500 to be in the conversation about the playoffs. They did it the hard way but who cares. The big thing is they seem to have found a formula to play winning bball that they need to play game in and game out.

jimkcchief88 said:

KP6 gonna learn gotta couple good facials tonight his pores will be clean for months got to be mo careful

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True, but then again I like the fact that he is not shying away and challenges shots others would just give up on. I like the spirit.

We have the belt
http://whohasthebelt.com