New York Sports Fan Blog

The New York Knicks sadly lost the first game of the second series. Needless to say the Knicks needed to win game 2 against the Indiana Pacers. The Knicks played well making the shots and clinching the lead when they needed to. The Knicks came to play, Carmelo Anthony drained an outstanding 32 points, which he should be doing every game of the playoffs. Iman Shumpert had an outstanding game as well with 15 points. This man loves to ball out and make plays. As a knicks fan i really love having Shumpert he can play from anywhere on the court, and in game 2 of the series he made some outstanding plays. Raymond Felton as always puts up the points he supposed to be, he ended the game with 14 points.

The Knicks began the third trailing the Pacers 64-62. That’s when the knicks began to play some ball, they went on a 30-2 run bridging the third and fourth periods. This run that the knicks had put them ahead 92-66, exactly what we needed. This demoralized the Pacers, they had no chance of coming back. The Knicks had all the momentum and kept it. The final score of the game was 105-79 in Madison Square Garden (MSG).

Game three will be held in Indiana with Amare Stoudemire being back.

I don’t understand how the knicks would let the Celtics come back in the series. we could have just finshed them last night and move on to the next round. But no J.R. Smith had to decide to not show up, and didnt make a field point until the fourth with a three pointer. Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith combined hit 11-38 shots last night. That is completely unacceptable by both players. Carmelo finished with 22 pts and 8-24 shooting with suffering a shoulder injury in the fourth because of Kevin Garnetts physical play.. J.R. Smith had 14 points and was 3-14.They need to come and show up for every game, this is the playoffs, they need to get there act together. To make matters worse the Celtics had five players who scored double digits last night. Almost forgot to add that Felton had 21 points last night.

Due to the loss in MSG now the Knicks have to go back to TD Garden in Boston. Hopefully going into game 6 sunday night i hope the knicks come ready to play.

The Knicks have obviously won the Atlantic division with Carmelo Anthony leading in points. Anthony has proved to be the best player on the floor. Averaging 35 points and shooting 45.3 percent from the field. Although he has been slacking because of the celtics defense, he’s been getting all the support he needs from J.R. Smithh with averaging 17 points a game. Smith was honored by receiving the 6th man award. He averaged 18.1 points a game off the bench. That is an awesome accomplishment for him as well as for the Knicks. Having a player as effective, skilled, and energetic as any starter coming off the bench gave the Knicks the ability so be as effective as coach Woodson wanted. Cant forget about our bull dog like player Raymond Felton averaging 14.5 points a game. Felton is a great player to have on your team, his feat are constantly moving, he takes the right shots, and his ability to find his way to basket makes him such a fun player to watch. Lastly but defiantly not least our 7.1 foot center Tyson Chandler. Lets be honest the man is a beast. Averaging 10.4 points a game in the regular season, as well as rebounding an average of 10.1 a game. That rebound percentage doesn’t even count how many he slaps the ball out to the field after a shot. Its great to see and extremely athletic.

The knicks clinched the second seed in the Eastern Conference Championship behind the Miami Heat. The knicks have been playing against the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. Its been like a dog fight the whole time. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett aren’t going to go down without a fight. especially after the bombing in Boston. It kinda gives them more of an edge i would say, but our Knicks are gonna be alright. The Knicks just have to play smart around the Celtics defense. We have such an offensive threat the i believe we would be okay even if Carmelo has a bad game. He has the back up from the whole team. If one player isn’t playing to his potential his fellow Knicks brother will have his back. I’m not to worried about the series. The knicks got this!

For the third time this offseason the Knicks have been linked to the acquisition of a superstar. This time that player is Carmello Anthony. While the idea of Anthony coming to New York isn’t really new, speculation has heated up.

Anthony, to the Nuggets dismay, has not jumped at the $65 million three-year contract extension offered to him over a month ago. With a new CBA looming that could be the best contract Mello gets, so by leaving the offer on the table Anthony is giving a big indication to the Nuggets that he will not re-sign with them.

The Nuggets seem to have gotten the message and, in trying to avoid what happened to Cleveland this summer, the Nuggets are starting to shop their star small forward.

It is widely believed that Mello’s top destination would be New York. He grew up in the area, recently got married there, and would love to play with Stoudemire in the big market.

While the decision isn’t up to him, the Knicks have the assets to get him. It has been reported that the Knicks will offer Danillo Gallinari, Eddy Curry and his expiring contract, and a 2014 first round pick. It might take a little more than that to get him, perhaps Bill Walker or Wilson Chandler, but that should not be a problem for New York.

If they are able to work out this trade they would have completed their goal of acquiring two superstars and, alongside the additions of Raymond Felton and Anthony Randolph, should be able to compete with the top teams in the league.

In addition, granted they make no additional moves, they will have the cap room to add a max contract in 2012 such as Chris Paul or Deron Williams to complete their big three.

by Evan Slavit at the Sports Fan Blog Network

Assuming the Knicks are done with improvements, and aside from a trade they seem to be done until next summer, how will the Knicks look next season. We have waited quite some time for this summer for the front office to make this team a contender again and so how have they done.

I say as of right now the Knicks are around a 40-win team. That is not where we expected to be after this summer, but its a good start.

The Knicks did sign a superstar in Amar’e Stoudemire and added a true point guard in Raymond Felton. They also added another nice young piece in Anthony Randolph.

With expected improvements from some of the other guys (Gallinari, Chandler, Douglas) 40 wins is definitely attainable with a possible 7th or 8th seed in reach.

While Lebron would have been nice, just getting back into the playoffs will be a good first step.

Aside from Stoudemire none of the moves the Knicks made are long term and so they have room to bring in a max-type player next season if anyone wants to come, and be free to make moves in the future.

The rebuilding is not over, but it is pretty promising considering our worst-case scenario happened. It’s hard to continue to preach patience but the Knicks are one superstar away from being a true contender.

Knicks blogs these days have only been harping on whether or not superstar Lebron James will come to New York in the offseason. I understand plan A (whether Walsh will refer to it as that or not) was to clear enough cap space to entice James and another superstar to come to the Knicks, but what if he doesn’t come?

He has plenty of other options, including staying in Cleveland, joining Derrick Rose in Chicago, going to Jay-Z and the Nets, or even the Clippers. So what do the Knicks do if he doesn’t come?

Aside from James the other top names available are Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki and Joe Johnson. There are plenty of other players available, but if the Knicks are looking for a star, they have to sign one of these guys—unless they plan on working out a trade for a player like Chris Paul or more surprisingly Carmelo Anthony.

I do not see Wade signing with the Knicks. He has never given any sign that he is interested in New York and from all indications he likes Miami. Most sources have said he would like to stay put with the hope Miami can bring in another top player this off-season. If Wade does leave, it will most likely be for Chicago, his hometown and a team that is already set up pretty well.

Putting a trade aside and taking Lebron and Wade out of the mix, I think the Knicks best option is to sign Joe Johnson.

Bosh is good, but he has failed to prove he is good enough to lead a team to the playoffs or a championship. He has missed the playoffs the past two seasons and the two years he made it his team was eliminated in the first round. Personally I don’t think he is that much better than David Lee and if Lee could be signed for 10-12 million I would rather that than the 18 million they would have to pay Bosh. Plus I doubt Bosh would come to New York without Lebron signing anyway.

Amare has proven to be dynamic, but he has health issues and is worse at defense than Lee is. As for Dirk, there is no way he leaves Dallas for New York unless a really good player is coming with him.

Joe Johnson has proven he can lead a young team to the playoffs. He is a professional in the locker room and is the scorer the Knicks need for down the stretch. In addition there is a chance the Knicks will be able to sign him for less than the maximum.

With the extra cap space they could sign a proven point guard like Raymond Felton, or trade for Darren Collison from the Hornets as it is believed he will be available. They could send Curry’s expiring contract alongside Wilson Chandler for Collison and Emeka Okefor solving their issues at both point guard and center.

They might even have enough left to re-sign fan-favorite David Lee. Lee has been working on his 3-point shooting and improving his defense, if all goes well he could slide over to power forward and play at an All-Star level.

If they could pull these moves off the Knicks would sport a starting line-up that consisted of Collison at point guard, Joe Johnson at shooting guard, Danilo Gallinari at small forward, David Lee at power forward, and Emeka Okafor at center. They would also have Bill Walker, Toney Douglas and their two second-round picks on the bench.

There are a lot of options out there and this is just one of the possibilities. Not only would this be a very good offensive unit, but a top-notch defensive one. I truly believe the Knicks can assemble a team like this, and it can easily lead the Knicks back to the playoffs, and possibly even a championship. It just goes to show you that there is more to talk about than Lebron.

by Evan Slavit at the Sports Fan Blog Network