Short recap tonight, as I'm fighting a fever, and the regular season is winding down with lots of mailed-in efforts. BUT...

The Friday Night Curse is over! Hoorah! Granted it took playing a New Jersey team without Deron Williams, Anthony Morrow and Kris Humphries to get the job done, but the Knicks lost to the likes of the Pistons and Timberwolves on Friday nights this year (blowing big leads against them, to boot), so no win gets overlooked when it comes to overcoming the spell of the Robert Randolph Band.

Last night's game in Newark was actually competitive for a little over a quarter, thanks mainly to a terrific start from Brook Lopez (14 point first quarter where he bullied Shelden Williams and Jared Jeffries)  and very hot shooting from Travis Outlaw off the bench (3 three pointers in the first half). But Carmelo's own hot shooting and strong effort on the boards (23 points, 10 rebounds in the first half), along with Billups looking fully recovered from the thigh contusion scare the other night (13 point first half) helped establish separation slowly, and the defensive activity of the second unit  -- Douglas, Carter, Turiaf , Brown, and Walker -- was fantastic. They took advantage of New Jersey's lack of quality playmakers and harassed the Nets into rushed shots and turnovers.

In the final six minutes of the first half, all the Knick scoring came from Billups or Anthony as they built the lead at halftime to 17. The lead grew to 20 in the third quarter before the Nets had a small run to get it down to 12, but the Knicks scored the last twelve points of the quarter as they kept leaking guards for fast breaks, and the fourth quarter was pure garbage time.

Game Notes:

*  Carmelo was a mismatch for anyone that guarded him on the Nets, and it wasn't close. (Seeing him abuse Mario West, in particular, was kind of painful). Melo's looked as locked in as any player in the league the last few games of this winning streak, and it's been a pleasure watching him stretch out opponents with his hot three point shooting since the trade.

*  Shelden Williams continues to be the starter, but he wasn't effective defending Lopez one on one, and Turiaf off the bench played well and still looks like the most capable interior defender (and the more versatile defender overall). Turiaf's effort was referred to positively in the postgame press conference, which gives me hope that he eventually regains his starting position.

*  Derrick Brown got even more playing time and had a nice looking stat line (3-4 FGs, 7 points, including two three pointers). He still looks too raw to have any expectations regarding his ability to contribute in the playoffs, but with more experience he could develop very nicely with the Knicks the way Wilson Chandler did. I would like to see him get more than one rebound in 18 minutes, especially in a game with lots of rebounds to be had.

*  The second unit with Carter and Douglas applying a lot of ball pressure on opponents' back up point guards, and Jeffries or Turiaf showing hard on screens, might be the best looking defensive lineup the Knicks have had since the trade. As noted earlier, they made life miserable for the Nets and their activity also fueled transition points for the Knicks. They may not get as much time in the playoffs with the rotation about to get shorter, but I'm sure D'Antoni has to be intrigued by the possibilities of using them in short bursts to generate some pace and create some turnovers.

*  Jared Jeffries made three layups, and for the second time in three games converted a basket off a behind the back assist (this time from Toney Douglas). Who knew the secret to getting Jeffries to convert cleanly was to whip a behind the back pass to him on the run toward the rim? It's even funnier to consider how much they must work on this in practice. (On a serious note, Jared had another solid game, even if he wasn't able to defend Lopez any better than anyone else)

*  Once the lead ballooned to 24 by the end of the third, Avery Johnson chose to sit his starters for most of the final period, with only Vujacic getting significant time. This means people were treated to a lot of Ben Uzoh, Stephen Graham, Johan Petro, Brandan Knight and Mario West on the Nets, and a less-than-murderers-row lineup of Knicks bench players as well. There were some extremely ugly spells of offense from the Nets as a result, including an alley-oop to Stephen Graham that he somehow managed to slam against the bottom of the rim, a Mario West double clutching shot at the shot clock buzzer that sailed left and hit the side of the backboard, a Petro flat-line jumper that hit the rim and bounced flatly several times before just dropping to the ground, and a Graham fastbreak where he attempted to cross over and shake off his defender with extra mustard.

It was an excruciating quarter of basketball to watch if you love basketball -- the Knicks had six of their sixteen turnovers in the fourth, and virtually everything was a long jumper -- but blowouts with young players (mixed with second tier veterans) going through auditions for their coaches are like that sometimes.

* Another sign of how ugly this came got: the ball hit the back of a player on either the Nets or Knicks three different times without the player realizing it. Lots of turned heads and blown assignments on defense in this game. As Clyde would say: "See your man and see the ball!"

*  Best part of the win: guaranteeing a .500 record for the season. I predicted 40-42 in my season opening preview, and it looked like that would still be a good forecast as recently as a week ago, but the current winning streak is a nice way to end the season and reward the efforts of the GM, coaches and players who wanted to produce an improved product in the third year of the program. I never would have expected that the path toward this record would have ever taken the twists and turns that it did, but ending the season at .500 or better, even if it's a modest accomplishment, is still an accomplishment with the amount of roster turnover that's taken place.


Next up is the Pacers on Sunday, followed by season ending games against the Bulls and Celtics back to back. The Knicks will probably look like a depleted Nuggets team from earlier in the season for the second game in a row, with Amare continuing to rest his ankle, and Billups, Anthony and Shelden Williams putting in major minutes. But it's still worth watching to see how these winning Knicks play against a Pacers team that just clinched a playoff spot - the same Pacer team that started the Knicks on a serious losing streak a few weeks ago with a back to back sweep.

The Knicks went into last night's game against the Sixers with a level of enthusiasm and commitment to winning that was surprising for the second game of a back to back in early April, with the playoffs already clinched. But one sensed that it was important for the Knick players to prove to themselves that they could beat a good team on the road with something at stake, even if the value of that "something" (sixth seed in the East) was difficult to articulate.

Two stories dominated this game from the Knick standpoint, especially in the first three quarters -- one expected (Carmelo Anthony) and one totally unexpected (good defense). The Sixers are a mediocre offensive team that got worse in the last week with Lou Williams' unfortunate injury, but everyone has seen since the trade deadline that even bad offensive teams can light up the Knicks defense with ease. However, the Knicks held the Sixers to a 19 point first quarter and a 41 point half. Some of it was bad Philly shooting (missing 16 of 18 three pointers), but a fair amount was genuinely solid defense at the start of quarters -- limiting the Sixers to 8 points in the first six minutes of the first period, 7 points in the first 7 minutes of the second, and 9 points in the first 6 minutes of the third.

Meanwhile, the Knicks overcame a shaky start on offense and built a sixteen point lead midway through the second quarter, thanks to a barrage of ball movement and three pointers from different sources (Shawne Williams, Anthony Carter, Carmelo) -- the Knicks collected seven assists in a six minute stretch from the end of the first quarter to the five minute mark of the second. The Knicks were still missing a lot of jumpers, but dogged defense coupled with trust and ball movement on offense produced the type of results that the coaches always preach.

The Sixers made a run to get it down to eight at the half, but the Knicks then flexed their newfound muscle in the third quarter and put together one of their most impressive post-trade stretches of basketball. They grew their lead to 19 points on the back of sets that made Amare more of a facilitator from the high post for Carmelo on the wing or Fields on the weak side. Melo had 15 points in the quarter, Amare had 4 of his 7 assists, and Fields' off the ball movement got him two layups, and he looked better integrated with his teammates than he has in a while.

A special mention should go to Turiaf's defense, particularly the help defense, which was terrific -- he may be the most important player beyond Billups-Amare-Melo-Douglas for his ability to plug up the leaks in the defense, and his mobility was superior to Shelden Williams' more lumberingly physical interior D in dealing with the quick Sixers swingmen.

The Knicks' momentum was derailed with a combination of bad luck and dumb fouling -- Billups suffered another thigh contusion going around a screen that sidelined him for the rest of the game, and Melo committed three careless fouls (all on Igoudala) and had to leave the game earlier than desired toward the end of the third. In this quarter, the radiant and maddening qualities of Melo surfaced -- the scoring was spectacular at times, but his defense got grabby and lazy as the game went on. The Knicks scored only two points in the final 3:20 of the third quarter to allow the 76ers to get within 13.

The fourth quarter, with no Billups running the team and a desperate Sixer group ratcheting up the defensive intensity and activity around the boards, quickly became hell for the Knicks as it did the last time these teams played in Philadelphia. Through the first few minutes, the Knicks managed to hold on to a double digit lead at 83-71. Then the game turned on this frenetic sequence:



In the space of a minute, the Sixers got five offensive rebounds, forced a Knick miss and a shot clock violation, and got two quick jumpers to start an insane run over a five minute stretch (led by three Thad Young layups in transition) that got the Sixers the lead. The Knicks had 19 assists in the first 3 quarters but only two in the last quarter, and the offensive execution plummeted to a level way south of wretched. Douglas seemed to forget the basic responsibility of a point guard is to know the shot clock, and possession after possession featured shots rushed madly to beat the clock (which fueled the Sixer break) or shot clock violations. TD's season long difficulty in finding his star teammates at crucial times continued, and Amare struggled with a tweaked ankle while Melo seemed to lose his earlier spark, and rushed his drives when he did have the ball.

In fact, Douglas only looked comfortable when he stopped trying to find teammates and simply found spaces for his long jumpers -- his first three pointer in the fourth temporarily stopped the bleeding and made it 87-78, and after the Sixers took the lead and missed a chance to increase it on a Jodie Meeks missed three, TD dribbled around and then called his own number to make it 90-88 with 1:47 left.

The value of Turiaf really showed itself on the next two Sixer possessions -- Holiday drove left off a pick and roll past Douglas and Turiaf blocked the shot, then on the next sequence Young broke past Amare and drove right for a layup but Turiaf slapped the ball onto Young's leg out of bounds. Still, the Sixers had it down to one point on an Igoudala three at 92-91, but as was the case at Memphis, where a huge lead vanished in the fourth quarter, Carmelo made a huge game clinching three pointer over Igoudala with 11 seconds left to clinch the victory.

Game Notes:

*  Last night was the fifth fourth quarter where the Knicks failed to break 20 points since the trade. The Knicks can be excused somewhat for this particular fourth quarter collapse because of the absence of Billups and the reduced effectiveness of Amare, but if Billups is going to struggle with maintaining peak form through the rest of the season because of nagging injuries, I can't see how the Knicks can win more than one game in the playoffs (if that).  Even before the injury, Billups looked slow to loose balls, shot very poorly (1-7) and didn't have any assists in 23 minutes. In his defense, it was the second night of a back to back, and the coaches ran more of the offense through Amare, and Billups spent more time than usual off the ball.

*  Derrick Brown had two four to five minute spells of play, in the second and fourth quarter. The fourth quarter spell was especially interesting as it came with the Knicks desperately trying to hang on, and with Brown guarding the red-hot Young. It wasn't an especially distinguished run for him (1 point, 1 rebound, 1 block, -9), but he may get more time anyway against the Nets on Friday with Amare possibly being out for the game.

*  Last time Carmelo played the Sixers, it was as a Denver Nugget on January 30th -- Igoudala hounded him into a 12 point, 3-12 shooting night with 6 turnovers in 32 minutes. Igoudala has been battling nagging injuries recently and looked slower and more tentative on defense against Melo last night, giving him surprising amounts of room on his jumpers. Anthony took full advantage and rode his continued three point hot streak (now 10 of 15 over the last two games), and he had another one of those 27 foot three pointers on the move that you'd excuse only from a scorer like him. Additionally, Amare has gotten more adept at finding Melo in his favored shooting spots, a great sign for the playoffs.

*  The rotation for the playoffs is still way up in the air, if last night is any indication: Melo and Amare with 37 and 39 minutes respectively, Billups with a truncated 24 minutes, Fields with 25, and Douglas with 30; five bench players got 13 to 15 minutes, and Shelden Williams and Derrick Brown got under 10. The Billups injury probably threw everything off, as more minutes for Douglas in place of Billups means decisions on whether to play Carter alongside TD or play one of the swingmen instead (as was the case last night because of Evan Turner's size advantage). I'm not sure D'Antoni has ever had such a knotty set of personnel choices with any team he's coached so close to the playoffs.

*  Blocked shots are far from the best indication of a good defense, but nine blocked shots was a throwback to the pre-trade days when Ill Will and Amare (with fresher legs) and a healthy Turiaf were dishing facials out with regularity and at least making opponents think twice about driving inside too casually. Last night was probably an anomaly, as four different bench players had a block apiece and even Carmelo (!) had two blocks. But you like to see that kind of feistiness in challenging shots as long as it's not too reckless, and it beats the cape-waving defense the team showed against the Raptors the night before.


Friday's game against the Nets will probably have Stoudemire and Billups both out, meaning a glorified scrimmage in Newark with more opportunity to evaluate the bench players and get TD more minutes as a starter running the team. The sliver lining with Billups' absence will be the opportunity to get Douglas and Anthony to try and work more smoothly together -- so far, it seems like they connect best when it's Anthony that controls the ball. That has to change if Douglas is going to be a remotely effective playmaker late in games.

Mike D'Antoni stared at the Toronto Raptor team that took the floor last night at Madison Square Garden, and probably had a vision of the Knick team he had to coach the last two years -- the gutted, point-guard poor, wing-heavy group that by April was sleepwalking its way through trainwrecks like last night. Whatever his reservations about the team he has now, he's a happier man for being on the other side.

In short, the Raptors were pretty bad last night. They had to play without Jose Calderon and Leandro Barbosa, and got only token minutes from Andrea Bargnani. They were coming off two very impressive efforts against elite teams (an upset of Orlando and a close game against the Bulls), but against the Knicks they showed up with nothing. The Knicks got off to a 13-0 lead, a run which included a near miraculous Chauncey Billups behind the back pass to Jared Jeffries off the pick and roll, which Jeffries caught cleanly without fumbling for a layup.

But layups weren't the order of the night -- jumpers were. The Knicks took 16 jumpers in the first quarter (out of 21 field goal attempts total), and made 10, including six three pointers. At the start of the second quarter, four of the Knicks' first six baskets were jumpers, and the other two baskets were fastbreak layups as the Knicks piled on further with an 18-4 run in the first 4:30 of the second to build a 57-30 lead and basically end the game.

For such a dominating performance, it was a strange game. The Knicks put up almost zero resistance in transition defense and allowed the Raptor wings to turn the corner a lot off screens and take it right to the basket -- Weems, DeRozan and Bayless had a field day, and DeRozan got a career high 36 by the end of the night. But the Raptors were even worse in contesting anything by the Knicks -- Bill Walker on some possessions might was well have had a "Please Don't Guard Me" sign on him, as open as he was, and Landry Fields blew past DeRozan for two straight-line tomahawk dunks.

And those threes! The player you'd expect to be taking his share of threes, Billups, only took 3 attempts and made one, but Melo and Douglas combined to make 11 of 16 three pointers. Melo had an insane, 30 foot Jimmer/JJ Redick styled bomb as the trailer with 1:19 left in the first half that typified the evening for both teams.

If you were looking for signs of what might work in the playoffs -- more connection between Amare and Billups, or exchanges between Melo and Amare, or some new sets to facilitate greater ball movement -- there wasn't much. There were still rough spots in trying to coordinate the players who are likely to get the most minutes; in the third quarter, it was actually a bit frustrating to see the ball stick on one side with role players while the stars were idle on the weak side on some possessions. But then you'd see Billups just drive past Bayless or Amare catch the ball unimpeded at the elbow and make a jumper, and again, it was that kind of night. If the Raptors were going to concede layups and 3 pointers, the Knicks weren't going to refuse what was in front of them.

Game Notes:

*  Poring over numbers in a game like this is pretty meaningless, but the one number I'll flag is offensive rebounds -- the Knicks gave up too many (17 by the Raptors). The Raptors missed 47 shots for the night, and Amare rebounded only five of them in 35 minutes of play, while Ed Davis made him look bad (7 offensive boards).

*  Derrick Brown got some burn finally, and he looked very lively with 7 points and a steal in only 10 minutes. D'Antoni seemed to like him enough to indicate he would get more of a look in succeeding games before the playoffs, but I have a hard time picturing him cracking the playoff roster without a functional jumper or some demonstrated ability to help with the rebounding issue the Knicks have. His best shot would be showing some ability to help with perimeter defense, especially with the playoffs looming and either Wade or Pierce posing a huge challenge.

*  The fourth quarter was a classic "April in the NBA" quarter. The Raptors kept chipping at the lead, and the Knicks would keep the Raps at arm's length primarily with their second unit and Amare. For a while, the Knicks just stopped guarding second unit fodder like Ajinca (who made them pay) and boxing out Ed Davis seemed like it wasn't worth their time, giving the Raps hope. But the flip side is that the Knicks either ran TD off screens or hit Amare at the elbow over and over, and the Raptors couldn't be bothered to guard the same 2 plays or adjust in any meaningful way.

*  Ronny Turiaf got only seven minutes and didn't look near 100 percent, but he still looked like the most versatile interior defender on the team on a night when the team couldn't stop anyone. Keep praying for Ronny to heal.


Tonight will be a more interesting test of the Knicks' evolving chemistry and lineups when they play Philadelphia on the road. It's not likely to be a classic with both teams playing the second night of a back to back, but the Sixers are an excellent defensive team with an elite defender (Igoudala) that can shut down Carmelo, and speedy wings that will punish lazy transition defense. The key matchups will be Amare against Brand, Melo vs Igoudala, Billups against Jrue Holiday, and bench players like Douglas and Thad Young are likely to contribute significantly as well. These teams have played three entertaining games this season, and tonight should be no different.

The playoffs have been an inevitability for a while, but last night against the Cavs was an opportunity to turn the page in several different ways. The Knicks had the opportunity to show everyone how well they could play with some rest, with more practice time to develop chemistry, and with extreme motivation against a less talented team that had made them look bad all season.  The Knicks passed most of their tests last night despite some rough moments, and with a solid win over the Cavs  (along with Washington's win over Charlotte), they can celebrate a playoff berth and build on several of the positives that contributed to last night's victory.

The Knicks started out going back and forth with the Cavs for the first six minutes, with Chauncey Billups' red hot shooting fueling a lot of the offense; the Knick defense was animated but still prone to interior breakdowns (especially Amare at the hands of J.J. Hickson...again). Shelden Williams and Landry Fields had some good moments but struggled with the Cavs' quickness, with Landry also providing the night's embarrassing lowlight by mistiming a dunk in transition. Once Jeffries replaced Shelden and Douglas replaced Fields, the Knicks were off to the races -- the defense tightened up and Chauncey and Carmelo turned it up on offense.

The best part of the first quarter was how much more the team looked like a D'Antoni team on offense -- excellent energy in pushing the ball, super efficient offense and a 108 possession pace. Billups' baskets were heavily weighted toward the spot up threes he tends to be overly fond of, but he had an extra spark that made most of his early offense look smooth rather than forced; he also got others involved, and Carmelo and Amare got several of their baskets on the move toward the lane after off-the-ball movement (rather than through stagnant isolations on the perimeter).

The start of the second quarter was even better thanks to great production from the bench (especially Bill Walker), and the Knicks built their lead to as much as 21 points before Baron Davis made three 3 pointers in 54 seconds and drove enough of a run to get the Cavs within ten at the half. Prior to the Cavs' first half closing run, the Knicks at least showed effort on making their rotations past the first couple of Cavalier screens, and stayed home on most of the outside shooters. As the Cavs started breaking down the Knicks in transition and getting them more disorganized in terms of defensive spacing, a lot of whatever Knick defensive discipline existed evaporated.

This was most evident in the third quarter, when the Knicks' shots weren't falling (Billups and Anthony were 0-9 in the 3rd), ball movement got stickier, and the Cavaliers started getting more easy baskets inside. The Cavs got the lead down to two at 77-75 and had an opportunity to take the lead on a Baron Davis three, but the Knicks averted disaster -- the second unit again contributed key minutes, stopped the bleeding, and maintained a lead of five to seven points through the end of the quarter. Still, it was a discouraging return to past Knick tendencies with less efficient offense at a drastically reduced pace (only 22 possessions in the quarter). Only 4 of the last 20 possessions in the quarter featured an assist or had much ball movement at all.

As discouraging as the third quarter was, the Knicks saved the best for last with their final quarter effort. With a lineup of Carter-Douglas-Jeffries-Amare-Walker, they got three steals, a blocked shot, and forced two other Cavs turnovers in the first four minutes of the period. Additionally, 6 of the first 12 Knick possessions in the quarter were either assisted or featured a pass that led to a foul and free throws -- the highlight being a Carter diagonal pass into the lane that hit Walker in stride for a dunk over Samardo Samuels. (Clyde narrating the replay after the dunk: "The Master Blaster! So nice we show it twice!"). Walker took matters into his own hands in a subsequent possession by driving and getting a three point play -- Walker going hard to the hole and drawing fouls has been so rare this season that I didn't even mind that it was done in isolation.

Consider too, that this decisive final run was driven by three Knicks from the rebuilding days (Douglas, Jeffries, Walker), a Nugget castoff (Carter), and the original free agent prize (Amare) who'd been looking more beat-up and mortal since the trade. It was a satisfying way to punctuate the Knicks' return to the playoffs for the first time in seven years, and though the win couldn't have been accomplished without the firepower of the three biggest Knick stars, there's a reason the coach sounded happiest in the postgame press conference with the way the second unit plus Amare got the job done at the end.

Game notes:

*  Pace, Pace, Pace: In case it wasn't clear from this recap, pace was (and will continue to be) significant for the Knicks to assert themselves against opponents and minimize (somewhat) some of the glaring weaknesses that aren't going to go away until reinforcements arrive in the off-season. 11 out of 14 games since Billups' injury have been played at a pace of 95 possessions or less (the Knicks lost 7 of those 11 games). Last night's 99 possession game was the fourth straight game played at a more ideal Knick pace, a direct reflection of Billups' improving health and the team's deployment of lineups with a greater comfort with playing faster. Here's how the possessions and efficiency broke down against the Cavs:

New York	Possessions	Efficiency
1st Q	27	133
2nd Q	26	119
3rd Q	22	118
4th Q	24	125
Total	99	124

Clearly the Knicks pushed the pace well in the first half and were rewarded for it, slowed down in the third, and then used turnovers and better efficiency through ball movement and transition to get it back up in the fourth. The standard qualifier applies that these gaudy numbers came against the worst defense in the league, but a team that plays at the slowest pace as well. Speeding them up and limiting their efficiency in the final period (only 79 points per 100 for Cleveland in the fourth) was encouraging and should be the norm against lesser teams.

*  Minimizing the Damage From the Pick and Roll and Spot Up Jumpers:  The Cavaliers have done more than any other opponent to destroy the Knicks in pick and roll coverage -- first with the likes of Mo Williams and Boobie Gibson and Antawn Jamison in the game right after the Carmelo trade, then with Baron Davis and a raft of unlikely open shooters (Christian Eyenga, anyone?). Last night, Baron still tormented the Knicks by making 5 of 8 threes, but the rest of the team missed 10 of 14 and got less open looks. The New York pick and roll coverage wasn't exactly suffocating, but the Knicks improved notably from previous efforts:

	CLE Pick and Roll %	Points	CLE Spot Up %	Points	Result
vs CLE 2-25	25%	29	14%	22	L
vs CLE 3-4	23%	23	23%	64	L
vs CLE 4-3	24%	15	14%	17	W

Source: Synergy Sports

The points allowed from spot up jumpers (typically swing passes to open perimeter shooters after a high screen) were disastrous in the last loss to the Cavs. Last night was much better, and of the 27 pick and rolls the Cavaliers ran which resulted in either the ballhandler or the screener taking over the play, a full third of those ended with a turnover.

*  The Bench Sets The Example For Ball Movement: I don't have the problem that some fans and media do with how the ball sticks with Carmelo's early isolations or some of Chauncey's jumpers -- better ball movement can eventually be generated through their scoring skills as offenses have to load up on them, and Carmelo in particular has shown himself to be an elite scorer and willing passer the last few games. But there's a lot to be said for how much more smoothly the ball seems to move when the second unit is in -- especially with Amare as the lone starter playing with them. Last night, the bench generated 11 of the team's 23 assists, led by Douglas and Carter.

*  Jared Jeffries, Still Doing A Lot Of "Nothing": 0-2 FGs, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocked shots, 2 charges drawn, 0 fouls, in 25 minutes. He still doesn't look like he does much of anything, other than get rid of the ball quickly once he receives it on offense. Yet he was a game high +26, and the Knicks were unmistakably better with him in the game even if it was hard to tell why whenever he got near the ball. I can't wait for Ronny Turiaf to return to full health and take some of his minutes, but I can live with the kind of nothing Jared provides in limited playing time when it works as it did yesterday, even if he hasn't been the same player he was with last year's Knicks.

*  Amare Regaining His Form, With Some Help:  Amare looked lively on offense early but missed some easy drives, and on defense he was pretty slow and awful through most of the first three quarters. He was still too much to handle for Hollins and Samuels, and in the fourth quarter he picked up an extra gear on defense and had two big blocks on Alonzo Gee and Ramon Sessions, as well as doing a better job of keeping Hickson in front of him. Early in the year, Amare was capable of inspired (if limited) stretches of defense late in games, but as he's worn down he barely registers an impact and too often ends up a liability.

What bears watching in future games is which role player to pair Amare with so that his weaknesses are minimized. Against Orlando, the best option was Shelden Williams for his ability to guard Howard, but last night Shelden-Amare lineups weren't good (-11 on the evening); instead, lineups with Jeffries and Amare together were a + 25.


Next up is the Raptors, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a little bit of a letdown with the pressure of the playoff chase having gone away, and with future games not having much of an impact on seeding. The coaches are going to push for more wins though (just a hunch, but I suspect staying at .500 or better means something to D'Antoni), and maintaining good habits and improving the quality of play remains a priority in preparation for the playoffs.

You will read -- maybe you've already read in a few places -- about the awful first half the Knicks played last night against the New Jersey Nets. A 36 point first quarter that was the Nets' season high, followed by a 32 point second quarter. On the second night of a back to back for the Nets, in late March no less.

It was only the fourth time this season the Nets had even had back to back 30+ point quarters. While the Knicks' lack of defensive energy couldn't be excused, the Nets' fast start could be at least be explained (if not excused) by the special motivation they carried into this game to beat the Knicks, and the return of Deron Williams after missing six games. Williams didn't score much to start, but he did plenty to get his teammates good looks (5 assists in the first period) and keep the Knicks off balance. And Brook Lopez came out even more fired up, with a 16 point, 4 rebound, 2 assist first quarter of his own.

The Knicks were very efficient on offense as well in the first quarter, with Amare scoring 12 on 6-7 shooting, Carmelo with 11, and both Melo and Billups combining for 7 assists. But Knick worriers will keep looking over their shoulders when second quarters like the one at Charlotte Saturday and the one last night against the Nets keep happening. The Knick reserves were a special brand of awful against the bench players of another sub-.500 team, and it didn't get much better when the Knick starters returned. Toney Douglas (-14 in nine first half minutes) and Bill Walker (-13 in less than 7 minutes, including 2 missed FTs and one blown layup) could produce nothing, and the Knicks were outrebounded 16-6 in the second quarter alone.

The Knicks were so badly outrebounded that Kris Humphries and Johan Petro had more offensive rebounds between them (8) in the second quarter than the Knicks' entire rebounding total in the 2nd. As good as Amare's 19 point first half was (the most fluid he's looked shooting in several games), he should have had Petro's six points subtracted from that scoring total, for failing to box him out or even knowing where he was -- it was an embarrassing display on national television, and Hubie Brown and Mike Tirico painstakingly pointed it out with several replays.

Somehow, the Knicks managed to survive falling behind by as many as 16 points, and thanks to a late scoring charge by Billups got the lead down to ten at the half. In the second half, D'Antoni chose to start Jared Jeffries instead of Shelden Williams, and the team tightened up its defensive pressure on the perimeter. Even though Jeffries had been pushed around a lot by Lopez in the first, the decision to play him for the entire third quarter was excellent -- he set good screens on offense, moved the ball quickly whenever it came his way, mostly kept Lopez in front of him on the wing rather than down in the block, was the best help and recover defender on the floor on either team, and was a hive of activity overall (4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, +8) in just under 15 second half minutes.

Led by Jeffries, the Knicks forced eight of NJ's sixteen turnovers in the third quarter alone. The Knicks and Nets traded runs in a weird third quarter -- nine straight points by the Knicks to get the lead down to one at 71-70, then nine straight points for the Nets after Amare's fourth foul got the Nets lead back to 10, then the Knicks ended the quarter outscoring the Nets 17-6 (with Deron and Lopez having to leave with four fouls as well). Carmelo had another protean scoring third quarter with 20 points on a variety of jumpers, post moves, and straight blow bys.

The importance of the game and its odd rhythms (as well as Amare's foul trouble) led D'Antoni to break some of his typical substitution patterns -- he kept Billups in the game for the entire third quarter and the first few minutes of the fourth, to take advantage of D-Will's absence. He also brought Douglas back in late in the third to harass Farmar, and TD redeemed himself after his rough first half. Additionally, Anthony Carter was brought in for a crucial spell in the fourth quarter along with Shelden, and the two ex-Nuggets combined for three straight scores to get the Knick lead up to five at 105-100. Carter topped off his excellent stint with a sparkling diagonal cross court bounce pass in transition that caught Shawne Williams in motion for a catch and shoot jumper to make it 107-102 -- Hubie Brown loved this sequence so much that he demanded that the ESPN production crew produce a replay ("I just wish we had the one where he threw the 25 to 30 foot bounce pass right on the money!"), and they happily obliged.

It looked like it still might not be enough as Deron started to take over with two three point plays and a jumper to get the Nets back up by 3 as the Knick offense temporarily bogged down, briefly signaling the return of those fourth quarter blues. But Billups, showing that he's getting closer to his pre-injury form, used his savvy to draw a three point shooting foul coming off an Amare screen, tying the game with three FTs at 114. After a missed D-Will jumper, Carmelo went to the left baseline for a trademark mid-range jumper that gave the Knicks the lead for good at 116-114. The Knicks were able to get stops on two of the Nets' final three possessions (with Deron missing a very good look on his final jumper, probably due to rust) to hold on for their second straight win.

Game Notes:

*  Landry Fields' playing time has been diminishing in recent games with the need to play Douglas and Carter more minutes in order to improve the defense on the perimeter, and though he's been unflappable all season whether he plays ten minutes or thirty, last night was pretty rough. With the Knick in an early groove in the first quarter, Fields was ball watching on defense and gave up a Morrow three that sparked a big Net run, then in the second half he gave up a Morrow offensive rebound and lost him on another possession. Landry still delivers one or two sharp cuts leading to assisted baskets, but his outside shot has suffered as Billups and Anthony haven't been able to find him for open corner threes the way Felton and company did before the trade.

*  Billups had his second straight turnover-less game (the team has a whole had only 5 turnovers) and as mentioned earlier, looks to be rounding back to peak form -- he seemed especially up for the challenge of taking on Deron, with all the hype of the rivalry. 33 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 10 for 10 FTs feels more like a Mr. Big Shot line. Those PUTITs (Pull Up Threes In Transition) still produce that "No-No-No" feeling every so often, but they've always been part of his game, and as long as he's mixing it up with drives to the basket and getting to the FT line, the Knicks can feel much better about their chances with any opponent.

*  Amare Stoudemire had a terrifically effficient line, but one rebound is one rebound, and even on his drives, he still appears to be playing below the rim -- he's fortunate that the Nets didn't have any real interior defenders. The upcoming three days off will be extremely welcome, and I'm very curious to see how he bounces back against the hyperactive swingmen of the Cavs on Sunday.

*  Carmelo Anthony drew Brook Lopez's fourth foul in the third quarter in the midst of his scoring run, one game after drawing Dwight Howard's fourth foul in the third. The two man game Billups and Anthony had going in the third and fourth quarter was a weapon the Nets had difficulty defending, and Billups managed to draw D-Will's fourth and fifth fouls through his activity with Carmelo as well. Not only did the absence of the two Net stars with foul trouble help the Knicks take control, but late in the game, Farmar was forced to be on Billups after Deron's fifth -- Billups was able to use his craftiness to fool Farmar in running into him off the screen for the critical foul on the three point shot that helped tie the game.

*  Brook Lopez looked outstanding in the first half, but the Knicks have had success doubling him and throwing him off his rhythm in several games now, and the second half last night was more of the same -- he just freezes when the pressure increases, rather than finding teammates in good positions. And that play where he missed the layup with the Nets down 116-114, then went down to recover his shoe while the rebound was still being contested, was jaw-dropping (see above picture) -- I had to watch the replay a few times to make sure what I was seeing was real. I'm guessing Avery and Deron are not going to be too kind to Brook in film sessions tomorrow regarding how he handled that sequence. (Compare that to how Kevin Durant handled the loss of a shoe).

*  I've complained about the Knick lapses a lot in this recap, and the depth and scoring balance are serious concerns when reserves like TD and Shawne haven't got their shot going. But I really liked how methodically the Knick stars got their offense through solid execution and positioning for most of the first, third and fourth quarter, rather than taking too many hero shots -- particularly in the sequence that got the lead down to one in the third, the team kept running variations on the "Power" set where Billups passes to Amare coming from the corner to the top of the key, then sets a screen for Carmelo to receive the pass from Amare on a cut -- if that doesn't work,  either Billups will get the ball back for a jumper behind Amare, Amare takes the jumper himself, or Melo comes back to the left block for a post-up.

If these guys are going to account for the vast majority of points as they did last night (95 of 120 points), let them do it in a way that makes the defense work and keeps them guessing, rather than an unending series of isolations. I'm anxious to see what new wrinkles D'Antoni introduces after three days off and some real practices.

*  Deron Williams is a fantastic player, and I'm not looking forward to seeing him against the Knicks when he's fully healthy (which may not be the rest of the season). Even at half to three quarters speed, the way he uses screens (and fakes using them) is an art form with his skills with the dribble. When the Nets made their run to get the lead back to ten in the 3rd quarter, D-Will got the offense going again by running Billups through simple elbow screens over and over -- if he couldn't lose him the first time, he simply drew a simple curve back around the original screen or found another one. In the fourth quarter, he chose to take over with ten straight points and drove Anthony Carter out of the game.


It will be the Cavaliers on Sunday, and they've been playing very well lately -- plus we know how good the Knicks have made them look in every matchup this season. Despite that, I'm actually looking forward to the game to see if the team can back up its words about respecting every opponent and playing with an renewed sense of purpose, after losing their way for so much of the last month.

Seeing the Knicks lose so many times over the last ten games was tiresome, but the forced narratives around why they were losing were every bit as tiresome. With last night's thrilling win over a depleted Orlando Magic team in overtime, the narratives don't go away. But they (temporarily) become easier to bear as the Knicks can manage to exhale and bask in the positives of a big win for a change.

The Knicks were operating with an advantage with the absence of Jameer Nelson and Quentin Richardson from the Magic lineup. Nelson has given the Knicks problems in every game they've played this season with his quickness, and Richardson is capable of defending Carmelo Anthony one on one. Additionally, both have shot the ball well enough against the Knicks to limit the defense's ability to swarm Howard in the post. Without them, the Knicks aggressively doubled Howard for most of the first half, and changed up the defensive looks they gave Dwight enough to confuse him and limit him to only 2 FG attempts, 4 points (all on free throws) and 5 rebounds in the first half.

The Knicks played the entire game with an extra skip in their step, a hunger that was evident in aggressive defense and more spirited attempts at rotating and running out on shooters. It wasn't always smart or pretty -- bad habits aren't unlearned in a single game, no matter how potent the fuel of desperation can be -- but the commitment shown by every one of the ten players who got time on the floor was impressive. It took a while for the Knicks to get an offensive rhythm, since the Magic are still a very good defensive team as long as they have Howard, and as a result the two teams slogged to an anomalously low-scoring first quarter.

In the second quarter, the ball movement and scoring efficiency improved from both teams, and most encouragingly, the Knicks got six assists in the quarter and Stoudemire made all four of his shots and had 11 points in the 2nd. Though Amare still doesn't look close to 100 percent (or even 80 percent), he moved well without the ball and took advantage of Orlando's reserves to score frequently inside. Additionally, Bill Walker provided welcome energy off the bench with two three pointers, two rebounds, an assist and a steal. The Knicks built a four point halftime lead, and even with the Magic short handed (which was compounded by a Duhon thumb injury that left Gil Arenas as the Magic's only PG), the Knicks had a vibe that was light years beyond the horrific second quarter played in Charlotte last Saturday.

The second half was where the real fireworks of the game took place, as Orlando spaced the floor better and created room for Howard to operate in the post. In a three minute stretch, starting at 10:30, Howard was responsible for 11 straight Magic points (eight of his own, and a kick out assist to Jason Richardson for a three pointer). He ended with 15 points in the quarter, engaging in a duel with Carmelo, who scored 19 points in the quarter, including 17 of the Knicks' last 19 in the period. Neither team could build a lead of more than four points because of the individual excellence of the teams' two stars.  (It's a shame that this electrifying portion of the game was overshadowed by all the crazy extracurricular activity that characterized the closing minutes).

In the fourth quarter, it was more of the same in terms of the back and forth between both teams. The fourth period has been the Knicks' bete noire during this losing streak, and they suffered a shaky first few minutes where the Magic got some traction with a peculiar "big" lineup of Anderson-JRich-Turkoglu-Bass-Howard that overpowered the Knicks' smaller perimeter reserves of Douglas, Carter and Walker. Carmelo was brought in earlier than usual (three minutes into the quarter, rather than his typical five) to stabilize the Knicks, and he continued his torrid shooting with 11 points in a six minute stretch to help the Knicks build their lead to 96-90.

It wasn't just Melo that was contributing, though -- to snap out of the fourth quarter blues against a good opponent, the team needed more, and it got contributions from Douglas, from Billups and from Stoudemire. Most surprisingly, Shelden Williams came in with the score tied at 89 and in just three minutes got a steal, a stop, and an offensive rebound to help the Knicks establish what looked to be definitive separation at 98-92 with a minute left.

The thing about teams on losing streaks though, is that demons seem to appear at the most inopportune moments to test a team's ability to get that crucial step past misfortune. And the Knicks failed the first test.

Two of the Knicks' "best" defenders had unbelievable lapses in the final 30 seconds: 1) Toney Douglas lost Gilbert Arenas on an inbound play that found Gil wide open for a corner three that cut it to 98-97. 2) After TD made up for it with a basket that was goaltended to get the lead back to three with 10 seconds left, the Magic inbounded the ball to Jason Richardson (who's made his share of memorable buzzer beating three pointers), and Jared Jeffries defended the play as poorly as he possibly could, providing no resistance on the dribble to JRich's left and even less resistance on the shot. Game tied 100-100, with Carmelo then barely missing a tip after a wild shot to send the game to overtime.

In the overtime, the Knicks deserve credit for continuing to play hard even when it looked like they might be deflated and exhausted. After the Magic took their final lead at 104-103 early in the OT, a huge three pointer by Billups and a fastbreak dunk by Melo after a terrific pass by Billups off a missed Hedo three pointer gave the Knicks a 108-104 lead that it wouldn't relinquish. Part of the reason the lead wasn't relinquished were two questionable calls (Howard's sixth foul on an offensive rebound attempt, and a tripping foul on J Rich where the second transgression was caught rather than the first) that effectively snuffed the Magic's chances of coming back. But maybe that was just the demons finally showing the Knicks some mercy.

Game notes:

*  The officials took (deserved) grief for the way they officiated the final minutes of regulation and overtime, but they had a tough game throughout. Howard is just like Shaq in his prime in how difficult he is to officiate -- in the first half, the refs allowed highly physical play inside (to the Knicks' advantage), then they started calling it closer in the second half. But it was never that simple. Sometimes the refs allowed Howard to get hit, other times they gave him free reign to swing elbows, or gave him the benefit of the doubt when a ball was lost out of bounds. It seemed like the officials were constantly behind the tenor of the action and judiciously trying to award make up calls to remedy earlier errors, rather than establish a consistent pattern of officiating. It was very frustrating to watch for fans of both teams, I'm sure.

*  Mike D'Antoni played ten players significant minutes, and to my eye, managed the lineups and substitutions very well for someone with a reputation for preferring compact rotations. As unpopular as Jeffries is, and as bad as his final possession defense was on J Rich's three, I liked the decision to play offense-defense with Amare and Jeffries in the closing seconds. The fact is, Amare is a terrible defender out on the perimeter, and it's possible D'Antoni feared Amare being caught on a switch. This move may have caught Amare's attention, because in overtime (with the Knick lead still only 3 points) he had a sneaky good sequence where he crowded Hedo and contested his jumper well through all of Hedo's fakes and shimmies -- it's the best defense I've seen Amare play on a perimeter player in quite a while.

*  The glory that was Shelden Williams: First quarter (4:40) --  2 fouls, 1 steal, 1 turnover, +4. Third quarter (7:58) --  2 fouls, 0-1FGs, 1 rebound, +1. Fourth quarter (3:11) -- 2 fouls, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, +2.  With Jared Jeffries still struggling to regain his defensive form of last year, and Turiaf's ongoing health issues, Shelden becomes Mr. Intangible for now, and his post defense was the best the Knicks have seen from a center since Turiaf held down Aldridge in Portland back when the Knicks were a totally different team.

*  The guards are as crucial as ever and as hit and miss as ever -- Toney Douglas and Chauncey Billups still missed plenty of three pointers and had their shaky moments, but only one turnover between them and (mostly) good shots taken in the flow of the offense was good news. Billups was very good in limiting Richardson when he tried to post up, and Douglas likewise harassed Arenas into a dreadful shooting and passing game.  Douglas deserves credit for not self-destructing on offense with dubious shots and turnovers as he's sometimes done late in games, even with Richardson shadowing him very well.

*  The Knicks had only 16 assists in a 102 possession overtime game -- only six in the second half and overtime. Everyone will point (rightfully) to all the isolation activity for Carmelo as he took over the game (the Knicks ran 27 isolations according to Synergy Sports, 17 of them for Melo). I didn't have a problem with this, because when you need a win, sometimes it's as simple as going with the hot hand, and Melo was on fire. You could definitely point to a few possessions where he could have passed off, but he was so hot that the Magic were swarming him with three defenders late, which was amazing to see. Melo did have an assist on TD's last basket in regulation and found TD for an open three that didn't go in earlier. I expect the coaches will point out with more film study and practice how his iso scoring prowess can be harnessed to find other shooters.

* The flip side of Carmelo's big scoring second half is that Amare had three shot attempts in the entire second half and overtime, while Toney Douglas had 10 shots in the same time frame. Some of this was simply the Magic defense being more keyed on Amare, but the coaches will need to keep working on enabling Carmelo and Amare to get better looks for each other when one is hot and the defense is tilted heavily toward them, rather than kicking out for three pointers all the time when their shot isn't there.


Next up is the Nets, which means more juicy narrative-mongering for the media to engage in with the Russian-owned rivals from across the river, and their new crown jewel, Deron Williams. At least the Knicks go into Wednesday's game with a win behind them, and the kind of effort they showed last night would be great to bottle up and throw out there again before a very welcome stretch of days off. The best way to kill spurious narratives is to win, and establish more positive narratives that demonstrate games like last night aren't a fluke.

Shortest recap yet since the trade, because:

*  Kwame Brown outplayed Amare Stoudemire, and was the Bobcat player of the game on the Charlotte broadcast.

*  Dominic McGuire had 5 offensive rebounds and was a plus 16 in only 10 minutes of play.

*  Matt Carroll ran around screens and scored on every Knick perimeter player in the second quarter. He drove Roger Mason out of the game with two scores, then abused Billups and Douglas on successive possessions.

*  Shelden Williams and Landry Fields had very good games off the bench for the Knicks. They could not make up for the diminished output of starters Douglas and Stoudemire. Amare was so labored in last night's game that nothing short of a hyperbaric chamber and a full body compression sleeve (with holes cut for his eyes and mouth) looked like it would help. He's shooting 42% (61 of 144) in the last eight Knick losses. Forget chemistry or effort or what you think of the trade -- his physical decline is the most alarming development in this losing streak, and it probably would have happened regardless of who his teammates were.

* Having to play Toney Douglas significant minutes next to Billups and Shelden Williams significant minutes next to Amare is a leading indicator of who the most problematic defenders are on the team during this losing streak.

*  Carmelo's 36 point line looked good on paper, but with 25 shots I'd like to see more than one assist. To be fair, at least two or three times (including a critical possession late where he passed to Fields), his teammates didn't help by blowing the shot after a pass out of a double team.

*  Reporters are more loudly campaigning for the coach to scrap the regular rotation patterns and play Carmelo and Amare the entire fourth quarter. A reasonable demand given the erratic bench play and Amare's downward trajectory -- Melo only played nine games of over 40 minutes for Denver this year before the trade, but he played 31 such games last season, including eight in a row at the end of March a year ago. One thing I've observed in his time with the Knicks, though: when Carmelo starts to wear down in the fourth, he gets more foul prone -- picking up offensive fouls, reaching on defense and getting grabbier, running through screens (and knocking over people) rather than around them.  But the team needs a win badly enough that he should get more minutes if the team doesn't have a lead in the fourth.

*  Back in November, the Knicks swept Charlotte in a home and home to get to .500 after a 3-8 start. I remember feeling distinctly encouraged about the new Knicks because sweeping a back to back (and closing out two close games) was beyond the mental and physical means of most past Knick teams. Not sure anyone would have expected that a stripped down Bobcat team with a new coach would be sending the Knicks further south of .500 four months later.

*  The title of this recap is an allusion to the use of ellipses in Japanese manga to indicate speechlessness (and last night's loss rendered me pretty speechless). Did a search and learned that such use of ellipses dates back to at least 1954, and in MAD Magazine no less. The things you learn.


That's nine losses in ten games now, and when you're making the Bobcats -- actually check that, I mean the Bobcat *bench* --  look like world beaters, you're in trouble. I'm not given to despair and still think the team will make the playoffs (the Pacers and Bucks lost again last night), but play as poor as last night's doesn't deserve much detailed analysis. (For what it's worth, I like the spirit of this Bobcats team since Silas replaced Brown, and would root for them to get the eighth seed as long as it doesn't come at the expense of the Knicks).

I'm not sure where the next win is going to come from, but it has to come from somewhere pretty soon for this team to avoid a major meltdown. And to get a win, the Knicks are going to need an Amare that looks more like the early season player that carried the team, rather than the broken down cyborg wearing a Knick uniform last night.

Another horrible first quarter. Another fourth quarter collapse. Another loss to the Bucks. Another Friday night folly.

I'm not sure I have much more than this. But let's try -- it's really hard -- but let's try and be rational about where things went wrong in this ugly loss to the Bucks. Because a few of the key factors that contributed to the loss represent recurring issues, it won't be necessary to spend much time on them. But there were some (very) small positive notes, and a few alarmingly lingering issues, that are worth highlighting.

The fourth quarter scoring issues are getting all the attention, understandably since the Knicks got it down to a single possession game several times after trailing by large margins early, but couldn't get key baskets (or even remotely good looking shots) when they needed them. But in my opinion, this game was lost in the first quarter.  After my last two recaps, I wondered whether I was starting to pile on Billups a bit too much, and then Brandon Jennings started the game twirling Chauncey around a skewer and roasting him over high heat for a good five minutes. Jennings had nine of the Bucks' 16 points to give the Bucks a quick 16-4 lead.

It was so bad that Toney Douglas was brought in relatively early (at 7:20 of the first ) to guard Jennings -- Toney did a better job of staying in front of Jennings but he also had his issues with the way he applied defensive pressure on the pick and roll for the rest of the half. Billups, meanwhile, was no better on offense -- he played his worst game since coming back from injury, scoring 8 points on 3 of 11 shooting, and missing 4 of his 5 three pointers. Carmelo Anthony had his typical strong first quarter with 13 points (making all 5 of his FTs), and getting 3 rebounds and an assist, but Amare had another rough opening 12 minutes with dead legs where he struggled to elevate over the Buck defenders, and keep up with the Bucks on defense.

After the somnolent first quarter where the Knicks were down by as much as 16, the silver lining for the team came in the second quarter when D'Antoni decided to play Anthony Carter (and in the second half, Shelden Williams, after another Turiaf injury) to provide a spark on both ends of the floor. Carter responded excellently, with 5 points, a rebound, an assist, and a block in his first half play, while playing extremely energetic defense on Salmons.

The coaches gave Douglas more detailed feedback at halftime on how to guard the pick and roll based on the way the Bucks were running their offense, and TD started the second half with Billups (the two often play together, but almost never to start a half). Douglas did a much better job defending Jennings in the third quarter. The Knicks continued to spend the game going uphill after getting the deficit down several times though, and never could seem to catch the Bucks, even when the shaky Buck reserves got some time.

Once the Knicks got past that low energy first quarter, their defense and effort points improved notably over the course of the game -- they forced turnovers and got tougher on the boards. They were outrebounded by only two, they got 15 offensive rebounds, and got 26 points off 14 Buck turnovers. But the offense never ran smoothly for more than a few possessions at a time (the Buck defense deserves some credit for this). Working with two point guards and having them work so hard on defense to limit the Bucks' pick and roll attack seemed to affect the Knicks' ability to space and move the ball on offense -- the Knicks ended up with only 13 assists, shot 40 %, and missed 9 of 11 three pointers.

The fourth quarter ball movement and spacing was especially dire -- the Knicks took 9 long jumpers and missed 8, and they weren't any better closer in (3 of 16). With no outside punch, the Bucks collapsed on Melo and Amare, and there was no movement of the ball from one side of the floor to the other -- Billups would either play a two man game with Amare on the left and Amare would end up taking it into a thicket of defenders, or Chauncey would feed it into Carmelo on the right block, who would get double and triple teamed. There seemed to be no attempt to have Carmelo assume some point forward responsibilities as he had in previous games, apart from one or two set plays. Things were so bad that even when execution delivered a good looking shot, nothing came out of it:  Shawne Williams had two wide open jumpers in the closing minutes and missed them both, which brought on a chorus of boos.

The Knick defense was decent enough in the fourth quarter to win (allowing seven points in the first seven and a half minutes), and they kept Delfino in check, and didn't foul as excessively as they had in previous games. But the attempt to play catch up all game and their scoring struggles appeared to wear the Knicks down mentally, and they gasped their way to the finish as Jennings scored nine points in the final four minutes to bookend his production at the start of the game, and seal the win with the last of his 37 points.

Game Notes:

* D'Antoni played 11 players (though Mason and Jeffries ended up getting barely 2 minutes of time) as he tried to find a unit that could play more energetically and commit more on defense. The presence of Carter and Shelden Williams on the floor together at one point felt like a throwback to the Knicks of the '90s, with the hustle plays, physicality, and extreme effort from both players. As exciting as it was to see the role players contribute, their presence on offense often felt like a tightrope walk -- if the player couldn't move the ball right away or hand it off, there were several awkward seconds of "please don't commit a turnover", especially from Shelden.

* Toney Douglas was being crowded on his threes by the Buck defense, so he navigated the space available to him to attempt and convert some midrange jumpers and floaters. This may have been the most enjoyable adjustment to watch all game, as Douglas looked confident on many of his shots, something that wasn't always the case in previous games. Douglas wound up playing 35 minutes, which matched his season high at Memphis two weeks ago, and he looked gassed by the last few minutes of the fourth.

*  The Bucks were as effective as any team the post-trade Knicks have played with execution on the pick and roll. Fifteen percent of the Bucks' plays for the season involve the ballhandler on the pick and roll taking the shot (usually Jennings), and only 5 percent of their plays (on average) involve a shot for the man setting the pick -- the Bucks' scoring producitivity in the pick and roll is 0.79 points per possession (PPP) and ranks 22nd in the league, according to Synergy Sports. But against the Knicks, the Bucks ran the pick and roll for the ballhandler 21 percent of the time, and got 1.05 points per possession (PPP). When the Bucks got the ball to the man rolling to the basket, they scored all 5 times. A lot of this came from Jennings' jumper falling early.

The Bucks also ran more cuts as a proportion of their plays than usual, and scored on 7 of 10 plays (1.4 PPP), impressive considering they are last in the league on scoring productivity through cuts.

*  Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier were in full alarmist mode for the most of the game, which is perfectly justified when the team is muddling its way through a discouraging sixth loss in seven games and looking as futile as it did at the start and at the finish. I like Breen's measured take on the local broadcast most of the time even when things are going badly, but he does have a tendency to lapse into "effort cliches" with a whiff of moralism ("you need to deliver a hard foul!" "show some pride!" "double team!"). The neurotic nattering is fine in the way it aligns with the anxiety of fans who deserve a better effort, and demanding accountability from specific players when they're falling short is welcome.

Last night though, the piety about effort and accountability was delivered with too broad a brush -- in particular with Anthony. Yes, he holds the ball a bit long on some possessions, but it's also his bread and butter in allowing him to assess the defense -- and sometimes a player is the victim of bad luck even when he's trying. The whole Knick team had issues in the fourth quarter with shot selection and moving the ball that went beyond a couple of wayward isolations. Clyde hectored the team about its play, but to his credit did so with a better sense of perspective about the larger issues around the Knicks' play than Breen did.


Next up, the Charlotte Bobcats tonight, the sixth back to back this month. The Bobcats stayed alive (barely) in the playoff race for the eighth seed with a big win over the Celtics while the Knicks were losing, and it will be a battle of desperate teams in Charlotte. This is a game against a beatable team with a non-elite defense, unlike several of the teams the Knicks have played lately, but they're struggling so badly that it will be another slog to get to within striking distance of a win. At this point, whatever's needed to get the win will be welcome -- more minutes for the starters, a lot of minutes for bench players if they're on a roll. Whatever it takes at this point.

The Knicks - yet again - put together a solid half of play against an excellent Orlando Magic team that shot extremely well, but couldn't be bothered to defend the Knicks early. And again, the Knicks withered down the stretch when the other team decided to put its foot down.

Bear with me while I share a convoluted analogy. When I see a team struggling the way the Knicks are currently, it brings me back to when I had just started high school, and became friends with a classmate from a wealthy family who had a squash court in their home. My classmate invited me over to play several times, and his uncle (who taught squash at the nearby country club) even gave me a few lessons.

My sport was basketball, but I was intrigued enough by squash to get into it for a few months -- it was certainly a great workout. But I remember how baffling it was to play the first couple of months. There is a lot more wrist action in squash than in tennis (at least the way I played it), and those four walls (with a glass wall in the back) and that crazy little rubber squash ball were murder for me to deal with. I would learn to smash the ball along the side wall, and the teacher would retrieve it easily and smash it harder. I would learn to sustain rallies, but at the right moment, the teacher would flick a drop shot that left me lunging. I would learn to position myself on the court to cover drop shots, and develop a nice one of my own, and the teacher would retrieve my drop shot and execute a lob to the back wall that would end up dying in the rear corner.

This went on for about eight to ten lessons - I'd add to my repertoire, mix up my attack more, but the teacher would just counter everything, take advantage of a mental lapse or fatigue on my end, and then smile and give me a look like "it's not coming together for you, is it?" There were times where it felt like I covered every inch of the court retrieving shots and sustaining rallies and delivering sure winners -- and squash rallies can go on for a LONG time - and I might as well have spun myself dizzy in the center of the court like a sugar-charged toddler and collapsed for all the good it did me.

My biggest challenge was shots off the rear glass wall, where the ball's physics were completely different on impact. At the end of some rallies, I'd crash into the wall, drop my racket, and mutter: "Damn that glass wall". Probably everyone who's learned a new sport or activity or game has a story like this.


Watching the Knicks play the last eight games is a lot like those first few weeks of my futile attempts to be competent. One game the Knicks get production from Amare and Billups, but Carmelo and Douglas can't seem to get it going. Another game they get extremely hot shooting from almost everyone, but can't defend at all and turn the ball over at the worst times in the fourth quarter. Yet another game, they put together a terrific third quarter run against the opponent's starters, then give it all up against the opponent's second and third string. Last night, the Knicks got excellent first half shooting from Billups and Douglas, strong minutes from Turiaf, and Carmelo's most complete game since the trade (24 points on 12 shots, nine assists, 5 rebounds) -- and Amare shows up with dead legs, misses 11 of his first 13 shots, and ends up shooting 6 for 20 for the game.

The "damn glass wall" for the Knicks is the fourth quarter. And the way the pain is being delivered isn't as obvious as it might seem.  One would expect the starting units from better teams like the Celtics and Magic to eventually come through and hit the Knicks at their biggest weaknesses. But the Knicks are making mental mistakes that should be avoidable, and self-destructing against weaker second units as well as crumbling against the suffocating defense and intensity of stars like Howard and Garnett.

The effort last night from the Knicks was extremely good, even though it was clear from the beginning that they wouldn't be able to stop Howard. The Magic's defensive intensity was badly lacking in the first half, and the Knicks took advantage through Carmelo's midrange and post game, and outstanding three point shooting. Billups in particular looked the best he's looked since returning from injury (15 points, 3 assists in the half). The Magic countered not with defense but equally torrid shooting from outside the arc (8 of 14 on 3 pointers).

In the second half, the Magic bumped up the intensity on defense, and the Knicks started missing shots after building an eight point lead early in the third.  A brutal third quarter drought where the Knicks scored seven points in seven minutes made the lead vanish --  Amare, Billups, Douglas and Jeffries combined to go 1 for 12.

But the killer stretch, in my opinion, was the beginning of the fourth quarter. In the first half, the Knicks made up an early deficit by torching the Magic bench.  In the final period though, Magic bench players Arenas, Earl Clark and Quentin Richardson teamed with starters Howard and Jason Richardson to fuel a 9-0 run after the Knicks had gone ahead 82-81 to start the quarter. Arenas ran pick and rolls, found Richardson for a transition three pointer, and made Douglas and Mason look a step slow. Amare meanwhile, couldn't take advantage of mismatches with Clark, the type of player he overpowered routinely earlier in the season.

The most encouraging part of the fourth quarter came with Carmelo's return, when he assisted on a Shawne Williams three pointer, an Amare pick and roll, and an Amare cut into the lane, taking advantage of all the attention on him in the post (as Melo put it in the postgame, the weak side was "wide open"). If anything can be taken from this game, it's the hope that much more of this two man game can happen.

But the execution was a mess for too much of the final quarter, and to Orlando's credit, Dwight Howard was every bit his MVP self, dominating on both ends of the floor. The Knicks got some decent looks, but apart from Melo and Amare the other shots were mostly wishful rather than assertive -- threes from Billups and drives by Douglas looked bad from the time they were launched. The shot chart for the Knick 4th quarter tells the tale:



New York Knicks 4th quarter shot chart vs Magic, 3/23/11

I haven't labeled who shot where, but it's pretty clear that anything outside of 15 feet was poor, save a Toney Douglas three pointer to the left of the key and a long Shawne Williams two pointer near the right corner. Seven jumpers from 20 feet and further out missed -- three from Shawne Williams, three from Billups, one from Melo. (Carmelo had only one shot in the fourth). This is not the shot distribution of an elite team -- or even a respectable playoff team -- in crunch time, especially when you consider Williams can only make them from the corners.

This shot chart is relevant because it amplifies the point that the Knicks really miss the shooters to space the floor that they had before the trade. Opponents have picked up on Douglas' tendencies and are playing tighter on him, and Billups is still not close to form -- another empty fourth quarter missing 3 shots, including two three pointers. I noted earlier that Billups had a 15 point, 3 assist first half -- the only thing he added in eighteen second half minutes were two FTs, two rebounds, a foul and a turnover.


Game Notes:

*  This latest three game stretch has come against three of the best five defenses in the league, which provides an interesting bookend to the first few games after the trade, where the Knicks faced the same tough defenses. Have the Knicks made progress or regressed? Take a look:

Opponent	Date	Pace	Off Eff	Def Eff	Result
MIL	23-Feb	97	118	111	W, 114-108
at MIA	27-Feb	95	96	90	W, 89-86
at ORL	1-Mar	98	112	118	L, 110-116
at MIL	20-Mar	89	107	112	L, 95-100
BOS	21-Mar	89	99	110	L, 86-96
ORL	23-Mar	90	110	123	L, 99-111

The biggest difference between the games vs elite defenses right after the trade and the games in the last week is the slower pace -- what should alarm the Knicks the most is that their defense is just as bad, even against struggling offensive teams like the Bucks and Celtics (of recent vintage), in games with fewer possessions. But their offensive efficiency has gone down in these slower paced games. (That Miami game looks more and more like a fluke against a team the Knicks happened to match up well against at the time).

Taking a (generously) positive spin, the differences aren't that dramatic and can be explained to a certain degree by the recent games coming at the tail end of a brutal month of games -- the Milwaukee and Boston games were part of the four game in five day stretch, and of course there's that issue of Billups' injury. But there's also the reality that the quality teams didn't know what to expect when first playing the Knicks, and in recent games have the advantage of seeing what they've been running and have effectively hampered the primary options (especially the Amare catch at the elbow and the basic Melo right and left block post-ups).

The lack of practice time (especially hard, full contact practices) means the players have had little time to really run through the offense and all its possibilities, and learn each other's tendencies apart from figuring it out on the fly in game situations. This sounds like an excuse that's been trotted out a lot since the trade, but it's no less valid for how often it's been said -- you can see the lack of crispness in the cuts and screens and ball movement in fourth quarters when the opponents' defense gets tighter. Star power can only do so much to get a team to a certain level of execution against more seasoned teams like the Magic and Celtics.

*  The rampant fouling continues to take a toll in the fourth quarters as well. Here's a quick summary:

Fourth Quarter Fouls

Nine PFs vs Orlando
Four PFs vs Boston
12 PFs vs Milwaukee
5 PFs vs Detroit
7 PFs vs Indiana at Conseco
7 PFs vs Indiana at NY
8 PFs vs Dallas
9 PFs vs Memphis

Against Boston, the fouls were low because the team just gave up down the stretch from exhaustion (though Carmelo's fifth allowed Paul Pierce to go off in the final minutes), while fouls were low against Detroit because that was a game that the Knicks controlled (the officials were also extremely permissive regarding contact).  The Knicks will never be a good defensive team until they can get some help over the summer, but what the Knicks are going through with foul trouble, difficulty executing on offense, and getting badly outrebounded (which negates some of their better defensive stands) is an unholy trinity.



Charlotte and Milwaukee lost last night, meaning the Knicks continue to be in the weird position of having little pressure of falling out of the playoffs, even as they fall below .500 and don't exactly have a bright future ahead with another back to back coming up this weekend. I'm with the coach and players -- panic and anxiety don't do much to improve the situation. At this point, I'm exhausted not just from the losing, but from the ridiculous overanalysis and endless forced narratives being imposed on everything the players and coaches are doing. (This is what I call "displaced hostility" -- it's not just Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks, Nuggets, and related players and coaches on trial here, but the whole system of free agent movement going back to the Decision that provides the undertow to every baker's dozen of "what's wrong with the Knicks?" copy coming out every hour).

But you know what, seven losses in eight games doesn't breed much confidence, and while there's a perverse pleasure in the idea of losing out and making the playoffs...uh guys, let's try to win one soon, OK? And stop crashing into that glass wall.

It was another one of those Celtics-Knicks games...the ones where the Celtics eventually assert themselves and dominate in late game execution, Paul Pierce takes over, and the Knicks make just enough mistakes to hang themselves. This one was exciting for three and a half quarters and more physical than the last Celtic encounter at MSG...also a lot less artful, with all the new faces on both teams since the trade deadline. There was blood. But the result was no less inevitable than any of the other games.

The Knicks were especially strong in the first half - Anthony, Stoudemire and Billups combined for 38 points, while the entire Celtic team had 37. It was a dreadful half of Celtic basketball reminiscent of last year's indifferent march to the playoffs -- the only thing missing was Rasheed Wallace launching up some ill-advised three pointers and getting a technical. The new look Celtic bench didn't even score for the first 4 and a half minutes of the 2nd quarter, and Jeff Green and Big Baby Davis combined to miss 8 of 10 shots. The Celtics had only 4 assists, while the Knicks had 12 assists and only 4 turnovers. Ronny Turiaf started and looked the best he's looked since the early part of the season when he started at center.

And yet there was a sense that it was fool's gold for the Knicks. The Celtics had good looking shots in the first half, they were getting to the basket, but the shots simply weren't going in, and the team wasn't moving the ball. In the second half, Boston came out with greater intensity on defense and knocked the Knicks back. All the Knicks got in the first five minutes of the third quarter was a Turiaf three point play, while the Celtics started getting much more fluid offense.

After giving up 18 points in the first five and a half minutes of the third, the Knicks deserve credit for clamping down and putting forth some of their best effort on defense in the game. They only gave up nine points in the next six minutes, got some very good minutes from Jeffries, Mason, and Douglas (especially after both Amare and Carmelo had to sit out the final minutes of the third), and looked poised to extend the Knick lead going into the final period. But perhaps the most critical momentum turn came with 26 seconds left in the third when Mason missed a jumper and Jeffries got a loose ball foul fighting for an offensive rebound, which produced two Davis FTs. Immediately after, Douglas turned the ball over when the Knicks were holding for a final shot, and Jeffries tripped Rondo heading upcourt, incurring a clear path foul. The Celtics ended up with five points in the final 26 seconds and the Knicks none, meaning what could have been a nine or 11 point Knick lead shrunk to six.

In the fourth, the Knicks made one last stand, led by Billups and Anthony. They got a three from Chauncey, two FTs from Carmelo after a drive, a terrific cross court pass from Carmelo to Douglas after a post up that led to a TD floater, and a four point play from Chauncey with 7:26 left to make it 82-73 Knicks. But the ship was already springing leaks on both ends of the floor, and the sinking was swift thereafter. Garnett re-entered the game and he and Pierce took over, shutting down Carmelo and Amare and scoring authoritatively on their end. The Knick offense got more frantic and chaotic in trying to find a good look for anyone, the ball movement lost all logic, any decent shot attempt was contested, and the Celtics started leaking out in transition and beating the Knicks' tired legs down the court by yards.

The Celtics scored 23 of the game's final 27 points, and it could have been even worse if Ray Allen had not had such a rough shooting night (missing 11 of 16 shots). It didn't have to be quite this ugly, but for the third straight game (and fourth in the last five), late game execution was problematic. The Knicks were outrebounded 25-16 in the second half, missed 9 of 12 3 pointers, turned the ball over nine times, and had 8 assists -- none in the final four minutes after the Knicks made their final basket to get the lead down to 86-84.

Game Notes:

*  What's Up With B-B-B-BILLUPS? The Knicks' issues with chemistry and execution have become so popular in the Age of the SuperTeam that every media outlet -- not just the obvious tabloids, but even more measured outlets like ESPN and the New York Times -- have assigned a hit man/psychoanalyst type to tackle such hard-hitting issues like the winning makeup of Carmelo Anthony and the lineups and coaching philosophy of Mike D'Antoni. Far be it from me to get in the way of the fun, but in D'Antoni's point guard and ball-movement centric system, I would think the point guards should get a little more scrutiny.

And the reality is that the Knicks have lost 5 of 6 since the return of Billups from his thigh bruise, and look like a much less confident team than the one that beat Miami, gave Orlando a tough game at their court, and continued to win without Billups before crashing unceremoniously in Dallas. Here's a summary of Billups' fourth quarter production before and after the injury -- for simplicity's sake, I've focused on basic offensive production:

Opponent	Fourth Quarter Production	Plus/Minus	Game Result
Pre-Injury	Chauncey Billups
MIL	0-1 FGs, 0-1 3PTs, 6-6 FTs, 2 AST	plus 3	W 114-108
CLE	4-7 FGs, 1-2 3PTs, 9-10 FTs, 2 AST, 1 PF	plus 7	L 115-109
MIA	3-5 FGs, 1-2 FTs, 1 TO	plus 10	W 89-86
ORL	0-1 FGS, 0-1 3PTs, 10-10 FTs, 1 PF	minus 7	L 110-106
Post-Injury
IND	0-2 FGs, 0-1 3PTs, 1 AST, 2 TO, 2 PF	minus 3	L 106-93
IND	0-1 FGs, 0-1 3PTs, 1 AST, 3 TO	minus 4	L 119-117
MEM	2 ASTs, 1 PF	plus 5	W 120-99
DET	1-3 FGs, 1-3 3PTs, 1 AST, 1 TO	minus 7	L 99-95
MIL	0-2 FGs, 0-1 3PTs, 3 PFs	plus 1	L 100-95
BOS	3-4 FGs, 2-3 3PTs, 3-3 FTs, 2 TO, 1 PF	minus 16	L 96-86

Note how in his first four games, Billups got to the line much more, and in two of the games, he had a greater variety of baskets -- not every FG attempt was a three pointer. He also had one turnover across four fourth quarters, pretty remarkable for the first four games with a new team, all of them closely contested in the final minutes.

In the games since returning from the injury, he takes fewer shots, the majority of them being three pointers, presumably because he doesn't have the ability to push past defenders for drives the way he did pre-injury. He doesn't get to the line the way he did his first four games, even against poorer opposition, and there's a slight tendency to commit more fouls -- he fouled out against Milwaukee after playing only 4 minutes in the last quarter. He's also much more turnover prone, and the turnovers have a habit of being fatally timed -- the ones at Indiana, at Detroit, and last night against Boston were almost all back breakers that led to immediate scores on the other end.

Not only is this diminished production hampering the late game offense, it also seems to be affecting his abiliity to get his star teammates optimal scoring opportunities. Billups has had trouble finding Amare on the pick and roll, and in general he isn't making great decisions in traffic when the opponents' defense is bearing down in the final quarter.

Some fans have proposed giving Toney Douglas his starting position "back" since TD's production has fluctuated wildly since returning to the bench, but Billups still gives the team more positives with his experience, and in his defense, his reaction time on the court and general mobility gradually seems to be improving with every game. He's likely to remain the starter unless there's another injury or other setback. But If people are wondering why the Knicks are struggling, Billups' uphill climb toward his previous form is a big reason. It isn't Carmelo Anthony's tragic flaw of self-absorption, even if that makes for better headlines.

*  Absent Shooters Cripple the Offense: Another issue that's become apparent as the injuries mount (latest: Shawne Williams' shooting hand) is how one-dimensional the Knicks become when they can't find shooters (beyond Carmelo and Amare) to produce off the bench or in the final minutes of close games. Douglas' production was a huge part of wins against Milwaukee, Utah, New Orleans and both Memphis games; Shawne Williams' corner threes have also been a big part of the Knicks' best runs in wins and losses. Both TD and Shawne were largely ineffective against Boston and Milwaukee and the Pacer loss at home. Roger Mason has given the Knicks some good moments here and there, but he and Bill Walker are even less consistent than their teammates.

*  Turiaf and Jeffries Trying To Regain Form: I've been a very big advocate of both Turiaf and Jeffries on this blog as defensive role players, and both in different ways have met my expectations and disappointed me in different degrees. Turiaf's big issue is health; Jeffries' issue is that he still seems rusty after a year of inactivity, and it's possible age has slowed him a little as well. He was earning 30+ minutes with a poorer Knick team last year and making more of an impact. He still has at least a few good moments every game -- he was the only defender who could stand up Garnett in the post (likewise with Bogut and Zach Randolph in previous games) without immediately fouling, but he's also a tad slower to loose balls and blocks compared to his best moments last season.

The latest word on Turiaf is that he's going to be the starter for the immediate future. I've always supported this, but as I've mentioned before on this blog, I have to hold my breath and hope his knee or some other ailment doesn't act up. Even a healthy Turiaf doesn't address the rebounding issues, as Turiaf is a poor rebounder for his position. But he's always been the best option next to Amare as long as he's healthy.

*  Carmelo Anthony as Point Forward: With the point guard issues and general offensive cohesiveness an ongoing issue, the Knicks have tried having Carmelo Anthony bring the ball up and set up his own offense as a springboard to getting himself the best opportunities *and* finding teammates when he draws double or triple teams. This happens most commonly in the 3rd or early 4th quarters when he's playing with the second unit, to get around the issues Douglas has with finding him in the post, and to give the offense a different look. It's looked good -- Anthony seems to be a better passer when he starts with the ball early in a possession -- though it does slow the offense down as Melo has a more deliberate way of sizing up the defense. I'd like to see if the coaching staff can extend this to have him work with Amare more -- right now, it's used strictly when it's just Carmelo and the role players on the floor.

A badly needed day of rest is on tap today, and then the Knicks face Orlando in the make-up of the asbestos game. Ironically, the Knicks have the Pacers to "thank"  for plunging them into their current malaise (with the two wins to start this Knick losing spell) and simultaneously relieving them of greater pressure by playing so poorly in March that the Knicks aren't feeling greater playoff pressure. But the upcoming games against the Magic and Bucks are the closest this team has come to "must" wins as the issue of confidence and increasingly distracting media scrutiny becomes greater with every loss. What the coaching staff does to reinstate a sense of order and composure in the team's execution after this spell of chaos will be something to look out for.