The Knicks cleared the air on their internal issues, then went into Milwaukee for one of those 3pm afternoon starts in late March that's usually death for quality play. For one team, it was nearly death after only 12 minutes - the Knicks looked like they were keeping an eye on all the NCAA tournament basketball games and marking off their brackets while the energized Bucks were running and gunning and playing real basketball, and before you knew it the score was 16-4 Bucks, then 26-7, culminating in a 32-9 quarter.

It was simultaneously embarrassing and typical of past Bucks beatdowns of the Knicks, and a team with New York's offensive talent should never score just 9 points in a quarter. ("THIRTY-TWO - NINE! OMG, WTF" ) But watching it, I felt weirdly serene. 

Let's say this about Friday nights with the Knicks: I am truly impressed with the sheer variety of difficult losses this team is delivering. You wonder how many ways an excruciating loss can happen, and it doesn't matter whether there are no superstars, one, or two, the Friday Night Knicks keep delivering the surprises. (This time around, blowing an 11 point lead in the fourth quarter after delivering their best come from behind scoring run of the season in the third). One of these Fridays, who knows, they may provide the ultimate shock and deliver a win.

That's it for the levity, since I've never been a big believer in curses. (I do wish they had picked another day besides Friday to have these kinds of losses). This loss came down to the stars looking quite mortal down the stretch of a back to back -- Carmelo is understandably bearing the brunt of the heat with his worst game since a loss to the Hornets as a Nugget, but Billups with 8 turnovers and Amare with 20 points on 16 shots and 5 turnovers of his own (and a really big miss with 1:59 left in the game) were similarly culpable for their inability to carry the Knicks in the closing minutes.

Chauncey once again just doesn't look quite right -- many of his turnovers are self-inflicted, and on those he resembles a wind-up toy whose spring simply stops working and ends up doing a faceplant on the ground. Since he's often the player furthest from the basket when he leads the offense, his turnovers lead to automatic transition opportunities where he can't keep up. Amare, meanwhile, after looking rejuvenated with fresh springs after the trade thanks to the attention devoted to the two new additions, is again starting to look more earthbound and more prone to getting stripped or blocked when he attacks the rim. He abused Wallace in the first meeting against the Pistons in November, but Wallace handled him pretty well for most of last night's game when they were matched up.

Now for the man fans and media are directing their ire against. I generally don't comment on the extracurricular drama that the media consistently seeks to turn into back page headlines, but in the case of Carmelo not speaking to reporters, I've never thought it's a terrible thing to blow off the media once in a while in the case of a difficult loss or especially poor performance. Yes, I respect the players that do the stand-up thing and fall on their sword in front of the press hordes, but at some point, i just look forward to the player redeeming themselves the next time around. What I see on the court speaks much louder to me than what's said to media members who prod and bait and look for any chance they can for a player to slip up and speak out of line so that they have a story to run with.

(I'll qualify here that there are a few thoughtful reporters that ask questions that are meant to probe without injecting spurious drama, such as Howard Beck of the NY Times)

With all this in mind, there *is* a process of adjustment for the newly acquired Knick stars, not just on the court but also in managing relationships with the media in New York.  Like it or not, Carmelo does need to have some understanding of that. If it's true, as Beck indicated, that last night was the second time Melo failed to speak to the press in a week, it's the sort of behavior that plays into the hands of the Vesceys and Lawrences of the tabloid media, giving them more ammunition for their silly narratives about character and team performance, and creates unnecessary distractions for the team. I've been amazed at how gracefully Amare has managed the media and taken on a leadership role with the team this season, no matter what his occasional issues are on the court. I hope he, Chauncey and the Knick coaches can impress on Carmelo that he has off-court as well as on-court responsibilities that go with being one of the faces of the franchise.

Now, to the on-court stuff with Carmelo. It was a bad game offensively, a combination of not getting shots in his comfort zones, and being extremely off even when he had good looking opportunities. It was not a case of volume shooting gone awry (the typical accusation), but a more peculiar case of ineffective invisibility. There are going to be nights where he gets less than his teammates, but his inactivity in stretches last night reminded me of Lebron and Wade's early games together taking turns being passive -- Melo spent significant amounts of time standing passively in the left corner during the third quarter while playing with the second unit, seemingly content with letting Douglas and Shawne Williams play their two man game that kept the Knicks ahead after their run.

Carmelo had only 7 shots through three quarters -- when he tried to assert his will in the fourth quarter, nothing went right and shots didn't look close to going in. He didn't get calls either, but when you project the kind of body language Melo did, the refs don't tend to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Defensively, he fouled too much and occasionally lost a shooter, but he also had some of his best defensive moments as a Knick during the amazing 17-0 Knick run during a 4 minute 45 second stretch of the third quarter. He blocked Austin Daye on a jumper and provided terrific help in two different defensive possessions to continue the run. I felt he did enough positive in this area to not throw the book at him for the way this game turned out. It was an especially bad game by his standards, but a team loss.

No need to further dwell on a bad loss that typifies the mood swings of the adjustment process -- even the fall to the seventh seed is a talking point but not a drastic change in fortunes. What I would take from this loss is 1) the need for Billups to keep getting healthier, or failing that, for Toney Douglas to spend more time running the offense and maybe even Anthony Carter getting some minutes again, and 2) the need to continually refine how Carmelo is involved in the offense. Some of that is on Carmelo himself, some of it is on his teammates.

I'll end this recap with three shot charts, which introduce some ideas I may revisit in a future post. First, here's Melo's shot chart from his 50 point game this season, a highlight of his final days as a Denver Nugget -- note that though he was hot from almost every area of the floor, his opportunities are heavily weighted toward jumpers on the right side and drives in the lane:



Carmelo Anthony Shot Chart, 50 point game vs Houston, 2/7/11


Here's Carmelo's shot chart for his 15 point first quarter two nights ago against Memphis, one of his best and most efficient spells of scoring since the trade. In Mike D'Antoni's offense, more of his offense comes from receiving passes off the pick and roll or through cuts, but the activity still tends to be right-center weighted:



Carmelo Anthony Shot Chart, 15 point first quarter vs Memphis, 3/17/11



And here's Carmelo's shot chart for the ENTIRE GAME against the Pistons. (Sorry this one is reversed, because it was a road game). i was struck by how much he was lingering on the left side and taking bad looking long jumpers. In his defense, the Pistons were doing a pretty good job of pushing him out or denying him in the post and focusing their defense on him (which is why Douglas had such good opportunities isolated against Stuckey or Bynum)...but the alternative shouldn't be to drift to less efficient zones.



Carmelo Anthony Shot Chart, 6 point game vs the Pistons, 3/18/11


Final note about the game: the Pistons that ended up killing the Knicks in the fourth quarter (Will Bynum,Charlie Villanueva, Chris Wilcox)  didn't even make MSG's scouting report. Yikes.

Next up is Milwaukee, which might be the worst opponent to face after this kind of loss, since their defense will test the ability of the team to stick to the principles of ball movement and may tempt Anthony or Stoudemire to force things when the Bucks clamp down. The Bucks have been an odd, unpredictable team all season, but they'll be playing at home, and they're the rare team that has two defenders that can guard Amare and Melo one on one. I'm honestly not sure what to expect from this one -- other than it's safe to say that both teams are similarly maddening to their fans.

Very, very nice recovery for the Knicks on a night when a lot of basketball attention was devoted to the college world and March Madness. A terrifically energetic and rambunctious crowd, those green St. Patrick's Day uniforms, Toney Douglas' green day-glo shoes and NBA JAM-ish shooting...and yes, even some noticeable effort on defense generated a solid win over a Grizzlies team that fought for a half, but crumbled under the shooting onslaught.

This was a fairly slow-paced game (only 89 possessions), which makes the efficient offense seem even more ridiculous (135 points per 100 possessions) and places the improved effort and sub-100 point total for the Grizzlies in context (still a lot of work to be done if your defensive efficiency is 111 points per 100).

As for that defense: the effort continues to improve, even if the execution still leaves a bit to be desired. You could really see the focus move up a few notches beyond the previous two games against Indiana. In fact, the offense and rebounding suffered a little in the first quarter as a result of concentrating so much on properly rotating and defending the pick and roll, and trying to maintain effort and focus on off the ball movement as well as what was happening with the ball. As it was against the Pacers, rebounds and hustle plays helped give the Grizzlies a 29 point first quarter -- no testament to good defense there.

But if we can at least acknowledge small steps -- incrementally small -- all the talk about commitment to defense wasn't empty. Chauncey Billups made up for still limited lateral movement by selectively applying defensive pressure on Mike Conley and playing passing lanes to get a couple of steals and a few deflections. Toney Douglas' defensive pressure is always strong, and Amare actually made more of an effort to stay in some sort of proper defensive position when Conley would come around screens (he didn't get to the man popping off the screen, though, which I'll address in the bullets). Jeffries roamed well and all things considered, defended Randolph capably given the mismatch.

The Grizzlies are also (without Rudy Gay anyway) a better matchup for the Knicks than the Pacers -- Darren Collison's midrange game (12th among point guards in shooting from 10-15 feet) and explosion off high screens exploits the weaknesses in the Knicks' loose defense a bit more effectively than Conley's game (though Conley still had 16 points and 6 assists last night). The Knicks mostly resorted to doubling or keying on Randolph and giving some free rein to Marc Gasol, but Gasol was ineffective again, and Darrell Arthur ended up with the more effective minutes with his ability to make midrange jumpers.

One of the most applause-worthy possessions, if small steps are to be celebrated, came on the Grizzlies possession with 29 seconds left in the first half: the Grizz ran a high screen with Conley and Gasol. Douglas went over the screen, and Amare was actually in proper defensive position to meet Conley but account for Gasol rolling to the basket as well. Best of all, Carmelo ran over from his man at the wing (Battier) to swipe at Conley's dribble, then rotated back immediately to bother Battier's corner three pointer when Conley chose to pass to the shooter after nothing materialized in the lane. Too often, the pick and roll defense is left to just the point guard and big man, with little help from the other positions because of the fear of leaving shooters and (frankly) lack of effort at times. This was a very good defensive possession that didn't rely on a bail out block or a gamble to produce a stop. More of this please.

Overall though, as you might expect from a team with elite offensive talent at three positions but mostly average to below average defenders, the effort on defense improves when the offense is rolling. And the offense most definitely rolled with 20 three pointers, and very good ball movement (25 assists) and spacing. Those Toney Douglas three pointers are a thing of joy to watch when they're rifling in at the Garden. At this time last year, I attended two games where he shot 17 for 32, and the way his shots ripple the net when he's hot are something else.

Game notes:

*  Darrell Arthur was brought up in the post game by a reporter as someone who exposed the Knicks' lingering defensive issues. Mike D'Antoni responded by saying "well, he shot 5 for 11", the implication being that his shooting numbers weren't outrageous and that those sort of long two point jumpers are inevitably going to be given up the way they defend (focusing on defending 3 pointers and protecting the rim). That's a reasonable point, but if you break down Arthur's line, he shot 5 for 10 on long jumpers that came from the pick and roll, and all five were assisted. And if you watched the game, these jumpers were *wide* open -- Amare didn't even run out to contest.

Arthur is 33 percent on long jumpers this year according to Hoopdata, so it's possible that the Knick strategy was to keep Amare closer to Randolph and Gasol and take their chances with Arthur. However, given the fact that Tyler Hansborough torched the Knicks for 10-17 shooting on those same pick and pop opportunities the previous two games, it was curious to see history repeating itself against the Grizzlies. D'Antoni did acknowledge that if this continued to be an issue, he might look at bringing help toward the screener popping out for the jumper, but some of this is on Amare to get out on the shooter and then recover if necessary.

*  The 20 for 36 line on three pointers got all the attention, but 16 for 20 on shots at the rim was also very impressive -- Amare and Carmelo were 10 for 12 close to the basket. Carmelo had an especially breathtaking piece of footwork with 4 minutes left in the third: on the right block, he posted, faced up, ended up spreadeagled at one point against Tony Allen and seemingly about to travel, and somehow kept his pivot foot and went up and under for the layup.

*  Frequently quoted stat in stories diagnosing the Knick woes: Carmelo and Amare together on the floor since the trade: +1. Last night, they were +11 when on the floor together. It's a process.

*  Landry Fields still looks like the Knick most affected by all the adjustment issues, as important as he is. He did his usual work making opportunistic three pointers (2-4) but he missed 5 of 6 shots inside of 10 feet, usually because he was forcing an awkward floater when attempting to take advantage of temporary space created by the Grizzlies' focus on Amare and Melo. He and Toney Douglas have been working with the coaching staff to improve the way they take advantage of those seams in the defense, but the challenge will be improving the shot selection while minimizing the turnovers.

*  Back to that sticky topic of defense: maybe the biggest sign that it has a ways to go was the continued fouling last night (20 fouls, 30 FTs for Memphis). This will never really go away because the Knicks are typically overmatched in the middle, but avoiding silly, lazy fouls (like a Carmelo elbow to the back of Battier cutting in the lane in the fourth quarter, or a couple of Amare's reaching fouls) would make a significant difference. Also, the Knicks allowed 22 assists on the Grizzlies' 35 FGs -- Memphis is one of the bottom five teams in the league in assist rate.

*  One of the most fun things about watching college basketball at this time of year is watching many excellent announcers and broadcasting teams (Bill Raftery, Gus Johnson, Mike Gminski, etc) bringing the stories of unknown teams and interesting matchups to life, with their own distinct catchphrases, enthusiasm and analysis. At the risk of sounding overly homer-ish,  I was glad to see that Breen and Clyde were in fine form themselves for a mid-March game (until it got to massive blowout territory) -- Breen called out Amare and Carmelo when their defensive shortcomings were on display, the analysis of officials' calls and play on the court was excellent, and the digressions and humor were enjoyable and not distracting.

Weirdest digression: Breen did the usual spoken MSG promo for Boomer and Carton during a lull in the action, and Clyde went into a Boomer Esiason impersonation that came out of nowhere and was shocking enough that Breen was temporarily silent, then said awkwardly (I'm paraphrasing) "Clyde, I don't know if I've ever hear you do impressions". Clyde then revealed that he thinks those guys are hilarious. My jaw dropped too.

*  Toney Douglas' postgame interview was delightful. Catch it if you haven't already done so. Toney's serious facade breaks a little bit to betray some giddiness. It makes me want to know if those rumors of him doing Ke$ha impersonations are true.


Tonight it will be the Pistons as the Knicks are in stage two of their four games in five nights brutal stretch. The Knicks haven't had too many problems with the Pistons this year, but they'll be much smaller this time and won't have the Moz to soak up rebounds the way he did the last time they met. Should be interesting to see how the defensive effort and commitment hold up -- on a back to back against a bad team in a (likely) empty arena,I have my doubts. Since the Pistons are a pretty bad defensive team themselves, we'll probably see a shootout.

Losing a home and home series to a team below you in the standings is definitely not good. But though there was a lot to be discouraged with in this latest Knick loss to the Pacers, there was a fair amount to be encouraged with as well. It was a much better effort that, frankly, had it been exerted on Sunday, would have resulted in at least a split.

Part of the issue in analyzing games like this is trying to get past the overheated narratives that come from making such a high profile trade and dealing with the inevitable and difficult adjustments, especially when one of the key components (Billups) is injured and has essentially two different adjustment periods in the three weeks since the trade. This sounds like excuse-making, but watching an essentially new roster of players try to play together with constantly shifting lineups and only one real practice, no matter how much talent is on it (and we're talking a top heavy and imbalanced set of pieces) is a process with many highs and many pratfalls.

The Knicks will be a better team with a healthy Billups, and though the team learned some valuable lessons during his injury absence with Toney Douglas getting more minutes, they will need Chauncey's experience to get close to the promise that some have forecasted for this Knick group. Unfortunately, Billups hasn't made the Knicks a better team the last two games. His recovery from injury has clearly affected his timing and quickness, and though his experience and guile still get him shots and fouls, he's been mostly a spot up shooter since coming back. He hasn't run the offense as authoritatively as he's capable of doing with his jumper not falling.

Last night was especially tough to watch. Assistant coach Kenny Atkinson made the comment during the MSG halftime interview (diplomatically) that the rhythm on offense was still a bit off, and that the Knicks weren't hitting the roll man as much as they should (translation: settling for too many jumpers off the initial pick). The Knicks were outscored by 4 with Billups in the game in the first half, and by 16 with Billups in the second half. Billups missed all four of this three pointers last night, making him 0-11 in the last two games from distance.

The fourth quarter for Chauncey was more like Mr. Big Turnover than Mr. Big Shot -- three huge turnovers and a badly missed three in the final six minutes of the game (even the assist to Toney Douglas in the closing minute for a huge 3 pointer was this close to being a turnover, as it was made while stumbling). I'll say this, though -- I wasn't very high on Chauncey as a Nugget to start the season, as he started out shooting poorly in the first six weeks and wasn't getting to the FT line as much. He recovered and put together a stellar period of play starting in mid-December, and it continued through his first four games for the Knicks before the injury. Assuming he's recovering the way he should, he ought to be able to get past this rough period.

Game notes:

*  The defense looked even worse on the surface last night, as the Knicks allowed the Pacers even higher offensive efficiency in a faster paced game (117 points per 100 possessions in a 102 possession game) relative to Sunday (115 pts/100 in a 92 possession game). The effort on defense and attempts to communicate and provide help in the halfcourt were notably better, though...what tripped up the team were the offensive rebounds, loose balls, and points given up due to turnovers. The Knicks stayed in the game in the first half by turning the Pacers over 12 times in the first half while committing only 5 of their own -- but in the second half, the Knicks committed 8 turnovers to the Pacers' 5. Even though the Pacers still ended the game with more giveaways, they ended up getting more points off turnovers (21) than the Knicks (17).

The Knick defensive activity was solid but a little too jumpy and focused on the Pacers' first or second option -- as a result, good ball movement would beat the defense, and the Knicks would be out of position when they did close down the primary options and produce a miss or loose ball. The low point of the game that symbolized how they lost the hustle plays: at 4:27 of the third quarter, Collison made an entry pass to Hibbert, who was set to handoff back to Collison running toward the baseline. Douglas ran behind Hibbert and jostled the ball loose, at which point it rolled into the lane at the feet of Carmelo, Amare and Billups, who all watched as Hansborough scooped it up and got a layup and foul to make it 81-68 Pacers.

*  Another area of the defense that still needs a lot of work -- pick and roll defense. (Broken record, I know) Some credit has to be given to the Pacers' Darren Collison, who has dramatically improved in his ability to execute the pick and roll since a rough first few months. He made life miserable for Toney Douglas for most of the third and fourth quarters, using the slightest opening to blow by TD for jumpers, find Hansborough and other teammates for jumpers, or take advantage of extra attention to him by making entry passes to Hibbert for post moves against overmatched defenders with no help nearby.

I'm starting to wonder whether Turiaf should get more fourth quarter time against teams that run high screen rolls frequently with guards that can make the mid-range jumper. Amare doesn't show and recover in such a way to make things even moderately difficult for the ballhandler, and when the Knicks get caught in a switch, Amare ends up playing an odd nether-zone that gives the ballhandler too much room to shoot. (Billups made this point after the game). Shawne Williams is a more active and engaged defender on the perimeter, but he does best with higher traps -- when the ballhandler and screener are closer to the lane, he's not physical enough or blessed with enough lateral movement to make things difficult for the offense either.

It's not just Toney Douglas and whoever's guarding the screener, of course -- help needs to come from the weak side when warranted and rotations need to be sharp when the ball moves around. But right now, the Knicks are aware of the big picture but missing on too many small details that would give their defense some bite. Jeffries does help, but sometimes you need someone more physical to provide a bump or shove to the screener or roll man to disrupt timing even slightly -- on a couple of Collison screen rolls, Jared was impeded from helping on Collison dropping back for the jumper with nothing more than a simple push from Hibbert. Turiaf is better in this regard, though he has more issues on the perimeter than Jeffries.

There's a lot of noise being made in some camps about "too much switching", but the act of switching isn't bad on its own terms if everyone understands the overall priniciples and the defenders communicate. To my eye, there's effort but not enough communication, and a lot of small lapses. Making everyone bull through screens as if they were tackling sleds may earn the players more manhood points, but it doesn't make for a better defense if the same issues with communication and attention to detail exist.

*  Tyler Hansborough again destroyed the Knicks and got another career high. He is a 41 percent shooter for the season from 16-23 feet, which is the league average and places him 25th among NBA power forwards. (Amare shoots 44 percent). In the last two games, Hansborough has shot 9 for 16 on long jumpers, or 56 percent...during the losing streak that preceded the last two games, he shot 13 for 40 (32.5%) on the same jumpers. Fluke? Bad Knick defense? Whatever the case, he was a definite Knick killer, and I was very impressed with his effort.

*  Despite all the defensive issues, poor offensive stretches, and bad breaks, it was kind of amazing to see how quickly the Knicks came back after being outplayed for 34 minutes. A ten point outburst in 90 seconds to end the third quarter, followed by an insane level of offensive efficiency in the fourth quarter, almost got the win for the Knicks anyway. Lost in the overall picture was how the game was there for the taking when the Knicks actually got stops in a 3 minute period from the 6 minute mark to the 3 minute mark of the 4th: they outscored the Pacers 12-5 to take a 110-106 lead. Two Billups turnovers, a badly conceived Amare drive, and giving up scores on seven of the last eight possessions pretty much killed the game in the final 3 minutes. The Granger game winner was virtually a formality.

*  Toney Douglas deserves a lot of credit for his second half performance - the offense actually ran smoother in the fourth quarter when he was directing pick and rolls or shooting behind screens, and he was a disruptive force on defense (at least against the second unit). I'm not sure there was a single bad possession when he was in charge for the first 5 minutes of the fourth, even when no points were produced -- every shot produced was a quality shot. That doesn't mean he should be starting, but he's earned the extra time playing with Billups for all of the fourth quarter.

*  The best moments for the Knick offense coming when Landry Fields was scoring in the first half and TD in the second half show just how important it is for the offense to have an option that can spread out the floor and give more room to the superstars to take over. On Sunday, the Pacer defense could mostly pack it in; last night, they had to work much harder, especially when Douglas got hot.

*  Ten men got playing time for the Knicks last night, another sign that D'Antoni is still searching for a reliable bench option for scoring to spread out the defense and provide some defensive energy. Neither Bill Walker nor Roger Mason is blowing the door down with their production since the trade, nor are they locking down as defenders. As soon as Chauncey gets his shot back, I'm guessing the minutes for those two will diminish drastically.

*  Despite the less than prime bench depth the Knicks have at present, it will never stop the fans seeking a unicorn. Anthony Randolph was the previous fan favorite, now it may be Derrick Brown. It would be fun to see Brown get some minutes toward the end of the season when a playoff spot seems more certain, but I'm not seeing any sudden miracles or solutions to the Knicks' current struggles with some spot minutes from him.

Next up, the Grizzlies, and I'm not sure what to expect. Better results at home, or more of the same dire struggles? It's fortunate that the team has a lot of wiggle room in its run for the playoffs, and the difference between a 7th or 5th seed isn't that dramatic in terms of having to play a difficult opponent. The tabloids will keeping dishing the tales of schadenfreude and poor trades and the specter of old ghosts. But I'll just keep looking for signs of improvement in a team that's going to get better and realize more of its potential eventually.

Another sloppy, peculiar effort by the Knicks last night. The two losses against the Cavaliers were objectively worse, but getting run off their own court by a team without its best player, and coming off a six game losing streak, ranks right down there. The Knicks are now 6-5 since the trade, and four of the five losses count as the terrible kind (Cavs twice, Mavericks last Thursday, Pacers last night). Arguably, five of the six wins were impressive (only the win against Milwaukee at home might be considered an expected win) -- which means this team is swinging wildly between extremes as it tries to gel.

One area of commonality between the Cavs and Pacers which has given the Knicks fits is the presence of jumpy, mobile, unorthodox and unpredictable power forwards in JJ Hickson and Tyler Hansborough. The Knicks' conundrum on defense is that Amare is nominally a power forward but more typically defends centers, while Jeffries is nominally a center but tends to roam on defense between inside players and perimeter players. Carmelo is sometimes matched up against power forwards but is really a small forward with a power game.

The Knicks -- using a combination of Jeffries and Turiaf, or some schemes involving double teams and swarming the ball selectively -- can defend certain types of scoring power forwards with a more set offensive game reliant on isolations or pick and pop jumpers. But oddly, Hickson and Hansborough with the way they throw their body around in the lane and attack from the wing like small forwards from time to time (even if that also means they have some ugly possessions), have confounded the Knicks. Jeffries isn't strong enough, while Amare and Turiaf tend to pick up cheap fouls and then back off. (Wilson Chandler's underrated versatility on defense is missed in these situations). The flimsy attempts of the Knicks to maintain defensive discipline tend to fall part when confronted with these types of players as well.

Hansborough has been playing well for the Pacers lately under Frank Vogel (after pointed remarks about the way he was used by Jim O'Brien), and he had a throwback to his UNC days (29 points, 8 rebounds) in the way he killed the Knicks with his weird looking jumpers and his shuffling yet relentless drives toward the basket, constantly finding holes in the horrific Knick defense. His effort was the highlight of an otherwise balanced attack by the Pacers, who went 10 deep and got contributions from everyone.

The Knicks were out of sync on offense in Billups' first game back after his thigh was mashed to a pulp by Dwight Howard's knee on a screen, and he was in less than optimal form. Considering he only played four games as a Knick before getting hurt, he struggled to get in rhythm with his teammates, and worked mainly to get the ball early to Carmelo or take a lot of long spot up jumpers. He had some nice highlights early (notably a three quarters court sidearm pass to Melo on a fastbreak in the first quarter to give the Knicks their only lead), but he mostly seemed to labor.

Toney Douglas, unfortunately, compounded things off the bench with his worst shooting game since the trade. Many of his shots were shots he normally makes, but still, 1-8 from three point range to combine with Billups' 0-7 meant the two point guards combined to miss 14 of 15 threes.

Carmelo and Amare had decent scoring lines on the surface but you'd be hard pressed to find emptier 25 and 28 point efforts -- Melo's points came mostly in the first quarter, Amare's in the fourth quarter, but their points didn't stem the Pacer tide at all given how ineffective the Knick defense was. D'Antoni's post game comments about the team operating in quicksand were perfect -- the harder they tried to bear down, the more they seemed to make the wrong rotation or do something inexplicable (like Carmelo's stumbling foul on a Dahntay Jones three point attempt in the third quarter). The way the Knick defense seemed to get out of sorts with nothing more than a simple high screen -- over and over again -- resulting in Pacers with the ball in the 15 foot area and tons of space in front of them, or a single Knick defender trying to guard two shooters outside the 3 point line, was excruciating to watch.

The offense never really had good moments in this game, unlike all the other losses, even the ugliest ones, where there was usually a good stretch of shooting. Some of this was good Pacer defense, some of it was the Knicks being a little unlucky, but a fair amount of it was too much one on one play from the stars, including Billups. Only 4 assists and 4 turnovers for Billups, 2 assists for Amare, and 0 assists from Carmelo (after he averaged nearly 6 assists the previous four games) -- this type of non-ball movement plays right into the hands of the opposition who can load up on the scorers.

Summarizing the strange awfulness of last night's effort was the Knicks getting 15 offensive rebounds to the Pacers' 5 (and outrebounding the Pacers 44 to 33), yet being outscored in the paint 44-28. In other words, the Knicks made it harder on themselves in the paint than they did on the Pacers, despite more chances.

The Knicks also fouled too much, and had difficulty adjusting to the whistles -- perhaps it was all the college basketball played at the Garden in the last week, because the mix of touch fouls on the perimeter combined with incredibly physical play inside with no foul calls was more reminiscent of a Big Ten or Big East tournament semifinal than a Sunday NBA game in March.

Carmelo spoke in the post game press conference through oversized sunglasses, sounding distinctly peeved and promising a different result for the second game against the Pacers on Tuesday. The last time he sounded such an alert, after a loss to the Cavs, didn't produce good results in the rematch. Maybe the Knicks will be better this time around, but the key will be the ability to maintain focus and show more signs of team play on both ends, instead of trusting that the two stars going off and a few threes from other teammates will be enough to overwhelm the opposition.

Note: A wonderful dissection of the Knick defensive gaffes in last night's game from the indispensable NBA Playbook can be seen here.

Going to be a very short recap this time, because the Knicks really didn't show any energy for the first half of this game, against a very angry, motivated, and superior Mavericks team. The game got off to a bad start when Amare suffered a shoulder stinger two minutes in the game - to his credit, he toughed it out and came back in after a minute, but he was ineffective and clearly affected. He missed 7 of his first 8 shots, forcing attempts inside against tough Dallas interior defense with no lift, and Carmelo wasn't much better against Shawn Marion's defense. The team as a whole struggled to get anything going -- even though they were actually ahead at one point at 14-12 midway through the first quarter, it never felt like they had an advantage and the pace of the game was very heavily dictated by the Mavs.

The only saving grace for the Knicks was free throws - in a bizarre inversion of the previous game against Memphis, with sparkling offense but only 4 free throws the entire game, the Knicks got 13 free throws in the first quarter but only 4 FGs. In the meantime, they could not stop the Mavs at all -- on the perimeter, inside, in transition --  and credit must especially be given to the Mavs bench; Tyson Chandler got two early fouls, which would normally have been a positive, but Brendan Haywood picked up the slack against a hobbled Amare. The bench depth of the Mavs was overwhelming: JJ Barea, Jason Terry, even more marginal bench types like Brian Cardinal and Corey Brewer were getting open jumpers and drives against the slovenly defense of the Knicks.

That first half score of 72-51 says it all in terms of just how bad the Knick defense was-- even when the Mavs missed, they got the long rebounds (17 offensive boards) and loose balls against the Knicks' very tired legs. Dallas kept piling on until it got to 88-62, at which point the Knicks put together their best run to get the lead down to 13. Amare, Fields and Douglas fought past their early struggles and were especially good in this stretch, and there was more Melo/Amare pick and roll action than I recall ever seeing since the trade -- the one sliver lining I took from this game (along with the team making 35 of 37 free throws). The lead got down as low as 11 in the fourth quarter, but the Mavs put together one final run to put the game out of reach.

A few final notes:

- The bench with the exception of Shawne Williams was dreadful and contributed to the game getting out of reach quickly. it's possible Anthony Carter isn't used to getting significant minutes in 4 out of 5 games any more at his age, since he had his second consecutive bad game, and Turiaf looked even worse (12 minutes, 1 blocked shot, 3 fouls, -17), in a game that could have used his defense.

- Jared Jeffries had a miraculous plus/minus of +1 considering the nature of the game, but he was left hung out to dry by his teammates too often on defense (every time he would show on the ballhandler in a high screen situation and direct a teammate to help, the ballhandler just ended up getting a clean path to the basket or a kick to a wide open shooter). Jared also handled the ball a bit too much and paid for it, but a lot of that was the Dallas pressure and his teammates being out of sorts.

- Pick and rolls were over a quarter of the plays the team ran, by far the highest percentage of plays since the trade. Granted, much of it occurred in a blowout, but the team getting more effective with the pick and roll instead of running isolations so heavily is a positive sign for the team learning to work together more smoothly on offense.

Dallas has also had a very packed schedule and so this recap isn't meant to take credit away from their effort, but losing to New Orleans the way they did the other night was the worst thing for the Knicks. At this point, the Knicks can look forward to some rest, and hope that the coaching staff's optimism about Billups' return for Sunday's game against the Pacers really is warranted. Douglas (and his teammates) have performed admirably in his absence, but the team could use his leadership and his ability to direct the offense as the grueling schedule continues to take its toll.

For three quarters, this was as close as the Mike D'Antoni Knicks had gotten to tasting the ball-movement glory and sublime, effortless offense of the vintage Phoenix Suns teams -- in sensibility if not exact execution. There was no Steve Nash, or even Steve Nash-lite to power the offense, there were few fastbreak points or pick and rolls, and there were a few too many turnovers in the first half. But there was incredible sharing of the ball from talented players not known to be natural playmakers, there was prodigious shooting from the superstars and efficient, opportunistic scoring from the supporting cast, and there was just enough scrapping on defense to keep Memphis at bay.

	Age	Team	Season	Usage
Joel Anthony	28	MIA	2010-11	4.9
Nick Collison	30	OKC	2010-11	9.7
Thabo Sefolosha	26	OKC	2010-11	9
Kurt Thomas	38	CHI	2010-11	9.9
Ben Wallace	36	DET	2010-11	8
Ben Wallace	35	DET	2009-10	10
Shane Battier	30	HOU	2008-09	9.9
Trenton Hassell	29	NJN	2008-09	9.9
Ben Wallace	34	CLE	2008-09	7.8
Bruce Bowen	36	SAS	2007-08	9.4
Ben Wallace	34	CHI/CLE	2007-08	10
Jason Collins	28	NJN	2006-07	7.1
Jeff Foster	30	IND	2006-07	9.9
Jason Collins	27	NJN	2005-06	9
Adonal Foyle	30	GSW	2005-06	10
Adrian Griffin	31	DAL	2005-06	10
Theo Ratliff	32	BOS	2005-06	9.9
Theo Ratliff	31	POR	2004-05	9.6
Trenton Hassell	24	MIN	2003-04	9.5
Reggie Evans	22	SEA	2002-03	8.9
Michael Curry	33	DET	2001-02	9.3
Ervin Johnson	34	MIL	2001-02	7.7
Mario Elie	37	PHO	2000-01	10
Ervin Johnson	33	MIL	2000-01	6.5
Michael Smith	28	WAS	2000-01	9.6

I used to really love watching the Jazz, especially after Deron Williams' rookie year. That Jerry Sloan offense with all the off the ball movement and cuts, with Deron orchestrating, Boozer finishing and directing some of the offense himself from the elbow and high post, Mehmet Okur with his pick and pop magic, Kirilenko, Brewer, and Matt Harpring laying down some scrappy defense and getting opportunistic baskets. Those were some fun teams.

It's still hard to believe it all just blew up a few weeks ago with the resignation of Sloan and the subsequent shocking trade of Deron Williams to the Nets, but anyone who looked closely at the team at the end of last season and the start of this season could see the edges fraying. Despite some exhilarating early season comeback wins against quality opposition like the Heat and Lakers, the team never looked quite as right as it did during its better days. Injuries, free agent losses, salary dump trades all left the foundation teetering, even as the team tried to reload with new faces like Al Jefferson, Raja Bell, and Gordon Hayward.

Coming into last night's game against the Knicks, the Jazz had been short of form on offense and defense for most of the last ten games. They've been a bad defensive team the entire season (in the bottom third of the league, as bad or worse than the Knicks), but their offense was just outside the top 10 as measured by offensive efficiency. However, in 7 of their last 10 games, they maxed out at 103 possessions per 100 (and did much worse in most other games), which is a bottom third level of production in the NBA this season.
 
It wasn't a fair fight once the game actually tipped off -- the Knicks routed the Jazz thoroughly, despite injury no-shows yet again from Billups, Walker and Turiaf. Carmelo Anthony always projects confidence in his jumper and ability to attack the rim against any defender, but after a weaker-than-average showing against the Hawks, he was blazing against Kirilenko (whose back issues made him look landlocked) and CJ Miles (who was just overpowered) -- he shot 12 for 16 for the game, including 4 for 5 on three pointers. The last time he shot this well or better was as a Nugget in November of 2009 against the Raptors (a 12 for 15, 37 point performance in a win).

Toney Douglas and Amare also started the game on fire, and with three scorers spaced well and shooting the lights out against a passive Utah defense, the Knicks blew out to a 40-24 first quarter lead, survived a second quarter that was mostly Amare carrying a subpar second unit, then buried the Jazz with a 21-8 run in the first six minutes of the third quarter to build the lead to 31 points and turn the rest of the game into extended garbage time.

The Jazz offense was almost exclusively Al Jefferson and whatever the Jazz could manufacture from offensive rebounds (a ridiculous 22 offensive boards, including 14 between Al and Derrick Favors) -- there was no perimeter game, Devin Harris/Raja Bell/CJ Miles combined to miss 23 of 28 shots, and only a 35 point fourth garbage time fourth quarter kept the final offensive numbers looking respectable for Utah.

Game notes:

*  There was a lot of post-game buzz about the juicy potential of two elite scorers finally scoring so efficiently together, and what I found most exciting was how the two (along with Douglas and Fields) seem to be settling into comfort zones on the court and patterns of movement that enable optimal scoring opportunities and place a lot of pressure on defenses. As one can see from Melo's shot chart, he continues to score from his favorite right wing and right block spots, though he was so hot that he got baskets from the left side as well:


Carmelo Anthony shot chart vs Utah, 3/7

The threat of Anthony around his favored spots on the right, with Amare setting up in his preferred spots on one of the elbows, and TD floating further out in position where he can either receive a pass for a three pointer, or receive a handoff that enables a drive past defenders worried about the other two scorers, is getting more potent. Fields further expands the opportunities with his cuts and shooting ability -- he can plant himself on the weak side ready to receive a skip pass or kick out from a driver for a spot up three, or cut and receive a pass in the lane.

*  A notable set illuminating the opportunties above, early in the game while things were still competitive, 8:50 in the 1st quarter: Amare at the top of the key with the ball, Douglas goes over to set a screen for Anthony, who fakes toward the screen, then goes inside while TD retreats behind the 3 point line. Amare passes over to TD, who fakes the three then makes the entry pass to Melo in the post,. At this point, all the Jazz's attention is toward Melo, who has the option of passing back to TD who's planted himself behind the 3 point line a few feet to the left of his previous spot. Instead, Carmelo spins toward the middle, Millsap (Amare's man) shades over to double, and Melo passes over to Amare for a wide open 17 footer.





*  Devin Harris is, on paper, a perfectly capable successor to Deron Williams in Utah, and I hope the best for him after everything he had to deal with in New Jersey. It's still disorienting to see him in a Jazz uniform, though, and he didn't help matters by being invisible against the Knicks. For sure, there's a significant adjustment for him to make playing with new teammates and a different big man and offense, but one would be hard pressed to remember when he was ever that ineffective against the Knicks as a Net, for all the Nets' struggles last season. His hyperspeed drives to the basket and attempts to draw fouls were so futile that I was sure he warped into some dimension far, far away from the arena every time he accelerated into another empty possession.

*  Third and fourth quarter garbage time was surreal -- I'm not sure Shelden Williams will ever get so much time in an NBA situation having the offense run through him, not even in practice. The entry of Rautins for notable minutes was fun and kind of cringeworthy at the same time -- poor guy seemed overcome by nerves as every move of his was greeted with over the top cheers, resulting in 3 immediate turnovers. Eventually he got a very generous call on a 3 point play (the referees may have been sympathetic) that got him going, and fans were also treated to Balkman's first 3 pointer in 2 years, Roger Mason firing more threes in his newly liberated role, and Derrick Brown flying around the court dunking.

*  Poor Al Jefferson: 36 points, 12 rebounds, generally playing hard, but a hideous minus 33 for the evening. He's had lots of experience with gaudy scoring lines in bad losses from his Minnesota days, and he probably hoped he left those days behind. Scoring at that level and having your team give up massive points while doing so is hard to pull off to the degree Al did: the closest he's come to this was back in 2008, when he scored 28 points and registered a minus 25 in a 23 point loss to the Clippers.

*  Just as Al isn't as awful/great as his line looked last night, Melo and Amare don't quite warrant praise as gods for their godly efficient scoring last night. But some of the numbers were so gaudy they're fun to bask in. Most notably, from Elias courtesy of ESPN: the Knicks with Melo/Amare on the floor together outscored the Jazz 66-35, with the two scoring 46 of the 66 points,  combining to make 16 of 19 shots.  Also per Elias, they're just the 5th pair of teammates in the last five years to each score 30 or more points before the fourth quarter  -- Carmelo has been involved in 3 of the 5 times this happened previously.

*  I had the Jazz broadcasters (Matt Harpring and Craig Bolerjack) for last night's game, who do an excellent job most of the games I have the opportunity to hear them.  Harpring was laid back and agreeable for a surprising amount of the broadcast, but as the game wore on, the annoyance registering in his voice at how easily Carmelo was scoring was growing louder. Bolerjack and the Jazz production crew further tweaked him by showing highlights of Melo scoring on him and a double technical exchange of shoves from several years ago when Harpring was on the Jazz. At the rate things were going, I fully expected Matt to rip off his broadcast attire and go clothesline Melo in the second half, but it never got to the point beyond "When I was out there, the guy I guarded knew it". Not too bad, considering Harpring's reputation for going homer gonzo on some Jazz broadcasts...really, it was no worse than Mike Breen's occasional exhortation to "deliver a hard foul" during games when the Knicks were lifelessly shuffling through one of their many losses of the last decade.

*  Bench stat stuffer: Anthony Carter, 1-7 FGs, missed all 3 three pointers, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 turnovers, 3 steals, 3 fouls, 2 points. If the game hadn't been so one-sided, I might have been more annnoyed with AC's volume chucking and flailing around the court (no need to chest up Earl Watson near midcourt, AC), but on this night, it was just one more memorable bit of weirdness to soak in.

Travel day for the Knicks tomorrow as they head to Memphis to face one of the hottest teams in the NBA on Wednesday night, maybe one of their toughest matchups yet in the Grizzlies, which has the kind of size inside that will give the Knicks fits, and the toughest defender Carmelo will face yet since the trade in Tony Allen. Let's see if some of this improving synergistic offense and (subtly) improved defense can carry over onto the last Western road trip the Knicks have this season.

More injuries, more concern -- still no Billups, no Turiaf, no Bill Walker. The seventh seed and a descent toward .500 was staring the team in the face with a back to back the next night against Utah. And once again, the Knicks somehow rebounded with a messy, crazy, and most excellent win over the Hawks in Atlanta.