Carmelo's Big Night

With Chauncey Billups out for the game, and Amar'e Stoudemire leaving early, the Knicks' chances to tie the series did not look good. Carmelo had his finest game as a pro, but it wasn't enough by a sliver.

The Celtics took an 11 point lead in the third quarter and the Knicks were searching for offense. Then the gong went off. Carmelo took over and couldn't be stopped. When the Celtics double teamed him, he found the open man. It wasn't successful every possession, but it was better than forcing deep jumpers with two men covering him.

Carmelo even rebounded. In addition to a career playoff high of 42 points, he added 17 rebounds, also a career playoff high. But the Knicks came up just short. Down by one, Carmelo made a great pass to Jared Jeffries, who had just made a spectacular move to take the lead on the previous possession. Unfortunately, Jeffries fumbled the ball and Garnett came away with it.

It appeared that Garnett rolled around on the floor with the ball, which is a travel. His timeout wasn't recognized until after he began rolling. It was just another bad call made in this series and in the playoffs as a whole. During the NCAA Tournament, Jeff Van Gundy thanked the lord for the NBA officials. He was right; the referees in the Tournament were dreadful. But the NBA refs have struggled thus far in the playoffs. In this series, the refs called a bogus offensive foul on Anthony and then didn't call a moving screen on Garnett, which led to the winning shot.

In Game 2, the refs missed a clear backcourt violation on Roger Mason. They also missed numerous fouls that should've been called on Big Baby Davis in the fourth. Carmelo was called for a foul even though Garnett was clearly setting a moving screen in the same quarter. Hopefully, the officiating improves.