Sunday, April 24, 2011

Down and Out

The Knicks went out in a flurry. But they had dug themselves too deep a hole. The Knicks were lethargic yet again in the first half of Game 4. Carmelo Anthony had the finest game of his professional career in Game 2. But his teams have a propensity to show lackluster effort in big games.

It is a stigma that dogs Carmelo. And it should. He does not show consistent effort on both sides of the ball. There are times when he is a monster running all over the court. But those times are too infrequent. That being said, the absence of Billups was huge. At one point, Billups stood up on the sidelines and began coaching Carmelo. In that moment I wished that Billups was the coach and D'Antoni was not.

Anthony Carter showed grit, but too many Knicks players had bad series. And with the stars not giving an all out effort in every moment, the Knicks never had a chance. It was disappointing. More disappointing than the sweep was the lack of effort. Hopefully that improves next season.

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