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The New York Knicks are on the brink of elimination.
That, of course, has caused much chatter from the team, with plenty of talk about who deserves blame for the team’s demise.
Tyson Chandler somewhat started it all when he said the team wasn’t playing team basketball. Confronted by Carmelo Anthony about the statement, the center had to clarify his statement, from Al Iannazzone of Newsday:
Nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm.
And for Paul Pierce, leader of the “old man’s pick-up game,” that adage will define his career as one of the greatest Boston Celtics in its storied history.
This is not to begin mourning the death of his Celtics life, but to understand what it all meant if reports today from Greg Dickerson are true.
Are the New York Knicks suffering from a selfish brand of basketball?
When you think of this team, you primarily think of Carmelo Anthony as the team’s offense. That has always been the case (save for a brief period of Linsanity) for any team that ‘Melo has been a part of. And then, of course, you have J.R. Smith, who is known as volume-shooter number two on the team. So you have to figure that when Tyson Chandler is calling out the team’s lack of ball movement, there can only be so many that he may be referring to. Frank Isola of Daily News has details:
The Warriors knocked off the Spurs today to knot their series back up, 2-2. And they did it with Steph Curry on a balky ankle. Tomorrow night, the Thunder and Bulls will try to even up their series as well. If you know who’s going to win each of these series, you could probably make a fortune. The NBA future is about as unclear as it ever gets right about now.
For a couple teams, though, the future is getting a little clearer. Or at least the major players in that future. In today’s blog, we’ve got news on two NBA teams making up their minds on who will be their GM heading into the offseason. Before we start that, though, check out our Euroleague final report for a heads-up on what’s going on across the pond.
Now here’s all the latest news and rumors from around the NBA.
The Grizzlies are playing their style of basketball, and it’s been troubling the Thunder quite a bit so far. But Lionel Hollins is being modest about it, reports Jeff Caplan of NBA.com: ‘The reality of All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook – Allen’s more natural counterpart –being shelved is in full effect and it’s not pretty. The Grizzlies are doing all they can to grit-and-grind their way to making life as uncomfortable as possible for Durant, forcing his teammates to step up, and especially late in these games, each of which have been up for grabs in the final three minutes. “I’ve said it before, when a guy has the ball and has to score like that it takes energy, and the more you make him work, that’s the best you can do,” Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. “You can’t stop Kevin Durant, he’s a great player, but he played 45, 46 minutes and he’s asked to carry a huge load for them. As the game goes on other people for them, they start taking the load away from him a little bit, but I don’t think that we can stop him. I’m not attributing it to us.” “
Every remaining NBA team is banged up right now. It’s a fact of the playoffs that they are a of endurance as much as skill. Since the start of the first round, the Thunder have lost Russell Westbrook and the Warriors have lost David Lee for effectively the remainder of the playoffs. The Knicks and Spurs have a number of nagging injuries.
