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Any of the residual gratification felt by the New York Knicks and their fans was quickly erased Sunday when the Indiana Pacers came into Madison Square Garden and manhandled the Knicks to take away home court advantage.
Indiana’s top-ranked defense protected both the rim (eight blocks, five by Roy Hibbert) and the arc (the Knicks made just seven 3-pointers, one less than the Pacers) as they led for the entire second half and took away many of New York’s secondary weapons.
The New York Knicks spent the offseason – and the regular season – adding playoff-hardened veterans to challenge the Miami Heat for the NBA title.
But it is some of those same veterans who are showing inexcusable immaturity in their first-round series vs. the proud Boston Celtics.
Whether it be unnecessary elbows or dressing for a funeral or failing to defend their home court, the Knicks have let the Celtics back into the series. What once looked to be a sweep now appears to have a very good chance of going seven games, something Carmelo Anthony and Co. don’t want to consider right now.
You can be the judge on this one — but I’d expect very few people outside of Denver to side with anyone aside from Mark Jackson and his Golden State Warriors.
The Denver Nuggets toughened things up in their 107-100 victory over Golden State last night — toughened to the point that Jackson told the media afterward that he had been tipped off by someone on the Nuggets that there would be some rough stuff coming.
The play that particularly galled Jackson came when it appeared Kenneth Faried tried to stick a leg out and trip Curry, whose ankles are notoriously delicate and injury prone.
“The screen on Curry by the foul line is a shot at his ankle, clearly,” Jackson said. “That can’t be debated. I’ve got inside information that some people don’t like that brand of basketball, and they clearly didn’t co-sign it. So they wanted to let me know that they had no parts in what was taking place.”
Here is the play in question:
I have been sounding like a broken record talking about Prop 30, the so-called millionaire’s tax, that was adopted by voters last fall in California and levies a 10 percent surcharge on the state’s highest earners. This tax negates whatever financial advantage the Lakers would have in being able to offer larger annual raises to Howard to convince him to stay in Los Angeles.
If you take Chris “Birdman” Andersen’s stats and project them over 48 minutes, the NBA’s most colorfully tattooed player would be averaging about 36 points and 22 rebounds in the playoffs. Of course, “Birdman” is not a 48-minute player, but an argument can be made that he’ll se a serious uptick in playoff minutes as the Miami Heat continue to advance.
And on a side note, Andersen is trying to trademark the name “Birdman” with the U.S. Patent Office — much like Jeremy Lin did with “Linsanity” last season. If successful, Birdman would donate the proceeds from trademarked apparel to underprivileged children.
So Birdman is making a name for himself in these NBA playoffs, as is Paul George of the Indiana Pacers as they make things look easy against the Atlanta Hawks, holding a 2-0 lead. Those two, and Serge Ibaka, have been three of the biggest standout performers through the first five days of NBA playoff games.
And then there is the matter of J.R. Smith’s uncertain future with the New York Knicks.
Put it this way, is it worth it for Smith to risk more than $30 million to stay with New York for an extra season? The Knicks would not be able to match any offer above $5 million and change if Smith declines a player option and becomes an unrestricted free agent, so we could be witnessing his last days in blue and orange.
As for the men in green from Boston? Is this their “last hurrah?”
My answer is below in this interview with CineSport’s Tara Petrolino:
