Knicks celebrate their 1st Playoff win in 13 years!

If there was ever a NBA team that was in need of a book depicting the ongoings of a season, this years New York Knicks team is a prime candidate.

From the beginning of the season the New York Knicks “on paper” appeared to be a formidable team. The signing of Tyson Chandler away from the Dallas Mavericks in the off-season meant a strong defensive presence in the paint, and Tyson made good on that belief winning the Defensive Player of the Year. Also bringing in Baron Davis, and Mike Bibby meant that rookie Iman Shumpert, and Landry Fields had veterans that could help their development. All-Stars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony would get their first full season together, and the combination of the two would put the Knicks in the same league as the Lakers, Heat, Boston and Thunder (teams with multiple All-Stars).

The Knicks season got off to a slow and confusing start. Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni shuffled the lineup throughout the first twenty games playing nearly everyone on the roster, including Bill Walker. The Knicks went 7-13 in the first 20 games complete with a 4-game winning streak, and a 6-game losing streak. Toney Douglas ran the point as long as he could before everyone noticed that he probably shouldn’t, and the Knicks promptly signed a castaway from the Warriors,and Rockets, point guard  Jeremy Lin.

But it wasn’t until a back-to-back-to-back at the beginning of February where the Knicks hopes swayed in a new direction. On the night of the last of the back-to-back’s D’Antoni decided to give Jeremy Lin more minutes and he responded with 25 points, and 7 dimes against the Nets. The win from that game became contagious, and the worldwide phenomenon known as Linsanity began. The Knicks would lose Carmelo Anthony to injury in the next game, and also Amar’e Stoudemire due to the death of his brother. Losing both All-Stars would be devastating to most teams, but thanks to the schedule, and the sudden Linsanity the Knicks rolled off 7 wins in a row, bringing their record to .500.

Amar'e, Lin, Melo

Only in New York does anyone go from nobody to somebody overnight, and thats whom to blame for Linsanity. Don’t get me wrong Jeremy Lin is a good basketball player, and in D’Antoni’s system he flourished, but when the hype met true talent in the Miami Heat and their 3 All-Stars, Linsanity dissipated.

The Knicks All-Stars finally returned but the rotation of players caused confustion on the court, not to mention the signing of J.R.Smith. Following an ugly start to March where the Knicks lost 6 straight head coach Mike D’Antoni decided to resign.

According to interim general manager Glen Grunwald, D’Antoni came to him on Wednesday morning (3/14)  and said he was thinking of making a change. When asked what that was, D’Antoni told him he was thinking of resigning.

Grunwald said he and assistant general manager Allan Houston then spoke to Dolan, who went to the Knicks’s practice facility and spoke with D’Antoni. According to Grunwald, Dolan and D’Antoni then worked out the details leading to the resignation.

D’Antoni had given no inkling of what was to come when he put the Knicks through what he said was a good a morning shotaround Wednesday. “You battle against it and I think we’re cohesive enough to battle through this and we expect to do that,” he said then. Only hours later, he resigned.Mike Woodson, the defensive coach, was named the interim coach and the Knicks finished the season 18-6.

If that wasn’t enough, after the March 24th game against the Detroit Pistons, Lin complained about a sore knee, and an MRI later revealed a small meniscus tear in the left knee. The Knicks announced on March 31 that Lin opted to have knee surgery and would miss the rest of the regular season.

OUCH!

The Knicks tumultuous season culminated in the #7 spot in the Playoffs, putting them up against last years Eastern Conference Champs the Miami Heat. In Game 1 rookie Iman Shumpert blew out his knee, ending his season, and in Game 4 Baron Davis blew out his knee, maybe ending his career. After three beat-downs by Miami including a 100-67 win by the Heat in Game 1, Amar’e punching a frie extinguisher and nearly losing full use of his left hand the Knicks avoided being swept in Madison Square Garden winning Game 4, ending a 13 year winless streak in the Playoffs.

On Wednesday the Heat finished their gentlemen’s sweep sending the Knicks home 106-94. The Knicks lost all four games by double digits and were outscored by a total of 70 points for the series.  Carmelo Anthony  did accomplish something relatively rare in the Knicks defeat becoming the third Knicks player to score 30+ points in 3+ games of a single playoff series. Patrick Ewing and Bernard King were the only other Knicks to accomplish that feat.

The Knicks might have an offseason decision to make if another team’s interested in Amar’e Stoudemire. Over the last 2 seasons including the playoffs, the Knicks have gone just 31-40 with BOTH Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire in the lineup, including 1-7 in the postseason. Next year will probably bring a new coach, and a slew of new faces but Knicks fans can fall back on the old adage “There’s Always Next Year.”

The 1991 NBA Finals in all its early nineties glory. Complete with that lovable NBA on NBC jingle and a younger Marv Albert and Mike Fratello. Below are the beginning and end of game 1:

Whether you love him or hate him, and let’s be honest it has to be either one, or the other, there is no doubting that LeBron James is one of the leading players in the game right now. He is a player that has polarized the opinions of many in the game. Even the fans of Miami Heat have divided opinions on their star player. Certainly for the majority of fans outside of South Beach the preference for MVP would be anybody but LeBron, but there is no arguing the fact that he is in the front running for the Most Valuable Player award 2012.

A glance at the statistics and it seems inevitable that the league’s top honor must one again be heading in Bron Bron’s direction. Having missed just four games in the season he has managed to rack up some pretty impressive numbers. Of the four matches he did miss three were in the last four of the season and those were due to the fact that Coach Erik Spoelstra chose to give him a well-earned rest.

James averaged 27.1 points, 7.9 boards, 6.2 dimes and 1.9 steals per game. Which place him ahead of all other players for the top award. It is also worth pointing to his simple rating. This is a measure of a player’s stats against his counterpart player from the other team while he is on court. Calculated out James has earned a simple rating of +18.7. This is 3.8 points above Chris Paul the second place finisher this season.

If stats are the driving force in the decision, which they are, then there is just no doubt that LeBron James will pick up the third MVP trophy of his illustrious career. The award has been so clear cut that even the experts have not gotten involved in the debate and the perceived wisdom is that the trophy is James’ to lose during the final weeks of the season.

It has not been entirely a one horse race however and his closest rival, Kevin Durant, has put up some pretty impressive statistics of his own including 28 points and 8 boards per game, which is better than LeBron’s tally on both counts. The key stat for Durant is his number on assists which is a lowly 3.5 almost three whole points lower than LeBron’s 6.2 in this respect. This stat points to the fact that, throughout the season, Russell Westbrook, and other Thunder players consistently needed to create his own offense.

Durant can take some solace from the fact that in the head to head between their two teams the Thunder ended the season with one more win than Miami Heat. Durant is philosophic about the award and has come out in support of LeBron himself. In a recent interview he stated, “He deserves all the love (for MVP). He’s playing phenomenal basketball. I’m just trying to get better every single game and trying to help my team as much as I can. I’m just blessed to be in that conversation.”

There is no arguing that over the course of his career LeBron has been consistently the top performer in the sport and as sure as any professional indemnity insurance company is willing to have their name emblazoned on his sweatbands he has racked up the figures game after game. So what is it about LeBron James that makes him such a phenomenal player? He boasts a serious 53% from the field out of 18.9 attempts per game with a shade under 50% out of 19.7 shots per game.

His defense statistics are equally impressive and any player who manages to shut out Carmelo Anthony during the first three matches in the opening series against the NY Knicks deserves his credit. Add this to the fact that he records two steals per game and racks up a minimal personal fouls of just ninety six and you can see why this is the man that deserves every accolade that comes his direction.

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Over the last four years there have been many blowouts by many teams. Most of those blowouts have been directed at Toronto, or Charlotte, but regardless of the team, few rival the fun and theatrics of a Boston Celtics blowout. Since the Celtics joined Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, with Paul Pierce, and Rajon Rondo at the beginning of the 2007-08′ season the Celtics have won 49 games by at least 20 points. Most notably Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals where they beat the Lakers 131-92, to clinch Banner #17.

Boston has the rare luxury of a playmaking point guard coupled with two future Hall-of-Fame shooters, and a 6′-10″ future Hall-of-Famer that loves 14 to 18 foot jumpers.

On Sunday in Game 4 of the first round matchup between the Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics held a 37 point lead early in the third quarter. 37 point lead. The Celtics won the game 101-79 to take a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.

Ray Allen has a hurt ankle, Avery Bradley has an injured shoulder, Paul Pierce tweaked his knee during shootaround limped off the court favoring his left knee midway through the second quarter, but he returned for the start of the third, and Kevin Garnett surpassed 50,000 total minutes in the regular season and playoffs in his 17-year NBA career. With a team this banged up, and well-aged the performance they put on Sunday was tremendous.

Pierce scored 24 points in 18 minutes, and Rondo added 20 points and 16 dimes. Ray had 12, and KG finished with 15. Gino Time began early in the 4th Quarter and whenever it’s Gino Time you can guarantee the Celtics and the Garden are having a good time.

The New York Knicks have not won a Playoff game since 2001. Coming into Game 3 there was little expectation that they would get that win with All-Star forward Amar’e Stoudemire sidelined with an injured left hand. Without Amar’e the Knicks showed signs of maybe getting that elusive W, as both the Knicks and the Heat shot poorly throughout the game. Then the 4th quarter came and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra put LeBron James back in after he had sat nearly 9 minutes due to foul trouble.

The 4th quarter has not been fond to James, but he single handily kept the Knicks from getting the win, and gave his Miami Heat a commanding 3-0 lead. James scored 32 points, including 17 in the 4th quarter, the Knicks had 14 points in the 4th quarter.  On Sunday the Knicks will attempt to stop their 13 game playoff losing streak and hopefully send the series back to Miami. HEAT lead series 3-0. 

The Knicks tied the NBA record for the “shot-clock era” of 38 straight playoff games with fewer than 100 points.

Meanwhile in Dallas, the defending NBA champs were also faced with a 2-0 deficit placed upon them by the Oklahoma City Thunder. If there was any indication that Tyson Chandler made the wrong decision this offseason, it is made clear by his current situation with the Knicks and the fate of his former team.

The first two games in OKC were close games that came down to the last possession, but Game 3 was an exact opposite. Kevin Durant got off to a hot start finishing with 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting, and an easy OKC win 95-79.

The Mavericks are one loss away from becoming the fifth defending champion in NBA history to fail to win a playoff game the following season. The 2006-07 Heat are the only defending champs to be swept in the first round under the current best-of-seven format. THUNDER lead series 3-0.

NO NBA TEAM HAS EVER COME BACK FROM A 3-0 DEFICIT.

DAY 5: The Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul fought hard; 29 Points, 3 boards, 6 dimes, 5 steals, but Grizzlies even the series and Lil’ Country loves it.:

With a weekend full of emotions the Playoffs rolled into Monday with three games on the bill. Up first was the overly-hyped Heat-Knicks which followed most of the script from the first game. LeBron containing Melo, while the rest of the Knicks struggle to score, especially Amar’e Stoudemire. Amar’e has had a tumultuous season; the lost of his brother led to a tattoo tear and cornrows from 20 years ago. Following the 104-94 Heat win, Amar’e decided to take his rage out on a fire extinguisher, and the extinguisher won, lacerating Stoudemire’s hand leading to stiches and locker room floors covered in blood. This Knicks season has been a New York Times best seller in the making. Knicks know head back to NY without Amar’e and still no wins in the Playoffs since 01′, but Game 3 has the potential to be the game where Melo goes for 50. HEAT lead series 2-0.

In Game 2, the Indiana Pacers made up for 2-20 shooting from deep, with plan, and simple hustle. The Pacers outscored the Magic 30-13 in the third leading to a 93-78 victory. Series is tied 1-1. 

Oklahoma City, and Dallas should be forced to play a best out of 20 games. After Kevin Durant stole Game 1 with a buzzer beater, Game 2 came down to two Jason Terry deep shot’s, but ending with a narrow Thunder win 102-99. For the 28th time this season, Russell Westbrook took more shots than Kevin Durant and, perhaps surprisingly, the Thunder are 23-5 when that happens. Westbrook ended with 29 points, Durant added 26 on 5 of 17 shooting. Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle decided to vent during the postgame interview about the physicality of the series; He was talking to you Kendrick Perkins.

“It’s playoff basketball. It’s physical. We don’t like the cheap shots when they give them, and they don’t like them if we give them. That’s the nature of competition,” Carlisle said. “I love hard-played, clean, competitive playoff series. You throw the ball up and may the best team win.

“The dirty (expletive) has got to stop. We don’t want anybody getting hurt out there, either way.” THUNDER lead series 2-0.

At midnight, the Nets officially ended their 35 years in New Jersey and became the Brooklyn Nets, finally completing a move that has been several years in the making. The Brooklyn Nets have unveiled their new logo, clean and simple but only the logo was unveiled; you have to wait till September for the jersey.

The new primary logo – created by Brooklyn’s own JAY-Z – retains the shield from its previous iteration, and adds that iconic Brooklyn ‘B’ to the basketball that has been part of every logo since the franchise’s 1967 inception as the Americans. The Dodgers had their lettermark, and the Nets have added another model for the borough to bear. “Brooklyn,” of course, is spelled out below. Nets CEO Brett Yormark called this “the new badge for Brooklyn,” and JAY-Z believes the design’s boldness demonstrates confidence in the new direction.

Now Jay-Z is a graphic designer…what next chef?

(Via nets.com)