Carmelo Anthony – Page 18 – NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST

The Cope & Melo Show — Knicks End Three-Game Skid with Hornets Victory 100-87

Even with the Knicks struggling mightily in the New Year with various injuries, a loss to the Hornets would have been a huge low point. It wasn’t a flawless performance earlier today, but we saw glimpses of the ball movement and defense that made this team great to kick off the season.

A CONTINUATION OF THE BULLS BEATDOWN: Including today, the Knicks have lost 11 of the last 14 first quarters. Early on the Knicks were flat today with no ball movement and heavy on isolation plays for Carmelo Anthony, who was ice cold from the field (1-5 to start). Our second-leading scorer in JR Smith was no better in going 0-4 in making a stupid foul at half-court with the clock winding down that gave the Hornet 3 free throws to push their lead to 29-22. Eric Gordon had a hot start as well lighting up our guards from long range and driving at will. The one bright spot was Chris Copeland, who hit 3 three-pointers to keep it close.

COPELAND MAKING A NAME: With JR struggling, Chris Copeland provided the offense that the Knicks sorely needed. He went 4-7 from downtown and made some key drives to the basket to keep the Hornet at bay. At times, the Knicks have gone with lineups that has them playing three against five when it comes to offense execution. As one of the few guys on the team that can create his own shot, let’s hope Coach Woodson keeps Copeland in the rotation.

NOVAK DOING WHAT HE DOES BEST: Steve Novak hit some key three-pointers in the fourth that put this game out of reach. One at the beginning of the quarter pushed the game to 76-68, and another a few minutes later put it at 84-68.

STAT MOVING ALONG: Amar’e Stoudemire had a productive 23 minutes in getting 12 points. The rebounding was still bad; he only had 3 and was getting pushed out of position by the likes of Robin Lopez. However, Stat did get one offensive board and with the exception of a few miscues, was competent on defense (even with 5 fouls). It’s only his seventh game back and I remain hopeful that he can start beasting with our second unit.

MELO WAKES UP: After going 1-9, Melo woke up and and went off for 18 points in the second quarter. He showed his full arsenal by scoring on fast breaks and jumpers. His work was instrumental in an 8-0 run to take the lead for good at 36-34. At one point, Melo scored 14 straight Knicks points which lead to MVP chants whenever he went to the line. He finished with 27 points and was a presence on the glass in notching 7 rebounds.

JR OUT OF SORTS BUT STILL CONTRIBUTES: Aside from the bonehead three-pointer foul mentioned earlier, JR Smith also got a technical for complaining about fouls in the third. Nonetheless, our shooting guard started to find his jumper in the second half and was aggressive driving to the basket. Even with only 8 points, JR notched six assists and two steals, showing his importance in the second half in regards to ball movement and defense.

It’s onto to London (!) next for a game against the Detroit Pistons.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AUOm-FtkJ4&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

NBA Suspends Carmelo Anthony One Game For Garnett Confrontation

The NBA has announced Carmelo Anthony will serve a one game suspension for attempting to confront Kevin Garnett Monday night following the Knicks’s 102-96 loss to the Celtics.

Although Anthony has since disclosed their issues were resolved via a phone call, the footage of Anthony waiting outside the Celtics tour bus and having to be restrained by police made national headlines.

Anthony will serve his one game suspension this coming Thursday when the Knicks face the Indiana Pacers.

The loss of Anthony comes as the Knicks are struggling through a difficult stretch going back to the last week of December. The team has only won two of its last five games.

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This is a league that’s all about appearances so I’m not surprised. As soon as the footage of Melo looking like a goon waiting for KG got picked up by outlets like TMZ, and was plastered as a main headline on Yahoo!, it was only a matter of time before an unnecessary suspension was handed down. Funny enough, Zack Randolph earlier this year attempted to confront Kendrick Perkins after a game. But because there was no footage nor extensive coverage, Randolph only received a fine.

Here’s one case where playing in a big market and having star power can work against you.

Not much funny about this situation for Knicks fans, but the below pic at least got a smirk out of me.

Phone Call Ends Melo-Garnett Beef

Carmelo Anthony has confirmed a phone call with Kevin Garnett has put an end to their hostilities that began last night at Madison Square Garden.

Anthony and Garnett spent the majority of yesterday’s Celtics win trash-talking in the fourth quarter, drawing a double technical. According to Melo, Garnett said something that “crossed the line” enough to merit him waiting by the locker room and outside the Celtics tour bus after the game for a confrontation.

There’s certain things that you just don’t say to men, another man. I felt he crossed the line. We have an understanding right now. We handled it the way we handled it. Nobody needs to know what was said behind closed doors, so that situation is handled.

I just wanted to know what was being said, where was all that coming from? Whatever was being said on the basketball court, where was all that coming from?

Melo refused to go into detail about the matter, but took responsibility for his “losing his cool” during the game and reiterated that his reason for attempting to confront Garnett was simply for a conversation, not a fight.

Absolutely, and that was my whole mindset and motive of going back there and seeing him in the locker room and in the front, to have a one-on one conversation and talk it out like grown men,” Anthony said. “I lost my cool yesterday. I accept that.

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The unconfirmed rumor going around is that Garnett said something about Melo’s wife Lala. If that was the case, then I’ll have to do a 180 on my earlier stance as I completely understand and support why Melo went looking for him after the game. A man’s family should always be off-limits unless you’re looking for a fight or at the very least a confrontation.

I can’t wait for the next game between these two squads.

Knicks Unravel In Physical Game, Fall to Celtics 102-96

I HATE LOSING TO BOSTON! It was a story of composure and physicality last night at the Garden with the Celtics, being the veterans they are, rattling the Knicks with hard defense to execute down the stretch for their third straight victory. Our leader Carmelo Anthony mentally checked out and got into a personal battle with Kevin Garnett, leading to several ill-advised late contested shots and trying to win the game by himself. It’s a learning experience for sure, but this game also shines light on our recurring problem dealing with physical teams.

MELO VS. KG: Garnett does what he’s done for most of his career — throw sneaky elbows and other fouls to get under his opponent’s skin. Melo was already having a horrid shooting game, but I firmly believe the stuff with KG got him even more out of sorts in the pivotal 4th quarter with the game on the line. After the double-tech was called on both, Melo hit a clutch three and then proceeded to stink it up the rest of the way. He got caught repeatedly on switches where he fouled KG in frustration 10-15 feet from the basket.

As we saw in the games against Chicago and Memphis, Melo doesn’t channel his anger with physical play well. He makes stupid fouls (his second in the first quarter far away from the basket caused him to sit most of the half) and puts his team at a disadvantage. I don’t give Melo any points for trying to confront KG after the game. That does nothing for the team or himself. If he wants to truly get KG and the Celtics back, and I’m sure Coach Woodson told him this at some point last night, you stay poised and kick their ass on the court with ball movement, defense and playing NY basketball.

NY FOLDS UNDER DEFENSE: The Knicks had a horrible third quarter exacerbated by the play of Pablo Prigioni. He had awful time handling the Celtic full court pressure. The Knicks couldn’t get into their offense until late in the shot clock, causing sloppy pick n roll passes that were intercepted for turnovers. Speaking of turnovers, the Knicks had six in the third and only scored 16 points. And keep in mind the Celtics didthis with Pierce on the bench, who had picked up his fourth foul.

ISO VS. BALANCED SCORING: The Celtics shot 53% from the field and got contributions from everyone. Pierce dropped 23, KG 19, and Avery Bradley 13. Their bench, lead by Jeff Green’s 16 points, contributed a total of 39 points. Melo lead the Knicks with 20 points on a putrid 6-26 shooting night. Tyson Chandler had a few rebound lapses late but it’s hard to criticize his 13 point, 17 rebound night. JR Smith chipped in 24 points but on 7-18 shooting and Amar’e Stoudemire added 13 points. The reason our points came on 41% shooting was due to heavy isolation plays and long three-pointers, while the Celtics made the extra passes needed to get many wide open jumpers.

THE WORD IS OUT: Until the Knicks prove otherwise, the scouting report on them will be they can’t handle physical play. This game, along with the losses to Memphis, Chicago (2X) and Houston (2X), prove that in spades. The bitching and moaning has to stop and it starts with our leader Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks will have to turn it around quick because later this week they face two more physical teams in the Pacers and Bulls.

And on one last ironic note, Melo has won NBA Player of the Week.

[Video] Carmelo Anthony – “The City That Made Me” Commercial

Carmelo Anthony once again reps hard for New York in this new commercial for his Melo 9 sneaker.

Defense for 2 Quarters? Melo Drops 40 to Rally Knicks Past the Magic 114-106

After a dominant, defense-heavy win over the San Antonio Spurs last game, most of us were hoping a light bulb had gone off for the Knicks in realizing their defense has to be like that every game. At the very least, we hoped the defense wouldn’t go to shit in the very next game.

That’s exactly what happened in the opening quarter last night against the lowly Orlando Magic, who blitzed the Knicks for a 36-point first quarter and replicated another 30 point-plus quarter after the half to go into the final quarter with an eight point lead. But luckily for us, NY has this MVP candidate on the squad you may have heard of… Carmelo Anthony.

It wasn’t pretty at times, but Melo’s 40 points (16 in the fourth) was a joy to watch. Onto the game’s notable points.

WE’LL HAVE TO LIVE WITH OPPOSING GUARDS GOING OFF (FOR NOW): Face it, Knicks fans. We’ll have to live with the fact that any team with quick point guards are going to give us fits until Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert make it back. Jameer Nelson lit up Jason Kidd in the first quarter last night for 12 points. Kidd couldn’t keep up on screens or when Nelson drove to the basket. Pablo Prigioni did marginally better, but it was a recurring problem in the first and third quarters.

ONLY DEFENSE FOR 2 QUARTERS, BUT IT WAS DAMN GOOD DEFENSE: The Knicks again played hard defense when they wanted to. But when they did, the team had phenomenal results. After giving up 36 points in the first, the Knicks held the Magic to just 19 points in the second while scoring 32. The offense was spurned on by a aggressive Carmelo Anthony, who came in at the 9 minute mark and was able to draw a third foul on Vucevic. This helped to open up the lane and the rebounding for the Knicks. JR Smith took full advantage, earning three-point plays at the rim and driving at will. Aside for some late defensive lapses in the second that lead to JJ Redick hitting a three to pull the Magic within 2, the Knicks played strong to take a four-point lead, 59-55, at halftime.

The Knicks started the third strong but inexpicably fell apart halfway through. This coincided with Nelson, and Arron Affalo for that matter, getting hot from mid and long-range. A coast to coast Nelson drive off a jump ball gave the Magic the lead for the quarter, and he added further damage with three pointers. Affalo got in his own and even a four-point play earlier in the quarter to give the Magic a nice 87-79 lead going into the fourth.

The Knicks woke up again and held the Magic to just 17 points. NY somewhat got a break in the Magic waiting a little too long to put Nelson back in, but even then the defense was stifling. With the game on the line, we had the ultimate closer in Melo and the Magic had no one.

JOSH MCROBERTS ON MELO?: Poor Josh McRoberts probably woke up this morning in a cold sweat and shivering from the lingering effects of that torching he received from Melo in the fourth. Melo was literally toying with him: exaggerated dribbling, holding the ball to the end of the shot clock, and chuckling repeatedly after every bucket. Vucevic got some abuse too when he had to guard Melo on switches. Melo pretty much lived in the post with short jumpers and the Magic had no answers. A double team late in the quarter led to an open Kidd three-pointer which served as the dagger in putting them up 111-1104.

MELO’s DEFENSE: Lost in Melo’s 40 point performance was his great defense on JJ Redick in the fourth. It seemed like a crazy move to have Melo chasing Redick on screens, but he stayed with him most of the time. Redick is a rhythm shooter and you could see he never felt comfortable shooting over Melo. He had several possible game-changing three-pointers that bricked and finished the game shooting 3-10.

CAMBY LIMITED AND RIGHTLY SO: The Spurs game had a lot of people saying Marcus Camby in our starting lineup was the solution to our defensive woes. Well, Camby had 2 points, 1 rebound and 0 blocks yesterday. The lineup needs to be adjusted to the competition and that was proven in spades last night. The most promising thing I liked about Camby’s time was his passing out of the high post. His teammates fumbled some of them (including Melo on what looked to be an easy alley oop) and hopefully that improves in the coming weeks.

STAT TRYING HARD: It was rough watching Amar’e Stoudemire. On the positive end, he was getting to the rim easily on pick and rolls and his first step. But once he got there, he couldn’t finish for anything — either his shot got swatted or rimmed out. You could see it was bothering him and Melo had some encouraging words. I liked that the team kept going to him even with the repeated misses. He started the fourth good with a three-point play and a open dunk, so that’s promising. The defense is still shaky, but 11 points and 4 rebounds in 17 minutes is solid.
JR, TYSON AND KIDD: JR Smith couldn’t extend his 20 point game streak to six, but his 18 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals were very important. If he didn’t get his fifth foul early in the fourth, I’m sure he would have been even more aggressive. Kidd did get lit up for 29 points from Nelson, but he dropped 15 points, going 5-8 from downtown. Chandler couldn’t keep Vucevic off the boards (18 rebounds), but he contributed another strong double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, going 6-6 from the field. And all three were very strong defensively in the closing fourth quarter.

I want the team to get all the rest they need because we have the division rival Celtics next, who are currently on a two-game winning streak and looking to pick things up to get back into the playoff picture.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTMleKacJs&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Refocused! Knicks Pound Out Spurs 100-83

Is it the beginning of the season? Are the Knicks 6-0 again? It certainly felt like it last night when NY brought back that early season defensive intensity to bully around and finish off what was already a weary Spurs team to post one of their wins of the season. What wasn’t there to like? With Marcus Camby and Tyson Chandler starting together, the Spurs could get nothing going inside. They scored only 12 points in the paint (where they are averaging 44 points per game). The Knicks were content to live with the Spurs shooting long jumpers and it worked with San Antonio shooting only 36%. The 83 points is the lowest total the Knicks have held a team to this season. To make it more sweet, this is the first Spurs sweep in 10 years.

The most promising aspect of this win is that everyone contributed. Novak went 5-7 from downtown and even notched some good steals and deflections. JR Smith went for 20 points or better in his fifth straight game. Pablo Prigioni had several excellent steals and dropped 9 assists, one of which being a sick alley oop to JR. Melo got his points but with the balanced scoring didn’t have to work as hard. Amar’e Stoudemire is still getting back in the swing of things, but looked much better defensively and contributed 10 points. Once he gets his legs back, he’ll start finishing better around the rim (he was blocked 4 times after getting by his man).

And don’t forget the rebounding — NY won that battle handily 48-35 thanks in large part to Chandler (14), Camby (6) and Melo (8). Let’s hope we keep this poise tomorrow when we head back to Orlando.

Rusty Stat and Defense-Phobic Knicks Fall to Blazers105-100

It was the start of a New Year, but the ugly trends that marred the end of 2012 reared their ugly heads again in the form of bad defense and rebounding. These factors are the main reason the Knicks are on a two-game skid and now 2 games behind Miami and just one more loss removed from the third seed. It’s looking like some serious changes might have to be made before we face off against San Antonio tomorrow.

OUR STARTING LINEUP DIGS ANOTHER HOLE: The defense and rebounding was very bad to start this game. How bad? How about the Blazers outrebounding the Knicks 14-5 in the first quarter with 8 of them coming on the offensive glass! We had nothing going to the basket and our jumpers, even the open ones, were not falling. The Blazers shot 52% in the first half and the only reason their lead was only 11 at the half was due to Melo’s literally carrying the entire offensive load on his back, including a desperation heave three-pointer before halftime. Might be time to start JR as we can’t keep trying to overcome these first half deficits with late game heroics.

MELO’AND JR CAN’T DO IT ALONE: Melo had 45 points in this game with 24 of it coming in the first half. He had some nice three-pointers and his outside jumper was working well. JR didn’t have the best shooting night, but he was very active all over the court in contributing 28 points, 11 rebounds (team high), 5 assists and 3 steals. Outside of these two, the rest of the team might as well have continued celebrating New Year’s are they only combined for 24 points! Outside of Melo, the starting lineup only had 15 points the entire game (10 for Tyson and 5 for Brewer).

IT”S GOING TO BE A LONG MONTH: Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni have more than proven their value to this team over the last two months. But without Felton, we’re seeing the limits of their abilities. The younger guards of the league have been blowing by them at will which puts more pressure on Chandler and our also thin front line. Damian Lillard had 21 points and Nicolas Batum was the latest player to come into the Garden and go off, dropping 26 points and going 6-7 from downtown. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do but gut it out over the next month. Iman Shumpert’s return will help a lot, but everything can’t be put on him as he’s returning from major surgery. Which leads me to my next point…

GIVE AMAR’E TIME: Stat made his return last night and got a very nice standing ovation. After that there was a lot of struggling on the offensive and defensive end. Stat managed 6 points, missing his first 5 shots, getting beat backdoor by the likes of JJ Hickson, and missing two key free thorws down the stretch. With all that said, Stat did show glimpses of good things to come in working a nice pick and roll with Prigioni and getting a monster block and later a facial. It’s going to take a lot of time, probably after the All-Star break, before we see any semblance of the old Stat, but he’s sorely needed.

MORE CAMBY AGAINST BIG FRONTCOURTS: Camby held up well in the limited minutes he had last night. While he’s not a scoring threat, his presence is sorely needed when we have to deal with large frontcourts. We made nice run when he was paired up front with Chandler.

[Video] Melo’s 19 4th Quarter Points Steals Game from Wolves 94-91

With all the running around for the holidays, I finally got the chance late last night to sit down and watch the Knicks’s thrilling comeback victory over the Timberwolves at Madison Square Garden to finish our six-game home stand at 4-2. The same bad defense that defined our recent losses to the Rockets and Bulls was an issue in the first half, but the Knicks clamped down in the remaining two quarters to hopefully have some momentum later today in Los Angeles against the surging Lakers. Here’s my thoughts on our last victory to put us at 20-7.

REFS ARE STILL TRASH: The referees weren’t as bad as they were in the Bulls game, but their incompetence nearly cost us the game. There was no consistentcy in the calls and Melo’s late fouls that clearly showed a bias against him. One was a ridiculous offensive foul and the other was simply jocking for position inside for a rebound. Keep in mind Melo was getting hacked all night when trying to score in the post. You can’t even say the refs were trying to help out the Wolves because they gave us several make-up no calls down the stretch.

MELO the MVP: After every game it’s getting harder and harder to deny Melo’s MVP credentials. We looked to be dead in the water on offense during the closing minutes with Melo picking up his fifth foul and Coach Woodson a technical to give the Wolves a four-point lead. Instead, Melo would reel off 19 of the team’s 23 fourth quarter points. A three-pointer with less than 3 minutes left trimmed the Wolves lead to 86-85. A stop lead to Melo getting back in the post for a lauyp and a foul to extend the lead to 88-86. Melo would then live at the line the rest of the way in making six straight clutch free throws to seal the deal. We can’t expect this every night, but it’s great insurance to know Melo can bail us out even when overall he’s had a bad shooting night (10-25, 3-10 from downtown). Melo’s 9/10 from the free throw line was huge.

SAVED BY DEFENSE: The Wolves didn’t have Kevin Love, but that didn’t stop them from dropping 55 points in the first half behind a dominant post game from Pekovic, who had 21 points points and 17 rebounds. Tyson Chandler did his part in limiting Pekovic’s output to single digits in the second half. When that happened, it was all on the Wolves guards of J.J. Barea and Ridnour to score. While they had solid scoring nights of 14 and 12 respectively, their shooting was off during the key final minutes. The Knicks held serve with allowing only 36 points in the second half and forcing 17 turnovers.

The pivotal defensive stand of the game came in the final three minutes where the Wolves had four chances to score off two offensive rebounds and fouls. Each time the Knicks turned them back and Melo immediately drained a three to take the lead for good.

STAY THE COURSE, JR SMITH: For the third straight game JR Smith has remained on point. As the only other player on the team talented enough to create their own shot consistently, the Knicks struggle badly when he’s off. Against the Wolves he had 19 points on 7-15 shooting and 7 assists. He’s finding himself coming into the game quicker these days as starting guard Ronnie Brewer (0 points, 3 rebounds) is in a horrible runt now that his three-pointer isn’t falling. Aside from a horrible blunder in the final minute that lead to the ball being taken away and the Wolves sinking an open trey, Smith was fantastic.

The Knicks are back at it later today against the Lakers. With the Heat playing the Thunder, this is a game we absolutely need to get back to our rightful spot atop the East.

Techs Galore! Ejections and Bad Play Define Knicks Home Loss to Bulls 110-106

It would be my luck that the first Knicks home game I attend this season be one of the team’s worst performances. To say the Knicks were out of sync would be an understatement — the shooting, defense and mental focus were all beyond horrific. And yet, the circus that was the fourth quarter made the game quite entertaining even when it became apparent that NY had dug a hole too big to climb out of.

The Bricks Just Kept Coming: The Knicks shooting in this game was painful. For most of the contest, the Knicks were shooting an embarrassing 33% from the field and under 25% from three-point range. The Bulls lived up to their league-leading defense but it wasn’t just that. The Knicks got many wide open shots and failed to convert. Our normally sharp-shooting Steve Novak was the worst in logging over 30 minutes and scoring 0 on just three shot attempts. We had three guys score over 20 with none of them being efficient getting there. Raymond Felton (21 points) was 9-21 and couldn’t nail a jumper to save his life. JR Smith (26 points) was 9-20 and Carmelo Anthony (29 points), who was repeatedly turned back at the rim and frustrated, went 10-25 before being ejected.

Remember when Ronnie Brewer was money earlier this season with that corner three? Well he must have returned to Earth because he couldn’t buy a basket, going 0-4 and causing us fans to groan with every brick. To add insult to injury, he even bricked a free throw.

The Whining Returns: During the game, which had the lead at times ballooning over 20 points, the Knicks got more annoyed with every missed bucket and with the physical defense the Bulls were putting on them. At times they had a point — the Bulls were allowed to rough Melo up in the paint while any contact placed on Loul Deng on the opposite end resulted in an immediate foul call. Nonetheless, you have to adjust to the game and Knicks failed miserably doing that.

The defense was very shoddy in getting to the Bulls shooters and gave up plenty momentum-killing three-pointers. Despite all that, the team was still 19-7 coming into tonight and we in the crowd (well most of us) just couldn’t find it in ourselves to boo them.

Melo got tossed but not before getting a standing ovation. Woodson had seen enough and did everything could (including telling the ref “fuck you”) so get an early trip to the locker room, which was granted. By that point the tension was heavy. Chandler and Noah got tangled up and did a little shoving, resulting in both guys being tossed (Chandler on his first technical and Noah had a previous one for being mouthy with the refs). Noah’s post-game comments summed up our mind state during that testy second half.

I don’t think they are used to being down that much. If they were up 20 points, I don’t think they would have been that frustrated.

These Refs Suck!: That was the chant we took up last night and it was very appropriate. There were nine technicals in total (6 Knicks, 3 Bulls), resulting from neither team respecting the official calls. And the more technicals resulted in less and less respect from both squads. Several times during the game you could see the refs huddled up trying to figure out how to get matters back under control.

Melo’s second technical was especially suspect (all he did from my seat was stare at the official). The league agreed, as the second tech issued by Olandis Poole has been rescinded. Who knows what could have happened if he stayed in the game. Another ref, John Goble, has issued eight technicals on the Knicks this year, including tossing Rasheed Wallace for his “Ball Don’t Lie!” phrase. And just so Knicks fans can keep track of these guys for future reference, the last ref rounding out last night’s 3 Stooges trio is named Zach Zabra.

If any positive can come out of last night is that it appears the league is closely reviewing the refs and how their quick whistles exacerbated the problems from last night. Expect the Knicks to get some favorable calls on Sunday against the Wolves and hopefully none of these refs will be suited up.

And even with the disappointing Knicks performance, spending time with Mom made it all worthwhile.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRde5_9b8Og]

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