Melo – Page 14 – NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST

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.

[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]

[Video] What Bum Ankle? Melo Drops 31 and Chandler Goes Off as Knicks Rout Nets

You had this coming, Brooklyn. After a summer spent boasting about being the best team in New York and much trash-talking after beating the Knicks in overtime last month, NY gave their BK little brothers a big dose of reality last night with a 100-86 beating at Madison Square Garden. I will give Brooklyn credit — they played a good first half anchored by excellent outside shooting from Joe Johnson and Keith Bogans. However, there’s also a second half to the game, and that’s where this contest was won (and dominated) by the Knicks.

We Missed You Melo!: With Steve Novak sitting due to the mysterious “flu-like symptoms” and Rasheed Wallace still out, it wasn’t looking promising earlier in the day when it was believed Carmelo Anthony might sit for a third straight game. Instead, Melo came out and did what he’s done all season and that’s torch the Nets. You can tell the ankle was still bothering him in his spots as he relied on more jumpers instead of driving completely to the basket, but that didn’t help Brooklyn any. Melo shot 12-22 and was 4-8 from downtown. And the best thing is he didn’t have to work too hard as the bench allowed him to rest most of the fourth.

This is the JR Smith We Love: JR has had some very bad shooting games, but seeing him on like he was last night was beautiful to watch. JR was not just shooting well (7-11 for 19 points), but flat-out out-hustled the Nets by nabbing five rebounds and playing smart defense. He was a +24 on the court and was one of the key offensive sparks that took an eight-point lead entering the fourth and pushing it at one point to 18.

Chris Copeland Again Contributes: Cope is gonna mess around and earn a regular rotation spot if he hasn’t already. He contributed a solid 8 points off the bench. Although he had some defensive lapses in the first half that lead to some open threes, he tightened up that D in the second half. Great effort.

A Tyson Possessed: Raymond Felton had a bad shooting night, but we should thank him for making sure he did one thing right — feed the beast that was Tyson Chandler. Those alley oops Tyson caught were sick and was key to us taking control in the third. Chandler had an awesome and balanced stat line of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks.

The Lead Grows: The Knicks now hold a six-game lead in the Atlantic Division. Our closet rival is the Nets, who have lost their third straight (8 of the last 10) and currently sit at 13-12. And against eastern conference teams, the Knicks are 13-2. With Amar’e coming back soon, there is reason for high optimism that we put the lead completely out of reach over the next month.

Next up is Chicago on Friday. I’ll be at MSG for that one. Can’t wait!

Revenge Served Cold: Melo’s 45 and Kidd’s Dagger 3 Stuns BK

What appeared to be a blowout early on with New York down 26-9 in the first quarter, turned into another nail biter against the Nets and a classic finish by Jason Kidd, who hit the game-winning three-pointer to help the Knicks edge their crosstown rivals 100-97.

If the rivalry between these two teams felt media manufactured before the season, it has unquestionably morphed into the most exciting one in the NBA thus far. And the best thing about last night’s game as we get to see them go at it again next week. Onto my thoughts…

Knicks Start Flat, Nets On a Mission: Maybe it was underestimating BK because Brook Lopez was out. For whatever reason, the Knicks came out horrid in the first quarter. They only had 5 points over seven minutes into the quarter while the Nets got into a nice groove by feeding Andry Blatche for jumpers and layups. On the other hand, the Knicks were missing most of their layups and bricking jumpers as the offense was completely stagnant. Brooklyn had an 17-point lead after a Joe Johnson three with just 1:56 remaining, and it looked like the Knicks might just get ran out of the building as the “Brooklyn” chants started.

Melo On Fire (And Efficient!): When the offense is hurting, we turn to our best player and boy did he deliver starting in the second quarter. After a short break to start (where Rasheed Wallace helped out with a three and short jumper to bring NY within 21-35), Melo got to cooking. He had 15 points in the quarter on a nice array of shots: long jumpers, three-pointers, and drives to the lane, the latter of which trimmed the deficit to 49-53 at halftime.

Melo had 8 in the third and added 15 in the fourth for a total of 45 points on 15-24 from the field. He did exactly what was needed to get us back in it and showed some overlooked leadership after the Kidd three in calming everyone down and reminding them that we still needed one last stop to prevent another overtime situation. Longtime Knicks fans will remember Chris Childs did the same thing to calm down Larry Johnson when he had the famous four-point play against the Pacers in the ’99 Eastern Conference Finals.

Kidd Saves the Day: Remember the last Nets game where Raymond Felton’s bad play down the stretch helped seal our defeat? Well, Felton had another bad game (7 turnovers, 8 points on 3-12 shooting), but this time we had Kidd in the lineup to make the difference. The old man had 18 crucial points (all from downtown) while also notching six assists. The craftiness of the leg kick out on his three-pointer was amazing. When the foul was called, I half expected Kidd to get up and hit the Larry Johnson “L” pose. It was a “cheap” foul, and as Rasheed Wallace says, the “ball don’t lie” so karma righted itself with the free throw being missed. With that said, one good flop deserves another with all the embellishments we’ve put up with from Reggie Evans and Gerald Wallace over these two games.

JR Smith Shows Up: The bench had a terrible game against BK last time out. To win, we needed someone to step up and to his credit JR Smith did just that, contributing 16 points. We’ve been winning despite his recent shooting slump, but having an “on” JR would make these games much easier. Hopefully he can keep this up to close out the month while we incorporate Stat back into the fold.

More Space in the Atlantic Division: The Nets came out like a team desperate to end their four-game losing streak. NY winning is huge in that it gives us a four-game lead over the Nets in the Atlantic Division and keeps us #1 in the East. And let’s not be coy, fellow Knicks fans — there is nice satisfaction in pushing the Nets’s losing streak to five games.

We’re back at it on Thursday night to face our old nemsis…I mean coach, Mike D’Antoni and his struggling Los Angeles Lakers. After an embarrassing loss to the lowly Cavs last night, you can bet they’ll come out with guns blazing so it’s another “trap game” we need to be ready for.

Melo’s Return Lifts Knicks Over Nuggets 112-106

Carmelo Anthony had a great return after a two-game absence from a lacerated finger to drop 34 points, 6 rebounds and two steals on his old Denver Nuggets team to help New York remain the league’s only undefeated home team at 8-0. After a horrid road game in Chicago last Saturday that saw the Knicks shoot 32% (35% from three), New York did much better with Anthony’s offense back in rotation, posting a 43% field goal percentage (12-30 for 40% from downtown). Even so, Denver still played the Knicks hard and held an 88-80 lead at the beginning of a fourth. A timely Mike Woodson timeout lead to two Novak three-pointers and a Chandler dunk to tie the game, and the Knicks would go on to outscore the Nuggets 32-22 for the quarter. Jason Kidd was once again invaluable in the fourth, dishing six assists and keeping the offense balanced with scoring contributions from Smith, Chandler, Melo and Brewer.

The Knicks are back on the “road” tonight when they venture back to Brooklyn for a revenge game against the Nets, who took the first “Battle for NY” on November 26 in overtime.

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