CHAOS wrote:In the second half, Melo asked to guard Lebron and played excellent defense. To cap it off, he stripped him late in the 4th, then on the second to last play, he forced Lebron to Amare who blocked his shot !!! MDA had a 40min practice dedicated to defense and he played defensive players in Carter and Balkman.

SupremeCommander wrote:The players wanting to play defense is 80 percent of the battle. The team will be reborn into a more than solid defensive team. Two of the top 10 players in the NBA want play it. Everyone else will fall in line.

Yes, one game with players playing for pride is enough to show that Carmelo and Amare will be playing defense, even against the Marco Bellinelli's of the world.

Childs2Dudley wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:The players wanting to play defense is 80 percent of the battle. The team will be reborn into a more than solid defensive team. Two of the top 10 players in the NBA want play it. Everyone else will fall in line.

Yes, one game with players playing for pride is enough to show that Carmelo and Amare will be playing defense, even against the Marco Bellinelli's of the world.

I would say "pride" is an excellent way to describe outstanding defensive effort.

CHAOS wrote:Exactly Supreme !!! We are going to grow leaps and bounds from this defensive victory

I feel you! This team looked excellent tonight. Lots of work to do, but you can see what the team is capable of and it is certainly appealing

Childs2Dudley wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:

Childs2Dudley wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:The players wanting to play defense is 80 percent of the battle. The team will be reborn into a more than solid defensive team. Two of the top 10 players in the NBA want play it. Everyone else will fall in line.

Yes, one game with players playing for pride is enough to show that Carmelo and Amare will be playing defense, even against the Marco Bellinelli's of the world.

I would say "pride" is an excellent way to describe outstanding defensive effort.

These guys are going to get up for games like this, which is great, but are they going to guys Luol Deng and Taj Gibson? It's about guarding everyone, not just trying on defense in big matchups. We haven't seen any of that yet so I'd slow your roll before saying Amare and Carmelo will become some great defenders off one performance.

I never said that. All I said is the team might actually want to play defense, because the role players will replicate the stars' effort.

nixluva wrote:

Childs2Dudley wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:The players wanting to play defense is 80 percent of the battle. The team will be reborn into a more than solid defensive team. Two of the top 10 players in the NBA want play it. Everyone else will fall in line.

Yes, one game with players playing for pride is enough to show that Carmelo and Amare will be playing defense, even against the Marco Bellinelli's of the world.

Well part of the problem was that guys weren't aware of how to rotate and we kept getting caught with no one guarding open 3pt shooters in the Cavs game. It takes more than 1 practice to truly solve our problems, but the players really played hard and together. Gotta love having vets like Billups and Carter.

Yes. I agree.

alanhahn

Jeff Van Gundy making great points about Knicks during Lakers-Thunder: star players set the tone. If they commit to D, rest will follow. #fb

8 hours later...

ScoreBot wrote:

Final  
MIA 86 NYK 91

I love it!

Mray20 wrote:Melo wants to do it all you know the guy is pissed he's often overlooked when people mention Kobe, Lebron, Wade and now even Durant. He can play hard d when he wants and now he has Amare with him so he doesn't have to worry about carrying the offense all the time so he can use energy to play D.

If this what is takes for both Amare and Melo to lift their respective games on the defensive side of the game (another great offensive player), I am all for it.

But they both gotta show it every night.