crzymdups wrote:Inspired by talk in the game thread, let's talk Boston vs New York matchups.

Starting lineups:

Billups
Fields
Anthony
Stoudemire
Turiaf She.Williams/Jeffries

vs

Rondo
Allen
Pierce
KG
J. O'neal

Both teams have crap at center. I think we'll see Boston use Glen Davis a lot and we could have trouble stopping him. Also, Amar'e is going to HAVE to get better at showing on the pick and roll and getting back to his man or KG will likely pick the team apart with his mid-range game.

I trust Fields or Billups to do a good job chasing Ray Allen on screens and I think Toney and AC can do a solid job chasing Rondo. Wildcard on Rondo will be Jared Jeffries. He has the length to play off him and tie him up when he tries to drive. That could be huge and it could really help in the pick and roll game. Jeffries might be a key player in the series. He might even wind up starting. It was good to see him can a few shots against Indiana - maybe he's getting his rhythm and confidence back a little.

Shelden Williams will also be an import player off the bench to guard Glen Davis in the post. And Shawne Williams will likely guard Jeff Green and maybe even KG at times.

But, obviously, the big matchup of the series will be Melo versus Pierce. That matchup will probably decide the series. If Melo can turn in a good defensive performance and tire out Pierce by dominating on offense, the Knicks have a serious advantage.

Another key will be Amar'e versus KG. It remains to be seen how healthy Amar'e is. But hopefully the rest he's gotten over this last week has been good for his ankle and his entire stamina.

I think this could be an interesting matchup. The one big negative is that Boston has a great home court advantage, whereas a team like Miami does not. The other big negative is that Boston is playoff battle tested and knows how to raise their defense to another level come playoffs time. Boston has looked shakey, going 9-11 since the Perkins trade, but they have the ability to raise their collective level of play.

This is going to be good.

Can't really disagree with what you wrote, though I don't think Turiaf will be starting for the Knicks with Williams and Jeffries here. Probably the best thing about this matchup is that Amare always plays well against Garnett and Melo should be outplay Pierce.

VCoug wrote:

loweyecue wrote:I would not like to see Melo on Pierce on the defensive end at least not for the whole game. Melo may get into foul trouble that is not something we can afford. We need one of our other forwards to take up th ePierce assignment. On the other end I want to see Melo going hard against Pierce and bodying him to cretae contact. I also want to see Amare going against KG more than he has in the past. Foul calls can be our freind this series, but Melo guarding PP may lead to trouble. He should switch on to Pierce in the 4th Q etc.

If you don't put him on Pierce then who do you put him on? He's not going to guard Rondo. I don't think you want him chasing Allen over and around screens all game. And you can't put him on KG/Big Baby/O'Neal. He pretty much has to guard Pierce by default.

Fair point. I was thinking Ray Ray but I see what you mean about screens.

loweyecue wrote:I would not like to see Melo on Pierce on the defensive end at least not for the whole game. Melo may get into foul trouble that is not something we can afford. We need one of our other forwards to take up th ePierce assignment. On the other end I want to see Melo going hard against Pierce and bodying him to cretae contact. I also want to see Amare going against KG more than he has in the past. Foul calls can be our freind this series, but Melo guarding PP may lead to trouble. He should switch on to Pierce in the 4th Q etc.

Last game we played the Celts, Melo got Pierce into early foul trouble

Uptown wrote:Its pretty much official, Knicks/Celts. Magic are beating the Sixers and it looks like the Celts will drop one against the Wiz tonite. As bad as the Celts have looked over the last 19 games or so, they still have tons of playoff experience, was in the finals just a year ago, and have home court advantage. One factor that will play against us is the fact that these playoff games are so spread out for television that the Celts will have plenty of time to rest in between games.

It's a little early to call a Celtics loss, isn't it?

Nalod wrote:

Uptown wrote:

loweyecue wrote:I would not like to see Melo on Pierce on the defensive end at least not for the whole game. Melo may get into foul trouble that is not something we can afford. We need one of our other forwards to take up th ePierce assignment. On the other end I want to see Melo going hard against Pierce and bodying him to cretae contact. I also want to see Amare going against KG more than he has in the past. Foul calls can be our freind this series, but Melo guarding PP may lead to trouble. He should switch on to Pierce in the 4th Q etc.

Last game we played the Celts, Melo got Pierce into early foul trouble

Good point. We get them in foul trouble.

Our centers run them off the court (I miss the Moz here) and they have to match up with us.

Im thinking like MDA. Phuch them, we play to our strengths!

If Rondo wants to beat us from outside let him. If Big Baby beats us outside, we lose.

THey have to execute their game as to we.

Throw what we got at them. Melo is 8 years younger than Pierce. Run his ass off the court and use Melos length.

Billups can chase Ray ray but ray ray gonna get get chewed up by him too. I guess they likely go with Lando on him and he brings out his inner havlichek.

Amare has a tough job with KG both physically and dealing with the nutty side they call "passion".

Rondo misses his big man Perk and Big baby misses his muse (the special one).

Im not saying we beat their tired sorry asses into the ground but go with what you got and if you execute but fall short you build on that!

You think that Amare's going to be guarding KG? I thought the match-ups would be Billups-Rondo, Fields-Allen, Melo-Pierce, Amare-O'Neal, and the 5th starter-Garnett.

IM not worried about who Amare is guarding. Im sure he's not either

Nalod don't worry about stopping Celtics, They want to win they have to stop us.

You bring Melo in by trade, ok, then lets phuching go with it.

I don't expect to win but MDA takes it to them.

Thibs has his way and We have ours.

Team with the most points still wins!

BlueSeats wrote:Celtics are gonna try to rough us up. Melo needs to pack his sucker punch. Landry needs to channel his inner Dirty Laundry.

I'd be much more worried about that if K Perkins were still in the building. Now? They're no tougher than the Knicks. Not saying they aren't tough, but the Knicks are pretty tough, too.