Some adjustments for game 2:

Seems like the gameplan was to sag off the shooters and they made us pay. Augustine was the perhaps the most important player for the Pacers this afternoon because we were on the verge of going up by double figures in the 2nd Q, when Cope hit a 3 and Martin made 2 baskets. Augustine made 3 huge 3's and a drive to the basket that found Hansbrough (sp) for a layup). On all 3 of those shots, we sagged off and left him open. Its clear we have to press up a bit on Hill, Augustine, Stephenson and George. The Celts didn't get this many open Jays in the first series and its time we get back to our rugged, in your face defense like we displayed against the Celts. Also, Hill is not a pure pg, would like to see more fullcourt pressure on him as he brings the ball up....

We absolutely have to push the ball on every defensive rebound. Hibbert and West are brusiers, not runners. We have to up the tempo a bit which will nullify Hibberts presence in the paint. No way West and Hibbert can keep up with Tyson and Melo in a full court offensive set. When I say run, I dont necessarily mean fastbreak on every play, but just by pushing the ball, we'll catch them scrambling back and they will be out f position defensively since they have a lot of cross match defensively (West has to find Shump, George has to find Melo, etc). This will also get JR, Melo and Tyson some open looks and get them into a rhythm.

If the refs are going to let the the Pacers play that physical, we need to run more PNR with Felton and Chandler and even Melo and Chandler. Hibbert is not coming out or showing on the pick, he's laying back in the paint and waiting for us to dart into the lane. The offense looked good in the 1st Q when we aran the PNR and Felton had about 3 easy runners in the lane. The 10-12 foot area is wide open as Hibbert is guarding the rim. This is also why I would like to see Melo and Chandler run some PNR because Melo can knock down the 12 footer.....

Clean wrote:I was reading a thread on another forums and someone said

It is hard to play defense because Melo is so unpredictable. You don't know if he's going to launch a 3 with 20sec still left on the clock or if he is going to go iso for 20 sec before launching a contested shot.

This quote was obviously by a melo hater and meant to be a diss but I can't deny that there is a lot of truth in it. You can't teach an old dog new tricks and the Knicks are the oldest team in the NBA. I am no longer going to argue about what they need to do and just hope we win with the way they are going to play. This team will win most of our games if Melo and JR are on and lose most of our games if they are off. We are just going to have to pray that both those players hit another hot streak before our season is done.

fishmike wrote:

Uptown wrote:First and foremost, we lost game 1 because the two players we rely on to take the most shots went 10-28 and 5-14 from the field. When they put down Jamal Crawford's cliff notes on shot selection maybe we have a chance.

Fixed

22yr old lance was playing like he was KG..

They say we are old, but against the celtics they said they were too old..

Ditch the 2 pg starting line up and start cope

fishmike wrote:

Uptown wrote:First and foremost, we lost game 1 because the two players we rely on to take the most shots went 10-28 and 5-14 from the field. When they put down Jamal Crawford's cliff notes on shot selection maybe we have a chance.

Fixed

They were awful, not doubt about it and we need them to step up. 2 things the average fan always does, they never look at the defensive end of the floor, and they never look at what the other team is doing...I heard somewhere that defense and rebounding = rings...We lost in both categories. We gave up 50% shooting and was outrebounded by 14. Cant win that way....

Uptown wrote:If anyone heard Jeff Van Gundy on Mike and Mike this morning he pretty much echoed everything I said. He said the Knicks need to push the ball in transition to beat the bigs up the floor, and we need to exploit more PNR with Felton/Chandler and even Melo/Chandler because Hibbert is not coming out to defend. The 10 foot area is wide open which is why Felton was able to make the runners. Melo can also exploit the 10 foot area with pull ups as opposed to running into Hibberts Body...

we need to play the big we signed at the end of the season. He is a good rebounder and his jumpshot is money. He'd be awesome in the pic-n-roll which could work since like you said, Hibbert is not coming out to contest and if he does it OPENS up the lane.

This is going to be a tough series, we just need to survive it and win.