Just got done watching a 'Knicks in 60' replay of a game against PHX at the Garden from Jan, 2009. Very odd game to show, billing it as "Amar'e in 60" because to me Stoudemire played terrible in this contest. Totally invisible for long stretches in this game, way too passive esp. going for rebounds and way too reliant on his still more-than-decent Suns teammates including a pre-Cavs Shaq who showed he still had plenty of gas left in the tank at this point, going for over 20/10..A couple of isolated plays here and there (he drove and threw down one monster dunk down right in Tim Thomas' grill that was very impressive) but by in large, Amar'e did absolutely nothing in this game..Lee, on the other hand, had a monster game -- not sure what he finished up with, but at the end of the 3rd quarter Lee was at 25/14...I love the trade we made but man, I'm really gonna miss this guy.
Look, are we better now than last year? Yes we are. Most definitely...And it starts with Amar'e..He's the man here now and I'm glad he's here. I think the roster's much improved..But this game really showed me something. The difference in the amount of energy being displayed by D Lee and Amar'e over the full 48 mins. was night & day in this game. When Amar'e puts his head to it & when he's 100% focused, this man's almost impossible to stop as we saw last year in the playoffs against the Lakers and in years past. All I want to see is max effort everytime he steps on the court. That's it. That's what Lee gave us and I expect nothing less from Stoudemire...Watching Amar'e sleepwalk through this game made me feel a little uneasy though, I gotta be honest. Again, very odd game for MSG to show. I mean if they did a little more digging thru the archives I betcha they could've found exactly what they were looking for which was a Knick win along with a dominant Amar'e performance..Well that's not what you saw with this game...Instead, what we got was a Knick win coupled with a real lackluster performance by our new star. Amar'e was definitely not at his best in this game, that's for sure. Not the game I would've showed the fanbase to get everyone enthused about the biggest acquisition this summer. LOL..Anyone else catch this just now?? Very strange..
7/16/2010 10:48 AM
. When you have friction while winning 60 games it stands to get worse winning 41. And expectations are high for Amare so he (and his contract) will be a focal point of our discontent if we fail expectations.