By Ian Begley

Make no mistake, the Knicks are going to do whatever they can over the final 20 games of the season to avoid facing Chicago and Miami in the playoffs.

But if they do end up in the bottom of the playoff picture and are forced to face the Bulls or Heat, Doug Collins believes the higher seed won't necessarily be happy.

"When you start looking at it, the cream of the crop is Miami and Chicago and I guarantee you Miami and Chicago sure doesn’t want to see the New York Knicks at 7 or 8, I can tell you that," the Sixers coach said before tip-off of the Knicks-Sixers game on Wednesday.

Entering play Wednesday, the Knicks had won four straight and were a half-game ahead of Milwaukee for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. They were four games behind Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic Division and four games back of Atlanta for sixth place in the division.

"There are teams out there saying, I don’t want to play that team," Collins said of the Knicks. "They’re loaded. You look at their frontlline, you’ve got shot blocking in Tyson Chandler, and you’ve got Amare (Stoudemire) and Carmelo (Anthony), and you’ve got Jeremy Lin now playing, and you’ve got guys coming off the bench."

The Sixers blew the Knicks out at Madison Square Garden on March 11. New York trailed by as many as 21 points in the second half of Philly's 106-94 loss. Afterward, then-head coach Mike D'Antoni said that his team didn't have the heart to comeback against Philadelphia.

According Collins, plenty has changed for the Knicks since that Sunday afternoon in Madison Square Garden.

"What I’m seeing is more energy, more tenacity," Collins said before Wednesday's game. "I'm seeing guys up the floor defending, I'm seeing trapping at half court."

Indeed, the Knicks have relied on defense to win each of their four games since Mike Woodson took over as interim head coach. They held opponents to 39 percent shooting in Woodson's first three games on the bench and out rebounded Toronto, 16-4, on the offensive glass in Tuesday's win.

"Woody's teams always played good defense in Atlanta, they always did. So I would expect for him to put those kind of demands on them," Collins said. "When they defend, they can score, there’s no question about that."

Nalod wrote:If this team has any real aspirations Melo must be the star we paid for.

This team has the role players but he must shoot closer to 50% and be "The Guy".

The rest can fall into place.

"Accountability" starts with the stars. Amare is bringing it. Melo is trying and its not a lack of effort. Crazy as it sounds he just might not be 100% or has never gotten into proper shape this year.

i worry that wrist never really healed for melo...

Bonn1997 wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

Nalod wrote:If this team has any real aspirations Melo must be the star we paid for.

This team has the role players but he must shoot closer to 50% and be "The Guy".

The rest can fall into place.

"Accountability" starts with the stars. Amare is bringing it. Melo is trying and its not a lack of effort. Crazy as it sounds he just might not be 100% or has never gotten into proper shape this year.

i worry that wrist never really healed for melo...

He also had elbow (and knee) surgery. I don't know his actual workout regimen but he's aging like you'd expect a lazy guy who doesn't take good care of his body in the off-season to age.

I agree, Melo needs to change and improve his conditioning from now on if we really want to compete and challenge the top teams in the near future.

Bonn1997 wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

Nalod wrote:If this team has any real aspirations Melo must be the star we paid for.

This team has the role players but he must shoot closer to 50% and be "The Guy".

The rest can fall into place.

"Accountability" starts with the stars. Amare is bringing it. Melo is trying and its not a lack of effort. Crazy as it sounds he just might not be 100% or has never gotten into proper shape this year.

i worry that wrist never really healed for melo...

He also had elbow (and knee) surgery. I don't know his actual workout regimen but he's aging like you'd expect a lazy guy who doesn't take good care of his body in the off-season to age.

Forgot about the elbow surgery....Melo was on fire pre-writs injury, had 30 pts in 3 straight I believe. I think it s mix of the wrist and confidence. He's been hesitating a lot before he shoots. Also, he's not been getting into a rhythm.

Those 2 teams are scary good and we still need time. It took a lot of effort to beat philly last night. I'm glad we did, but Miami just destroys them each time they play. If I had to choose which team I would face to get the the finals, I would choose the Bulls.
They are good, but I think we match up well with them. They are essentially philly, with Derrick Rose...
The Heat with their big three and other parts clicking are just nothing to be messed with.
Not saying we wouldn't hold our own, I just think we need to win a few more games against +.500 teams for me to be convinced that we are trending in the right direction. So far we have beat toronto, a pacer team on the down swing, a good philly team thats coming back down to reality.

We'll definitely know where we stand by the time the season ends.
bulls twice, boston, miami, orlando, bucks,atlanta
all playoff teams.

it's like a boot camp, in many ways if nyk can start clicking, they may be able to ride that through the playoffs. chemistry is king, and its clicking right now. staying healthy will be the big test...