“I think as a whole, sometimes what we do is, we kind of get complacent and get relaxed. I think when we get relaxed we allow teams to stay in games and a lot of our games end up close when they really shouldn’t be. I think, not tooting our own horn, but I think we’re a lot better than a lot of teams that we play,... [But] once the game is close at the end, anything can happen."

- Raymond Felton, ESPN New York 98.7 FM’s “The Michael Kay Show” on Thursday.

Veteran teams pick their spots. Like an older jazz musician who picks his spots to hit the high note, they understand the season is a marathon.

“I think once we understand that and we just jump on teams from the beginning all the way to the end and put the game away, I think we’ll be fine.”

This entire thing is about being about prime position when the real season starts.

The Playoffs

Hopefully Chandler and Ray show the effort they did the other night consistently. I think when those two in particular do it's contagious.

JamesKPolk wrote:This team hasn't earned the right to "turn it on whenever they want". The Knicks have been a joke for over a decade. We have barely accomplished anything so far this season. This isn't the type of attitude we should have. We didn't just win a title. We haven't proven anything yet and this ****y "we're better than them so we'll win by just showing up" attitude is one we should be criticizing, not praising.

100% correct and let me add that until they have established an identity and firmed up the rotation they cannot afford to coast. the knicks need to demonstrate hunger like the bulls do.

holfresh wrote:A bit kocky of Felton if u ask me...The knicks haven't really played a stretch of basketball where we can have an attitude like this..We have yet to establish a way to win games constantly outside of riding Melo..This team has lots of work to do before thinking they have it figured out...Bad judgement by Felton making comments like this..

To be fair, we did have a stretch like this. The first 6 weeks of the season when we were 20-8. Still doesn't give them the right to be proud of themselves come Feb. 1. This good record won't matter if we're out in the first or second round. They need to play hungry every night.

MSG3 wrote:

holfresh wrote:A bit kocky of Felton if u ask me...The knicks haven't really played a stretch of basketball where we can have an attitude like this..We have yet to establish a way to win games constantly outside of riding Melo..This team has lots of work to do before thinking they have it figured out...Bad judgement by Felton making comments like this..

To be fair, we did have a stretch like this. The first 6 weeks of the season when we were 20-8. Still doesn't give them the right to be proud of themselves come Feb. 1. This good record won't matter if we're out in the first or second round. They need to play hungry every night.

U really can't look at what we did as a team as without Amare and Shrump accomplishing anything...I don't think we can compete against the best teams in this league without those two players on their games...Yes we has a nice stretch, but it's nothing to hang your hats on...We still struggled against teams that played a physical brand of ball against us...We still has lots of work to do and the Knicks early play is just a precursor to what could be...

fishmike wrote:the problem is this isnt close to a #1 team. The East is terrible.. if we were in the west we would be 5th or 6th, totally middle of the road. The Heat have struggled. Im glad Knicks are #2 and we have a weak schedule and a nice chance to flex some muscles and rip off a nice win streak here.

Yeah but we're not in the West. At the end of the day we take care of the East come playoff time and only have to beat one team from the West. We just need to take care business right now and put our feet to throats come the 2nd half of the season.

Championship caliber teams beat who they are supposed to beat. There is no reason we can't run off W after W until our showdown with the Clip Joint.

jrodmc wrote:"We"

Tyson Chandler - Has chip, will travel.
JKidd - see above
Rasheed - Can't remember the chip, but know's it's back there

A team with a combined 126 years of NBA experience. And here we all are on fan forum telling professionals what they have and haven't earned.

UK. Where amazing happens.

Hardly, its about what this team has earned which in the last 10 years is one playoff win. Its not about individual players, its about the team they represent and this team hasn't represented since the 90s. Felton is talking like he's on a team that's done something lately, or even in the last decade.