NBA: Conf Finals & Building Dynasties

 To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.

Before I begin, I wanted to thank Jon for a comment and a link.  The ESPN article reinforces what I had discussed in the last post about Kobe's woeful crunchtime performance, along with a stat that players whose strength is iso's (Hi Melo), should consider passing out of them more often.  "Hero Ball" is the title of the article, a term that I instantly hated when I first heard it.  I hope it fades away soon, along with the terms "monetize" and "swagger".  I believe basketball to be a team game with all my heart, but I also am not oblivious to the irony that I first fell in love with basketball because of the hero ball tendencies of Michael Jordan. 



It is set.  All the big 3's were triumphant in their series.  Some showing dominance, while others displayed their flaws.  Spurs vs OKC, Miami vs Boston.  Even if I did not predict these matchups, this is exactly what I wanted to see.  Old guard vs new guard is the theme of these conference finals.  On one side are the teams that have won and had many predicting their exit many moons ago.  On the other are the teams that will usher in the new age of the NBA.  They consist of future MVPs and possible championships.  These will be epic battles that I will be TiVo-ing.

SAS vs OKC

8-0 and 8-1 in the playoffs.  No two teams have displayed their dominance more than the Spurs and the Thunder in the playoffs.  They have been so good, that many have predicted the team that wins this series will be the team to hold the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of the year.  This will be a battle of epic proportions.  Kevin Durant will once again come through in the final minutes at least once or maybe twice.  Popovich is going to show us his master plan.  His genius will come through with methodical precision.  Once again, the Spurs will be the "boring" team because they will have the legs under them to execute to perfection.  Tim Duncan's 18 points and 7 rebound playoff average will somehow become more important than the combined 51 points a game by Durant and Westbrook.  Buckle your seats, we are in for a fun ride.  SAS in 6.

MIA vs BOS

This series, on the other hand, will not be an offensive explosion and will actually be the more boring of the two conference finals.  That is, if you do not appreciate great defense.  There will be no more than 1 game where a team will score over 100 points.  Rondo is going to have a field day, finishing with at least two triple doubles, only to be matched by LeBron's.  I like where the Heat are headed.  The Indiana series showed that Wade was The Man and LeBron was the great facilitator.  And that is the way it should have been.  There should never have been a discrepancy between who should lead the team.  Wade was always the heart of the team, and the team should be on his shoulders.  One could argue that LeBron is the better player, but I will always cling to one hard and fast rule:  the team should always follow the player who was the leader on a championship team.  As long as Miami remembers this, they will win the battle, just like when Zeus and the Olympians put away the Titans.  Miami in 6.

Building a Championship Team

All this talk of championships has made me think of whether or not the Knicks will have a chance to win one in its current incarnation.  To understand this, I took a look at all the championship teams in the post-Jordan era.  There have been 13 championships since then, with 6 teams claiming the titles, and only 2 multi-year winners.

I charted the teams and did a quick analysis on where I thought they stand now.  To me, a winning attitude begins with the top.  The owner must be all in and ready to do what it takes to win.  The management and coach must understand the ownership's message and come up with a solid plan.  The players they pick and sign onto the team must buy in and execute the plan.

This chart shows every championship won in the last thirteen years.  Each logo stands for a championship.  For example, San Antonio has 4 championships, thus 4 logos.  Additionally, if they have an MVP on their team, it is represented by the Maurice Podoloff trophy.  The higher the logo, the stronger the commitment from the owner, and the farther to the right, the better the plan by management and coach to achieve the vision of winning a championship. This chart is where each team stands now.
Detroit has largely fallen off the rails.  At one time Joe Dumars was commended for having built a team with no superstars that could compete and win a championship.  However, ownership has changed hands recently and management has been unable to replicate the success they had earlier.

The Boston Celtics are owned by a group and the Miami Heat are owned by Micky Arison.  Neither ownership had much I could find in terms of vision.  A search for Micky only yielded his net worth.  These two teams are largely dominated by Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers for the Celtics and Pat Riley for the Heat.  Both of these teams have a strong management with a dream for a team, but without full interest from the owners, there is only so far these teams can go.

The Dallas Mavericks seem to be a great team on paper.  An owner with full buy in, a coach with great experience, and an MVP on their roster.  Although I do admire Mark Cuban, I think he tends to overthink his decisions.  It is great how he turned the franchise around and built a championship, but I cannot place him any higher than the middle when he let Steve Nash walk and gave away their title defense on the hopes of getting either Deron Williams or Dwight Howard.  They are great players, but I value team chemistry more than any other strength, and team chemistry was what won the Mavs their championship last year.

The Lakers and Spurs are world class organizations on the opposite ends of the spectrum.  The Lakers have won ten ownerships under Jerry Buss, their current owner.  He has employed a who's who of coaches, and I believe with Mike Brown's plan and Kobe's determination, they are still on the right path.  The Spurs are also a great organization, but their focus is on the community.  Peter Holt has laid the groundwork for great achievement and this is executed at every level of the organization.  With what he has built, he is knocking on the door of attaining his fifth championship in a 14 year time span with the same management and MVP.  A mark that has never been achieved in the modern era of the NBA.

We have come full circle with the Knicks.  Jim Dolan, the owner, has not shown that he can stay away from meddling with the team.  Instead of a vision, he has unleashed a whirlwind of chaos.  Isiah Thomas was terrible and had a myriad of issues.  Yet Dolan still trusts him, and was one of the reasons why Donnie Walsh left after what appeared to be a successful rebuilding phase after only one year.  I am uncertain about Glen Grunwald, the current general manager and Mike Woodson, the current coach.  I have written numerous times that I think Carmelo Anthony can win the MVP next year if he can focus.  If he finds this determination, then the Knicks may have a chance to win one sometime in the next few years.  However, given their current makeup, one is all they will have in them.  They are not built for a dynasty.  But even one championship would be a wondrous thing.

NBA: Offseason Workouts

To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.  

Let us take a quick look at this past week.  I did not get much sleep and fell asleep while watching a few games but got a good sense of how everything is playing out.

A quick rundown of where I am at in my predictions:

San Antonio defeats LA Clippers 4-0, my prediction was SAS in 5
San Antonio is on an amazing 8 game run with Tim Duncan averaging 17.6 points a game and 9 rebounds with a 54% field goal percentage.  I cannot believe he is 36 years old.  I am turning 35 this year and I know I am not a professional athlete, but I can certainly feel the years.  I cannot imagine what his body must be like, especially playing at the power forward position all these years.  More on Tim Duncan later, but I was astounded to find out that he lost 20 pounds this past offseason so that he could be lighter and not put so much weight on his bad knees.  San Antonio played a great series and became fun to watch.  I understand the prevailing thought that San Antonio is a boring team, and I was even one of those people in the past, but they are playing superb basketball that anyone should be able to appreciate.  They are so good that I expected the 24 point comeback.

OKC leads LA Lakers 3-1, mine was LAL in 6
This series is a lot closer than the 3-1 score.  It could easily be 2-2 or even 3-1 in the Lakers favor.  However, Durant is playing out of his mind.  For someone who is considered a jump shooter, he is shooting over 50% in this series, as well as providing clutch baskets down the stretch.  The crown for my favorite current NBA player is still up in the air, but he may be taking at season end.  I am sure he is happy to hear that.  But I really expected Lakers to close out games better, given their experience and that they have Kobe.  A stat that I saw during one game that I never would have thought was that in clutch situations, Michael Jordan was 50%+ in field goal percentage, LeBron is high 30%, and Kobe is a measly 25%.  Durant in this playoffs, is somewhere in the 60% range...that is purely going from what I have seen and feel.

MIA tied with IND 2-2, mine was MIA in 6
As expected, this is a battle.  I thought Miami would give two away by a few points because of a lapse in Miami's scoring, but Indiana has proven to be the real deal.  They are a complete team that plays defense, rebounds and refuses to back down.  They lack any form of star power that I bet a casual fan would not have been able to tell you a definitive starter on this team when this season started.  With a little experience, I could see them being like the Detroit Pistons that won championships earlier this decade.  I look forward to all of these upcoming games.

BOS tied with PHI 2-2, mine was PHI in 7
I am most torn about this series.  I live in Boston now and I adopted this team during the Knicks era that shall not be named.  However, I have grown to appreciate Doug Collins.  He was always a good commentator and is a great coach.  This has been a well played game on both sides, except for the 18 point meltdown the Celtics had in game 4.  What is going on with all these teams surrendering huge leads anyway?  I am considering this as a post later if I can find all the data necessary.  I think either of these teams deserve to advance.  They are playing well and will pose an interesting matchup with Miami even though it will not be as good as the current Miami-Indiana series.

OFFSEASON WORKOUTS
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell examines education and tries to figure out why students in lower income areas are at such a disadvantage and have such a low rate of graduation compared to those with more money.  What he found out was that it was not race, religion or quality of teachers.  He found those students were just as smart and learned just as fast.  The differentiator was how they spent their summers.  Lower income children did not go to camps or have group activities, they simply sat around, and as the new school year rolled around, they had lost more of what they learned then their stimulated peers.

This made me think about the correlation between how hard an athlete worked in the offseason and their greatness.  Again, I was surprised to hear that Tim Duncan had shed 20 pounds in order to manage the season better.  I have tried losing 10-15 pounds but it never took, so I tried to find his offseason workout routine.  Besides finding out that he used to roll tractor tires up a hill and that he postponed the start of his workout routine by a month because of the lockout, there was not much to find.  Still, the fact that he gave so much thought into when he should start working out and how much weight he should lose in order to handle the trials of a compacted season was interesting.  If he managed all his offseason workouts like this, it is no wonder that he will be in the discussion of greatest power forward ever.

Other offseason routines I found that were worth mentioning are Blake Griffin and Kobe Bryant.  What I found interesting was that Blake found "a mysterious trainer that is both radical and extreme in his approach towards fitness", and part of his training was carrying a 60 pound sandbag up a hill.  My conclusion is that he found a fitness instructor and not a basketball coach, or his game would have developed a little better than where it is now.  He is the new human highlight reel, but anyone that shoots barely 50% from the free throw line is definitely not working hard enough on the basketball end.  Kobe, on the other hand, has a sick workout.  He works out six hours a day for six days a week, running in a variety of ways for two hours and then shoots 700-1000 shots per day.  It's no wonder he will be one of the greatest.

Finally, this would not be a Knicks blog if I did not mention them at least once.  I did look up Carmelo Anthony's workout routine and ended up on this site.  It did not seem like he had much of a workout besides medicine balls and jumping exercises.  I could not find anything that would contradict anyone calling him Flab Melo.  Still, I am holding out hope that he refocuses this offseason and realizes what he has to do to bring the Knicks into championship contention.  He is currently my favorite for pre-2012-2013 season MVP.  I think this is it for him.  His window is closing to become truly great.  Would you not be incorporating Kobe's schedule if you were in his shoes?  I do not understand what these players are thinking.  You only have 8 years or so for your prime, would you not work out to be the best you could be?

NBA: 2nd Round (late) Preview and Predictions

To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.  

Now that the first round is over and the Knicks are out of the playoffs, I can concentrate on making (mostly) unbiased predictions for the road to the NBA Finals.  The matchups are:

MIA vs IND, MIA currently leads 1-0
BOS vs PHI, BOS currently leads 1-0
SAS vs LAC
OKC vs LAL

The Eastern Conference games are not really interesting, but have the potential to be dramatic.  Two "Big 3" teams versus two fundamental, no superstar teams.  Miami, which is really a big two and Chris Bosh, will prove once and for all that including Chris Bosh was really a mistake.  Sure it looked great and made us all hate Miami more, but if Pat Riley had really thought about it and had to do it all over again, he probably would have signed LeBron and saved the rest of the money for defense and role players.  Think about how dangerous they would be if they had enough money to sign a competent veteran point guard and at least one other defense stalwart at one of the other positions for what they paid Bosh.  I have no clue who was an available mid level free agent point guard at the time, but it would have been great if they could have gotten an Andre Miller lobber type or a Chauncey Billups leadership type.  Then they could have just concentrated on defense and looked for a nice role player.  Alright, Andre Miller makes $7.8M and Chauncey $10.7, but that would have left some cap space compared to Bosh's $14.5M.  If they do not win this year, I see some kind of Bosh deal happening, especially with the new collective bargaining agreement.

Miami will win this series in 6 games.  Chris Bosh is hurt but they will not miss him unless the Indiana bigs start taking over.  Indiana is a good team and deserved the 3rd seed, but they play largely the same style as Miami without the superstars.  They put up a good fight in the first game for three quarters, but could not keep it up.  I suspect that will be the story for a large part of the series and they will squeak by with two games, getting a lucky break here and there.  Not entirely interested in this series.  Miami in 6.

The Boston/Philadelphia series is also not that interesting to me.  I have always liked the current incarnation of the Celtics, but they are playing hurt and very old.  This is the series with the potential for an upset.    I would much rather see a Boston/Miami Eastern Conference Finals, but they may not get that far.  Philadelphia just needs that one win to gain some confidence and Doug Collins seems to be very capable in keeping them focused and closing out the series.  (Disclaimer:  I am currently watching game 2 of this series and have changed the next sentence at least four times) Philly in 7.

Now for the good stuff.  I would never have envisioned saying this three years ago, or even last year, but I am looking forward to San Antonio playing the Clippers and OKC playing the Lakers.  I would also never have guessed that I would be happy to see San Antonio play well and picked them to win it all.  From the limited time I have seen them play, it seems like they are the most sound team in the NBA.  With that said, San Antonio will roll through the Clippers.  This is a 5 game series at most.  I love Chris Paul and think he is amazing, but his supporting cast lack too much and when he is off the court the Clippers are atrocious.  Sadly, they will probably end up with two more injuries along the way.  I saw some crazy stat like Blake Griffin had 38 field goals in the paint and none outside.  That is incredible and no way the Spurs allow anything remotely like that. San Antonio in 5.

The OKC/Lakers matchup is peculiar.  I know OKC is the higher seed, but are they really the better team?  About a month ago, when Durant's name was in the MVP talks, I may have thought OKC would run away with it, but it still the Lakers.  Pau Gasol may have finally come out of his funk and Kobe will always be Kobe, so the Lakers are a dangerous team.  We also cannot forget The Elbow.  And if I were a Thunder, like Ibaka or Perkins, would I take a flagrant 2 if I saw Metta taking a soft layup?  I am not a vindictive person, but I would consider it and would not be surprised if that happened.  That could potentially give the Lakers a game and thus, the series.  So tough call with this one.  I think the Lakers lose this series if Kobe becomes option 1, 2 and 3, while Gasol and Bynum fight for the rest of the touches.  However, if they play a solid inside out game, they probably beat OKC.  Lakers in 6.

I am excited for the second round.  The first round was largely predictable and somewhat boring, probably because the Eastern Conference talent is few and not that intriguing right now.  The second round, however, has a few interesting matchups.  Old school versus new school, teams versus superstars.  I think some of the series may go shorter than I predicted, but the games themselves will be a lot more fun.  This should be great.

New York Knicks: It's All Over

To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.  

As the Knicks wrapped up their series, losing 4-1 to the Miami Heat, I learned three things about myself this season.

First, despite what I say, I cannot be impartial with teams that I have liked in my past.  The Knicks are one of those teams and I went through all the highs and lows of the season with them.  I enjoyed the team when they were at the peak of Linsanity and felt terrible when we all knew D'Antoni was on his way out.  It was fun watching a team I used to like do well again, even if they were a quick out from the playoffs.  Now if only the Mets could advance to the World Series, I would probably lift my three year ban.

Second, being an analyst is really hard.  Not that I would ever call myslf a basketball analyst, but putting your picks out there can be a tough proposition.  Unless you are the second coming of Nostradamus, you are most likely going to be wrong a good percentage of the time.  So the real trick is fooling the reader into ignoring your previous incorrect prediction with some kind of statistic or a few witty comments.  Did you know the Knicks set the consecutive playoff losses record at 13 games, dating back to 2001?  Also, Carmelo Anthony now has a career playoff record of 16-36.  That is a .308 win percentage, making him the worst out of any player with at least 50 games played.  I certainly hope that there will be more wins next year, and less marks of futility.

Lastly, it is a good time to be a Knicks fan.  I am actually looking forward to next year.  There are a few things the Knicks need to work on.  Free throws is one area.  They were 22nd in the league this year, which is kind of amazing considering they seem like they should be a good shooting team.  In addition, they need to work on closing out the first half and coming out strong in the 3rd quarter.  For a fan, this was the most agonizing part of watching them this season.  This was usually the time when teams would come back and even the score or pull away if they were already leading, as Miami did in all four games they won in this series.  I think these are motivational and focus issues which can be fixed.  I will discuss the returning players in a later post, but it seems like they will have a decent roster.  Let us hope management can fill some key holes.

BACK TO THE NBA:

Despite the Knicks being bounced out of the playoffs, I am excited to see the rest of it and see who will come out on top.  However, the first round has not been as exciting as I had anticipated.  Besides the Memphis-Clippers match up, there has not been that many battles.  One odd thing I noticed is that no series went 2-2.  There were two sweeps from OKC and the Spurs, Miami and Indiana won 4-1, and all the losing teams in had to win the last game to make the series 3-2.  We could potentially not have any game 7s in the first round of the playoffs this year.  I wonder if that has ever happened before.  One thing that always amazes me is the amount of weird stats that you will be shown throughout any game you watch.  I hope that if it does end up that there no game 7s this first round, a statistic comes up to tell me if this is the first time that has happened or the last time it happened.  I supposed it is not that hard to find it if I muster some initiative.  We only started having best of 7 series in the first round in 2003.  Whether or not there is a first round game 7, the rest of the playoffs should be more interesting and I expect it to be more intense.

New York Knicks: An Open Letter to Carmelo Anthony

To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.  

Dear Carmelo,

I recently watched game 4 of the first round series between your New York Knicks and the Miami Heat.  The  Knicks won in a tightly contested match and you played a superb game.  Not only because you scored 41 points with 6 rebounds and 4 assists, but you were also the catalyst whenever the Knicks were down, taunting LeBron on defense and making all of the hustle plays.  There is something to be said about a star who ends up on the floor chasing after loose balls at least three times in a game.  We were amazed by your shot selection and your cuts to the basket.  You took 14 free throws, making 10.  On top of all this, you played with a smile on your face.  Like the Knicks and the rest of the New York fans, you knew you had nothing to lose at this point.  You forgot that you were down 3-0 and decided to play hard and have fun.

I want to stay on this last point for a little bit.  Fun is the reason we watch this sport and played it when we were young.  The up tempo style coupled with having four brothers battle with you on the court.  That is what we love about this game and is what we want to see when we turn on the TV or pay for tickets and go to MSG.  When my buddy Beau and I were discussing this season, we mentioned the word "fun" at least three times in a two minute conversation.  You have to understand.  When you were hurt and the Knicks amassed a seven game winning streak with Lin at the helm, it was fun.  You could see it on the faces of the players and everyone that attended the games.  There was a sense that it was going to be a good time each and every time.  As your timetable to return got shorter and shorter, there were a lot of people saying that the Knicks did not need you and that it was better if you stayed away.  Of course this was not true.  We all forgot that the seven game streak included teams that were well under .500.  Deep down we all know that you are arguably the number one offensive option in all of the NBA and the Knicks are lucky to have you.  We were just scared that you were going to ruin the fun.

Looking back at this past season and a half, we all realized that there was many flaws to this team.  You came midway through last season and the lockout shortened season of this season did not allow the team to develop any cohesion.  A lot of pressure was thrust upon you because the team traded away a large part of their team for you and New York was hungry for a championship.  However, partnerships and teamwork can not be manufactured, they have to developed through hard work and mutual compromise.  It was hard for you and Amar'e to play together.  It was even harder for D'Antoni to understand how all the pieces fit in such a short time.  The one glimpse of fun we had during the winning streak was quickly diminshed when the harder schedule exposed all the flaws of the currently constructed team.  However, after D'Antoni left, fun seemed to be on the menu again.

As the Knicks battled for the last playoff spot, you lead them to an 18-6 record, the best in the league in that span.  You earned player of the month honors for the month of April.  In my eyes, you have a solid chance of becoming the Most Valuable Player next year.  I do not think you have ever entered the MVP conversation in my memory, but I believe that you can.  This is not because of your offensive firepower, but you have emerged as a leader, and this is what we are looking forward to.  We are waiting to see you make the transcendence into the player that we all believe you can be.
The Knicks have a slim chance of winning this series.  In fact, you will most likely lose in game 5.  I do not believe that LeBron and Wade will allow this series to stretch out any further.  Nor do I think that the referees will call an even game.  This will be a frustrating game for New York players and fans alike.  However, you have shown that you can lead this team.  Despite the injuries to Lin, Shumpert, and Baron Davis, and with Amar'e and Jeffries playing hurt, the team played with a lot of heart on Sunday and gutted out a game that could have easily been lost.  It gave us an indication of what we could hope for next year.  Now that was fun.

Sincerely,
A Knicks Fan

New York Knicks: Spurs and LeBron's Mouthguard

To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.  

Before I delve into the Knicks and their impending quick out, there are two subjects I would like to address.

SPURS.

My opinion is the same as everyone else's when thinking about the San Antonio Spurs and it is a feeling of indifference.  However, I decided to change this way of thinking.  With Poppovich's Coach of the Year award and the Spurs claim of the first seed in the Western Conference, I decided it was time to find out if I could like them and sucked it up to watch game 2 of the first round series between the Spurs and the Jazz.  I am amazed that I do not read about the Spurs more.  This team can play almost any style, is arguably one of the best dynasties in NBA history, and has one of the most outstanding NBA citizens in Tim Duncan.  But we do not talk about them.  Instead we discuss all the other "Big Threes" in the league.  The Heat, the Knicks, the Thunder and the Celtics all garner more headlines than the Spurs, who have quietly become the best team in the Western Conference and, in my eyes, the frontrunners to winning their fifth NBA championship in 13 years.  How is it anyway that the Spurs have won championships so many years apart?  1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007.  I had to look that up.  I thought they had won three championships.  Even with their championships, they are humble and assuming.  It is like they thought it was too obnoxious to win four championships in five years and decided to space it out so they could fly under the radar.  This year is different though.  With Poppovich winning the award and seemingly have the whole 82 game season planned out (66 regular seasons and 16 wins for a championship), they are finally entering the conversation.

One quick tangent about Poppovich.  I expect him to release a journal after he retires and the one page about the 2011-2012 NBA season is some crazy complicated decision tree that mapped out every possible scenario, showing the highest probability for the Spurs to win a championship.  In it, I fully expect him to have an 11 game winning streak planned so that he can sit his big three with the greater picture in mind.  In a season where the back breaking schedule caused injuries to be too frequent, can we not praise the genius of Poppovich to sit his best players and groom everyone else in order to hold them accountable to win a game on their own?

Back to my main point, I am now putting them as my top contender for the NBA title this year.  This may be due to the fact that I am typing this after having two martinis, or I just watched them destroy the "just happy to be here" Utah Jazz.  We all know the Heat are making the finals.  But we all still question their resolve to win the big one.  Front what I have seen, their big three is better than any currently out there.  They will beat any pretenders to the big three crown, whether it be the Knicks or the Celtics (even though they pretty much invented the term), as well as any big three teams that come out of the west, including the Lakers or the Thnder.  However, I suspect they will have more trouble with teams such as the Pacers or the 76ers, who play a more team oriented game.  They will still beat these two teams, but these series will expose them. Their weakness is that they still play 3 on 5.  No matter what we hope from their supporting cast, the Miami Heat bench and the other two that start the game, are still the same as last year.  Inconsistent, thus unreliable.  Because of this, any team that functions with a hive mind will push the Heat to the limit.  The Spurs are the ultimate in terms of being a team.  Sure their big three would never beat the Heat in a pickup game, but they can adapt to any style of play, something that the Heat could never achieve given their current makeup.  If the Spurs meet the Heat in the finals, I suspect many people will be disappointed with the boring team beating the exciting team.  However, it reinforces what the NBA is all about.  It is not like the Superbowl, where anything can happen, or the World Series where chance plays a bigger factor than anything else.  The winner of the NBA finals is usually the best TEAM.  That is what the Spurs are.  They are a TEAM that is prepared and hungry for a championship.  After all, it has been 5 years since their last one.  They are due.

LEBRON'S MOUTHGUARD.

In case you missed it, LeBron had a mouthguard made with the the roman numerals, XVI on it.  This signifies the number of games a team needs to win in order to win the NBA title.  I found it amusing that a commentator suggested that LeBron was more focused this year because he had that made and it was the reason why they are the favorites to win.  I am paraphrasing, but my wife said that if LeBron were truly that focused, he would have had sixteen mouthguards made, from XVI to I, signifying the number of games he had left for a championship.  I think that sums up LeBron's career thus far.  He will never win with the general populace until he truly WINS, and it seems that he does the things people expect him to do.  From only showing up in body to the fourth quarters early in his career, to the decision and the "not one, not two..." quote and now the mouthguard.  LeBron never creates his own path.  He only has a surface commitment.  He is the ultimate "just happy to be in this league" player.  This is coming from a reformed LeBron hater who is trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I truly hope that he does win one eventually.  I just do not think it will happen this year because of the aforementioned Spurs.

FINALLY.  THE KNICKS.

There is not much to say about game 3 between the Heat and the Knicks.  They lost as expected, despite teasing all of us for the first half.  My respect for Carmelo is continually growing though.  I have always liked him, but his effort in the last two months is truly commendable.  Despite being overmatched by LeBron and company, his play indicated that he did not want to lose this game.  I hope the Knicks faithful take that into account during Melo's next slump or when Jeremy Lin is playing well.  I also hope that the Knicks address their third quarter issues.  On a night where Tyson Chandler receives his Defensive Player of the Year award, and the first half was a battle of defenses, the Knicks still collapsed.  LeBron got his fifth foul early in the third quarter, but the Knicks still could not capitalize and gave the lead away.  LeBron came out with a vengeance in the fourth quarter, destroying the Knicks, and putting the game away.

I also do not understand why we are entertaining the return of Amar'e and Jeremy Lin.  Why force things when the series has clearly slipped away?  I say give the players who are hurt the directive to completely heal and work on the weaknesses of their respective games in the offseason.  Forget about coming back too quickly and set their sights on owning the 2012-2013 season.  Why would the Knicks management not acknowledge this now?  They have a solid team that can compete next year.  Supposing that they can bring back a solid core, and if they can address mental issues such as having a team mentality and not giving games away in third quarters, the Knicks would be early title contenders on everyone's list.  I say strive to get everyone healed both in body and mind.  That is the only way the currently constructed Knicks can compete.

New York Knicks: vs Lebron Drago

To read more thoughts from Jason on the Knicks, continue to check here or on his site, http://www.malajas.com/knicks.  

Funny how things work.  I was on my way to work today and thought about how best to describe the current match between the Knicks and Miami.  How they are clearly overmatched and no one is predicting them to win.  Of course, I settled on the Rocky IV, one of the best movies that exemplifies the underdog versus a force of nature. The force of nature in question is Ivan Drago, an unmatched specimen in power and speed.  The natural comparison is to LeBron James, who could arguably be the best player in the NBA if he just took that next step.  I was hoping this series would play out like the movie.  The Knicks clearly getting beat in game 1 and game 2, then with a hint of desperation, throws a punch that cuts the large Soviet.  They then battle it out for the rest of the series, culminating in a knockout blow for the underdog in the final round.  I found it amusing that doing a quick search for "LeBron Drago" on Google yielded this site.  The writer was talking about LeBron and the Cavs versus the Celtics in the 2010 playoffs.  But I digress.  I went into work this morning and what was the first article that I found on ESPN.com but that Amare had punched a glass fire extinguisher case and is out for game 3, possibly for the rest of the series.  The Knicks had punched themselves in their own glass jaw, effectively knocking themselves out this year.

The game itself was a great example of how good the Heat can be.  They seemed like they were in cruise control, keeping the Knicks at arm's length the whole game.  I knew it was over when I knew every shot Miami took would go in, but I hoped the Knicks shots would.  The Knicks kept it close after the first quarter and were down by three, then doubled it to six at the end of the half.  Once again, the Knicks lost the game in the third quarter where they went almost eight minutes without scoring a field goal.  I never understood that about this team.  The one constant from this team this season is that they are always so flat in the third quarter, usually letting a team catch them if leading, pull away if behind.  They did it under D'Antoni and now with Woodson as well.  I hope this is addressed for game 3.  I would hate to see them head into the locker room with a ten point lead, only to give it away in the third quarter.

PREDICTION:
I still think the Knicks win this one.  I thought game 2 could possibly be the "get out the way, I am going to score at least 40 points tonight" statement game from Carmelo, but it will definitely be game 3.  With no Stoudemire, the Madison Square Garden crowd will demand it of Melo and he better deliver.

Knicks 106, Miami 100.

We will see how they perform and if the rest of the Knicks gain some momentum and help Melo carry the burden for the rest of the series.  Otherwise, this will not be Rocky IV, but Rocky III.  Where an immature Rocky is unprepared for the first fight and loses quickly in the first fight.  He then refocuses, and at the end of the movie, takes every punch Clubber Lang can muster and knocks him out in the end.  This may be the story of the Knicks this season.  They are just too immature and unprepared, and have to wait until next time to prove they are champions.