The Knicks looked freakin awful today. They came out slow and unemotional and never looked back. The Knicks shot contested shot after contested shot while Indiana was wide open for half their shots. They showed today what all Knicks fans know, when this team’s shot is off they can’t do anything to make up for it on the other end of the court.

• While Danny Granger sat tonight, Tyler “Kareem” Hansbrough dominated.
• Roy “Bill Russell” Hibbert turned Amare into his bitch as he basically shut him down on the inside.
• There were no positives on the Knicks side. Carmelo did not score his first points in the second half until 3:30 to go in the game. T.Douglas shot 1-12 including missing his first 9 from the field. As a team they shot 7-30 from 3 point land which means they should have stopped shooting 3 pointers at some point.
• Billups return reminded us that he is old and not our future at point guard.
• There were times when Jared Jeffries and Turiaf where on the floor at the same time. This should never happen. They are literally anti-offense. You can’t have two guys on the floor that are this bad at offense at the same time. Turiaf would get the ball, the defense would leave him completely alone and he refused to even shoot. Watching Jeffiries you wonder if he even hits his lay-ups during pre-game warm ups.
• It seemed like every time the Knicks went down the floor they had to work so hard for each basket. Every time they went inside they were contested. They needed to open the floor up with say mid-range jumpers. When the inside is not there Amare should start shooting jumpers because he is pretty good at that and why D’antoni doesn’t tell him this is a mystery.
• When the Knicks look so sluggish why not put a high energy guy like Derek Brown in or even see what Rautins can do.
• Chris Paul is not the answer for this team. They need a more balanced attack and probably a new coach. Strangling your ability to balance out the roster with another max contact makes no sense. Miami is doing it unsuccessfully and no one in their right mind would argue Carmelo, Amare +Deron or Paul is better than Lebron, Wade & Bosh.
• On a side note, The Celtics are better than the Bucks.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ak4pMsm4YtnPJUo.YNDoAJS8vLYF?slug=ap-knickstickets

Building on Jay’s post I would like to discuss the ways I would make the NBA better if I were Lord Overlord Master of the NBA (I believe that is the title on David Stern’s business card).  Besides making it so technical fouls are only called in extreme situations, I would do the following:

1. No more free throws! Free throws suck and they are boring. It would be like stopping baseball every five minutes for batting practice. Instead, we borrow from the NHL hockey penalty box. You get a foul and you sit for a 1 minute while your team plays shorthanded. How awesome would it be for there to be consistently 4 vs 5 or even 3 vs 5 situations.
2. Building on that, no more touch fouls or and 1’s. If you make the shot you were  not fouled. If you were touched but you should have made the shot then no penalty, deal with it.
3. Half Court shots are now worth 4 points. Just imagine how much more awesomely frustrating D’Antoni’s offense would be. Also, watching a team try to go for 4 point shots for the win would be where Amazing Happens. I am open to discussing 5 points for a shot from inside the arc of the other team.
4. The two teams with the worst record in the NBA will play a 7 game toilet bowl series at the end of the season. The winning team will get the #1 pick in the NBA draft. The losing team must compete next season in the NBA Developmental League, switching places with the D-League champion from the previous season. The only way a franchise gets back into the NBA is to win the title in the D-League. I would also be open to switching in a team from the Euro-league.
5. If you flop you get fined. Flopping sucks. It is ridiculous to watch. Every time the opposing player breathes on Derek Fisher and he goes crashing to the floor it is an insult to everyone who watches and plays the game. The NBA will review every flop that happens in a game and if it is determined to be a true flop they will be fined. For every three official flop fines you will be suspended for a game.
6. Donald Sterling is no longer the owner of the LA Clippers. The team will be auctioned off to the highest bidder with Sterling getting the fair market value for his team. Sterling will then no longer be allowed to attend a Clipper game. He is the worst owner in the NBA. He makes James Dolan look like a genius. He cannot be allowed to destroy Blake Griffin’s career and kill the last and best hope for Clipper fans.
7. Lebron James must be forced to only speak to the media through special prime-time broadcasts on ESPN.
8. Aerosmith’s song Cryin’ shall become the official theme song of the Miami Heat and will be played before all of their games until they win a title.
9. If your team is down by 40 points, the game ends. This will give teams something to gun for during blowouts.
10. The All-Star game is eliminated. It is a completely pointless and just boring affair to watch. The All-Star teams will still be named but the All-Star weekend will simply consists of a ton of fun to watch skills competitions. Further, the dunk contest will be expanded to include 15 players and everyone gets 2 dunks…AND everyone goes at the same time.

I know it seems like convenient timing for this post, coming the day after Amare received his 16th technical of the season, but if you’ve listened to the podcast I’ve been against the new rules on technical fouls since the beginning.  And for those of you who haven’t heard, Amare’s 16th technical got recinded so he won’t be suspended for the next game against the Pacers.

Basketball is an emotional sport.  I think it’s also a big part of why people enjoy going to games.  I don’t know about you but I love when players get really into the game, getting excited after making a big play, letting an opponent know when they have their number.  Can’t do much of either nowadays.  I don’t know what the NBA is trying to acheive here.  I’d much rather deal with some complaining than watch a bunch of free throws.  Nobody likes free throws.  It’s the equivalent of watching a pitcher and catcher disagree on a call 12 times in a row, or a time out before a field goal in football, or a hockey game.  People also go to the game to see the stars.  To have a star in perfect health not be able to play isn’t fair to anyone who paid a good amount for tickets to the game.  Side note – Dwight Howard sat out due to suspension for technicals and his team lost by four points.  There’s going to be some hard feelings if Orlando finishes the season one game behind Miami or Atlanta.

I’m not saying do away with technicals altogether, but the trend of giving out technicals for almost anything has to stop.  I watched the Dallas game.  Amare didn’t know why he got a T, I couldn’t tell why even after watching the replay 4 times, even the announcers, McHale and Harlan had no answers.  I’ve seen technicals given out for laughing (Hickson), staring (Villanueva), as well as little things like putting your palms up after a call (I’ve seen that about a dozen times).  As if this wasn’t ridiculous enough, the calls aren’t even consistant.  I’ve seen LeBron run alongside a ref yelling “are you kidding me?” over and over and not get a tech.

Respect for the game goes both ways.  Turning players into emotionless robots isn’t respect for the game either.  There’s a reason why everyone loved basketball so much  more in the 80’s.  Let the players play.

The Knicks did not look very good tonight. Dallas looked in control all night. They looked longer, stronger and just plain better. I guess I haven’t watched Dallas recently because I forgot how many weapons they have plus we just gave them Brewer for nothing. They are going to be a force in the playoffs as this may be their best team in the Dirk era. The Knicks are just not going to beat a team like this until they get some size.

• Story of tonight: Dallas had 10 more rebounds, 6 more offensive boards, 7 more assists and shot almost 10% better from the floor.
• Corey Brewer had 7 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals while guy we gave a roster spot to, Derek Brown doesn’t even touch the ball during the pre-game shoot around.
• Shawn Marion had one of his best games of the year, Brendan Haywood looked awesome and Jason Terry was unstoppable off the bench. Dallas had lots of firepower or at least it looked that way with the kind of matador D the Knicks played tonight. They need big men, they need Chauncey back and they need a greater focus on D or they will never go deep into the playoffs.  This off-season they can tinker with the roster to get a more balanced attack and hopefully this off-season D’Antoni will hit his head and forget his silly offense only approach.
• On the positive side, Landry looked awesome as always. T.Douglas keeps looking better and will make a great tandem with Billups if Billups ever returns. And, the Knicks went to the line 37 times after going to the line 4 times last night.
• On the flip side, Jared Jeffries had a huge game equaling his season high of 2 points.  Bill Walker reminded everyone that we did not miss him while he was out. Amare scored a lot of points and shot the ball a lot of times. Roger Mason, Ronny Turiaf and Anthony Carter combined to play more than 40 minutes and scored a whopping 2 points (COMBINED), that is Heatles bench type numbers.

In other news, Lebron, Wade and Bosh are going to Disney World!!!!!!!

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/chompions/201103/gordon-hayward-needs-italian-lesson

This is funny. Tonight’s game vs. Dallas is not.

http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/03/mavericks-19-3-stretch-is-hard-to-figure.html

The Mavericks, tonight’s opponent have been on fire. They are 19-3 since January 22nd. Dirk is a star with the kind of size that will frustrate the Knicks all night.

http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2011/3/10/2041601/mavs-hornets-post-game-64-quotes-killing-me-softly

And the Mavs are really looking to rebound after last night’s game where they played “soft”.

As good as Dirk is, I think Chandler will be a bigger problem. If the Knicks can’t keep him off the boards then it will be tough to win. The Knicks could really use Billups back tonight in a big way to counter Kidd.  The biggest factor working in favor of the Knicks tonight is that it looks like both Shawn Marion and Peja Stojakovic might be out which could mean that Corey Brewer will get some more playing time.  Hopefully, the Knicks can continue their hot shooting especially from 3 point land as that will need to happen if they hope to win tonight.

Fantasy Draft Results

Episode 43 – All Time Knicks Fantasy Draft

Be sure to check out out post on podcast where we did our all time (post 1990) Knicks team draft and vote on who has the better team (in the poll on the top of the main page). And, be sure to give Jay some feedback as to why his team has no chance because it plays no defense and the fact that his pick for point guard was atrocious.

And, D’Antoni explains why Brewer was released