Somehow the Knicks were able to escape Boston with a victory in Game 6. The Knicks won the series 4-2 over the offensively challenged Celtics. Again if a team can't score, obviously their chances of victory go way down. The Celtics only scored 27 points in the first half of Friday night's game. Add Rajon Rondo to the Celtics lineup and that series would have been that much more interesting.
The laughable Knicks will move on to the second round of the playoffs where they'll play the Pacers. That series starts Sunday in New York. I really think that the Knicks should be concerned as the Pacers can actually score. Of course they probably don't play as good of defense as the Celtics. Other than the Heat, the Eastern Conference overall is pathetic. The Pacers and Knicks will battle to be either swept or lose in 5 to the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. Although I'm not overwhelmed by the Knicks I'm even less overwhelmed by the Pacers. I see the Knicks winning this series in 6 or 7 games.
Back to the title of this blog. Can we please stop calling Carmelo Anthony a NBA Superstar? The last person who was glorified so much and was such a poor shooter was Allen Iverson. What has Anthony done to earned being called a superstar? It's certainly not his playoff performance or his individual performance. Let's break down his numbers a bit in the series against the Celtics. He only shot .394 in the entire series. How is he considered a NBA superstar after so many early playoff flameouts and not even shooting 40% in this series? In the last 3 games of this series he's only 1 for 18 from the three point line. In case you were wondering that's .055%.
In Game 6 he did have 5 assists, when he passes that makes him a more dangerous player. However in Game 6 he failed the Meads Metric yet again. He was 7 for 23 from the field and hit all 6 of his free throws. So for 29 total shots from the free throw line and the field, he should score at least 1 point per shot right? I would say at least, especially if he's allegedly such a great offensive player. However he only scored 21 points. He only reached 72.4% of the Meads Metric. At this point calling the shoot first and one dimensional Anthony a NBA superstar borders on being oxymoronic.
Anthony is the NBA's version of Tony Romo, other than of course Anthony can at least get his team to the playoffs.
In Game 6 he did have 5 assists, when he passes that makes him a more dangerous player. However in Game 6 he failed the Meads Metric yet again. He was 7 for 23 from the field and hit all 6 of his free throws. So for 29 total shots from the free throw line and the field, he should score at least 1 point per shot right? I would say at least, especially if he's allegedly such a great offensive player. However he only scored 21 points. He only reached 72.4% of the Meads Metric. At this point calling the shoot first and one dimensional Anthony a NBA superstar borders on being oxymoronic.
Anthony is the NBA's version of Tony Romo, other than of course Anthony can at least get his team to the playoffs.
While the Knicks and Pacers are going to be beating each other up the Heat will continue to rest. Following their sweep/bye over the Bucks, the Heat haven't played since April 28th. They'll next play the "winner" of the Bulls-Nets series. They conclude their emotional 7 game series today. The Heat will have at least an 8 day break before playing the survivor of the Bulls-Nets series. This playoffs was already setting up to be a coronation for the Heat before it even started. However things are falling in place to make that even easier for the Heat.
May 6th update: Hilariously the Knicks thought they were great by barely edging out the low scoring Celtics in the playoffs first round. However in round two the Knicks ran into a team that can score, the Indiana Pacers. I realized that in this series the Knicks now are the team that can't score. New York lost Game 1 against Indiana at Madison Square Garden 102-95. I predicted the Knicks would win this series, but Indiana winning doesn't really surprise me. The Knicks just aren't very good. They rely way too much on an one dimensional player that's not very good at his one dimension. Sadly I was unable to watch the Knicks falling apart on Sunday.
The bad one dimensional player of course would be the overrated Carmelo Anthony. For the last 4 games Anthony is only shooting 35 for 110, which is a sizzling 32%. He also failed the Meads Metric yet again on Sunday. Anthony shot a combined 34 free throws and field goal shots and only scored 27 points. He only had 79.4% efficiency on the Meads Metric. J.R. Smith was even worse, he only scored 17 points on 25 combined shots. His Meads Metric efficiency rating was only 68%. With stats like that why is anyone surprised the Knicks didn't win. How would the Knicks do if they were in the Western Conference?
Surprisingly Anthony has been decent at rebounding so far in the playoffs. He's average slightly over 6 rebounds through the first 7 games of the Knicks playoffs. But I suggest a more telling statistic is that Anthony has 15 turnovers against 12 assists through the same 7 games.
One of the few things that Anthony hit Sunday was when he ran into a cameraman leaving the floor after the game. That was clearly a charge. :)
It does make me laugh the Knicks and New York media are finding excuses for Anthony's poor play. Here's the deal Anthony isn't a very good shooter and never has been. I heard a talk show host refer to him as one of the two premiere offensive players in the NBA. The talk show host said it was him and Kevin Durrant. How can a player that only shoots 45% from the field be considered one of the NBA's two best offensive players? Sure he scores a lot of points, but he also shoots a lot of damn shots. A lot of those shots are bad shots and his team suffers because of it. Why does anyone consider him the Most Valuable Player?
Gary Washburn was the only one who voted for Carmelo Anthony for MVP. Washburn's ridiculous vote kept LeBron James from being the NBA's first ever unanimous MVP winner. Washburn's explanation for his vote is that Anthony "meant more to his team" than did James to the Heat. I'm sorry but it just doesn't wash. Imagine how much Anthony would mean to his team if he was a team player? Washburn said he was surprised that no one else voted for Anthony for MVP. Really? I'm guessing that Washburn didn't watch the Knicks and Anthony play much this last season.
From ESPN.com: "James is coming off the most efficient season he's ever had after shooting a career-high 56.5 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from 3-point range. He averaged 26.8 points, a career-high 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game."
Also not that the Heat needed the help but they are going to be like a hot knife through butter against the injured Bulls. At most the Heat will win the series in 5 games, but the Bulls would do well winning one game against the much superior Heat team.
May 6th update: Hilariously the Knicks thought they were great by barely edging out the low scoring Celtics in the playoffs first round. However in round two the Knicks ran into a team that can score, the Indiana Pacers. I realized that in this series the Knicks now are the team that can't score. New York lost Game 1 against Indiana at Madison Square Garden 102-95. I predicted the Knicks would win this series, but Indiana winning doesn't really surprise me. The Knicks just aren't very good. They rely way too much on an one dimensional player that's not very good at his one dimension. Sadly I was unable to watch the Knicks falling apart on Sunday.
The bad one dimensional player of course would be the overrated Carmelo Anthony. For the last 4 games Anthony is only shooting 35 for 110, which is a sizzling 32%. He also failed the Meads Metric yet again on Sunday. Anthony shot a combined 34 free throws and field goal shots and only scored 27 points. He only had 79.4% efficiency on the Meads Metric. J.R. Smith was even worse, he only scored 17 points on 25 combined shots. His Meads Metric efficiency rating was only 68%. With stats like that why is anyone surprised the Knicks didn't win. How would the Knicks do if they were in the Western Conference?
Surprisingly Anthony has been decent at rebounding so far in the playoffs. He's average slightly over 6 rebounds through the first 7 games of the Knicks playoffs. But I suggest a more telling statistic is that Anthony has 15 turnovers against 12 assists through the same 7 games.
One of the few things that Anthony hit Sunday was when he ran into a cameraman leaving the floor after the game. That was clearly a charge. :)
It does make me laugh the Knicks and New York media are finding excuses for Anthony's poor play. Here's the deal Anthony isn't a very good shooter and never has been. I heard a talk show host refer to him as one of the two premiere offensive players in the NBA. The talk show host said it was him and Kevin Durrant. How can a player that only shoots 45% from the field be considered one of the NBA's two best offensive players? Sure he scores a lot of points, but he also shoots a lot of damn shots. A lot of those shots are bad shots and his team suffers because of it. Why does anyone consider him the Most Valuable Player?
Gary Washburn was the only one who voted for Carmelo Anthony for MVP. Washburn's ridiculous vote kept LeBron James from being the NBA's first ever unanimous MVP winner. Washburn's explanation for his vote is that Anthony "meant more to his team" than did James to the Heat. I'm sorry but it just doesn't wash. Imagine how much Anthony would mean to his team if he was a team player? Washburn said he was surprised that no one else voted for Anthony for MVP. Really? I'm guessing that Washburn didn't watch the Knicks and Anthony play much this last season.
From ESPN.com: "James is coming off the most efficient season he's ever had after shooting a career-high 56.5 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from 3-point range. He averaged 26.8 points, a career-high 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game."
Also not that the Heat needed the help but they are going to be like a hot knife through butter against the injured Bulls. At most the Heat will win the series in 5 games, but the Bulls would do well winning one game against the much superior Heat team.
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