Post#17 » by Antti22 » Thu Apr 16, 2015 11:05 am
A lot of bitter Knicks fans around right now, saying how lucky we were to get in and that we only got in because teams rested players, but the reality is, that actually we had probably one of the toughest end of season situations of the teams competing for the spot. Let me explain:
* Only two teams truly rested players against us and took it very easy: Washington who played without Wall. We blew them out as a result. And Portland who had a tough b2b and chose to rest.
We had 2 games in the last month against ATL who had clinched the top seed and rested players against everyone else and took it easy, but played us with full fury.
Game against Milwaukee, they played with full fury to clinch their spot in the playoffs. Bulls played us really aggressively, to clinch home court. Orlando wanted to play as good as they could, because it was their chanche to make a difference in the standings, and no motivation to tank, as they were locked into the spot.
* The team I saw us knocking out of playoffs was Boston, as they had the toughest schedule theoretically. But then Cavs who were considered easy losses for Boston, tanked against them, because they had clinched, then Toronto did play them quite tough, but not much to play for them aswell. Then Milwaukee had already clinched by the time they met. But the main difference being, that Cavs tanked against them hard, at the same time ATL who is on the same level, played us extremely hard.
* Indiana had it quite tough as well, but after Miami game they had the Knicks who tank, Detroit who were also eliminated and had motivation to tank. OKC was tough, but that was one-man team. Washington was playing them very tough, but only for pride. I think that a lot thanks to them, they were unable to fight real hard against MEM. We owe a bit to Washington as a result, they really could have rested that game, but fought quite hard. Also We owe one to the Pelicans who pulled it together and beat the Spurs, thus motivation Memphis to really keep it going in the second half.
In summary, what bothered me the most was Cavs tanking and at the same time ATL tanking everything else but our games. That made it easy for Boston and really tough for us.
Everyone around other teams forums are quite bitter about us making it and noone believed it, but we are here, lets make our mark and fight hard, we have seen this team capable of it. As a fan I wont be predicting Atlanta sweep or anything, I say we got a fair shot of making this a 7 game series and its a toss-up in the 7th game. We just gotta see some players step up and get in the roll that we were in during better part of last month.
My expectation is that these playoffs will be coming out party for Bojan, he has started to show flashes in the last month of his old self and as a fan I have seen him really step up in the games that matter. I expect him to be our X-factor. Him and Joe should be able to get Demarre Carrol into foul trouble without a good backup after they lost Sefolosha. Thats our best chance.
