Celtics @ The Garden | Game 5 | 5.1.13 | 7:00

[makeitstop]

I think Boston is still dangerous if they have life. If Terry plays as well as he did in Game 4, they'll be a lot tougher. I don't think Pierce will be terrible, and Garnett can still be effective.

A lot of ifs.

The litany has been repeated here a hundred times - despite every advantage they had on Sunday, they blew a 20 point lead at home and had to go to OT to get one win.

Not sure how much life they've got left at this point, honestly.

[SonOfMars]

Boston usually wears out during the 2nd half...we've seen that in all 4 games

[JohnStarksTheDunk]

I think Boston is still dangerous if they have life. If Terry plays as well as he did in Game 4, they'll be a lot tougher. I don't think Pierce will be terrible, and Garnett can still be effective.

So BFS notwithstanding, closing out Boston probably won't be that easy. That said, if Melo and JR shoot decently, I think we have a significant advantage to close the series out. The crowd's energy obviously helps.

Indiana will probably go to 7.

He didn't really do all that much before overtime -- 9 points on 4-7 shooting, compared to the 9 and 14 points he had in games 2 and 3.

He hit a big 3 in OT and had a nice drive. Are we expecting him to be able to produce that way for a full game? Or are we really worried about him chipping in 10-12 points on efficient shooting? Terry had a pretty good 1st half in game 2 if I remember correctly and then he fizzled off.

[K_ick_God]

I think Boston is still dangerous if they have life. If Terry plays as well as he did in Game 4, they'll be a lot tougher. I don't think Pierce will be terrible, and Garnett can still be effective.

A lot of ifs.

The litany has been repeated here a hundred times - despite every advantage they had on Sunday, they blew a 20 point lead at home and had to go to OT to get one win.

Not sure how much life they've got left at this point, honestly.

I think we should know pretty early in Game 5. If the Knicks start hot and Boston wilts, then the odds of us losing will be quite low. But if Boston looks sharp and Knicks are tight and struggling, this could very well go back to Boston.

It definitely is fair to say that Boston has had a lot of bad second halves. Even in Game 4, they lost the second half by 19 points -- that's really lopsided.

But my feeling is that being down at half will EVENTUALLY catch up to every team. I think the first half and even the first quarter are very key. Knicks should jump on them and then let Melo make shots to keep Boston at bay.

I think if we are losing at half, we're asking for a lot of trouble.

[GONYK]

I think Boston is still dangerous if they have life. If Terry plays as well as he did in Game 4, they'll be a lot tougher. I don't think Pierce will be terrible, and Garnett can still be effective.

A lot of ifs.

The litany has been repeated here a hundred times - despite every advantage they had on Sunday, they blew a 20 point lead at home and had to go to OT to get one win.

Not sure how much life they've got left at this point, honestly.

I think we should know pretty early in Game 5. If the Knicks start hot and Boston wilts, then the odds of us losing will be quite low. But if Boston looks sharp and Knicks are tight and struggling, this could very well go back to Boston.

It definitely is fair to say that Boston has had a lot of bad second halves. Even in Game 4, they lost the second half by 19 points -- that's really lopsided.

But my feeling is that being down at half will EVENTUALLY catch up to every team. I think the first half and even the first quarter are very key. Knicks should jump on them and then let Melo make shots to keep Boston at bay.

I think if we are losing at half, we're asking for a lot of trouble.

These arguments only really come into play when you're up against a team that is remotely close in talent

[dreamer3kx]

I think Game 4 is the best you're going to get from Bos and we still couldve won, dont think you will get that shooting again from them this series, we need to play fast and aggressive.

[F N 11]

Just stop Jeff Green from taking these long strides to the basket and we will be ok. Terry will be shut down!!!

[Lord Commander]

All we needed was for Melo to shoot 13/35 instead of 10/35 and we wouldn't be having this conversation. The Celtics are so dead it's not even funny. I am GUARANTEEING a win tomorrow.

[GONYK]

All we needed was for Melo to shoot 11/35 instead of 10/35 and we wouldn't be having this conversation. The Celtics are so dead it's not even funny. I am GUARANTEEING a win tomorrow.

Fixed

[Fat]

were up 3-1

Knicks will come out motivated tomorrow and take care of business, if we lose wednesday then you can be a bit worried.

[Lord Commander]

All we needed was for Melo to shoot 11/35 instead of 10/35 and we wouldn't be having this conversation. The Celtics are so dead it's not even funny. I am GUARANTEEING a win tomorrow.

Fixed

True, lol...

[K_ick_God]

I didn't realize Melo was so bad. Didn't seem 10-35. That's awful.

He had a 3 go in and out that would have put us up 3. That may have been the final dagger.

[KobeDwightPau]

Jr is playing, knicks win, simple as that.

[NYK_89]

I didn't realize Melo was so bad. Didn't seem 10-35. That's awful.

He had a 3 go in and out that would have put us up 3. That may have been the final dagger.

the 0-2 at the line certainly didn't help in the last few min

[GONYK]

I didn't realize Melo was so bad. Didn't seem 10-35. That's awful.

He had a 3 go in and out that would have put us up 3. That may have been the final dagger.

the 0-2 at the line certainly didn't help in the last few min

Yea, he really Harden'd that one

[NYK_89]

I didn't realize Melo was so bad. Didn't seem 10-35. That's awful.

He had a 3 go in and out that would have put us up 3. That may have been the final dagger.

the 0-2 at the line certainly didn't help in the last few min

Yea, he really Harden'd that one

[K_ick_God]

Obviously would have been better to sweep. But I didn't mind that loss at all. Felton got hot and it was great seeing Shumpert do what he did. It was a great comeback that just didn't break our way in the OT.

And it does seem telling that Boston could barely protect a 19-point halftime lead with JR out and Melo shooting terribly. The rest of the Knicks, however, were very good.

[NYK_89]

All of it aside the one thing that got me more pissed then anything the whole game was Felton deciding to drain the **** clock on our last possession. 37~ seconds left and he runs clock giving them like 22 seconds.... Made literally no sense. All missed shots and bad play aside that cost us a very good chance at winning it, an extra shot at the game winner would have been huge.


ALSO, Melo's play at the end of the first half was unacceptable... Looked like he stopped really trying there for a min and it keyed them stretching a 10 point lead to almost 20.

Shouldn't matter thought just clean this up at home and start rooting for the hawks

[KnicksScholar24]

The Knicks should still win this one even if Woodson continues to use his All-Melo/JR, All-The-Time isolation "system." The Celtics just don't have enough consistent offensive talent without Rajon Rondo setting everyone up for easy shots. The Celtics do have a fighting chance because their defense has shown they can hold NY under 90 and Green, Terry, Pierce, & Garnet have shown they can hit big shots down the stretch, which would suggest that the Knicks should "unlock" their offense by playing less hero-ball and more team-ball, to ensure the game won't be close at the end.

Spoiler:

The sad part is that NY might win their first two rounds with Melo & JR isolations and Woodson will think that's a good "system" that is capable of winning in the playoffs, but that will all chance once they meet a team w/o the same offensive limitation of the Celtics, Pacers or Hawks. They'll have to change, imo, to the diverse, ball-moving offensive that scored 100 PPG in the regular season if they want to get past the second round. They may even need to change by the second round if they don't want to be forced to a game 7 by the Pacers (if they advance).

The Knicks have also had to rely too much on their guards causing turnovers and rebounding the ball to make second half comebacks. If the Knicks are down at half for the 4th time in 5 games, there is something certainly wrong with their offensive "system" or their mentality (playing one half of defense is not a good -- championship caliber-- mentality to have in the post season).

It'll be interesting to see how the Knicks handle the Melo isolation-failure of game 4.

[Knicks_Fan2]

Al Iannazzone ‏@Al_Iannazzone 17m J.R. Smith said "who" and "i don't know who that is" when asked about Jason Terry.