As playoffs draw close, Knicks need Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire on same page – NBA Feature
The New York Knicks have had a roller coaster of a season and it keeps getting more interesting with each passing game. After the unfortunate departure of Jeremy Lin for the rest of the season, the Knicks had lost hopes of making
it into the playoffs. However, as has been the case with the Knicks throughout the season, Linsanity was replaced by Melo Mania.
Star forward Carmelo Anthony excelled under new interim coach Mike Woodson and started putting in performances which were expected from him when he was brought to New York.
Carmelo Anthony had a great month of April, jacking up points and helping the Knicks win an overtime game at home against the Chicago Bulls. Carmelo seemed happy and Mike Woodson had improved the defence of the team as well. The
Knicks were back in playoff contention when another surprising turn of events took place.
Amar’e Stoudemire returned to action on the 20th of April when the Knicks took on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Stoudemire had been out of action battling a back injury and his comeback was to help New York become a stronger
team on both ends of the court. In the days leading up to his comeback, some analysts predicted Carmelo and Amar’e to have problems playing together on the court as their numbers declined whenever they played at the same time.
Some even went on to say that Amar’e should come off the bench for New York. The problem was that ever since Amar’e had been ruled out due to injury, Carmelo stepped in as power forward to replace him, and saw the most success
of the season in that position. When Amare came back, coach moved Anthony back to small forward and started Amar’e as power forward.
In the first game Amare returned, he had 15 points off 5 of 11 shooting and Carmelo Anthony had 12 points off 5 of 13 shooting. The Knicks lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-90. Since then, the Knicks have played against Atlanta
Hawks which they won in a tight contest and Carmelo scored 39 points on the night while Amare had 22.
However, the fact remains that Mike Woodson has not yet been able to use his two star players in such a way that they complement each other. After the loss to Cleveland, there were even louder calls of making Amar’e come off from
the bench, but that is a gutsy move to pull by any coach and could result in a falling-off between the coach and the star player.
Whatever needs to be done has to be done quickly, as the playoffs are around the corner. The Knicks cannot enter into the playoffs and go against Chicago or Miami in the 1st round hoping for an upset if their two main
scorers are not at the same wavelength. Can New York carry the same strategy, that had Carmelo and Amare both scoring 20 plus points against Atlanta, into the playoffs or will it be a repeat of the loss to the Cavaliers?
For that, we have to wait till the playoffs start.
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