New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony versus Boston Celtics in play-offs: NBA Play-offs Update Part-2
Article continued from Part-1 of the article.
Game-3: Friday, April 22, 2011
Carmelo Anthony’s team was still behind 2-0 in the first round play-off series against the Boston Celtics as the third and greatly important game came on Friday at Madison Square Garden, New York. The home court advantage was certainly there to support the
New York Knicks, but they also were highly relying on their forward, Carmelo Anthony, to perform like he did in the second game in where he scored total 42 points.
The Knicks’ Carmelo looked determined before the game when he said about taking the revenge in their home court and said, “The Celtics didn't do anything special, they won two games on their home court. Now it's our turn to do the same thing.”
Carmelo Anthony’s brilliant ball play in the last two games already proved his valour to the Boston Celtics, as he can still display a surprising performance at any stage of the these play-offs and especially in this game.
The game started and ended up in a bitter disappointment for the Knicks, once again. The Carmelo Anthony factor could not do much for the Knicks as the Celtics defeated them with 113-96.
Carmelo scored 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists while he shot 4 for 16 for his team, but again remained at the losing end and walked off the court with despair.
Carmelo played almost 35 minutes on the court and saw his opponents Paul Pierce and Ray Allen’s dunking the net as they posted 70 points together for the Celtics and outplayed the Knicks in front of their home crowd when they took the decisive 3-0 lead in
the best-of-seven first rounds series.
On the other-hand, Carmelo slightly tried to defend his team’s performance stating Amar’e Stoudemire’s and Chauncey Billups’ fitness.
Carmelo said, “It's tough, man, knowing that Amar'e's not 100 percent and Chauncey's not 100 percent. We're just trying to find our way on the fly right now. That's a tough situation. That would be making excuses if I sat here and say they beat us because
we're not at 100 percent. I don't want to use that as an excuse.”
Game-4: Sunday, April 24, 2011
As the first round of play-off series progressed further for the Game 4 between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks in New York, Carmelo Anthony alone kept his thrust on the opposition and prepared himself for this must win game for the Knicks to
stay alive in the series.
The series was favouring the Celtics as they were leading with 3-0 and hoping for the clean sweep this time around.
Game started and Carmelo Anthony played like a superman. He impressed once again in a great fashion as he scored 32 points, nine rebounds and three assists for his team.
Carmelo performed well, but his team once again let down the entire New York as they were swept away by the Boston Celtics 101-89 in their back-yard at Madison Square Garden.
The Celtics went into the NBA’s semi-finals and left the New York Knicks thinking over the humiliating clean sweep.
The Knicks star came out and spoke to the media and this time did not defended his team-mates’ faintness issues at-all and said, “Life ain't fair, We've got to do what we've got to do. The Xs and Os go out the window, and we've just got to play basketball,
we’ve got to fight. It's a war, it's a battle and the most important thing is just how much pride we got. I don't want to get swept, we don't want to get swept, but we've got to go out there and just leave it all out there on the court and see what happens.”
Overall Carmelo Anthony’s performance remained well above average and impressive throughout the play-offs’ as he scored 104 total points, 41 rebounds and 19 assists in all those four play-off games.
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