Today's Game Discussion [12/06/12]

[Ender]

Heat vs Knicks 8:15
Mavs vs Suns 10:30
TV:TNT

[Basel]

That was one entertaining half of basketball.

[Ender]

You can't stop Raymond Felton, you can only hope to contain him.

[ChrisWoj]

Just got home at halftime. Watching now... Gotta say: mentality matters.

The New York Knicks without a doubt look like they KNOW they can handle Miami. They are playing like a team that knows they can win these games, and it shows. And when you get to the playoffs, that will matter. If they get in Miami's head, it'll make any series between the teams closer and give the Knicks a big chance to take 4 of 7. Mind you - in a playoff series the Knicks' depth advantage won't matter nearly as much, but still... they're playing great team basketball right now.

Doesn't hurt that they're shooting the lights out.

[Ender]

[ChrisWoj]

Ray Felton just loves playing in New York. He's WIN METHOD.

[Ender]

Dave Hopla = 2012-13 Coach of the Year

[ChrisWoj]

Do the Knicks miss?

[ChrisWoj]

The Heat have to at least take solace in the fact that shooting nights like this don't happen every night. 18/41 from beyond the arc, including that last one from way way downtown contested by Smith.

[Wade County]

They happen often enough against us though.

[Basel]

That was a hell of a shooting performance by the Knicks.

[Bogg]

That dunk attempt that he got fouled on was more athletic than anything Jermaine O'neal did in Boston over two years. Friggin PHX training staff......

[Headliner]

So.......Knicks/Heat ECF right?

[Bogg]

At the risk of someone bumping this when they get bounced in the first round, don't write off the Celtics just yet. They haven't cared too much about the regular season in years.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by ChrisWoj

Just got home at halftime. Watching now... Gotta say: mentality matters.

The New York Knicks without a doubt look like they KNOW they can handle Miami. They are playing like a team that knows they can win these games, and it shows. And when you get to the playoffs, that will matter. If they get in Miami's head, it'll make any series between the teams closer and give the Knicks a big chance to take 4 of 7. Mind you - in a playoff series the Knicks' depth advantage won't matter nearly as much, but still... they're playing great team basketball right now.

Doesn't hurt that they're shooting the lights out.

See how the 2011 Bulls/Celtics and 2012 Celtics feel about that. They handled the Heat for most of those regular season games, pretty emphatically.

Look, the Knicks hit 7 unassisted 3's (out of their ridiculous 18), which is the highest in 4 seasons, including playoffs. League average is 1 per game. That's pretty unsustainable. On top of that, the Heat have been around 50% shooting every game, and shot 42%, missing a weeks worth of open shots and good looks. Can't see those factors maintaining over a series.

Embarrassing loss for the Heat, no question; particularly without Melo and STAT. Even with the Knicks crazy shooting, if Wade and Bosh played to their averages, they still could've won it. 6-25 shooting from two 50% shooters is wild. Chandler is a great defender, but Bosh was missing wide-open J's in his sweet spot. No idea what Wade was doing, but he likes to have those games every now and then these days. Strangely he's usually doing it on national TV. Amazing he's still shooting around 50% with that garbage.