5 BOROUGH SPORTS

There's 65 more games to go...no need for this.

When Kevin Garnett missed the final shot yesterday, I was ecstatic. But then I quickly realized that it’s only the first game of the season. Now today I’m reading all of these articles about how the Celtics-Knicks is offically a rivalry, the Knicks are a contender, etc. Let’s all take a step back and take a deep breath. Last time I checked, the Celtics won all eight games against the Knicks last season including a four game sweep in the first round of the playoffs. But since the Knicks the won the first game of the season against Boston, the two teams are even? Absolutely not. Let’s also not forget that the Celtics didn’t even have Paul Pierce on the court yesterday. Calling the Knicks and Celtics a rivalry is like calling the Yankees and Red Sox a rivalry pre-2004. If one team dominates the other for decades, that’s not a rivalry. The only way the Knicks could make this a rivalry is if they beat the Celtics in the playoffs this year.

Melo Dropped 37 points in his Season Debut

Carmelo looked like a superstar yesterday. He and Amare seem to have much more chemistry on the court than last season. Even though Tyson Chandler’s physical presence down low made a difference, he’s got to play better than that. Brandon Bass manhandled him the entire second half. At one point midway through the fourth quarter, the Knicks had only six rebounds in the second half. This team won’t win too many games if Chandler doesn’t step up when it matters. Toney Douglas was a nice surprise yesterday as well. He did a great job handling the offense and I have full confidence he can run the point this season. Before his injury, rookie Iman Shumpert looked like he could be a guy this season as well. He played strong defense for most of the game while showing us he can shoot the ball well. Unfortunately, Shumpert will be out two to four weeks with a knee injury.

The Knicks head west to take on Golden State Wednesday night.

This entry was posted on December 26, 2011 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Knicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.