They don't have a chance in hell

With five minutes remaining in the third quarter Carmelo Anthony picked up his third personal foul. A smart coach would have immediately sat Anthony down and replaced him with Amare Stoudemire.

A smart coach.

Coach Woodson on the other hand leaves him in to pick up his fourth foul only a minute later and then takes Anthony out for Stoudemire but also removes Raymond Felton.

Raymond Felton and Amare have a history of playing the pick and roll extremely well together but it seems that Woodson is hell bent on not playing these guys together.

It's almost as if he is afraid of seeing them successful together. I have my theory on why this would be the case but I'll keep my conspiracies to myself for now.

Even at 10:40 of the 4th quarter when Woodson sent Felton back in he at the same time pulled amare and replaced him with Anthony although Amare hit a three point shot at the end of the 3rd quarter and got credit between periods for a put back shot. You decide for yourself what's going on with his substitution patterns. Like I said, I have my theories.

With Amare back on the bench and illness keeping JR Smith from giving offensive help the Pacers pull away from the Knicks and never relinquish the lead again.

The problem with the Knicks is Woodson's inability to offer any type of offensive wrinkle to force the Pacers out of their defensive comfort zone.

Tonight Woodson had the services of Amare Stoudemire and either didn't have the intelligence or the guts to feature him and Raymond together just to see if they could at the very least force the Pacers big men into foul trouble.

If the Knicks can't give Amare opportunities to help they don't have a chance in hell of advancing.

There are actually people who feel that it would be foolish to play Amare because it would throw off the "chemistry" of the team and now is not the time to play Amare into shape. Are they fucking insane. Unless you can get scoring from the low post there isn't going to be a tomorrow.

This team must play and be coached with desperation because they are in desperate times. All hands on deck now especially when the genius at the helm wouldn't even play Copeland who as they say "has been contributing during this run". That contribution remark is the argument for not playing Amare by many of the "experts" in New York.

This town has turned completely against Amare including his coach but the fact is they aren't going anywhere without him, like it or not.

I didn't give the Knicks much of a chance in this series anyway but I had no idea it would be this ugly for them and it's not going to get any better.

Knicks Lose Again, Pacers  82 - Knicks 71

Mike Isola, hit yourself in the head

Did you see Mike Isola's column today?

This fucking idiot has had it in for Amare Stoudemire since Amare's initial return to the team late last year.

Today, this "journalist" had the audacity to publish a column about some conspiracy theory that Amare Stoudemire is secretly controlling Mike Woodson and Jim Dolan and underhandedly finagling his way back into the lineup using some secret plot that only Amare and Mike Isola know of.

This idiot Isola really has to be stopped.

What offensive scorer do the Knicks have on the low block that can put pressure on Hibbert and West with his quickness and draw fouls forcing them to sit early? Mike I'm talking to you fucker, who do they have other than Amare Stoudemire who can do this?

You mean to tell me that Woodson needs to be tricked by Amare into taking advantage of his skills for a few minutes each night by Amare himself?

Isola you showed yourself today to be the fucking joke of a reporter I always knew you were.  Go and hit yourself in the head with something very very hard.

Isn't this exactly what these same guys did in Denver with little success?

The only chance the Knicks have to defeat the Pacers in the second round of the playoffs is running the offense through Raymond Felton as he runs the high pick and roll.

It should be Raymond's decision to set players up for the best possible shot and to draw defenders.

Today's game began that way for some inexplicable reason at the end of the first quarter and for the rest of the game Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith got it in their minds that they should be the ones bringing the ball up court and running the offense.

The Pacers were just waiting for that to happen and seized the opportunities to jump out to a big lead based on Melo's poor shooting and Smith reverting to his old knucklehead form.

Isn't this exactly what these same guys did in Denver with little success?

When they did decide to step things up through Raymond and attack the rim it was too little too late and the Knicks lost what should have been a very winnable game.

At some point Coach Woodson must speak to Anthony and Smith and forcibly tell them that Raymond will setup their shots and no one else. If he doesn't then Woodson's history of getting bounced in the second round of the playoffs will repeat itself.

The reckless offense that got the Knicks to the playoffs simply won't due against the very physical play of the Pacers, particularly when the referees are not going to bail the Knicks out while the Pacers push them around.

Amare' Stoudemire is the type of player that the pacers have no answer for, let's see if he returns in the next game or two and how much time he gets.

Knicks Lose Again, Pacers 102 - Knicks 95