Woof

Just an ugly, ugly game all around. Lot of complaining about the refs who blew a lot of calls for both teams today, but I didn’t really mind. For the most part they were letting them play out there. A lot contact, a lot of physical play. There was a lot of rough play and thats everything that playoff basketball should be. It reminded me of the grind-em-out, knock-em-down battles the Knicks and Pacers used to have.

But the officiating didn’t lose this game for the Knicks. Carmelo had another poor shooting performance. The Knicks lost. Its as simple as that. When he plays well, they win. When he doesn’t, they lose. Simple as that. JR Smith is about the only dude who could maybe make up that offense, but he looked gruesome as well. The rest of the team isn’t really equipped to make up the difference in offense.

Rest of the series should be interesting. Hibbert was phenomenal today – Chandler is gonna have to rough him up the rest of the way to take him out of the equation. Paul George locked down Carmelo. Nobody shot particularly well. Overall though, this Pacers team is a rough, defensive minded, rebounding squad. The Knicks are obviously a high octane offensive unit. Two polar opposites clashing. If the rest of the series is played the way today was played, that spells trouble for the Knicks. Gotta play more their style and Carmelo needs to get back on track.