It was a beatdown of the New York Knicks on opening night. Cavaliers were in full control of that game even when Knicks made it close in the first half. When the champs took the lead, they just ran over New York, and they couldn’t do a thing to stop them.
We saw who the Knicks are. They have some former All-Stars that are past their prime. Derrick Rose and Carmelo Anthony were decent, but they can’t give you much more than they did against the Cavs. Melo is leaning on his mid-range game. It looks like he just can’t make that strong and quick move to the basket like he used to do.
He is going to have some good nights like this one, but he is going to have a lot of nights where he will go 8/22 and similar from the field. It looked like he lost a step in the preseason. His passes are off when he is double teamed. It’s bad enough that their shooters are average at best, so they need good passes to make those wide open shots.
But the main reason for our prediction that they will miss the playoffs is that bench. Besides Brandon Jennings, they don’t have anybody that can score on a consistent basis. That second unit is their biggest problem that they need to fix as soon as possible. Starting five can be good. When the bench gets into the game, that is when Knicks will start to struggle, lose matches, and maybe miss the postseason yet again.
