Carmelo Anthony
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New York Knicks Start Rookie Iman Shumpert and Cruise Past Detroit Pistons: Fan’s Take

After struggling to a 2-4 start in the 2011-12 season, New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni finally benched Toney Douglas and replaced him with rookie Iman Shumpert the second half of the Knicks game vs the Washington Wizards on January 6, 2012. The Knicks, who trailed in the game by a point at the half, went on to beat the Wizards, 99-96.

Toney Douglas was Killing Knicks With Bad Shooting

Through the first six games of the season, the Knicks had been starting Toney Douglas at point guard. Douglas was getting some assists, but his shooting percentages were awful, and his missed shots were killing the team. On the season, Douglas is shooting just 33% from the field, and 27% from three-point range. It's hard to win games with a starting point guard shooting like that.

Rookie Iman Shumpert Gets First Career Start vs Detroit Pistons
On Saturday night, January 7, 2012, head coach Mike D'Antoni started rookie Iman Shumpert over Douglas as the Knicks played the Detroit Pistons in Detroit. Shumpert responded with a good game, scoring 11 points with three assists, two rebounds and a steal. Most importantly, Shumpert made five of the 10 shots he took in the game, including one of three three-pointers.

The Knicks cruised to a 64-42 halftime lead, and an easy 103-80 win. Mike Bibby had a great game, scoring 16 points in 15 minutes, and making all four threes he took in the game. Amare Stoudemire led the Knicks with 22 points, and also had eight rebounds. Tyson Chandler chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds. Another rookie, Josh Harrellson, added 11 points and seven rebounds.
All the Knicks looked great, except for leading scorer Carmelo Anthony. I'm a big time Carmelo Anthony fan since he led my favorite college basketball team, the Syracuse Orange, to the NCAA Championship in 2003. I watch the Knicks because of Melo, and in the Pistons game you could see that Carmelo Anthony was not himself.

Carmelo Anthony Playing in Pain

Suffering from soreness all over his body as the result of collision in the back in the Wizards game, Melo scored just 13 points against the Pistons. He also had seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal. Anthony said his back, hip and knee hurt in the game, and his whole right side of the body was sore. Curiously, considering he was playing in pain, Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks in minutes played in the game with 31.
The Knicks have now won two straight, and should make it three in a row when they face the 2-6 Charlotte Bobcats at home at Madison Square Garden on Monday, January 9, 2012. Carmelo Anthony said after the Pistons game that he can really use the day off between the Pistons and Bobcats games. Hopefully the Knicks can have another easy game against Charlotte with rookie Iman Shumpert starting at point guard.

Then Melo can rest some more before the Knicks start playing some tough games against Philadelphia, Memphis, Oklahoma City and Orlando.

New York Knicks Vs. Detroit Pistons

New York Knicks Vs. Detroit Pistons Jan. 7 Game Preview: A Fan’s Outlook

After escaping with a win on Friday night (Jan. 6), the New York Knicks head out on the road for a game against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night (Jan. 7). It's definitely a game that the Knicks should win, especially because the Pistons have struggled to find an identity and slipped to 2-5 on the season. Struggling to find an identity is something that the Knicks have a lot of experience with though, and it almost cost the team against the Washington Wizards Friday. If not for that clutch Carmelo Anthony three-pointer, the Knicks could have a 2-5 record as well.

The Pistons are just not a good team and have tried to piece together a roster that can compete. While there are good parts like back-up point guard Brandon Knight and center Greg Monroe, it just seems like the rest of the roster isn't very good at functioning together. The player that the Knicks have to watch out for his Jonas Jerebko , a player that works with a lot of energy and has started to come into his own this year. Dealing with Jerebko and Monroe in the post is a tough request for Tyson Chandler and Amare Stoudemire , but it's time for the Knicks' duo to prove something to fans.

The starting rotation for the Pistons is Monroe at center, Jerebko at power forward , Tayshaun Prince at small forward , Ben Gordon at shooting guard and Brandon Knight at point guard. Knight, Austin Daye and Will Bynum are key contributors off the bench, but this is also a team that averages just 84.9 points per game. That's not good at all, but the Knicks can't get lazy on defensive rotations and simply hope that the Pistons guards are going to miss shots. This has to become a concerted effort to get tougher and not allow easy shots by a weak team.
Anthony has become the leader for the Knicks , averaging 29.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per gam e. He is doing that in less than 36 minutes a night, so it shows just how active he has had to become. Amare Stoudemire is at 20 points and 8.4 rebounds per night and rookie guard Iman Shumpert is at 14 points, 4 assists, 2.3 steals and 3.7 assists per night. Coach Mike D'Antoni needs to just start Shumpert , but if he doesn't the rookie guard will still see a lot of minutes off the bench Saturday night (Jan. 7).
Game time for this one is 7:30 p.m. ET and hopefully continues the one-game winning streak that the Knicks have put together.For more>>>

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