Chauncey Billups should be back from injury for this one.

I have a knicks friend who is concerned for Mike D’Antoni’s job security.  Obviously we’ve had troubles rebounding and defending for the majority of the season (although this has improved slightly in recent times).  Is that on the players or the coach?  At the NBA level, do you really need a coach to show you how to defend, or is it ingrained in you by then?

I’m still of the thought that if Donnie Walsh is in New York, D’Antoni will be too.  Walsh knows D’antoni came in under the gun and coached through two years of roster-gutting.

Of course, Walsh could have been extended by now, so that fact that Dolan said they’d discuss it after the all-star break, means to me that Walsh could be the odd man out.  Who knows what kind of promises James Dolan made to World Wide Wes and the other clowns while Dolan was in LA for the all-star owners meeting.  As blind as Mr. Dolan is with regards to basketball, he couldn’t see that Melo was only ever going to play in New York , and now we find out that Utah would have offered Deron Williams to New York, had Carmelo waited it out and not signed with Jersey.  Imagine that, we keep all our guys prior to the trade, get Deron Williams at the deadline, Chandler walks after the playoffs, and Carmelo walks on.

The way it worked it is what we go with from here out.  Billups is a better passer and shooter than Felton, and Jeffries will help a little where Chandler and Mozgov were in the paint.  Carter has played admirably, and Toney is stepping up and trying to emulate Felton now, and Billups in the future.

Too bad we had to play Dallas with the gas tank half empty from the Memphis win.  Would have loved to see the Knicks bring their a game against them, but Melo never looked comfortable, and our three point shooters were MIA, so once again we had Stat trying to do everything, that’s rarely going to work.

Can’t say I pay much attention to Indiana, I know they have Granger, who should be a great match up versus Carmelo tonight at the Garden.

They’re currently the 8^th seed in the East, so you know this game means just as much to them as it does us, we’re trying to move up in the standings.

If the playoffs were to start today, the two teams I’d like to face in the playoffs are Miami and Boston.  I think we’d fare well against them.  The two teams I think we’d struggle against are Orlando and Chicago, more so Orlando.  I think we haven’t played either team enough this season, but Orlando seemed to have our number.  I think we’d love to play Chicago and humble them a little.  After all, we have the real MVP, not them.  We have a better coach for that matter too.

It will be interesting to see if Douglas can keep his production up with fewer minutes now that Billups is ready to go.

Can’t say I predicted the Spurs to be this good this year, I thought they were over the hill and expected Tony Parker to jump ship and join the Knicks.

Without Danilo Gallinari’s services (out 2-3 weeks with a sprained knee) I would assume we’ve no shot, but if the Knicks have been anything this season, they have been surprising.

The starting five will be adjusted by sliding Chandler and Stoudemire to the three and four, respectively, along with Ronny Turiaf being re-inserted back into the starting lineup.

If the Knicks wanted to make a statement, now would be a good time to make it against the team with the best record in the NBA.  The Knicks are starting to have the reputation of being a lower tier playoff team that can’t get over the hump when it comes to defeating top-tier teams like the Magic, Heat and Celtics.  I say it is all about matchups.  We don’t match up well against the Heat (who does, they’re only supposed to have two max guys on there, not three) but that doesn’t mean we might not compete with San Antonio’s lineup.

6’1″ 205   Raymond Felton   PG    6’2″  185  Tony Parker

6’7″  210  Landry Fields         SG   6’6″   205  Manu Ginobili

6’10″  245  Ronny Turiaf         C    6’7″  270  Dejuan Blair

6’8″   225   Wilson Chandler    SF   6’7″  230 Richard Jefferson

6’10″  240  Amar’e Stoudemire  PF  6’11″ 245 Tim Duncan

Off the bench the Knicks will rely on Toney Douglas, Shawne Williams and Bill Walker, while the spurs get production from George Hill, Gary Neal (who?), Matt Bonner, Antonio McDyess (remember him?) and Tiago Splitter.

Seven of nine upcoming games are on the road after tonight’s game.

Call me crazy but I think we can take this team tonight.

This is a record-breaking season for these Knicks.  Earlier in the season, Amar’e Stoudemire had 9 straight wins with 30+points per game, now Raymond Felton is on the threshold of setting another Knicks precedent:  six consecutive games with 10+ assists is only three games shy of the record set by Michael Ray Richardson.

They may have more talent, may have the refs in their pocket, but we ARE the better team.  We have a group of guys that put team first, and enjoy playing together.  We don’t have players that disrespect their head coach, disrespect the NBA, pining for it to contract and cut some of the worst teams, or mislead 6 NBA teams on only to go play behind someone else in Miami.

We play better on the road, no doubt, and considering how bad they beat us two weeks ago at the Garden, I think we will be better prepared and have a counter attack planned out.

LeBron met Amar’e at the rim several times during the first encounter.  I expect Amar’e to come out with a vengeance.

Miami’s biggest weakness is they have no point guard or center, so we should attack those two areas with Felton, Amar’e and whoever else we can throw at them.

We have such consistent play from this team, the x-factors are the least consistent players in the 8-man rotation:  Gallo and Toney Douglas.  If they have big nights, we can take them, because Felton, Stat and Fields will get their double-doubles.

Chandler needs to have a big game, and I believe he can do it.  He should step up and guard LeBron.

Rebound the ball (not just Fields and Stat), get back in transition, attack the basket, try to get to the line, make that baseline three that is always open in this system, and of course…

GET STOUDEMIRE THE BALL AND GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Let’s go Knicks!  Miami are a bunch of punks!

Felton, a ray of light

New York Knicks rising in the east

Knicks to be battle tested on the road

The hypothetical Schmeelk

Frank Isola’s game preview

A few guys D’Antoni has yet to give any real playing time to:

Timofey Mozgov: You can argue that he was a starter, but he was never used the right way.  Why not run a clear out and post him up?  Is it that taboo for the seven seconds or less offense to run a traditional post up once a year?  He did post up well against TEAM USA this summer, supposedly “the best players in the NBA.”  Can’t we figure that out for 5-10 freaking minutes a game?  Supposedly he can’t catch the entry pass.  I say clear it out so there is no traffic, the pass will be easier to make.  D’Antoni didn’t post up Shaq much in Phoenix, did he?  I bet he didn’t.

Anthony Randolph:  has yet to be put in the position to be a factor.  He’s not as good as Landry Fields at playing off the ball and still being a factor.  That’s why when he has the ball, he forces the issue.  What could we use from him?  Shot-blocking, pick-setting, reading the passing lanes and rebounding, to name a few things.  If he can rebound and bring the ball up, I don’t see why that would be a bad idea, again, as long as he doesn’t force it and can see the floor and make a good pass.

Andy Rautins:  Can he be a backup point guard in D’Antoni’s system?  Why not activate him and try since on some nights Toney Douglas’ shoulder problems effects his shooting ability.  He can shoot, something that is needed when Douglas shoots less than 40% from the floor on most nights.  He’s athletic enough for us NOT to have to revert back to Chris Duhon.

Roger Mason Jr hasn’t seen daylight since the preseason.

How about the Magic pulling the trigger to get Turkoglu back?  That’s got to be a little humble pie for Otis Smith to re-acquire the contract he didn’t want to ink Turk to begin with.  I can understand why they got rid of Vince Carter.  Why Phoenix would part with Jason Richardson is interesting to me.

We get to see the new-look Magic at the end of this month.

Jameer Nelson

Gilbert Arenas

Dwight Howard

Jason Richardson

Turkoglu

Not a bad starting five on paper.

As far as Carmelo not coming, I say so be it.  Time for the superstars to stop jerking New York’s chain.  We’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime, NBA players and coaches using New York only to not come here.

If you want to come here, the proof is in the pudding.  Man up and come here.  Don’t make the whole city pine for you just to sign with the Russian.

Amar’e Stoudemire might not play tonight due to his soar neck.  It will take a huge effort from D’Antoni to look past his stubbornness and play Anthony Randolph and Timofey Mozgov, although they could be what the the Knicks need right now.  Randolph will turn it over, but if Stoudemire doesn’t play, that’s five less turnovers right there.

Stoudemire is getting the bulk of his 26 points per game off of jump shots from the perimeter.  Mozgov is a true post up player and Randolph can run the floor and finish on the break, so I say give them some PT, especially if Stoudemire is hurt, there is no need to force the issue a la Patrick Ewing when his wrist got jacked in the playoffs in ’99.

And by the way, is James Dolan at all a factor in the stubborn decision to not play Eddy Curry, or is that again all on Mike ‘D’Antoni?  He’s at least good for some fouls.  Again, no use for a post up player, I assume.   Starting to say screw seven seconds or less.

“I think he’ll flourish,” said Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Duhon for four years at Duke. “My feeling is he’ll be one of the leaders in the league in assists in Mike’s system. That will make everybody better.”

“I think he’s the kind of guy that the New York Knicks always had,” Walsh said. “A guy that just goes out, plays hard, fits in with the team, has a role to play, will defend. Those are the kind of players we’d like to see on this team.”

So Donnie, care to elaborate as to which players you’d like to see leave this team?

I don’t know about you, but to lead the league in assists implies to me that you are a starting point guard.

Read the full Howard Beck written, New York Times article here.