87 Celtics, 85 Knicks

I'n a drunken rant I had on March 21st I said that Carmelo is no good and that the only star on this team is Amare Stoudemire. Last night just validated my opinion. The Knicks played the game of their life, they played good defense, they kept the Celtics off rhythm and they had this game, until Ray Allen sunk a 3 with 12 seconds left.

IF the Knicks won this game it would have been bad news for the Celtics, they held them to under 90 points, they would have stolen home court advantage. Luckily that didn't happen and probably won't again this series. The Knicks will not be as dedicated on defense anymore, especially after losing this game and are going to go back to their run and gun ways.

Amare Stoudemire was an unstoppable force for much of the game he had 28 points, 11 boards and shot 12-18. The Celtics just couldn't figure him out, but for some odd god reason the Knicks went away from him and went to Melo. He scored 10 points in the 4th quarter, but he didn't touch the ball in the final 3 minutes. Melo thanked them with an offensive foul and a stupid 3 pointer at the end of the game.

The Celtics got away with them and they turned up their defensive intensity in the 2nd half to the playoff expectations, so hopefully that is the switch. Oh yea, speaking of a switch April 17th will be known as Jermaine O'Neal Day as he went to the way back machine and was great defensively. He finished with 12 points, 6-6 shooting, and 4 blocks. Jermaine has been playing like a tough son of a bitch lately. If he can play with that intensity for the rest of this series, I'll be fine with Shaq sitting out this series.

Chauncey Billups was helped off the court late in the 4th. He suffered what appeared to be a knee injury. It looked serious.