Melo and the New Look Knicks
Yes, yes the New York Knicks are 4-0. I won't lie, I didn't see this strong of a start happening from this squad, especially without Stoudemire and Shumpert, but I am definitely not complaining. They've had some really strong wins against the always tough Mavericks and the defending champion Heat, and two very decisive wins against the Sixers. Now some people will point out the absence of Dirk Nowitzki for the former, and Andrew Bynum for the later but I say who cares? You have to win the easy games, and the games when your opponent is down, and that's exactly what the Knicks did. They saw a Mavericks team and a Sixers team that wasn't at full strength and took advantage.
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Now obviously the most impressive part of the strong start for New York is the play of Carmelo Anthony. Now everyone knew he was going to score, maybe not this much, but not only is he second in the NBA in scoring behind James Harden, but we are seeing his effort on defense pay off, and his reinvigorated hustle. He is diving out of bounds for loose balls, blocking shots, closing out on shooters, and on offense he is passing. Maybe he isn't racking up a whole lot of assists but he is moving the ball when it's needed, and that is something I love to see.
Aside from Melo the most impressive thing I have seen thus far is the play of the newest Knicks. Brewer, Kidd, Felton, Sheed, Thomas, Camby, these guys may be up there in age, and may not be great scorers or whatever, but this group has created one of the most unselfish teams in the NBA, even with Melo and J.R. Smith. They have completely accepted their roles, and know they are here to defend, rebound, pass, and hit the open shot when needed. They don't have to have the ball in their hands to be effective and because of that the team is jelling in an unbelievable way on the court. The defensive rotation and the way the ball is moved around on offense is the sharpest its been in years. Next up the Knicks have the Magic in Orlando.
Mike Brown and the Lakers
On the other side of the country, things are not going as well for Los Angeles. The Lakers, who came into the season as heavy favorites to at least make, if not win, the NBA Finals, have started the season 1-4 and have had enough. After just 5 games, the Lakers front office decided to fire head coach Mike Brown, pretty much putting the entire bad start on him. Now if you ask me, and probably about 90% of the sports world, this was a very premature firing, and this was not the right move. Brown is a good coach, but we haven't seen him have the same success Phil Jackson had with Kobe and Pau, so I guess he just wasn't good enough. About 12 hours after the firing the Lakers beat the hell out of the Warriors in the Staples Center, which means that interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff is probably one of the best coaches in the history of the NBA. In less then a day he turned the entire team around and led them to a victory against a usually tough Warriors squad. So he's here to stay right? No. The Lake Show are reportedly interested in hiring Mike D'Antoni, or even more ridiculously, convincing Phil Jackson to come out of retirement and return to LA. Good luck with that.
Time for Panic in Beantown?
Lastly I would like to talk a little bit about the Celtics. I team I hate, and hope to see crash and burn more then a̶n̶y̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ almost any other team (Heat) in the league. Now I know it's very, very early, but Boston has got to be worried about what they have seen thus far. The team is 2-3, and the only team the C's have beaten is the winless Wizards...twice, and one of them came in OT. They've lost to the Heat, Sixers, and Bucks, admittedly all teams in the better half of the Eastern Conference, but this is a Celtics team that has always been able to pull out that tough win, or at least challenge every team on a nightly basis. Most people will point to the departure of Ray Allen as the missing link, but that just can not be the case. They added Jason Terry, and Jeff Green in the offseason, which in my eyes spells overall team improvement. This is a team that is considered by most to be within the top 3 in the East, and on paper I would agree with them. There is just something off this year when you watch them. They don't look like the same team, and the age of their stars looks like it may finally be catching up to them.
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