After a day’s vacation, I come back to you knowing that you were all withheld from critical information regarding the sporting universe. So here I am back to give you the news with my opinion as only I can. Saturday opened with the news that renowned orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Andrews never cleared Robert Griffin the third to come back into the game in which he originally injured his LCL despite the opposite coming from Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports wrote that he did himself and his team a disservice by keeping RGIII in that game. Les Carpenter of Yahoo Sports writes that maybe Mike Shanahan needs a no man. Jarrett Bell of USAToday wrote that perhaps this is what life with RGIII will always be like: Risk vs. reward.
I will write more about this subject later on today, but the fact is, most people agree that RGIII should’ve been taken out at some point in the game, long before he was ever actually scraped off the field. When we finally saw his knee buckle and RGIII lying motionless on the ground it only served to confirm everything the viewing public had seen. He wasn’t right at any point of that game and he was becoming a liability. On the other hand, this is the playoffs and suddenly being down 21-14 probably called upon your best player to rise to the occasion which he really tried to do. What most people won’t understand is Shanahan’s motivation for keeping him in the game. During the game, I tweeted at 14-13 that if Seattle scores, maybe it should turn to Kirk Cousins because after the first two series, the Redskins just were never the same and the momentum had squarely fell on the Seahawks who had got back to playing sound defensively.
Much of yesterday was spent breaking down what role Mike Shanahan played in RGIII’s knee being destroyed. Today will be spent in analyzing the results of RGIII’s MRI which Dr. Andrews will take a look at. Dr Andrews not wanting RGIII back in that game speaks volumes about how injured RGIII was and how Shanahan is either lying to himself to keep RGIII out there or he just doesn’t care how he wins or what it costs. Either way, Shanahan will get ripped apart in the greater DC area. Not only did they lose, they may have lost their franchise for a good portion of the 2013 season. One important thing to remember is that they have a capable QB in Kirk Cousins who is more than capable of coming in and winning a few games. He may not offer the team the chance that RGIII would on a game by game basis, but he isn’t a terrible option and unlike the Eagles who had three healthy QB’s in McNabb, Vick and Kevin Kolb and decided to ship the other two out and throw all their chips on Vick. This may have been the best thing that happens to the Redskins. If Cousins does perform very well, he may be able to build up value and the Skins would, in theory, be able to recoup some of the lost draft picks they sent to the Rams in order to draft RGIII.
Carmelo Anthony lost his cool and the Knicks lost the game. Tell me if you’ve heard that script before. The Knicks have and did. Nate Taylor of the New York Times writes that Garnett and the Celtics showed they can rattle Melo and beat the Knicks. George Willis of the New York Post writes that if the Knicks aren’t careful they can begin to pick up a reputation of being easily thrown off their game. Dave D’Alessandro of the Star Ledger writes that Doc Rivers and the Celtics pride themselves on championships not on small goals like winning the division.
Last night’s game was awesome from the perspective of the atmosphere in the Garden (the fans were terrific), and atmosphere. New York is a city full of transplants and there are plenty of shamrock-rocking folk in this town to know that a full home crowd is NOT to be expected but the fact that they were so into this game, it probably ratcheted up the intensity ten fold and probably added to Carmelo’s frustrating evening. His shots weren’t going in, but KG’s mouth was running and Melo unable to hurt him where it counts decided that the only way to get the last word was to chase KG down in the visitor’s locker room after the game, a place he purposefully he went to without even hesitating for a moment following the final horn.
I wrote this after the game, but the book on the Knicks is out there. Rattle the superstar. Get them complaining to the refs and they will be mentally distracted enough that they won’t be able to recover. Play them physically and force them to return the aggression, because they can’t do it with control, and they will be completely duped. The Knicks are becoming that team with a very quick temper and unable to control themselves in situations. Those that cry that Melo doesn’t get the superstar calls, that’s why. He spends so much time complaining to refs that most of them don’t ever want to satisfy Melo because nothing is ever enough. Yes, does Melo get fouled a ton? Sure. But basketball is physical when you enter that five feet area between player and basket. That’s where grinders and maulers have to be bigger than the foe in front of them and impose their will. Melo has the body, but he does not have the temperment to spend too much time boxing out and setting up shop. I’m not implying that Melo is weak or soft underneath the basket, but he has to stop being so angry everytime a whistle isn’t blown. The refs can call that foul every single time but when he doesn’t you keep working.
Melo plays the kind of physical basketball that you want to see but is so difficult to officiate. Its not in the same league as Shaq who walked a fine line everytime he swung that arm around and the elbow almost always seemed to miss the defenders face by a whisker. Its tough to match him physically down there but when a team can, its time for Melo to do other things. His 18 foot jumper is almost always a good decision. His turnaround jumper is getting better. Getting the bigger defender away and driving past them is a skillset he is putting more to use this year. These are the kind of decisions that you want to see Melo make. Decisions based on who’s guarding him. Every team throws multiple defenders on him. Last night, the Celtics put Bradley on him at times, Paul Pierce, Jeff Green. Mixing and matching big with small. It can’t be easy for Melo but he has to understand that his best skill is to draw multiple defenders away from their man so his teammates can get a better shot. By the time that Kevin Garnett had taken him completely out of that game, he was jacking up threes with 18 left on the shot clock and doing things that old Melo used to do. Anthony just can’t play mad and its becoming a liability when he gets into those modes where he’s playing out of pure spite for the guy in front of him. He forgets teammates and the game plan and Woodson needs to have a sit down with him.
There’s no doubt that Melo is the MVP and nothing about yesterday’s game is going to disprove that, but last night’s game is a continuing novel being written by perennial playoff contenders, teams who have played in the games that the Knicks are making a strong case they will play this year, that if you want to get to that level you must play physical and if you aren’t willing to match the physicality and you are more willing to swing than actually play ball then you don’t belong in the discussion and you probably aren’t ready for the primetime that teams like the Bulls, the Grizzlies and most importantly the Celtics have been to.
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