Melo, Amar'e Step Up As Knicks Beat LeBron And The Heat In Miami

The additions of Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire have clearly revitalized basketball in New York but it may be the unsung acquisition of former All Star G Chauncey Billups that makes the Knicks a dangerous team heading into the playoffs. Billups hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with a minute left helping the Knicks knock of the Miami Heat 91-86 on the road behind 29 pts from Carmelo and 16 and 10 from Stoudemire.

The Knicks fell behind by 15 early in the first half of this game but rallied with a 16-0 run to head in to halftime with a 1 point lead. LeBron James had a chance to score a go-ahead bucket of his in the game's final seconds with his team trailing by one but was rejected on a charge to the hoop by Amar'e after he beat Carmelo from the top of the key. On their next possession with the Heat now trailing by 3 LeBron got up to his own crunch-time tricks by bricking a shot from beyond the arc that would have tied the game.

Many analysts (myself included) have been unsure about how much better the Knicks would be after the Carmelo trade considering how much of their nucleus that had to part ways with. They may now be on their way to surprising some of their critics thanks to the production they have been receiving from Billups who many considered a throw-in in the deal. Billups is a veteran scoring threat who is a knock-down 3 point shooter and has an NBA finals MVP award to show for his work with the Pistons 6 years ago. The Knicks may have lost nearly 50 pts a game in combined scoring in the deal by in return they added two guys who can consistently make big shots with under 4 minutes remaining in a game which usually makes all the difference in the playoffs (just ask LeBron who was failed by secondary scoring options who choked like Mo Williams and Boobie Gibson).

I'm not sure how much the Knicks can really contend in the playoffs this year but it would not surprise me if they sparked a first round upset over the Celtics, Heat or Bulls if they were matched up with them. The Heat on the other hand have entered a 10-game span in which they must play 9 likely playoff teams including the San Antonio Spurs twice. The Heat have only been so-so against the other top teams in the NBA so we should get a good idea of how far the Heat's big 3 can really take them.