Carmelo Anthony was efficient, but it wasn't enough for a win.
Yes, that's the dilemma the Knicks are dealing with this 2011 NBA basketball season. Despite Melo putting on perhaps his most efficient game as a Knick, his team still lost to the Milwaukee Bucks to drop to 7th in the East.
And in case you didn't get it, Carmelo Anthony made amends, reclaimed his smile and his swagger and reasserted his place in a Knicks offense that remains intermittently ragged but badly needs him in it.
When he snarled on Sunday, it was at the Milwaukee Bucks or the referees, not at his teammates. When he shot the ball, he did so mostly within the system and within rhythm. His head was clear, but everything else about the Knicks was muddled in a 100-95 loss.
The New York Knicks were inept enough to fall behind by 23 points in the first quarter, resilient enough to rally back and cut the deficit to a point in the third, and still disjointed enough that they never took the lead in the second half.
As the season grows short, the remade Knicks are facing the stark possibility that they may not get themselves coordinated by the time the playoffs arrive. “We’re a ways away from where we need to be,” Chauncey Billups said. “We got a ways to go, on both ends, just getting familiar.”
They have the Boston Celtics visiting them at Madison Square Garden next...
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