Knicks News: Carmelo Anthony Looking for Some Help from Teammates

The New York Knicks are 4-6 after ten games in this young season. In all their losses, New York has been outscored by a wide margin in the fourth quarter.

October 29, was the lone loss New York actually outscored their opponent in the fourth quarter, 29-28.

November 2, the San Antonio Spurs outscored the Knicks 24-19, -5.

November 4, the Cleveland Cavaliers outscored the Knicks 26-17, -9.

November 6, the Milwaukee Bucks outscored the Knicks 24-19, -5.

November 11, the Charlotte Hornets outscored the Knicks 26-14, -12.

November 13, the Cavaliers again outscored demolished the Knicks in the fourth quarter 24-12, -12.

The Atlanta Hawks game notwithstanding, New York has been outscored by an average of 8.6 points in the fourth quarter. This is not conducive to the Knicks winning basketball games…

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In the fourth quarter, New York too often is just relying on their superstar Carmelo Anthony bail them out. This week alone Anthony has taken some really low percentage shots with the game in the balance. Against the Hornets Anthony with the game tied at 93, was forced into a shot that hit the side of the backboard…

Against the Cavaliers, Anthony was forced to take a few shots with the clock winding down. A couple of times his teammates literally was asking Anthony to help bail them out, passing the ball to him with five seconds remaining on the shot clock. Both were misses.

After the Cavaliers loss, Anthony expressed his frustration with the Knicks over reliance on him to bail them out with tough plays. Anthony is asking for just a little help, as per Peter Botte of the New York Daily News.

"“guys are maybe looking at me a little bit too much instead of making the right play,”"

Anthony remains positive though, saying learning from their mistakes is key and that a correction to a couple of plays will get them victories in the future.

"“The guys, I think when you see it the day after, see how we lost the game, see how close we were to winning, it stings a little bit, but it gives you that confidence to know that a couple mistakes fixed here and there we can win those games,”“We’ll get there. This is a process that — I don’t want to say we should have expected — but it is what it is right now. We will get better at that, at finishing games, especially coming down the stretch.”"

Head coach Derek Fisher also feels that the team is over reliant on Anthony to bail them out in the fourth quarter.

"“going to continue to reinforce that it’s not any one person’s responsibility to save the day”"

Fisher puts it on himself, saying that he needs to find the right combination to put out there when the game gets tight. And that, that combination needs to make plays not just for Anthony but for themselves as well.

"“I don’t think guys are losing their confidence really in terms of being able to play in those situations. But for us, it’s a matter of really finding a group of guys that can finish games and that are accustomed to playing with each other out there on the floor,”“We’re trying to make sure the guys understand that just giving (Anthony) the ball and saying ‘go make a shot,’ that’s not the way we’re going to win games in the fourth quarter. It has to be done through all five guys, and that goes both ways, and that’s not easy to do.”"

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It is good that Fisher is taking on all the blame and deflecting it from any Knicks, that is a plus but he also needs to draw up some better plays where Anthony is used as a decoy. New York too often is just standing around and watching Anthony go to work. This does not only happen late in the game, this has also been happening when Anthony has been getting hot in a quarter. It just becomes iso-Melo and there is no ball movement… There is plenty of blame to go around, on Fisher and the players themselves.

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Hopefully the Knicks get better at executing successful plays in the fourth quarter soon, or else more losses will ensue.

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