Really Knick fans? Seriously? The Knicks have gotten so good they don't need Carmelo Anthony? He is going to be the whipping boy?

Listening to some Knick fans you would think Melo was the reason they lost Monday Night to the inept NJ Nets. Yes, Melo "hogged" up a whole 11 shots so blame him! Yes, he played poor defense on Deron Williams- Uh, no, he wasn't on Williams.

Too many Knick fans came waiting to boo Anthony and blame Anthony. A smattering of boos was heard at MSG for Carmelo. Heck, my Facebook page was blowing up after 1 HALF. Yes, 24 minutes and "smart-passionate" Knick fan found their new culprit!

Please!!!!! Anthony is just returning from injury. He needs a few games to get his conditioning back. Because of the labor situation, teams don't have much practice time. The Knicks are working in four players on the fly- Anthony, Jeremy Lin, Baron Davis, and J.R Smith with little time to practice. Coach Mike D'Antoni is finding comfortable lineups and matchups. Now not having a point guard in the ball game for a stretch makes no sense but it's a working experiment.

I know Knick fans won't like this, but a big part of the blame for the loss to NJ is the poor defense Lin played on Williams, who torched the NY'ers for a career-high eight 3-pointers. Lin never came out to challenge Williams, and if he did, Williams blew by him. Hey, Lin is learning as well. As much as Knick fans and basketball fans have fallen in love with NY's new Lin-sation, he isn't perfect, and makes poor plays. He is human!

This preconceived notion (hatched up by someone with too much time) that Anthony is a ball hog and will ruin what the Knicks have going on is laughable. Yeah, Anthony is only the most clutch player in the NBA, says the stats. This in terms of last second shots and making them. Anthony stirred it up by saying of course he wants the last shot.  I don't want him or anyone if they don't want the last shot. Hesitation causes games to be lost, not won. Anthony did have 6 helpers and only took 11 shots. You could clearly see he was hesitant, perhaps fearing the reaction he got from some.

Anthony is no good to the Knicks if he plays scared. Melo, don't listen to the goofballs and pay no mind to the people taking you to task. I want you to take the shots. You are an assassin! You have won far more games than you've lost because you play with no fear.

Some will take this to mean that Anthony should hoist up 30 shots per game. Not at all. All in the team concept and for the Knicks Anthony, not Lin, not Amare, not anyone is a better offensive weapon than anything else in the ballclub.

The Knicks paid a big price to aquire Anthony. You could argue too much. That's fine. But what is done is done- Anthony helps the Knicks a lot more than he hurts them with his defense. Linn is the distributor. Anthony is the main FINISHER!

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