It's finally over. The Knicks have now gone 39 years without an NBA Title and 13 years without winning a postseason series thanks to t...
Of course, that doesn't mean the Knicks are done making news. There will be a season-ending press conference at the team facility today, but before we can get to that, here's NJ.com's daily aggregation of team buzz from around the web:
• The New York Post's Marc Berman didn't take a glass-half-full assessment of the Knicks future: "There wasn’t much evidence the Knicks are on a fast track to a future title Wednesday night as the Miami Dream Team outclassed them again, 106-94, at the AmericanAirlines Arena to win the series 4-1... The Knicks’ Big 3 just isn’t up to Miami’s Big 3 — not now, maybe not in the next three years. In leading a sickly offense, Carmelo Anthony had his good and bad moments in finishing with 35 points on 15-of-31 shooting, and he exits the playoffs in the first round for the eighth time in nine seasons."
• The postseason could have been remarkably similar to 1999, but ultimately fell short, wrote Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: "Forget about a repeat of 1999 when the Knicks, starting with a first-round upset over the Miami Heat, ended up in the NBA Finals... Their tumultuous strike-short-ened season, one that included the phenomenon known as Linsanity, a coaching change and an actual playoff victory, concluded Wednesday night without a championship for the 39th consecutive year and counting."
• As The New York Times' Howard Beck pointed out, Stoudemire's season came to an early end on Wednesday: "Stoudemire’s playoff exit came early — the result of a sixth foul — but his star teammates soon followed Wednesday night when another postseason ended in despair. The Knicks were never as good as their hype, and never a match for the Miami Heat, who closed out the first-round series in five games, with a 106-94 victory at American Airlines Arena... Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony been partners for two playoff runs. Both have ended in the first round, with one victory to show for it."
• For Stoudemire, the 2011-2012 season will be memorable, but painfully so, wrote Neil Best of Newsday: "'It was an up-and-down year for me,' he said after the Knicks' 106-94 loss. 'It started off with my brother's death, so that was hard to get over. I'm still trying to get over that now. And a few injuries throughout the year... 'The lockout wasn't great for me, either, because coming off the back injury and not being able to get the proper treatment was not good.'... Stoudemire made a dramatic return in Game 4 Sunday, playing with his left hand heavily wrapped and partnering with Carmelo Anthony to lift the Knicks to their first playoff victory in 11 years."
• But like his teammates, Stoudemire is optimistic about the future, wrote George Willis of the Post: "If there’s one thing Stoudemire craves is consistency heading into next year... 'I think we have to have a better mindset going into the season,' he said. 'Definitely, have to have to have a more consistent season. This year has been up and down with the coaching change and so on and so forth. We have to implement our strategies in training camp and get better throughout the year.'"
• As Hale pointed out, several Knicks players' futures are now up in the air: "After his horrid performance last night, J.R. Smith re-tweeted some criticism of his play and hinted the tweets might have helped with his decision on whether to pursue free agency... 'Damn didn’t know this [many] people didn’t want me in #NY might just get what you asking for!' he tweeted, adding the ominous hashtag '#sorrykidz.'... Smith has a $2.5 million player option for next season he can either exercise and remain with the Knicks or decline, which would make him a free agent. The erratic-shooting 2-guard is a valuable sixth man, but he was brutal in the final three games against Miami."
• ESPNNewYork.com's Jared Zwerling quoted Steve Novak as saying he wants to stay with the Knicks: "Following Wednesday night's first-round exit, Steve Novak still said there's no place he'd rather play than New York... 'That's for sure,' he said after the Knicks' Game 5 loss. 'I can't think back to a more fun year I’ve had playing basketball when you have so much fun playing in a place that's where you want to be. And for me, that's definitely New York.'"
• As Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com explained, we might see some schematic changes from the Knicks next year: "Tyson Chandler hinted that that offensive philosophy needs to change -- drastically -- in the offseason... 'I think we have to ... work on an offense with a nice pace to it, a nice flow where everybody touches the ball,' Chandler said. 'They’re going to get their shots (he said of Stoudemire and Anthony), but we've got to make sure we get other guys involved, get ball movement, and let them finish plays... 'It has to be a team effort, it cant be individuals,' Chandler added, 'Because when you play as individuals you don’t get very far.'"
• Zwerling quoted Anthony as saying he feels good about the direction of the Knicks: "'I feel confident in my team and where we're headed, despite everything that happened this season,' he said during his postgame press conference. 'It's been an up-and-down season for us. We still went out there, we competed, we played with what we had out there. In the future, I feel good about competing with the top teams in the Eastern Conference. I do consider our team being up there -- a top-three, top-four team in the East. But we've just got to get better and go from there.'"
• As Newsday's Barbara Barker suggested, Anthony has a right to complain about the effort from his supporting cast: "That's because James knows that the one big thing that separates his fate from Anthony's is his incredible surrounding cast. While the Knicks spent the night searching for an offensive weapon to complement Anthony's 35 points, the Heat had its most balanced scoring effort since it bulldozed the Knicks by 33 in Game 1. Six players had nine or more points. James led with 29, Dwyane Wade and the much-maligned Chris Bosh each had 19."
• As Newsday's Al Iannazzone explained, Novak was held in check by the Heat once again: "Sharpshooter Steve Novak took only nine shots in the series and scored just 12 points as the Heat defense smothered him whenever he was open."
• The Knicks teams of the 1990s had the disadvantage of playing at the same time as the Michael Jordan Bulls teams. And as the Daily News' Mitch Lawrence suggested, the same dynamic is playing out with the Heat: "OK, but other than ending an NBA record 13-game playoff losing streak, the Knicks made no noise. The only time they made headlines came when Stoudemire sliced up his hand after Game 2 here. Even with their backcourt sustaining two big injuries, they went too quietly, winning only once when Stoudemire and Anthony put a great game together in Sunday’s win.... But Wednesday, when they said they were here to force a Game 6 on Friday, it was back to the dysfunctional Knicks, with Anthony firing up 31 shots to get his 35 points and registering all of one assist, and Stoudemire scoring only 14 points, while turning the ball over five times and having zero impact before he fouled out late... 'He is extinguished!' said the PA announcer, in a cheap shot."
• It's not his fault, but Carmelo Anthony is not LeBron James, the Daily News' Kevin Armstrong pointed out: "He thrived in isolation. Each time Carmelo Anthony touched the ball early in Game 5 against the Heat, he either turned to take a quick-release jumper or squared to gauge his counterpart’s defensive positioning. Most possessions, he mapped out his steps and elevated on jumpers, but then there was the backdoor cut from the wing along the baseline for a two-handed dunk.... LeBron James, Anthony’s best friend in the league, doubled as his foil. Unable to contain the aggressive athleticism of James, Anthony was handcuffed with two personal fouls with 3:22 left in the first quarter. He sat the next six minutes. Frustrated by the endless attention paid to him by James and the Heat, Anthony was whistled for a technical in the third quarter. He finished 15 of 31 from the field for 35 points in the 106-94 loss to end the Knicks’ season Wednesday night."
• After the game, Anthony insisted the Knicks would be better next season, but didn't offer a lot of specifics, wrote Mark Hale of the Post: "Carmelo Anthony made a promise for next season, not guaranteeing specific postseason success but declaring 2012-13 will be a better campaign for the Knicks... 'Next year we’ll be better,' Anthony said after the Knicks fell to the Heat 106-94 in Game 5, last night ending their season and killing their postseason in the first round. 'We’ll be much better, as a unit. Not just me and Amar’e [Stoudemire] but as a team, as a group, we’ll be much better... 'We’ll learn from this. We’ll come back next year and be ready.'"
• The Post's Mike Vaccaro set some goals for the 2012-2013 Knicks: "Woodson wants to win a title? Wants to compete for one? Forty-one wins won’t get that done next year. Forty-five won’t, either. They want to sniff the elite, the first goal is this: win the Atlantic. Beat out the aging Celtics and the limited Sixers and their new neighbors from Brooklyn, no matter who’s on that roster by President’s Day. Win the Atlantic. Earn a round of home court. Make home court matter."
• As Berman explained, Tyson Chandler was not happy afterward: "Tyson Chandler said he hopes to become a bigger offensive threat next season... His season ended in the same visitor’s locker room at AmericanAirlines Arena as last season, but under much different circumstance. Last year, he was holding a bottle of champagne after helping the Mavericks over the Heat in The Finals... Wednesday night he was faced with a first-round KO in five games after a seven-point, 11-board, four-block outing."
• The Post's Fred Kerber reminded us that, when he sets his mind to it, LeBron James is nearly unstoppable: "James, who averaged 27.8 points in the series, stayed assertive at both ends. He was assigned much of the night to Carmelo Anthony defensively. He was King James in every way. He finished with those 29 points on 16 shots. Anthony scored 35 points on 31 shots. At the end of the game, the two friends embraced... 'Since high school, it was always fun going against him,' Anthony said... Fun. But not always satisfying. James goes on, Anthony goes home."
• Jeremy Lin ended his memorable second season on the Knicks' bench because his surgically repaired left knee never truly healed, wrote Beck: "'I tried to take off, tried to plant, just go full speed at 100 percent,' Lin said Wednesday, as the Knicks prepared for Game 5. 'It didn’t feel right. I felt pain when I tried to take off.'... Lin said team doctors told him: 'I need to be able to just trust the knee. And right now there’s some tightness and soreness. And I need to get that out obviously before I can be 100 percent.”Although the team ruled out Lin for the rest of this series, he was considered on track to return in the second round, if the Knicks made it. That is consistent with the original prognosis, which called for Lin to miss the first round after having a meniscus tear repaired April 2.'"
• To brighten everyone's gloomy day, the Times' Richard Sandomir spoke with http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/this-is-a-real-post-about-fake-walt-frazier/?partner=rss&emc=rss: "If you flavor your basketball analysis with rhymes, as Walt Frazier does, you leave yourself open to parody. Dan Brill knows that and gleefully exploits Frazier’s boundin’ and astoundin’ rhyme-schemin’ on his Twitter account, (Not) Walt Frazier... 'What keeps me going is a lot of times it’s the only source of fun during a Knicks game,' Brill said by telephone Tuesday. 'There hasn’t been much to laugh or smile about the last 10 years or so. This, for me, takes the pain and channels it into fun.'"
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