Tip-Off: 7:00 p.m
Where: TD Bank Garden
Starting Lineups
New York Knicks (0-1)
PG: Toney Douglas
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Ronny Turiaf
Boston Celtics (1-0)
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Jermaine O’Neal
Look For: Game One was a stomach punch loss, plain and simple. The Knicks had a two point lead with twenty seconds to go before things got away from them. Tonight is a huge game that the Knicks needs, no doubt about it.
Chauncey Billups is going to miss game two with a strained left knee and his status for the rest of the series is questionable. Shaquille O’Neal is expected to miss game two for the Celtics.
If the Knicks have a shot at winning tonight’s game they need a few factors to work in their favor. Amar’e needs to outplay Garnett again and Carmelo Anthony needs to have a big game, but more importantly Toney Douglas needs to play in control and not get swallowed up by the moment.
Look for Mike D’Antoni to push to ball more tonight as the Knicks let the Celtics set the tone in game one and the offense was run too often in the half court set. For what it’s worth, I thought D’Antoni did a nice job of using his time outs and really out-coached Rivers for 47 minutes in Game One.
I expect a much better performance tonight out of Paul Pierce, but if the Knicks can make Rondo shoot the ball and if a couple calls go their way this game truly will be up for grabs.
Watch the game on TNT or MSG and check back to STATandStuff.com for in-game tweets and a post game recap.
