Saying that 6th Man of the Year, JR Smith, has been struggling with his shooting is a massive understatement. Smith is only 11-52 from the field in this series, and that doesn’t even count the two brutal shooting performances he put up in the final couple games of the Knicks-Celtics first round series.
But Knicks’ Smith at least has an excuse for his poor performance in Game 3 Saturday against the Pacers, as he ran a very high fever most of the day leading up to the game. Smith was still sick this morning, and ended up missing another team practice because of it. Even more alarming however for Knicks’ fans is that Smith’s teammate Kenyon Martin has now also come down with a similar illness and was forced to miss practice. Knicks Coach Mike Woodson was smart to keep both players away from the team so the don’t start dropping like flies…
“Kenyon’s kind of coming down with [illness], too,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said, “so we’ve got to be careful that this thing doesn’t spread, and other guys start dropping.” (via ESPN)
Someone needs to quarantine Carmelo Anthony, as he is the only member of the Knicks squad that has been able to put the ball in the basket this series. I don’t want to take anything away from the Pacers excellent defense, but the Knicks have been missing open shots at an alarming rate. As the top three point shooting team in the league this season, it is mind boggling that the team can’t knock down open shots from the perimeter against the Pacers. Someone get Steve Novak and Chris Copeland some minutes please, because unless JR Smith recovers to his hot shooting and slashing ways, the Knicks won’t have a hope to get past the Pacers. Even with Amare Stoudemire back in the rotation.
