" That is how this season has gone. I have no confidence in a fourth quarter lead anymore because of the fact that the opponent will abuse Bargnani or Felton (If he hasnt already been benched for not being able to stop his opposing point guard). I have no confidence in a fourth quarter lead because Anthony seems to vanish now in the final frame not demand for the ball. And the final reason why I have no confidence in a fourth quarter lead is because of the shot selection. I sat there, watching my terrible Knicks and terrible Raymond Felton blow a 23 point lead to a team without 3 of its top 5 players because Felton decides to jack up threes with 20+ seconds left in the shot clock. I cant help but sit there and wonder how he doesn't understand the concept of running out the clock a little bit with a 23 POINT LEAD. .
As I am sure you can now tell, Raymond Felton is my first problem if I am the Knicks. Yes, the Knicks rank 8th in the league in defense and yes the point guards he matches up against are top of the line, but I have never seen someone get completely torched so often like he does. Out of 50 qualified point guards, Felton ranks third to last in PER at 11.8. That is only higher than Diante Garrett from Utah (11.5) and J.J. Barea from Minnesota (11.4). 47 point guards play at a higher efficiency than the Knicks starter. FOURTY SEVEN. His back up plays 2 points higher than him on that scale. .
The Knicks as a team are giving up 24.5 ppg to apposing point guards which is tops in the league. That does not all fall on Felton obviously but as the starter, he needs to step up. He is out 2-3 weeks with a hamstring strain and the Knicks will have to figure something out to fill the "void.".
Somehow it gets worse from here. Two names ring a bell when it comes to really hurting the Knicks: Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith. The starting and back up shooting guards have played terrible basketball to start the year.