It's St. Patrick's Day, and you know what that means: the Knicks will be wearing green! And in green, the Knicks will be taking on the Memphis Grizzlies at the Garden in what amounts to as close as a must-win game as you can have around Paddy's Day in the NBA. The Knicks have dropped three in a row, all three in different yet hideous fashion. A blowout to the Dallas Mavericks was followed by a two game sweep at the hands of the Indiana Pacers. Tyler Hansbrough found his inner March Madness, droppping career highs in both games. The Knicks simply didn't defend in either of the three games.
Their last victory came against these same Grizzlies, thanks to Carmelo Anthony's buzzer-beating winner. The Knicks led comfortably in that game, but allowed Memphis to erase a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to momentarily tie the game. When you look at things that way, you realize the Knicks are one 'Melo shot away from being on a four game losing streak. Not exactly what fans hoped for when Anthony was brought here.
The Knicks better try and defend at least a little bit better than they have in the past three games if they have plans on beating Memphis. They had toruble controlling Zach Randolph last time out, and with the way the Knicks have been playing in their past three, no improvement on the defensive front would prove disastrous against Z-Bo. The Knicks have three winnable games coming up starting with tonight, and they had better win them all if they want to hold on to the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference.