Good morning, New York/New Jersey-area sports fans! It is a sunny Saturday here in the Northeast, but things are not looking so sunny for many of the teams around the local sports scene.
NBA: The Carmelo Anthony era New York Knicks continued to look awful Friday night, losing their fifth straight game and falling to 7-11 since the mega-trade for Anthony and Chauncey Billups. The loss to Milwaukee may have officially started the Mike D'Antoni watch. The Knicks look dispirited, they play no defense and their offense is in disarray. They seem to have no idea how to get the ball where they want it to go, if they even know where they want it to go.
No one should ever expect a D'Antoni team to play much defense. Without a quality center you can't expect them to rebound much, either. You always, however, expect a D'Antoni team to score. Problem is, he is a pick-and-roll, run-and-gun coach without that type of team right now. Chauncey Billups is not Steve Nash, or even Raymond Felton on the pick and roll. And with Anthony and Billups this isn't a full-court, high-speed offense. D'Antoni has to show the ability to adjust to what he has.
The New Jersey Nets lost to Orlando Friday night, their fifth loss in six games. At least the Nets are going down fighting.
NHL: It was nice while it lasted, but the New Jersey Devils' playoff hopes have pretty much faded away. The Devils lost a must-win game to Pittsburgh Friday night, 1-0.
NFL: The league awarded its compensatory draft picks on Friday. The New York Giants received two, both at the end of the sixth round of the April draft. The New York Jets were not granted any additional picks. The picks are awarded via a complicated formula for free agents lost.
MLB: We knew things were bad around the New York Mets franchise, but this bad? A report Friday indicated the Mets lost $50 million in 2010 and could lose that much again this season.
The New York Yankees took steps Friday toward aligning their pitching staff, trading Sergio Mitre to Milwaukee and signing veteran Kevin Millwood to a minor-league contract.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Top-seeded Ohio State is out, losing to Kentucky and leaving whatever was left of brackets around the country in even worse shape. See all of SB Nation New York's NCAA Tournament coverage in our special NCAA Tournament section.