"De-FENSE" chants are finally making a difference.

The idea that this "new" New York Knicks team could not play defense always struck me as ridiculous, and fortunately last night may have put that argument to bed. To suggest that players like Amar'e and Carmelo can't play defense is ludicrous. Anyone who watches the NBA would agree that Amar'e and Carmelo are in the top 5% of athletes in the entire NBA, possibly even higher. It's not that they somehow can't transfer their prodigious athletic gifts from one end of the floor to the other, it's that they usually didn't have the "want" to. As any person who has ever played basketball knows, there are very few tricks to making defense easier. Carmelo has no equivalent of his devastating spin move on offense that can get him an easy possession on D. What does make it easier is that the concepts aren't as difficult to learn. This team is going to take several weeks to jell together offensively. D'Antoni runs a very successful but complicated system that takes a group of players weeks, if not months, to perfect. This Knicks team last night looked like they realized that for now, their individual parts are better than their whole on offense, and they needed to pick up the slack somewhere else. All of a sudden, the forwards were aggressively hedging on screens, Melo's hands started to get into the passing lanes, and switches on picks were happening with ease. And because the stars were working hard, the role players also played to their potential. Williams again put on his exhibition of guarding every spot from the 3 through the 5 effectively. Douglas and Carter frustrated the Heat guards into poor shooting nights and 9 turnovers. And on the most pivotal possession of the game, Melo played defense with his legs, forced LeBron to take an extra step on his drive, and STAT put the Heat's last realistic chance on ice (I'll take LeBron shooting a clutch three any time any day). 

Being realistic, all a team needs on defense is one great player to set the tone. The Celtics, who are placed on a pedestal as the paragon of NBA defense, don't exactly have a team full of defensive savants. Ray Allen has been considered a defensive liability his entire career. Paul Pierce, as much as he is lauded for stopping LeBron and Kobe in the playoffs, has never garnered a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team all defense selection in his career. The key to that team is Garnett. He's the guy who came in with a reputation for outstanding defense, and made everyone step their game up. My question is, why can't Billups do that here? None of the players are malcontents like they were in Denver (see Smith, JR and Martin, Kenyon), and even though he's lost a step (similar to Garnett), he has a reputation as being a great leader and was a Finals MVP on one of the best defensive teams of the last decade. If Billups can instill a sense of defensive pride in this team, they have the ability to be a very good defensive team, and they showed it last night.