Notes from a night of New York @ Philadelphia

• Through three quarters, the Knicks @ 76ers game looked like a sure bet to counterbalance what would be the inevitable Mets loss to the Phillies. But the fourth quarter has been the time that the Knicks loosen their grip on the rope, and last night was no difference. Philly stormed back with some tight defense, Billups had a deja vu moment colliding knees with Elton Brand on a high screen, and by the time Amar'e crumpled to the floor with his own knee injury, the lead was nearly gone. However, despite the defensive lapses prior to the Billups injuries, and the resulting disjointed offense, Carmelo was still able to turn in his most impressive performance in this recent string of his. On the surface, it was his immediate response to Andre Iguodala's improbable deep three over Fields, but really it was that he took AI out back to the woodshed all night. Despite the fact that Carmelo has been on a hot streak recently, Iguodala is known to be the quintessential defensive small forward in the NBA. The degree of difficultly on this performance was as high as possible, and Carmelo significantly outscored AND OUT-REBOUNDED a league renowned defensive stopper. For all of his ball stopping, and there's a good deal of it, this is why he was acquired. Every skeptical Knicks fan that is watching Denver pile up wins every night needs only to look at this game to see why the trade was worth it. When the chips are down late in a tough game, this team no longer needs to hope that one of a group of solid role players takes charge with Amar'e to win the game. There is a good argument to be made that along with a star power forward, opposing teams now need to worry about defending the deadliest closer in the game. And he may have proved last night that no one defender is enough.
• I've seen several blogs say today that after Billups and Stoudemire went down with seemingly minor injuries last night, the Knicks should simply rest their starters and coast to the playoffs. I could not disagree more. If Billups and Stoudemire can play at all, they should. I would say that this is not a team that has a luxury of flipping the light switch, but quite simply this isn't even a team yet. It's getting there, beating up on weaker opponents with the possible exception of last night (the Magic without Jameer Nelson are little more than a cheap parlor trick). Billups is just getting comfortable running this offense in regular season skirmishes, to rest him and then plop him down in the DEFCON 5 that is the playoffs is a recipe for disaster. More importantly possibly, is that STAT is in the process of redefining his role to better suit this team. He's realized that in most cases, there cannot be two ball stoppers on the court at once, and was a willing (7 assists) and capable (2 turnovers) passer last night. I don't see LeBron resting, I don't see the Celtics resting, and I don't see the Bulls resting. Very simply, you don't back in to a gun fight.
• Now on to the Mets. On the plus side, seeing the Mets fight back from a large deficit to the Phillies was a nice change of pace from the last few seasons. The past few years a 7-0 deficit would already have had half the team with towels around their waist. Pagan started everything with his home run to left center, and the next time around the order, the momentum snowballed. Four consecutive hits capped by a double by Ike Davis got New York to within one, and Daniel Murphy knotted the game with a single just past the outstretched Jimmy Rollins. Unfortunately Boyer coughed up the lead the next inning, and the offense stagnated for the last 4 innings, but unlike the past few years, the team didn't fold and live to fight another day when it went down big. 
• On the negative side, Mike Pelfrey. When Pelfrey was going well last season, all of his negative body language and possible tips disappeared. The mouth guard was gone, there were no more nervous ticks in between pitches, just a very focused confident pitcher. So far this season, they're back, specifically the excessive hand licking. And they're back with good reason, because Pelfrey isn't confident with his stuff. He hasn't located well in either game, his two seam fastball is tailing back over the plate with worrisome consistency, and he very well may be the worst pitcher on the staff at this point. Hopefully Warthen can get Pelfrey back to producing ground balls with Fungo bat regularity, and he can round out a pitching staff that outside of himself has looked solid.