Mike D'Antoni Needs To Take Responsibility When New York Knicks Play Poorly

This is not how the first week of the season was supposed to play out for the Knicks.  After winning their Christmas Day game versus the Celtics in dramatic fashion, the Knicks have lost the first to games of their west coast road trip, both by double-digits.  

Nothing has been going right for the Knicks the past two games.  Carmelo shot 23 percent from the field versus the Warriors.  Tyson Chandler’s only averaging 5.7 rebounds per game and worst of all, Amar’e Stoudamire sprained his ankle last night versus the Lakers.

After each loss, Mike D’Antoni has held a press conference and has said virtually nothing about why the Knicks have struggled so much and what he’s going to do to fix the problem.

After facing the Warriors, D’Antoni refused to give any credit to the Mark Jackson’s defensive game plan that stumped the Knicks all night long. 

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I’m sure they feel their defense was responsible, and they should feel that way. But, no, it was our mistakes that did us in. Every mistake that could be made, we made.

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OK, so if D’Antoni thinks the reason they lost is because of all the mistakes they made then he should know what the mistakes are and how to fix them, right?  Wrong!  D’Antoni didn’t have much insight because he said he needed to watch tape of the game.  Isn’t the coach supposed to be looking for the mistakes during the game so he can make mid-game adjustments?

After the embarrassing loss to the Lakers the next night, D’Antoni had pretty much the same thing to say.  

"The Lakers are good, and we’re awful, We didn’t play well. We can’t make shots. We started off really well. I thought the pace was good, the rhythm was good, and then it just went downhill from there."

Why were the Lakers good and the Knicks awful?  Why couldn’t the Knicks make shots?  Why did the pace start off in the Knicks favor and then quickly go downhill? 

I’m tired of D’Antoni getting excused for poor coaching.  This team is extremely talented and should not be getting embarrassed by anyone, let alone the Steph Curry-less Warriors.  I know this new rotation has only been playing together for less than a month, but the past two games are unacceptable.

D’Antoni needs to come up with a game plan and take responsibility for once for how poorly his team has been playing.  He needs to tell Amar’e to stop dribbling so much at the three-point line.  He needs to remind Tyson Chandler what makes him so great so he’ll grab more than three rebounds a game.  He needs to teach Toney Douglas how to run this offense so the Knicks will score more than 35 points in the second half.

If D’Antoni doesn’t take responsibility and improve the Knicks quickly, his job deserves to be on the line.   

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