5 Reasons New York Knicks Will Fall Flat in 2012 NBA Playoffs

To say the New York Knicks season has been tumultuous would certainly be an understatement.

The New York tabloids have enjoyed this season and have exploited every storyline as the fans watched not knowing what to expect next.

They have basically had several different episodes to their season. It began with the underachieving performances of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, which caused the pundits to assume Carmelo was to blame for the lack of continuity.

Enter Jeremy Lin, and the Knicks took the world by storm as Mike D'Antoni's job was temporarily saved by the 6'3" dynamo out of Harvard.

Eventually, the magic ran out, and D'Antoni was relieved of his duties. In his place, Mike Woodson has guided the Knicks into position to clinch a postseason berth as the regular season is nearing its conclusion and Carmelo Anthony is back to leading the charge.

While the Knicks will likely lock up the seventh or eighth seed, they will be left to play one of the Eastern Conference powerhouses, which will cause the clock to strike midnight on their Cinderella story.

No. 5: Inconsisent Play

On any given day, the Knicks have the formidable talent and big-game acumen to beat any team. This was evident by their impressive wins against Boston and Chicago in recent weeks.

With that being the case, why do they struggle to stay above .500 or maintain any sort of prosperity?

How can a team that featured winning streaks of five and seven games in the same season also suffer two losing streaks of six games?

It is due to the fact that they have featured so many different lineups this season; it has been tough for their stars to play with any sort of continuity.

With Carmelo playing incredible in the past two weeks, it's easy to forget some were calling for him to be traded when 'Linsanity' was at its peak.

The Knicks may not know until next week whether Lin will be available for the postseason, so they must prepare to play without him.

For this reason, they lack an identity. While they feature several marquee names, they are asked to play different roles depending who is on the court.

While the most optimistic fans may still be holding onto hope that the superstars can co-exist, it is highly unlikely they will magically play cohesively for the first time which would be against one of the toughest defenses in the league.

No. 4: Lack of a Second Option

Even if Stoudemire is healthy for the playoffs, his skills have apparently greatly diminished since the first half of last season.

He averaged 17.8 points per game and eight rebounds, which was down from 25.3 and 8.1 from last season.

While the Knicks certainly possess a deep bench, they just do not feature another shooter that can take over the game when Anthony is being double-teamed and pressured.

Steve Novak is an incredibly efficient long-range shooter, but is one-dimensional and tends to score in short spurts. He averaged 8.7 points per game, and is a non-factor late in the fourth quarter due to his defensive deficiencies.

J.R. Smith is not afraid to make shots, but that does not mean he can shoulder the load. Smith averaged 12 points off the bench, but that is skewed by his volume of shots. Shooting 35 percent from long-range and 40 percent overall does not inspire much confidence, especially when he is disrupting the flow of the offense with ill-timed missed threes.

The dark-horse candidate for a big postseason series might be rookie Iman Shumpert. While he averaged only 9.6 points per game, he exudes confidence in his game and creates many fastbreak opportunities with his stifling defense which allowed him to average 1.74 steals per contest.

Ultimately, late in the fourth quarter if Anthony is being matched up against LeBron James, the Knicks will need another big-time scoring threat. Who will it be? That's something Mike Woodson might not even be sure of.

No. 3: Point Guard Play

Entering the season, it seemed the Knicks were lacking an efficient point guard to run Mike D'Antoni's system in order to be successful. While it took them 26 games to realize, that impact player was on their bench.

Jeremy Lin had the Knicks playing cohesive and efficient ball. When he went down with injury, it seemed they were back to square one.

D'Antoni's offense is certainly different than Woodson, which does not have the same emphasis on a point guard, but in the playoffs it will be important for the Knicks to keep their turnovers to a minimum.

Baron Davis will most likely receive the bulk of the playing time in the postseason, simply because Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas have not shown that they are capable of it at this point.

The Knicks have experimented with Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith running the point at various points this season, but must be able to trust that they will not be making foolish mistakes.

Lin received a lot of criticism for his 3.6 turnovers per game, but it should be noted that Baron Davis has averaged 2.6 turnovers while he has averaged only 20 minutes per game.

This can be a point of concern in the playoffs, especially since Davis does not contribute much in terms of shooting percentage at a measly 35 percent.

No. 2: The Superstar Conundrum

The Knicks were expected to compete with the Eastern Conference powerhouses in the offseason due to their trio of stars in Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler.

They seemed to possess the late-game closer in Anthony, the versatile double-double specialist in Stoudemire and the interior defender with Finals experience in Tyson Chandler.

Rather, the team got off to a terrible 8-15 start with their low-point coming at the hands of a defeat to the rival Boston Celtics.

The Knicks made their surge with Jeremy Lin as the focal point of the offense, not Carmelo. It is still unknown when or if Lin will make his return to the team this season.

Anthony's performance has peaked recently. In his last 12 games he has averaged 31 points and displayed his ability to hit big shots late in the game. Anthony has also been efficient, shooting 49 percent from the field.

When they have both been on the court, they seem to conflict with each other's style of play. Anthony thrives in isolation situations while Stoudemire is adept at the running the pick-and-roll.

Anthony has shot only 39 percent while they are both on the court. That number cannot remain the same in a postseason series.

No. 1: The Matchup

As it stands the Knicks are currently in the No. 7 seed. That may change, as their lead over the No. 8 seeded 76ers can be gone in the blink of an eye.

They will most likely not have a chance to jump the Orlando Magic or Atlanta Hawks for the No. 6 seed.

This means they will be playing the Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat in the first round.

The Knicks have not played well against either this season. They are 0-3 against Miami and 1-3 against Chicago. The lone win was in Derrick Rose's first game back after injury which clearly effected his play.

While the playoffs are certainly a different animal, the Knicks will literally have to fire on all cylinders, capitalize on sloppy play and get a considerable amount of luck if they are to upset the balanced attacks of either team.

The Knicks could have faced a weaker opponent had they not lost against below .500 teams such as Charlotte and Golden State early in the season.

Now they must either upset a team with the reigning MVP or a team with the soon-to-be MVP.