Haven't read the post game talk yet, but I figure it's going to surround Melo's second half and place blame on him; which is pretty justified, dude was terrible in the second half and didn't think to pass until the very last possession of the game. But the Knicks scoring is not, has not been and probably will not be the problem with this team if you want it to win. Three point defense and PnR defense is the reason they lose. Melo put together a franchise record for scoring in a single quarter and the Knicks were up by 1 at the end of it. Not having an answer for John Wall in the pick and roll was the biggest fourth quarter issue. There's a porn addicted defensive coach, a head coach either making poor play calls or letting the inmates run the asylum and a collective of lazy defending guards that all need some pressure to step up with Melo but I figure we'll just be arguing about the one player the team has no choice but to keep. There are other places to improve the team that are easier to address...better, smarter defensive plans; rotations that don't piss off the players; being decisive about the youth movement that seems halfway started but not fully committed to...again, this ain't to take weight off Melo, but spread the wealth.
Rose: 7/16 for 20 points, 2 assists, 5 boards and cue the hallelujahs, just 1 TO. He cut back on the TO's but also didn't get assists, so ast:TO watch is still going strong but it's starting to look like the high PnR is a sure thing play for this team. Had Hornacek or Rose or Melo made the decision to run that play in the fourth, the Knicks probably put up enough points to hold off John Wall. Now Rose really didn't have it in him to stop Wall but NOBODY did last night and Rose was moved to SG's after the opening stanza (and Beal put up awful numbers). If he puts everything together that he's been flashing since he went Kevin Bacon Hollow Man for a night, dude stands to ruin our lottery chances now that the Hornacek has finally figured out to use the Calderon strategy in defensive sets (put him on the slowest guard).
Baker: 1 for 4, 2 points, 2 boards no assists but 2 second quarter steals on John Wall while helping off his man. This is one of those, "he was better than his numbers" games to me. Baker wasn't particularly good but his off ball help defense made him a presence while out there. That's not to say his was good though, dude has to step it up to continue to warrant starting...though I'd keep him starting anyway, grow the youth fam.
Melo: Tale of two halves for Melo. Overall numbers look brilliant if we're being honest. 48% from the field, 43% from 3, 34 points, 10 boards, 2 assists and just 1 TO. But he dropped 25 in the second quarter and 9 over the other three quarters in spite of the wing isolation being the sole play the Knicks ran for a big chunk of the late fourth quarter. Lately, Melo has been comfortable passing out of Iso's and it has made his efficiency numbers pretty over the past 11; but last night after the hot second quarter he got tunnel vision. He made a nice pass on that last play but should have been passing for the rest of the quarter. Defensively, he wasn't good but because Wall and Porter were doing the lifting, his defense really didn't stand out as so bad. Melo needs to realize when he has to let the game just flow and Hornacek needs to rein dude in. Instead it was the Woodson era offense from a Melo that hasn't been Woodson era good for a while.
Kuz: 1-5, 6 points, 2 assists and just one board in 18 minutes. Kuz was leaving Porter too much space period and it cut his minutes. The poor shooting wasn't as bad as the defense. He was aggressive and got some FT's for the effort. But he just didn't have much positive in this one which sucks because he was really rolling heading into this one.
KOQ: Got small-balled out of the line-up when his play warranted more than 21 minutes. 14 points 8 boards 3 assists 3 blocks and a steal all while matched with the fairly underrated Marcin Gortat. He responded to getting benched by putting in a ton of effort. He was aggressive with his shot, on the boards, defensively and still managed to make some brilliant passes (shoulda been 4 assists but Melo flubbed a gimme). This dude was playing GREAT basketball but got bench player minutes.
BJ: Dude shot like crap again, which will always hold back his overall impact. He did pass pretty well, tallying 5 assists and being a spark for transition offense in the second quarter. When he pushes the pace, he really can control games offensively but he doesn't do it enough. He had 3 points on 1-4 shooting, 3 TO's and was victimized by Wall quite a bit in the fourth...but considering the way the offense was run, he shouldn't have been out there as long as he was. Not a bad performance, but not as good as the +/- either.
Lee: 29 mins, 5 points on 2-6, 4 boards, 2 asts...defensively, not bad. The numbers are wildly pedestrian and this one will be remembered for him getting a good look to tie the game and passing it up at the buzzer. That lack of killer instinct hurts.
Holiday: He took to long to start closing out Porter and by the time he was it hardly mattered. But, he was part of the second quarter spark and put up 4/6 for 11 points, 2 boards, 2 asts, a block and a steal in 21 mins. He was mostly solid, at times not so great and at times really good. Just a nice rotation player doing some nice things.
KP: 6/11 for 15 points, 2 assists, 5 boards and one of the prettiest putbacks you'll see this season in crunch time as well. My two complaints for KP are that he once again floated for chunks of time including the Iso-Melo portion of the fourth and that he looked rusty from three point land. I would love for Hornacek to run a 4/5 PnR with Melo and KP when they're the paired up bigs in late game situations to get KP more involved. A highlight for dude was a point where KP got a simple swing pass and immediately on the catch he faked left and attacked off the dribble right. He got FT's off of that and it's something he did more often early on when his FT's were coming more easily. Those sort of snap decisions right into an attack are the ones I want to see and that's not a play call, it's not anybody's decision but KP's...catch the ball and attack.
He's Fredo Plumlee again: I'm just kidding, dude tried hard but the Wiz bigs are a different animal and handling Wall in PnR situations really is an experience that even savvy vets struggle with. He wasn't good, but I'll give him a pass because dude's effort was obvious and he only had 11 minutes to make an impact. My main complaint about him is that his minutes probably would have been better served going to Willy who has higher upside imo.
Hornacek: My two complaints are simple, he shoulda found more time for KOQ who was doing a ton of work and second, Melo isolated for pretty much 5 minutes straight without Hornacek ever reining him in. I'm not sure if Horny was calling those sets or if he just stood watching them, but everyone in the building knew that the high pick and roll with Rose was a more efficient answer besides Melo and possibly Jeff. In the post game Shaq even alluded to Jeff being a pushover and it's that sequence that justifies the attack along with headscratchers like not punishing Rose at all for skipping a game without saying a word. Not playing Willy warrants mention too, the kid absolutely obliterated the C's bigs last night and was an impact player but Hornacek couldn't find even a couple of minutes to reward that effort.
Random: Kurt Rambis needs to be called out more, dude is in charge of a defense that never seems to have a logical game plan or well scouted opposition. I'd love to read the report on Otto Porter and hear what the game plan was because either Rambis is awful in advising the players or this is another locker room that doesn't give a damn what he has to say.
So Melo isn't a starter at the ASG this year.
But we only 2.5 games out the playoffs, we need to just make a run for that 8th seed. Ya STAY overreacting. 
