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The New York Knicks have needed strong finishes to handle the Orlando Magic this season.

 

The Knicks hope to make it easier on themselves Wednesday night at home as they look for a fifth straight victory over a Magic team that has lost six in a row and 17 of 19.

 

Although New York (27-15) is by far the better team, it used big fourth quarters to earn two 2012-13 wins over Orlando. The Knicks outscored the Magic (14-30) by nine in the fourth in a 99-89 victory Nov. 13 and used a 33-17 final period to win 114-106 on Jan. 5 - both in Orlando.

 

The Magic combined to shoot 32.4 percent in those fourth quarters with six assists and eight turnovers.

 

Knicks coach Mike Woodson would like to see some defensive improvement from his team. New York allowed Philadelphia to shoot 50.7 percent in a 97-80 road loss Saturday before a 106-104 home win the next night despite Atlanta's 60.0 field-goal percentage - the highest by a Knicks opponent all season.

 

"We gotta clean up our high pick-and-roll defense and get back to our coverages that we were doing earlier in the year," Woodson said. "It's just guys being up and guys committed on the ball, not begging for help. That's the name of the game. You've got to take pride in guarding your man who has the ball."

 

The Knicks were bailed out Sunday by another brilliant performance by Carmelo Anthony, who scored 42 and tied a franchise record with nine 3-pointers.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/preview/NBA_20130130_ORL@NY
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Lol. Amar'e was definitely great overall last night -- played his role to perfection. His defense was better than versus Atlanta (had a block or two, had a few deflections, active hands, moved his feet well, etc.) and obviously offensively he was extremely efficient, he didn't force anything.

 

And I never said we should cut him and that he was worthless ... I just simply said his defense has to become adequate in order for us to truly have a championship caliber team. His defense was definitely better last night than when I made those comments against Atlanta.

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Not just you JYD, I've defended Amar'e far too long now, a guy who should need no defense tbh, not his fault that he gets injured or when he gets he is the centerpiece, 2 years later he's a bench player..

No I mean the injuries have been tough for him man. No doubt. But what do you mean he 'should need no defense'...He is still a max player, tell me a max player who wins a ring by playing no defense lol. We need Amar'e to at least be decent defensively! He doesn't have to be Tyson Chandler but he can't be a major liability in the playoffs, that's all I'm saying dude.

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Bosh is an adequate defender. He's far from terrible.

 

Nowitzki played on a very good defensive team to mask it, so he could get by.

 

Amar'e wasn't signed to play great defense, yes, but he still has to play some defense, which thankfully showed some signs of improvement last game.

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He's always been a solid help defender

He's getting better with each game though. I honestly try to be subjective and not biased in my analysis of the Knicks (even though you say I am lolol) so I guess I'm tough on Amar'e but he's certainly showing signs of improvement the past 2-3 games here.

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