Melo's Stage

It is time for Carmelo Anthony to prove why he belongs in New York.

The Knicks are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, just two games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks. They are a team that has been playing great lately winning six of seven under head coach Mike Woodson. But now they are without their "superstar" Amare Stoudemire with a bulging disk in his back. According to ESPN New York Anthony said,"A situation like this requires me to step my game up a little bit more, take it up a notch." ESPN Article

Without another scorer at the power forward position the Knicks are going to have to rely on their number one guy Carmelo to provide most of the scoring.

Anthony has had a great career scoring the basketball while other parts of his game, like defense and leadership have been brought into question. This year that is not the problem for him. His defensive intensity has been one of the main reasons for the Knicks turnaround. And on the other hand scoring has been Melo's downfall. His shooting percentage is around the worst of his career and before last night against the Bucks Melo had not reached 20 points in any game under Woodson. He needs to put this team on his back if he wants to prove he can be the guy the Knicks thought he was.

Knicks fans are praising him for his defensive skills and intensity throughout the game, but now with not a whole lot of offensive help it is time for him to show off his scoring ability. He has a great young point guard in Jeremy Lin who can get him the ball and their is no reason why he shouldn't be the main target in Woodson's offense.

Anthony wanted this pressure from the day he demanded to play for the Knicks. This is what he wanted, to play in the sold out Garden every single night. He wanted to be New York's next big star. Well Carmelo, here is your chance to take the city over, take the Knicks further than they have been in a decade. Now let's see what you got.

Met Problems

When you have the luck of a New York Met fan you just wait for the moment when you hear something that is going to ruin the season. Any little amount of bad news can turn disastrous for this franchise. Last year first basemen Ike Davis went to catch a little pop up in the infield and "rolled" his ankle. He was later pronounced out for the year with that injury; they called it damage to ankle cartilage.

This spring the Mets have started off pretty much where they left off, with injury news flowing all around and Ike Davis is involved again. Davis has likely been diagnosed with early Valley Fever, a fungal disease that starts in the lungs. It is considered to be non contagious and he might not even miss any action, but its still a serious diagnosis and it is something that can get progressively worse over time. The more intriguing news comes from the Mets star third basemen David Wright. Wright has a rib cage injury that has already sidelined him for the first two games of the spring.

When you look at both of these injuries you could say that they aren't season threatening or even threatening to the start of the regular season, but its the Mets. The team that, over the past two years, has had their said to be star Jason Bay go down, Jose Reyes was out for over a month with a hamstring injury, their best pitcher Johan Santana has been out for two years, even the back ups who were coming in to play were getting hurt. The injury cloud that is over this team is amazing. And the start they have had to this spring is something that should be alarming for Met fans. We are only starting the second week of spring training and the news surrounding the New York Mets is negative injury news.

Sooner or later they will be able to get away from this injury bug, but as of right now, if you wear a Met uniform BEWARE of SERIOUS INJURY.