I have noticed that things are not as sweet in the playoffs for Carmelo. Playoffs are a whole different thing from season and I know that, but I still expect more from Melo in the playoffs this year. There are a couple theories to his less than stellar post season play. Number 1 is that he is very young. Be that as it may, Wade was also young and he performed. The 2nd reason, and the one I truly believe is the fact that he has faced amazing defenders in the playoffs. 1st year faced Trenton Hassell who is an extremely good defender and Minny was overall a top 5 defense that year anyway. Next year he faces San Antonio 1st round. This means a matchup with Bowen who can give player's fits. I felt he did a good job against Bowen in consistently getting by him or posting him up but it was San Antonio's superior interior defence that hurt Melo. Duncan or Mohammed would come over and help for Bowen and this would limit him. I expect this year, when they in all likelihood face a weaker opponent than other years( Memphis, Clippers etc.) that we will see that productive scoring that we are so used to seeing every day in the season.
I think he did a good job of posting up Bowen and creating problems for him. He has improved a lot since his rookie season, so I expect a better performance this time around.
