Yes this may be true but they were expected to compete and least win some games and not get swept
Can you recall a team named Lakers when they got Gasol in a mid season trade, they did fine...
You actually mentioned what the probelm is... how do you motivate that kind of a player... motivation for great players comes from within.... the mere fact your staring at elimination at your own floor should motivate you enough... if you watched the game when the Celtics were leading already by more than 10 you can see na tamad na tamad siya pero nung umpisa saka nung humahabol na sila ang tikas....
You are saying about injuries, NOLA is without their 2nd best player in west, their front courtis also not that deep and CP3 has a thumb injury and had stitches and yet they are competing with the champ Lakers and tied the series...
IMHO, you want to know how bad the Knicks competed in the series... I am a hard core celtics fan and even me nabwiset beacuse we swept the series... imagine... 
im sure everyone agrees we are just exchaging objective observations here but like what brader wacks said, what other motivation can we think about to motivate Amare, He is very new with the Ny and this could have prompted him to do more than what he is doing, him being branded as too soft of a player is a great motivation too, when he was with the Suns, he was surrounded with other great players but they keep falling short becasue of the inability of amare to slug it out wiht the big boys of the other team. I couldnt recall seeing amare playing with his back to the basket that much, he plays more of a 4 than 5 eventhough he should play bigger than how he does, weakside help is how it is, weakside, i would feel very happy if my PG get to block shots coming from the weakside, or my PF doing weakside help and stealing the ball but a center doing weakside help only, that is token defense to my opinion, i couldnt recall any player known only for his great offensive skills winning a championship, kobe has been a ball hog but i believe plays good defense too, dennis rodman has not been known as an offensice player but has always been admired and has been hugely contributing to the cause of his team with his intense defense.
i dont think amare and/or anhtony will retire with a ring unless they agree to be second fiddle to some other superstar, karl and stockton retired wihtout a ring but it seems its just not meant to be but both players really fight it out ang slug it out day in and day out when they were playing and so is charles barkley( did he win ring? think he did not too).
why dont dont amare, lebron and anthony consider joinning the same team next year, if they win the championship, then the long standing cliche of Defense winning championship will finally be proven wrong.
