They are coming. The sharks will be here soon.
The Knicks lost to the Celtics tonight, in what turned out to be a close game. Boston opened up a huge lead in the first half, thanks to an inept Knicks offense which couldn't muster points or even hold on to the ball. This we knew was coming; the Knicks without Crawford or Francis lack anyone that can handle the ball besides Marbury. Even worse, Nate Robinson was also out - the little man may be a ballhog and a chucker, but he can at least get the ball up the court. The injuries forced Isiah Thomas to play Marty Collins for 25 minutes (a season high), and though he ended up with 5 assists and looked okay in the 2nd half, his atrocious play in the 1st half help Boston to 57-37 halftime lead.
As expected, Q-Rich got the SG start (with Jeffries starting at the 3), and finally got it together in the second half, raining threes, helping the Knicks climb out of the hole. The Knicks even took a lead, but they were too late and too much effort was expended trying to get back into the game.
The sharks will be out tomorrow. You can bet the newspapers will be admonishing the Knicks for losing to "the worst team in NBA", even though the Celtics only possess the worst record because they lost 18 games in a row while their best player was injured. Now that Paul Pierce is back they are playing well. Note the victory at Houston in their last game. Still, the sharks will say the Knicks suck, that Isiah should be fired because the Knicks couldn't even muster a decent effort in a playoff race against a last-place team.
There will be no sympathy awarded for missing Jamal Crawford and David Lee, along with Robinson and Francis.
I was working on a post a few weeks back on "who is the Knick's MVP this season". Not because it matters, the Knicks are still mediocre, but because it is interesting to analyze who is the most valuable player on the Knicks, who determines whether they win or lose most? It came down to four names - David Lee, Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, and Stephon Marbury.
Two of those names were out tonight. It's always hard to play a game without your two best players, but the sportsmedia will not care. They will not point that out, and instead feed on the blood of the injured Knicks, proclaiming their playoff hopes dead.
Don't believe that yet. The Knicks are nothing if not consistent; they will be at home against the Warriors on Friday. At home, the Knicks have won 15 of the last 21 games; they will beat the Warriors. It won't be easy, because the Warriors are an athletic team that gives the Knicks problem. Still, Q-Rich will lock up J-Rich, and the Knicks will pull it off. That will hold off the wolves for a little bit.
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The Celts aren't exactly a competitive team even with Pierce, or at least they haven't been up to this point. Coming into tonight's game they were 12-20 with him in the lineup.
Curry looked Shaq-esque....from the free throw line at least (6-12). Again, he could barely get up and down the floor in the fourth quarter, but this time it wasn't completely his fault. 46 minutes is about 20 more than he can handle, Isiah should've sat him in the first half, especially since he wasn't doing anything to help the team (1/4 from the floor). Is the Jerome James experiment officially over? He got a DNP coach's decision tonight.