Steve Francis drained a game winning three at the buzzer to lead the Knicks to a big victory over the Wizards tonight, 90-89.
Here's our feelings right now on the playoffs - regardless of whether or not the Knicks actually make the playoffs, they have given us a playoff-like atmosphere the last couple of weeks. With every game being very important, the Knicks have made it quite exciting. It reminds us of the strike-shortened '99 season, the one where the Knicks started off very poorly, then had to turn it up just to make the playoffs. They managed to sneak in as a #8 seed, then proceeded to beat everyone to make it to the Finals.
This team is certainly different from that team - for starters, that team was a legit contender that suffered from the shortened season, which is why they were only able to barely sneak in as a #8 seed; this Knicks team is not a real contender. But they are peaking and playing well, and more importantly they are getting better as the season progresses.
Eddy Curry displayed some nice moves tonight. More importantly for Knicks fans, and shocking, he displayed some hustle. In the third period he got back on defense and caught up with a Wizard on a fast break and blocked his layup attempt. Two-handed block, too... very nice job Eddy. Worthy of a post-game donut. He also enacted revenge on a sequence that began with Etan Thomas blowing past him for an easy dunk; while Thomas celebrated his dunk, Curry hustled down the court and beat everyone there for an easy breakaway dunk (assisted by a nice feed from midcourt by Francis).
Eddy Curry has also impressed us with his moves; last season, he main move consisted of using his body size to power in for a basket. Often it resulted in a charge violation. This season, particularly lately, he's been utilizing more fakes and pumps and Hakeem-like post moves. The result: he's getting to the line a lot more than he did his last season in Chicago (5.0 FTA per game) or last season (6.8 FTA per game) - this season he is average 8.1 FTA per game. All those fakes are resulting in fouls.
It was a horrible game - both teams seemed unable to hit shots tonight - the Knicks shot 41%, the Wizards 40%. The Knicks were once again struggling with their free throws, hitting only 57% (16-28), but they made up for it by rebounding well, as always. Their offensive rebounding was of note, particularly Jared Jeffries, starting in place of the injured Q-Rich (David Lee was also still out). Jeffries had 9 rebounds, 8 offensive, against his old team.
But the story of the night was Steve Francis. The Knicks again started Francis with Marbury, and played the three point guard lineup quite a bit again tonight, using Marty Collins at the same time as Marbury and Francis. By going small, the Knicks were again able to get to the hoop, attack the passing lanes, and generally be annoying to the Wizards. And they managed to do it without losing any of their edge in the rebounding category, which is the key for this strategy to be successful. Renaldo Balkman was again a huge spark, though it's not reflected in his box score as much. He blocked some shots, helped out on offense, and kept balls alive that ended up resulting in rebounds for the Knicks.
The Knicks trailed by six, but they cut it down to three, and with 7 seconds left Francis hit a big layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw that could have tied the game, and maybe that was a blessing; it kept the game from being in Hibachi's hands. After fouling Blatche, he only made one of two for the Wizards, giving them a 2 point lead. Francis then took the inbound pass and drove the distance of the court, and shot a three pointer at the buzzer to win. And put the Knicks into the 8th playoff spot, for now.
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