The Knicks beat the Warriors tonight, putting them within 2 games of the last playoff spot.
Both teams were on fire from beyond the arc, each hitting at least 10 threes, and both combined hit 21 out of 42 attempts.
Q-Rich dropped 30 tonight, doing the inside-outside thing he does - hitting 5-9 from deep and 7-9 at the stripe. In fact, the Knicks dominated the FTs tonight (28-42 versus 6-15 for GS), and the rebounds (45-38 advantage despite another David Lee-less night).
When Jamal Crawford went down, it seemed like a bad break for the Knicks. But we think it will turn out to be a slight blessing for the Knicks. Here are the reasons why: one, Q-Rich gets back into the starting lineup. Q-Rich struggled a lot earlier in the season, mostly due to the sporadic minutes he was getting - some nights as much as 42 minutes, other nights as low as 25. The result was that the more productive Crawford supplanted Q-Rich in the lineup at the 2; eventually Richardson got back in the lineup at the 3, but was not as productive.
Now he's back at the 2, and that's a good thing for the Knicks. Richardson is a better defender than Crawford; he's also a substantially better rebounder. More importantly, Q-Rich doesn't hold on to the ball as much as Crawford does; Richardson either scores via a spot-up jumper, or by posting smaller guards. The downside is that Crawford is a better ballhandler (which the Knicks need), and is adept at creating shots for teammates. Not to mention that when Crawford gets hot, he can score like few in the league (McGrady, Carter, Gordon).
But Crawford, like Gordon, is better suited to coming off the bench as a sixth man, playing 20-25 minutes of offense. Or, if starting, to start at the point. Crawford is really a more expensive version of Ben Gordon.
Another benefits of the Crawford injury is that Marty Collins is getting some playing time, a chance for growth. He looked great at the end of the 4th quarter tonight, coming up with a great steal and then full court drive that helped win the game for the Knicks. The rookie is still very green, and turns the ball over a little too much, but the more he plays now the better he'll be next season, when he will be backing up Marbury (since Isiah has lost faith in Nate Robinson, and Steve Francis will be out of town by then, most likely brought out).
Speaking of Franchise, here's a key comment in today's Daily News article about Francis' amazing recovery: "The trade, which the organization still blames Larry Brown for making, never made sense." I've said it before, and often received snickers, but... Isiah is not to blame for the Francis trade. It was Larry Brown who supposedly pushed for Francis, in an effort to push aside Marbury. We've argued that this is the worst trade that has taken place over the past three years, and it seemed to be the final straw in the Brown era. Owner James Dolan got pretty frustrated that Brown pushed to bring Francis and his three years left at $14 million per, and that upon acquiring Francis Brown let the media rip Isiah to shrewds for the trade. But we'll get into this in some detail in a future post.
Back to the Crawford injury; after a terrible first half against the Celtics, the Knicks have played pretty solidly the last six quarters. Curry, Marbury and Richardson seem ready and willing to take over the offense, and when David Lee gets back (hopefully for the next game), the Knicks will have their reliable spark plug off the bench back.
The next game is at Atlanta, a team that plays strongly to the Knicks weaknesses. I fully expect the Knicks to lose, but we'll see....
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The Francis trade was Brown's fault, not dumping Allan Houston's contract was Dolan's fault. Eventually, doesn't the buck have to stop at Isiah?
I mean, I guess it's nice to have someone else to blame for absolutely horrible personnel decision, but the GM is ultimately responsible. If you want to blame Brown for the state of Knicks, and their horrible season last year, ask yourself: Who hired Brown? Why was Brown so unhappy in New York?
Basically, you're saying Brown had enough pull to force Isiah to trade for Francis, but if Brown really had that much sway, then what was he so angry about? Wasn't his issue that he didn't have control over the roster?
I guess the assumption is that Brown had nothing to do with any of the "good moves" Isiah has made, and only got to put his two cents in on the worst move he made. It sounds to me like Isiah is passing the buck on the Francis trade. But don't worry, if Francis somehow bounces back and helps the Knicks get into the playoffs this year I'm sure Isiah will be patting himself on the back for that move too.