The Knicks lost another close game tonight, 92-90 to the 76ers.  So it seems that whether it's Dallas, NOOCH, or the 76ers the Knicks can keep it close, but they just can't pull it off at the end.

The 1st quarter was typical - slow start for the Knicks, especially on defense.  Willie Green scored 11 points in the first quarter for the 76ers.  Willie Green! (Where is DepressedFan's slide show?).  The end result was a 26-20 Sixer lead at the end of the first.

The second quarter was the Renaldo Balkman show, as it has become lately.  Balkman did what he usually does, scoring 8 points in the quarter.  For the first half, he had 10 points and 11 rebounds.  Kyle Korver did his thing, though, scoring eight points, and by halftime the 76ers had increased their lead by a point, 46-39.  As you can probably tell by the score (and by Balkman's 11 rebounds at the half), it was not an offensive game.  Let's face it, these two teams are so depleted of offensive firepower it's disgusting.  The best offensive scorer on Philly?  We have no clue, though at the half it was Willie Green and Korver; that says too much about the state of things in Philly.  The Knicks?  You know the story already - minus Richardson, Lee, Francis and Crawford they are still struggling to figure out their offense.   They have pieces - Curry and Marbury are fine - but the other guys have yet to figure out their roles.

The third quarter was all Stephon Marbury.  He dropped 20 points in the third, including 18 in a row for the Knicks to end the quarter.  He was perfect, going 7/7 on FG, including 3/3 from downtown.  He single-handedly brought the Knicks from 10 down to a 67-65 lead at the end of the third.  From the point they were down 10, Marbury had 20 of the Knicks 22 points, and an assist (to Curry) on the only other basket.  Once again he was on some MVP carry the team on his back like whoa sh*t.  I'll yield... that's why you're hot, Steph. 

The fourth featured cats named Bobby Jones and Louis Williams putting it on the Knicks.  On the other hand, Balkman had the Knicks first six points, and Mardy Collins dropped a few in there, too, so I guess it really was "Who the f*ck is that?" Night at the Garden.  SML feels bad for anyone who paid to see this game tonight.  There should be a relief foundation set up for ya'll. 

Moving along, Mardy's three point shot put the Knicks up 78-69 with 7:50 left in the game.   We are positive that is his first jumper of the season.  No, really - we'll bet money on it and everything.  Unfortunately Kyle Korver, Rodney Carney, and then Andre Iguodala all got to the basket while the Knicks, particularly Marbury (now minus the Captain Marvel powers he had in the 3rd quarter) struggled.  Look at the results of their possessions for the next six minutes:  Marbury missed three; Marbury turnover (good defense by AI2); Collins missed three; Marbury missed three; Collins turnover; Curry turnover; Curry gets blocked (by Andre Miller!); Robinson misses a three, and Collins another turnover.  Finally it was 90-83 with 57 seconds to go.

Thankfully Steve Hunter wanted the Knicks to cover the spread tonight.  Clearly.  First there was his technical foul for hitting the support (which was the Knicks 83rd point).  Then he goaltended Marbury's three with 45 seconds left.  That ridiculous play got the Knicks within four points.  Hunter than threw a bad pass that Collins picked off, which led to a Robinson layup that cut it to 90-88 with 31 seconds to go.  Six points courtesy of Hunter - if the 76ers still had any fans, he would have been sent to development league by now....

Unfortunately for the Knicks, despite pretty good defense by Balkman, forcing Andre Miller into an off-balance shot, Miller somehow made it.  The 76ers were up by four with 7 seconds to go.  Still, they continued to impress us with their choking.  Marbury scored a slow layup, making it 92-90 with 3 seconds; the Knicks quickly fouled Korver with 2.1 seconds.  Kyle Korver, the NBA's leading FT shooter at 92%, then missed both shots.  The Knicks called timeout with 1.1 seconds to go.  Earlier in the year in these situations you felt the Knicks would pull it off - against Detroit, against Charlotte, they found a way to do it.  Even as recently as three weeks ago, against the Wizards in Washington, when Francis hit the three to win it at the buzzer.  But now you feel it's over.  The playoff run, the run to keep Isiah's job... it all ended with the injuries, and with Isiah's security.

The bottom line is this:  the Knicks have run out of gas.  Tonight they used only seven players; Frye played only 19 minutes, and Robinson 24; Marbury and Collins played 45 and 43 each.  Curry had 39, and Jeffries was up there with 37.  Balkman had season highs, with 17 points, 16 rebounds, and 30 minutes.  He also had three steals.  We figure those will be his numbers if he's getting about 35 minutes a game.  The turnovers, especially in the second half, show the fatigue kicking in. Curry - 7, Collins - 5, Marbury and Frye - 3 apiece.  No Malik Rose tonight, no, um... actually, there isn't anyone to play beyond that.  Morris is still too green to play, Jerome James probably was too full to play, and that's it.  Francis, Crawford, Q-Rich and Lee are out.  We don't see how this team is going to be able to finish games.  Earlier this year, the Knicks finished games.  At one point they were 18-1 when winning after 3 quarters; tonight they lost another game they had a lead late in.

Earlier in the year Curry was the MVP; then Lee carried the Knicks for a while, then Crawford in January-February (including his 50 point Miami explosion); lately Marbury has been shouldering the Knicks.  It would be nice to see them all together again next year, alongside a healthy Q-Rich (a solid team player who can be a starter on a winning team, as evidenced by his role in Phoenix) and an improved Balkman.  The question is who else stays, and who goes?

We think Frye is a great player on the wrong team.  He can't play PF on a team with Curry; they need players who can make up for Curry's lack of rebounding and defense.  They need Lee out there, but Lee needs to be able to hit those 10-15 footers (the ones Frye used to hit, but no longer shoots).  They need Crawford to hit the baby jumpers, Marbury to drive, and Richardson to hit threes.  They need Collins and Balkman for defense, and Jeffries, too. 

Francis is obviously gone; he would have been brought out if not for the Crawford injury, and he will be gone by the start of next season.  The Knicks will try hard to trade him, but there won't be any teams willing to take a chance on him, given his salary.  Maybe a team like Charlotte that has trouble attracting free agents would be interested, but the Bobcats have two of the best points in the league already.  For the record, Raymond Felton is underrated - most people talk about Chris Paul and Deron Williams as the future of the NBA in points, and Livingston (before his injury), but Felton was on a NCAA championship team, and he has tremendous skills.  And Brevin Knight, though unable to stay healthy, is also really underrated.  Knight would probably rank, given his salary, as a top-10 point if he could stay healthy.  His assist/turnover ratio is impressive.  His lack of range puts him around the same range as an Andre Miller.

Anyway, Charlotte wouldn't be interested, leaving only Atlanta, a team with salary cap space, but has no ability to sign free agents (as pointed out to us by Joel on FreeDarko, they are unable to sign free agents while litigation is on-going).  Unless the Lakers get real desperate (a rough playoff series might do it) for a point guard, and decide to roll the dice on Francis, the Knicks are just going to end up cutting him.

Robinson needs to go, too.  James is dead-weight.  Morris is a youngster, a good backup center or forward, we have to see what skills he brings to the table... he might be the PF the Knicks need to play along Curry, if he can hit a baby jumper.

Last NBA thoughts of the night:  Good-bye, Arenas.  There go our fantasy basketball chances.  Bad sportsmanship by the Wizards, who were clearly going after Gerald Wallace after the Gilbert injury.  It was clearly not an intentional injury by Wallace (he fell backwards into Gilbert's knee), but everytime he got the ball in the paint they hacked hard at fragile Gerald, including a closeline late in the game.  The Bobcats got the last laugh, winning the game and knowing that they have as much a chance of winning a playoff series as the Wizards do now....

Bonus Random Story:  The picture of 76er mascot Hip-Hop reminded me of the time I found a copy of the 76ers' 1999 media guide lying around a pile of books in an empty cubicle at work.  I opened it up to a random page, and it was the team employee's photo page.  Among all the random PR people and other team employees, and their photos, was HipHop.  His title was obviously "Mascot", but what cracked us up was that he was dressed suited for his photo.  That f*cking bunny has style, too.  I'll have to scan that photo and upload it to the website at some point....

Double Bonus: We just saw this great YouTube video of NBA mascots having a breakdancing battle (including a minute with The Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache" playing) over at thebasketballjones.  We can't say enough about Skeets and his crew's amazing ability to find these great YouTube videos.  This is why they're hot.

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