by Stop Mike Lupica on October 11 at 9:23PM
Ah, highlights and notes of tonight's Knicks-Maccabi Tel Aviv (MTA) game:
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-We get home a little late. It's currently 22-17 MTA, in the first quarter. There are four black players on the court for Tel Aviv. This is an Israeli team? Usually Black Israelites in those numbers are found outside the Garden, by Macy's, not inside.* (see below for an explanation)
-Jamal Crawford has added 15 lbs of muscle. Clyde Frazier remarks that this will help him finish better on fouls, and also assist his defense against stronger SGs.
-Hey, NY Knicks tickets are still available. Seriously, buy some. You, too, white people. We really do care about ya'll...
-Malik Rose steals the ball, then goes coast to coast, in super slo-mo, missing a lay-up. If Jerome James was on the court, he would have been waiting for Rose by the time he got to the other end.
-MTA leads 25-20 at the end of the 1st quarter. It's 7:45; the first quarter took 40 minute to play.
2nd Quarter:
-Fizer? Marcus Fizer, is that you? Yep, he's been playing on MTA.
-Bernard King is not in the NBA's Top 50 players? That's a travesty!
-A 33-18 second quarter has the Knicks up 53-43 at the half. Sorry for the lack of notes... um, lots of good stuff happened. More on that later.
3rd Quarter:
-Clyde comments that Zach Randolph is left-handed, which makes him hard to guard. I think Marbury fed him that line.
-Randolph Morris starts the third, along with the starters (playing PF in place of Lee).
-Gus informs us that the hop step (the Ewing) is now going to be enforced as travelling more this year.
-A 9-0 run has the Knicks up 62-45 now. Marbury and Crawford are doing it, especially on the defense side. The Knicks defense in general has really tighten up since the first quarter.
-Back door play burns Crawford. So much for improved defense talk.
-Randolph doesn't look too good right now. He's been working hard, though... early to the gym, staying late... Zach is going to have a monster year. Especially if Curry misses some portion of the season.
-Marbury tosses up an airball jumper. Just ugly - misses badly. Someone has been giving away shoes instead of working on his jumper! In all seriousness, he just looks a little rusty on the j... he'll be fine in a bit.
-Nice touch on a move by Randolph.
-And now he runs down the court after sealing off the offensive player for MTA on the inside, allowing the long rebound to get to Marbury. Marbury tosses it down to Randolph, and he dunks it for two.
-Crawford with a great feed inside while driving, to David Lee (he gets fouled). He's a great passer for a SG... it's like having a semi-decent second PG.
-Wow. Q-Rich with a steal, and he takes it up the court, passes it to Crawford around the free throw line. Crawford with a sweet quick pass to Robinson, who then drives, jumps, hangs in the air drawing the defenders, the dumps it at the last second inside to Lee for the dunk and the foul! 77-57.
-Crawford again, with a sick crossover that freezes his man, then a beautiful bounce pass from the three-point line inside to Lee, who gets fouled again. The Hack-A-Lee strategy for MTA. Crawford's passing is impressive tonight.
-Another pretty play by Nate: a 360 spin, elevate, hang, hang, stretch arm out past defender, hit layup. He's really using his hangtime ability to his advantage tonight.
-Sloppy pass from Mardy Collins to Nate Robinson. Just sloppy.
-The crowd is chanting "Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv". Time to play "Finish That Story". The last time that particular chant was used at the Garden was....
-Guess who was in attendance at Nate Robinson's camp this summer? Q-Rich with another steal, then blows a breakaway dunk by showboating. Ugh.
By the way, I'm not disgusted that he was showboating. The Knicks are up 20 points late in the 3rd, in an exhibition game against a foreign club. If ever showboating is excusable, it's now. My biggest problem is that he missed a dunk. Badly. Ugh.
-Nate Robinson with a "splendid pass" (that's Clyde) to Lee inside for another dunk. Lee does not get fouled.
-Al Trautwig shares with us an interesting ancedote about the UN. It used to be located, before it moved to the permanent home on the East Side of midtown, out in Flushing where the World's Fair was in 1939 (and later in 1964). Anyway, in 1948, when Israel was created by the UN, it was located out in Flushing. So one more thing we can claim out here in Queens: Home of Ron Artest, Nas, LL Cool J, Spider-Man, and the Middle East Crisis. Can I get a whoot-whoot?
-It's 83-67 at the end of the 3rd.
4th Quarter:
-David Lee works hard to secure a rebound. He tips it, then jumps three times before securing it. It's official! He's healthy and back to normal!
-Fred Jones and Nate Robinson with threes. It's 89-67.
-Roderick WIlmont is on the court. For the Knicks. I don't even bother to look up any info on him. He immediately chucks up a three-pointer the first time he touches the ball. Jerome James is apparently the first 20th man ever in NBA roster history.
-Malik Rose grabs a long rebound, and throws a great pass downcourt to a wide open Nate Robinson. He takes the pass, and puts down a professional breakaway dunk, with no showboating. What's up with that, Q? Richardson is officially the troublemaker on the team?
-It's 104-73 now with 5:12 to go. So Isiah, showing the class that maybe someday George Karl might possess, sends in his subs. He comes Hot Nichols, Wilson Chandler, Jared Jordan. And Walker Russell Jr. His dad is the Director of Pro Services or something for the Knicks. Jerome James is now behind Anucha Browne-Sanders on the depth chart.
Conclusion:
The Knicks are being slept on. Not because they won this game, but because of how they won the game. Much like the Summer League (in which the Knicks were undefeated), they simply handled their business, beating an inferior opponent. The Knicks had a solid offense - they were ranked 10th for most of the season, until the injuries the last month. The are a great rebounding team, definitely in the top 7. Their weakness was the defense. Well, the good news for Knicks fans is that they are working hard on the defensive end. Crawford and Marbury and Robinson were all hawking the ball on defensive end. With the depth this team has - Wilson Chandler and Jared Jeffries got a lot of PT tonight, as did Malik Rose, and that's with Eddy Curry and Balkman out injured - they can afford to run out 10-12 players a week, keeping them fresh on the defensive end. If they can put the pressure on, they will get alot of easy points and blow out a few inferior teams. That would be a significant improvement over last season.
They still have some extreme ballhandling issues that need to be worked on, and this is just one game against an inferior opponent (but one that has beaten other NBA teams in similar situations), so don't get too excited. But this is a team that might be the surprise team in the Atlantic this year.
*******
*That was a NYC-centric joke. And it's probably dated, too. But back in the 90's, the Black Israelites (a local cult of sorts) would stand on the corner by Macy's, preaching their religion. Prior to that, they used to be in Downtown Brooklyn, by the mall (future home of the Nets, ironically), back when there weren't many white people in BKNY. When one would walk by, the Black Israelites would assail them, calling them "the devil" and verbally wailing on them. They toned it down when they got to midtown.
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p.s. I think I saw them in the Times Square area recently, so I think they're still around, but just not as prominent as before.
So I guess the reference isnt that out-dated...it still made me chuckle a little bit
Do you think Bluthenthal counted as a black guy or a Jew for MTA?
stopmikelupica
said
Joey: I'm gonna go with "Rod Carew". No, wait, can I change my answer... "Not a Jew".
Modi: Wilson Chandler look okay last night. He was active - hustling up the court, decent defense (not as many steals/blocks as he had in the summer league), but got less burn than I expected. Jeffries got quite a bit, in fact.
The Knicks actually played pretty small most of the game: they had three guards a lot, with Lee/Randolph/Morris getting burn at the C/PF slots. Collins, Nate, Fred Jones all got a lot of playing time, alongside Marbury and Crawford. Among the SFs, Q-Rich got most of the burn, with Jeffries and then Chandler coming off the bench.
Those guys were great. One time they were in Union Square, talking about how having sex with a white woman is the same thing as having sex with a sheep, and some guy got into a big fistfight with them. They would have totally kicked his ass but the cops jumped in.
I remember the black Israelites. They used to yell at me when I was like 14 coming out of Macy's. I was like "What the fuck did I do? I'm in 9th grade, I'm barely white (my family is from the Balkans...a WASP I am not), and I'm just trying to buy some new jeans..."
They used to have a show on public access too. It was actually pretty funny watching them try to "interpret" the scripture. Stuff like "The book says The Devil will cause much suffering...which obviously means: the white man will cause much suffering"