by Stop Mike Lupica on January 14 at 6:11PM
So here are some quotes from the Daily News on the Knicks article on the victory over the Pistons yesterday:
"Road weary and mostly disinterested - except for when the Giants-Cowboys game was being shown on the giant scoreboard - Detroit provided an old Pistons point guard with a brief respite from a miserable season..."
The Pistons, playing their fourth road game in five nights, didn't seem to care they were being embarrassed by the league's most dysfunctional team. To put it nicely, Detroit mailed one in.
The Pistons began their four-game road trip in Dallas on Wednesday and after beating San Antonio one night later, Detroit escaped Charlotte with a last-second overtime victory on Saturday night. Flip Saunders' club looked physically and emotionally spent.
In fact, most of the article deals with how tired the Pistons were, from their road trip. How "physically and emotionally spent" they were.
Now, let's get it straight off the bat; yes, the Pistons looked awful yesterday. It was very noticeable. We spent most of the game making fun of that, cracking jokes about how Joe Dumars must be doing his former backcourt partner of many seasons (Isiah Thomas) a favor. The News article included a similar joke along those lines.
The difference is that the News uses this as an excuse to tarnish the Knicks after their best game of the season, to minimize the Knicks' victory by making it seem as if it was preposterous to think the Pistons would be able to compete after such an arduous journey.
Earlier this season, on November 18th, the Knicks completed a four game west coast road trip that took place over five days, with a game in Denver against the Nuggets. Before arriving in Denver, the Knicks played a double-OT, three hour game against the Sacramento Kings. They got to their hotels at 5 in the morning, the day of the game. In the thin air of Denver, the Knicks mailed it in, and lost by 30 points. The Nuggets fast breaked up and down the court on the Knicks.
Did the Daily News offer any excuses for the Knicks, along the lines of the excuses offered for the Pistons' poor showing yesterday? Nah, of course not. And its that double standard that is what annoys most Knicks' fans about the local press... that they take joy not only in the defeats of the Knicks, but also in downplaying the rare victory, too.
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Of course it's true that the Pistons mailed in yesterday's game. That's going to happen in the NBA, over an 82-game season. Unless you are this year's Celtics, at which point you play too damn hard all the time, setting yourself up for a classic case of the late season/playoff burnout.
What you don't want is the to mail in too many games, which has been the Knicks problem all season long. That, and not getting off to good starts (even yesterday all they could manage is 18 points).
***********
On a sidenote, the Post (Marc Berman has had the scoop with Marbury all season long) is reporting that Marbury is going to have his foot looked out, and might have bone spurs that will keep him out for the next two months or so.
That could potentially derail Marbury until March, which would be near the end of the season. With Marbury's huge contract expiring next season, he'll be an attractive asset in trade talks this offseason. Marbury might very likely not have many games left in his Knicks' career, if any.
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"Road weary and mostly disinterested - except for when the Giants-Cowboys game was being shown on the giant scoreboard - Detroit provided an old Pistons point guard with a brief respite from a miserable season..."
The Pistons, playing their fourth road game in five nights, didn't seem to care they were being embarrassed by the league's most dysfunctional team. To put it nicely, Detroit mailed one in.
The Pistons began their four-game road trip in Dallas on Wednesday and after beating San Antonio one night later, Detroit escaped Charlotte with a last-second overtime victory on Saturday night. Flip Saunders' club looked physically and emotionally spent.
In fact, most of the article deals with how tired the Pistons were, from their road trip. How "physically and emotionally spent" they were.
Now, let's get it straight off the bat; yes, the Pistons looked awful yesterday. It was very noticeable. We spent most of the game making fun of that, cracking jokes about how Joe Dumars must be doing his former backcourt partner of many seasons (Isiah Thomas) a favor. The News article included a similar joke along those lines.
The difference is that the News uses this as an excuse to tarnish the Knicks after their best game of the season, to minimize the Knicks' victory by making it seem as if it was preposterous to think the Pistons would be able to compete after such an arduous journey.
Earlier this season, on November 18th, the Knicks completed a four game west coast road trip that took place over five days, with a game in Denver against the Nuggets. Before arriving in Denver, the Knicks played a double-OT, three hour game against the Sacramento Kings. They got to their hotels at 5 in the morning, the day of the game. In the thin air of Denver, the Knicks mailed it in, and lost by 30 points. The Nuggets fast breaked up and down the court on the Knicks.
Did the Daily News offer any excuses for the Knicks, along the lines of the excuses offered for the Pistons' poor showing yesterday? Nah, of course not. And its that double standard that is what annoys most Knicks' fans about the local press... that they take joy not only in the defeats of the Knicks, but also in downplaying the rare victory, too.
**********
Of course it's true that the Pistons mailed in yesterday's game. That's going to happen in the NBA, over an 82-game season. Unless you are this year's Celtics, at which point you play too damn hard all the time, setting yourself up for a classic case of the late season/playoff burnout.
What you don't want is the to mail in too many games, which has been the Knicks problem all season long. That, and not getting off to good starts (even yesterday all they could manage is 18 points).
***********
On a sidenote, the Post (Marc Berman has had the scoop with Marbury all season long) is reporting that Marbury is going to have his foot looked out, and might have bone spurs that will keep him out for the next two months or so.
That could potentially derail Marbury until March, which would be near the end of the season. With Marbury's huge contract expiring next season, he'll be an attractive asset in trade talks this offseason. Marbury might very likely not have many games left in his Knicks' career, if any.
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