This is how the game would've looked to you if you were a piece of the hardwood. Reason #431 why it's good not to be a floor board. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

The Knicks won their season opener 98-93 over the Toronto Raptors, thanks largely not to Amar’e Stoudemire but to the just-relegated-to-the-bench Wilson Chandler.  Just last week we asked who would be the Knicks #2 behind Stat.  Danilo Gallinari was the runaway favorite by our voters, followed by Raymond Felton and even Toney Douglas before we got to Chandler.  Okay, in fairness, after Gallo the next highest total was that a different player would step up each night, and chances are that’s what’ll happen rather than Chandler regularly being this unstoppable.

What are the takeaways from this game?  Just as we said during the preseason that there’s a danger into reading into too much from those games, clearly it’s equally presumptuous to make large scale assumptions based on a single game.  But that won’t stop me.  Here are my comments: (more…)

Did the "injured" Chris Bosh sit out SIX more games after he was cleared to play? At least he looked engaged, cheering his team on from the bench. Oh wait... (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Some pretty damning comments from Raptors’ GM Bryan Colangelo about how Chris Bosh was healthy enough to play for the team during the final push for a playoff spot, but he bailed on them.  ESPN reports:

“Despite limited swelling and any excessive damage on an MRI, he felt like he needed to sit for six more games,” Colangelo said on 590 The Fan on Monday.

“I’m not even questioning Chris’ injury. I’m telling you he was cleared to play subject to tolerance on his part, and the tolerance just apparently wasn’t there and he chose not to play.”

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Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher celebrate after a game that featured surprising turns and performances from beginning to end. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Yesterday I wrote how if Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celticsfollowed suit with the rest of the series, there would be more drama before the game than during it.  How happily wrong I was.  The game had surprising twists plus more storylines than a Robert Altman film.  If I didn’t know better, I’d’ve thought this game was shown on cable rather than ABC, ‘cuz TNT Knows Drama (oh wait, didn’t they change their tagline to the even lamer “TNT – Very Funny?”).  There also still was some post-game suspense (which I’ll get to in the end). So now, in honor of the Lakers winning their 16th title, we’ll go over the 16 surprising tales this game created, starting out with the 12 stories that played out duringthe game:

1. The Redemption Of Ron Artest

The 2010 Laker team had one difference from the 2009 team: they swapped Ron Artest for Trevor Ariza.  At the beginning of the year Artest stated that if the Lakers didn’t win again this year that the blame should fall on him.  It was a bold, perhaps fair statement to make.  With his horrendous shooting throughout much of the playoffs and into the Finals, LA fans had the bullseye painted and everything.  However, with Kobe and Pau struggling in the first half (okay, hell, the whole game), his scoring kept the team in the game.  Add to it that he held Paul Pierce to 5-of-15 shooting and this poor maligned, albeit slightly crazy guy, perhaps can finally move on from his Malice At The Palace rep.

To read the rest of my post, go to the main FanSided page here.

Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are the only ones who have been bored waiting between games. (source: Yardbarker.com)

For the rest of my article, click to the main FanSided page here.

Kobe's so darn good, Alvin Gentry's fine with losing to him. Elsewhere, Stan Van Gundy and Mike Brown still can't sleep, wondering what they did "wrong" to lose to the Celts. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Many have already talked about how the Lakers and Celtics have taken two different paths to the Big Show. It’s more than just a West Coast/East Coast thang, or offense versus defense. It’s also about the psychological effects they’ve left on those in their wake. Kobe, the self-proclaimed Black Mamba, has been an unstoppable force since Game 5 in the first round against the Thunder (by the way, I kinda love self-proclaimed nicknames. They should be totally illegal, but I find it so humorous that someone would decide to make up their own nickname that I loooove to ironically call them that. Thus I’m thrilled that Sasha Vujacic’s started getting playing time so I can yell out “The Machiiiiiiine” every time he touches the ball. Of course the true irony is that I’ve now used the Black Mamba tag so much that it no longer seems ironic to me when it comes out of my mouth. …Wait, what am I talking about? Oh yeah, Celts/Lakes.)

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Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale have held the trophy more than 14 franchises combined. (source: Yardbarker.com)

As we prepare for the 62nd championship round, one thing is clear: when it comes to winning the whole enchilada, the rich keep getting richer.

-Out of 30 franchises, only 16 have ever take home the trophy.

-Boston (17) and the Lakers (15) have combined to win (32) more than half of the championships.

-By contrast, the next franchises on that list, the Bulls (6) and Spurs (4), won all their rings during one time period and one superstar’s tenure (a certain Michael Jeffrey Jordan and Timothy Salierius Duncan — okay, I made up Dunc’s middle name; anyone know if he’s got a real one?).

-After that we’ve got 3 three-peaters (copyright Pat Riley) with the Pistons, Warriors and Sixers. Followed by 2 two-timers (Knicks and Rockets). For you Knick fans, that means if LeBron comes to NYC and wins 4 titles, that means we jump to #3 on the list!

For the rest of my post, click here for the main FanSided page.

Don't let the open arms confuse you. If you say something David Stern doesn't like, he'll fine you. No, there's no truth to the rumor that The Beatles wrote "Back In The USSR" about him. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

First off, please, please, please don’t confuse me for a whiney Boston Celtics fan. I actually was excited for them two years ago when they got Kevin Garnett because I felt like KG and Paul Pierce were two guys who deserved a shot and I wanted to see what they could do. Then they both, particularly KG, turned into jerks. So now I’m staunchly anti-Celts. I hope they lose this series, and I’m psyched that the Magic won last night. But Orlando shouldn’t have been helped out so egregiously by the refs.

No, I’m not a conspiracy nut either who thinks the “League” told the refs to extend the series. I just think that the refs and the NBA honchos have let the power go to their heads. It’s insane how afraid the league is of dissention. For those who didn’t watch last night’s game, Kendrick Perkins, the one guy in the league who can do a decent job defending Dwight Howard solo, got two technicals and was tossed. The first happened when he was helping Paul Pierce up, but their grip slipped so his arm went back a bit into Orlando’s backup center Marcin Gortat. Gortat responded, slapping the ball away, and they got hit by double technicals. I understand that one. At the time, particularly from certain angles, it looked like Perk just maliciously elbowed Gortat on purpose. But upon video review, you can see it was more of an accident.

To read the rest of this, go to my original post on the main FanSided page.

Yeah, Dirk is annoyed about losing, but that has nothing to do with why he's opting-out of his contract (source: Yardbarker.com)

ESPN reported that Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki is likely to opt-out of his contract, ostensibly add his name to the free agency pool, and as an unrestricted free agent at that.  What does that mean for Knick fans?  Quite possibly not a damn thing.  Even if he 100% wants to return to the Mavs, he’d still do this for contractual reasons, so it doesn’t imply he’s contemplating leaving in the slightest.   What’re the contractual reasons?

Opting out to sign a new deal, for starters, would lock in terms based on the NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement through the life of the next contract. Under the league’s current system, Nowitzki is eligible for a four-year maximum contract from Dallas worth $96.2 million once he opts out. The most he could receive from another team is a four-year deal worth $93.1 million.

Signing a three-year extension to the last remaining season on his current contract, by contrast, would expose Nowitzki to potential after-the-fact reductions to his annual wage if league owners are successful in their attempts to lower the value of maximum salaries in the next collective bargaining agreement.

[...] Another motivation for Nowitzki to opt out as opposed to signing an extension is the ability to secure a no-trade clause.

If Dirk played for anyone else besides Mark Cuban, I’d say this also was a good maneuver to put pressure on management to improve the team, but Cuban’s already made public his plans to go after LeBron.

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"What more can I do?" wonders Stan Van Gundy. Glad you asked... (source: Yardbarker.com)

After the Orlando Magic’s loss last night to the Boston Celtics, they’re down a seemingly insurmountable 0-2 and going into enemy territory to play the next two games. The good news? Both losses were close down the stretch. Stan Van Gundy is one of the best coaches in the game, and already he tweaked his line-up a bit after the first game. Seeing how well J.J. Redick performed in the opening stanza, Stan gave him even more run in the second verse, playing him 34 minutes. Yeah, yeah, JJ made the double bone-headed move at the end of the game where he didn’t call timeout as soon as he caught it, and then when he started dribbling he stopped before he crossed mid-court. That said, Redick was again outstanding, and one could equally fault Vince Carter’s free-throw misses or say that the Magic shouldn’t have let themselves get to the point where they needed a last-second save anyway.

Anyway, moving on, what other tweaks can the Magic make? Here are three:

For the rest of my post on the main FanSided page, check out the page here.

Was this the only time Mo Williams had to separate LeBron and Delonte? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

This rumor is too good not to pass on. A website reports that Delonte West has been sleeping with LeBron’s Momma:

My source explains the following.”My uncle is the general contractor at the Q and has been for the last 7 years. He’s good friends with a lot of guys at the Q, including some of the bigger boys in the organization and knows Dan Gilbert personally. My uncle has been told that Delonte has been banging Gloria James (Lebron’s Mom) for some time now. Somehow Lebron found out before game four and it destroyed their chemistry and divided the team. I am not making this up, I wish it wasn’t true but it happened.”

Definitely click here for the rest.

Orlando's Matt Barnes gets a good sniff of Joe Johnson in their series: yeah, JJ stunk (source: Yardbarker.com)

I really love Manu Ginobili, and I would’ve loved to see what he could do as a Knick, but I gotta say I was kinda glad when he recently signed a 3-year deal to stay with the Spurs.  That meant he wouldn’t be available as a huge risk out there tempting the Knicks.  If you look at the players with the 30 Biggest Salaries from this past season, you can pretty much lump ‘em into two categories: the best of the best and the obscenely overpaid injured types.  There’s a serious danger that Manu will fall into Group B.   As exciting as it’d be to see how good he could be as a team’s focal point (rather than Tim Duncan and Tony Parker being the first two options), it’s a bad bet.

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Just because LeBron is bent over, it doesn't mean you need to abuse him (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Okay, I know this is FanSided, not The LeBron James Non-Stop-Coverage Blog, but as has been stated by many people, the Cavs’ shocking loss has the potential to not just change the Cleveland franchise, but NBA history. Wherever LBJ goes, eventually championships will follow. So I’ve been shocked at the number of people who have summarily discounted his past performances to now label him as a player who just doesn’t have it. Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy, is a wonderful writer, but he’s a self-acknowledged knee-jerk sports fan. He writes what many others have said/written/twittered over the last few days:

There’s a feeling that [LeBron] can still get better, and with better teammates, maybe he could. But fundamentally, to paraphrase Bill Parcells, he is what he is at this point — a gregarious, larger-than-life, supremely gifted basketball player who’s better at making us say “WOW!” than anything else. If he owned that cutthroat Jordan chromosome, or Magic’s leadership chromosome, it would have surfaced by now.

Okay, LeBron doesn’t have Jordan’s cutthroat quality, but c’mon, Kobe’s the only other player who’s ever had that.  Then again, I’m not certain that killer quality is always best for a team.  Bill Russell has more rings than anyone, so clearly winning is a huge part of his genetic structure, but he would never mentally eviscerate a teammate the way Jordan did with Kwame Brown.  There’s something mesmerizing about that killer mentality in Jordan and Kobe, but that desire to win can be expressed in various ways as shown by Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson and tons of others.

For the rest of the post, click here.

Could this be LeBron's final press conference in Cleveland? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

LeBron James coming to New York has always been a slim possibility.  Well, unless the Yankees are playing, then he’ll come.  But joining the Knicks?  Probably not.  For me, the most compelling reason for him to come, as I discussed in an older post, is that legacy-wise, for some inexplicable reason, winning championships in a major market carries more caché.  To me, because of his otherworldly abilities, I assumed his free agency thought process would really be more about “Where would I like to get some rings?” rather than “Where can I get enough help to win a championship?”  If he loses now, in just the second round, would that change his mental approach to the latter question?

There are still games to play, and I wouldn’t be surprised if LeBron willed the Cavs to victory yet.  And if he does go out now, it might not even effect his mindset at all.  However, since idle (or idol) speculation is all we’ve got left in New York right now, let’s look at possible ways that the King’s summer free agency could be effected by this surprise turn of events:

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So far in this series LeBron James and Rajan Rondo have stepped as leaders of their respective teams. When ranked by their Points/Rebounds/Assists averages for the playoffs, they rank at 1 and 8 respectively. You can see the list in more detail here: http://youcastcorp.com/c/102/go/index.php?r=71

Guess the line for both James and Rondo in Game 6. Answers must be posted below in the comment section by Thursday May 11th at 7pm EST.

The winner who comes closest to both will receive a free prize package courtesy of NBA.com

What’s hot in the NBA?

Gone Fishin!

Lakers Seek Revenge in WCF

Orlando Sweeps Atlanta

Big summer franchise movies are assembled much like a NBA franchise team. You’ve got the executives who care more about the bottom line (“Let’s sign Allen Iverson — he’ll put butts in the seat” or “Let’s hire Scarlett Johansson — she’ll add sex appeal!”) rather than whether they create a high quality product. They hire the actors, or ball players. The thing is, it’s then up to the coach, or director, to make something out of this collection they were force fed, with their name being on the line. When a movie sucks, how often do you hear, “Man, that studio executive did an awful job?” And days after the Chicago Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers, it was coach Vinny Del Negro who got the axe, not GM John Paxson.

For the rest, click here.

"Wake up, Al! It's not a dream: in the All-NBA vote I got 43 times the points of former MVP Kevin Garnett!" (source: Yardbarker.com)

No, of course David Lee didn’t make First, Second, or Third All-NBA Team.  However, getting the third highest point total out of the runner-ups is pretty impressive.  Free agent and potential Knick, Chris Bosh, received 80 points, while All-Star Playoff stud Rajon Rondo notched 47.  Oh, you want to know who actually MADE the teams?  Here’s the list:

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Duhon may shoot the ball like a blind paraplegic, but he's one of the few Knicks to play some defense. Is that enough to warrant keeping him? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

For those of you who are new to the neighborhood, no, the title of the post isn’t a stab at Chris Bosh’s recent Twitter post — it’s a Clash homage.  We introduced the idea to this series a couple of weeks ago: an analysis of the 10 Knicks who we don’t have under contract for next year.  Going alphabetically, we already examined Earl Barron and Jonathan Bender.  Skipping over definite returnees Wilson Chandler, Eddy Curry & Toney Douglas, we now arrive at the man who was our starting point guard for the majority of the last two seasons: Christopher Riley Duhon.  Okay, I made up the Riley part, but it sounds right, don’t it?

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After Game #1 it seemed like Mo Williams would be a Major X-Factor. After Game #2 and Rajon Rondo's defense, we're downgrading Mo to a mere Minor X-Factor. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

After last night’s game, it’s clear there are 5 Major X-Factors in the Cleveland Cavaliers/Boston Celtics playoff series, 3 Minor X-Factors, and 1 Under-Reported Straight-Out Factor.  What do I mean by Major, Minor and Straight-Out Factors?  Well, first a Straight-Out Factor versus an X-Factor is something you know is going to happen versus something that may or may not happen.  Like it’s obvious now that Rajon Rondo is a force who’s gonna bring it every night. Earlier in his career that wasn’t the case, and he was an X-Factor. Now he’s a Straight-Out Factor, but he’s an Over-Reported Factor (or rather a Justifiably-Frequently-Reported Factor), so we ain’t gonna go into him.

In terms of Major X-Factors or Minor ones, a Major one is a change that will effect the whole series, while a Minor X-Factor effects just one game.  For instance, Doc Rivers has said that he hopes Nate Robinson can come in at some point during the playoffs, get hot, and help them win that game.  However, Nate clearly isn’t gonna be a major X-Factor who’s gonna suddenly be a force who leads them to victory in every single remaining battle.  Honestly, I don’t even have him as a minor X-Factor, but who knows?

The Five Major X-Factors:

To read the rest, click here.

For once LeBron desperately needed Mo to be more than his towel boy (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Here’s a post I wrote for the main FanSided page:

The King looked dead. In the first half of Game 1, four of LeBron’s five attempts were with his left hand. He was passive, often receiving the ball and just swinging it to the next person to make someone else initiate the offense. By the third quarter, the Cavs were down by 11 to the Celtics and seemed lifeless. Antawn Jamison who’s been the #2 scoring option since joining the team would end the evening with only 7 points on 2 for 6 shooting from the field (and an equally pitiful 3 for 6 from the line). It was time for Mo’.

Mo Williams, rightly criticized for disappearing last year in the playoffs when he was the team’s undisputed #2 option, had his now infamous first dunk as a Cavalier, igniting the crowd and his team. It wasn’t just that throwdown either, as it was just the first of 10 straight points that Mo scored in a row in slightly more than two minutes. Cleveland had a one-point lead by the time the team made it to the fourth quarter. Then LeBron took over.

Read the rest of the story here.

Over the next few weeks Buckets Over Broadway readers will be able to compete in a number of contests. All you have to do is follow the provided links, come back here and leave your answers in the comments section. We’ll pick the winners at random and NBA.com will send you prizing ranging from pens to hoodies to yo-yos and everything in between.

Contest #1 (will likely end Monday May 3rd, earlyish)

It seems that NBA players are more stylish now than ever. In recent post game press conferences some of the game’s biggest stars have looked as slick in their off-the-court clothing as they do driving the lane or knocking down three pointers.

Check out some of their threads at the links provided below and then come back and tell us in the comments section here who was the best dressed, who was the worst dressed, and why for each. Winners will be picked at random by Buckets Over Broadway and be provided with some great gear courtesy of NBA.com.

Dwight Howard Press Conference

Stephen Jackson Press Conference

LeBron James Press Conference

Carmello Anthony Press Conference

Dwyane Wade Press Conference

Note Bender's proper defensive form while attempting a block: 1. Swing up and from behind, not down and from above. 2. Aim for the wrist instead of the ball. Lastly, most importantly: 3. Try not to look directly at the play as the ugliness of it could hurt your eyes. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Jonathan Bender, a phenom drafted by Indiana straight outta high school, initially retired at a young age due to injuries.  This year, still only 29, the seven-footer decided to make a comeback on the Knicks for GM Donnie Walsh who had drafted him for the Pacers.  With our team mired in mediocrity, it seemed an intriguing possibility.

Bender came out in his first couple of games with energy, looking like a potential find.  It soon became clear though that he could not bring it consistently, nor was he willing to do Big Man work.  Tellingly, despite being the height of a center, ESPN lists him as a Small Forward.  His career rebounding high is 3.1.  Sure, that season he only played slightly over 21 minutes, but still double that to an outrageous 42 minutes and we’re still talking only 6.2 boards.  Meaning if he did get decent 30+ minutes, even in his prime he would’ve given you like 5+ boards.  For comparison sake, the 5’8″ Nate Robinson has averaged nearly 3 boards in 24 minutes during his career.  Hmmm…

Okay, okay, but this is the Knicks, where we don’t care about defense and rebounding, we care about offense, right?   (more…)

Is Kobe eyeing the game clock or Father Time? (source: Yardbarker.com)

I posted this on the main page of FanSided:

With the Lakers/Thunder series tied at 2-2, and the winner of Game 5 historically taking the series like 85% of the time, the pressure is on Los Angeles tonight. Specifically Kobe Bean Bryant, aka the Black Mamba. In honor of the occasion, ESPN.com decided to nail the coffin on KB24’s grave by asking their writers six questions exploring what’s wrong with him. Let’s look at their responses and see where they’re spot-on and where they’re spot-off.

1. What’s wrong with Kobe?
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop writes:

This year, any time he’s called on to be truly explosive physically — dunk, block or beat a defender with raw speed — he doesn’t look like the guy he once was. I don’t know what’s wrong, but because it has happened quickly, I have to think it’s one of his many injuries, not just some age-induced slippage.

Several of the writers echo this sentiment, but there’s a key part wrong with it: this is not a new thing.  Kobe’s game has changed over the last three years as he’s aged.  He hasn’t been that explosive constant-driver-to-the-basket in a while.  As Chris Broussard correctly notes:

For the rest of my article, click here.

Dirk looks like he needs a lot of help. A LOT. And "a lot" can be spelled "LeBron." (source: Yardbarker.com)

When I recently wrote my little primer on how to root in the playoffs as a Knicks’ fan, I gave short shrift to the Dallas Mavericks.  That’s ‘cuz I didn’t think they’d suck this hard.  I also didn’t put much stock in the idea that LeBron James could go to the Mavs.  Now I’m worried that with Dallas crumbling quick, that could become a very real possibility.

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Should we have Sergio Rodriguez, JR Giddens and Bill Walker return next year for us? It's time to start thinking these things through. (source: Yardbarker.com)

In a homage to the seminal band The Clash, I present the beginning of the “Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?” series where we look at each of the Knicks’ 2009-2010 players and examine whether… well, whether they should stay or go. We’ll be discussing not simply if they were good for us or not, but also factoring in how much it would cost to retain them, how it would effect our salary cap space, and what role we would want from them. For instance, it’s a no-brainer we don’t want to pay Chris Duhon $6 million to be our starting point guard again. However, giving him the veterans’ minimum of like $1+ million to be the backup (or simply a bench/practice presence) becomes a far more interesting question.

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Would YOU want to live in Cleveland? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

1. Okay, everyone knows about this quote ‘cuz the Chicago Bulls’ Joakim Noah has been relentless in his digs at Cleveland. When given a chance to recant after Game #2, he offered this nugget (amongst others):

“I never heard anybody say I’m going to Cleveland on vacation.”

For the other two quotes, check out the end of the article here.

Can NY afford to get David Lee, Chris Bosh AND Rudy Gay? Thanks to the new salary cap and a loophole, let's Barack the answer: Yes we can. (source: Yardbarker.com)

As ESPN reported today:

The New York Knicks and other teams hoarding salary-cap space got some good news Friday when they were told at the league’s Board of Governors meeting that the projected 2010-11 salary cap will be $56.1 million.

That figure was $2 million to $3 million more than most teams had been expecting, and for the Knicks it ensures they have enough cap space this summer to sign two maximum-salary free agents.

Just yesterday Chris Sheridan was reporting that people were expecting the salary cap to be between $52.5 and $54 million, and that anything less than that upper end would make it tough for us to sign two max free agents.  In other words, wipe away that sweat, we’re sitting pretty now.  A few other interesting things gleaned from his article:

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You may not be able to tell from the looks on the Raptors' bench, but Toronto won the game. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Toronto annihilated the Knicks last night 131-113 (if we were playing Mastermind we’d say at least the Knicks’ score got all the same correct #s as Toronto, but just in the wrong order).  In the first half, the Raptors shot 70%.  No, not from the free-throw line, but from the field where you’re supposedly allowed to play defense.  The Canadian fans were excited, so why the depressed looks on the bench?  While Toronto needed this final win to get into the playoffs as the eighth seed, they also needed something else: the Chicago Bulls to lose their simultaneous game against the Charlotte Bobcats.  The Bulls didn’t play their part, instead winning and thus hanging onto their last-minute theft of that final playoff spot.

More depressing to the people of Toronto is that perhaps this helped further the death knell of Raptors’ all-time-scoring-and-rebounding-leader Chris Bosh’s stay north of the border.  The man is on record as having said he wants to be surrounded by enough talent to make his team a contender.  It’s pretty clear that Toronto ain’t nowhere near that.

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The Knicks' gave the Garden Faithful something to cheer about as they left their final home game. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Last night, the final home game of the season, the Knicks gave the crowd something to cheer for on Fan Appreciation Night.  Losing wouldn’t help our lottery chances, winning wouldn’t help our playoff chances.  We were going up against an equally sucky team in the Washington Wizards, a team without even an exciting superstar.  And yet if you listened to the amazing crowd at Madison Square Garden last night, you’d've thought it was Game 7 of the Finals.

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Pacers' coach, Jim O'Brien, watches, appalled that the Knicks made him seem competent by forcing his team to look like an offensive juggernaut (source: Yardbarker.com)

We all love an epic battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object.  The Knicks’ game last night against the Pacers was the opposite.  Indiana, the third worst shooting team in the league, is far from an unstoppable force on offense.  And us, New York, tied for second in allowing their opponents to shoot the highest percentage, is no one’s idea of an immovable object on D.  They like to shoot only .442, but we like to give up .482.  In backwards world it meant: could we force them to score more than they normally do, or would they make our defense look better than it is?  Turns out we decided to go 50/50.

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The Celtics' Rajon Rondo drives to the hoop and is shocked to find that the Knicks have a 7-footer playing defense there. Meet Earl Barron. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Two seasons ago the Boston Celtics were the cream of the crop with Kevin Garnett leading their monstrous defense.  Last season they started out strong until KG went down with a knee injury which kept him out of the playoffs.  As a result, they struggled to get past the Chicago Bulls, then were eliminated in just the second round.  This year Garnett is back and ostensibly healthy.  But the mojo is gone.

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Back in 2001, Earl Barron played for Memphis. Both he and the Knicks thought they had a promising decade ahead of them. They were wrong. But perhaps now we can combine forces and make the Tens be OUR decade. (source: Yardbarker.com)

For those who don’t know, though I’m a born and bred New Yorker, I’ve spent the last decade-plus in Los Angeles.  While here, I’ve adopted the Clippers as my sad, pathetic little brother to encourage.  That resulted in my creating the site FullyClips.com for the FanSided Network here before I got promoted up to the big leagues and was given the Knicks’ site.  For my first post on this site, I did a piece on The Smackdown Battle For Title Of The Past Decade’s Worst NBA Franchise.  Much to Isiah Thomas’ chagrin, I gave the award to Donald Sterling’s Clippers.  Although to be fair to Isiah, he only had a few years of being in charge to screw up the Knicks, versus Sterling had the entire decade (& more).  I’m sure if Isiah had a larger time frame in which to work his (black) magic, he could’ve stunk up the joint just as poorly as The Donald did.

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(source: Yardbarker.com) This isn't from Friday's game, but it's exciting lookin', ain't it?

In my last post, I complained about the Knicks’ lack of energy and hustle.  Clearly the players read my blog ‘cuz Friday night they were willing to work.  Yeah, yeah, they lost, but sometimes you can’t control that.  You can always control whether you come to PLAY.

Basketball is a fun game, but it's also work. Sometimes you lose that fun, and that's when you gotta be a professional and still force yourself to go all out. (source: Yardbarker.com)

I’ll admit it: I stopped watching the game at halftime.  Well, I fast-forwarded through the first few minutes of the second-half to see if the Knicks were gonna show up, but nope, they never made it to the game.  Now I haven’t always been a big fan of some of Coach Mike D’Antoni’s substitution choices, the way he communicates with players, or his lack of an emphasis on defense, but it comes down to this: the players still gotta go out there and play.  They still gotta have some pride.  The coach can only do so much, ‘cuz he ain’t the one shooting the ball or (not) defending his hoop.

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Al Harrington passes out exhausted after setting a Guiness Record for "Most Bad Shots In A Minute" (source: Yardbarker.com)

In last night’s game, the Utah Jazz came out not just on fire, but darn near explosive.  In the first quarter they shot 7-for-7 from the three-point line, whipping up 44 points in just 12 minutes.  It seemed like another blowout.  However, the Knicks kept fighting, miraculously tying the game in the third.  In fact, they even had a shot at taking the lead when Tracy McGrady was fouled on a three-point shot “attempt.”  I use quotes there ‘cuz it was one of those annoying plays where the defender has their arm sticking forward, so the star player forces contact, pretending to shoot.  Yes, I shouldn’t sound bitter ‘cuz it was our star player who got the shots, but I hate that rule.  Players like Kobe, Paul Pierce and Reggie Miller always do this lame move.  And actually Danilo Gallinari’s done it a bunch and will likely continue to incorporate it into his game.  I think they’ve gotta get rid of both that rule and the one where you get your defender to jump into the air on a pump-fake, then jump into him for the foul.  I don’t get why they can’t just tweak the rule slightly so that it’s only a foul if the defender initiates the contact.

Wait, wait, how’d I get into this diatribe?  Oh yeah, the point was that TMac had 3 free throw attempts with the Knicks down by one at the end of the third.  He hit the first to tie it, then just had to hit one of the remaining two to give the Knicks’ the lead for once.  He missed ‘em both.

It was a fitting omen, ‘cuz bizarrely enough what cost us this game wasn’t our defense for once, but our inability to put the ball through the hoop.  In the fourth quarter we only managed 11 points.  The Jazz struck for just 16 points, and those five points were the deciding margin.  What happened?  Well…

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When the Knicks have it going, it's like the circus has come to town. Which, coincidentally, it did two nights ago. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Frank Isola of the NY Daily News wrote about last night’s crowd at Madison Square Garden:

The Knicks don’t really deserve their fans. Not yet anyway.

On Tuesday, the Garden was alive and kicking as Danilo Gallinari and Carmelo Anthony went back-and-forth in the third quarter of the Knicks thrilling win over the Nuggets. The quality of play and sound of the crowd made it seem like May.

The Knicks will likely lose 50 games for the second consecutive year and their fans act as is they are a championship contender. It just goes to show you how desperate the supporters of the orange and blue are for a winning team.

“That’s why it’s New York, it’s the best,” Mike D’Antoni said. “Every game is a show.”

Let’s be honest, the outcome of our games don’t matter at this point.  If we win, we ain’t making it to the playoffs.  If we lose, we ain’t improving our lottery odds since we traded our picks away.  Yet still, fans cheer for the Knicks like crazy.  Or, when the team’s sucking, we’ll boo like crazy.  Either way, the fans clearly are crazy.  The players may be inconsistent, but our fans’ mental instability remains constant.  Like spurned lovers, all we want is someone to count on.  Danilo Gallinari was declared one of NYC’s most eligible bachelors in January, but only recently has he shown he may be the one true one for us.

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(source: Yardbarker.com)

After Jordan Hill’s solid play Sunday against the Knicks, Tom Ziller of NBA Fanhouse examined the issue of whether Coach Mike D’Antoni plays rookies:

Hill [...] hardly played for Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, despite the fact that N.Y. remains one of the worst teams in the league and that the franchise needed all the boosted assets it could manage.  [Hill returned as] a legit rotation player with Houston, mind you.

Hill had tantalized at various times while playing for the Knicks, but he was never given much room to learn and grow and well… time to play.  Many fans rightly felt Coach Mike D’Antoni should’ve given Hill more burn, particularly since it’s been clear for a long, long while that we ain’t making it to the playoffs.  In his return the other day, Hill himself stated that D’Antoni doesn’t like to play rookies.  As we mentioned yesterday, unfortunately D’Antoni responded with his comment that he just doesn’t like to play “bad rookies.”  Other players & fans have also leveled the accusation that Coach D doesn’t play rooks (& truth be told, many coaches prefer to rely on the consistency of vets), but Ziller has D’s back:

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Poor Outlet Passing

On two separate occasions, the Knicks turned the ball over in the backcourt.  The first comes after a Rockets three pointer:

Now, both J.R. Giddens and Chris Duhon are at fault here:

(source: NBAPlaybook.com)

This is because Trevor Ariza is hanging around and it should have been noticed by either guy (or at least 1).  This is something that a lot of teams do to get the ball out of the PGs hands, but it rarely turns into a steal.  However, Giddens grabs the ball out of the net and just tosses to where Duhon is without looking.  For his part, Duhon floats away from the basketball as it comes to him instead of meeting the ball and ensuring the catch.  The Rockets went from being down 14 to being down 9 after this.  This was a huge 5 point swing in this game as the Knicks went from pulling away to trying to hang on to the lead.

This happened yet again later in the game, this time coming off of a missed basket:

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Gallo didn't shy away from contact ...which seemed to include head pats mussing up his hair plus kidney bunny punches (source: Yardbarker.com)

Friday night, David Lee missed his first game of the season due to a sore right knee.  What made it hurt as much for fans as it did for him is the fact that he inexplicably played 40+ minutes in the previous game even though we were getting blown away by the Celtics.  However, in the continuing saga of a bizarre season where nothing makes sense: we won.  What made the win against the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers even more unlikely? Our second (or third?) best player, Wilson Chandler, missed the game again due to injury (at this point it’s possible Wil might not return this season).  Throw in that our fourth best player, Tracy McGrady went 0-for-7 in 29 minutes.  Gently stir and mix in that our replacement starting center, Jonathan Bender, left the game when he broke a finger on his left hand in the first half (which’ll cause him to miss the rest of the season).

Yup, East is West, Black is White, Up is Down.  I’m pretty darn good at math, but I can’t figure out the calculus of how we won this thing. You figure, well, Al Harrington must’ve had one of those nights when he exploded.  Nope, the dude played 40 minutes, yet only tossed in 11 points on a pathetic 25% field-goal shooting.  We came into the fourth quarter trailing.  We’d been down as much as 12 points.  The Sixers, who killed us on the boards in the last game (as most teams do), even had their point guard snag 8 rebounds — yet somehow they lost the battle of the boards by a sizable 13 of ‘em!  It’s like this game took place in Bizarro World or something.  In a bit of nostalgia, Coach Mike D’Antoni played Chris Duhon an astounding 31 minutes.  In a ton of normalcy, Duhon responded with three points on 20% shooting and not a single assist.  Nice to see some things don’t change.  EVER. (more…)

Would legendary Boston coach Red Auerbach be more likely to roll over in his grave from not only Celtic cheerleaders, but ones with kilts, or... (source: Yardbarker.com)

For those who didn’t watch last night’s game you can be forgiven for thinking that a 97-109 loss to the Celts doesn’t sound too, too bad.  That’s ‘cuz you didn’t have to sit through it.  And ‘cuz the Knicks had a useless run in the fourth against the Celtics’ bench-warmers to make the game seem more respectable than it was.  The boys in green didn’t need the luck of the Irish on St. Patty’s Day to maintain a 20+ point against us for most of the game. This iteration of the Celtics over the past few years has made its mark on defense, not offense.  We made ‘em look like the high-octane Phoenix Suns, letting them shoot over 50% from the field.

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Is it just me or have the Knicks looked a little different lately?

With the Knicks racking two wins in a row, rumors have really rapidly run rather rampantly.  Is it true that the players’ life-forms have been inhabited by aliens?  How else do you explain wins over a top team like Atlanta, ending Dallas’ 13 game winning streak in a blow-out, and not playing down to Philadelphia’s level last night and losing like we like to do?  We here at Buckets Over Broadway are not afraid to plunge into such hard-hitting journalistic investigations to uncover the truth for you.  Are these the same Knick players we’ve known all year?  Or are they hosts to a possibly hostile race of space creatures who’ve come to slowly yet surely destroy any sense of logic in our world, thus creating chaos, leaving us unable to know up from down, and easy pickings for interplanetary conquest?  At this point, either seems feasible.  Let’s compare what clues point towards being a Knick versus an Alien:

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Yes, Douglas was sensational last night along with Walker both adding 20+ points and shot the ball extremely well. Sergio did not even see the court last night, and in a surprise lineup change Duhon was inserted back into the rotation.

The Knicks shot the ball extremely well, and the Mavs couldn’t hit anything all night. The Knicks were able to do whatever they wanted all night and dominated the Mavericks in all facets of the game.

The Knicks travel to Philly tomorrow to take on the Sixers in what should be a winnable game.

One positive note, however, was Bill Walker and leading the 4th quarter charge he put on and brought the Knicks within in 5 in what would have been a miraculous comeback. Walker has certainly made a name for himself since being dealt here and has in my mind earned a spot on next year’s squad.

Gallinari continued his horrid shooting slump tonight shooting 1-8 from 3 and 3-12 overall. The fact that he’s still starting is beyond me, and will hopefully be replaced by Walker in the starting lineup sooner rather then later. I’m not saying I’ve given up on Gallo, but something is certainly wrong and maybe rest will get him back on track because his shooting is killing us.

T-Mac was once again non-existant on offense, which is another killer for this team. McGrady has not taken the shots he should be taking and is being lazy on both sides of the court. McGrady needs to stop recruiting and focus on being a player fighting for a contract. McGrady needs reminded if he doesn’t start performing better there is no guarantee we bring him back.

Lee and Chandler did their thing once again and continue to be the only consistent players on this team.

July can’t come soon enough.

The Knicks effort tonight was really poor. They came out slow and were down 9 after the first and never really recovered. Shooting 11.8 from 3 didn’t help either. Seeing this team live and die by the 3 is getting very frustrating and doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

McGrady was a non-factor along with Gallo. Gallo has been awful since the T-Mac trade and these poor performances from him are really discouraging going forward. McGrady really just didn’t play with any intensity and didn’t attack the Spurs inside like he should of. McGrady has to take more then 8 shots and Al Harrington doesn’t need to take more then 10.

Which brings us to the only consistent player on this team, David Lee. Lee battled Duncan well inside and really kept the Knicks in the game.

On a last note, the Knicks clinched yet ANOTHER losing season with this loss and things are as gloomy as ever. This team needs a makeover, which unfortunately won’t come until after this season.

The title of this post isn’t a joke, as one would assume. The Knicks were up by 1 with the ball and about 20 seconds left, but they turned it over. The Hawks were now breaking down the court with the chance for a win. How did the Knicks stop them? Let’s look:

Wilson Chandler meets Josh Smith at the top of his dunk attempt and gets the block. Now, his physical ability is what allowed him to get the block, but Chandler used his basketball IQ to get himself in position to let his physical tools take over.

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After playing so well, Gallo felt like he was sitting on air. (source: yardbarker)

This year the Atlanta Hawks picked up former Knick Jamal Crawford, who is second on the team in scoring and is the likely winner of the Sixth Man Of The Year Award for the most valuable player off the bench.  In addition, their should-be-All-Star power forward, Josh Smith, aka JSmoove, has taken his game to the next level by no longer settling for hoisting up three-pointers, thus greatly improving his field goal percentage (& shot selection).  As a result, the Hawks have taken that next step to where they’re almost up there with the big boys in the league.  No one would likely pick them to beat Cleveland or Orlando in a seven game series, but they’re no longer the gimmes they used to be.  And if the Cavs or Magic came out with less than their A game, the Hawks could easily come out as victors. All of which makes it more amazing that the Knicks beat the Hawks yet again last night.  Particularly right after losing to one of the historically worst teams ever in the Nets.

To further highlight the difference, in the Nets game the Knicks made negative NBA history by attempting the most threes (18) without hitting one (aka 0).  Against the Hawks, the Knicks came out and went four-for-four from out deep to start the game.  Of course they didn’t keep up that insane pace, but they still finished off hitting 10 of 15, for a whopping 66.6%.  Teams would kill to shoot that well from two-point range, so to do that from beyond the arc is just downright amazing.  And don’t kid yourself into thinking that it has anything to do with the other team’s defense — the Nets are one of the worst teams at defending from the three-point line.

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Sadly, Big Al goes in for the layup even if it means shoving others aside. (Source: Yardbarker)

Maybe all the cold weather in New York this year has made the Knicks think it’s still Christmas, ‘cuz they’ve been non-stop giving out the gift of victories to any team that comes near them.  The New Jersey Nets, who had won only 6 our of 61 games, were on a path to be the team with the worst record in NBA history.  The previous record low is only 9 games (out of an 82 game season) held by Washington in like 1982 or something (their leading scorer was Fred Carter).  If the Nets kept at that 6 of 61 pace, they not only would’ve been unable to win more than those 9 games, they wouldn’t have even won 9.  Now though at 7 of 62 after we let them whup us on Saturday, suddenly they’re on pace to out-do those 9 games.  Not a bad gift from their cross-river rivals?  This is one mark in the record book for which ya don’t wanna become famous.

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Wilson Chandler missed his second game, er I mean first game, since that game I imagined against the Cavs was just a bad dream.  Al Harrington started in his place, and Big Al kept his hot streak going.  He was hitting three-

pointers like they were going outta style.  Wait, “going out of style?”  What kind of dumb expression is that?  I feel like in today’s style conscious society, if something’s going out of style we try to instantly get rid of it, not accumulate ‘em.  Maybe in the old days if you knew a pair of pants were going out of style you might get a bunch of ‘em before they disappeared forever, but now it’s gotta be the opposite, right?  Like what kind of idiot would I be if I put up an Obama “Yes We Can” poster now?  Or if I decided that the way to make big money is through internet start-ups and real estate?  Actually, real estate might be coming back, but then that’s more like going retro.  Like getting me a pair of moon boots now might be kinda fun, but back when that fad was dying we knew they were awful even at the time.  Sorry, sorry, I’m rambling.  Where was I?

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For those who don’t know, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ center, a large man by the name of Shaquille O’Neal, had surgery on his finger which is causing him to miss the next month or so.  In addition they traded away their back-up 7+ footer, Zydrunas Ilgauskas (although due to an odd loophole he’ll be able to return to the team in 30 days).  That’s not to say we should’ve expected the Cavs to be anything less than awesome, but it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to hope that we wouldn’t get quite as hammered on the boards since they also wouldn’t have a single seven-footer in their line-up.  No such luck.  They nearly doubled our rebounds, 60-to-31.

That is, if this game actually existed, that might’ve been what happened.  But as we all know it was just a bad dream.

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We were up by 5 points with about two minutes to go in regulation, and it looked like we’d have a nice win.  But then we let ‘em score 6 unanswered points, with the last five happening in a mere 18 seconds.  Yikes.  Al Harrington hit only one of two free-throws to tie it up.  Then Harrington got a layup and a foul, meaning a chance to give us a  nice three-point game with 32 seconds left.  But again Harrington missed the gimme.  And in less than 7 seconds we let ‘em score and tie it up.  And while Harrington could’ve iced the game if he’d hit those two free-throws, if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have even been there in the first place.

Big Al shot a nice 12-of-21 from the field for 37 points.  He hit 5-of-8 three-pointers.  Yet somehow from the closer range of the free-throw line, and with no defenders, he shot about the same, 66%, missing 4 freebies.  The overtime was also odd, ‘cuz all game long it was just an offensive fest.  Washington rang up from 26-30 points in each quarter (we ranged from 24-31).  Yet in the five minute overtime, they managed only 4 points.  And we had only 6.  And we only got those last two points with seconds left, thanks to David Lee.  Of note, TMac, who had another solid game with 23 points, did not play at the end of regulation or during overtime (I’m unsure if this was due to his knee hurting or a lack of conditioning).

TMac's been great about driving to the hole rather than settling for the jumper... when he's able to make it on the court

Last thought about that game.  As some of you know, I used to write a Clippers blog (even though I’m a New Yorker, I currently live in Los Angeles and have pathetically adopted the Clips as my secondary team).  As a result, it was bizarre noticing this version of the Wizards had five, count ‘em, five former Clippers.  The day of the game they signed former Clip prodigy (before a devastating accident), Shaun Livingston (who sadly had a costly turnover for the Wiz late in the game), plus newly acquired Al Thornton, James Singleton, Quinton Ross and Earl Boykins.  I mean knowing how bad the Clips are/have always been, how dumb do you have to be to acquire five of ‘em?  And not even just any five, but five who pretty much always came off the bench.  So you’re not just choosing players from a bad team, you’re choosing players who couldn’t get much playing time even when they were on an awful team?  Moving on…

Saturday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, we remained competitive for most of the game, even taking a lead into the fourth quarter.  Once again, Al Harrington was unstoppable.  31 points on 18 shots.  Again he was on fire from three-world, hitting better than 50% at 6-of-11.  And again, oddly, he was worse with free throws, making only 3-of-6.  McGrady had his first terd of a game, 0 points and 2 assists in only 15 minutes before having to sit out the whole second half due to knee pain (yikes!).  The thing that really killed the Knicks though was the rebounding disparity.  The Grizz used their superior length to outrebound us by 20 rebounds.  Pathetically, we allowed former Knick Zach Randolph to get a career high in rebounds with 25.  Our team, combined, managed to get just 32 boards.  Yup, one man almost outboarded our whole frickin’ team.

Comedian Tracy Morgan (from TV's "30 Rock"), watching the Knicks get whupped on the boards, ain't laughing

Last thoughts:

-D’Antoni has started regularly playing new acquisition Bill Walker, ‘cuz he’s been impressed with his athleticism.  Walker does have potential, so it’s nice to see him get some run so we can determine if he can be a piece down the road.

-Sergio Rodriguez didn’t have that non-stop energy in Saturday’s game.  Maybe he was tired from the back-t0-back, or just from being on a team where he often didn’t play at all to now getting big minutes and needing to initiate everything.

"Oh my God, your jaw is so strong & square! I must touch it!"

-As much crap as we’ve given Chris Duhon here over the last few months, we oughta comment that the dude has been pure class since not only losing his starting gig, but also losing all minutes whatsoever.  He’s gone beyond being a professional about it.  Always the first guy jumping up and cheering, and he seemed as thrilled as anyone when the Knicks pulled out the Wiz game.  He even issued a statement acknowledging that he sucked and that he was given MORE than enough of a chance to right things but he couldn’t, so he thinks it’s a good move to go another direction.  And I used to think a classy guy meant someone who didn’t eat with their fingers.

-Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, despite being the only key players who’ll definitely be here next year, remain marginalized in the offense, usually getting at best the fourth or fifth shot attempts.  And mostly getting those off of broken-down plays rather than having plays run specifically for them.  This is a very, very bad trend.

Chandler rarely gets the ball 'cuz he takes low percentage shots like this. Oh wait, he drove past his man for an easy dunk. ...Hmmm, then I dunno why he don't get the rock more.