New York Knicks

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) The Lakers, who struggled mightily on defense for most of the game, trailed 37-26 after the first quarter. Early in the season, some commentators breathlessly raved about the Lakers' "new" defensive scheme but when I recently spoke with Lakers commentator Stu Lantz and Lakers assistant coaches Frank Hamblen and Jim Cleamons about the Lakers' defense they made several important observations: 1) Lantz said, "I really do like the Celtics’ defense because the Celtic defense is consistent for 48 minutes; regardless of the score, it is consistent for 48 minutes...I think that they (the Lakers) have a step to go to get to the Celtics’ level because of the consistency with which they play."   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) 2) Now that the Knicks will theoretically be able to sign two max contract players in 2010 there is speculation that they will try to pair LeBron James with Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh. Either of those combos certainly looks like a great dynamic duo--but history shows that NBA championships are not won merely by putting together two great players. In fact, sometimes even having three great players is not enough: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor never won a championship together, though Chamberlain and West teamed up with Gail Goodrich to capture the 1972 crown right after Baylor retired. Oscar Robertson/Jerry Lucas, Wes Unseld/Earl Monroe and Karl Malone/John Stockton are three examples of pairings of members of the NBA's 5...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) Most people seem to expect Indiana to be terrible this year but the Pacers only missed the playoffs by one game. They sent Jermaine O'Neal to Toronto in exchange for T.J. Ford, a point guard who will be able to push the ball up the court and feed the team's many three point shooters. I think that the Pacers will surprise a lot of people but in the end they will probably once again fall just short of the playoffs. The New York Knicks will almost certainly improve now that Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni are running the show but there is no reason to believe that even in the Eastern Conference they can leap frog enough teams to make the playoffs.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Many NBA fans are familiar with the classic line that Micheal Ray Richardson delivered about the floundering New York Knicks (some things never change) in the 1980s: "The ship be sinking." However, his followup response to a question about how far the team could sink is not as well known but just as priceless: "Sky's the limit." Welcome to the world of the Dallas Mavericks, whose ship is definitely sinking and the "sky's the limit" in terms of how far it will fall. The Mavs built a 15 point lead at Denver on Thursday before scoring just 35 second half points in a 118-105 loss. They are now just a half game ahead of Golden State and one game ahead of Denver in the three team battle for the final two Western Conference playoff berths.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Prior to this loss, the Bulls had won three of their four games since firing Coach Scott Skiles but, as TNT's Doug Collins noted, time is running out for Chicago and the Bulls really needed to win this home game. New Coach Jim Boylan is essentially undergoing an extended job interview, while several Bulls players who think that they are worth large contracts need to step their games up. This team is too talented to have such a bad record. Since Boylan took over, the Bulls seem to be playing with greater energy and purpose, which simply reinforces the perception that the players essentially quit on Skiles. Supposedly Skiles was too tough of a disciplinarian but I think that his real downfall is that he was too soft with several of these players. It i...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The Lakers pulled away in the second quarter, outscoring the Knicks 24-16, as Bryant had five points and five assists. Frazier noted that a big reason that the Lakers are doing better this year is their improved defense and he contrasted that with the poor defense that the Knicks play: "This is how the Knicks get behind by double digits. They have offensive futility and then their defense can't contain the other club." The Knicks also had serious ballhandling problems in the first half, committing 13 turnovers. A big reason for the team's woes in all of these areas--"offensive futility," turnovers and poor defense--is that the Knicks do not have any reliable, legitimate point guards on the roster. Their most talented guards are not true poi...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman 1) Boston Celtics, 20-2 2) San Antonio Spurs, 18-5 3-4) Detroit Pistons, Phoenix Suns, 17-7 5) Orlando Magic, 17-8 14) Yao Ming, HOU 21.8 ppg 21) Tim Duncan, SAS 8.9 rpg Howard extended his lead over Camby but the top ten seems to have stabilized for the most part. Ben Wallace, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki are all below their career norms as the season nears the quarter pole. Kidd's presence on this list is remarkable considering his age, his height and the fact that he had microfracture surgery a few years ago. Among shooting guards, Bryant and the Knicks' Quentin are tied for the lead (unless you believe the positional designations at ESPN.com, where forwards Mike Miller, Josh Howard, Luol Deng and Hedo Turkoglu are listed as shooting guards).   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The third article was a profile of the late, great Gus Johnson. I'm all in favor of honoring the legends of the game, as any visitor to this site can plainly see--but this article did not really capture the essence of Johnson's career. Johnson and Dave DeBusschere engaged in several memorable playoff battles when Johnson was with the Bullets and DeBusschere was with the Knicks; to write about Johnson and not devote significant space to his rivalry with DeBusschere would be like writing about Magic Johnson without mentioning Larry Bird (or vice versa). My 2006 article about the DeBusschere-Johnson rivalry explains that their matchup not only provided compelling theater but often decided which of their teams would win. As Knicks Coach Re...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The Bottom Line: Is it too extreme to blame one player for the Knicks' troubles? Perhaps, but I'm not saying that Marbury is the only problem; what I am saying is that I can't picture him being part of the solution. The pattern during his career is crystal clear: teams get worse when he arrives and they get better when he leaves. Some would say that Marbury is the most talented player on the team but that may be part of the problem; maybe nobody on the team is willing to stand up to him and/or maybe Marbury does not respect any of his teammates enough to listen. Whatever the case, the point guard handles the ball on nearly every offensive possession and is the front line of the defense and Marbury is simply not someone you can trust with either responsib...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Knicks Coach Isiah Thomas told TNT's Craig Sager that the first half was the most selfish half of basketball he had ever seen, which could quite correctly be interpreted as a swipe at starting point guard Stephon Marbury, who finished with four points, one assist and three turnovers in 21 minutes; amazingly, things actually got worse for the Knicks in the third quarter and shortly after Albert's comment Thomas benched his entire starting lineup in favor of his "energy" group: Renaldo Balkman, Jared Jeffries, Nate Robinson, Fred Jones and David Lee. That quintet usually makes up in hustle what it lacks in talent, though it is of course an exercise in futility for that unit to try to match up to the Celtics--who have both talent and energy;...   [read the full post]