Can’t say I predicted the Spurs to be this good this year, I thought they were over the hill and expected Tony Parker to jump ship and join the Knicks.

Without Danilo Gallinari’s services (out 2-3 weeks with a sprained knee) I would assume we’ve no shot, but if the Knicks have been anything this season, they have been surprising.

The starting five will be adjusted by sliding Chandler and Stoudemire to the three and four, respectively, along with Ronny Turiaf being re-inserted back into the starting lineup.

If the Knicks wanted to make a statement, now would be a good time to make it against the team with the best record in the NBA.  The Knicks are starting to have the reputation of being a lower tier playoff team that can’t get over the hump when it comes to defeating top-tier teams like the Magic, Heat and Celtics.  I say it is all about matchups.  We don’t match up well against the Heat (who does, they’re only supposed to have two max guys on there, not three) but that doesn’t mean we might not compete with San Antonio’s lineup.

6’1″ 205   Raymond Felton   PG    6’2″  185  Tony Parker

6’7″  210  Landry Fields         SG   6’6″   205  Manu Ginobili

6’10″  245  Ronny Turiaf         C    6’7″  270  Dejuan Blair

6’8″   225   Wilson Chandler    SF   6’7″  230 Richard Jefferson

6’10″  240  Amar’e Stoudemire  PF  6’11″ 245 Tim Duncan

Off the bench the Knicks will rely on Toney Douglas, Shawne Williams and Bill Walker, while the spurs get production from George Hill, Gary Neal (who?), Matt Bonner, Antonio McDyess (remember him?) and Tiago Splitter.

Seven of nine upcoming games are on the road after tonight’s game.

Call me crazy but I think we can take this team tonight.

This is a record-breaking season for these Knicks.  Earlier in the season, Amar’e Stoudemire had 9 straight wins with 30+points per game, now Raymond Felton is on the threshold of setting another Knicks precedent:  six consecutive games with 10+ assists is only three games shy of the record set by Michael Ray Richardson.

They may have more talent, may have the refs in their pocket, but we ARE the better team.  We have a group of guys that put team first, and enjoy playing together.  We don’t have players that disrespect their head coach, disrespect the NBA, pining for it to contract and cut some of the worst teams, or mislead 6 NBA teams on only to go play behind someone else in Miami.

We play better on the road, no doubt, and considering how bad they beat us two weeks ago at the Garden, I think we will be better prepared and have a counter attack planned out.

LeBron met Amar’e at the rim several times during the first encounter.  I expect Amar’e to come out with a vengeance.

Miami’s biggest weakness is they have no point guard or center, so we should attack those two areas with Felton, Amar’e and whoever else we can throw at them.

We have such consistent play from this team, the x-factors are the least consistent players in the 8-man rotation:  Gallo and Toney Douglas.  If they have big nights, we can take them, because Felton, Stat and Fields will get their double-doubles.

Chandler needs to have a big game, and I believe he can do it.  He should step up and guard LeBron.

Rebound the ball (not just Fields and Stat), get back in transition, attack the basket, try to get to the line, make that baseline three that is always open in this system, and of course…

GET STOUDEMIRE THE BALL AND GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Let’s go Knicks!  Miami are a bunch of punks!

Felton, a ray of light

New York Knicks rising in the east

Knicks to be battle tested on the road

The hypothetical Schmeelk

Frank Isola’s game preview

Good teams bounce back from tough losses and adversity.  We were definitely close to beating Boston, and we were tied with Miami through one half.

They effectively shut down Amar’e, and our back court of Felton and Fields were never really factors in the game.

Gallinari and Chandler did what they could against LeBron, but he is basically unguardable.  A new approach will be needed in future encounters with the Heat.

Just as they were able to contain Amar’e by triple teaming him and collapsing down whenever he touched the ball, we need to limit what LeBron does.  The Heat were able take away the mainstay of the D’Antoni offense:  the pick and roll.

Considering our two losses, do you think Donnie is working the phones right now?

We keep playing teams with streaks.  The Cavs have lost 10 in a row since they’ve played the one-two punch of Boston followed by Miami.

I think the Knicks are relieved to go back on the road.  They play better on the road than they do in Madison Square Garden.

Dec 03 @ New Orleans 8:00W
Dec 05 @ Toronto 1:00 W
Dec 06 vs Minnesota 7:30W
Dec 08 vs Toronto 7:30W
Dec 10 @ Washington 7:00W
Dec 12 vs Denver 12:00W
Dec 15 vs Boston 7:00L
Dec 17 vs Miami 7:00L
Dec 18 @ Cleveland 7:30L
Dec 22 vs Oklahoma City 7:30
Dec 25 vs Chicago 12:00
Dec 28 @ Miami 7:30
Dec 30 @ Orlando 7:00

I apologize for the lack of posts towards the end of July. Not much happening in Knicks land right now, so I figure we might as well take inventory of just what we had at the end of 2007-2008 New York Knicks season, and what exactly we have as of right now, having just past the midpoint of the off-season.

Of course, this can all change at any minute. The powers that be continue to alter this well-documented losing roster. Considering the low stock value of some of our more expensive players, it may take some time to really put together a cohesive and competitive Knicks basketball team.

My barber is from Italy. He’s around 70 years old, an old-school guy named Pete. I don’t know how much Pete really knows about NBA basketball in the 21st century, but I was getting a cut the other day, and I was talking to Pete about D’Antoni and Gallinari and he said “watch them win the title next year.” I laughed, and respectfully replied, “I think it’s going to take a little more time before they can compete for a title.”

But I like the positive thinking. You have to aim high if you’re going to hit your mark. I hear that’s what D’Antoni is all about. I’m just glad they’re no longer pouring gasoline on the salary cap fire. Just because MSG has money to burn doesn’t mean they should literally burn it. We’ve had this problem since the days of Patrick Ewing, trying to get the quick fix. Someone finally stepped up, took the helm and decided to take on a new approach, hopefully the right approach to the problem.

Half way through the season defenders and I won’t lie to you: it has been a tough season for the orange and blue. I want to know how everyone sees this going down, check out this survey and please take the time to be honest about these knicks.

Any doubt since Oden is out, that this young man will be the next rookie of the year? Al Horford may give him a run for his money in the second half of the season, but Kevin Durant is a safe bet to be one of the front runners by the end of this season. I haven’t seen much of his game in the NBA, but I did catch many of his college games last season on ESPN, and they were all phenomenal. He’s a pure scorer and is averaging 20.3p 4.6r and 1.3bl in his rookie campaign thus far. It gets boring to hear Charles Barkley saying every five seconds on TNT how this guy needs to put on weight at 6’9″, 215lbs, but I can only imagine his game would improve once he does.

A lot has been made about the roll the Knicks fans at the garden have had in the team’s recent struggles. The home crowd should cheer for the home team, I believe that, and I’ve never booed any of the games I’ve been to, even when they got blown out up in Boston earlier this year or when they were killing Marbury at this time last season at the Garden. Seems everytime they’d interview Marbury after one of those games, he’d always have the same response: “that’s New York. They’re going to boo if you don’t bring it,” if I can paraphrase last year’s Stephon.

If you want to show the Garden crowd how to really support the home team, check out this link, there are some good deals there on tickets for the Seattle game.

Stephon probably isn’t ready to play yet, but I don’t question by now, he wants to go out there and help the team win some ball games. Randolph shot his way out of his slump last game, so we’ve got one of our two big guys ready to step up and play basketball. Hopefully Eddy Curry isn’t too far behind… Maybe now that Malik Rose has been moved to the IR list, Chandler may actually get some minutes this month. He could be good for the knicks, last time I remember him in a Knicks jersey it was against the Nets in the preseason and there were some encouraging signs he can contribute at the NBA level. Crawford must really try to shift his focus on getting the other players in the starting five going, I’ve seen him do it before, so I know he is capable of finding his rhythm without it being to the detriment of the team.

Kurt Thomas will be back in the Garden, that should be interesting, and the Sonics have other weapons in Chris Wilcox, Earl Watson, WallyWorld, Delonte West, and former Knick guard Gerald Wilkins’ son, Damien, who is putting up solid numbers as a starter for the Sonics in his fourth year in the NBA. Oh, and watch out for the other rookie, Jeff Green, he’s a baller too.

Seattle comes to New York at 5-17, having been blown out by the Bulls 123-96 in the first of a back-to-back on the road.

Probably not the last one to come, either. There is a website called Bleacher Report where literally anyone can write a sports article and be published by them. It is actually a sweet deal for the owners of the site, grant these writers access to the site so they can get free content. They get the rights to the articles, make profit off the banners and even have final editing rights before publishing. Here is such an article, a preview article on the knicks by a guy named Harris Beringer. Already sounds like a fantasy league guy to me. Below is my response. Unfortunately, you have to register to post your reply, so this guy may never know just how off I find his article to be.

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I have to admit, this is absolutely the worst preview article I’ve ever read in my life.

there is no attempt to be unbiased, you could have effectively made the same case by editing down your article to “the knicks suck,” –i would have respected you more for it.

You dismiss Zach Randolph’s contributions to the team because of David Lee’s stats and what Randolph Morris did in summer league against rookie competition? Zach Randoph has been putting up 20 and 10 against the best power forwards in the league (previously found in the western conference) for years and Randolph Morris hasn’t even played 21 minutes in a single game yet, discussion over. David Lee still can’t shoot, Zach Randolph has incredible range for a big man, not to mention an array of moves in the paint. yes, 6’9″, 255lbs IS a big man. Karl Malone was a big man, Carlos Boozer is a big man, Zach Randolph is a big man. when you dominate all other power forwards in the league, you have earned the title big man.

Stephon Marbury’s game has statistically declined, which probably would matter to a fantasy basketball fan with no true concept of the game, but matters very little when the team is shifting it’s offense from the perimeter to the paint. you could have easily compared his numbers last year to the older Chauncey Billups, but instead focused strictly on the negative.

your synopsis of Crawford: “dump the ball to curry,” easier said than done pal. you make it sound like you could go out there and do it yourself. when the entire league knows you are trying to get the ball to one guy on the post, and a certain player has a knack for doing just that, you shouldn’t so easily dismiss the chemistry they have.

On Q getting hurt this season: well, you may have a point there, but I’ve never heard of any writer saying, “well, he’ll probably get hurt and miss a lot of time,” something is wrong with the way you phrase that. people may think it, but it is usually less negatively said.

eddy curry: again, you focused on the negative. you didn’t mention that his offensive game on the low block was unstoppable, which is true. it is also true that he can’t play a lick of defense, but if you are going to talk about the coin, why not present both sides of the matter?

“Rookies Wilson Chandler and Demetris Nichols may be assigned to the NBDL.” Shows how little you know about the knicks. they never share their players with the D league. I’d bet the farm they never play D league for one minute as knicks property.

Mardy Collins never punched a player in his life, that was Carmelo Anthony. You have the facts mixed up. Is that all you know about Mardy Collins? He did average 14p 6r 6a 2st per game over the last month of the regular season, in case you didn’t know.