Knicks Hope to Leave Bad Habits Behind When They Hit the Road

By HOWARD BECK
Published: November 13, 2007
The New York Times

A visit to the back right corner of the Knicks’ locker room usually provides a glimpse into the team’s state of affairs. Quentin Richardson, one of the most seasoned and secure veterans, resides there, dispensing brutal honesty when it is needed most.

It took only a few seconds Sunday evening to sense Richardson’s frustration and pain as the Knicks, five games into the season, struggled to shed their old, bad habits.

They had just frittered away a fourth-quarter lead and lost to the old and battered Miami Heat, 75-72. Stephon Marbury, their fading star point guard, had committed some of the most costly errors. Richardson missed the ending after injuring his right elbow. He was sore and testy and typically forthright.

“Forty-eight minutes, man; we’ve got to play hard for 48 minutes,” Richardson said in a low voice. “Stop turning the ball over as much, stop having little slip-ups here and there.”

It sounded like a review of the Knicks’ problems of the past several seasons.

“Yeah, at some point we’ve got to grow past them," Richardson said. “We haven’t got to that point yet, so we lose a game like this that we should have won.”

This was not an occasion for finger-pointing, but Richardson made it clear that the Knicks still have trouble following directions, which might have accounted for some of the late turnovers.

“We’ve got to get to that level of maturity with our focus,” he said. “We’ve got to do what Coach says, the plays he runs, when he calls them. We’ve got to be able to run them and execute them, like other teams do against us. No reason we can’t do the same thing.”

A 2-3 start to the season is hardly catastrophic, but the warning signs are there and the schedule is not friendly. The Knicks departed yesterday for Phoenix, where they open a tough four-games-in-five-nights trip tonight. The Suns are 5-2 and again a contender in the Western Conference. Tomorrow night, the Knicks play the Los Angeles Clippers, who are off to a surprising 4-2 start. After a one-day break, the Knicks finish the trip with back-to-back games in Sacramento (2-4) and Denver (4-3).

The Knicks could open the trip without two starters. Zach Randolph missed Sunday’s game because of the death of his grandmother, and the team has given no indication about when he could return. Richardson’s elbow could keep him out.

In a lineup thick with 20-point scorers and presumed franchise players, Randolph has already made himself indispensable. He is averaging 20.3 points and 13.5 rebounds and had a double-double in each of his four games.

“He’s missed a lot,” Marbury acknowledged. “You got two guys who can score in the post, it makes the game so much easier for us.”

The other post scorer is Eddy Curry, who faded badly in his marquee matchup with Shaquille O’Neal. Curry had 19 points, but only 7 after the first quarter and 2 in the fourth. He all but disappeared in the fourth quarter after picking up his fifth foul.

Curry acknowledged missing Randolph, whose shooting range draws defenders out of the paint. David Lee (14 points and 14 rebounds) replaced some of Randolph’s production, but his limitations were evident as he missed 9 of 15 shots, many of them uncontested jumpers.

Randolph’s absence was noteworthy when Miami rallied from a 5-point deficit down the stretch. Udonis Haslem had six rebounds, a tip-in and a layup in the final 4 minutes 37 seconds. He had two offensive rebounds on one possession, a sequence in which Randolph might have been able to outmuscle him.

“It’s easy to say that when it happens,” Jamal Crawford said. “I’m sure he would have been in the crowd. Zach’s a great rebounder.”

Randolph also is not shy about shooting when the ball hits his palms, another quality the Knicks surely missed Sunday. Marbury, considered a franchise point guard when he arrived in 2004, has rarely delivered in key moments as a Knick. He came apart against the Heat, throwing a pass out of bounds and missing two 3-pointers in the final 4:09. On the final possession, Marbury was flummoxed by a quick trap at the top of the key; with more than four seconds left, he had time to find an open man but instead forced up a contested 3-pointer that missed badly.

The Knicks remain turnover-prone (38 combined in losses to Miami and Orlando) and defensively vulnerable — their opponents are shooting 46.6 percent and averaging 100.4 points. That was why Coach Isiah Thomas opened his rotation and played Mardy Collins and Fred Jones on Sunday, and it is why he continues to challenge his starters.

“Right now, we’ve got to get five, six guys who can stop the other guys from scoring 20 points on them,” Thomas said. “If we want to make the next step in this league, we’ve got to evolve to becoming better defenders, as opposed to being just great offensive players. And the challenge for me right now is, I have good defenders on the bench, and we may have to sacrifice some offense for some defense.”

Posted by PresIke:

In all fairness, Cosmic, Marbury said he was responsible for the loss. Regardless the guard play has gone through a 180 degree turn around from the first few games where they looked strong.

Posted by djsunyc:

did q just say "we don't have a head out there?"

Posted by Elite:

Interesting when Q said we have to run the plays coach calls for us that is very telling. I think he's talking about the last play when marbury jacked up the 3 you know that wasent the play isiah drew up and if you listen to isiahs post game when they asked him about that play he was very annoyed and called it a "heave" and said the play was designed for marbury to drive and kick

Posted by Anji:

Screw Q, dude is garbage always talking tuff from the locker room or the side lines. I don't why this guy gets respect, everybody got to change there game summer in and out, but this guy is still has the dribbling skills and passing skills of a Center. Maybe we would have less turnovers if we had a starting Smallforward with some guard skills like 100 percent of the league has.


Play Nate, JC and Collins at the three. The team will do much better when they don't play a point guard with the passing skills of a small forward and a small forward with the passing skills of a center.

Layden Effect   5
Chaney Effect   3
Van Horn Effect 2
Lenny Wilkins   3
Larry Brown     7
Total          20