Brown Has Added Nurture to His Nature
By MAREK FUCHS

GREENBURGH, N.Y., Nov. 5 - Coming off two troublesome losses to start the season, the Knicks held a practice Saturday that included a fight between their tallest player and their shortest.

Afterward, with the team's president, Isiah Thomas, sitting courtside, the tallest kissed the shortest atop the head.

For the Knicks, who lost to the Celtics in the season opener, then to the Wizards on Friday in Coach Larry Brown's anticipated Madison Square Garden debut, the task Saturday was to find a way to get along on the court - and fast.

With most of the players and coaches new to the team, and with a long trip looming, there seemed to be more immediacy than there might have otherwise been so early in the season.

But even with the roster makeover, the old faults appeared: inconsistent effort and an offense that at times appeared stuck in brambles.

To Brown, whose heady introduction at the Garden was stepped on by a Knicks team that played woefully in the first quarter, part of the team's problem is that it has shown a tendency to unravel when trailing.

"The thing that's difficult is, our body language when something bad happens, or when a team makes a run at us, has got to change," Brown said. "We got to understand that if something happens, we don't come down and just try to catch up right away."

He said that while reviewing game film at practice Saturday, he asked the players what offensive set they were in after the Wizards scored. "Ninety percent of the time, they didn't know," he said.

The short-term solution, he said, may be to call more plays from the bench.

"Maybe we have to be a little more structured, execute plays a little more," Brown said. "But steals and blocks, I always want to get it up quickly, so you have more time on the clock to do something. But maybe we have to have me, for a while, slow it down."

Antonio Davis, the Knicks' leading rebounder Friday, with 14, likened the team's current state to that of his former team, the Chicago Bulls, who started last season 0-9 before gaining a sense of themselves and earning a reputation as one of the better young teams in the league.

"A lot of times, when guys don't know each other, they do stuff themselves," Davis said. "They don't trust each other."

Malik Rose, laughing, said he hated to use a cliché favored by his former coach at San Antonio, Gregg Popovich, a Brown disciple, but when the team leaves on a six-game West Coast trip after Sunday's game against Golden State, the players may develop a bunker mentality, which could help them bond.

Bonding came in a strange form toward the end of practice Saturday.

The tallest Knick, Jerome James, a 7-foot-1, 29-year-old veteran, fought with the 21-year-old rookie Nate Robinson, at 5-9 the team's shortest player. After they were separated, the two tried to go back at each other.

They later shrugged off the encounter. At the end of practice, James hugged Robinson before rubbing his head, then kissing it.

To Brown, everything is still a work in progress - even the starting lineup.

"Everybody is being auditioned right now," he said.

What a crazy year this is going to be.

Posted by djsunyc:

"A lot of times, when guys don't know each other, they do stuff themselves," Davis said. "They don't trust each other."

I don't think Antonio is bad-mouthing Stephon, but he's definitely talking about him. Steph's gotta trust his boys.

Nate probably got stuck in between Big Game's ass cheeks while driving to the hoop.

Posted by EnySpree:

Posted by eViL:

Posted by djsunyc:

"A lot of times, when guys don't know each other, they do stuff themselves," Davis said. "They don't trust each other."

I don't think Antonio is bad-mouthing Stephon, but he's definitely talking about him. Steph's gotta trust his boys.

Its not always about marbury.

Of course it's not. For example, if Antonio had said, "A lot of times, when guys who are really big, lazy, underacheiving, wastes of space, they commit terrible fouls and show no b-ball instincts," Davis said. "They don't trust each other." He would have been talking about Jerome James.

Seriously though, Marbury has a rep for not trusting his teammates. Two works: "All Alone". I hope you get the reference. Marbury loves to freelance. He breaks plays a lot (unless I'm mistaken and the play is always for him to try and cross up his man and score or dump it off if he gets in trouble). Breaking plays is indicative of not believing in your teammates and not believing in the system. Of course, sometimes it means that he's taking what the defense gives him. And granted the Wizards knew exactly how to shake us up. It's not all his fault, but he needs to have composure. The Wiz were putting the trap on him, up top, everytime he crossed half-court in the first quarter. That was enough to shake him the whole game. He lost all his discipline and you could tell after that; he didn't run the plays with conviction. Antonio Davis is talking about the guards. He's talking about Steph, Craw, Nate, to a lesser degree Q. These are the guys that handle the ball and ultimately start off most of our plays. They are the ones that need to believe that passing the ball and executing their responsibilities away from the ball is just as important and effective as crossing somebody up and scoring.

Posted by eViL:

PS: Antonio Davis needs to look in the mirror as well. The Wizards' defense in the first quarter was designed to get the ball out of Marbury's hands and concede an open shot to our PF. Davis shot 1-9 if he had been nailing his open J's, the Wizards' trap wouldn't have been effective. However, the Knicks also settled for everything the trap was giving them without recognizing that the Wiz were lulling them into the same routine. We reacted exactly how they predicted and exactly how they wanted us to. It took way too long for the Knicks to recognize how the beat that trap. LB best be working on that.

[Edited by - eViL on 11-06-2005 01:37 AM]

yeah, butthey missed layups and point blank shots too. Haywood was like david robinson against us.

poor spacing, poor shooting, poor movement without the ball, and poor ball movement.

Posted by eViL:

PS: Antonio Davis needs to look in the mirror as well. The Wizards' defense in the first quarter was designed to get the ball out of Marbury's hands and concede an open shot to our PF. Davis shot 1-9 if he had been nailing his open J's, the Wizards' trap wouldn't have been effective. However, the Knicks also settled for everything the trap was giving them without recognizing that the Wiz were lulling them into the same routine. We reacted exactly how they predicted and exactly how they wanted us to. It took way too long for the Knicks to recognize how the beat that trap. LB best be working on that.

[Edited by - eViL on 11-06-2005 01:37 AM]

Antonio has paid his dues, he is 37, his legs aren't like they use to be, so get used to those kind of shooting days from him, He is not here for offense, he is here for defense, rebounding, experience and infinite wisdom on and off the court.




[Edited by - attaboy2005 on 11-06-2005 11:53 AM]