some thoughts from djsunyc LIVE from the game

- first off, the garden was VERY empty. there were seas of the blue seats and some of the green seats empty. i chalk it up to the marathon and the early start.

- i was in SHOCK to see the big game and curry start together. AMAZINGLY, i was totally NOT SHOCKED to see the big game be out of the game within 3 minutes. i mean seriously, this isn't even funny anymore. this is THE WORST signing in club history. and get this folks...we have him for 4 more years. oh isiah, you dumb bastard...

- how good is channing frye? i mean seriously...all i can say is WOW. i thought it would take him some time to adjust but offensively, we're looking at duncan-lite with MORE range. i can't wait to see what he looks like in april. a couple more pounds and some boards and we're looking at a perennial all star. UNREAL.

- eddy curry is like a big buttermilk biscuit defensively. he needs ALOT of work here. he has these great soft hands that really shine when he gets the ball BUT it's those same soft hands that prevent him from finishing AND 1's and missing point blank shots, not to mention grabbing rebounds. but at the end of the day, we shouldn't care b/c he's only 22. times have changed tho. before, you had to perform consistently and show great play before you got the big deal. now, you get the big contract based purely on potential (i.e. curry, crawford).

- marbury had a VERY solid game and you can really see him making an effort defensively. he played well on both ends but he played the best when he just went for his. we really need to get him over to the SG slot. let him score at will and let craw worry about getting others the ball. and speaking of craw...

- he is CLEARLY bothered mentally with brown. it's like he doesn't know where to play or what to do. he's making some careless turnovers. he does seem comfortable with that 2nd unit tho and that's our best unit. so when he's running the point (usually with the 2nd unit), we're outplaying the opponents. he really needs to accept his role and just play solid. but one thing that is pretty evident is that his defense has gotten ALOT better. he's establishing good position on players and he even blocked a shot and dove for a ball today.

- ariza is thoroughly impressing me. i questioned whether he developed or not but he's MEGA aggressive and is attacking the rim with passion. his handle is not as bad as everyone thought and he's not afraid to take the jumper. he has to work on a lot of parts of his game, but he has definitely gotten better this year and seems to be thriving under brown.

- what's up with Q? i wonder if getting dumped by brandy totally f'ed him up. this guy has yet to hit a 3 for us. he did grab some boards but, to me, if he's gonna just jack up jumpers,then he needs to get dumped ASAP b/c he ain't helping us.

- and the hot topic of the night is LB. yes, he COST us the game. you can say anything you want about trying to figure out what we have, trying to learn the players, tyring to get the best groups together...but ultimately, during that process, you try to win games and today, his moves CLEARLY cost us the game. that 2nd unit is AWESOME and the crowd is into them big time. so you pull them, and sub out 3 of them with 6 minutes to go with malik rose??!?! somebody that didn't the entire game. and bring in Q - somebody that hasn't played since the 1st quarter?!?!? i don't get it. yes, he's the coach, and yes, he's larry f'n brown but damn if EVERYBODY in the arena didn't moan when he took them out. and of course, the sarcastic applause from the crowd when he re-inserted lee just solidified the fact the WE WANT TO SEE THE YOUNG GUYS!!! people in our section were screaming at LB during this period.

ok, forget the whole rookie substitution thing from the 4th quarter. why does he play steph without any other ball handlers? that's why we have trouble scoring in the 1st quarter. steph has to do it all himself, therefore there's no ball movement since nobody else on the court can dribble or pass the ball. so we go in the hole early on and have to dig ourselves out of it for the rest of the game. that's a little more troubling than what happened in the 4th quarter. i think steph NEEDS craw to start just as much as craw NEEDS to start to get his "mojo" back. with two ball handlers, you now have options and chances are, we don't start off games so lethargic offensively.

- anyway, in conclusion, lb pretty much cost us the game today. in fact, if golden state his 2 or 3 of those WIDE OPEN three's they were chucking away, it would've been a blowout. i know people are going to say it's early and he's still figuring stuff out but it was pretty evident what needed to be done at the end of the game today and it cost us the game. so it's another loss...which will add up at the end of the year if the playoffs are our goal.

By PETER VECSEY

HOOP DU JOUR IT HAS become painfully obvious Home Town Brown had a more cohe sive unit going for him in the summer on the east side of Long Island than Isiah Thomas has assembled for him on the west side of Manhattan.

The Knicks are not only without a victory in two skirmishes coming into today's fortuitous face off with the Baron Davis-less Warriors, they're without rhyme, reason and rotation.

As Brown repeatedly and none too cryptically forewarns, a starting lineup has a way of working itself out. Without uttering a syllable, the same can be said about his team's irregular rotation and, for that matter, an entire undermanned, 15-player roster.

In fact, the Knicks' consecrated coach already began weeding his new Garden only three sterile halves into the season. Channing Frye, buried in Boston, suddenly was turned loose on the Wizards for seven points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes. Why the abrupt about-face regarding the team's top draft pick? And, as long as we're on the same touchy subject, why was David Lee attired in business casual when the season started?

I'm glad I asked.

Considering both rookie pawns distinguished themselves during the preseason, some of you might've found it odd Brown deactivated them at a time when it might make better sense for their adoptive parent/authority figure to be exhaustively encouraging.

Most basketball pedestrians never would've chanced shaking the confidence of Frye and Lee. Then again, most of us, I'm guessing, never coached an NBA and NCAA champion, or are Hall of Fame inductees. In other words, as always, I'm perfectly willing to extend Brown the benefit of any doubt re: roundball subterfuge, especially when it pertains to psychological strategy of this type. Surely there's a method to his madness . . . I think.

Had Brown gone with his rookies or his other younger players from Jump Street. he'd leave himself wide open for compelling criticism from his vets. Despite Jamal Crawford's confusion, Quentin Richardson, Antonio Davis, Jerome James, Maurice Taylor, Malik Rose and yes, even Stephon Marbury either will justify their existence between the lines, or play themselves out of minutes or quite possibly off the team.

This way the coach gave them an opportunity, so it's all on them. Yo, respect; that's what it's all about. If the vets can't get it done according to Brown's scrupulous specs, if they can't be successful individually and directly affect the team's improvement, and do it in a jiffy, then they can't pitch a legitimate bitch when they're replaced, some sooner than later.

Frye isn't the only Knick whose situation radically changed. Looking at the pair of box scores since the season started, you see a wide disparity in minutes among several players, even with the Celtics game going into overtime.

Trevor Ariza's daylight jumped from 17 to 30, Rose 5 to 16, Taylor 22 to 11, Eddy Curry 42 to 16 are the ones that leap off the ledger. Of course, it didn't help that Curry was a foul magnet Friday against Washington, or that Jesse James has been served seven infractions in his whopping 11 minutes.

Silly me, I thought the only things James could pick up that fast were seconds.

Not to say that Brown isn't making progress. He's finished second twice in New York, so already he's exceeded his resume in Athens.

Still, one step in the right direction isn't going to satisfy Next Town Brown for long. If the Knicks don't evolve more than glacially during their upcoming six-game ("Say No," campaign James Dolan) west coast trip he look revert to his glory days in Detroit. You remember: No Darko, no Arroyo, no Delfino, yes Mayo Clinic-o.

Indications are that time already is drawing near. After all, Michael Brown left FEMA, Aaron Brown is leaving CNN and Larry Brown has left every place else.

*

The Nets took some heat about announcing an Opening Night full house. Column castigator Frank Drucker doesn't see a problem "since the team sold out Jersey a couple of seasons ago."

Donald Sterling, owner of my beloved Paper Clips, has to fork over $5 million in plaintiffs' attorneys stemming from a suit claiming he discriminated against black and Latino tenants. To his credit, Sterling claims he didn't sexually harass any of 'em. Shaquille O'Neal is expected to miss 2-4 weeks after spraining his ankle while coming down on Ron Artest's foot. "I was stunned Artest was on the floor, not on the scorer's table," Shaq exclaimed.

As prophesied in this space the other day, the 76ers shall never recover from their opening-night tank job against Milwaukee. Philly followed that one up with a 20-point loss at Detroit and a pathetic 17-point home defeat to Charlotte. Count the OT against the Bucks and the Sixers have been outscored in 11 consecutive "quarters."

Come back, Roy Rubin. All is forgiven.

Memo to Doc (Cry Me a) Rivers: Next time it might be a good idea to contest the inbounds pass. After eyeballing how Tayshaun Princeeffortlessly found a cutting Rip Hamilton, who drained the game-winner at the buzzer, I offer this unsolicited suggestion: Put someone, anyone on the ball. I'd even settle for Mike Dukakis in an oversized helmet on a tank. Thanks for listening.

In case you missed it, Jayson Williams sold his Jersey mansion for a reported $8 million. From what I'm told he had a difficult time driving up the price because he had such a hard time just getting anyone to drive up.

fyi, the in-game soundbite for channing frye (when he makes a bucket) sounds like this: "FRYE...FRYE...FRYE" ala "BEULLER...BUELLER...BUELLER" from ferris bueller's day off. it's pretty funny.

djlive is the best reporting on knick games on the web. no kidding.

Any time the same Vecsey article is posted in five threads by the same poster, you know that very same poster is insane.

IM sure the frustration of the game mixed in with a mob mentality one can see how they might want to get a rope and tree and string up Larry.

My take is any one of the 15 players can play. But they can't, and the due process of weeding them out is what your seeing.

THey won a championship with Rip and billups, and you win with your first unit! We don't have that unit in place. Rose is supppose to be the solid vet with a great rep. BUt until he is called out and proven to not get the job done, then he can be benched.

Same with other vets.