YOUR su york knicks...

- your celebrity of choice...the captain, mark messier. a huge standing ovation for mark as he was introduced before the half. after warmups and before the introductions, marbury quickly goes over to messier, says something, gives him a hug and goes back to the bench. that was cool to see. btw, messier was there from opening tip to the final buzzer. nice.

- kind of empty in the upper tier but not as empty as you would think. ALOT of kids in the 400's tonight as it was student discout night. during intros, LOUD ovation for lee, nate, and of course steph (with the loudest).

- BTW, before intros, they turn the lights off and the knicks dancers come out in these glow in the dark orange neon outfits. and a human "beat box" does his thing over the PA system while they run around like idiots. i sit there and turn to my friend and say "when the hell did disney buy msg?" if i see a freakn' mascot wearing a fox costume come down from the rafters i'm going to give up my tickets. i just shake my head...

- i arrive at the game in 100% COMPLETE CONFIDENCE that we were going to win tonight. i mean, not even an inkling of doubt. i thought we would either blow them out or just take over at the end to send them packing. it's good to feel that way again going to the garden. last time i felt like that was when i had a mini-plan back in 93.

- my attention is quickly diverted as a woman sitting two rows in front of me proceeds to take out 3 bags from wendy's. this is going to be good. first up...something that looks like a cheeseburger. i'll keep you guys posted.

- nate comes out on fire and out of control. that fast break where he went up for the dunk with 3 other knicks on the wings was pretty
bad...and selfish. lb was PISSED. he jumped off the bench and just started SCREAMING...SCREAMING at nate. nate just put his head down and took it.

- tough matchup as steph has to guard joe johnson. let me digress for one second as since nate has been inserted into the starting lineup, steph has to guard the other team's sg. that's tough...TOUGH. so props to him and no props to q1 for putting us in this situation.

- throughout the entire first half, we can't run any type of offense as atlanta's zone stifles us. luckily...it's atlanta.

- there were MANY times...MANY times that curry had post position and was wide open yet nate just REFUSED to dump it down or made a bad pass. i have never seen a guard that was SO bad at making an entry pass to the post. i couldn't understand it.

- we go up 10 or 12 in the 2nd quarter and had a chance to put it away but didn't. at this time, i figure this is going to be tight into the 4th quarter...but still didn't have any doubt we were going to win. crowd was somewhat into it even tho there was nothing really spectacular to cheer.

- THIS JUST IN...next up...a bowl of chilli. this lady is just beginning...

- on gardenvision, they ask two questions to a kid:
1. what word did nate describe new york city? the answer was b. busy. the kid gets it right. crowd cheers.
2. they ask david lee, if there was a movie made about his life, who would play david? a. ben affleck, b. another white actor, c. denzel washington. the kid picks c. denzel washington. the crowd laughs. the answer is a. ben affleck.

- i continue to sit through halftime. i have only stood up once so far, and that was for messier's ovation. this is good tho. with all the heart pounding, stress raising play the last few games, a relaxing affair is what i needed. plus, i just came from eating dinner at patsy's pizza so i was in full "al bundy" fat bastard with a hand down my pants mode.

- 2nd half sees the knicks able to run their offense but we still can't stop atlanta. joe johnson is GOOD. i mean, like, really good. in fact, i like atlanta's young players BUT they desperately need a veteran out there to help them out.

- nate goes FLYING into the 2nd row for a loose ball. the play continues as nate is making his way out of the stands. knicks with the steal and outlet to nate. everyone gets up as they look forward to a dunk but he couldn't get up all the way. still a good play for us tho. btw, nate, throughout the game, was kind of favoring his back and when he went to the bench, the trainer immediately worked on a him a little bit. i think he was still a little banged up from that spill he took vs. dallas.

- as the knicks starting playing tougher, LB is literally out of his seat and almost to midcourt CHEERING the defense on. he's yelling and clapping. pretty cool.

- HOLY SHNICKEYS...bag two is opened and it's another cheese burger AND fries. so we're half way through the game and we have 2 cheeseburgers, chilli, and french fries...and there's another bag left...

- crowd starts getting into it during the 2nd half. they have the "beat box" guy doing the defense beat. they even put him up in the corner of the screen on gardenvision. i don't want anybody to lose their job or anything but can somebody please stop this?

- malik with 2 key steals. curry diving for a loose ball. marbury making a bad pass, running back and steals a 3 on 1. IMPRESSIVE.

- btw, jamal is playing like an ALL STAR since january 1st. in fact, 6 of the last 8 games he's played, he has scored 23 or more. AND he's been rebounding. and if we keep winning, there's an outside...REAL outside shot, steph could make the all star game. but we need to get to .500 for that to even be considered.

- BAG THREE IS OPENED. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...BAG THREE HAS BEEN OPENED. and this bag yields not only a baked potato...but what looks to be a wendy's frostee. IMPRESSIVE. i give this lady props as she took on her own personal 3 bag wendy's challenge and conquered it. only in section 404 people...only in section 404...

- less than a minute to go in the game and a "LAR-RY-B" chant breaks out. not "LAR-RY" like reported in the paper. but "LAR-RY-B". not at the level of "jeff van gundy" during the atlanta series in 99 but it was nice nonetheless. it really starts to pick up steam as the clock starts winding down.

- in conclusion, we played this game like we were a 50 win team and just kind of took atlanta easy. there was never a doubt we were going to lose and we just turned it up when we had to with 6 mins to go in the 4th. kind of like the 90's knicks. now, we're not a 50 win team so i can understand why some could be dissapointed with the effort tonight. but i think it was OK. i'm cool with the win. we couldn't do anything against the zone but our defense and talent won out down the stretch. i was able to just sit back and relax as for once, my blood pressure remained constant throughout the game. i can't wait for toronto as these games just can't come fast enough. this streak is now LEGITIMATE. the confidence we are showing is amazing. i'm curious to see how we bounce back from a loss but hopefully that won't happen for a while. now, this isn't kool-aid talking but just looking at the schedule this month, there is only 1 game i don't think we have a legit chance to win (vs. det) as we're not ready for them yet. and two tough games (@phi, @chi) but overall, we could conceivably only lose 1 or 2 games this month. it's not out of the realm of possibility as BIZARRO january continues...

BAG THREE IS OPENED. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...BAG THREE HAS BEEN OPENED.

ROFL!!

Nate's dribble penetration and dish to Curry has been fun to watch, so you gotta love Nate for what he brings with that and the fact he is shooting well from the perimeter, that is something he has really worked on, the kids are gonna make mistakes, but at least they work hard on those things they need to work.