section 404 was upgraded to section 52 for one night only...nice seats, center court, about 50 feet from the court on the tv angle. price per tickets $240, $200 more than my usual ticket price. thank goodness i didn't pay...btw, that comes to over $10 grand for the season. that's a whole lotta dim sum.

- your celebrities of choice: ying yang twins, chris rock, and steve schirrippa (sopranos).

- 4 games and counting for the boo-birds for lb, francis, and steph during intros.

- ALOT of gasol/spain fans in the crowd tonight. you can see a bunch of spanish flags along with a bunch of pao chants by clusters of 3 or 4 people. pau is just a big guy. he looks slender on tv but you can see that he's really working on his body as he's getting bigger.

- from section 404, you can see body language, but from section 52, you can really see expressions and see what people are saying. case in point, nate's running point (which is something he is nowhere close to be able to do) and he brings the ball upcourt. jamal is ahead of him, wide open on the baseline. he calls for it but nate doesn't see him and he dribbles to the center. jamal just puts his arms down, pouts his lips and then sighs like he's very dissapointed he didn't get the ball. kinda like saying, "come one nate, pass the ball." that wasn't the first time a player was open waiting for a pass from nate but didn't get it. (more on nate later)

- marbury has thrown in the towel on the season (and probably the team) and is in pure cruise control. you can really just see him go through the motions. i saw this, and unprompted, the people i was with said the same thing. they were like "does he even care anymore? he's making $17 mil, play like it." i just kept quiet. there was one play where the ball was moved around and it was passed to steph with about 5 on the clock and he's WIDE open. like nobody near him. he just caught the ball, and then passed it off to a guy that was covered. dude has quit.

- eddy curry got the ball in deep position. he jumped up and sort of faded away and put on this little soft touch to try to score. shaq would've dunked it. dwight would've dunked it. eddy tried to put a soft touch and tried to just lay it in. he missed and memphis got the rebound. two kids were sitting behind us, no older than 9/10 a piece. this was their exchange (no lie):

kid 1: "throw it down eddy!!!" followed by a dissapointed sigh after he missed.
kid 2: (apparently missing the play) "what did eddy do?"
kid 1: "he screwed up"
djsunyc: LAUGHTER

- after that play, my friend says "i would start jerome over eddy right now." somewhere, marv is smiling.

- mo taylor is the most selfish player in nba history. it's no longer "IDIOTS MAN UP." it's now officially changed to "DOUCHEBAGS MAN UP!!!"

- on a side note, i talked to my friend's dad the other day. everytime i talk to him, he asks "why do you guys continue to buy tickets for those bums." our response "i don't know. they're our team." his response "you guys are ***holes." i then go home and cry.

- jamal took one shot last night. what was up with that?

- back to nate, oh boy, i love him. i love the kid. but his days here are numbered. he ran the point last night as an audition. and he kept making the same mistakes he has been all season. dribbling into traffic without any plan. leaving his feet without any plan. and then taking ill-advised shots. i thought he was settling down after the long time in inactive, but he reverted back yesterday. many players were left open waiting for the ball but he didn't pass it. now, he's a rookie. he's going to need some time and patience b/c right now, he's probably as dumb a player as you can get and that's not a good characteristic for a point guard. he will require patience from a team and a coach. if we were a perennial playoff team, they could be patient with him. but that's not the situation now. in fact, the organization is borderline desperate. i don't think they're going to have patience with him and will probably move him this summer as he does have some nice value (and probably the only way to dump some of the stiffs we have). lb is screaming at him the entire game on what to do. then he doesn't do it. not only lb, but the entire coaching staff just shake their heads after another bad decision by him. he runs back down, lb calls his name and tells him what he did wrong. lb is coaching him. but then nate walks away from the meeting and rolls his eyes and is like "man, coach dogs me for everything." again, he requires patience, and i would like to give it to him, but it's not gonna happen here in nyc. right now, he's an off guard. he's more effective without the ball. lb knows this, but he's trying to make him a point. why? b/c that's the only way he'll become a better, more complete player and will probably allow him to stay in the league longer and get more pt.

- david lee was guarding miller. during a possession, he was all over him and the shot clock ran down to 5. miller tried to make a pass and it was deflected out of bounds. lee played some nice defense. as soon as the ball was deflected and went out of bounds, both phil ford and lb jump up out of their seats, give a strong ovation and scream "good job david."

- know your knicks: they asked quentin, if you could play any other sport, what would it be: a. golf, b. football, c. baseball. quentin's answer...(b) football. they then asked nate, how many people know your cell phone number: a. 10, b. 50, c. a million. nate's answer: "man, a million people know my cell phone number."

- mo taylor is the most selfish player in nba history.

- knicks down 20. the team is playing lifeless out there in the 3rd quarter. lb is still up and screaming to the refs and calling out plays and coaching individual players. he cares people.

- pao gets a VERY NICE ovation upon his exit. VERY NICE. he's a good player. very skilled and he has taken his game to another level. that team needs a pg in the worst way and steph would help them. pao also needs a bit of a bruiser next to him to do the dirty work. reggie evans would fit well there as well.

- in conclusion, the season is almost over and there's really nothing of note to worry about anymore. steph is done with the team and the season. i don't know if it translates on tv but it's VERY evident in person, especially from that close. and it's not just me. it's also the people around me. there is going to be a MASSIVE roster overhaul over the next 2 years. MASSIVE. we just all have to be patient. seriously, we have to be patient. firing lb will hurt us even more. i suggest everyone that has a problem with lb and blame much of the season on him, to just bite your tongue for the rest of the season and see what takes place this summer in terms of personnel changes and see how the team looks next year. let's hold off on judgement until then. i personally believe that we will see the team better (not in wins/losses but in terms of makeup and direction) and we will see a foundation to build upon. but we just have to wait it out with lb. DO NOT get attached to any player on this team. many of them will be traded over the next 2 years unless they transform their games, and more importantly, their attitudes to fit with lb.

- btw, mo taylor is the most selfish player in nba history.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 03-25-2006 12:03 PM]

Thanks for all the info. Who was guarding (or attempting to guard) Pau for most of the game?

There's a lot of substance in this post that I want to respond to later but at the moment I want to voice the thoughts that every Knick fan around the globe is having:


THANK GOD FOR DJSUNYC!!!!!

What about Francis? He looked even worse than Marbury to me.

Posted by DarkKnicks:

What about Francis? He looked even worse than Marbury to me.

francis had 7 assists but he still has a "what the f ck am i doing in ny?" look about him. i think he's just waiting for the season to be over also. ultimately, he may just end up being a 20 game rental.