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McK1
Posts: 26527
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Joined: 7/16/2005
Member: #964
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Knicks turn in another debacle
by Mitch Lawrence
In lieu of giving us a meaningful game between two winning teams in the heat of a playoff race -what they had over at the Meadowlands, those lucky Jersey folks - we got a dead Knicks team and a Celtics club on life support at the Garden last night.
So maybe it was good that they trotted out a bunch of old Knicks and Celtics for what was billed as "Hall of Famers and Legends night." Looking at Cornbread Maxwell, you could at least think back to the good old days when the Celtics played deep into spring. Looking at Micheal Ray Richardson, you could at least think about another Knick ship that sank to the bottom of the deep, blue sea.
Even on a night when they brought out a few old stars and New York basketball legends, the Knicks couldn't hide the fact that the present is as bad as it's ever been at the Garden. The Celtics, nowhere near a legitimate playoff team, won for only the 30th time this season but still moved to within three games of eighth-place Philly, as the Knicks mailed in yet another game.
How many is that now? There have been too many to count. This 123-98 loss was just the latest in a long line of games in which the Knicks simply disgraced themselves.
"As I told the team, maybe we'll walk the ball up the rest of the year and call a play every time, so the other team can't score 120 points and shoot 57%," Larry Brown said after the troops laid down at the opening tip and never got up off the floor.
"Show some heart!" yelled one fan behind the Knicks' bench during the third quarter.
This bunch? Never. Isiah Thomas has assembled the biggest collection of quitters and losers to ever put on the Knicks uniform.
"They have a collection of names," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "Like Raef (LaFrentz) said, they might be the best worst team ever."
That's what LaFrentz said before he and the other Celtics starters all easily reached double figures by the end of the third quarter. The only upset is that the Celts didn't go for 140. But that's only because Rivers had only one starter on the floor in the fourth, when Boston's reserves went for 19 points. Just like the championship years, they still don't have a bench in Boston.
"When a team is that far down in the dumps, you hate to see that," LaFrentz said afterward. "Guys are fighting with each other. They're not going in the same direction. They've got a lot of talent and a great coach. Whether the two can coexist, I don't know."
We're pretty sure they can't. They've played 70 games - 85% of the season - which is a pretty good sample. They're 19-51. That's why Thomas has another rebuilding job to do this summer. Lots of luck getting rid of even one of these guys.
Brown isn't headed out the door, even if half the NBA thinks he'll engineer an exit because he knows he can't win here and things are too screwed up even for him. But without a change in personnel, we're going to see the same problems next season.
Don't think a training camp will solve anything, either. Brown admitted afterward that he's been saying the same elementary things for 70 games and still, no one is listening. Things like getting his forwards to run the passing lanes. Things like who goes where when they're setting up their offense. Things like matching up on foul shots.
In 30-plus years of coaching, he's never had a team refuse to do what he wants, not to this extent. It's like he's got a team of 12 Stephon Marburys.
"It blows my mind," he said. "It's mind-boggling."
They're just going through the motions. Running. Jumping. Making themselves look busy. "Trying to invent plays," Brown said. Of course, it all shows on the defensive end.
"I hope we get players in here who want to defend," Brown said. "And keep the ones who make that a priority."
In that case, they'll be keeping no one.
"If you make a lot of changes in this league and even if they can play, it takes time for it to work," Rivers said about his old team. "Then when you start losing, the snowball starts. I don't care who you are, it's tough to turn around. I would hate to see them next year, even if they make no changes. I would bet you that they'd be much better."
OK, Doc: You're on.
the stop underrating David Lee movement
1. FIRE MIKE 2. HIRE MULLIN 3. PAY AVERY 4. FREE NATE!!!
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