|
djsunyc
Posts: 44929
Alba Posts: 42
Joined: 1/16/2004
Member: #536
|
Francis Takes the Helm, But Can't Avoid Defeat
By HOWARD BECK
Published: April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 4 — With a cold efficiency, the Washington Wizards tore away the final ragged shreds of the Knicks' thin public facade Tuesday, exposing a team that no longer believes in itself or its coach, if it ever did.
The Knicks dragged themselves ambivalently through their 54th loss of the season, a 105-90 rout, and Coach Larry Brown all but conceded that his team had given up. There was a brief team meeting and a lot of frustrated voices afterward but no apparent faith that the final nine games will be any different.
"I never in my life thought I'd have to be in a position where you're begging guys to play," Brown said after the Knicks' latest losing streak reached nine games. "Somehow, you've got to find five guys that care enough to compete."
The implication was that there are not, and that sentiment was echoed by two of the Knicks' most dedicated veterans, Malik Rose and Quentin Richardson.
"I played for the Clippers when we were bad," Richardson said. "I ain't never been around nothing like this. I never lost games like this. And it just seems like we don't care."
It would seem that five-plus months of losing and divergent agendas have finally cracked the Knicks' contrived outward composure. At 19-54, they remain on pace to finish with the worst record in franchise history, and they are showing no indication that they have the will to avoid it with three victories in their final nine games.
Rather than rally down the stretch — as Brown hoped when he declared the final 12 games to be the Knicks' "playoffs" — the Knicks have collapsed under the weight of their own apathy.
Rose angrily kicked the scorer's table before leaving the court at halftime and in the postgame meeting, expressed his frustrations verbally.
"We miss a shot and we're not helping one another," Rose said, repeating some of his message. "Guys are getting layup after layup after layup, no one's helping anybody out there, and then we don't come down and share the ball. I don't understand that. It's not what I'm used to."
He called the meeting "semiproductive."
"Will it make a difference? I don't know. I doubt it, to be honest," Rose said. "But at this point, it's to a point where I had to say something. And if it falls on deaf ears, so be it. I'm going to just keep doing what I'm doing."
Rose speaks with the experience of a two-time N.B.A. champion, an honor he earned as a role player with the San Antonio Spurs. But few of his teammates have found success in the pros, and Rose suggested that some have bad habits that cannot easily be changed.
"I can't control people's attitudes at this point in the year," Rose said. "We're so set in what we've been doing, it's like if you want to do it that way, fine, do it. But I'm not doing it that way."
Whatever the Knicks are doing, it is messy and unwatchable. They committed 28 turnovers Tuesday, nine in the first quarter as they fell behind by 13 points. The deficit never dipped below 10 after that.
"That was way up there with one of the worst we've been around," Brown said. "I've never been in anything near this, close to this. And it's my responsibility."
He added, "To compete and play hard, I didn't know that was part of coaching."
Steve Francis, playing in his hometown and making his first start at point guard for the Knicks, twice framed the losing in the starkest possible terms. He called the atmosphere "like a funeral," and compared the experience to losing his mother to cancer.
"Besides my mom passing away when I was 18, this is top 3 — just because this is my livelihood," he said. "I think a lot of the players don't realize that you really have only one basketball career, and it doesn't last as long as you think. The money might be there, but actually being out on the court, that doesn't last. Until people realize that, until people realize that you have to help each other and not be so selfish and worry about how many points you score, we're going to be stuck in the same position, same place."
Richardson was just as disconsolate, and his pain was more than emotional. After missing six straight games, he taped up a badly sprained left thumb and rejoined his team on the court. It hardly seemed worth it after Richardson got smacked on the thumb four times. The final blow, in the third quarter, bent the thumb back and forced Richardson out of the game.
"I've had a horrible season, but I'm going to come out, I'm going to play hard and you can tell I want to win," Richardson said. "You can tell I care about the way we're losing and just the whole situation. There's times where you don't feel like the whole team feels that way."
The Knicks did claim one dubious record as Brown rolled out his 42nd different starting lineup — the most by any team since the Elias Sports Bureau began tracking that category. The 1970-71 Golden State Warriors used 41 lineups.
That sort of inconsistency has plagued the Knicks all season. When asked if Brown had lost the team, Richardson expressed sympathy.
"I take my hat off to Coach, the whole coaching staff," he said. "I don't know how they made it this far."
|
