Thomas Reverses Course, Returns Francis to Knicks’ Starting Lineup
By HOWARD BECK

BOSTON, Nov. 24 — After making a lineup change that saw the Knicks go from bad to horrifyingly worse, Coach Isiah Thomas is reversing course, hoping the team will return to being merely bad again.

Steve Francis, who came off the bench in the Knicks’ 107-89 loss in Minnesota on Wednesday, will be back in the starting lineup tonight against the Boston Celtics. Jamal Crawford will return to his reserve role.

“When you see something that violent, you know it didn’t work,” Thomas said after the team’s morning shoot-around at a downtown fitness club.

The Knicks were 4-8 heading into Wednesday’s game. On most nights, they had been at least competitive, if not always brilliant or victorious. But the backcourt tandem of Francis and Stephon Marbury looked fatally flawed to outsiders, and Thomas seemed to agree when he benched them both for most of the second half of Monday’s loss to the Houston Rockets.

Thomas decided to abandon the dual point guard approach by placing Crawford, a natural shooting guard, next to Marbury. The idea was to spark the Knicks to a stronger start. Instead, they quickly fell behind by 13 points, and the second unit — which had been the Knicks’ strength all season — seemed punchless without Crawford. The Knicks never got close to threatening the Timberwolves’ lead.

Two performances in particular disturbed Thomas. Quentin Richardson, who had been the team’s leading scorer, went scoreless in 18 minutes. He did not attempt a field goal or a free throw. Nate Robinson, who along with Crawford and David Lee anchors the high-energy second team, scored 1 point in 16 minutes.

Thomas said he did not regret making the change.

“I regret losing,” he said. “And I guess it was something you had to try. But I didn’t think it would affect Nate and Quentin as much as it did. That, I didn’t foresee. Our second unit was disrupted, the whole flow of the game.”

Asked if he considered giving the new lineup more time, Thomas said, “I don’t want to try it two nights. Just don’t want to do it.”

The second unit had consistently outplayed — and often bailed out — the Knicks’ starting five. But Thomas had consistently rebuffed suggestions that he promote some of the reserves, arguing that it might backfire — a point that seemed to play out Wednesday.

“You guys would always ask me, ‘Aren’t you going to change the lineup?’ “ Thomas said to reporters. “And my response to you was we’ve got a second unit that’s playing pretty well, and we got guys who are doing well in their roles and excelling in their roles. We made a small, little change and we see how our team reacted to it.”

Thomas noted that certain role changes will be inevitable once small forward Jared Jeffries is cleared to play. Jeffries, probably the team’s best perimeter defender, is nearly recovered from a broken wrist. He is participating in non-contact drills and could be ready to play within the next 10 to 14 days.

Starting Jeffries at small forward would force Thomas to either bench Richardson or move him to shooting guard — thus benching Francis or Marbury. That is a quandary Thomas is not yet prepared to entertain.

“We’ll see,” he said.

Posted by Bonn1997:

The only worry I'd have is ball-handling if you move Q to SG and Jeffries to SF. Teams will try to trap Marbury in the backcourt and Q, who's only a mediocre ball-handler would have to try to help him.