|
djsunyc
Posts: 44929
Alba Posts: 42
Joined: 1/16/2004
Member: #536
|
Fired-up Knicks intent on taming abusive Nets
Friday, January 19, 2007
BY DAVID WALDSTEIN
Star-Ledger Staff
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Following their humbling playoff sweep at the hands of the Nets in the spring of 2004, the Knicks had every reason to believe they were the ones in the ascendancy, heading swiftly upward toward the aging Nets' lofty perch atop the Atlantic Division.
The Nets, who did not have Vince Carter at the time, heard all the promises Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury were making about the Knicks' glorious future, and on the last day of December of that year the Knicks were in first place, three games over .500 and two games up on the Nets.
It was a mirage.
The upward trend the Knicks were on took so many detours, they ended up heading downward like Wile E. Coyote atop a stick of wayward dynamite, leaving the Nets laughing at their cross-river rival's well-documented misfortune.
But a little more than two years later the teams are now back in almost the same position as late December 2004. Tonight's game at Madison Square Garden is the first of the season between these teaams, with the improved Knicks only two games behind the Nets in the divisional race. And for the first time in the last half decade, most of the questions and turmoil are on the Jersey side of the Hudson River.
That narrowing gap is why, when the teams met in October for their final preseason game at Continental Airlines Arena, it got heated and physical. Players were pushing and shoving, and the coaching staffs exchanged heated words at the end of a seemingly meaningless game.
In other words, what had for five years been a one-team clinic in domination -- the Nets are 20-4 during the regular season against the Knicks in the Jason Kidd era -- was finally set to became a legitimate two-way rivalry.
"Things got a little physical there in the exhibition game," Knicks forward David Lee said yesterday. "I think that game wasn't about any specific situation within the exhibition game, but more that we knew we were going to be competing for the division this year. Both teams didn't want to back down and knew that this was going to be a rivalry, and it would have a big impact on the division."
After the exhibition game -- which saw Eddy Curry get into it with Nenad Krstic, Steve Francis go after Mikki Moore following a hard foul, and Thomas objecting to some perceived trash-talking from Nets assistant Tom Barrise -- the Knicks said they were done being pushed around.
"It's not going to happen anymore," Curry said at the time.
Tonight, the Knicks look to follow up on their promise to manufacture a real rivalry out of what has lately been a one-team imbalance sheet. But for the past few days, when reporters have asked Thomas about creating a true rivalry, Thomas has downplayed it, saying it just doesn't exist yet.
"If this becomes a rivalry, that's good because it means we've gotten to the point where we're a pretty good team, because Jersey is a pretty good team," he said. "You can only have a rivalry when you have two good teams."
Not true. The secondary reason for the Nets' domination over the Knicks these past several years -- other than sheer talent -- is that the Nets have always seen it as a rivalry, refusing to discount or show mercy on the lowly Knicks.
In fact, the Nets love beating the Knicks, and no one more so than Kidd, who is the engine behind the Nets' dogged motivation in these games.
Even before his infamous declaration that he was the best point guard in the world, Marbury had two months earlier stoked the flames when he challenged the Nets bench in another exhibition game in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in October 2004, according to a member of the Nets organization.
"You guys are done," Marbury pronounced at the Nets bench in the third quarter of the Knicks' 92-84 victory. "Done. The division is ours now."
That kind of bluster may have accounted for a Nets victory here or there, but three seasons later Marbury may finally be proved right. After years of subjugation, tonight is a chance to alter perceptions about where these two teams are headed (other than Brooklyn, for the Nets).
"I think everything is predicated upon how you guys make it out to be," Marbury told reporters yesterday. "We're going to go into the game and play the game knowing that it's an important game."
For the last few years, Knicks-Nets has always been an important game for Kidd, who had to be offended when Marbury declared himself the best point guard in the league back on Dec. 31, 2004. More than any other opponent, Kidd and the Nets just love beating the Knicks, especially at the Garden, where they have won eight of the last 10 meetings.
"Since I've been here, since J-Kidd has been here, we've done a good job against the Knicks," Jason Collins said. "And we're hoping to continue that again (tonight)."
With Kidd and Marbury at the top of their games right now, with Curry developing into a monster in the middle, and with both teams eyeing the division as the safest way into the playoffs, the game should produce some real juice.
At least, more juice than the exhibition games. |
1/19/2007 2:29 PM
