San Antonio 84, New York 71

Spurs Smother Knicks in Preseason Opener

NEW YORK, Oct. 9 (AP) -- Bruce Bowen hit two 3-pointers and Steve Smith added another during a 13-0 third-quarter run that brought out the boobirds at Madison Square Garden as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Knicks 84-71 Tuesday night.

Bowen and Smith, who joined the Spurs in the offseason, were both in the starting lineup for San Antonio. The Spurs went ahead for good with a 15-4 run in the second quarter and were ahead by 20 midway through the third.

Tim Duncan, Bowen and Malik Rose each had 10 points to lead San Antonio.

The Knicks were without Marcus Camby, who sat out because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

"It's not full-blown yet, so we're trying to nip it in the bud," Camby said.

Latrell Sprewell scored 20, including 19 in the first half, but the Knicks got little from anyone else. Kurt Thomas started at center and missed his first 10 shots, while newcomers Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley and Clarence Weatherspoon all struggled.

Anderson shot 2-for-7 for nine points with three turnovers, Eisley was 1-for-6 and Weatherspoon was 2-for-9. None of those three, however, had quite as bad a night as Travis Knight -- four fouls in four minutes.

Mark Jackson started at point guard for New York, with Charlie Ward coming off the bench first as a backup. Eisley spent time at both shooting guard and point guard.

The Knicks shot just 31 percent from the field, while the Spurs weren't much better at 35 percent.

Ah hell it's just a pre-season game but still you'd figure we'd want to win more badly then the Spurs. Especially that shooting percentage is bad. Whaddoyou guys think? Will this trigger a trade with the possible exception regarding LJ we might actually get an added big man here.

Kurt Thomas was dissapointing. M-Jax and Houston didn't do too much either. On the positive side though, Spree was great, and I think Lavor and Felton were very promising. As for the new guys, well they are gonna need time to settle in. Hopefully it was only preseason jitters.

Thoughts on the Spurs: TD was his usual self. Bruce Bowen (I wanted the Knicks to sign him) was very solid. Malik Rose and even Cherokee Parks played well, but then there was not much Knick D to speak for in the middle. And that French guy was very impressive. I think he could become a real star in this league.

I look forward to reading your thoughts...

[Edited by - MCfan23 on 10/10/2001 05:42:09]

The game was certainly disappointing. I mean we've been anticipating the start of the season for so long. We are going to have issues this year with our height. San Antonio punished us on the boards. We finally start to grab a couple of rebounds when Felton came into the game. Regardless of his skills - he has some - his height and size alone dictates that he should be on the floor. We need taller bodies. There's just no getting around it. Sorry but Clarence Weatherspoon is not going to cut it. The whole team - ecxept Spree, looked like a team of reserves. Like Van Gundy had emptied his bench. Unless like Spreewell said - which doesn't look like they brought into as of last night - the guys make up for the lack of size by superior hustle play, we are in for a long disappointing season.

Also, did anyone notice Allan Houston last night? He was was almost invisible. But who showed up to play last night like he does most every night, Spree. I think the Knicks made a big mistake by re-signing Allan Houston. He's a great jump shooter but that's it. As we saw all of last year, when he's jumpers are not falling, he is totally out of the game. Because there are no other sides to his game. No defense, no slashing to the whole to draw fouls. With Spreewell you know that even if his shot is not falling - obviously your not always going to shoot well, he will find other ways to contribute. He's going to play defense, he's going to try to get to the whole, he'll make the hustle plays. Allan doesn't do that. We should have let Allan walk, moved Spree over and then went after Webber with the extra money. Since the Knicks are stuck with Allan Houston their best interest would be to try and help him develop into a more complete player.

Posted by lovespree:

We should have let Allan walk, moved Spree over and then went after Webber with the extra money.

It's okay to say this in hindsight. And yes, I would prefer to have Webber than Houston. But I would prefer to have Houston than nobody. Layden didn't want to risk losing one of the most influential players on the team (when Allan shoots well, we usually win). And Allan was coming off a good prersonal performance in the series against Toronto.

Layden just didn't want to risk losing Houston to another team. If he had not re-signed him, there was still no guarantee that we would be able to lure a Chris Webber or an Antonio Davis. So that is why he gave him such a big contract, he wasn't willing to take any chances. I can understand why. Sure, $100M is way over market value for Allan. But if we'd lost him for nothing, and failed to sign anyone of note to replace him, then I know we'd all be up in arms, critisizing Layden even more.

So let's get off Layden's back. And let's give Allan some time. It was only the first game of the preseason. Give him a chance to show he is worth the $$$!

That's true, but we all know that Spree is that kinda player. He is explosive, he is a spark, he hustles, he gets to the basket...that's why he always gets his points...and that's why we all love him so much. Whereas Allan needs to have some confidence, he needs to get on a nice run, needs some shots to fall...which in turn leads to him attacking the hoop, getting easy baskets, and getting to the foul line...which leads to 25, 30 point outings. Like I say, give him a chance, give him a couple of games to get his shot going again, he'll be fine...