Dang, reading through the game thread I see a LOT of people saying that they didn't think the Knicks played well....

I am not in that bunch. They didn't play a perfect game, but it was a HUGE improvement over their other games. HUGE. I REALLY liked watching this game. The Knicks have actually improved from game 1 until this one.

- Team D showed up.

- Pick and roll to death (going to a strength).

- Nazr showing us he deseves to play extended minutes (no really stupid fouls).

- Craw not jacking it up too much.

- Minutes to the young guys.

- Marbury played under control.

- Rotating D.

- Weak side D.

- No TT. Really, that's a coaching good call.

- Pulling Sweets when he didn't really do anything.

- Not letting Moochie get too much.

- No Vin.

- Rebounding by lots of players.

- Keeping with the hot hand (Kurt).

- 2 REALLY GOOD late game timeout plays (Pick and slip by Kurt with 1:30 to go, and the Craw shot).

- Did you see Marbury asking if the Knicks should foul with 26 seconds to go? He did it twice. WOW.

WOW. I am PUMPED. This is a sure-fire milestone in my book.

I agree with you martin. especially with the two plays called late in the 4th. Just the last two minutes alone was great. That's the key to winning is closing out games. I read that Yao said that Crawford made a lucky shot. He must've been covering up for his absence in the 4th quarter. Also, another thing that you didn't note that I think was key. Penny had a great game as well. KT played awesome, but I think Penny was the X factor. I think he should start because he brings so much control to the game when he's on the floor.

its weird... I thought they played hard, but not well. In Indy I thought they played well (32 first qtr points) but not hard.

There is a good lesson here, and I'm VERY happy they won. If you play hard every night you can still win even if you dont play well. Knick made a lot of mistakes but didnt seem to lose their fight and it payed off. They played good D down the stretch and gave themselves a shot to win. Penny and KT stepped up with big buckets.

Some guys will cry around here about Wilkins, Isiah or make some exuses but we won a road game against a team with great players, and we did it with our 19,22 and 24 year olds playing major roles in crunch time.

Posted by fishmike:

its weird... I thought they played hard, but not well. In Indy I thought they played well (32 first qtr points) but not hard.

There is a good lesson here, and I'm VERY happy they won. If you play hard every night you can still win even if you dont play well. Knick made a lot of mistakes but didnt seem to lose their fight and it payed off. They played good D down the stretch and gave themselves a shot to win.

I think you nailed it here. Playing hard is the first step for a young team. The playing well part will come with time.