General Reactions
I coach a high school basketball team. Our season just started and it looks like it will be a tough one. During our first game we got beat by a lot. And we still scored 62 points...in 32 minutes. I bring this up because the Knicks had 59 points last night. Consider the fact that the Celtics won 24 games last year. They lost 18 in a row at one point. By all accounts they were terrible. But man at least they cared. Even when all sorts of guys were sitting out the C's always cracked 70 points and never made me ill, tanking questions aside.
The folks at TNT were so unimpressed with the Knicks' performance that every on air personality mocked them. On top of that TNT even ran a Marcus Camby interview live during the game at one point. Granted it was split screen. But it was hard to follow the action on the court. Later TNT had another split screen scenario with Kenny, Charles and Ernie talking over the action. I've never seen a neutral broadcasting group be so critical of an organization. I've seen Tommy Heinsohn do it. But no one is calling him neutral.
"In all my years of broadcasting I've never seen anything like this." - Marv Albert. That's Marv freaking Albert folks. This just in: He has seen a lot of basketball games.
Nice job by Reggie Miller mentioning how guys on the Knicks bench were yawning on the bench and looking in the crowd.
It was great to have the Celtics on TNT. But this game had Tommy Heinsohn written all over it.
Knicks Notes
The Knicks beat Utah a few nights ago? Really? Did Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, AK-47 and Mehmet Okur not play?
Does anyone remember Malik Rose looking umm...thinner?
Was anybody else worried about the Knicks taking offense to the beating and somehow starting some crap like that whole Nuggets fiasco? And that was only a 23-point loss.
Strangely I'm tired of everyone piling on Isiah Thomas.
Celtics Notes
Gabe Pruitt, minus the ridiculous rejection Jared Jeffries had on the rook, might actually think the talent in the D League is better than that of the NBA.
The Celtics first turnover came with under a minute to go in the first half. Let's just say the Knicks were not exactly dominating the passing lanes.
In the final 9 minutes of the game the Celtics scored 14 points. It could have been a lot worse.
Kevin Garnett's post game interview with Craig Sager was awesome. He briefly discussed Stephon Marbury situation without completely ducking it as most guys would, gave Quentin Richardson a not so subtle, "How do you like us now?" and then mocked Sager's outfit. KG is fascinating.
Stats that make you scratch your head
Nate Robinson led the Knicks with 11 points. No one else scored in double figures. And three of Robinson's came on a buzzer beater heave from deep, to close out the game. I'll admit it. I was disappointed when the shot went in.
The Knicks shot 30.3% (23-76) from the floor.
Eleven Knicks played. Leon Powe scored as many points (6) or more than eight of them.
In last night's open game thread I wrote,
Pierce, Garnett and Allen all played less than 30 minutes.
I could go on and on. Just check out the box score for yourself.
It just seems weird that these two teams will play three more times this season. I put more effort into this admittedly average game recap than the Knicks put into last night's game.