By MARC BERMAN

Kobe Bryant’s in the house tonight and that means just one thing: will Isiah Thomas be able to coach the game or will he be in too much awe of the Lakers superstar.

Isiah compared Kobe to Michael Jordan yesterday – which is fine. Fred Kerber and I once went at that issue in the counterpoint column a few years ago. I took Kobe’s side, saying he one day could be considered as good.

My problem with Isiah yesterday was his comment that no matter what the Knicks will try, it’s not going to work against Kobe. You can see the exact quote in my news story today.

Isiah’s over-the-top praise for the opponent sometimes is demeaning to his own players. If I’m Quentin Richardson this morning, getting out of bed for the shootaround, and I’m reading that quote over my coffee, I’m more ticked than motivated.

One of the blog readers pointed out a misguided quote from Isiah in Miami last week when he said he’s happy Shaq wouldn’t play, he’s not curious to see Curry go against O’Neal and Curry doesn’t want to see it either.

Really? Actually, I think Curry would have loved to go against Shaq and was very upset he couldn’t make the date last Friday in the rematch. Isiah should speak more forcefully about his own players sometimes.

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Just a clarification: The “MB” posting was a Marc Berman imposter. It was not me. The imposter gave suggestions on making this a better blog – most of which I didn’t really agree. My only suggestion is keeping the comments to 150 words or less. The wildly diverse opinions on this blog is what has made it great.