NO STEPH, NO PROBLEM
Isiah Thomas said that when his Knicks share the ball, when they pass up contested shots of their own to get wide-open ones for their teammates, they’re playing honest basketball.
Well, their new offense – with Stephon Marbury in a walking boot and Fred Jones in the lineup – is nothing short of the truth.
For the second straight Game last night, Jamal Crawford handled the bulk of the point-guard duties and Nate Robinson logged most of the minutes off the bench. And for the second straight game, the Knicks’ ball-movement – their weakest suit in a weak season – was stellar, putting six players in double-figures in a 105-93 rout of Washington.
“We had honest play and honest effort,” Thomas said. “Our players are starting to trust each other. It comes down to believing in your teammates, believing if he has a better shot than you, then pass him the ball.
“When I learned how to play, I was taught to pass to the guy with the same color as you. It really is a simple game when you play that way.”
All season, the Knicks have made it look hard. But the last two games, they’ve made it look easy. Last night, Crawford had a game-high 29 points, while Jones added 10.
More important, they had 26 assists and just 11 turnovers, shooting 51.2 percent. It came on the heels of Sunday’s 89-65 rout of Detroit, the first back-to-back wins since November.
“We just shared the ball,” Crawford said. “When the ball is moving like that, we’re a pretty good team. When you do that, you give yourself a good chance to win.”
They won Monday when Jones had six assists and no turnovers. He and Crawford combined for 10 assists and just one turnover against the Pistons, while the Knicks had 21 assists to six turnovers.
And last night – against a Wizard team coming off consecutive wins over NBA-leading Boston – they turned in an encore.
Without Marbury, their assist-to-turnover ratio is a gaudy 47-17. For a club that came in next-to-last in the NBA at 1.17, that’s stunning.
But is it a coincidence?
“We started off with great ball movement,” said Jones, whom Thomas referred to as a “ball-mover.”
“Everybody was getting open looks and knocking them down.”
Robinson (14 points, eight assists) polished off the win, handing out four of the team’s nine assists in a clinical fourth quarter that saw them shoot 10 of 15. His alley-oop to Renaldo Balkman for a 91-77 lead was the icing.
