NO MORE EXCUSES
THIS is the time for the Knicks to show they are worth car ing about, that this isn’t another false alarm, that they have finally turned the corner in the Isiah Thomas era.
No more excuses. No more waiting for a player to return to the lineup. They are whole now and better off without rehabbing Steve Francis.
By tonight, football in New York could be over. Pitchers and catchers aren’t until next month. It’s time the Knicks made a real run and get fans in New York talking basketball again, and not because of a brawl.
The five-game, nine-day West Coast marathon is over and the Knicks salvaged their dignity. They ended it with two massive blowout wins in the rainy Pacific Northwest. They battered two shoddy teams in Portland and Seattle and are 6-4 since the despicable Denver brawl.
The Knicks (15-21) have four days off and a very easy stretch ahead – home vs. Philly, Charlotte and Sacramento, a road game in Washington and then hosting to the Nets Jan. 19 in a Garden night when the balance of basketball power in this area is up for grabs again.
The Knicks are the NBA’s mystery team, all potential, no results. If they are for real, as Thomas believes, it’s time to show it by winning these next five games.
“If we play the way we played against Portland and Seattle, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win games,” Stephon Marbury said late Friday night before the happy six-hour flight back home. “I think turning the corner to me is winning 10 of 12, 10 of 15 games. We’re working to get toward that.”
Thomas, whose made more excuses than there are coffee shops in Seattle, praised the club stronger than he had all season.
“It turned into a good road trip for us, now we go back home,” Thomas said. “We’re playing good basketball. Quentin (Richardson) and Nate (Robinson) will be coming back. I like how we’re defending. I like how we’re rebounding. I like how our attitude is, our approach, temperament, the mental toughness that’s developing. If we can sustain and keep building upon it, when April comes, we can be a very good basketball team.”
With Eddy Curry figuring out the double-teams he faces nightly, with the guards dedicated to stuffing the ball inside to him and with the club pounding the boards with a ferocity (they lead the league in outrebounding opponents), the Knicks have a chance to top the rotting Atlantic Division.
The Nets’ magic may be over. The Celtics, Raptors and Sixers are mediocre. None of them have a thunderous low-post monster like Curry, whose had too many 20-point nights to render this a fluke. He’s no longer backing down from physical play. He is living up to the “manliness” edict Thomas made in preseason. He’s making the right decision when doubled, creating open shots at the perimeter. And he’s getting calls.
“I definitely have a better understanding,” Curry said of the double teams. “Before I kind of looked at the double-team, they’re doubling me so I’m out of the game. But now I’m looking at it, they’re doubling me, I have to find a way to get going. If I can play through this, it definitely will help us win the game.”
“I can’t say I’m going to play this way every single game,” Curry added. “I’m going to definitely try. Any night I can’t get it going, I have to make adjustments.”
David Lee, the rebounding machine, then kidded Curry about being too modest, joking “Before you guys got in here, he said he was better than Shaq.”
