Before the ball goes up …
-
- November
- 4
There wasn’t anything major brewing in the locker room, it’s usually quiet on game nights. I’m sensing most of the players are only venturing out from the players’ lounge or training room when absolutely necessary. They might have to answer questions for a minute.
Honestly, it probably does get tedious.
In a baseball locker room, there are 30 people to interrogate. Double that number in a football locker room. In a basketball locker room, there are maybe eight people who really matter.
That means we do often wear out the welcome mat.
Anyway, before the door closed, Jared Jeffries was getting the sprained left knee re-evaluated. We don’t have the results yet. He’s still walking around with a slight limp. Or maybe his shoes don’t fit.
The lineup is unchanged—Randolph, Richardson, Curry, Crawford and Marbury. Chandler, James and Jeffries are inactive.
Since the house will be filled with season-ticket holders and regulars, I’m anxious to see how the Knicks are received.
“Yeah, that’s in the back of your mind,” Jamal Crawford said. “You hope we come out and compete, and we are going to compete. I think that’s what the fans want to see.”
This entry was posted
on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 6:50 pm by Mike Dougherty.
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Just got home from the game at the Garden. Here’ some observations.
Great job by MSG to rush through the coaches intros right as everyone starts cheering for the Knicks. I didn’t wanna see what would happen, and I didn’t want to decide how I was gonna react. With all the cheering, I couldn’t hear anything else up in section 402.
This year’s orange foot locker hat is much nicer than last years all-black model.
Oh, and the woman who sang the national anthem. I think she had a cold or something, but her voice cracked on more than one occasion. I felt bad for her.
On to the game. Mike, Isiah agrees with us about a shorter lineup. I loved the 8-man game tonight. Zeke also seems to go with specific guard-big tandems. When Lee and Nate come in, Eddy/Jamal or Steph/Zach are usually in kept on the floor in those pairings. I don’t think we saw it the other way tonight, and I’m a huge fan. Keep Jamal and Eddy together, they have such an obvious connection. Would have been 3 alley-oops if Eddy didn’t blow one.
Al Jefferson is a beast in this league. He’s gonna be the real deal for a long time to come.
And defense. Well, it didn’t look that much better than in Cleveland, but certainly no worse. The lack of any Lebron-style talent I think was really the difference, but the Knicks guards were fighting hard to get over most screens. But, why oh why do we ever go zone?? We just can’t do it. Until Isiah sees them playing it well in practice, don’t go to it in the game. Its ridiculous. Almost every possession the Knicks went zone ended with point for Minnesota. This was the same last year and hasn’t changed.
Anyway, all in all, great win. The way we needed to start the season. Here’s hoping for a 4-game homestand sweep to kick things off.