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.