He was sitting a couple of feet away from us, and probably wishing he was 1,000 miles away on a beach. Or maybe just a couple of blocks down 34th Street at the McDonald’s drive thru window. Seriously, he didn’t look happy in a very limited role.
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Is the sky freakin’ blue? He was talking about it in the pre-game where he is basically waiting to see where he would fit in(THAT is the responsibility of the Head Coach) and then what happens is he plays for a bit in the first half, then doesn’t play for almost the entire 2nd half. And on top of that, Wittman sends him in for a late 3 out of nowhere without Walker being warmed up and in the flow of the offense….

Nate Robinson has become a really good player and has earned a solid place in the rotation.

Great to see Balkman back and showing no ill effects from the time off.

I like the fact that rotations seem to be set from the get go. I bet when Jeffries gets back things don’t change.

Zach Randolph gives me alot of confidence on both ends. He has a nose for the ball and comes up with alot of caroms. That, and his offense make us better at crunch time.
I don’t see any problem with him and Eddy. One play, if memory serves, Eddy got doubled on the right post and they swung it quickly to Zach on the left who had single coverage.

We still got dominated on the boards though.

We also gave up alot of threes. Sometimes I think teams are just confident against us and make them based on our reputation. Other times I think the guards can’t guard. The Wolves shot 9 of 17 from beyond the arc. Even wide open I don’t think many teams can / will do that. We should have won this game by twenty.

Only 14 turnovers. We may not be among the worst in the league at that this year. I’m happy and I was after the Cleveland loss as well.

As for Jamal, that shake & Bake inside-out dribble really works for him. I don’t get it because its his one move and he does it every time, but more often than not it creates the space he needs to operate. And now, amazingly, he is using that space to attack the rim instead of launch fade aways off one foot. This has got to continue. He’s beginning to look like Tony Parker in there the way he gets to the rim and lays in those floaters, and that is a great thing. Albeit, Jamal is a lot taller, but you get the point.

My game recap:

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 with Isiah, 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 (the free give-away) is much nicer than last years all-black model. May actually wear this one. AND, those new warmups with the old-school big orange stripe. Love it!

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 appears to agree 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 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, most of the time. 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. Mike, if you have input, I’d love to know.

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.

Mike I agree Mike we seem to be seeing “lil mal” finally growing up and thats a good thing for the knicks I know Isiah has to be just giddy.