Ahhh the knicks...

With a 108-82 loss to the Golden State Warriors tonight at the Garden, the Knicks have fallen to 2-8 after losing 7 straight. The only positive to take away from tonight’s game is the fact that things could not possibly get any worse. After shooing 39% from the field and committing 29 turnovers while being unable to string together enough stops to mount any type of run. Any time you give away 29 possessions mostly with sloppy ball handling (the Warriors had 14 steals), run an offense where at any given time you have 2-3 players just standing around watching, and generally play like you don’t give a shit about the outcome of the game, your chances of winning aren’t too high.

It has only taken Zach Randolph 10 games to both prove that despite his seemingly gaudy numbers, he is a terrible fit for this team. At different points in this game he dribbled around in circles, forced shots over double teams, launched 20 yelled at David Lee as they ran down the court after he didn’t get the ball, and refused to cross half court letting his teammates play 5-4 in the half court. Maybe I should cut him some slack after losing his grandmother last week, but his negative energy seemed to spread throughout the team in their return to NY. He is terrible on the defensive end, bogs down the offense, and doesn’t complement his teammates at all.

Lee needs to play more than 24 minutes. Randolph isolating on the wing should not be the Knicks offense. Nate and Jamal need to get their confidence back. Balkman needs to get back on the floor. Shit, this is what I’m suggesting to turn around the season, Renaldo Balkman? It was hard to get any positive feelings from watching this game tonight. It has only taken about 2 weeks to turn a hopeful 2-1 start into finding myself dreading the final 72 games of the season.

There is a fine line between the not-giving-a-shit look where you are playing your ass off and don’t care what anyone has to say about your game and the same attitude when you are not bringing it on the court and don’t seem to care about your team or winning. Latrell Sprewell, perhaps my favorite Knick of all time, was a prime example of this. I always loved watching him play not only because he was so talented but because he always had a ‘fuck you’ look on his face whenever he stepped on the court. Say what you will about the Carlesimo incident or “having to feed his family”, but when he was on the court for the Knicks he played his ass off and spurred his team to win games. Isiah Thomas needs to figure things out with this talented team soon or the garden faithful might get what they were asking for tonight.