Knicks are Winners and Losers

The Knicks are Winners. They beat the Indiana Pacers 110-103 on Wednesday with a fantastic comeback that culminated with a 23-3 run in the 4th quarter. Angry Al Harrington finally hit some 3's, and if Gus Johson was announcing, I'm sure we would have heard giddy shouts of "My NAME'S AL HARRINGTON AND I GET BUCKETS!" If Al hits his shots he is a good player, but so far this year he hasn't been hitting shots. Hopefully he keeps up the good work against non-Pacers opponents. The Knicks outscored the Pacers 56-34 in the 2nd half, after of course being down 15 at the half. Harrington led the way with 26 points on 13 shots (Yay for efficiency!) and 4 of 6 from downtown. Larry Hughes contributed despite shooting poorly, pitching in 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and a block. As Nate Robinson tweeted, the win got King Kong of the Knicks' collective back.

The Knicks are Losers. Even in the win, the Knicks were losers. The young talent (Gallo, Douglas, Hill) combined for 32 minutes. This is how many minutes each of these guys should get every night, but the team won so I will let Coach D'Antoni slide on this one. Gallo didn't score a point, and only took 2 shots. These younguns also combined to have a plus/minus of -35, so it worked out, but they need minutes to develop confidence, feel, and chemistry.

The Knicks are Winners. Eddy Curry returned, and played very well, with 10 points on 4 shots, and added 4 rebounds, in only 12 minutes of play. He looked strong, skinny (for him), and agile. He repeatedly beasted his way into low post position, and made a couple nifty jump hooks. He even showed that as his belly has shrunk, the fire inside it has been growing, when he had a little shoving match and heated argument after Solomon Jones hit him in the face. To Paraphrase Wu Tang Clan, Eddy Curry aint nothing to F*$k wit. The Knicks must feel like huge winners, now that Eddy may be a decent player again, or even (gasp) be tradeable.

The Knicks are Losers. In a good way. Eddy must have lost at least 60 pounds. He said the hardest part, and the key to the weight loss was giving up fruit juice. I like to think the key, and the hardest part was the two a day workouts he put in every day for the past month or so, but maybe Eddy Picante really really likes apple juice. Eddy Curry, you are the biggest loser.

The Knicks are Huge, Dumb, Stupid, Scared, Lame, Old Losers. The Knicks should have signed Allen Iverson in the offseason. They didn't, and a 2-9 record followed, with a starting point guard in Chris Duhon who boasts a PER of 7.08. League average for PER is 15. So Duhon is half as good as the average player. Iverson would definitely be better for the Knicks at point guard than Duhon. He is an above average player. The Knicks could have started him, given him 36-40 mpg, and improved their team from garbage to semi-respectable. His drives would have opened up kickouts to Gallo, he could have been a leader on a team that has no focal point, and he would draw fouls, which is one of the Knicks weak points. Sure he is bad at defense, but Duhon is awful at defense as well.

The biggest defense for not signing him is he could have cause massive headaches. I beg to differ. Put him in for 40 minutes a game, and he would be more than happy after the last season with Detroit and this years debacle with Memphis. He would be playing home games in the Garden, in front of thousands of adoring fans desperate for a star. I really believe things would have been peachy with Iverson and the Knicks, especially with a player's coach like Mike D at the helm.

Even if Iverson did start to stir the pot and brew some trouble, the Knicks could just cut him like the Grizzlies did, and be right where they are now. They don't even have incentive to tank, since they don't own their first rounder. Maybe if Iverson played well they could trade him to a contender with Jeffries or something for an expiring. It would have been a no risk signing, with a chance for at least a small reward.

Another worry was that Ivy would hinder the development of Douglas. I say boo to this, because Douglas has started alongside Duhon, so he could still start next to Iverson. It would be a 2 headed dynamic backcourt, instead of one dynamic player and a washed up sloth. The whole Knicks team may learn how to play hard and give your all for the W, something they seem to lack.

In the end, either way the Knicks are going to be losers more often than winners this year, but they had a chance to tip the scales toward winning, and missed out. Iverson was my favorite player growing up, I had his jersey and 3 different Reebok Answer shoe models. My first Knicks game was Knicks vs. Sixers, and I was crushed when Iverson was inactive due to an injury or something. I would have finally been able to see him in the Garden, and as a Knick, shaking and baking, driving and thriving, twisting and assisting, grinning and winning. Alas, it was not to be, and James Dolan was too afraid that Iverson's tude would lead to another Marbury situation, and turned a no lose situation into a loss.