About 5:30pm I was sitting at my desk in my almost-cubicle and reminiscing about how great of a ticket scalper I was. But, was the NY Knicker-Blogger good enough to unload two tickets for a matchup of last place teams? Could his dashing good looks and inexplicable enthusiasm for the Knicks persuade some fanny-pack wearing rubes visiting from their red state--or some suburban teenagers with a bag full of whippets they bought down in the Village--to pay good money for the Knicks/Bucks game?
Probably not, so I called up my brother and headed for the game. Surprisingly, the fans were flooding into the Garden as if this team weren't awful. As I'm being patted down like a known felon leaving a gun show, my brother asks me if other teams with records like ours ever draw this good a crowd. Well, the Lakers could, maybe the Celtics, the Kings' fans are supposed to be real good, but not too many teams. And, this is why the Knicks (the franchise, not the team) are great; this is not the Nets (who are threatening to take over the Atlantic, again), or the Hawks, or any of the other teams that play before empty seats. The ushers at the Garden will never have to move fans down into the expensive seats so the game looks packed for the tv broadcasts.
Ah, I digress.... the Knicks came out and looked like the opponent of a last place team missing their best player (Michael Redd didn't play) is supposed to look: they looked better. Just not better by too much. With an early 18-12 lead the Bucks took a timeout and got the business from coach Terry Porter. Out of the timeout, the Bucks' rediscovered defense suffocated the Knicks and their sudden insistence on offense subdued what passes for Knicks' defense these days. The game was tied until Jamal Crawford hit the last shot of the 1st quarter to give the Knicks a 20-18 lead at the break.
Crawford, as mercurial as ever, stuck to his normal pattern of play:
astounding/atrocious/astounding/amazing/airball/astounding/atrocious
Bastard son of the tri-state teams, Keith Van Horn, started the second quarter for the Bucks. A smattering of applause made its way around the Garden even though the time of his entrance didn't allow for an actual "moment." I wished he could have come in during a play stoppage while Tim Thomas was at the line airballing foulshouts. What would the look on Isiah's face have been if the Keith got a huge ovation while his "athletic" Thomas gets booed during introductions?
The Thomas / Van Horn deal (remember that Nazr was basically a spare part in the original architecture) has completely bombed. Going into last year's All-Star Break the Knicks were winners of five on the bounce and Marbury and Van Horn were playing with enough chemistry to make the the periodic table nervous. Then, Timmy Thomas shows up, the Knicks lose 6 of 7 (or something like that) after the Break, squeak into the playoffs by the hairs on Moochie Norris' chinny-chin-chin, and are unceremoniously swept by the Nets. Not to mention, that Thomas didn't play in the last 3 games of that series after getting beat up by Jason Collins. Yes, that Jason "I couldn't even intimidate K-Mart's locker stool" Collins.
Anyway, Moochie is the only Knick that is overtly warm to Van Horn when he takes the floor. Van Horn looks tentative, like on one of those nights when Van Horn for Tim Thomas might seem like a remotely good idea. Meanwhile, Penny carries the Knicks through stretches of the second quarter, doing all he can to get them to halftime with the lead.
During a timeout shortly before the half the Knicks City Dancers are on the court mesmerizing my brother like an oasis in the desert (not to say that his sex life is like a desert...), and on the Garden-Vision is an ad* for the Dancers' and their new deck of playing cards**, on sale at all Garden gift shops. Of course, my brother nudges me and solemnly says "we're totally going to go buy those at halftime."
And we did.
The third quarter looked much like the second, with less a prominent role played by Penny: the Knicks held their lead, though ever a tenuous lead. More importantly, the best play of the game, of the past 20 games, occurred during the third quarter. Marbury had the ball on the left wing, beyond the 3-point arc, he's got himself crouched down low, dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, then he stands up, spins himself like a top (clockwise, I think), and as he finishes the first revolution (but before the second) the ball shoots out of the blur and hits a cutting Tim Thomas for a layup. There was no dunk and it was a bit too and1-ish for my tastes, but this pass literally took the breath out my lungs and the foam off the top of my beer. Some would say, that it was the sort of the thing that would suck the paint off your house and give your kids permanent orange afros.
Moments later, a guy, who I'm pretty sure was the main character from American Psycho showed up and sat two seats over from me. With his fancy clothes, his shiny face, and slicked hair all he was missing was the chainsaw. He clapped and yelled too loudly at all the wrong times seemingly to show his frightened lady -friend how big a fan he was. At one point I could swear that he was about to cut off the faces of the three small children sitting behind him (who were struggling to learn the nuances of the DEE-FENCE chant) to use them as coasters on his inevitable expensive coffee table.
Ah, I digress once again....as the players meander onto the court for the start of the fourth quarter the NFL theme music (the orchestral CBS tune NOT fox's robotic cacophony) is playing on the PA, and there's Curtis Martin decked out on Garden-Vision! The appearance of Curtis--and the standing O he received--was the best omen I've seen at a Knicks game in a long time.
And by the power of Curtis a strange thing happened. The Knicks actually started to pull away. With Sweetney dominating the paint and Crawford stringing together an unusually high number of good plays, the Knicks held their lead. By Curtis, they even extended their lead. Fans left early. Fans left early with smiles and high-fives!
Of course, the Knicker-Blogger stayed until the end just to make sure, but they won. They won going away. The lead did not wane, the team did not falter. This isn't much, but it is the hopes for the chance at optimism in the second half.
Random Thought O' the Game: Ariza didn't step on the floor until there was 4:20 remaining in the first half. Not too long ago he was in Herb's starting lineup. Weird, huh?
*during the Knicks City Dancers ad the achievements of each dancer were highlighted. Some have pre-med degrees, others have done a lot of modeling, but by far the best fun fact was that "Christie is afraid of fireworks." That's all the info we have about Christie. No education, no odd jobs, no beauty contests, just a strong aversion to sparklers and roman candles. Clearly, Christie didn't have a summer internship as, well maybe as anything, but definitely not as...say, a rocket scientist.
**the best part of the playing cards is that for the price of $16.99 they came with a DVD documenting the making of the cards.
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