Knicks dispatch Pacers, 90-79
Of odds, ends, video montages and emerging folk heroes.....
--the worst part of showing up late to a Knick game is missing the video montage shown on Garden-vision right before the Knicks' starting lineup is introduced. It's a slickly produced highlight package that features Knicks all-time greats producing some of the franchises all-time greatest moments against a morphing backdrop composed of the NYC skyscrapers. Those hairs on the back of one's neck (the sort of hairs that no one could conceivably want, but are oddly integral to describing any sense of suspense/anticipation/etc.) inevitably rise to attention as soon as Starks slams home "The Dunk." By the time Patrick jumps--seemingly over the Chrysler Building--for a monster jam any true Knick fan is amped up enough to step into the lane and take a charge from the love-child of Shaq and Wilt Chamberlain. World domination would not be entirely out of the question if only this could somehow be cued up to the morning alarm clock at Knicker-Blogger HQ.......
--If you squint while watching Marbury or Crawford, you could almost see them playing on any stretch of blacktop in any city in America. There is a flash and bravado to the way they each dribble the ball up the court and cross-up their defenders. Kurt Thomas, on the other hand, is not someone who looks like he's out for a day in the park. Kurt is a man doing some work; get him a hard-hat and a lunch pail with a plastic-wrapped sandwich and some lunch beers. Playing center while listed at (a generous) 6 feet and 9 inches he has to hustle and muscle his way through every game. Even his nearly automatic 15-footer is obviously the prize won of innumberable hours shooting after practices and before games. It was with these hard-earned, automatic buckets that Kurt outscored the Pacers 6-2 in the last minutes of the 1st quarter, giving the Knicks a 27-24 lead.
--The Junkyard Dog is back in the rotation playing some real minutes tonight. Each thunderous dunk elicits a chorus of barks and growls; he's still the paws-down fan favorite of the squad. The Dog has been the most noticeable victim of Herb's experimentation to find the lineup that suits whatever it is that he's looking for.
--Malik Rose took the floor for the first time as a New York Knickerbocker with about 8 minutes left in the first half.
--Approximately fifty-three people booed when Reggie hit a 3 to close the Pacer deficit to 53-51 in the 3rd quarter. No one in my section made a sound. Coming to the game, Reggie's second-to-last at the Garden, it had seemed that he would loom large in this game's unfolding. He didn't. Louder than the boos was the growing indifference. Of course, the Knicker-Blogger had a few choice words for Reggie to pass on to his sister, Cheryl, but she totally had it coming. The Knicks began to pull away soon after Reggie's 3. More importantly, there was no fear that Reggie would inevitably pull the Pacers back into the game before it was over. He sat during crunch-time.
--Flowing with the crowd out towards 33rd Street and another Saturday night in New York City, a voice cracking with either puberty or drink is chanting. "Free Artest, Free Artest!"
and the news....
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