Tiny Tim Comes Up Big

Knicks top Bobcats, 102-99

A bouncing shot from the corner, high off the rim, to the backboard, did it touch the shot clock?, and then, finally, as the buzzer sounds, through the net! Beleaguered small forward, Tim Thomas, saves the Knicks from their own worst enemy; their fourth-quarter selves. A game against one of the only teams more hapless than our hometown also-rans, the expansion Bobcats, that seemed thoroughly in the bag at halftime turned into a nailbiter. There have been many late leads squandered in the Garden this winter, and almost as many big shots at the buzzer, but far too few of these operatic sequences have ended with Knicks wins.

However, Sunday afternoon the Knicks made a shot when they needed one, and more importantly(surprisingly/luckily) they were able to keep an opponent from making one in the same spot. Too many times, visiting teams have driven the length of the floor with time ticking down, and shredded the Knicks' defense on the way to relatively easy baskets (see Jones tying bucket at the end of regulation versus the Heat on Thursday). Now, the Knicks didn't exactly put the clamp on at the end, but Bernard Robinson's (very open) shot missed.

People always say, "it's better to be lucky than good." At this point it seems fairly safe to say that these Knicks are not good, but at least for one day they were able to be lucky.

Et cetera, et cetera....
--Crawford was back on the floor and chipped in 23 points.
--Steph's streak of five consecutive games with 30+ points was broken as he only managed 16.