Denver’s President Of The Larry Brown Fan Club head coach George Karl returned fire on the Knicks’ Isiah Thomas today, as quoted by the Rocky Mountain News.
Karl accused Thomas of a “premediated” act.
“It was directed by Isiah,” Karl said. “I think his actions after the game were despicable. He made a bad situation worse. I™ll swear on my children™s life that I never thought about running up the score. I wanted to get a big win on
the road.
“My team has had trouble holding leads at the end of games. I didn™t want the score to get under 10 points because if it would™ve gotten under 10 points it would™ve had a negative feeling on my team.”
On the subject of negativity, Jerry Sloan can’t be feeling too great about the Jazz squandering a 16 point first half lead against a depleted Knicks squad tonight at MSG. Channing Frye rejected Carlos Boozer’s attempt to tie the game at 82 with 1:19 to go, while Memhet Okur bricked a 3 point try after Stephon Marbury missed a layup with less than a minute remaining. After Thomas called New York’s final time out, Marbury was fouled driving the lane. The NBA’s No. 1 Point Guard Salesman Of Cheap Shoes hit one of two free throws, but a Deron Williams basked cut the lead to 83-82. Jamal Craword sank a pair of foul shots after being creamed on the inbounds pass. Williams hit an equalizing 3 from the top of the key with 10 ticks to go, and Crawford couldn’t answer with a 3 of his own on the Knicks’ last possession. 83-83, and we’re headed for overtime.
(UPDATE : With a minute left in overtime and the Jazz trailing 94-91, Williams launched an off-balance trey with the shot clock winding down…that bounced high off the front of the rim before going in. Steph, typically, missed one of his two free throws at the other end, followed by AK-47 missing a jumper. With 20 seconds left and the MSG crowd chanting “Fire Thomas” “Let’s Go Knicks”, a Crawford shot that would’ve iced the game was off-target…and Williams connected, again, for what looked to be the clincher for Utah. But with the score 96-95, Marbury took the inbounds pass more than half the length of the floor with 3 seconds left, and dropped in a layup, almost uncontested (terrific pass from David Lee). Steph’s biggest bucket as Knick in, I dunno, forever? I’m tempted to buy a pair of those $15 shoes tomorrow, except I don’t want to wind up crippled. Your final score, Knicks 97, Utah 95, Bill Paxton 0)
‘Melo Who? Andre Miller has 20 points at the half and the Nuggets are up 65-43 over the Wizards.