(Brent Barry scored 19 points for San Antonio, but he really oughta consider having his hair cut somewhere other than this place.)
Watching the replay on FSNSW wasn’t nearly as dreadful as much of what I witnesed in person Saturday night (and I’d be remiss in not acknowledging that contrary to my prior claim, ATX subscribers to Time-Warner Cable were not screwed out of seeing this game live). Serious credit to David Lee, Nate Robinson, Mardy Collins and Malik Rose for at least acting like they gave a fuck. But despite clawing to within one point with 4 minutes left, New York’s starters did a reasonable impersonation of the club that gave up too often last season, sometimes before the opening tip. San Antonio were up by 23 at one point in the second half, which doesn’t seem like much considering Channing Frye had been benched prior to that point.
Stevie Franchise suffered an ankle sprain very early on, prompting Joey from Straight Bangin’ to sneer,
By the fourth quarter, as the Knicks tried to come back against the Spurs, he was in the crowd, wearing his street clothes, cheering. Had he not twisted his ankle, e could have run to the showers even faster. Knicks basketball, the feel good story of the year!
The New York Sun’s John Hollinger attempts to play the Sensibility card, arguing that 3 or 4 games is not sufficient sample size from which to reach any conclusions about the NBA campaign ahead. Though he comes to a few of his own, just for good measure.
That both the Sixers and Hornets are 3“0 does not mean they’re destined to meet in the NBA Finals. That Raymond Felton outscored LeBron James on Saturday doesn’t mean the kid has the makings of an elite superstar. And just because Stephon Marbury put together two poor games this weekend ” not an encouraging sign ” he’s not doomed to a year of bricks and turnovers.
Some of the more interesting early trends are at the team level. The Memphis Grizzlies, for instance, told us all fall how this year would be different; they were going to run more and play half-court less. They even went so far as to claim Mike Fratello was getting a bad rap as a slow-paced coach from his days with Cleveland.
Well, a week into the season, guess who’s playing at the league’s slowest pace? That’s right, the Memphis Grizzlies. Old habits die hard, my friends. Lots of coaches come into training camp insisting their team will run and press more and play an exciting style, but that isn’t meant for internal consumption. Don’t look for the Memphis Snails to start running and gunning any time soon. In fact, they may play even slower once post threat Pau Gasol returns.