The New York Knicks ended the last decade the way they played throughout most of it: in the most wretched way possible, being blown out by the New Jersey Nets, the worst team in the NBA. But who remembers 2009 anymore? That was a lifetime ago. The Knicks are loving the new decade.
Here are five fantastic things about the 2010 New York Knicks, who are currently 2–0.
1. Nate Robinson is back! Late in the first quarter Friday night against the Hawks, coach Mike D’Antoni motioned for Nate Robinson to enter the game, and, not surprisingly, the Natrix thought he was kidding. After all, Nate hadn’t played in a month, a stretch that happened to coincide with the Knicks’ best month of basketball in years. What happened? Oh, Nate just happened to pop up and score 41 points to lead to an overtime victory. He played 23 minutes in Sunday’s win over Indiana as well. Nate is back. Look how excited he is, and how excited everyone else is to have him back. Even when the tiny one isn’t playing well, he fires up a team. Look! He’s so happy! (And D’Antoni says he’s officially back in the rotation.) Welcome back, Nate.
2. If you are weak, you will be destroyed. The Indiana Pacers were reeling from injuries, fatigue, and general incompetence when they came into the Garden last night. This is exactly the type of game the 2009 Knicks wouldn’t have coughed up. The 2010 Knicks? WHAMMO! They beat the Pacers 132–89, the biggest victory margin in the NBA this season.
3. Danilo Gallinari is doing things like this.
4. Everybody played and scored yesterday. Well, everyone except Larry Hughes, anyway. Jordan Hill even made an appearance, and wasn’t half-bad. When you win games like that, you’re going to have some crazy plus-minus numbers — the point differential your team puts up when you are in the game — so we’d like to point out that both David Lee (who is quietly having another monster year) and Wilson Chandler were both plus-46 yesterday. Also, somehow Chris Duhon was six-for-seven from three-point range, which will never, ever happen again.
5. The celebrity fans are back out, and causing trouble. We didn’t see this, so we’ll just quote great Knicks blog Posting And Toasting:
Dustin Hoffman, asked by [sideline reporter] Jill Martin what his favorite midnight snack was, responded initially with “G-rated?”. He ended up saying something about pineapples and ginger ale, but I wanna know what the R-rated one was. Seriously, though. Was that a sex or a drug reference?
We’re gonna go with a sex reference there. Dustin Hoffman has Knicks fever. Come on, guys! Dive in!
We’re gonna go with a sex reference there. Dustin Hoffman has Knicks fever. Come on, guys! Dive in!