Knicks president/coach Isiah Thomas kept telling us about the equal-opportunity offense. That there would be a different leading scorer every night. Friday night in Miami, there were a host of standouts, one of those rare evenings when everyone played well.
That, according to Thomas, will be the key to the season, whether guys like Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Jamal Crawford can accept the fact that they will not be scoring 20 points a night.
It’s all about the “W,” and that was one big “W” in Miami on Friday when the Knicks embarrassed the defending champion Heat, 100-76, at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“We’re not living and dying by the boxscore,” Thomas said after the Knicks moved to 4-6 at the 10-game mark. “You got two guys in Francis and Marbury used to scoring 20 points a night. They’ve giving in to the team. The team is responding.” A lot of the Knicks’ mettle was to be tested last night vs. Boston at the Garden. So far, the Knicks are a better road team (3-3), playing more relaxed away from the Garden boos. It is a shame right now the Knicks can’t be more comfortable to make the Garden a distinct home-court advantage, especially Marbury. And that’s no indictment of the fans who have every right to jeer this franchise after what it’s been through.
With the next two games at home, Boston and Monday vs. the Rockets, perhaps it is time for the Garden fandom to cut them some slack. Considering the Knicks’ chief offseason piece, Jared Jeffries, hasn’t played, and considering their rough road schedule, their record of 4-6 is not an embarrassment.
“We’re learning how to win as a team, out there sharing the ball,” Eddy Curry said. “We understand we can win that way. That’s how we want to win.” The Heat shot 36.3 percent, and the Knicks have held their past two opponents down.
“We have a better understanding of our defensive philosophy, executing for 48 minutes,” Thomas said. “Defensively locking in and trusting our teammates, that there’s help there.” Thomas is very content to be 4-6 with two home games on tap, a chance to get to .500. The Knicks were 2-8 after Larry Brown’s first 10 games.
“I want to be realistic,” Thomas said. “Coming out of the gates, a lot of teams we’re playing a week or two ago, they had an advantage.
They know their system. We’re still leaning ours. I’ll take where we are right now.” The Knicks’ bench – the energy guys of David Lee, Nate Robinson and rookie Renaldo Balkman – have been excellent. They opened up the Knicks’ lead in the second quarter, with Robinson and Lee making for a dynamic 1-2 punch.
But it was great to see the starters give them a terrific third quarter in Miami as the Knicks outscored the Heat 34-14 to make it a full-scale rout.
Thomas doesn’t want a division on his team, doesn’t want fans and media talking about how much better the bench is.
“We’re not two separate teams,” Thomas said. “We’re not a first and second team. We’re really trying to play together as one team.” Somewhere, Brown is not smiling.
Quentin Richardson said, “We just got to build on it. We’re not reading into anything. It’s one game early in the season. We played hard, played together. It was fun out there.”
Fun – that’s a word that hasn’t been spoken around the Knicks for a while.