Pacers 119, Knicks 92

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Somehow, it continues to get worse. In what could have been a game to rally around Stephon Marbury's return to the lineup, the Knicks instead played one of their most lackluster, humiliating performances of the year to lose to the Pacers at home. Some notes:

• Al Trautwig interviewed former ABA coach and current Pacers broadcaster Bobby "Slick" Leonard before the game. I'd venture to guess that "Slick" leads all annoncers in jowls per game.
• We'll all remember where we were when Eddy Curry passed successfully out of a double team and Jamal Crawford hit an open three. December 17, 2007...a fleeting moment in history.
• MSG turned up some footage of a tiny Jamaal Tinsley announcing his team at a little kid's basketball tournament in New York. He used to be cuter.
• The second quarter was, in a hyphenated word, mind-boggling. The Knicks missed 20 STRAIGHT field goals over a long stretch. They weren't even bad shots. You know those possessions where they get 2 or 3 offensive rebounds but don't end up scoring and you're like "well, at least they're hustling?" Yeah, well that happened like 5 times.
• Z-Bo was lights-out with his jumper, but had one of the most infuriating defensive plays I've seen in a while. On a drive, Randolph thought he'd been charged, and went over to the ref to complain. Thing is, the rebound came out to Zach's man, Troy Murphy, who found himself completely alone. Murph lined himself up, checked the time, solved a Rubik's cube, brewed some tea, drank it, and then drilled the open three, while Zach never ventured within 6 feet of him. Unbelievable. You can only imagine the depths of Mike Breen's disgust with that one.
• The Knicks tied it up in the third quarter, but something got into Mike Dunleavy. All of a sudden, he was slashing to the hoop and hitting wild Dwyane Wade-esque circus shots. Dun finished with 22 in the quarter. Oh well, he still looks like a chick.
• Random thought regarding that photo up top: What if we all just started chanting "Hire Suhr" instead of "Fire Isiah"? It's a lot more positive. And I would always be happy with that fella on the sidelines. Just look at him!
• In case you thought Isiah still had any respect from the players:
  "Our collective toughness, our collective heart, we say the right things but we didn't gut it out for 48 minutes, we don't grind it out for 48 minutes, we don't compete like we should,'' Thomas seethed.

  "A lot of things have been said about me, teams that I coached. The way I played, I've never been accused of not having heart or competing. And tonight was very discouraging to me because we didn't collectively play with heart, compete like I know I did.''

  Good that he's getting a message out to his players right? Well...

  A stone-faced Quentin Richardson said, "I have heart and my teammates do, too.''

  ...and...

  "I don't think we're lacking heart in any kind of way," Curry said. "I think that every single guy on this team has heart and we want to win every single game we have, we just have stretches where we need to improve."

  Awesome! I suppose this could become the familiar "players trying in spite of their coach" situations (oh, that's not familiar?), but things really aren't looking up. If it weren't for this right now, I dont' know what I'd do. Next game is Wednesday against the Cavs. Peace.