My word. It got truly horrid at times, but the Knicks did something in their first game of the season that they couldn't do even once last year: beat the Celtics, and in a close game at that. There were some brilliant stretches of defending and ball movement in the early going that gave way to a lot of last year's nonsense in the second half. In the fourth quarter, though, the defense was slightly restored, Carmelo Anthony got to cookin' soup, and the Knicks survived a few last shot opportunities by Boston.

Melo led the Knicks with a wondrous 37 points and 8 rebounds, while Amar'e Stoudemire contributed a quiet but efficient 21 points and Toney Douglas added 19. Much more on all of those guys later.

Meanwhile, Iman Shumpert suffered a pretty terrifying injury to his knee in the third quarter and had to be carried of the floor. They called it a sprained MCL, which is expected to keep him out for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it's nothing worse, but either way...damn. More on all of this later. I'm going to spend some time enjoying the afternoon and the present company and work on a recap for y'all later tonight.

Oh, and this happened at the end of the game? Missed that. Not cool.

1-0! My insides hurt.