Knicks 99, Clippers 93: "It was like semi-tanking?"

Apr. 25, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith (8) and Los Angeles Clippers power forward Reggie Evans (30) scramble for a loose ball during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

Just one game left! There isn't much to say about the Knicks' win over the Clippers tonight. They played pretty nicely through three quarters and change, getting another solid outing from Carmelo Anthony and big contributions off the bench. Despite running a fairly ugly offense-- the Melo/Tyson Chandler/Amar'e Stoudemire lineups didn't exactly pop-- the Knicks shot pretty well and took care of the ball. The defense was decent enough, and the Clippers only really got close when Randy Foye started pullin' threes out of his butt (That's not entirely accurate. He really just shot them with his hands like usual).

Well, that's not entirely true. The Clippers got close again in the fourth quarter when Mike Woodson rested his starters. Dan Gadzuric (you're allowed to rebound with two hands, Dan!) and friends whiled away the closing period, allowing the Clippers to gnaw into what had been a double-digit lead. Woodson wouldn't put Anthony and Stoudemire back in the game, but he did deploy Chandler for a few minutes just to maintain order. Like abe88 said, it was some strange mix of tanking, resting the main bros, and still trying to win the game. I don't really know what the strategy was, but...it was. They won. As a fanbase, we couldn't really decide whether we were happy about it, but it's in the past now. Here's what that means for tomorrow, when it sounds like Woodson will rest a lot of his guys again versus the Bobcats.

Take the jump for the most important item from tonight's broadcast (and something those of you watching on ESPN missed.)

So, I think I've noticed this at least once, but I hadn't really appreciated it until tonight. The Knicks' tunnel out of the locker room is visible through a glass wall during Al Trautwig's pre-game stuff, and Mike Bibby does some zany walk/dance every time the Knicks walk through there. Often, the cameras pick it up, and MSG put together a quick montage of Bibby's movez for the pre-game show. Our friend King Henry the 2nd .gif'd 'em for us: