(AP Photo/Morry Gash)
I never thought I'd feel this way about a win over the hapless Milwaukee Bucks, but Jamal Crawford did best at describing the feeling of snapping a losing streak last night:
"It almost felt like we won the championship," said Crawford, who hit 11 of 23 shots. "We needed this win to break the cycle."
After a long, trying run of repeatedly coming close and falling short, pulling the rug out from under another team felt pretty victorious, indeed. The Knicks were down by as many 17 in the second half, but got key bench play to steal this one away. Some notes:
- Jamal Crawford's been a little off recently, but he had 30 points (11-23) and 5 assists in this one. He was still chucking up some of the circus shots that we've come to despise, but did make an effort to get into the paint more. Do know that if the Bucks had converted in the end, we'd be all over Crawford for shooting off-balance over a triple team on the Knicks' last possession.
- The footage of Andrew Lang shivving Patrick Ewing in Milwaukee still really nauseates me. For all the boneheaded deals Isiah's made, I think signing Lang after that happened was one of the more egregious Knick moves of my lifetime.
- David Lee came in a little shaky, but finished with a strong 17 points (8-12) and 9 bounds. I think Dave would really benefit from learning a nice pump fake. We need to hire Anthony Mason as an assistant coach.
- For some reason, Al Trautwig was doing play-by-play, and for some reason he kept referring to Michael Ruffin as Bobby Simmons.
- MSG showed a guy in the crowd wearing a blue Knicks #26 jersey. There are two possibilities here. One is fairly benign, and it is that this guy is one of those tools that personalizes jerseys, and he likes the number 26. The profound, world-altering possibility is that this man boldly led an expedition deep into the jungles of Madagascar, braved cannibal tribes and vicious animals, and located the world's only Kelvin Cato jersey. This game may have been played in the presence of a legend.
- Kangaroos hop, snakes slither, Desmond Mason travels.
- Hats off to Malik Rose in this one. I try my darndest not to give him any credit, but Isiah opted to sit Zach AND Eddy in favor of Malik, and it paid off. Rose sank an open jumper and grabbed a few key rebounds down the stretch to ice it. He finished 7 points (3-6), 5 boards, and one (called!) chair-pull in 15 minutes. Big ups.