Well, that was a fun one. Sure it was a loss, but being at the game and watching Nate Robinson completely take over was quite an experience. Some game notes:
- If Nate has his pre-game routine written down on a white board in the locker room, it looks like this:
1. Shoot threes
2. Throw basketballs at Wilson Chandler while he tries to shoot threes
3. Shoot from halfcourt
4. Yell in Brandon Roy's ear while he tries to shoot threes.
5. Kick Von Wafer's legs while he tries to shoot threes. - This looked like it was gonna be a long one early on. LaMarcus "The Marcus" Aldridge was posting and toasting the undersized Knick big men while the Blazer guards rained it from outside. Early double-digit deficit.
- One of these days, Wilson Chandler is going to really embarrass somebody. Wil doesn't have much finesse on drives to the basket. He's thinking rim the whole way. One of these times, someone's gonna be on Chandler's first poster.
- The halftime show was some people doing flips and throwing each other to house music. David Lee spent the second half of it sitting on the scorer's table and pretending to rave.
- Footage was shown of the Indiana high school rivalry between Jared Jeffries and Zach Randolph. Jeffries as a teenager most closely resembles Cheryl Miller.
- I mentioned this in my snazzy mobile post below, but why didn't Randolph Morris get any minutes? Aldridge and Joel Przybilla were having their way in the post and on the glass, so why not give our only active 7-footer some run? After a couple games of getting minutes, why would this be the one that Dolph sat out? Doesn't make sense.
- Dave from Blazers Edge has a question for us Knick fans in his recap: "I am curious to know if New York Knicks fans would prefer to field this lineup for the short term rather than the bloated, overpaid, selfish, directionless mess they started the season with". Short answer (mine anyway): yes.
- It's funny that Isiah makes enough coaching blunders like the one above that it makes us quick to judge his every move, even good ones. In this one, he subbed Jeffries for Nate late in the fourth quarter and the crowd went ballistic. Then Jeffries played tight D on Brandon Roy, grabbed a rebound, and was promptly switched back out for Nate in a timeout. It was textbook offense-defense that worked to perfection, and Isiah got no credit. Not that he deserves it, but it's funny.
- Alright, let's talk about Nate Robinson. Wow. Wow. 45 points on 16-28 shooting to go with 6 dimes and 6 boards. There wasn't too much luck involved in it, either. Nate only shot 6 threes, and opted instead to repeatedly dupe the bigger, slower Blazer guards and get to the hole. Example:
Intoxicating, indeed. That's more Clydeisms than I've ever heard in a minute-long span. I think you can gauge the impressiveness of a play by the number of Clydeisms uttered in the minute following. I counted at least five there. Nate was also the man to force it into overtime, boldly attacking Joel Przybilla and getting the friendly roll:
Stupendous. Hats off to Mr. Robinson for playing fearless, determined basketball and single-handedly keeping the Knicks (and the crowd) in this one.