Knicks 113, Magic 106: "42 minutes for Melo lol"

Terribly turgid tussle tonight. Third time to turn the torpedoes to the table tennis territory tapers. Thespians thought the tweedy turncoats tweaked their tuffets toward triptych turmoil, though the theoretically trained tanks temporarily toppled. Thanks, Robert Randolph!

The Friday Night Knicks theme song struck yet again on this mostly fine evening. This is why we can't have not nice things, Robert. The Knicks knocked out their third consecutive win, and I couldn't be less impressed with the effort. A wonderful performance from Nikola Vucevic was rendered an afterthought as New York parried and pushed to the pointless victory.

My worst fear is that the Knicks go on a playoff quality win streak and rumble into the All-Star break,only 20 games under .500 or something tempestuous like that. Something good enough to make a headstrong buckethead like Carmelo Anthony decide not to shut it down. Then on some random Friday night, the Knicks will play that song and Melo will go down with a serious knee injury that requires immediate surgery.

Tonight something similar to that may have happened to Jose Calderon. It's such a shame. Jose had been sleepwalking through a night terror most of the season and only in the past two games found some traction. Thankfully, X-ray results were negative. It's just the last thing we need. I'm trying to enjoy this tank, damn you!

Fisher says Calderon is in a lot of pain, but no known structural damage on left knee right now is good news. Not sure on return. #Knicks

— Tina Cervasio (@TinaCervasio) January 24, 2015

Let's put this sucker to sleep...

- I truly hope Jose is ok. The way he just laid on the floor and didn't even attempt to get up was such a scary moment. I didn't see it as it happened, and decided not to watch the replays. It made me think of Baron Davis' last game. Where Baron was on a breakaway, his body took an elevator up as his knee took the escalator down. I wish everyone only the best health.

- Nikola Vucevic annihilated the Knicks front line all game. Pick and pops for clean 15-18 footers. Rolls to the rim for uncontested layups and dunks. Long rebounds giving way to some crafty post-ups. This guy braised the Knicks en route to 34 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block.

- Jason Smith had his best game of his life probably. What a dork. I don't care if he shot well from downtown. He still took 18 shots to get 19 points. Get lost.

- Carmelo Anthony did his best Jason Smith impression with 25 points on 24 shots. Melo is gimping around so hard. Pro-tank, anti-tank, whatever you think is the best way to handle the team, this guy is clearly not anywhere near full strength. With ten more games to play before the All Star break, let's hope he can at least be rested for one game in each of the three back to backs (tonight/tomorrow, Oklahoma/Indiana and Brooklyn/Golden State). After that, he's got to get that knee repaired for real.

Look if you disagree, consider that Melo opened the game against Devyn Marble and he didn't go fucking off.

- Langston Galloway continues to jeopardize the tank. He just doesn't quit probing. Langston missed a few open looks, but stayed aggressive, and put together a game any competitive team could be happy with. He checked Oladipo, pushed the tempo and he keeps the Triangle pretty operational. I hope we sign him for the rest of the season. He'll have two more games before the front office decides on it.

- Brooklyn-born Lance Thomas wobbled his way around the floor to a pretty decent game. He doesn't seem to know when he should snap into his various Triangular regions, but he just naturally floats to the correct open spots. His sense of space put him in position to score repeatedly, and he dropped in 16 tidy points. He is basically the inverse of Jason Smith.

- I can't tell if Lou Amundson looks like a hulking cheerleader or Leonardo DiCaprio popped on HGH.

- Cole Aldrich did his best Vucevic impression and rambled his way to six points and nine boards. Good thing that bruiser isn't getting real minutes.

- Tim Hardaway got to the line nine times. What the heck do you think that was about?!

I dunno what's going on. We're not tanking. We're tanking. We're not tanking. You're hired, you're fired. JR and the Off-Balance Shots talked about it in the game thread: 42 minutes for an ailing star on a nowhere team, in a pointless win, with a group of people that are generally unlikely to be teammates this time next year. Let's keep sifting for more of that Westchester gold. Until then, lol.