Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 at 2:03 pm  |  8 responses

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Game Notes: Spurs at Knicks

The Knicks take the Spurs for a ride on Pace Mountain; AppleSon Returns.

SECOND QUARTER

It seems that NBC has purchased celebrity row for this night. Jeremy Sisto of Law and Order fame and Judah Friedlander of 30 Rock enjoy some face time on the Jumbotron. Friedlander is rocking a hat that says “El Campeon,” which must be a Ginobili tribute.

Also in celebrity row, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, who at 66 could still beat up the rest of celebrity row.

Speaking of Manu, the Bahia Blanka suckers Bill Walker into a foul off of a deft up-fake. He doesn’t even decide to make a shooting motion so he can go to the stripe. Instead, he misses a mid-range J. Then Walker misses a corner three for not obeying, or reading, the white board’s instructions (don’t bite on Ginobili fakes).

Ginobili follows this with his own miss, and Toney Douglas ends the erratic madness with an and-one, but he misses the free throw, so the madness continues.

Douglas apparently suffered a rather nasty shoulder injury earlier in the year, and his sole concession to it is what looks like a giant Band-Aid. This is the most inexplicable shoulder bandage since Jamal Crawford played most of a season with what looked like a pack of Marlboro Reds taped to his.

A Landry Fields follow-up give the Knicks a 40-38 lead. Mrs. Landry Fields’s Follow-up Cookies need to happen. Imagine corporate back-to-back Rookie of the Month synergy—but also cookies.

If there’s any chance at all that Landry Fields’ boundless energy is contagious, the Knicks should have him room with Eddy Curry on the road. Maybe have him sneeze on his pizzas and stuff, too.

Might name my first born Shawne Sean Shaun Williams Appleman The Fifty-First…

George Hill twice does a good job of sticking buckets to keep the Knick lead from getting out of hand.

Pauly D from the Jersey Shore is shown on the Jumbtron. Go away.

Please?

Landry Fields wins the Hugo Boss-sponsored best dressed Knick of the game award because he’s the trendiest choice and also because the crowd is asked to cheer for him last. Ironically, Fields would call Amar’e Stoudemire “Boss!” after the game. More synergy! Somewhere in Newark, Brett Yormark is smiling.

THIRD QUARTER

Twice, fans near the ramp accuse Manu Ginobili of flopping. “You are such a phony, Ginobili! You suck!” Pretty routine heckling in our book. “Your defensive tactics are emblematic of a feminine pinkish hue, like the outside of the Casa Rosada!” would have been much more apropos.

Or, “What, do you think you play for Atletico?” I can type this because Jake won’t see it again until it’s already published. So there.

Wilson Chandler stumbles after converting near the rim. That he stumbled anywhere near the rim is almost stunning the way he’s been rolling this season.

Chandler is getting to the rim whenever he wants, and burying three-pointers when he doesn’t. Carmelo who?

The Knicks City Dancers gyrate to “Give It Away Now” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Give It Away Now” and G-String Divas are exactly what you should be showing your 11-year-old daughter right now. Yeesh.

Joe Frazier gets some love on the jumbotron. Nice.

If you had Gary-Neal-to-Matt-Bonner-for-the-two-handed-flush to bring the Spurs within 96-90, please find the guy wearing sunglasses indoors and claim your Dinosaurs lunch box.

The Knicks have 101 points after three quarters. Against the Spurs. Without Danilo Gallinari. If they were playing the Warriors, they would have roughly 337. Also, if Mike D’Antoni ever writes a book on coaching, he should call it “The Best Defense is a Good Offense.” Cue Larry Brown rollin’ in his grave.

FOURTH QUARTER

Neal brings the Spurs within 103-98 with a swirly toilet water three-point play. More importantly, The Towson Toilets would be a phenomenal fantasy team name.

Personally, I’m not sure whether “Gary Neal” went to Towson at all. Pregame, Pop says he’d “never heard of him til he walked in the gym” this summer. Right. That’s because he made him in a lab out of spare DNA harvested from Roger Mason and Bruce Bowen.

Amar’e responds to his MVP serenade honestly: by splitting a pair of free-throws. Now all he needs to do is listen to “50 Bars” repeatedly before games.

Apparently, Foxwoods presents the final five minutes of every Knicks home game. I’ll take corporate synergy, the over, and stupid. Oh, I win? Sweet. Thanks.

Before his sprockets malfunction, Duncan has a nice two-possession clinical domination of STAT in the post.

I have no idea what got into Raymond Felton—aside from perhaps Michael Jordan’s secret stuff from Space Jam—but goodness graciousness is this dude balling. I’d channel John Starks (“did this dude just did this?”) but it’s so much more than that. In fact, that‘s exactly what it is: “did this dude just did this and then did that.” Essentially Felton has cubed the word “did.” So he’s putting in work and then working on the work he’s worked, but then he’s outworking all of that work.

Pop pulls his starters with two minutes to go and the Spurs down 10, giving Chris Quinn and Ime Udoka and Tiago Splitter a chance to bask in the Garden aura. Surprise ripples through the Twitterverse that Pop would pull the plug on what appears to be a winnable game. But the Spurs haven’t been able to get it down to a one-possession game and the Celtics await tomorrow. A cold move, but the right one. If he ever retires from coaching, maybe Pop can get a gig on one of those Obama death panels.

Final score: Knicks 128, Spurs 115. Felton and Stoudemire finish with 28, Chandler with 31, on a combined 53 shots. Hello, efficiency. On the losing side, Parker has 26.

POSTGAME

Usually, the area around the visitor’s locker room is fairly empty as the beatwriters march off to hear Mike D’Antoni’s latest post-game pronouncements. Not tonight. It’s like the NBA Finals as Pop emerges to a cast of — well, dozens, at least — pushed back nearly to the central tunnel. “The New York Knicks kicked our asses tonight,” he starts unbidden, which about covers it.

Inside, later, Tim Duncan’s blank-stare answers reflect that of his coach. No blame, no excuses, just acknowledgment that — for one night, anyway — they were the lesser team.

I need to ask Raymond Felton something important. Mainly, why he’s the only Knicks starter not on Twitter. Basically, it’s just not his thing. And if he keeps doing what he’s doing, that’s just fine.