PORTLAND, Ore. – Responding to Magic Johnson’s wild prediction the Knicks will snatch the seventh or eighth seed and be a tough out, Isiah Thomas agreed just with the second portion.
“If we get to the playoffs and what we have to go through to get there, the fire we have to get through, well be a resilient team,” Thomas said. “We’re playing better since January, but I just don’t know if we dug ourselves too big a hole.”
The 14-31 Knicks, 0-3 on the West Coast trip, finish it out in the Pacific Northwest against Portland tonight and Seattle tomorrow. They are fighting a flu bug that has felled Fred Jones, Eddy Curry and Quentin Richardson. The latter two pulled themselves out in Utah early in the first quarter.
*
Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan was hard on Zach Randolph when he played for him, throwing him out one of his first practices.
People close to the team said McMillan didn’t like Randolph’s defense or lack of passing. Randolph, in turn, referred to McMillan as “Sarge” because of McMillan’s strictness.
But yesterday, McMillan said nice things about Randolph.
“He was a big part of this organization for a long time,” McMillan said. “And I enjoyed working with him. He was a young guy with a lot of ability, and I tried to get it out of him. I think people look at those double-double numbers he had here as nothing, but that’s big-time in this league.”
Jones also makes his Portland return as he was part of the trade and is also a Portland native, with a foundation here. Channing Frye, who had a miserable start, has come on and is in the rotation, averaging 17 minutes and 6.7 points. Frye lost 15 pounds from last season, saying the Knicks wanted him bulkier.
*
Once again there were no Knicks selected to participate in the All-Star game. Their last All-Star picks were Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell in 2001.