There will be no championship this year, and even the playoffs are a longshot. But for the Knicks and their beaten-down fans, any progress is worthy of applause.
Even before the season’s first dribble, there already was reason for hope with Isiah Thomas being replaced as coach by Mike D’Antoni. Out went the “Fire Isiah” chants and in came a proven winner – more than anyone on the Knicks roster can say.
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“Right now there’s a different spirit than we’ve seen the last couple of years,” said MSG play-by-play man Mike Breen.
“It sounds simple, but they are playing with a renewed joy and spirit. In the last couple of years, there’s been so much drama. It’s the type of thing that wears everyone down, and if you can just concentrate on basketball, it makes a big difference.”
Though the future looks brighter, the present is still murky. D’Antoni has changed the team’s rotation, exiling Stephon Marbury and Eddy Curry and giving more minutes to David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Nate Robinson and newcomer Chris Duhon.
It already has resulted in a three-game winning streak, which matches their longest run from last year. Some would point to the modest competition the Knicks faced during that run – the Bobcats, Wizards and Jazz without point guard Deron Williams. But …
“Last year they had an easy schedule and they still didn’t win the games they were supposed to,” said Knicks legend and MSG analyst Walt Frazier said. “Confidence comes with winning, so they have to win a little more before that. That’s what comes with the growing process for them.”
The Knicks’ not-so-tough schedule continues this week with home matchups against the Oklahoma City Thunder – formerly the Seattle SuperSonics – on Friday, and Mavericks on Sunday.
But then they travel to Boston to take on the defending champion Celtics. The Knicks’ first trip to Boston last season produced the biggest atrocity in a season of atrocities – a 104-59 annihilation.
“This will be a nice barometer, because that game became such a signature moment from last season and all the problems,” Breen said.
“This could be a signature game in the sense to say, ‘Hey, there are some good things going on here.’ Last year, every time they had adversity, they folded. This year, that doesn’t seem to be the case, so far.”
At the very least, scoring fewer than 60 points does not seem to be an option in D’Antoni’s run-and-gun style of offense, a style that led the Suns to the Western Conference finals two times in D’Antoni’s five years in Phoenix.
D’Antoni has defended his style to anyone who suggests it purely is based on offense. But Frazier is not yet convinced.
“I’ve been a defensive guy since grade school,” Frazier said. “I’ve always played defense, and that’s what I believe in. On offense, sometimes the ball won’t go in. Then what do you do? But you can play good defense every night. It’s all hustle, pride, desire, and if you look at teams that win in any sport, defense propels you to the title.
“I am going to wait and see. I don’t know about exclusively relying on offense to win games. He has done that and it’s worked, but in the playoffs it hasn’t been successful.”