Isiah Thomas is a F@#*ing Dork... and other observations

Game 6: Vs. New York: Spurs 100, Knicks 92
Record: 5-1 Streak: Won 4

Ugh. Sorry it took me a while to post this. It was hard to find the inspiration. Let’s be honest, the less said about this one, the better. It is physically painful to watch the Knicks play. 11 freakin’ assists on 36 made baskets! How can their fans put up with this one-on-one basketball night after night? I mean, I guess Rucker Park is the home of such nonsense, but this is the Knicks! Those 1970 and 1973 title teams were the paramount examples of team play in this league, right? Right?

And now they’ve sunk to this. Their coach/GM/jester/bully threatens to murder our small forward.

Way to go tough guy. Your players were so inspired by your machismo that they dropped a home game to Cleveland. Do you have any idea how crappy your team has to be to lose at home to Cleveland?

Um.. wait..

Okay, so that was a bad example.

The bottom line is I'm glad we don't have to play them anymore. Sure, we'd win every game, Isiah said so himself, according to the New York Times:
Asked if he was glad that the two incidents raised awareness of a dangerous defensive tactic, Thomas said:

“No. If nothing else, I’m glad we don’t play San Antonio anymore. Because chances are we would be 0-3, then 0-4 and 0-5 and 0-6 against them. So I’m glad they’re out of the way and we’ve absorbed our two losses and we can be done with them.”

I agree with Coach Psycho. I'm glad we don't play your uglyass team anymore either. And losses aren't the only things you're absorbing buddy. Your center seems to be "absorbing" every doughnut in sight and your organization is "absorbing" one ridiculous contract after another.

Take a look at this...
NEW YORK KNICKS
Player Salary
Stephon Marbury $17.18 million
Steve Francis $15.07 million
Eddy Curry $8.17 million
Quentin Richardson $7.52 million
Malik Rose $7.52 million
Jamal Crawford $7.2 million
Jerome James $5.4 million
Jared Jeffries $5.21 million
Channing Frye $2.32 million
Renaldo Balkman $1.19 million
Nate Robinson $1.18 million
David Lee $926,040
Mardy Collins $899,880
Kelvin Cato $744,551
Other $36.4 million
Total $117.024 million

Now look at us...
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
Player Salary
Tim Duncan $17.42 million
Tony Parker $9.45 million
Manu Ginobili $8.25 million
Brent Barry $5.11 million
Eric Williams $4.29 million
Bruce Bowen $3.75 million
Robert Horry $3.31 million
Francisco Elson $3 million
Michael Finley $2.88 million
Fabricio Oberto $2.5 million
Jackie Butler $2.2 million
Matt Bonner $2 million
Beno Udrih $967,920
Jacque Vaughn $744,551
James White $412,718
Other $40,000
Total $66.366 million


Now a couple of things stand out here. First of all, our starting backcourt is making a combined 17.7M. Good scratch, for sure. But not quite the 32.25M their starting backcourt is getting paid. Now you can call me a homer if you want, but I like Tony and Manu more than Starbury and Franchise. That's just me though. Other people might disagree. Also, we're paying guys who aren't on our roster 40K. They're paying guys no longer on their roster 36.4M. So I guess if I was the guy responsible for Column A coaching vs. the guy responsible for Column B, I might be in a bad mood too. No wonder Pop has that smirk in the picture...

A guy who grew on me a bit in this second game is their color guy, Walt Frazier. He had a couple of gems I thought were worth noting.

Of Tony Parker: "He's leading the team in both swishes and dishes." Nice!

Of the Knicks being down at least 10+ points in every game thus far and having to come back: "They're showing fortitude, but not aptitude."
That's just quality right there, is what that is.

Anyway, I was bored, so I charted the game, hockey style...

Player Playing Time Shifts Longest Shift +/-

Duncan 32:40 4 10:30 12
Parker 36:00 4 9:50 12
Oberto 18:00 4 6:00 6
Horry 10:30 2 8:00 6
Bowen 35:30 5 10:30 5
Finley 20:20 3 10:00 2
Barry 17:40 3 8:00 -1
Elson 23:20 4 9:50 -2
Udrih 17:20 3 8:40 -4
Bonner 2:00 1 2:00 -7
Vaughn 2:00 1 2:00 -7

Most of it is about what'd you'd expect, right? Except you're saying, "Dude you forgot Manu." Well could you blame me? He had a pretty forgettable night, no? 3 of 9 shooting, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers. Nothing to get excited about.

Howevuh...

Ginobili 25:00 6 5:50 +18

+ 18 in only 25 mins of playing time. Now maybe it was just a coincedence that he happened to be on the floor when we were going on runs, even if it didn't appear that he was directly involved in them. But, riddle me this... if he was soooo bad against the Kings and the Mavs in the playoffs last year, how come he led the team in +/- in both series? How come he led the entire league with a + 169 for the '04-05 playoffs (the next closest Spur was Horry with +112)? Good things just magically seem to happen when Manu is on the floor. It must all be one big coincedence.

Now if he could only start taking it to the hole and cramming it on people again, we could make the visual evidence coorelate with the statistical evidence...

Your 3 Stars...

3) Francisco Elson- 9 points (on 4 of 5 shooting), 9 rebounds, and 2 assists in just 23 minutes off the bench. His only bugaboo was the 5 turnovers, but whaddaya gonna do? Mr. Perfecto on the other hand managed a single point and was oh-for-four from the field. Still, the two of them combined for 17 rebs from the center spot in 41 minutes.

2) Tim Duncan- Another typically awesome night from The Big Fundamental: 24-16-2-3. And a spectacularly awful 4 of 12 from the line. At least he isn't making awful movies or rap albums.

1) Tony Parker- 33 points on 12 of 17 shooting and 6 assists. Yeah, great. But how come he never had another assist in the last three quarters, huh? And how come he missed three free throws? And what's with that stupid accent? Does he thing it's sexy or something? Pass the ball to Manu you freakin' Frog! You think your girlfriend is so hot? Huh? Well she's cheating on you so there. I bet she totally slept with Christian Bale on the set of Harsh Times. Actually, Bale is too good for her. She probably did J.K. Simmons, the guy who played Schillinger the Neo-Nazi on Oz. Boy you Frenchies really put up a hell of a fight against them Germans in WWII, huh?

(Um...sorry. I just lost time for the last five minutes. What happened? That happens to me sometimes.)

Next Game: @ Houston Rockets
::sniffs:: What's that? It smells like... like... a loss! I don't like that smell.