NEW YORK — Last night in Orlando, the Knicks utilized a balanced attack to defeat the Magic, 96-80. The victory giave them a record of 28-27 on the season and improved their lead over the Milwaukee Bucks to 1 1/2 games for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Prior to the game, Stan Van Gundy offered this, “You don’t want to face the Knicks in the playoffs because Carmelo scares the hell out of you.” (And yes, he
Dwight Howard is truly having a season to forget. Most seem to be calling it a “Dwightmare”, fittingly. Sadly, most of it is due to off-court issues. Throughout his career, he was a drama-free, fun and charismatic superstar adored by most around him. Since the end of last season, however, he has become one of the more unlikable players in the NBA. He has become a walking daytime soap opera due to his much-documented indecision of where he would like to play. During the process, he
The twists and turns of a wild season for the New York Knicks have been upstaged by the Dwight Howard saga. In a bizarre sequence of events for the media that had twitter in a state of frenzy, Stan Van Gundy addressed questions today and confirmed rumors that came out yesterday, saying Dwight Howard demanded Van Gundy be fired as the head coach of the Orlando Magic. “I was told it was true by people in our management,” Van Gundy said. “So right from
Reader Daniel put an end to a two-list losing streak, correctly solving last week’s Bernucca List with the answer of “leading scorers on the losing team in the Finals.” The list actually comprised the last 10 players to turn the trick. So congrats to Daniel as we move on to this week’s list, which is comprehensive but not complete as the research was somewhat time-consuming. See if you can find the common thread among the players listed below. If you think you
The following sentence you are about to read is true. In Tuesday night’s home win over Philadelphia, LeBron James scored 14 straight Miami points in the fourth quarter. Look, a lot has been made of James’ disappearing acts in the guts of the game. Some of it is hater bait, but some of it is warranted. And most of what has been warranted dates to when he arrived in Miami at the beginning of last season. For the most part, James wasn’t like
NYK @ IND: It took a tremendous fourth-quarter comeback led by Danny Granger (27) and Paul George (18) but the Pacers pulled this one out. Carmelo Anthony was heroic in defeat with 39 PTS and 10 REB; the Knicks need much better guard play than they got from Iman Shumpert (2-6, 5 PTS) and Baron Davis (2-8, 6 PTS) although J.R. Smith had 11 PTS, 9 REB and 4 AST before being ejected. Elsewhere SAS @ CLE: A ridiculously easy win as
When Jeremy Lin sat out a playoff-implication game against Milwaukee due to a sore left knee on Monday, the absence was expected. When he sat out again two days later against Orlando, there was cause for concern. As teammates said, Lin is not the type of player to sit out games unless it was something serious. After avoiding the media prior to the game against the Hawks on Friday, it became clear something was amiss. Then suddenly, at least for now, the sensation
When both the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks got off to sputtering starts to their seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers gladly assumed the void at the top of the Atlantic Division, which simultaneously is the worst and most valuable division in the NBA. Despite opening with a five-game road trip, the 76ers grabbed first place before arriving home and held onto it like it was a winning lottery ticket. Since Dec. 28, Philadelphia has not been out of the top spot