When the Houston Rockets have their full starting lineup intact, they are capable of being one of the best teams in the league. Since late January, they have won 19 of the last 24 games and have established an identity as a team to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, their hopes of being a powerhouse in the West in the playoffs took a major hit on Friday with the news that point guard Patrick Beverley could miss the remainder of the season
Sunday night’s self-destruction against the Cavs was about as bad of a loss as the Knicks could have imagined, given that they had a chance to pull within two games of the Atlanta Hawks, who had lost earlier in the day. Well, to be fair, it wasn’t totally a self-destruction. Jarrett Jack was phenomenal for Cleveland on offense, repeatedly burning Raymond Felton, and Luol Deng did a terrific job on Carmelo Anthony, keeping the ball out of the NBA’s second-leading scorer
We are about to witness what may be a first in the long history of the NBA. For the first time, four of the league’s flagship franchises could well be out of the playoffs. OK, the Knicks aren’t technically out of the race in the Hindenburg Conference, but they have a lot of ground to make up on Atlanta – four games in the loss column with 13 to play. The Celtics, Lakers and 76ers all are making plans for the
For power forward Amare Stoudemire, the past few years in New York have been nothing short of a dreadful nightmare. After reviving the New York Knicks with dominant play in his first season and leading them to the playoffs for the first time in a decade, it has been just about all downhill for the former All-Star. To recap some of the things that have gone wrong since that glorious year: he nearly destroyed his hand after slapping a glass casing surrounding
If you are a Knicks fan and sweating Carmelo Anthony’s free agency status heading into the summer, you should probably feel thrilled about the arrival of Phil Jackson. Why? Because he may be the key to retaining the coveted small forward. Despite the tumultuous year the Knicks have had, and despite making a run at the playoffs a bit too late into the season, Jackson’s presence has seemingly brought a sense of fresh start to everyone in the organization – from top to
I already told you yesterday that Mike Woodson needs to lead the Knicks into the playoffs to keep his job. No easy task, but when Phil Jackson says repeatedly that he expects this year’s team to make the postseason, the bar has been set. And if the Knicks fail? Well, there will be a new coach at the helm, and since Jackson is not ingratiated with the larger coaching fraternities out there, you can cross out names such as Jeff Van Gundy, Stan Van
Phil Jackson was officially introduced as president of the New York Knicks on Tuesday during a press conference held at Chase Square just outside of the newly renovated Madison Square Garden. Jackson was introduced by the enigmatic James Dolan, who both offered a great deal of insight and explanation into how this power relationship materialized, from which we learned began a few months ago. [Read more…]
It’s All Phil All The Time in New York these days. No Knicks story can be written without a reference – or more – to Phil Jackson’s imminent ascension as the new Czar of MSG. Jackson, as is his wont, is playing it every so coy and cagey, relishing in the mystery of it all. He knows what he’s doing, right? (OK, he’s getting $12 million, so he got that part right.) But this whole thing runs counter to Jackson’s usual M.O., which