The Knicks Are Just A Case Of Red Bull Away From Improvement
The Knicks weren’t supposed to be good this season. In the annals of the franchise, this was supposed to be the season that time forgot.
But this? This is worse than they thought.
It’s about time Coach Mike D’Antoni hit the snooze alarm on his sleep-in experiment.
New York is 1-7 and they look every bit the part of a team that’s won only 13 percent of its games. They look directionless and lethargic. Especially lethargic. Mike D’Antoni’s “fun ‘n’ gun (‘n’ brick)” squad is riding a four-game losing streak and hasn’t mustered more than 40 points in the first half of any of their last three games, two of which were at home.
They don’t just look sleepy on offense either.
Before Monday’s loss to Utah, the Knicks spent the weekend embarrassing themselves, first on Friday at Madison Square Garden against the Cavs and the next day in Milwaukee against the Bucks. The Knicks were like sieves in those games, allowing both teams to score 40 points in the first quarter of each of those games.
I’m tellin’ you: sleepy.
If there’s a silver lining with the 2009-10 version of this team (and I’m not sure there is), it’s that through their first four games at home, they’ve yet to be outscored in the second half (238 – 214).
However much stock D’Antoni put into the plan he came up with during the preseason to eschew morning practice during home games this season which gives them an additional 5 1/2 hours away from basketball.
From the Orlando Sentinel:
Instead of going to the Knicks’ practice facility at 10 a.m. on game days, Knicks players will be required to arrive at Madison Square Garden by 3:30 p.m. for a 7:30 tip-off. During those four hours at the arena, players will prepare for that night’s opponent and eat a pregame meal together.
“I hope to get them more energy,” D’Antoni said in the New York Post. “Does an extra two hours sleeping in the morning help or hurt? Our medical people think it might be better doing it that way. It’s a bit of an experiment.”
I’m not saying the Knicks would have won the three games they lost at MSG, but the team looks sluggish coming out of the tunnel. They look dreary and they’ve played like it through the first half of every game at home so far this season.
How many more until the experiment is deemed a bust?
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