Knicks Vs. Philly, 10/24-- Running Diary

So I'm sitting here watching the game by myself with no one to talk to about this game, so a la Bill Simmons, I figured I might as well jot them down so we can discuss it later. So as not to deceive my fellow Knickslovers, I coudn't get onto my internet earlier so I threw my thoughts down on some paper, so its not quite a running diary. It's actually halftime. With that being said . . .

- You know Clyde is going to have a big game tonight. The suit he's wearing is absolutely bananas ridiculous, even by Clyde standards. Its a sea foam 3-piece suit with a silver undershirt and he's got a blinged out chain hanging from his tie. Outlandish. And the first sentence out of his mouth included "Igodoula makes me wanna holla".

- Here's a goodie. Grandpa Clyde is talking about how the new scoreboard in the Garden looks like a 'space capsule'. #1 Knickslover Gus Johnson just dropped 'Thank God basketball season is finally here, I couldn't take it any longer. Thank God. This is really exciting." It takes real life journalist Al Trautwig to actual offer something of substance, telling us that Renaldo Balkman had his boot removed today and doctors cleared him to start practicing next week. God I love these men.

- Starting lineups being annonced. Apparently Q tweaked his ankle against Boston so Jared Jeffries is starting at the 3, giving the Knicks and absolutely monstrous starting 5. Jamal is a tall guard at 6'6" (5"?), and then it goes 6'11", a hefty 6'9", and another 6'11". By the way, can we make an effort to be a bit supportive of JJ this season? I think he's going to be important to this team and last season you can't really take at face value for him. New team, misses the first 20 games, come back, suspended another 5 (or something like that), then everyone goes down and his offensive deficiencies are really magnified.

- Clyde just introduced Andre Miller as Miller the Killer.

- Midway through 1st quarter. Nothing particularly interesting to report. Our boys look good. Z-Bo hits the class like a goddam drunk driver, which is great to see. Eddy Curry has also logged in an impressive 5 minutes, 3 fouls, 3 turnovers, 0 points, 0 assists, including 2 offensive fouls. Well done.

- The Sixers are really, really horrendous. It feels like they have 2 stars and a role player out with injuries, but I guess they just have this pathetic of a roster. Let's try to forget that they won 2 games more than us last year

- This is dragging on a bit, so I'l just throw in the highlights and whatever I can't keep to myself. Z-Bo is killing it. 10 points and 6 boards after the first quarter. His shot is looking really wet. One of the most surprising elements of this game is Isiah's body language. Really for all these preseason games, he has just looked really down and depleted. No laughing, no smiling, not joking around. I've never seen him like this before. He seems either sad or serious, maybe both. I like it though, he's supposed to be a GM, President and coach yet he always carries himself like he's at a goddam carnival, which the Knicks and the Garden pretty much are these days. Maybe Magic Johnson hasn't been powerbottoming with him enough recently.

-BREAKING NEWS!!! It's halftime and under questioning from Trautwig, Clyde reveals that he wears the same suit every 30 games, so we we'll be seeing it two more times this season. So everyone who missed tonights game, relax, you will get a second and third chance to see this thing in all its beauty.

- Ummm, so Nate Robinson is killing it really hard, again. Playing great defense, distributing, rebounding and I'm not sure if he's missed a shot yet. Our President of Homosexual Operations will be happy to hear this. Demetris Nichols just came in and immediately drilled a 3. Can we please cut J-Fat aka Burger King James and keep this kid? I guess that would make way too much sense for IT and Dolan to do. And who knew that (while I'm writing this Nichols get fouled taking a 3 and knocks down all his free throws, what a quick 6 points, and Tim they did just say that he is the all time Big East scoring leader, how is that possible? really?) Fred Jones had a jumper. I'm happy about him. He's had two masterblasters and his defense is looking crispy.

- Okay, the Knicks are absolutely running this team into the ground (Nichols for 3, and its good), Nate Robinson is still lighting it up, and I'm getting a bit bored. So my Knickslovers (wow, that was great, Gus is trying his absolute hardest to say Isiah should cut Jerome James and keep D-Knicks without actually saying it) you gotta believe to achieve, and I'm out. Fuck the Hate, Knicks in '08.

- One more thing, this new series of 'Experience Knicks' commercials with this bologna actors pretending to be lifelong Knicks fans and sharing their 'experience' needs to go, perhaps even more so than Fred Jones' goatee.