The Knicks Fix

"Steph's free throw is not what lost the game. There was 14 of them. We have to make free throws to win in this league. We can't look down at Steph. Those free-throws are the toughest to make at those points in the game." - Quentin Richardson

It's a wonder no one has yet promoted the idea that there is a conspiracy by the NBA to get the Knicks into the playoffs. Doesn't anyone find it suspicious that the Knicks get free throws with under one second left in regulation in two of their last four home games?

(Remember Channing Frye's game-winners with eight-tenths of a second to go against the Milwaukee Bucks on Jan. 28 and that marginal foul called against Andrew Bogut? Well, at least last night the foul Dick Bavetta called on Ray Allen was more legit.)

Hey, the officials gave the Knicks every opportunity to win last night's game against the Sonics. They sent them to the line 22 times in the fourth quarter -- 22 times! -- which is more than twice the amount of times the jump-shooting Sonics went to the line (10) in the entire game.

But while the refs -- be it by some crazy secret NBA order or not -- can get you free throws, they can't hit them for you. So the six misses the Knicks had out of those 22, including Stephon Marbury's final attempt with :00.9 left on the clock, were costly.

With or without the officials' help, the Knicks get to the line, there's no doubting that. It's one of their strengths and a reason why they'd be a dangerous team in the playoffs. They're tied with Sacramento for the third-most free throw attempts per game (29.9) in the NBA. But of the top 5 teams that get to the line the most, the Knicks have the lowest shooting percentage at 72.78 percent. And that's why they can be their own worst enemy as they try to just make the playoffs.

Though Q is right, you can't put the blame solely on Marbury, his miss stands out because it was the last one. But it was also his first miss of the night. He was 6 for 7 from the line in the game, with 4 of 5 coming in the fourth quarter. Malik Rose hit 5 of 6 from the line in the fourth. Steve Francis hit 5 of 7. Eddy Curry hit 2 of 4.

Curry, a notably subpar free-throw shooter, was only 5 of 10. He's made just 302 of 496 foul shots this season, for an alarming 60.9 percentage. We blogged this earlier in the season - just imagine what his scoring average would be if he was just an average free throw shooter, which is between 70-75 percent. But never mind that, consider how many more wins the Knicks might have had if he were a better free throw shooter. Perhaps two wins, maybe three? Might not sound like a lot, but think about where the Knicks would be in the playoff race with those 2-to-3 more victories.

Jared Jeffries is another story. Some guys just aren't good shooters and he falls in that category, despite all of his extra work on his form after practice. Jeffries missed all four of his free throws against Seattle. If he made just one, Marbury's miss wouldn't have meant as much. Jeffries has hit just 16 of 44 from the foul line for an almost comically-awful 36.4 percent clip. It's a wonder teams just don't automatically foul him when he touches the ball.

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Sometimes the most bizarre scenes unfold in the postgame locker room. I took a seat at David Lee's locker, which is next to Marbury's locker, to prepare to talk with Marbury, who always is the last Knick player to speak to the media. Marbury insists on showering and getting fully dressed, including fixing his tie in the mirror, before he takes questions. So what happens on a night like this, when clearly every member of the media wanted to talk to him, is you wind up with a crowd of grown men (and a few women) gathered around Marbury's locker.

Marbury then arrives wrapped in a towel, which drops as he turns his back and proceeds to get dressed in front of the mob (after all, it is his locker). I just sat in Lee's stall, scanning the crowd of people who formed a semicircle around this man as he methodically got dressed -- deodorant, lotion, underwear, long johns, socks, pants, shirt, shoes, tie, jacket -- and found it just an amusing scene.

One morning, as you step out of the shower, just imagine being greeted by about 20 strangers holding cameras and tape recorders. And as you towel off and get dressed, they're just standing there...waiting.

Weird, man. Just weird.