The Knicks Fix

Many times you hear people in the NBA say that you look at the Knicks roster and wonder how they can be so bad. Look at the Miami Heat roster and you can say the same thing. Normally a Saturday night game between these two old rivals down in Miami would be a hot ticket.

But these days they are the two worst teams in the East, if not the entire NBA (save for the Minnesota Timberwolves).

Quite frankly there are much better things to be doing in South Beach, Coconut Grove and Boca Raton, when it's 80 degrees in January. There's got to be better things to do on a Saturday night in New York, no matter what the temperature.

In the tale of these two downtrodden franchises, you have to admit the Heat have a little more rope here. They have two legit stars in D-Wade and Shaq and they are less than two years removed from a championship. The Knicks have been bad for a long time.

Coincidentally, both teams have one man in the dual role as president and coach.

Fixers I must apologize for the lack of a Pregame post, as promised, last night. Apparently Windows Vista has issues with the wireless service at the Verizon Center. The Wizards people tried throughout the game to get me online, but we couldn't make it happen. I filed my stories for the paper via the computer of a public relations staffer. The pregame post will return for Monday's MLK matinee against the Celtics.

By the way, Anthony Rieber will be your host tonight in Miami.

As you could tell by the tone of some of the stories in today's newspapers, a few of us among the beat writers were stunned by Isiah Thomas' timid response to the loss. I thought this was a game the Knicks should have won and most certainly could have won. They were right there, down only four early in the fourth quarter. But the Knick perimeter defense -- still the greatest weakness of this team -- was awful. Yes, the Wizards shot the ball extremely well (56.8 percent from the floor), but that was aided by the fact that the Knicks either were late or passive on the shooters.

The killer was, at 96-90, Roger Mason drained a wide-open three from the top with 7:57 left. Mason was left open because Nate Robinson dropped off him to "show" a soft double-down on rookie Nick Young, who had the ball on a post-up against Fred Jones.

Let's be honest, Jones certainly can handle Young one-on-one. Robinson should not leave a shooter like Mason, whom the Knicks know can hit the three with consistency. But this is what the Knicks do - constant double-downs - and when I asked some players about it after the game, I was told this is what Isiah Thomas demands.

Why not stay home on shooters and make someone beat you one-on-one? Force your players to defend. Quentin Richardson partially agreed with me, but then reminded me that this is the NBA and you can't just let someone work one-on-one against you all game long. "Guys are good," he said.

True, but guys are a lot better when they don't have a hand in their face.

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Caron Butler is that good kind of nasty. He's not afraid to engage his opponent (he mimicked Q's fists-to-the-forehead routine after hitting a three and during the home-and-home sweep of the Celtics had some verbal warfare with Paul Pierce) and he's become not just a tough offensive player but a determined defender, as well. He and Antawn Jamison are a formidable 1-2 punch in the frontcourt.

The debate in Washington is if the Wiz might be better off without Gilbert Arenas, who takes a lot of shots and dominates the ball.

Mr. Grunfeld, there's a Mr. Grunwald for you on Line 1 . . .

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Being that I was in our nation's capitol -- and not that I want to get into politics on this blog and quite frankly I have yet to decide who gets my vote for president -- but did anyone read the S.L. Price story in Sports Illustrated
about a one-on-one he had with Democratic candidate Barack Obama?

It's a good read with a few funny lines that show off a little personality from Obama, who fancies himself as a baller. The best line came when Price suggests he may resort to a little Hack-a-Barack and Obama quips, "You can get shot for doing that."

Obama has received a few sports celebrity endorsements, including the Knicks' very own Stephon Marbury, who made a max donation to the Obama campaign last June. But Magic Johnson is a Hillary Clinton supporter and said Obama was "a rookie."

Obama's reply was to point out that as a rookie, Magic won the NBA title and was named MVP of the Finals.