Killola

I friend of mine was gushing about the band Killola recently. To be honest I had never heard of them. Which doesn't mean anything because I usually don't jump on the first wave of hype, whether it be tv, film, a good book, the 2007 Patriots, or music. My skepticism grew deeper when she described them as sort of "new wave pop" and something about Lindsay Lohan being seen with their album?

So she let me listen to a couple of their songs that she had downloaded on her mp3. (I later found out that the only way to get their album(s) is through downloads and/or ordering from their website.)

The first song was "Get Around", (I found a clip on youtube- below). Surprisingly it was more rock than pop, sort of like if Debbie Harry was fronting for Fugazi. The other song she had was titled "I don't Know". This was different than the other. It had kind of a Blake Babies feel to it.

Whatever genre you want to label this group: pop, new wave, new wave pop, rock, pop rock, punk, soul, punk rock, soul punk, high rise, low cut, bell bottom, straight leg, loose fit, boot cut, (just insert whatever label pleases you)..........

....this band is good. I don't know if they are touring, but if they come to NYC, I'd definitely check them out.

"Nipplegate" is more like it, Vic!

It was a clamp. And it is around media's neck and around everyone else's nipples. I still have to say, thank you Ms. Jackson. Your boob did nothing more egregious than Looney Tunes did half a century ago.

Quality programming

I know, I know. As a Knicks fan, it hurts. New York’s season is going down faster than (insert off color joke). Their roster is depleted due to injuries, personal problems, and ego(s). Since their win against Denver, their play has been uninspired, sloppy, and unwatchable. They got blown out by Phoenix last night and it doesn’t get any better. Heck, they may not win another game this month.

So, instead of whining about what’s going on on the court, focus on the off court play. It’s amazing. Forget about what a joke this once model franchise has become and sit back and enjoy the show. Because what can you or I as a fan really do at this point?

Just look back at the past few months alone: the head coach costs the team a $11.6 million sexual harassment judgment, their point guard admits to having sex with an intern, calling Ancucha Browne Sanders a “black bitch”, says that he is going to play in Italy when his contract is up in two years…lets see, what else, oh yeah, supported Michael Vick , “from what I hear dog fighting is a sport”, and now he decides to bail out on his teammates…

Embrace the circus. The Daily News quoting a source close to the team had Marbury saying, “Isiah has to start me, …I've got so much (stuff) on Isiah and he knows it. He thinks he can (get) me. But I'll (get) him first. You have no idea what I know.”

This is great! You couldn’t come up with better stuff than this. New York has it’s very own reality TV show. Someone call Mark Burnett. But the real question is, What does Marbury know? Hmmmmmm. The Secret, maybe? What’s really happening on LOST? Or that this season is all an illusion and we’ll wake up to find Clyde dribbling down the court passing off to Bill Bradley, or maybe that’s Ewing pulling down a Stark’s miss. Until then, we’ll just have to sit back and watch.

Misplaced Childhood

I was born in NYC, but grew up in the heartland where as kids we were fed daily doses of Van Halen, ACDC, Zepplin, BOC, Black Sabbath, KISS, and of the course , the Southern Rock staples like Leonard Skynard and 38 Special. We were geeks I guess, but my friends and I loved RUSH. Moving Pictures was played constantly- Limelight, Red Barchetta, and the quintessential RUSH song, Tom Sawyer. Neil Peart was a god.

"We just fell apart..."

That was Curry's response to the Knicks 75-72 loss to the previously winless Miami Heat in the Garden last night.

He's right about falling apart, but that happened somewhere between their strong fourth quarter against Denver last Tuesday and just before tip off of the Magic game on Friday.

I heard someone say "...but if we had Randolph playing....", but that's just bs, every team in the league has to deal with injuries and other issues where their "go to" players are out. This time it was Zach attending to personal family matters with the death of his grandmother. I'm sure the Heat would loved to have had Dwayne "T-Mobile" Wade in their "five" (sorry), but they found a way to win.

David Lee took his spot in the starting lineup with 14 points and 14 boards, but that was about the lone bright spot. When is Crawford going to come out of his funk? and the turnovers again, 18 last night.

If they don't figure this thing out by the time they land in Phoenix, things could get really ugly against the Suns. They are coming off a fairly easy handling of the Magic in Orlando where their back court of Nash and Barbosa combined for 58 points, 12 rebounds, and 17 assists against only four turnovers.

I'm sure the Suns are salivating with the thought of playing New York right now. We all know that Phoenix loves to push the ball up the court, but they also play defense and protect the ball as well as scoring points. They are averaging 104 ppg, while holding their opponents to just under 100.

Will tomorrow night serve as yet another platform for a supporting opposing player to play like an All Star?(Jameer Nelson, Jason Williams...), Will the Knicks turn the ball over 20 times? Will Jamal's shooting woes continue?

Or will tomorrow night be the night where they pick up the pieces? Stay tuned....

PFFFffffffffffffffftttttt

That sound you heard was the air coming out of the Knicks balloon.

I've said it before, and I'll say it 'till they do something about it. PROTECT the ball. 20 Turnovers? They were able to mask their ever growing TO problem in the previous three games by at least playing some inspired defense when needed. But Friday night's game against the Magic was just bad. It probably would have been worse if Orlando ran more, they went into a half court game and that seemed to allow the Knicks to catch their breaths.

Jamal and Steph had a combined 11 turnovers, not very promising for your starting back court, Curry was kept off the boards, the Magic's Dwight Howard channeled his inner Moses Malone with 22 points and 20 boards, and Jameer Nelson drove to the basket at will scoring 24 and dishing out 10 assists. Zach had his fourth double double, which is great, but even he took some ill advised shots, and seems to let the refs get in his head when he doesn't get a call.

It's been said that Orlando and New York could be battling it out for the eight playoff spot come the end of the year. Well, the Magic look way better than just an eight seed at this point and after the promising start for the Knicks, this game served as a wake up and showed they do not have much room for error.

They host the Heat Sunday and better come away with a win because they have a loooooong week ahead. A four game road trip of Phoenix, LA Clippers, Sac kings, and a rematch with the Nuggets could have New York looking at six losses by this time next week.

Don't get caught up in Miami's 0-5 start. We can't afford to do that. They should not overlook any player. Heck, Jameer Nelson was averaging 10 points a game before Friday night's affair with New York, so let's not make someone like Jason Williams a highlight reel on ESPN come Sunday night.

Let's get some air back in that balloon. Playing some defense and Protecting the ball will be a good start Sunday.

Stop the TO Trend

No, I'm not talking about Terrell Owens. Although the Giants plan on doing that as they host Dallas this Sunday.

I'm talking TURNOVERS. Yeah, it's been nice to see the Knicks come out this season and play competitive basketball. A lot of positives for sure: The eight man rotation is working, Curry and Randolph adapting to each others game, Marbury looking more like a floor captain, Jamal hitting from EVERYWHERE on the court - when will he go for 50 again? and the bench infusion of Robinson, Lee, and Balkman into the line up is like a shot of RedBull to this team.

But a trend has started in this young season that they have to get a "handle" on. Turnovers. We had 11 in our season opener against the Cav's, not bad, it was the first game, then against the T-wolves at home we had 14, and on Tuesday night against Denver we had 18! It seemed like more, most of those must have come in the first half.

Alright enough said, keep your eyes open, hands up, and keep moving - what's up with these lane violations big fellas?

The Sunshine State enters the Garden this weekend. New York will host The Magic tonight and greet Miami on Sunday.

This should be another game that comes down to the closing minute. Orlando has a history of playing well at the Garden and this year they have won all of their road games, including last Wednesday's win in Toronto.

Our big men will get a test tonight that's for sure. Orlando's front line goes 6'11'', 6'10'', 6'10''. Center Dwight Howard is averaging 18pts and 13 boards a game, off season acquisition Rashard Lewis leads the team with 23pts/4 rebs, and Hedo Turkoglu goes for 20/7.

So get ready for a lot of banging underneath. The Knicks will have to stay out of foul trouble, defend the three( Hedo, Lewis, and Keith Bogans can all nail the trifecta) and PROTECT the ball.

Let's give these guys their first road loss of the season, Let's go Knicks!

New York Knicks Montage

Knaysayers need not apply

It'll be interesting to hear what the negative, downbeat attitude, whiners have to say about this one.

So beating the T-Wolves won't turn a lot of heads this year, but beating arguably one of the four best teams in the West should.

What a difference a year makes? Knicks, down by 15 points in the first half, and ten in the second half, didn’t collapse and beat the Denver Nuggets in a high scoring affair.

Not much defense as the half ended with New York trailing 66-60. The Knicks also seemed to have a ton of turnovers, have you noticed the increase in traveling violations throughout the league? But Marbury, in particular, seems to be picking up his game as he was driving, taking it to the rim, and making smart passes.

In the third quarter, the bench combo of Nate, Lee, and Balkman sparked a comeback to tie the score at 82 with around 4 minutes to play. This was highlighted with a Balkman block of Mello at one end, and taking a feed from Robinson at the other end for a crowd pleasing dunk. But the Knicks would score no more in the quarter as Denver went on a 10-0 run to go up 92-82 at the start of the fourth.

With a lineup of Steph, Jamal, Lee, Balkman, and Curry the Knicks came out strong in the final quarter and scored seven unanswered points in about 90 seconds. And as Clyde would say, the Knicks “Out hustled and Out Muscled” the Nuggets the rest of the way. Zach Randolph pulled down a missed free throw by Curry in the final seconds to help seal the win.

A.I. was almost unstoppable for Denver (32 points), does he ever get tired? Mello chipped in 24. Camby who picked up two fouls in the first, had 9 points and 13 rebounds.

Lots of good work all around for the Knicks: Zach (22pts- 17rebs), Curry (24-8), Lee (9-7), Steph (21pts-9 assists) Jamal (25pts- 5rebs- 8 assists), But Balkman provided such a spark to this team, he proved to be an energizer off the bench with 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

This was a great win for team that a year ago would have collapsed in the fourth and lost by 15. Hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come.

Knick Knotes from a "Random White Dude"

"Formidable", yes, I said it.

Formidable: for·mi·da·ble – causing fear, dread, apprehension

No, I'm not talking about the upcoming television season during the writers strike. I'm talking about the New York Knicks, in a good way. The team, and not the off season mess of the coaches and organization and who said what to whom and when.

There are some websites with people being upset over the "formidable" spot (see below)? Who cares? "oh no, Boston may get upset", Who Cares? It's sport. Let's get some talk going, at least it will be about basketball and not the bs that took up the sport columns over the summer. This is in no disrespect to the Celtics, because as we all know, they have already been crowned the Eastern Champs before stepping on the court. But lets at least try to make the season interesting.

I know it's waaaaaay too early for this, but lets take a look at the numbers so far this year:
Boston: Garnett (22pts/game-16 rebs), Pierce (20-5), Perkins (5-5), and throw in Ray Allen's (25pts- 4 assists) and what about New York?:
Knicks: Zach (18pts/game- 12 rebs), Curry (16-7), Lee (10.5-7.5) and Jamal (24.5- 6.5assists)

So, If the Celts are the barometer for the East, I think the Knicks are starting off in the right direction.

They may have lost their first game of the season to the Eastern Conference champs- Cleveland (106-110) last week, BUT they played well for the most part. People will look to the missed free throws (9), but Cleveland missed just as many. The real problem came down to three things:

1. We didn’t defend the three. How many bombs does Gibson have to make before anybody covers him? Going into that zone at the end of the game didn't help either.

2. Gave them too many second chance shots at the end of the game.

3. Lebron James. What can you do? Dallas gave them a beat down in the Cav's home opener and held LJ to 10 points. You knew he would respond, and he did- 45points, ouch.

But getting a look at Zach (21-14) and Curry (18-7) playing together gave a reason to smile. Plus Jamal Crawford tossing in 25 points and 6 assists and Nate contributing 19 points of the bench made the loss a little more bearable.

I went to the home opener against the Garnett-less Minnesota T-wolves. Everybody got a sweet orange Knicks cap from Footlocker and the place was rocking. I was wondering what the turnout would be with all of the bad press and "NFL the game of the year" playing at the same time. There were some empty seats that's for sure but if the Knicks keep playing competitive basketball, they will come back. The game? Knicks baby! They won their first home opener in six years 97-93. Al Jefferson, the third year player who was the centerpiece of the Garnett trade on the t-wolves receiving end had 16 points and 12 boards. For the Knicks, Zach backed up his second game with (15-10), Curry had a respectable (14-7) and Jamal rained 24 points and dished out 7, Starbury came to the party throwing in 17 points and 7 assists.

DENVER Tonight! How is this for a homecoming? Welcome back Camby, Carmello, and the scene of last years brawl.

The Nuggets lost on Sunday at home to New Orleans, and shot poorly, look for them to want to come running out of the gate. Carmello and A.I. have started right where they left off last year scoring 28-ppg 24-ppg respectfully. Get ready to "D" up Q! and fellas, you gotta keep Camby off the glass! he's averaging 19 boards.

This one should be fun.

Knicks "Formidable"