Saturday, April 23, 2011

Backing Down

As if the Knicks' collective performance against the Celtics Friday night wasn't bad enough: now Amar'e Stoudemire doesn't know if he'll suit up for Game 4. Tell you what, Amar'e... don't bother.

The Knicks are paying Stoudemire nearly $100 million on a five-year contract. At this point, no one knows the severity of the injury to his back, or whether playing on it tomorrow afternoon will cause any long-term damage. But you know what? I'd rather not find out.

This series was lost last night. After two hard-fought, nail-biting, back-and-forth affairs with the Celtics that made Knicks fans believe that they were one good shot or one big stop away from victory, the Knicks turned in the kind of turkey that brought back memories of the teams that hadn't been to the playoffs in seven years. A 17-point first quarter hole. A 19-6 Celtics run in the 3rd. Extensive gar-bage time for most of the 2nd half.

No NBA team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Even with a win tomorrow, the Knicks would be forced to hobble back to Boston to face an unruly TD Garden crowd for Game 5. Better to get it over with now, and save the possible wear-and-tear on Stoudemire.

Better luck next year.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Whither Rachel Phelps?

I know it's not nice to make fun of others less fortunate. And if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. But has anyone seen the Mets lately? Seriously.

It's not just that they're a bad baseball team. They are. It's the way they're losing. In bunches. Under awful circumstances. The near-comic events surrounding not only their play on the field but the off-field circus is reminiscent of another sad-sack team: those Cleveland Indians.

It's gotten so bad, in fact, that Mets' manager Terry Collins is starting to sound an awful lot like Lou Brown:

"I can tell you, we’re going to break out, and when we do we’re going to win a lot of baseball games."


Whatever you say, Terry. Maybe he even believes it. But maybe the Mets just need a naked cardboard cut-out of Bernie Madoff in the locker room.