There have been many times this NBA season when we have felt like the only people watching the Knicks, the only people choosing little fan favorites, the only people noticing the specks of dough in coach Mike D’Antoni’s mustache. (We think it’s something European, maybe the old-world traditional Czechoslovakian treat called potica.) But after four straight wins and with six winnable games coming up, the magic is starting to spread. The NBA press is catching Knicks flu.
The news peg has been the Knicks’ decision not to sign Allen Iverson — the team is 6–6 since then — but the real story is that D’Antoni finally has his rotation: Chris Duhon, Larry Hughes, Al Harrington, Jared Jeffries, Wilson Chandler, David Lee, and Danilo Gallinari (who looks fantastic lately, decidedly less limpy). The Knicks even have ESPN’s Über-stat-genius John Hollinger all excited (registration required):
at Charlotte
at Chicago
LA Clippers
Charlotte
Chicago
Miami (on Christmas Day)
Imagine what this team could do if it had a point guard even slightly better than Duhon. (It might be why they’re eying the Bobcats’ D.J. Augustin, who has fallen out of favor with our old pal Larry Brown.) But forget the pessimistic CoolStandings.com projection of a 34.1 percent chance at the playoffs; Hollinger has the Knicks at 56.9 percent. Color us intrigued.
We’ll know very soon. The Knicks’ next six games:
at Charlotte
at Chicago
LA Clippers
Charlotte
Chicago
Miami (on Christmas Day)
They could win at least four of those games, right? Catch the fever people … catch the fever.