BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Last night in a close 101-97 loss at home to the Detroit Pistons, Isiah Thomas finally leaned in favor of playing the Knicks' younger players instead of their under performing veterans. As Frank Isola of the NY Daily News points out, "For only the second time this season and the first since Nov. 13, Thomas played rookie Wilson Chandler as well as second-year players Renaldo Balkman, Mardy Collins and Randolph Morris in the same game." Quentin Richardson (finally) received a DNP-coaches decision. In his place, Wilson Chandler got the start and played 25 MIN with 4 PTS, 4 REB, 2 AST, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 4 fouls. Trying to shake-off the rust after barely playing lately, Balkman had 0 PTS, 4 REB, 3 TO, 3 fouls in 11 min. In 9 MIN, Morris collected 1 REB and 1 TO. Collins saw just 3 MIN of court time and had 2 PTS, 1 STL, 1 TO. Between the 4 kids, that's a combined 50 MIN and just 6 PTS, 9 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, and 5 TO. At least they played. Now they need to keep playing, learning from their experiences, and getting better.

The Knicks had a 7 point lead early, but Detroit flexed to take a 13 point lead with a 12-0 run. NY then followed with their own 12-0 run, and would go into half time tied at 53. Crawford left the game with a bruised hand in the 3rd quarter, but came back at the start of the 4th. Nate was great down the stretch, except for the time the Knicks were down 73-71 and he made a leaping steal of the inbounds pass, then just chucked up a contested brick from downtown. Detroit got the rebound, came down the court, and scored. Checkmate. Ultimately, this team can't make good decisions under pressure. They can't even win at home with Detroit missing Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton getting ejected, and Chauncey Billups being a ghost until the last minute. However, they continued to show some skill last night (Malik Rose even hit a 3!) but they're a team of role payers with a clueless head coach, and it shows.

I take nothing anyway from the Detroit Pistons, for them to win a game on the road with last night's circumstances shows exactly why they're a championship caliber team, and exactly why the Knicks are not.