Wow. I wish I was there. Jamal Crawford served up a bountiful helping of ridiculous this evening, leading the shorthanded Knicks to a blowout revenge victory over the Miami Heat. Crawford dropped a full deck on Miami, scoring a career-high 52 on ridiculous shooting. It was magical. I saw most of the game, but had to revisit Knicks in 60 to catch all of Jamal's unbelievable game. Some belated and very brief game notes:
- Stats on Crawford's big night: 52 points on 20-30 shooting, including 8-10 from three point range. This includes a stretch in the middle quarters in which he hit 16 straight field goals. 16 straight field goals. Many of those were ridiculous threes off crossovers, and one was a four-point play in the final seconds of the first half. Jamal got defensive looks from Wade, Posey, Wright, and others, but no one could stop him. It was just about the most ridiculous offensive performance I've seen at the Garden. Again, I wish I could've been there.
- Funny that Crawford goes for 52 on mostly fadeaway jump shots, only a few days after I bitch about his reluctance to go into the paint. Touche, Jamal.
- The Knicks blew the thing open with a 15-2 run at the end of the first half.
- Crawford has 75 points in his last 5 quarters of basketball. And he hardly played in the fourth tonight.
- On a fast break, Marbury cut into the middle of the lane, and shuffled the ball behind him with one hand to a streaking Balkman. Humpty took off from like, just inside the free throw line, and threw down a thundering one-handed slam that nearly tore down the rim. Me: "HOLY ASS BALLS!"
- I bet most people missed this, but Malik Rose unsuccesfully attempted the infamous "Clap" defense on an Earl Barron shot in garbage time. For those of you not wise in the ways of the clap, this involves loudly slapping one's hands together just as a shooter releases. It is a deadly defensive mechanism, but failed in this case. Bold move, though, by Malik.
- Crawford obviously took the cake (not literally, although that does happen in this league), but there were other fine performances in this game. Wade had 37, mostly from the line. Marbury was clearly in pain, but had 9 points and 13 assists. Channing Frye shot the ball well (7-11) to drop 16 and 6. David Lee recorded another double-double (yawn) with 11 and 12.
-I picture Dwyane Wade, James Posey, and Dorell Wright sitting at Jamal's house right now. They're at a well-lit table in an otherwise dark and smoky room. Jamal emerges with a heaping plate of food, and says "Would you like some pancakes, bitches?"
Anyway, I can't say I saw it coming but...wow. Sorry for the short and late post, but I'm kinda blown away by that whole game. The Knicks play Milwaukee on Sunday. Back tomorrow. Peace.
6 comments:
I've always been on the fence with Jamal, being that he takes low-percentage shots a lot..But still, he does things like this and makes other clutch shots from time to time, making it impossible to fully hate!
Does a blowout feel good or what! Go Knicks!
Anyone find it strange that on ESPN.com's NBA page the headline picture is Dwyane Wade and the caption says "D-Wade's 37 wasn't enough to stop the Knicks".
I love Dwyane and all, but the guy gets wayyyyy to much hype and the fact that a guy on the opposite team scored 52 just makes it more pathetic that he's headlining. Gross.
Excellent point. I didn't even realize Wade had a big scoring game until I saw the box score.
What's even more upseting is that the Knicks aren't even on a nationally televised game THE ENTIRE SEASON! I mean even the damn Bobcats got a game one night? That's the crazy thing right there. I guess a lot of the NBA brass thought that the Knicks would be disgusting to watch this year, but I'd argue that they've been one of the more entertaining teams to watch this year.....
Not even a single one? That is a little weird. They usually throw in Knicks-Cavs or Knicks-Pacers game somewhere to get the New York viewers. They do always lose on national tv though, so as a superstitious fan, I appreciate it.
The Knicks get no help from anyone. It's really sickening, even on their amazing nights all I hear are "oh the knicks are terrible, blah blah blah." It was really bad around the fight when people who never even took the need to educate themselves about the Knicks season started making distorted views of them. The media sucks.
It won't be back to the old days until they get over .500.
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