Knicks Win First Opener Since 2001

Isiah Thomas did hear a few boos during introductions but they seemed to be quickly drowned out by cheers. I was happy to hear this as I felt like the likes of Lupica and Lawrence were just dying for something delicious to write about tomorrow that would allow them to write another angry article about Thomas. The last two days you could feel some members of the media building this up almost encouraging fans to boo Isiah. Once the game started though, it still felt like another showing from last season as the Knicks dug themselves an early 10 point hole. And once again, the second unit came in and immediately wiped that out. The Knicks outscored Minnesota 37-20 while the trio of Robinson, Lee, and Balkman were in the game in the first half.

I was very happy with the point distribution as 6 Knicks scored in double figures. I noticed that the starting 5 did good enough down the stretch to close this game out, but it's hard to ignore what the second unit done in the first half. On a negative note, I still feel like this team could have defended better. They allowed the Wolves to shoot 53% from the 3-point line. I wanted to post a pic of Crawford as he was solid in the 4th quarter but I found this pic on Yahoo that just seems to demonstrate how bad the Knicks defense was sometimes. I am still not sure where all the Wolves players are in this pic and notice all the Knicks players seem to be guarding the rim and not the driving player. But I will take a win anyway I can get it. I look forward to Tuesday and the Denver game. We will face a much more explosive team and it will be very interesting to see how we fare against a tough Western Conference team.