George Karl is a Big Fat Idiot

Eh, I don't really believe that. Ol' George seems to be a good guy. He's done a lot of charity work. He has little use for Isiah Thomas, which obviously earns him points in my book.

I'm just hoping Furious George's lawyer will get into a snit and send me tons of free traffic.

Y'know, the way he did when he sent threatening e-mails to the guy behind FireGeorgeKarl.com.

For giggles -- or for yet another example of how you don't need common sense or media savvy to earn a law degree, check out the original e-mail from Bret Adams to Andrew Feinstein. Then check out some of the feedback and analysis from the legal community, posted on True Hoop.

Missed it by that much...

OK... so my assessment of Knicks/Nuggets couldn't have been much farther off. That's all right. I'll take the win and live with the embarrassment of having my shortcomings displayed all over teh interwebz.

Mea culpas aside... how did the Knicks beat the Nuggets?

1. Renaldo Balkman is improving with every game. In the season opener, after missing most of the preseason with an ankle injury, Balkman racked up three fouls (all on LeBron James) in about two minutes and was promptly yanked. Against the Nuggets on Tuesday night, Balkman played nearly 28 minutes, scored 11 points and blocked three shots. More importantly, his hounding defense on Carmelo Anthony and Linas Kleiza really keyed the fourth-quarter comeback.
2. Zach Randolph (22 points, 17 boards) is a beast.
3. Randolph seems to be rubbing off on Eddy Curry (24 points, eight boards -- five boards and one block in the fourth quarter alone)
4. Denver played with a very short rotation. The back court is running on empty, with Chucky Atkins, Anthony Carter and Mike Wilks all sidelined. Kenyon Martin was held out of Tuesday's game so he'd be available for Wednesday's against the Celtics -- he isn't playing back-to-backs as a precaution after all his knee problems. Denver coach George Karl used only eight players, and one of those -- Yakhouba Diawara -- only played nine minutes. (The Knicks also played an eight-man rotation, with Balkman, David Lee and Nate Robinson as the only subs used, and Robinson used sparingly. But the Knicks as a team are far healthier than Denver.)
   
5. By the middle of the fourth quarter, it seemed, the Nuggets were really exhausted. Maybe the short rotation was a factor. Maybe it was exhaustion from trying to deal with the big bodies of Randolph and Curry. Either way, as a team they really seemed a step slower than New York when the game was being decided -- as evidenced by Randolph's key board of a missed free throw, and a couple of very soft fouls by Marcus Camby.
   

You Think THAT's Running Up the Score?

Tonight the Denver Nuggets return to Madison Square Garden for the first time since last December's MSG Melee -- and conditions are ripe for an example of running up the score that would make Bill Belichick blush.

Well, maybe not Bill Belichick.

Let's review the factors leading up to the original fight:

• George Karl doesn't like Isiah Thomas -- partially because of the way Isiah treated Karl's buddy and fellow Carolina alum Larry Brown.
• Karl's Nuggets were up 19 on the Knicks with about two minutes left in the game, and had four of his five starters on the floor.
• Thomas issued a not-terribly-veiled threat to Carmelo Anthony
• Anthony takes a flagrant foul on a dunk attempt
• Chaos ensues

Which brings us to tonight...

Denver enters the game sporting two of the best perimeter scorers in the NBA in Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony. New York, on the other hand, has a roster full of guards and wing players that are either incapable of or indifferent towards defense in general. The Vegas line for tonight's game is 212 points. The Nuggets might score that by themselves. 'Melo and AI might score 40 each. Meanwhile, Isiah Thomas' approval rating in New York is hovering somewhere in "Vice President Cheney after he shot that guy" territory.

For added fun, J.R. Smith -- noted troublemaker and participant in the original brawl -- is eligible to return from suspension this evening.

You know Furious George wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make Zeke look bad, right?

You know Zeke won't back down from that sort of challenge, right?

Don't be too terribly surprised if, at some point in the second half tonight, when the Knicks are down by 30 or so, Thomas sends out a lineup of Mardy Collins, Malik Rose, Jerome James, Nate Robinson, and Sean Avery, on loan from the Rangers.

Knicks vs. Nuggets: Lightweight Title Bout

Note to 'Melo... you'd seem much tougher if you didn't sprint the length of the court backwards after landing a sucker-punch on a guy being held back by his coach.

There's nothing that unravels an NBA players' carefully-cultivated tough-guy image faster than his performance in an actual fight, huh? I mean, Carmelo Anthony tries so hard to look "street," obscuring his baby-face with the corn-rows and tattoos and such... but when the time comes for him to actually throw hands, he acts like a kid playing "ring and run" at the neighborhood cat-lady's doorbell.

Today's NBA. Gotta love it.

As for the fight itself... I don't doubt the reports that Isiah Thomas "ordered the hit" on J. R. Smith. At the very least, I'm sure Isiah declared that the Charles Oakley Memorial 'No Layup Rule' would be in effect. It's nice to see Knick history honored by the new regime at least.

And why did George Karl have four of five starters still playing with his team up 19 and one minute left? That's really not hard to figure... Karl is a caporegime in Dean Smith's Carolina mafia. He's already spoken out about how shabbily he thinks the Knicks treated consigliere Larry Brown. Think he had Anthony and Marcus Camby and J. R. Smith in the game specifically to make the Knicks look bad?

I do.

On the plus side, it seems like Isiah has finally found a way to keep Garden crowds from leaving before the final buzzer.