The Knicks beat the Bulls last night, but any game stories were soon eclipsed by this article from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!, via TKB. A snippet:

In the lowest of the losing, Mike D’Antoni delivered history lessons to the New York Knicks. Only the Knicks coach wasn’t pitching the past of Madison Square Garden, Red Holzman and Clyde Frazier and Willis Reed, but a self-proclaimed genius born of the desert sun. Before his players, sources say, D’Antoni had started down the don’t-you-know-who-I-am route and recited his résumé of 60-victory seasons and scoring records and revolutionary basketball.

He let it be known, too, that the non-believers among them should feel free to march into Donnie Walsh’s office and demand his dismissal. More than one Knick privately laughed that they didn’t know there was an "I" in coach.

D’Antoni can call the bluff of his boss today, but he’d better be careful tomorrow. The Knicks are a mess, and league friends of D’Antoni believe he has deep regret for passing on Chicago for New York. He let his ego and agent push him out of Phoenix, and let his desire for money over winning pass on Chicago. Make no mistake, though: That was two months ago and this is now. New York has a Garden winning streak of six games, and New York isn’t on his case for the holidays.

Wojnarowski is one of the best in the game, but my problem with his piece lies right in that last paragraph: "That was two months ago and this is now." There you go! Then why write the article now? I have no doubt that in the throes of losing, D'Antoni chewed out his players and made things personal. Nobody looks pretty at 1-8, or whatever the Knicks were in that moment. That said, the Knicks are in the midst of an 8-3 December and D'Antoni has them competing for a playoff spot. New York's doing things right, if just momentarily, for the first time in a while. Can't we be spared the forced D'Antoni-Del Negro parallels and the stale locker room horror stories for the time being?

Click through for the rest of the article and let me know what you think. There are plenty of jabs in there about the draft and then 2010, and it just doesn't seem fair. Not now. In an article that was ostensibly about the Bulls, this felt like an untimely avalanche to dump on D'Antoni and the Knicks.

Update: More reading: Leitch's take.

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We've seen plenty of Jekyll and Hyde games from the Knicks this season. They've been known to race ahead in the first half only to lose their grasp in the second or, more commonly, follow a tepid first half with a spirited late-game comeback. Rarely, though, have the Knicks held on/come back to actually win one of those tales of two halves. In that sense, I guess the Knicks showed some signs of progress tonight. It sure didn't feel that way at some points, but New York came out on top, and that's what matters.

It started with a bang. Chicago was 24 hours removed from that epic comeback loss against Sacramento, and looked in no mood to play basketball. The Knicks, meanwhile, were passing and finishing like champs and cleaning the glass on both ends. They went into the half up 22, needing only a modest effort to sail to their third straight win. They couldn't manage modest, though. After almost two quarters of sub-modest basketball, it took a couple long-distance makes from Jared Jeffries (!), some late-game gaffes by Chicago, and one huge rim-rolling jumper from David Lee.

Take the jump for a few notes and thangs...

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Top of the morning, buddies. I'm fresh off a visit to the Garden that was all kinds of exciting, and included a stretch of basketball so incompetent and precarious that I left shaking like a leaf. 8 Knicks got minutes, and each of them played an important role in an atypically even, close win over the Bobcats. After a miserable offensive first quarter for both squads, the game turned into a bit of a shootout, with the Knicks canning threes and the Cats attacking the rim pretty much at will. In the fourth, the Knicks' three-point shooting bought them a modest lead that would all but disappear in the last minute.

Some game and Garden notes, after the jump...

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The Knicks did damn near everything they could to lose this one down the stretch, but Danilo Gallinari made up for a couple missed free throws with a tremendous cock block on Acie Law as time expired. I was at the Garden and have plenty of share. It'll wait until tomorrow, though. I'm going to bed.

By the way, I'm in that picture.

Look for me in the crowd putting hexes on demon-coach and waving to Jonathan Bender. I may or may not be wearing a cape.

Go Knicks!

Nate Robinson's stay in the doghouse has been a troublesome issue for a few weeks now. The Knicks' 5-3 record in his absence is worth something, but some of us have questioned Mike D'Antoni's intentions during stretches when Nate's presence was clearly missed. The benching has some wondering if D'Antoni might have some personal beef with Robinson, and if the benching will ever be lifted. One of those people is Nate's agent, Aaron Goodwin. From Howard Beck of the New York Times:

"I want to do what I can to get Nate out of New York," Goodwin said in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. "There’s no reason to allow this kid’s career to get rotted by what’s going on here in New York."

If you click through and read the rest of Goodwin's words, I think you'll find that he's being pretty reasonable. Robinson is in a crucial contract year, and if he's willing and able, it's best for the Knicks to either make use of his services or facilitate his departure. Donnie Walsh, for his part, seems to get it:

"I understand the situation that Nate is in the last year and he has to play," Walsh said in a telephone interview, "so if that’s the option that he wants to pursue, I told him I’ll talk about it."

Walsh said he wanted to see "if this can be straightened out" before deciding whether to pursue a trade. But it appears that D’Antoni has no intention of playing Robinson again. He left him on the bench Thursday and Friday, despite the absence of Larry Hughes, who was resting a strained groin muscle.

I'm a Robinson fan and would love to see D'Antoni give him another shot after this extended absence. So does my mom, who just read the news somewhere, then scurried upstairs and yelled "but he's my favorite!". If the various parties can't align themselves, though, Nate Robinson should be dealt. Then again, Goodwin's making these feelings so public doesn't exactly help the Knicks' chances of trading Robinson at a fair price. Oh well. Any takers?

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First, I should recap last night's game. It was rather the opposite of Thursday's loss, with the Knicks going cold and falling behind early, then storming back in the third to draw even and eventually win. David Lee led the way with masterful finishes and boards (25 and 11), while Chris Duhon set the table effectively, looked for his own shot late, and even did some rebounding of his own (17 points, 10 assists, and 8 boards!). Danilo Gallinari continued to undercook his shot attempts, but was more aggressive later on, and finished with 14 points to go with 6 nice rebounds and 3 steals. The Knicks won. It was neat.

Most of all, though, I found myself captivated by Jonathan Bender's unexpected return to basketball. Disgusted with a double-digit deficit, Mike D'Antoni spat Bender out onto the court with about minutes left in the first quarter. It didn't take long for my little heart to flutter.

I should rewind. As I've mentioned, I have little love for comebacks. Injuries are second only to this fellow on the list of things I despise about basketball, and a player with any visible signs of hindrance or hesitance is tainted in my sick little brain. (I have very small organs.) It could be residual uneasiness from the Allan Houston and Patrick Ewing injuries that haunted my childhood, or I might just be evil. Anyway, all that being the case, my immediate response to the Bender signing was somewhere around the intersection of indifference and displeasure. Why bother with a crumbly-kneed veteran when a stable of young, unsigned talents is close at hand?

This was my mindset going in, but I was hyperventilating in no time. I failed to appreciate this during his stint with the Pacers, but Jonathan Bender is a spectacular creature. He's every bit of 7-feet, with limbs that branch in all directions and the gait of a caffeinated praying mantis. His head is small and bony, with elfin ears and a face far too crotchety for a 28 year-old. In my eyes, that's the basketball equivalent of 36-24-36. The minute he stepped on the floor, Bender had my attention.

Experience told me to expect the typical constellation of jitters, rust, and pussyfooting on those fickle bones. Houston, Ewing, Antonio McDyess, Penny Hardaway...they all taught me well. Jonathan cared not for my expectations. The guy is rough. Bender put two playoff fouls on Clipper guards, one of which was a called a flagrant. He also rejected a Baron Davis layup attempt with more gusto than all Knick big men in the last ten years have managed combined. Bender's offense did not lag behind. His very first touch was a loping lefty drive with an offhand finish at the rim. He also canned an open three from the corner, threw an assist, and went 4-4 from the foul line. Bender's appearance was an exciting, productive 14 minutes, and he may very well have inspired a Knick win with his unforeseen excellence.

And that, friends, is how my tendency to overreact to small sample sizes from exotic players trumped my distaste for the comeback story. Jonathan Bender is a monster. He is part Anthony Randolph, part Ent. It's very, very early, but my first impression of this second chance is a good one. Yes, I'm that easy.

I wouldn't expect everyone to be as easily impressed as I am, but a smattering of "DWJBD"s in the comments tells me I'm not alone. Share your first-glance thoughts in the comments.

After the jump, Big C's video of the performance.

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Well, that was some unforeseen grit. Jonathan Bender is the light of my life.

Recap will likely be up tomorrow.