To Repeat: Slumping Knicks Are in Need of a Victory
"Forward Kurt Thomas was asked after a tough practice Thursday to pinpoint one or two reasons the Knicks do not win much anymore.
''It's more than just one or two things,'' Thomas said.
So how many reasons are there?
''I can't count that high,'' he said.
That drew a big laugh from the reporters and photographers surrounding Thomas, who smiled. Welcome to the gallows humor segment of the season, in which the Knicks feel they could end their slump with a victory, if only they were good enough to get one.
The Knicks (17-21), who have lost eight of their last nine games, play their next four at home, including Friday's game against the Houston Rockets, who are led by the former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy. But none of the Knicks' next four opponents are in a tailspin, as they are.
Although Coach Lenny Wilkens said Thursday that he had not run out of possible solutions, a glaze seems to have settled over the Knicks. Point guard Stephon Marbury even lost track Thursday of who was on the roster.
Marbury was asked about the recent signing of Rod Strickland, who is, like Marbury, a New York native and is a point guard whom Marbury has admired since he was growing up in Brooklyn.
''On our team?'' Marbury said.
No, Marbury was told. Strickland signed Thursday with the Rockets.
''I didn't hear about that,'' he said.
The Knicks have been reported to be looking into a deal that would send Thomas and the injured guard Penny Hardaway to the Toronto Raptors for forward Donyell Marshall and guard Jalen Rose, who scored 24 points against the Knicks in a 98-81 victory Wednesday.
No one changed teams Thursday. The Knicks, though, seemed to agree that the current roster was capable of winning if many of the players had not been injured. The Knicks have been unable to establish an identity.
''Everybody's worried about identity,'' Wilkens said. ''We're worried about winning.''
Wilkens's message seems to have stayed the same: we are close. Toronto outscored the Knicks in the fourth quarter, 38-20, but Wilkens looked at the film and counted only two defensive breakdowns in the quarter.
''The other times, we rotated and had a hand up,'' Wilkens said. ''They made some tough shots.''
As the Knicks fell apart in the fourth quarter, Wilkens tried several lineup combinations as a way, he said, to get something going.
''It was one of those times that it didn't work,'' he said Thursday.
Wilkens tried to stress to his team that the fourth quarter was not as bad as it might have seemed.
Marbury said the Knicks played good defense but could not score enough to outlast the Raptors. Rose simply had a great game.
''When a guy gets going like that, he's tough to stop,'' Knicks guard Jamal Crawford said.
Thomas said: ''We were right there. We couldn't get the stop we needed.''
Thomas, a nine-year veteran, said it was difficult for a team with so many new faces to jell in half a season. Then came the injuries.
On Wednesday, for the first time since Dec. 22, the Knicks used the starting five they had used in their first 26 games.
''We either struggle offensively, or we struggle defensively,'' Thomas said.
Crawford has made only 7 of 28 field-goal attempts since he returned Monday from a sprained right toe, but he said he was concentrating more on what he needed to do to help the team win just one game.
''We know that once we win one game, we can get it rolling,'' he said.
The Knicks also thought they could get it rolling after they beat Portland, 113-105, on Jan. 9 to end a four-game losing streak and even their record at 17-17. But they have lost four games since, and a rugged five-game trip awaits after these four home games.
''It does have to stop, period,'' Marbury said of the losing. ''We can't allow ourselves to fall into the pattern of losing.''
The Knicks already seem to be in that pattern. That may be why Wilkens is so eager to see Crawford and Tim Thomas, who has also been injured, up to speed.
''If you focus together, you can turn it around quicker,'' Wilkens said, and he seemed to be referring to the players already on the roster.
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