Knicks Fall Short

Playing competitive wasn't enough for the New York Knicks to defeat the San Antonio Spurs yesterday. Falling to the Spurs 97-93, gives the Knicks a 8-23 record. This team remains fifth in the Atlantic divsion, and they're fourteenth in the Eastern Conference.

The Knicks lost six consecutive games, and are 1-12 on the road. They've won 2 out of 10 games, and they're 20 games back of the lead in their division.

"We competed from the start. We played hard," said Crawford. "We had several chances down the stretch. That's all you can ask -- a chance to win."Crawford sprained his left shoulder in the third quarter. He finished with 24 points, lead with 6 assist, and 5 turnovers.

Knicks head coach Isiah Thomas said, they'll need to play harder and smarter. He continued saying, the Knicks give a good effort, but not enough.

"We have to play harder and smarter, particularly to beat the world champs in their building," Thomas said. "You need to play with great intelligence. I thought we played with great effort but our intelligence needs to catch up with our effort."

Earlier in the week, Thomas said he believes the Knicks are cable of winning a championship. He isn't leaving until the job is finished, but believes he won't be taken seriously. "I know people will laugh even more at me, but I'm hell bent on getting this accomplished and making sure that we get it done," said Thomas. "And I'm not leaving until we get it done."

According to Thomas, the Knicks don't play together and that's their weakness. The Knicks just stand around, and give zero effort sometimes, but says the Knicks have great individual talent.

"There's a refusal to come together and play collectively," Thomas said. "We do it in spurts, but then we sit back and we watch. Just somehow got to push through this and get them playing together as a group, because individually they do have talent."

Eddy Curry lead the Knicks with 25 points, and 12 rebounds. He played 32 minutes, and was 10-12 from field goals. After missing months of basketball Stephon Marbury returned, and had 16 points.

"He feels that he's ready to play emotionally, and physically he's had enough practices up underneath him that I think that he can definitely play 20-25 minutes. I don't know if he's ready to play a 40-minute game, but we'll see," said Thomas.

The Spurs are first in the Southwest division with a record of 22-9. Bruce Bowen believes the only improvement that needs to be made is free throw shooting, but they're competitive. Bowen lead with 15 points, and played 41 minutes.

"It was great at the end there. The only way you can continue to improve your free throw shooting is by getting to the line," Bowen said. "So it's something I was definitely happy with as far as ... getting the opportunity to feel comfortable there."

Matt Bonner and Michael Finley had 14 points each, but Finley scored an important basket that helped the Spurs towards the end. "That's why they're the champs," Knicks coach. "You were hoping for a miss, but that was all net."

Tim Duncan had 12 points, 5 assist, and lead with 9 rebounds. "It came down to us turning the ball over in rotations," said Duncan. "A lot of it down the stretch was my fault. I'll take a lot of responsibility for it."

Robert Horry had 8 points and 6 rebounds; Tony Parker added with 12 points, and 5 assist.