D'Antoni singing, 'Jesus, take the wheel'

Thursday February 4, 2010 2:01 AM By Alan Hahn

Been a while since I referenced lyrics, Fixers, but this is fitting. Not quite my typical genre, but fitting:

Jesus, take the wheel,

take if from my hands

'Cause I can't do this on my own

I'm letting go, so give me one more chance

to save me from this road I'm on . . .

Mike D'Antoni's stubborn loyalty to the highly ineffective Chris Duhon came with good reason. Duhon running the offense meant D'Antoni still had some control of it.

But what good is control of the offense when you don't have any control of the season?

It may have been a long time coming, perhaps even long overdue, but D'Antoni appears to be ready to give Duhon a turn on the bench. At halftime Wednesday night he opted to start Robinson to inject some desperately-needed energy into a flatline game and it worked in what turned into a 107-85 win over the Wizards.

Robinson had 14 of his 23 points in the second half and added a season-high eight assists. But while D'Antoni admitted after the game that Robinson could supplant the slumpingDuhon in the starting lineup, let's not mistakenly refer to Nate as the "point guard."

What D'Antoni really went with in that second half was a lineup without a point guard. Or one that handled the role by committee.

Robinson certainly did bring the ball up and ran a few plays, but really his role was to be primarily a scorer, which is his strength. What the Knicks can do is relieve some of the responsibilities of being a "floor general" (read: getting others involved) by having other players -- Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries and David Lee -- handle the offense to allow Robinson to focus on scoring and getting up the floor for some quick baskets.

The eight man rotation seems to now include Robinson, Hughes, Jeffries, Lee, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington and if not Duhon than rookie Toney Douglas, whom D'Antoni said he planned to give another look. Remember in training camp when D'Antoni toyed with the idea of playing Robinson and Douglas together as a tandem, to wreak havoc as a full-court pressing backcourt that can also zip down the court and score?

Anyway, before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's acknowledge that for 24 minutes against a very weak defensive team in the Wizards everything seemed to work nicely. We've seen this before, of course, so you can understand D'Antoni, though relieved to get a win after three straight L's (and two alarmingly lackluster performances over the weekend), sounded extremely hesitant as he talked about his latest smoke-and-mirrors tactic.

"I've been on that limb a few times," he said, "and it was sawed off."

Hughes was certainly pleased to finally get minutes again and seemed to do so at the expense of a big: rookie Jordan Hill (DNP-CD). Hughes played 18 minutes and scored 11 points and looked effective on defense like he did in December. After a month of complaining and days after he said he was looking forward to Feb. 18 (the trade deadline), Hughes seemed satisfied again. And he explained his frustration a lot better this time around.

"The reality is I get paid a lot of money [$13.6M] and I want to earn it," he said. "I want to be ran until my tongue's hanging out. That's how I am. When I don't get the chance to play, it just frustrates me."

D'Antoni promoted the notion that he doesn't pay attention to the media-driven controversies, such as Hughes widely-reported dissatisfaction with not playing and direct and public criticism of the coach.

"I don't hear the chatter, I don't listen to the chatter, I don't really care about the chatter," D'Antoni said. "I understand the frustrations, but I'm just trying to put the best guys on the floor. I'm not going to get it right all the time, because I don't have a crystal ball. But the intent is to see how good we can play. [Hughes] was working, he practiced. I thought he had a good practice yesterday. I thought we needed something, obviously. You keep losing, you got to change something up."

There are 36 games left in the season, with three to go before the all-star break. The Knicks (19-29) still need somewhat of a miracle -- or misfortune for Miami, Chicago or Charlotte -- to get a playoff berth. But D'Antoni seems to have come to the conclusion that there is nothing more to lose, other than his team. So with seven expiring contracts all with personal agendas (admittedly or not), he seems to be ready to let go of the wheel and hope that those agendas can somehow work congruently.

Really, with the Knicks expected to do very little, if anything at all, by the trade deadline, what other option does D'Antoni have at this point?

Meanwhile, Duhon took the benching -- and the potential demotion from the starting lineup, with a twinge more professionalism than some of his other teammates throughout the season.

"Whether you're starting is not the biggest thing in the world," Duhon said. "It's all about wins."

* * *

* - We heard tonight that Danilo Gallinari was officially asked by the NBA to participate in the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout. Gallo accepted and will compete on Feb. 13 in Dallas, though the NBA has yet to release the contenstants. Gallinari will be the sixth Knick to participate in the shoot-out and the first since Quentin Richardson in 2006. No Knick has ever won the event. The highest finishes were Trent Tucker (1986) and Charlie Ward (1998), who both finished fourth. Gallo hit four treys against the Wizards to raise his league-leading total to 126 three-point field goals made.

Pushing panic button, since there's no easy button

Monday February 1, 2010 9:22 AM By Alan Hahn

Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph ain't walkin' through that door.

Mike D'Antoni is back to looking like a coach with very few options. With his team in a 2-11 tailspin (and also now six games out of a playoff spot), he was asked about shuffling the deck and trying other players with the hope of sparking something positive.

"We've gone that route and I don't see anything better or worse," he said. "We'll keep looking at it, but we're going through with this group right here and should win."

The problems that have come up lately seem to be the same as they were early in the season, the last time the Knicks were 11-games under .500 (Dec. 2): defense and effort. This time around the team is a little banged up physically, but they're playing with some injured egos as well. The spirit again seems low around the locker room.

And is it really a surprise, when you consider, as Jeffries said, "We're right back in the place we were" before things turned around in that 9-6 December.

January started out well -- 3-0 -- but finished with just three more wins in the last 12 games. February's schedule is extremely light (seven of 11 games at home), thanks to the all-star break, but March will come in like a lion (opens in Cleveland and has 10 of 16 games on the road) and and keep roaring through to April (13 of the final 19 games of the season are on the road).

On top of it, the Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors seem to be pulling away in the race for the final berths in the East. In fact, those teams have all moved ahead of the Miami Heat, who currently hold the eighth spot.

Jeffries said "there needs to be a sense of urgency" but downplayed talk about panic. Al Harrington, who has missed two games with a knee injury (and his 17 points per game off the bench have been sorely missed), feels differently.

"Everybody," he said, "should be hitting the panic button at this point."

If only there was an easy button. Donnie Walsh could press it to make a playmaking point guard who can knock down shots and defend appear on his roster before the Feb. 18 trade deadline.

Even D'Antoni seems to hope something can get done before the deadline to give him another option.

"I think we as an organization and Donnie [Walsh], they're looking all the time and trying to better the team without messing up the long-term plans," D'Antoni said. "It's a tricky thing, it's not easy to do. But we'll keep plugging and I'm sure Donnie will keep looking and do what's necessary."

A few concerns:

Without Harrington, the Knicks bench managed just 8 points in the blowout loss to the Timberwolves on Sunday and had 23 points mainly because Nate Robinson had 16 of them. Jonathan Bender, who has played in place of Harrington, has been scoreless (0-for-6) in those two games.

"I'm good," Bender said. "Yeah, I'm feeling good."

He's not looking too good right now.

Robinson is dealing with a nagging hamstring, but his game seems to have regressed to his November standard, right before his 14-game benching. Not to say he's back with the antics; actually that part has not been a noticable issue since he's been re-inserted into the lineup.

But it's painfully clear he is not comfortable running the offense, which means when Chris Duhon goes to the bench the team doesn't have anyone who can get the offense under control and keep it in a flow. Robinson also has a maddening penchant for backpedaling too deep into the defensive zone on offense, which allows opposing point guards to walk the ball up the floor comfortably and permits the other team to get into their set and run their offense. Nate needs to be more aggressive and hound the ball across the timeline. Maybe the hammy won't allow for this, but it makes no sense for a 5-9 guard who is ridiculously athletic to hang out in the circle of the key and wait as the opposing guard brings the rock up the floor.

Jordan Hill is getting a good opportunity here but you're seeing just how much more he needs to learn, especially on defense. I don't mind rookie mistakes, but what you want to see is rookie accountability. You'd like to see him take a little more pride in challenges against players in the paint and, mostly, take pride in his effort.

In Minnesota, Kevin Love beat him up the floor for a layup (Hill had to goaltend it on the chase), which should never, ever happen. Jordan needs to use his athleticism in every way possible, including the simple idea of making the other team's big run the floor. It's amazing to me that, as effective as big, burly Al Jefferson was on Sunday, none of the Knicks bigs tried to get him into a race to wear him down (we all saw on Tuesday he's not in any kind of shape) and get him off the court because of fatigue and foul trouble.

We could roll through the entire roster at this point, but it's becoming redundant. Whatever the Knicks had going for them in December and early January -- the mojo of effort and defense -- is clearly gone again.

Joke's on us

Monday January 18, 2010 9:07 AM By Alan Hahn

The Knicks had just defeated the Indiana Pacers by 43 points and there were reporters lingering near the stall of Larry Hughes, who was the only active player who didn't get in the game.

Around the room were several standouts from the most dominant win of the season for a Knick team that - at the time - was playing its best basketball and creeping closer and closer to the top 8 in the East.

But as Hughes turned around and tape recorders extended to his face, he became the story.

Place the blame everywhere:

On him, for taking the opportunity to put himself ahead of the team.

On the media, for giving him the forum to do so.

On you, because it's proven fact that a majority of you actually respond to this kind of coverage.

This second incident, however, goes squarely on Hughes' shoulders. The fact that after re-iterating his frustration before the game in Detroit on Saturday -- when he played 8:24 -- made it a given that reporters would seek his reaction afterward. It was his choice to call it "a joke" and proceed to squirt lighter fluid all over the smoldering coals.

Right in front of his exhausted teammates, who were already annoyed at him for dumping water on their Jan. 3 blowout win.

Yes, it's a joke that a veteran of 11 NBA seasons warmed up with a coffee stirrer in his mouth before a road game. It's a joke he would not understand how when he was in the eight-man rotation, he had no issue with Mike D'Antoni's structure, but once Nate Robinson jumped into his timeslot, D'Antoni was wrong.

It's a joke that Hughes, who played in 700 NBA games before Saturday, would need a heads up to be ready to play.

Wouldn't that suggest that Hughes - who promoted himself as a veteran leader earlier this season when he and Al Harrington called a team meeting - was sitting on the bench disengaged during the previous seven games?

Full disclosure: It's been written in this space before that Hughes did and still could help the Knicks mainly because of his versatility. He is a good defender but is also someone who could provide a needed backup point guard role, which is clearly not in Robinson's skill set. He should split time with Robinson in that third guard role, depending on the need of a particular night.

But Hughes has said before -- let's remind you of his outspoken frustration in Chicago -- that he's not interested in spot minutes.

Hughes said on Saturday he just wants to win. But we know what this is really about. He, like seven other Knicks, are in expiring contracts.

Al Harrington, who hangs a lot of Hughes away from the gym, is still getting his ticks, even with the young legs of rookie Jordan Hill ready to bounce right over him in the rotation.

Imagine the toxicty of the room if D'Antoni ever made the decision to play Hill over Harrington (who is fighting through sore knees)?

The end of the bench has become a frustrated wasteland of persecuted personalities. Darko Milicic hardly gave an effort and, instead of working harder, just wants to go home (but wants to get all of his money while he does it). Eddy Curry got himself into shape for the first time in two years and expects that to be enough to warrant playing time (Hey Eddy, how about going to the coaching staff and working on ways you can use the pick-and-roll to your advantage? What ever happened to being proactive??).

It's funny, Curry has the same agent as LeBron James (Leon Rose) and Hughes is texting buddies with LeBron.

If LeBron considers those dealbreakers in coming to New York, you don't really want him here anyway.

* * *

* - If you're attending today's MLK matinee at the Garden, head to Penn Station's Amtrak concourse at 11 a.m. for a cool NBA event. "Speed painter" Dan Dunn will paint portraits of the participants in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest for All-Star Saturday in Dallas on Feb. 13.

Will defending champion Nate Robinson be among them? Earlier in the season, Robinson said he'd go back for a fourth time if LeBron James agreed to participate. At last year's contest, LeBron said he would consider entering the contest to bring back some of the cache from the 1980s back to the show.

Hughes stirs in frustration

Tuesday January 12, 2010 5:58 PM By Alan Hahn

Larry Hughes went through his pregame workout last night in Oklahoma City with a coffee stirrer sticking out of his mouth. Hughes' frustration with being taken out of the rotation is one thing but in front of teammates, fans and with Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni watching from the team bench, he displayed a disappointing lack of professionalism for an 11-year veteran.

I will say this, however: Hughes had been a reason why the Knicks were able to turn things around in December. What impressed me the most about his play before the groin injury was that he didn't try to be a scorer as much as he focused on moving the ball. With Nate Robinson benched, Hughes was essentially a backup point guard and a reliable one. With Robinson playing again -- while his scoring and energy are important -- the Knicks sorely lack a legitimate backup point guard to spell Chris Duhon.

D'Antoni won't leave Robinson on the floor as the primary ball-handler for too long of a time, mainly because Nate struggles when he has to run the offense. Some time before the Feb. 18 trade deadline, the Knicks either need to find a legit point guard (starter or backup) that can be reliable enough to run the offense or find minutes for Hughes so get back into that role.

Nate got himself back in good graces by working his butt off in pregame workouts and maintaining a professional appearance throughout the 14-game benching. Hughes didn't endear himself with the coffee stirrer, but regardless of how he feels about D'Antoni, it's a bad reflection on him.

* * *

* - Too often the blame is put on the guards for not passing the ball to Danilo Gallinari. But if you watched his 0-for-7 night against the Thunder, you could see that it was Gallinari who wasn't making himself available as an option.

Some of it is effort on his part. But the other part was that he was guarded by another young phenom who, in his third season, is showing signs of being an MVP candidate in the very near future.

"He was so active on defense," Gallinari said of Kevin Durant, who not only had 30 points in Oklahoma City's blowout win over the Knicks, he also held Gallinari scoreless. "Everybody knows him for his offense . . . he can score on everybody. But, I mean, he was playing defense on me and he was ready on any move I was making. He was ready on my cut, he was ready on my screen. He was always there contensing my shots. He can play defense, too."

Gallinari was most stunned by a block Durant made on a three-point attempt early in the third quarter. At 6-11 with a picture-perfect high release, Gallo's shot seemed to be unblockable.

"Kevin Durant is so long, so long," Gallinari said. "He actually was helping on the other side, on the other man. I was completely free. I mean, it was a great block."

Asked if he could remember the last time he had his jumper blocked, Gallinari said he couldn't. It definitely hadn't happened at the NBA level.

"Always a first time," he said.

* - Sports Illustrated released the results of a new poll that asked NBA players who was the league's biggest trash talker. Super-intense Kevin Garnett took first place by a landslide of 62 percent out of 173 NBA players polled. Kobe Bryant (7%) was second, followed by Rasheed Wallace (5%). Fourth on the list was Nate Robinson (3%), who tied with Paul Pierce.

Raising Nate

Sunday January 10, 2010 7:12 PM By Alan Hahn

Mike D'Antoni has appeared to have reached a compromise with Nate Robinson. It's a pretty simple agreement: play your game on offense and play the team's game on defense.

Robinson's quickness and speed were all the Knicks had to contend with Rockets guard Aaron Brooks in Saturday's loss. Against these types of guards, the Knicks need Robinson on the floor because Chris Duhon doesn't have the agility to keep pace on defense.

The catch is, however, that for stretches of that game, as Robinson was checking Brooks he was also running the offense, which is always an adventure. Robinson had four turnovers in the game after having seven in the win over Charlotte. In both games, at critical moments, Robinson attempted ill-advised jump passes -- a fundamental no-no -- that were intercepted.

Against the Bobcats, the errant pass led to a basket that led to a three-pointer by Flip Murray with 13.9 seconds left to close the Knick lead to a precarious 95-93. In Houston, it led to Chase Budinger's steal and fast-break layup that made it 82-80, a lead the Rockets would never relinquish.

D'Antoni wasn't that upset with Robinson on the latter play, however, because, as Nate pleaded going into the timeout huddle, he needed teammates to cut to the basket to give him options as he drives the ball. And D'Antoni appears to be giving Robinson a little more slack than in the past, mainly because he knows Robinson sat for a month between games.

"I hoping it's that he hasn't played for a month and so I'm thinking he's pressing a little bit," D'Antoni said. "We'll try to cut those down. I think we can."

D'Antoni will live with the offensive miscues as long as he gets a concerted effort from Robinson on defense. While Nate's scoring off the bench can be such a valuable weapon, D'Antoni thinks his defense can make an even greater impact.

"He could be one of our better defenders, he has that ability," D'Antoni said. "Hopefully we can get there. I thought last night was a good step toward there."

The message is simple: "On offense, he needs to be Nate," D'Antoni said. "On defense, he needs to be Knicks."

* * *

* - Al Harrington didn't practice with the team here in Oklahoma City, but it is still expected he will be available tomorrow night against the Thunder. He has missed the last two games with a left calf strain.

* - On rare occasion, when the team practices at an arena on the road, the beat writers are left in the empty gym with a rack of basketballs sitting on the court. Naturally, the temptation is there and, generally, what follows is unspeakable acts of unathleticism.

But what happened today on the Ford Center hardwood can not go unpublished. A wager of sorts was made among four writers -- myself, Jonathan Abrams (New York Times), Frank Isola (Daily News) and Marc Berman (Post) -- that earned a free lunch for whomever was first to hit a halfcourt shot.

Wouldn't you know it was Berman. And it was a YouTube moment if there ever was one. Unfortunately, it will only be replayed in the minds of threemen who probably would have preferred not to see, not to mention hear (yes... hear) the clinching shot.

The ball banked in with a bass-drum thud, which was drowned out by a noise that could only be properly described as a groan, likea painful howl of exertion that might be familiar to a man if he had ever hunted wild boar.

Berman, an avid tennis player, called it his service grunt.

Marcus needs to go tell on Carl

Sunday January 10, 2010 1:36 AM By Alan Hahn

The chants of “Carl Is Better!” rang in Marcus Landry’s ears during last night’s 105-96 loss here to big brother Carl Landry and the Rockets. And the moment was punctuated when the older Landry finished a drop-step dunk around Jared Jeffries in the fourth quarter and then pointed to Marcus on the Knicks bench.

“It was like, ‘You’re on the bench where you belong, now stay there and watch me play! Get your pen and notepad out and learn something,” Carl joked after the game. “It was just big brother talk, that’s all.” 

It was the first NBA meeting between the Landry brothers, both of whom are longshots who have made it to the game’s ultimate level. Carl, 26, was a second round pick of the Rockets and now is one of the league’s best Sixth Men, while Marcus, 24, was an undrafted rookie who not only made the Knicks roster, but now plays over lottery pick Jordan Hill.

“Sometimes when you get in the NBA you get a little money and you get comfortable,” Carl Landry said before the game. “There’s always guys out there that’s hungry. I was one of them and so was Marcus.” 

While both played in the game, which was attended by several family members, Carl had the more standout performance with 14 points in 28:06. Marcus played just 3:33 and did not score.

Marcus had bragging rights before the game, however, as his alma mater, Wisconsin, knocked off Carl's alma mater, Purdue, to hand the Boilermakers their first loss of the season. It was in those games when the Landry boys met in those Big Ten matchups that Marcus first heard the "Carl is better" chants. 

But never in their wildest imaginations did either brother expect to one day share an NBA court. Both credited their parents, both hardworking people from Milwaukee, as their inspiration and their standard.

And it was Carl who reached out to assistant coach Ken Atkinson, previously an assistant with the Rockets, to get his brother a tryout with the Knicks last summer. Carl even paid his little brother’s way to New York.

Marcus’ $457,588 contract was guaranteed for the rest of the season on Friday, which should have afforded him enough money to repay his big brother. But Carl laughed at the notion and said, “He asked me for money last night!”

* * * 

* - Wilson Chandler managed to score 17 points against Shane Battier's stingy, physical defense, but Chandler did record five turnovers. Tough night for Wilson after a recent stretch of strong performances.

* - Mike D'Antoni was clearly frustrated after the game with the loss because he felt the team's defensive intensity dipped in the second half. The team had a 13-point lead with 2:02 left in the first half but, as we've seen this season, they didn't close it out properly and, instead the Rockets took a 9-2 run into halftime to close to within six. 

* - You get good and bad from Nate Robinson, who provided all but two of the Knicks' 22 bench points. Robinson had four turnovers and struggled most when he had to run the offense, but had to be out there to counter the lightning quick speed of Aaron Brooks (20 points).

* - Plenty of Knick representation at the Toyota Center, with Willie Naulls -- a great from the 1950s-era -- on hand and Charlie Ward in attendance, as well. Coincidentally, it was on this date in Knicks history, 1958, when Naulls scored 33 points in a 136-123 win over the Celtics (in Syracuse), that saw the Knicks set a franchise record with 50 free throws made in the game. Naulls made 13-of-13 and legend Richie Guerin was 17-for-23. 

Harrington out again; will Hill play?

Saturday January 9, 2010 3:55 PM By Alan Hahn

Al Harrington didn't participate in the morning shoot-around at the Toyota Center here in freezing Houston, where only the AHL team from the Blackhawks organization (which was in town for a game last night before busing to San Antonio) seemed comfortable with the climate.

Harrington said he first felt the left calf pain during last Sunday's win over the Pacers. He tried to practice on it Wednesday, which he says was a mistake. He was unable to play Thursday against the Bobcats and he is being held out one more game to make sure the muscle heals properly so it doesn't become a chronic issue. Both Harrington and Mike D'Antoni expect the forward to be back in the lineup for Monday's game in Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, D'Antoni seemed to indicate he will likely continue to give minutes to rookie Marcus Landry, who gets to face his big brother, Carl, tonight.

With Harrington out, however, it prompted the question as to why another rookie, Jordan Hill, wouldn't get the nod instead? D'Antoni suggested that Marcus Landry has been more impressive with his work ethic in practice and earned the spot, which should be alarming to Hill, who was only the team's lottery pick this summer. But D'Antoni quickly said that Hill will "get a chance here pretty soon, so we'll see what happens."

Some feel Hill should be in the D-League getting playing time if he's not going to play at the NBA level, but I'm not sure that's the best thing to do in these circumstances. The Knicks don't have a direct affiliate -- they share Springfield -- and therefore there is not as much hands-on direction with him there. While minutes would be great, the team believes Hill is better served staying with the team here where they can continue to work with him, monitor his progress and, of course, keep an eye on him. Some players feel when they are sent to the D-League it becomes out of sight, out of mind.

* * *

* - The matchup to watch tonight will be all-star candidate David Lee versus Rockets forward Luis Scola, one of the grittest players in the league. The two have a high respect for each other, but it will be physical. I'm also curious to see if Shane Battier picks up Lee on defense to guard the pick-and-roll or if he is used against either Wilson Chandler or Danilo Gallinari, instead.

* - Rockets coach Rick Adelman didn't speak to the New York press contingent after his team's morning shoot-around, but recently owner Leslie Alexander said he was already planning to pick up the option in Adelman's contract "very soon."

Adelman, who holds the all-time best winning percentage in Rockets history (.650), has done a masterful job in remolding the team from being star-reliant (Tracy McGrady) to a collection of overachiving workers, led by Battier, Scola and the impressive Aaron Brooks.

I felt Adelman deserved Coach of the Year honors last season over Mike Brown and this year he's once again at the top of my list as we reach mid-season.

* - There were reports that McGrady's agent, Arn Tellem, met with Donnie Walsh last week when Tellem was at the Garden for Thursday's win over Charlotte. The Knicks certainly have had an interest in McGrady, but with the team playing well right now I don't expect any major moves to take place any time soon. The Rockets are the ones who control McGrady's destiny and it depends on what they will want before the Feb. 18 trade deadline. By then, the Knicks made decide they don't need to make that type of chemistry-altering move.

Lee playing with a heavy heart

Friday January 8, 2010 1:47 AM By Alan Hahn

It turns out, as Deadspin so desperately reported, David Lee isn't gay. He's merely a lefty, but clearly can go both ways . . . to the hoop, I mean . . . as he quite emphatically proves here against Gerald Wallace and the Bobcats:

But, Fixers, let me share with you that Lee (22 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists in 41:21) had greater issues on his mind during tonight's 97-93 win over Charlotte than someone attempting to dredge some high school gossip on him.  Back home in St. Louis, Lee's grandfather, celebrated Missouri businessman and philanthropist E. Desmond Lee, is gravely ill.

The 92-year-old Lee, who built a fortune in coathangers and other closet accessories with the Lee-Rowan Manufacturing Co., was a 1940 graduate of Washington University in Missouri, where he earned varsity letters in basketball and track. During his college years he also played on a baseball team with a fella named Sam Walton, who was attending the University of Missouri at the same time.

"Des" Lee, as he is known in the St. Louis area, was named the city's Man of the Year in 1996 and was given the National Outstanding Philanthropist Award in 1997. He has donated over $50 million to various charitable causes and institutions in the St. Louis area.

Now we know why David Lee is what he is as a basketball player. He comes, as they say, from good stock.

* * *

* - Jonathan Bender celebrated the guaranteed contract period by showing some notable spring in his legs. Bender still looked a bit out of sorts, but you can't deny his imact with 5 points, 5 rebounds and, most of all, 4 blocked shots in 18:04. He also flushed an emphatic two-handed dunk on a cut to the lane.

* - Speaking of dunks . . .

 Nate Robinson had a sloppy night with the ball (seven turnovers), but there is no denying his impact on the game with eight straight points -- including that wicked crossover against DJ Augustin to an amazing blast-off down the heart of the Bobcats defense -- in a 15-0 run by the Knicks that bridged the third and fourth quarters and came right after Charlotte took a 10-point lead with 2:23 left in the third. Mike D'Antoni said he told Robinson to just play his game.

"He's got to be Nate Robinson," D'Antoni said. "And that's what he did."

* - Right before D'Antoni's post-game session with the media was about to end, he took it upon himself to talk about Wilson Chandler, who had a season-high 27 points in 45:36 and added seven rebounds and six assists. D'Antoni called it "an unbelieveable game" for Chandler, who just keeps coming on with each game now that he's finally got his bounce back in his legs.

The most noticable thing about Chandler's game goes beyond the scoring, which he proved on several occasions he could do last season. Chandler is making smarter passes and his defense is getting better and better. Jared Jeffries, who has basically turned into a traffic cop in the middle of the Knicks defense, called Chandler "the most important piece of our team."

* - Al Harrington's last-minute omission from the active roster was curious, but D'Antoni said he was told that Harrington was experiencing pain in his left calf in the afternoon. He tried to give it a go in the pregame warmup but the pain was strong. The decision was not to push it and have it result in a more serious injury that could cause him to miss more than one game.

Or we'll find out that the truth is Harrington is about to be traded.

* - Quick follow-up on the Pete Mickeal blog from the other day: From talking to Donnie Walsh, there doesn't appear to be anything happening on that front. Mickeal may have had a conversation with the Knicks' European scout, Kevin Wilson, who happens to live in Barcelona, where Mickeal plays. But it doesn't sound like the Knicks are actively looking to sign the 31-year-old vet for this season.

* - I have to make one final observation about the Garden tonight and, in fact, the last two home games. There is a noticable buzz in the building and a very charged atmosphere that, even during a few of those brief periods of success in the last few seasons, I have never felt during my brief time covering this team. The energy in the Garden lately reminds me of what I recall sensing when I used to have to pay to get in. Back when they didn't need some canned soundtrack to encourage the crowd to cheer or chant.

I'll give credit to the Game Night staff tonight for dialing it down in the second half and, especially, in the fourth quarter. Aside from the classic organ chord that for decades accompanied the "DEE-Fense" chant, they spared us the manufactured noise and just let the Garden crowd handle it like they know how. Bravo.

Between Chandler's outstanding play and Danilo Gallinari's determined marksmanship down the stretch, along with the raucous atmosphere at MSG, this was definitely a game to burn onto a DVD and anonymously mail to LeBron's estate in Akron.

In case, of course, he wasn't already Witness-ing it himself on NBAtv.

The Mike D'Antoni Show

Monday January 4, 2010 11:50 AM By Alan Hahn

There's little doubt who wears the Sherrif's badge around here. Mike D'Antoni came to New York with the reputation as a players' coach, but has presented more of a dictatorship in his first two seasons of this rebuilding project with the Knicks.

D'Antoni can rule with this iron fist because he has the confidence that almost none of the players in his locker room has: job security. It usually works the other way around in the NBA, where the longterm contract guys tend to know they're going nowhere, but what we have here at the Garden is a throwback situation. And that's what makes players like Nate Robinson, Eddy Curry and, now, Larry Hughes, so uneasy, because they are used to very different circumstances.

"I think that's part of what I expected would have to happen, is that there would have to be a culture developed that would be conducive to winning," Donnie Walsh said. "I'm not in the locker room, so I don't know all of the ifs, ands or buts, but I feel like Mike has had to do that going back to last year."

Yes, last year, when D'Antoni's first order of business was to eliminate Stephon Marbury, who had negatively dominated the locker room for too many years and led an inmates-running-the-asylum culture in the Isiah Thomas regime.

D'Antoni has picked his battles, for sure. He stuck with Chris Duhon despite some awful play early in the season, but mainly because Duhon, in his mind, was the only playmaking point guard who could run an offense on the roster. If he buried Duhon and lost him, he'd lose control of the offense, for sure. He took on Robinson mainly because he knew he could win without him, which was subsequently proven. That should have been the most alarming thing to Nate.

Now, what would have happened if Hughes never got hurt and remained the productive player he was before the groin injury? Or what if rookie Toney Douglas was able to emerge as an important two-way presence off the bench? Would Robinson have ever gotten that second chance?

D'Antoni could smile at Robinson's electrifying 41-point redemption performance against Atlanta, but, just like with Curry's physical transformation from being overweight to actually looking like an NBA player, D'Antoni says spare him the accolades for Nate for behaving well during the 14-game benching and for running those arena steps to keep himself ready.

"We pay a lot to guys to stay ready," D'Antoni said before Sunday's game. "I think most people in the work place would be kinda ready if they're getting paid his money . . . I'm glad he did it and he should have done it, but I don't think we should say, 'Oh man, this is really great that somebody actually worked for a living.' I feel a little strange saying that because so many people have to work hard every day. But I am glad he did do it and he did the right thing and it worked out for him."

And Walsh backed his coach when he said Nate's amazing performance didn't prove he should have been playing all along.

"It seems to me that it proved Mike right in his absence all the way through," Walsh said. "When he changed the rotation, we won. And when he went back to Nate, we won that game."

Will Jonathan Bender eventually prove D'Antoni right, as well? This reclamation project is struggling to find his game after a four-year layoff, but D'Antoni is committing a valuable spot in the rotation to him mainly because he believes this could be an investment for later in the season, when the Knicks hope to be playing for a playoff spot. The team has until Wednesday to decide whether they want to guarantee Bender's contract ($800K) for the rest of the season or put him on waivers. By Friday, all non-guaranteed contracts are locked in for the rest of the season.

It sounds like the Knicks plan to keep Bender around, as long as he feels he is physically able to keep the pace.

"We think that this is not only for right now, this is for the future," D'Antoni said of Bender last week. "He's the type of player that, if we can get him to a certain level, he'd be very, very valuable and we need to stick with him."

Meanwhile, it was last Monday at practice when D'Antoni issued a public warning to Hughes, whom he said needed to "step it up." Six days later, when Robinson was back in the rotation and Hughes was out, D'Antoni was asked if he made sure Hughes understood the decision.

"What is there to understand?" D'Antoni said. "That's the way life is. I think everybody understands we're trying to win."

And everyone knows who is in charge.