Knicks bond in Paris, prepare for T-Wolves

PARIS - The idea is to blend into the crowd, to delve into the culture and embrace the challenge of speaking the native language. One example is Danilo Gallinari strolling from the team hotel looking like he stepped out of a fashion magazine, in jeans, a long-sleeve polo shirt and designer glasses. He is European, so he has an unfair advantage. But this is Gallinari's first visit to Paris, too.

Then you see Knicks teammates Landry Fields and Andy Rautins. Rookies, by nature, are all about trying to look like they belong. But here in Paris, they admittedly are struggling with it. Even with faux-hawks and tightfitting jeans. "We definitely look like tourists," Fields said, "because we always have maps."

But their sense of adventure remains undaunted and that's exactly the spirit Mike D'Antoni hoped to see in his team on this eight-day excursion in Europe, with or without the U.S. State Department-issued warnings and arrests of alleged Al Qaeda-linked terrorists Tuesday morning by the French police. "They might have seen stuff and done stuff they wouldn't do in their entire life," D'Antoni said of his players. "So it's got to be enriching to a certain degree."

Enriching to the mind is one thing, but there is also importance in what happens on the basketball court. The exhibition win over Armani Jeans Milano on Sunday was enough of a nail-biter that D'Antoni couldn't empty his bench and play everyone, which is what you hope to do in an exhibition. "Against Milan, I was making sure we were going to win that game," he said.

But in today's NBA preseason game at Bercy Arena against the Minnesota Timberwolves, D'Antoni said he is more intent on rationing minutes to his key players, especially Amar'e Stoudemire, and "look at different combinations" than worrying about the final score. "It might mean winning a quarter when your [main] guys are out there," D'Antoni said, "but that doesn't mean I'm going to play some guys and not other guys just to win the game."

There is, however, a need to come away from these games with a reason for optimism. D'Antoni purposely scheduled a heavy workload of eight games in the preseason because he believed it was important for a roster with 10 new players to have as much live game experience as possible before wins and losses actually count. "And we're so young," he said. "We kind of need that extra experience as much as we can get it."

Notes & quotes: Players discovered that the Bercy Arena court, which is a new laminate wood surface, is too slippery and D'Antoni abruptly ended practice when Raymond Felton lost his footing and fell (he wasn't injured). Arena officials ensured D'Antoni that the floor would be cleaned and treated.