Boston ? Which image of Wednesday night’s 114-109 New York Knicks loss to the Boston Celtics at FleetCenter do you prefer?
There was Paul Pierce, Ricky Davis and backup point guard Marcus Banks knifing through the Knicks’ clueless defense, helping Boston erase a 10-point second-half ‘deficit.
There was New York’s Jamal Crawford, hobbling through a painful second half, then lying on a trainer’s table with ice on his right big toe, an X-ray in his future.
There was New York’s Stephon Marbury, looking to Coach Lenny Wilkens for permission to foul Pierce while 18 valuable seconds ticked off with the Knicks trailing by four, and then saying afterward, “I was just waiting for Coach to tell me to foul.”
Then there was Wilkens saying, “Maybe I waited too long, but we fouled him” and complaining about not getting enough calls from the officials.
It was the Knicks’ second disappointing loss in two nights. Unlike Tuesday’s 123-94 blowout against the Dallas Mavericks, this one may linger right through Christmas. Bah, humbug.
“We’ve got to learn to be a smarter team,” Wilkens said. “When we get a lead, we’ve got to learn how to put people away. We’ve got to do a better job of executing and involving people. There was one stretch where I thought the first guy who got it tried to get it back for us. We’re not that good a team. We can’t play that way.”
How good a team are they? Year 2 of the Isiah Thomas era opened with the Knicks falling to 13-13. Since Thomas took over as team president last Dec. 22, the Knicks are 42-42, including playoffs.
“We have to regroup,” Marbury said. “We can’t lose two games and come back for the next one and just expect to win.”
