No it's Jared Jeffries! The much maligned first-year Knick returned to the rotation last night and made Isiah Thomas look like a genius by scoring 14 points, nabbing seven rebounds and blocking a late Brian Cook three-point attempt to help seal a 99-94 win over the Lakers. The Garden was like a steakhouse before the late-90's: Kobeless. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jon Stewart, Robert Wuhl and, of course, Spike were all there to see #24 but Bryant sat out with the dubious suspension garnered during Sunday's game (more on that in the next post). Well, Arliss was probably there to check out Maurice Evans, who I think played his accountant, or perhaps he won a raffle for the ducat but the game was sloppy throughout and not worthy of such well-paid eyes.
The Knicks turned the ball over 21 times and dished out just 15 assists but shot better from the line and dominated the glass to take the game. Eddy Curry had seven of those turnovers but pushed around young Andrew Bynum for 27 points and nine rebounds while Stephon Marbury owned Smush Parker on the dribble drive for 22 before leaving with an injury in the final moments. If there was a dark side to Jeffries's effort last night it was the supposed defensive stopper's continued refusal to stop his man on defense. The block on Cook was swell but Lamar Odom had 25 easy points and Vladimir Radmanovic was wide open most of the night. Jeffries and his keystone kopish sidekick Channing Frye were easily beaten for most of the night keeping the Lakers in the game without their best player.
A win is a win, however, and there were encouraging signs that the Knicks never let the game get away from them despite their struggles throughout. They are right back at it in Charlotte tonight.
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