NY Post
March 22, 2005 -- IT might as well have been the first game of Malik Rose's NBA career. He was nervous and excited, his body and mind unable to relax the entire day. Though a veteran of eight NBA seasons, last night was a first for Rose, who was not only playing against his former team but also starting his first game as a Knick.
"All day I was sitting around and couldn't really get a good nap," Rose would later say. "I just wanted to get it over with. Once [the game] started, one thing led to the other and things weren't going too well. Thank God halftime came."
The jitters and excitement of playing against the Spurs, the team he helped win two NBA les, was clearly evident in the first half when Rose was 1-for-7 from the field with two turnovers and a missed dunk. More important, the Knicks trailed 47-43.
But the basketball gods would soon smile on Rose, who offered a glimpse why the Knicks obtained him in exchange for Nazr Mohammed at the trade deadline. Rose finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, playing a huge role in a dominating second half in which the Knicks rolled to an 88-75 victory.
Stephon Marbury might have been the star on the night with 31 points and 10 assists, but it was Rose who wore of grin of satisfaction, having turned a potentially awful game into a satisfying victory.
For Rose, the turn-around started with a deep breath at halftime.
"I got focused," he said. "A lot of things were running through my mind, so I decided to sit still and clear my mind and focus on just positive things, where it was making shots, a good defensive rotation, seeing a good pass, all things positive. Once I started to see it, things started to happen in real time."
Their second half was the kind of finish the Knicks sorely needed to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. Without Kurt Thomas, out with a bum elbow, and Anfernee Hardaway, whose hamstring troubles put him back on the injured list, the Knicks were hurting just like the Spurs, who were without two-time MVP Tim Duncan, out for two to four weeks with an ankle sprain.
Rose got the start for Thomas and struggled with his jump shot off the pick and roll early. But he rode the momentum created by Marbury in the second half.
"We had a good run going," Rose said. "A lot of things were going right. I was in the right place defensively and things started to snow ball."
With Duncan out, the Spurs probably wish they had Rose back. Clearly, rattled in the second half, San Antonio never responded once the Knicks made their surge. It was Rose whom the Spurs always looked to in times of adversity, which is one reason his former coach Gregg Popovich was sorry to see him go.
"It was gut wrenching, to say the least," Popovich said. "He was intricately woven into the team's personality. He's a highly intelligent guy and very respected. A class act on and off the court for a lot of years. It took a while for us to get over it. There was a mourning period with our team and with our staff."
Now the Spurs are in mourning having lost Duncan so close to the postseason. In the highly compe ive West, it's a loss the Spurs may not be able to overcome. The Knicks, meanwhile, live one day at a time, looking for positive steps, steps like the one Rose helped them make last night.
But we have Nazr to fill in! Woopty ing do!With Duncan out, the Spurs probably wish they had Rose back. Clearly, rattled in the second half, San Antonio never responded once the Knicks made their surge. It was Rose whom the Spurs always looked to in times of adversity, which is one reason his former coach Gregg Popovich was sorry to see him go.
I'm as big a Malik fan as anyone, but that is obviously a bit much.It was Rose whom the Spurs always looked to in times of adversity, which is one reason his former coach Gregg Popovich was sorry to see him go.
However, one thing's for sure. No team with Malik on the floor is ever going to just quit in the second half.
He/she realy thinks we'll lose 13 (Denver has 30 losses) of the remaining 15 games while playing without Timmy?
We're not NY without Starbury!
He/she realy thinks we'll lose 13 (Denver has 30 losses) of the remaining 15 games while playing without Timmy?
We're not NY without Starbury!
I think the writer is saying that this trade might cost us a le, not that we won't make the playoffs. He probably thinks our goal is bigger than just making the playoffs.
"I think the writer is saying that this trade might cost us a le,"
no, that's WHOTT slicing and dicing his pro-Malik/regret-Malik/I-told-you-so campaign/prejudice into n-thousand angles and repe ive posts.
DNP-CD Malik is the difference between Spurs win/not-win the NBA? GM, and the forum, AFB.
I hate that we lost to the Knicks. However, if someone had to help kick our tails last night, I'm happy it was Malik! We weren't ready to play and he was. Props Malik!
Home court advantage could certainly be...and when was the last time Malik got a DNPCD with Duncan injured?
I guess you are right though...that writer surely meant that we won't make the playoffs without Malik Rose...you guys are so smart.
Unless Malik can guard Starbury and shoot jumpshots we probably would have lost to the Knicks no matter who we had at the 4 last night.
Malik brought energy and a 6-18 shooting night to the Knicks.
There's no excuse for our guys not playing with energy and excitement. If someone was paying me $millions to play a GAME I love I'd freakin' play with my third arm fully extended. . .that's how much excitement I'd be showing damnit!
We didn't win or lose because of the Malik trade.
How about that we traded our energy guy from the last 8 years to the Knicks....
Historically we stink when Tim is out, with or without Malik.
Malik's energy didn't help us get out of the first round of the playoffs when Tim got hurt in 2000.
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