Steve Francis became slightly annoyed on Friday morning after the third question about how he would fit in with his new -- and latest -- backcourt mate, Stephon Marbury. He had already answered the question several times on Wednesday during an introductory news conference after being traded to the Knicks from the Orlando Magic. Now, hours before his first game as a Knick, the news media were nipping at his heels again.
"We can't keep talking about what the relationship between me and Steph is going to be," Francis said. "We've just got to go out there and do it. We can't prove it by words. We just got to go out on the basketball court and do it. That's the only solution."
Francis' debut as a Knick was encouraging, even if the result was the same. He had 16 points and four assists as the Knicks lost their 39th game of the season 94-90 to the Nets.
PHOTO: AFP
Afterward, Francis said that he had "felt like a new player who was thrown into a game with little experience."
The Nets are clearly a better team, but at this point, every team the Knicks play is better, or at least thinks it's better. There is no energy, and at times there doesn't seem to be much pride. The Knicks were down by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter Friday night before an 11-0 run cut the Nets' lead to 10. Only a 3-pointer by Francis at the buzzer made it appear close.
These are desperate times at Madison Square Garden, and trading for Francis was a solid, though desperate, move. The team president, Isiah Thomas, and coach Larry Brown are hoping that the unlikely backcourt of Marbury and Francis can shoot the Knicks out of a deep hole.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SBL
The latest move is intriguing at a number of levels. This effectively is the last chance for Marbury and Francis to change the public perception that they are not winning players. In Marbury's case, the perception has been that teams improve only after he leaves. In Francis' case, it has been that he has an enormous, and fragile, me-first ego. His refusal to go back into a game earlier this month helped fuel that perception. Francis agreed Friday that his trade to the Knicks represented a critical juncture in his NBA career.
"It is, no doubt," he said. "This is my seventh season, and from this point on, I want to be here to be able to help this team get better, help this team win games."Francis gave a telling answer Friday when asked about his willingness to sacrifice to make the pairing with Marbury work. "Everybody's going to have to sacrifice," he said. "It's not just going to be one person sacrificing."
This week, I spoke with Earl Monroe, the Knicks' legendary guard, and he said he had spoken to Francis over the years and thought this might work. "He seems to be a guy who will make it work, but he's coming into a volatile situation -- you don't know where you'll be next year or even if this team will be intact."
On the night Francis made his Knicks debut, it was appropriate to invoke the basketball memory of Monroe. He joined the Knicks in November 1971 after four seasons with the Baltimore Bullets. I'm not comparing Steve Francis to Earl the Pearl, but merely pointing out how, at a time when little about the Knicks makes sense, this might.
Monroe was 26 and already an established star when he forced the trade to the Knicks. He was Earl the Pearl to the mainstream and Black Jesus on the street. Monroe had refused to play for Baltimore after the first two games of the regular season in 1971-1972 in a contract dispute. Monroe said there were major adjustments facing him when he joined the Knicks. They were Walt Frazier's team, and he and Frazier had had a fierce rivalry going, because Frazier normally guarded Monroe when the Knicks played the Bullets. He also said the toughest change was taking a secondary role to Frazier.
"I was established; I had my own team," Monroe said. "But the Knicks were Walt Frazier's team. It wasn't always easy to subjugate my game, because so often you do things instinctively, but that was the proper protocol."
Friday, I repeated to Francis what Monroe had said about deferring to Frazier.
"When you got a guy like Earl Monroe, he came in and did his thing; that's what I'm looking to do," Francis said. "If I have to defer, or we all have to sacrifice more just to get better, I think that'll be the best thing for the team."
Monroe played his first game for the Knicks on Nov. 11, 1971. The Knicks lost and fell into last place. Three months later, Monroe was a starter and the Knicks clinched their sixth straight playoff berth.
"When I joined the Knicks, they were an established team," Monroe said. "Francis is not coming to a team that's established. As he works himself in, the team is still trying to work itself in. But they're still a better team with him on it."
Francis and Marbury are not Pearl and Clyde, and the Knicks' reaching the playoffs will require something like a miracle.
The spectacle at the Garden continues, and it's painful to watch: a Hall of Fame coach, a team president and two star guards trying to find themselves on a terribly large stage.
Hawks 117, Pacers 112, OT
At Indianapolis, Joe Johnson matched his career high with 40 points, including a 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime, and Atlanta beat Indiana for the third time in three meetings this season.
Johnson also had 13 assists for Atlanta, which got 22 points from Al Harrington and 18 points and 11 rebounds from Josh Childress.
Peja Stojakovic scored a season-high 34 points and Fred Jones added 31 points for Indiana, which lost Stephen Jackson to a knee injury in the first half.
Wizards 102, Cavaliers 94
At Cleveland, Gilbert Arenas scored 26 points, and Washington shut down LeBron James in the second half.
James finished with 25 points, but went 0-for-8 from the field and 4-for-12 from the foul line in the second half as Cleveland dropped its second straight game.
The All-Star game MVP missed his final seven from the line -- and was even booed in the final minutes.
Antawn Jamison scored 25 points and Caron Butler added 24 as Washington snapped a four-game road losing streak. The Wizards have won 15 of their last 21 overall.
Magic 102, SuperSonics 89
At Orlando, Florida, Dwight Howard had 23 points and 16 rebounds against a Seattle team with only seven available players, and Orlando snapped an eight-game losing streak.
Grant Hill had 19 points and shot 8-of-11 in his first start in more than a month. Carlos Arroyo, obtained a week ago from Detroit, came off the bench and had a season-high 18 points and four assists.
Damien Wilkins led Seattle with 21 points and Chris Wilcox had a season-high 20. Rashard Lewis added 14.
The Sonics were short-handed after taking part in a four-team trade Thursday and making another deal with Cleveland.
All-Star guard Ray Allen was on the Sonics bench at the start of the game so Seattle could meet the league-mandated rule of eight players in uniform. Allen returned to the locker room as soon as the game began because of stomach flu, giving Seattle only seven players for the game.
Nuggets 102, Timberwolves 101, OT
At Minneapolis, Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer in overtime, as Denver kept Minnesota winless in overtime games this season.
After Minnesota took the lead with the help of two straight steals, Anthony hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 3.4 seconds left.
Andre Miller had 19 points and 13 assists for Denver, which has won four of five. Kenyon Martin, who sat out Denver's last game with an injured left knee, scored 18 off the bench and DerMarr Johnson tied a season-high with 17.
Kevin Garnett had 23 points and 15 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who have lost 13 of their last 17. Ricky Davis and Marcus Banks each added 19, but Minnesota fell to 0-4 in overtime games. Garnett shot just 8-for-21 from the field and missed tough shots at the end of regulation and overtime.
Spurs 83, Grizzlies 80
At Memphis, Tennessee, Tim Duncan scored 19 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and San Antonio withstood Memphis' furious last-minute comeback attempt.
The Spurs led 78-70 with 40 seconds left before the Grizzlies connected on back-to-back 3-pointers by Mike Miller and Shane Battier to pull within 78-76 with 19 seconds remaining.
Another 3-pointer by Miller cut it to one point, and Memphis trailed 81-79 when Hakim Warrick went to the line with 2.5 seconds left. But the rookie from Syracuse could convert only one, and Nazr Mohammed hit a pair of free throws for the final margin.
Manu Ginobili was 3-of-4 at the line in the final 18 seconds and finished with 13 points for San Antonio. Michael Finley scored 11 for the Spurs, who have won 11 of 13.
Pau Gasol led Memphis with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Miller scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Chucky Atkins scored 12 for the Grizzlies.
Rockets 91, Warriors 88
At Houston, Yao Ming and Juwan Howard each scored 22 points, and Houston beat Golden State for its first victory this season without Tracy McGrady.
McGrady was not with the team because of a death in the family, but Houston still won its season-high fourth straight at home. The Rockets had been 0-13 when their leading scorer didn't play.
Jason Richardson scored a season-high 39 points for the Warriors, but missed a 3-pointer that would have given Golden State the lead with 2 seconds left.
Keith Bogans, acquired from Charlotte on Feb. 9, got his first start with Houston in McGrady's place and scored 13 points.
Pistons 95, Bulls 87
At Chicago, Chauncey Billups scored 17 points and Antonio McDyess tied a season high with 16 to lift Detroit past Chicago in a game that featured seven technical fouls.
Detroit's Richard Hamilton scored 14 points before being ejected for picking up his second technical midway through the fourth quarter. The Pistons' Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and coach Flip Saunders collected technicals, as did the Bulls' Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni.
Ben Gordon led the Bulls with 24 points, and Nocioni scored all of his 17 in the third quarter.
76ers 116, Bucks 111
At Milwaukee, Kyle Korver scored a career-high 31 points and Allen Iverson added 30, passing Julius Erving on the NBA's career scoring list, in Philadelphia's victory over Milwaukee.
Chris Webber scored 19 points and Andre Iguodala added 13 for Philadelphia, which shot 56 percent and forced Milwaukee into multiple mistakes to overcome Joe Smith's 32-point performance, a season high.
The Bucks (27-28) lost their fourth straight to fall under .500 for the first time this season. They turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter alone after a season-low nine turnovers in a 97-91 loss at Chicago on Wednesday.
A 17-footer by Iverson early in the first quarter gave him six points, which passed Erving's 18,364 points for 47th on the all-time list. Iverson finished the quarter with 13 points, including the final seven for the Sixers.
Celtics 102, Trail Blazers 96
At Portland, Oregon, Paul Pierce scored 37 points, Wally Szczerbiak added 25, and Boston beat short-handed Portland.
Ryan Gomes added 13 points and a season-high 17 rebounds for the Celtics.
Rookie Martell Webster had 17 of his season-high 24 in the first half to lead the Blazers.
Portland's eighth loss in nine games came after a tumultuous couple of days where representatives of billionaire owner Paul Allen went public with projections of big fiscal losses and the Blazers traded unhappy forward Ruben Patterson.
Zach Randolph had 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Blazers. Darius Miles had 16 points.
Clippers 102, Lakers 83
At Los Angeles, Elton Brand scored 24 of his 32 points in the second half and had 11 rebounds as the Los Angeles Clippers stopped a season-high, five-game losing streak by beating the Lakers.
Cuttino Mobley scored 22 points and Vladimir Radmanovic had 19, including five 3-pointers, for the Clippers. The Clippers have taken two of three from their crosstown rivals as they seek to make the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.
Kobe Bryant scored 39 points, but 25 were in the first half and he had just one point in the decisive third quarter.
Chris Mihm was the only other Lakers player in double figures with 11 points.
Tien Lei's 33-point night, along with Lin Yi-hui's season-high 23 points, propelled the Dacin Tigers to an impressive 105-82 win over the Videoland Hunters at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium on Friday night.
It was the third straight game that Tien, the league's Most Valuable Player for the past two seasons, scored at least 33 points.
"I guess I just got into a groove early on, "Tien said after the game, as his Tiger pack extended its winning streak to three in a row.
The game began with both teams setting off three-pointers from all directions in a high-scoring first quarter (28-23 in favor of the Tigers).
Twenty-one of the Tigers' 28 points in the quarter came from seven three-pointers.
While a decent perimeter game by the Hunters' Yang Tseh-yi and Lee Chi-yi allowed Videoland to trade baskets against the Tigers in the first quarter, the Hunters soon turned stone-cold in a sloppy second quarter as they found themselves trailing Dacin 49-36 by the end of the first half.
The Hunters cut the Tigers lead to as few as 10 points in the third quarter after trailing by as many as 19, with an 11-2 run midway through the quarter. But Tien made several key jumpers to help the Tigers maintain a double-digit cushion during the entire second half.
In addition to Tien and Lin's fine efforts, guards Chang Chih-fong and Su Yi-jeh also pitched in 18 and 16 points, respectively, to help the Tigers break the 100-point scoring mark for the first time this season.
As for the Hunters, Player-of-the-Week winner Lee Chi-yi led his club with 19 points and 10 rebounds in another solid double-double outing, with fellow guards Yang and Chen Hui contributing 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Bank of Taiwan 20 YMY 0
A bench-clearing incident following an altercation between the bankers' Jien Ming-fu and YMY's Lu Jia-hao near the end of the first half led to the controversial walk-out of YMY on Friday.
After a delay of over an hour, officials suspended the contest in favor of the bankers and awarded them with a league-designated 20-0 win.
Inability by the officiating crew to make a decisive call with both teams threatening to leave the floor, further complicated the situation as fans booed the non-calls.
YMY argued that the Bank of Taiwan players who took the floor from the bench should be ejected from the game according to league regulations and that was the main reason they refused to resume play.
Today's Big Game
The match up between the ETTV Antelopes and the Tigers will be a battle between the two hottest clubs this afternoon as the Antelopes look to avenge their narrow 82-79 loss to the Tigers in their last meeting on Jan. 20.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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