How Does a 30 point blow-out become a 3 point nail-biter?

Don't ask me. I could hardly bear to watch. But I do know that if the Knicks had played defense in the first quarter with the same intensity that they did in the fourth, and shot free throws as well as a High School Girl's team, this game wouldn't even have been close.

Still, it's a little sad to see these two once-proud franchises fallen on such hard times. The Stephon/Sebastian match-up is always fun to watch though...a little "family feud" action goin' on there I think...and the Doc Rivers/Isiah Thomas match-up is kinda fun too...although not nearly so much fun as when they were wearing shorts instead of ties. Is the real problem with both these teams simply that these two once-great point guards can't seem to communicate effectively with these two wannabe great point guards what they want to have happen on the floor? And whose fault is that?

Hell, there's probably more than enough blame to go around here I'm sure. But I will say this: I think it's very difficult to make the adjustment from being the guy who always wants the ball in nis hands at crunch time to being a guy who will NEVER touch the ball in crunch time, and has to get it done through other guys. Which is a roundabout way of once again contrasting the differences between "doing" and "teaching" -- and the difficulty of doing the latter when the former is all you've ever really wanted to do.