<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="FullStory">Only a week ago, New York coach Isiah Thomas said he didn't believe in criticizing his teams during tough times. Tough times have apparently changed. Thomas unloaded on the team he assembled after it was blown out by Indiana 119-92 Monday night. "As a coach, you bring certain things to the table, but our collective energy, our collective heart, our collective toughness, we say the right things but we don't gut it out for 48 minutes," Thomas said. They sure didn't on Monday night. Indiana led 84-72 after three quarters, and the only mystery after that was how loud the Madison Square Garden staff would have to pump out the sound effects to drown out the "Fire Isiah" chants as the lead grew in the fourth quarter. In Monday night's other NBA games, it was Cleveland 104, Milwaukee 99 in two overtimes; Phoenix 100, San Antonio 95; Dallas 111, Orlando 108; Miami 91, Minnesota 87; Atlanta 116, Utah 111; Golden State 125, Memphis 117; and Portland 88, New Orleans 76. The game was tied at 64 midway through the third quarter, before Mike Dunleavy got going. He made a layup and scored Indiana's next 12 points, capping his personal flurry with a 3-pointer that made it 76-66 with 2:08 left in the quarter. Dunleavy scored 22 of his career-high 36 points in the quarter "Michael carried us," Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said. "He was brilliant tonight. He's having a career year. He was just on fire and it was great to see because we needed it." Jermaine O'Neal, who developed into an All-Star while playing for Thomas in Indiana, scored 22 points two days after a mild concussion in a victory at Miami. "My heart goes out to Isiah, because I know him personally," O'Neal said. "Isiah's like a father to me and I know the type of competitive nature he has and the effort that's out there, and it's tough to see. It's tough to hear the crowd say fire him." Stephon Marbury returned to the Knicks after missing four straight games after his father's death. He came off the bench and scored 16 points, and Eddy Curry also added 16. Curry was also the victim of a hoax. Word somehow got out that he guaranteed a victory - which Curry denied - but word got back to the Pacers, who believed it. O'Neal said the players discussed it and thought it was strange. Not that it matters in what is quickly becoming a lost season for the Knicks. "We don't grind and we don't compete like we should for 48 minutes and I've never ... a lot of things that can be said about me and teams that I've coached and the way I played, but I've never been accused of not having heart or competing," Thomas said. "Tonight was very discouraging to me because we didn't collectively play with heart and compete like I know I do. "I can give you a lot of things, but I can't give you pride and heart," he said. "A certain amount of that, the team collectively as players got to bring that to the court every night."</div></span></p> <span class="FullStory">Source: News 8</span></p>
He should be a man and tell the team to go to hell and quit. There is no way he'll fix the team, it'll only worser as the season goes on.</p>
It's already going to take the team years to rebuild from the mess he made. Get him out of there before he makes it worse...although I don't know who would want to take on the job as coach</p>
