Sorry again for the lack of preview. I was busy today and will be out all day tommorow, but I'll be back by Monday full time. Here's the NBA.com preview of the game. Marbury is doubtful for the game. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NEW YORK, January 19, 2006 -- No Stephon Marbury; no Antonio Davis (suspended for five games for going into the stands in Chicago); an insanely emotional overtime loss on the road the night before; facing the best team in the league in the 31-5 Detroit Pistons. If ever a game shouted ?trouble!? before it even began, this was it. Of course, one can always hope for miracles -- but none were forthcoming in the Knicks 105-79 loss to the Motor City magicians. ?Not having Stephon, not having Antonio, hurt us tremendously, of course,? Coach Larry Brown said. ?On the other hand, I?m not sure how much difference they could have made in this game. This was like the JV playing the varsity. They could have beaten us by a hundred.? Actually, the Knick got the score within six (35-29) late in the second quarter. But ?after that, they did anything they wanted,? said Brown. ?They are at a whole different level than we are right now.? No one could deny that after watching this game. Still, Marbury?s and Davis? absence meant much more than ?just? missing two starters against the top team in the universe. For one thing, for the Knicks to have any chance against a nearly unbeatable outfit such as Detroit they would have to be at their level best. Sans Marbury -- the prime point guard showed his value in his absence almost as much as when he plays -- that was very close to a impossibility. Chemistry? The Knicks could have used one of Jamal Crawford?s by-now-characteristic scoring explosions. ?No, I?m not tired and I?m most certainly not in a slump,? said Crawford who shot 1-6. ?But with Stephon out, I have a different role. I must focus on running the team.? Leadership? Davis and Marbury are the team?s two veteran leaders. In their place the Knicks started three rookies (for the first time since the final game of Patrick Ewing?s rookie season). Which would be fine -- the youthful trio has been beyond promising ? except Nate Robinson has once again been energetic but erratic (11 points, 4 assists, 7 turnovers.) And Channing Frye and David Lee have both hit a little bit of a rookie wall just about now. Frye, a fantastically accurate shooter (still third best among all NBA rookies at 51.2 per cent) has now been below 50 per cent five of his last six games. Lee, who quite literally couldn?t miss for his first eight starts, shooting an unearthly 30-38, is 1-7 in his last two. Frye?s 17-foot jumper tied the game at 6-6 when things started to go south. The septet of baskets in the Pistons 14-2 run included three lay-ups and two dunks, loudly testifying to the Knicks? porous defense. Offensively, the Knicks were taking good shots but they were not going in as Detroit led 28-13 after one quarter. A fine Nate Robinson floater and a thunderous Eddy Curry dunk gave the Knicks brief hope (28-17) at the opening of the second. As the Knick reserves came in -- Jerome James and Mo Taylor made particularly positive plays -- the New York defense tightened as well (35-29) inside and on the baseline. Things, however, opened up on the perimeter at this point, with Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince throwing down a veritable rainstorm of treys on the too loose Knick defense. It was 48-33 at the half. The Detroit lead stretched to 25 (74-49) toward the end of the third and all the way to 30 (89-59) by the middle of the fourth quarter. Even rarely used folk-hero Darko Milicic got into the game at this point, to the delight of the crowd. Brown wisely used the out-of-hand game as a learning experience. ?We had three rookies in there and I wanted them to play as long as they could,? he said. ?I wanted them to experience close-up what a championship team is like. Eddy Curry played 42 minutes. If the game was three hours long, he would have played for three hours.? Curry had 26 points on 10-15 shooting and also led the team with 8 rebounds. Frye -- he?s very good even at less than his best -- had 15 and 7. ?Detroit played world championship basketball,? said Frye. ?Every team in the league strives to be like them. We missed our two guys but there are no excuses. They came out and whooped us.? Still, ?this was embarrassing,? added Crawford. ?We are better than this, even without Antonio and Steph. But we have a better effort than that.? The big question is, is last week?s momentum completely gone? ?Not at all,? said Crawford. ?We?ll get our guys back, regroup, and just get on an another roll.? </div> Knicks.com
