<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class="bi">Rematch Downplayed</div> <div> <span style="font-style: italic">Nov 6</span> - A little less than a year later, the teams meet tonight at the Garden for the first time since that heated scene. No one expects it to be Round 2 and the players involved have said they've moved on -- "It's a new year," Nate Robinson said -- but there's no denying that bad blood still exists between Isiah Thomas and Denver coach George Karl, who is a close friend of former Knicks coach Larry Brown. After the game, Karl called Thomas "a jerk" and said, "There's no question in my mind it was premeditated."</p> </p> Thomas yesterday said he hasn't thought about Karl's remarks and said he'll be "cordial, as I am with anyone" if he crosses paths with Karl tonight. But when asked if he had the chance to speak with Karl at the Las Vegas Summer League in July, Thomas paused, said, "Denver's a great team" and walked away. -- <font color="#000000">Newsday</font></p> </p> </p> [*]The teams have not shared a court in any city since the Dec. 16 melee, which resulted in the suspensions of seven players and unprecedented $500,000 fines for each franchise. </p> Predictably, everyone is shrugging off the reunion, insisting that the conflict is history.</p> </p> "It already is to us; it's something that's in the past," said the Knicks reserve Mardy Collins, whose open-court takedown of J. R. Smith sparked the fight. "We're just going out and playing basketball. We're not thinking about that." -- <font color="#000000">New York Times</font></p> </p> [*]Robinson said tonight will be about basketball. </p> "I can guarantee it," he said. "You pray nothing goes wrong." -- <font color="#000000">New York Post</font></p> </p> [*]The suspensions nearly derailed the Nuggets' season in addition to besmirching the organization. "I was embarrassed," Karl said. "We were part of a black eye for basketball." </p> Tonight's early-season game calls for a forecast featuring showers of boos. The first hard foul will likely make everyone brace for a moment.</p> </p> "I think we put it behind us from a standpoint of anger and revenge," Karl said. "I think we're going to be professionally tuned up to play basketball." -- <font color="#000000">Denver Post</font></p> </p> [*]"That incident, it happened, it's over with," Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said. "I don't even think about it anymore." </p> It was hard for Anthony not to think about it midway through last season. Suspended for 15 games for throwing a punch at Knicks guard Mardy Collins, he suffered the greatest consequences of any of the seven players suspended. -- <font color="#000000">Rocky Mountain News</font></p></div> </div>
