Celtics 96 Knicks 82

by Tommy Dee on October 10th, 2009 at 10:38 am


BOX SCORE

AP

BOSTON — Kevin Garnett‘s knee is better, and he’s waiting with uncharacteristic patience for the rest of his body to catch up.

After missing 25 regular-season games and the playoffs last season because of strained ligaments in his right knee, Garnett was back on the court in Boston for the first time on Friday night in the Celtics’ 96-82 exhibition victory over the New York Knicks.”I’m not back where I want to be, but I don’t have any worries when I go out there and play,” said Garnett, who had 10 points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes — about the same as the other starters. “I’m putting in time, putting in the work and I’m doing everything they ask me to do and then some, and on top of things I’m just getting stronger. … I’m not even thinking about (my knee).”Rasheed Wallace played his first game for the Celtics in Boston and had 13 points and 12 rebounds, avoiding a technical foul from the replacement referees after picking one up in the preseason opener. Substitute officials, who are filling in while the regulars are locked out, called 75 fouls in Boston’s 96-90 loss to Houston in Hidalgo, Texas, on Wednesday night.Kendrick Perkins scored 14 points, Ray Allen had 13 and Paul Pierce added nine on 4-for-12 shooting for Boston.Al Harrington and David Lee both scored 13 points for the Knicks, who made 3 of 22 shots in the first quarter and went 28 for 76 in the game. They shot 16 percent from 3-point range — 2 for 20 in the first half.”We need to come in and get off to a good start and we couldn’t do that,” Lee said. “We couldn’t buy one to start the game and, yes, that makes it hard, confidence-wise, going forward.”
  • joetheknick

    Nobody said it would be easy for a group of players to come together as a team. That was quite evident last night. It will be a long season but hopefully one with much progress. Go Knicks

  • http://twitter.com/DellyTheGawd/status/4761570172 @DellyTheGawd

    @TommyDeeTKB david lee is def getting scooped up in my fantasy league…where’s gerald green at?

  • italian stallion

    This team is terrible.

    It’s basically the same group as last year other than a backup PG (Douglas) that doesn’t have an NBA shot yet, a backup PF that we don’t really need, and a Center that can rebound and block shots but that is totally useless otherwise.

    In the mean time, most of the rest of if the teams in the league either drafted better, have a better young core of players that is definitely improving, or made trades that made them better.

    I’ve been saying it all along. I don’t think fans realize how terrible this off season was for the Knicks. Last year was OK. At least we got rid of two bad contracts. This year has been a total disaster because we accomplished virtually nothing and almost everyone around us got better. I hate to be the messenger of doom, but this team may not win 30 games this year.

  • BiggieSmalls

    IM not buying the under 30 win projection but you are right on in your analysis of what we “added” this off season.

    2 rookies, 2 enigmas and a 2nd year player coming offf back surgery doesnt translate into a massive upgrade some think it is. Especially when one of the rookies is not ready for prime time and is considered a “project” (unacceptable at the 8th pick)

    This team as constructed and “system” is completely dependent on the 3 pointer falling and that is NOT a recipe for consistent success in the league.

  • DaGawD_KnowLedge

    i’m going to get to the point.

    bringing dandummi here was a big mistake
    he thinks he has a suns team where u can play smaller guys out of position
    that’s not working here
    this team needs size in the middle
    darko or jj not lee
    move lee back to his p.f position
    an i don’t want to hear lee can’t play p.f in dandummi system..

    mark jaxs would of been perfect an i don’t want to hear why hire a guy without any coaching experience…
    i bet he would of done a better job than this fool dandummi….

  • DaGawD_KnowLedge

    i also want to add are we going to sign dandummi for 10+ years cuz u seen what happened in phoenix with the players they didn’t want to play for porter they missed the rucker style play an the same thing is going to happen here with the players once he isn’t resigned so u going to have to get a new roster when dandummi is gone..REAL TALK..

  • bob go knicks

    none of these players will be here for that

  • jfried

    Man, as Tommy has said a few times now this was a preseason game, why put so much emphasis on it? Sure it was a horribly played, painful to watch preseason game. Better to get this out now and have something to really analyze and improve upon then to be hitting this kind of skid mid-season or even worse in the midst of trying to make a playoff berth.

    All that to say some of the commenters here are manic, and why not, new york sports (especially for fans of teams that have not been great historically) will mess with your mental. Personally it has forced me into a permanent wait and see state with my teams (Knicks, Jets, Mets and Rangers yea its been painful.) Stay balanced everyone and lets not call for a mutiny of coach D’Antoni until we finish the season with less than 30 W’s.

    Cool?

  • HaS

    Looks like me and you will be the ones telling everyone “I told you so” huh Big? lol

    I think they’ll get into the 30′s too but I’m not sure its even a definite. The team is maybe one injury from being in the 20′s.

  • italian stallion

    Include me n that “I told you so” group. They are going to need Chandler and Gallo to play very well to get into the 30s. To make any kind of run at the playoffs they are going to need a huge upside surprise from Chandler and Gallo. The problem is that I don’t see Chandler improving much because he was out all summer on crutches. Gallo will give us some more, but so many other teams also improved, it won’t be enough .

  • italian stallion

    This is not D’Antoni’s fault. He has terrible players to work with and the Hill draft is looking mediocre to bad. It’s not all Walsh’s fault either, but he did ZERO this summer and his draft was not good. So it’s more his fault than D’Antoni’s.

  • BobbyFromBK

    We watched an NBDL team last night in the NY Knicks. And Gallo (The best shooter D’Antoni’s ever seen) looks worse off now (Now that his back is 100% and he’s pain free) than last year. Hey Tommy, you had plenty of praise for the Bricks after the Net game Sunday? Where’s the honest critique of last night’s game?