MVN: Most Valuable Network

In Mo Cheeks first game after receiving a contract extension, his team may have played the best basketball they've played all year. After a bad loss to Minnesota Tuesday, the Sixers sure were happy to see the Knicks come to town.

To be honest, I didn't think the Knicks were that bad. If you've never seen them play and you looked at their roster you would probably say the same thing. Almost every writer had them finishing ahead of the Sixers in preseason predictions. The addition of Zach Randolph was supposed to catapult them into the playoffs. That didn't exactly pan out.

I'm at a loss of words describing the Knicks. Bad is an understatement and so is any other word your thinking of. I didn't know any professional organization with paid athletes, coaches and front-office people could be that poorly put together and ran. I literally laughed out loud during the game thinking about this beatdown and how bad they looked. Tonight the Knicks showed why they are the butt of everyone's jokes and the laughingstock of the NBA.

Well, the final score was 84-124  and there really isn't much to say about the game. From the jump the Sixers just outplayed them, except Eddy Curry for the first 5 minutes of the game. Nobody didn't play well tonight....Giricek doesn't count. The game was over right after the second t.v timeout by my watch. A blowout couldn't had better timing . It was just in time for the Shaq and J-Kidd debuts. Here are some fun halftime stats and tidbits.

Andre Miller 6 points and 9 assists. Been done before, nothing special. Willie Green bounces back from a poor game in Minneapolis to drop 17 (7-11 shooting) in the first 24. He finished with 21 to lead all scorers. Reggie Evans got the start (to match up with Z-Bo and Curry down low) and Thaddeus Young had 10 and Rodney had 8 off the bench . Here's where it gets fun.

The score was  36-72 at the intermission. 72 is the most in a half this season. We were shooting 63.8 %. 14 steals, and only 4 turnovers. 20 fastbreak points in the first half when we only managed 11 against the T' Wolves on Tuesday. At one point in the 3rd quarter, when we had 32 fastbreak points they had 32 points in the game.

If I were the Knicks GM, I wouldn't know where to start in fixing this mess. I mean, Nate Robinson is not a starter or a point guard. Stephon Marbury is hurt, not very good anymore and nobody wants him. You have a bunch of guys that do the same thing. You have one guy that can shoot, and pass, and dribble in Jamal Crawford but that leaves you with 14 more to get, just like him. Eddy Curry plays about 15 minutes a game lately and Zach Randolph can't do it all by himself even if he may think so at times.They are in bad shape and it stems from the current coach and GM. What?..They're the same guy?...Fire him then!

Trades wouldn't help at this point but I did hear the rumor of a 3-team deal involving Miami, New York and New Jersey. Vince Carter would take a cab to N.Y, Eddy Curry would head to South Beach, and Ricky Davis and Jason Williams would go to New Jersey. It's a pretty good deal to me. The Knicks get the one position they really needed. The Heat get an overweight center that they never had before and N.J gets a a gunning wing player who rather take jumpshots than go to the hole. As much as I hate to say it, tanking is the best option, but it looks like they've already started.

I came away from this game with a big sigh of relief. Knowing that Thaddeus Young continues to improve (new career-high, 20 points)  and seeing Andre Iguodala make some free-throws (4-4)! Now I'm able to say that last loss was due to all-star break, 1st away game after long homestand or 2 of our guys had the stomach bug.

The Hawks loss puts us in sole possession of 8th seed but the Nets overtime win didn't allow us to reach 7th.  I watched the Nets/Bulls game and we are a much better team than they are and we are a definite playoff team. It's just a matter of continuing to play hard against good teams, stomping on bad teams and staying healthy now. The trading deadline is at 3 p.m Thursday. Hopefully this wasn't the last time we saw an Andre Miller bullet down low pass a defender with his back turned or a set shot, jumping 9 centimeters off the ground.