The New York Knickerbockers lost 109-100 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second home game of the season for the Knicks. This paper uses the recent controversy over killing wolves in Montana and elsewhere to present a creative side to the sports report. Also, the paper picks out the cliches and platitudes that players uttered in the post game interviews.
Wolves Shoot Down Kicks, 109-100
Hunters in Wisconsin, Montana and elsewhere have been given authorization to kill as many wolves as they can, despite protests from conservation groups that claim wolves are not yet ready to be removed from the "endangered species" list.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, November 3, the New York Knickerbockers tried hard to kill the spirits -- and shoot down the momentum -- of the Minnesota Timberwolves, but in the end, Wolves were never really in danger of losing, and they topped the Knicks, 109-100.
Why did the Knicks lose this game to the Wolves after surging ahead briefly? It is clear that when the Knicks allowed the Wolves 40 points in the first quarter, New York was in deep trouble, albeit they battled back.
"The Knicks made their run and we responded and went back up again," said Wolves' head coach Rick Adelman. "The Knicks are a good team. Carmelo (Anthony) got hot and he made some tough shots," Adelman continued. But, Adelman added, Corey Brewer and Derrick Williams "…made him work. All we wanted to do was make Carmelo work hard for his shots."
As for Anthony (known as "Melo"), who scored 22 points and had 17 rebounds, he didn't mention the extra pressure placed on him, saying instead, "Offensively we are a little off beat. We have to get in sync offensively. I have to get in sync offensively. That time will come."
Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Kenyon Martin and head coach Mike Woodson talked about the need New York had for a shovel (metaphorically that is). Chandler said, "Obviously we dug ourselves in a hole that we couldn't get out of." Anthony added: "We gave up 40 points in that first quarter. We dug ourselves into a hold and we had to fight back." Coach Woodson insisted that "…you can't come out in your home court and dig a hole like we did tonight."
By "…fighting" back, the Knicks began to dig part way out from the hole they placed themselves in, Anthony said. "We started feeling desperate."
Martin chimed in with his best "hole" metaphor: "The bench did an excellent job while the starters were resting but when you dig yourself a hole that that it is hard to get out of it."
Later in the interview, coach Woodson used "hole" in another context. "We've got to put the ball on the floor and try to get to the hole" (the basket).
The big scorer for the Wolves was a newcomer to Minnesota, Kevin Love, who tallied 34 points and hauled down 15 rebounds to lead his team. "He's only been with us a short time," said Adelman, "a little over a month now, so I'm excited to see what we can do in the future…"
Metta World Peace, whose name once was Ron Artest, took note of Kevin Love's talent. "He played really good. Team concept [and] I thought he was tough shooting."
At that point in the post-game interview, Metta World Peace fell into the trap of sports cliches and platitudes. "Sometimes you're not the better team on a given night and that's what it was. The nights you lose you're just not the better team." After issuing that, he polished off his quotes with this: "It's unfortunate but it's just reality."
While he was on the losing end, Metta World Peace, the former Laker, played only 21 minutes but scored 17 points on 7 for 13 shooting.
Coach Woodson wasn't against using a cliche or two in his discussion of the loss. "It's tough to swallow, especially when you come into the game holding your first two opponents to about eighty points a game."
Woodson commented on his rookie shooter Tim Hardaway Jr., saying patience is important with an inexperienced player first coming into the NBA. "He is a young rookie trying to figure it out." Then Woodson appeared to offer some coaching advice to Hardaway through the media:
"When the three-point shots aren't falling, he has got to get closer to the bucket, if not the free throw line."
Adelman obviously knows how tough it is for a visiting team to play in Madison Square Garden with the loud very partisan crowd, but he took pride in the way his team responded to the Knicks' run. "We're at Madison Square Garden and the Knicks were making their run and have so many volume shooters, so for us to fight through it at the end and get buckets when we needed to, was big for us…"
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