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For the second straight night, the Knicks fell to a team fighting for their playoff lives and for the second straight game, Isiah Thomas gave the bulk of the playing time to youngsters.
Walt "Clyde" Frazier and I discuss Thomas' philosophy of going with youth over the vets. Watch postgame reaction from Wilson Chandler, Renaldo Balkman and David Lee by CLICKING HERE.
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The Knicks played well Sunday, but a strong fourth quarter from the Hawks led to a 109-98 win for Atlanta.
Walt "Clyde" Frazier and I discuss how Isiah Thomas went with a youthful lineup in the game, especially during the later stages. Watch Isiah Thomas' postgame press conference by CLICKING HERE.
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In spite of the best efforts from Zach Randolph, who notched his 30th double-double this season, the Knicks fell to the Atlanta Hawks, 99-93, Friday night at Philips Arena.
Kenny Smith and I credit Mike Bibby with providing the calming influence for Atlanta down the stretch.
Watch postgame reactions from Isiah Thomas and Jamal Crawford by CLICKING HERE.
Pass rush.
The Super Bowl hopes for the Giants rest with one element, and one element only; their pass rush. Their pass rush won them the Dallas game, won them the Green Bay game, and is the only chance they have of winning the New England game.
Sure Eli Manning is getting all the pre-game hype and headlines. That’s the way it works with quarterbacks. They get too much blame when a team loses and too much credit when it wins.
 Eli has gotten most all the credit for the Giants so far this postseason. And to a certain extent, with good reason.
I’m not trying to tell you his play is irrelevant; of course he has to play well again. I’m also not trying to tell you that his eight TD passes in the last five games is irrelevant, because he’s been terrific and for the first time in his career has become the No. 1 pick in the draft.
What I am saying is this: Eli was just as good against the Patriots in the last game of the season as he was in any of the Giants three playoff wins. He basically played mistake-free football. He was efficient, productive, and was cool and calm on the big stage.
He was a leader in every sense of the word against New England ... and the Giants still lost.
The reason they came back and won in Tampa Bay, the reason they made Tony Romo look ordinary in Dallas, and the reason Brett Favre did what Favre will do when harassed (throw it to the wrong team) is because the Giants took advantage of the biggest talent disparity they have over just about every team. And that is their defensive front seven, particularly the front four.
The Giants can do what very few teams in football are able; they can pressure the quarterback, often without even needing to blitz. Getting heat on a QB and still dropping seven into coverage? Do that and you win, plain and simple.
 Now go back and check on how many teams have been able to do that to Tom Brady during this amazing season the Pats have had. I would be the last one to try and minimize what Brady, Randy Moss & Co. have accomplished this year, but what never ever seems to get talked about (at least not nearly in proportion when bouquets are being tossed at all the Pats skill position players) is the job their O-line has done in protecting Brady.
Never have I seen a less-pressured QB than Brady has been this year. He stands back there and it looks like one of those seven-on-seven drills teams run in practice. It’s absurd at times.
Go back and look at any one of the 500 TD passes it feels like he threw to Moss this year, and see how many he threw under duress or how many he threw where Moss didn’t have a chance to run around for about six or seven seconds to get free.
The pass protection of the Pats this year was unparalleled. And it was as big a reason why Brady and his group had their season as his individual brilliance. In danger of being branded some type of football heretic, I would venture to say it was a bigger reason than Brady’s own greatness.
This brings me back to the Giants. Eli can be just as good as he has been in any of the last three playoff wins. In fact, he can be better. And if the Giants don’t pressure Brady, then they can play this game 100 times and their record at the end of those games would be 0-100.
The Giants have a few guys in that front seven that can get to the quarterback and make a play that wreck a game for the opposition. They have to do that Sunday. If they don’t, Don Shula’s old Dolphins team will have company for the first time.
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Bob Wischusen and Walt "Clyde" Frazier feel the Knicks' porous defense got them into trouble in the fourth quarter of a 111-98 loss to the Washington Wizards Friday night.
The broadcasting duo runs through what led to the end of the Knicks' season-high, three-game winning streak.
Watch postgame reaction from Isiah Thomas, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry by CLICKING HERE.
The Knicks had no answers for Chris Bosh, who put up 40 points for the Raptors, as New York lost its fifth straight at home in the midst of a four-game homestand, 99-90 at Madison Square Garden Friday night.
Walt "Clyde" Frazier and I go over went wrong in tonight's loss.
Watch Isiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph react to the loss by CLICKING HERE.
Another offseason of answering questions now begins for the Jets. Mercifully, the season came to a close, although the Jets can't seem to catch a break in the eyes of their fans.
After listening to Jets fans complain all year about the losses, it must have been pretty frustrating to the powers that be to hear many fans complain about a win!
But life as a Jets fan always seems to be about trying to figure out what can go wrong next, and a win over Kansas City to close the season dropped the Jets a few spots in the draft order.
That, of course, may mean absolutely nothing in terms of the long-term success of whomever they pick. And the jury is very much out on which direction they'll go.
One thing is for certain, it won't be a quiet off season.
RUNNING BACKS | DRAFT DAY | HOLES TO FILL
Of course Dallas' goaltender Mike Smith was incredible in the Stars 3-2 win over the Rangers Sunday, but Bob Wischusen and I believe the difference in the game was New York's inability to get anything going on the power play. To watch postgame reactions from Tom Renney, Henrik Lundqvist, Jaromir Jagr and Sean Avery CLICK HERE.
The Rangers finally picked up a road win Saturday night with a 3-2 shootout victory over Toronto.
Stephen Valiquette made his first appearance for the Rangers since March, and for Bob Wischusen (filling in for Sam Rosen) and I, the 32 saves in his hometown on Hall of Fame Weekend made for an impressive first outing.
Finish.
It is one of the tenets Eric Mangini preaches to his team every day, every week, all season. And the Jets inability to finish is the biggest reason why they are floundering at 1-8 in a lost season, after their latest missed opportunity against the Redskins in overtime Sunday.
 It’s funny, when you think of 1-8 teams, you picture a highlight reel full of bloopers. But the Jets are far from inept; they are in their games almost every Sunday!
Look at their season on a week-by-week basis. Other than opening day, when they were beaten badly by the Pats much like every other team the Pats have played this year, they have been not only competitive, but in a great position to win most every other game.
It’s mind boggling that they keep finding ways to come up short. They could so easily have won three or four of these other games and be right around .500 now, it makes all the bitter pills that much more difficult to swallow.
The Redskins loss is their fifth this year by a TD or less. It was the third time they have led by double digits and lost: They led the Giants by 10 at the half and lost. They led the Bengals by 13 in the third quarter and lost. They led the Redskins 17-3 early ... and lost.
Effort is not the issue. They play hard for their coach, and there is something to be said for that in a season that has spiraled out of control as far as the standings are concerned. But finishing the job is the mark of good teams. And it has been the hardest part of watching this Jets season come apart.
It wasn't supposed to end this way, not the way it began back in 2002 when Chad Pennington took over for Vinny Testaverde and ignited a Jets season that led to perhaps the most unlikely division title in NFL history, going from 2-5 to 9-7 and a blowout of Peyton Manning in the first round.
A Jets fan that year could close his eyes and picture Chad standing next to Paul Tagliabue holding the Vince Lombardi trophy. It was probably the first time a Jets fan felt as if that was an eventuality since a guy named Joe Namath played the position. But as we have become all too aware through our lives as sports fans, nothing is ever guaranteed.
 So it was hard to watch on Sunday, as the Jets offense again struggled as much as it ever has when Pennington has been healthy. Hard to watch Pennington stand on the sideline and observe the last four minutes, his Jets career arguably coming to an end in front of about 10,000 stragglers still in the building, probably about half of them wearing his jersey.
Time marches on in sports, torches are passed, that's the way it works. And talking to Chad after the game, he seemed very resigned to the fact that this was the moment in his career, it was happening to him. This even before Eric Mangini made the official announcement on Monday.
The coach was very careful to reiterate that Pennington going to the bench should in no way be mistaken for him being singled out for what's happened this season. Chad may not have provided many solutions, but he is far from the only problem. He hasn't had a consistent run game to go to, he hasn't been consistently well protected, and he hasn't watched a defense get stops when necessary. No team is 1-7 because of one guy.
But that's the nature of playing that position. It's like being a head coach - when you win you get too much credit, and when you lose you get too much blame.
Now it's Kellen Clemens turn to find out what it's like.
Chad Pennington put it perfectly, "right, wrong or indifferent" the quarterback takes the blame. That's the way it works in the NFL. The quarterback is a lot like the head coach; they both get too much blame when things are going downhill and too much credit when a team is winning. So, the knife cuts both ways.
But that's why Pennington's job is in jeopardy right now, as unfair as it may be. Kellen Clemens may replace Pennington this week, and if and when it happens it's something that will make big headlines.
 Even at a time in New York when the identity of the next Yankees manager seems more important than the identity of the next President of the United States (am I the only one who stopped reading Yankees articles about three weeks ago because I just can't take it anymore!?), when the Jets make a QB switch it may be on the back pages despite a 1-6 season thus far.
To put it into perspective, there are several veterans with the Jets that already seemed to have lost their jobs, or were placed on the back burner at least this past week. Against the Bengals, Hank Poteat started for Andre Dyson at CB, Abram Elam started in place of either Erik Coleman or Eric Smith at safety.
Maybe it was only for one game, but those changes barely even grab a mention in the postgame notes. When a NFL team makes a QB change though, for fans of that team you remember it like you remember where you were when Kennedy was shot. What devoted Jets fan can't name the year and game where Pennington took over for Vinny Testaverde?
It's a big deal when you change quarterbacks, and there's really no going back when the torch is passed from Pennington to Clemens.
This past week, the loss had little to do with Pennington. The two biggest mistakes in the game were a 20-yard punt and an errant snap, both coming at midfield and both setting up TD's for Cincy. The biggest continual trend in the game was the Bengals' constant ability to the run the ball, control the clock and end long drives with TD's, not field goals. These are all things that had nothing to do with who the Jets' QB was.
Pennington may well lose his job, but the Jets have plenty of other things to worry about.
The Jets will send Kellen Clemens in as their starting QB someday. That was a certainty when they drafted him in the second round last year.
But on the heels of Sunday's loss to the Eagles, with a figurative mob standing outside the Jets offices with torches in hand calling for the replacement of Chad Pennington, Eric Mangini isn't making the move yet. And I don't blame him, for several reasons.
 First of all, I still believe Pennington can play better and win games for the Jets again, and I'm not sure that the Jets coaching staff is convinced he's done either.
If Pennington indeed is put on the trading block after this season, you'll see several teams line up to try and get him, and you can start with Kansas City for obvious reasons.
Pennington is everything you would want the face of your organization to be. He's a leader, he's smart, he's nice to people, he's an incredibly hard worker, he cares tremendously about his job and his performance and he's never ever in any trouble. All he wants to do is be a father, a husband and quarterback.
For all those reasons since I've gotten to know him a little bit, I root for him. Maybe that clouds my judgment, but I don't think his career is over yet.
And secondly, if and when the Jets pass the torch to Clemens (who is also a wonderful young man by the way), they want to be positively sure it's the right time.
The position of quarterback in the NFL brings scrutiny unlike any other in pro sports. The Jets want to be absolutely sure that the decision comes at the right time, since it will be a passing of the torch that could later the course of the franchise for the next five years.
If Mangini wants to take his time with this one, it's the right thing to do.
Jaromir Jagr may have scored his 100th goal as a Ranger in a 3-1 loss to the Senators Saturday, but as I discuss with Bob Wischusen (filling in for Sam Rosen), Jagr is still adjusting to his new linemates.
When you have a chance to put a game away, you need someone to make a play. When you are withing striking distance to pull off a potential comeback in the NFL, you need someone to make a play.
Give the Giants credit. In the battle of New York, they made big plays and the Jets didn't.
The Giants are a classic example of a team that looks a lot better than they are when they win and a lot worse than they are when they lose. They are an all-time feast or famine team, tremendously inconsistent.
But the Giants have as many as 10 players that, at any point, can completely blow up a game: Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer, Sinorice Moss, Osi Umenyoira, Michael Strahan, Antonio Pierce, Mathias Kiwanuka, R.W. McQuarters, Sam Madison ... heck, throw in Aaron Ross after yesterday! He's the ultimate example. Ross was benched in the first half, then had two picks in the second half with a score!
All of these guys are capable of pulling a total disappearing act or making THE big play in a game that can turn things completely around for their team.
The Jets are at the opposite end of the spectrum. Right now it looks like they have no game-changing players (other than Leon Washington). Rather, they have players that are very consistent, keeping games close just about every week, but leaving themselves no margin for error when it comes to putting the game away.
Eric Mangini constantly talks about being consistent, playing all four quarters, and finishing. That's what he has to preach and that's the way the Jets have to play. They must play, basically, mistake-free football for all four quarters with a top effort level because they can't make up for any little letdown with the spectacular play.
The Giants got booed off the field at halftime after Manning threw an inconceivable interception at the end of the second quarter. But they have that margin for error. They can come back in the second half and get an amazing individual play from Burress on his touchdown or a great break and read interception from Ross.
Remember, they had 12 sacks on Donovan McNabb a week ago! The Giants can make the game changing play.
If the Jets can find that ability in the second half of the season, they still have a shot to make a run. That's what defines the great teams: Consistency combined with the great play.
Right now, the New York teams have a little of both.
Oftentimes it's only the left tackle that makes big money. Fans rarely ask for their autographs, especially when the skill position guys are around. The only time their number is announced is when they commit a penalty, and like the officials, oftentimes when they're doing their best work, it goes completely unnoticed.
But ask any football coach where it all starts and ends offensively, even for the most high powered attacks, and it's always the offensive line.
Through the first three weeks of the season, the Jets are a great example of exactly that.
 Think about when things started to turn around for the Jets - in the fourth quarter against Baltimore two Sundays ago. What was the biggest change offensively at that point? The play of the Jets' O-Line.
They couldn't protect Chad Pennington in Week 1 and were dominated by the Pats. They couldn't protect Kellen Clemens for the first three quarters against Baltimore and were behind by two scores. But in the fourth quarter of that game, it all changed. They protected Clemens and he threw for 176 yards and a TD in the fourth quarter, and they almost tied the game.
Sunday they did a solid, if not spectacular, job of protecting Pennington and opening holes for Thomas Jones. It wasn't their best effort, and I think the Jets will continue to expect even more of this group as the season goes on, but they gave you a reason to hope for plenty. Because on a day when the offensive line was effective, the Jets put 31 points on the board.
All anyone wanted to talk about after the first two games was the QB spot - but if you really look at the two losses, the QB play had nothing to do with the problems the Jets were having.
You think the Patriots are 3-0 because Tom Brady is the best? That certainly has something to do with it. But do you think Tom Brady might be the best, at least in part, because no one ever lays a glove on him?
No offensive line has played better that the Pats through the first three weeks.
If the Jets group can play on that level, they'll be in the hunt again in December.
Maybe I'm just a lot higher in the air than everyone else is -- up in the clouds in the press box at the Meadowlands -- but I had a completely different take on the supposed crowd-cheering of Chad Pennington's injury on Sunday.
It was amazing to me the venom with which the media seemed to attack Jets fans for what, I believe, was a complete misinterpretation of the cheers that were heard.
 If you look back at the tape, Pennington is injured as the play ends, comes hopping out of the huddle to the middle of the field, limps around noticeably, falls to the turf, then gets up and hops to the bench.
This episode took at least 20 or so seconds to play out, I would say, and was clearly the focal point of the entire stadium as it happened midfield. During this entire time, the crowd noise stays basically muted. Then, as Kellen Clemens comes on the field, the place erupts.
Maybe I'm looking at it the the wrong way, but Clemens is the classic example of the hot preseason player everyone falls in love with, and he had perhaps the best preseason of any QB in Jets history. His numbers were stellar, coming of course against a vast number of opponents who have been subsequently cut by their respective teams.
To me, that response was all about Clemens. If the crowd wanted to cheer Pennington's injury, which would have been every bit the classless act that was vilified had it taken place, they had ample time to do so - and did not in my opinion.
Now, that's not to say that there isn't some moron factor in any and every crowd and there may have been a few that make up that demographic cheering, while Chad was still on the field and injured.For that, their season tickets should be revoked.
But the vast majority of the crowd noise came when Clemens came onto the field rather than when Pennington was coming off. Just my opinion, but Jets fans got a bad rap.
Oh, those Jets!
I obviously called every painful play on Friday night, and I would very simply caution Jets fans to do what always seems very hard to do at this time of year and yet you must ... disregard anything and everything you see in the NFL's preseason.
 It doesn't matter, teams don't show anything, players are just trying to get some work in and not get killed. I saw a report on TV that said LaDainian Tomlinson hasn't touched the ball in a preseason game since 2005 and hasn't had even 20 total preseason carries in his career.
Have you seen the numbers Tom Brady has put up so far this August? This all just doesn't matter.
Start worrying after Labor Day, the week the Pats are coming in for an opener that proves to be the most important game in the NFL in week 1 once the season plays out.
The Liberty making the playoffs is the wonderful come-from-behind surprise in the WNBA this year.
Take a look at the rosters of each team in the WNBA playoffs and compare them to New York's roster. Then tell me which team the Liberty has more individual talent than?
I don't want this to sound like a back-handed compliment, and it may be almost impossible for it not to be taken that way, but the fact is that the Liberty don't have a true star player, and every other team in the playoffs has at least one with some having as many as four.
Where is the Liberty's Lauren Jackson? Tamika Catchings? Diana Taurasi? They don't have that kind of "take over the game" type talent. No Liberty player made the All-Star game.
Yes, Janel McCarville will probably be the league's Most Improved Player, and deservedly so. And yes she has shown an ability to be an impact player. Just watch the fourth quarter of Sunday's game and you'll see a virtuoso performance.
But Tiffany Jackson and Jessica Davenport were drafted to be part of a rebuilding process, and yet here is the Liberty winning their last three in a row and making it to the postseason where they get a Detroit team in the first round that went 2-2 against them, with one of the losses coming in overtime.
The Liberty has a puncher's chance, and they shouldn't even be in the fight. Which is why, not only did I vote for McCarville, but I voted for Patty Coyle as well for Coach of the Year. Another back-handed compliment here I know, but what coach won more with less than Coyle? What coach in the WNBA got more out of her roster?
And I don't intend in any way to demean the roster.
This is a team that should be very proud of what it has accomplished. The easiest teams in sports to root for are good people who are underdogs at the same time. And that's what this is, as feel good an underdog as I've ever been around.
Unfortunately, for every NBA team that doesn't call Seattle or Portland home, this year's NBA draft seems to be all about leftovers. It's Greg Oden and Kevin Durant and everyone else.
Now, Al Horford, Mike Conley Jr., Corey Brewer, Brandan Wright and company may all prove to be solid NBA players. But, much like the WNBA Draft of a couple of years ago -- when Seimone Augustus and Cappie Pondexter were there at the top -- if you had the third pick, it almost felt like you had the 10th pick because of the almost absurd drop off after the top-two. And if you're still debating what Portland should do at No. 1, believe me, they're not.
Look at the landscape of the NBA. Look at the teams that have won titles, especially in the watered-down nature of today's league. It used to be that you needed at least two superstars on your team to win a title ... not anymore.
Eight of the last nine NBA title teams had either Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neal at center. If the big center is available, you take the big center, especially in this era where the league is littered with great scoring small forwards that have never and will never win anything (see Tracy McGrady).
And one quick thought on the Knicks: I don't care how many players that fit a certain mold you have, or what you think you might need, in the NBA draft when you're picking 23rd, you draft what you believe is the best player available. You don't draft based on need. You take a chance.
The Liberty's number one need coming into the 2007 WNBA Draft was athletic, front court players. They wanted players that could score and guard in the post.
They didn't have players in the front court who could guard the other team's athletic three/athletic four. They didn't have anybody who could guard Tamika Catchings or Cheryl Ford. They just didn't have that kind of player. And now they got two "lottery picks" -- the second and the fifth picks in the draft -- for the face of the franchise for basically the past 10 years in Becky Hammon.
But how many more years is Becky Hammon going to play?
I also think that it speaks to the confidence they have and the steps that were taken last year by Loree Moore and also the confidence they have going forward in Sherrill Baker.
They very quickly, in a matter of basically two years, totally overhauled their roster and became very young and have a great future.
Two years ago, their starting five was Elena Baranova, Ann Wauters, Vickie Johnson, Crystal Robinson and Becky Hammon - all players who had been in the league for anywhere from five to nine years (Johnson was an original WNBA player). And now in a matter of just two years they have completely changed their roster over to players who might be spending the next five to nine years with them.
They got exactly what they wanted. They targeted athletic, front court players that can score and guard. And not only that, but now they're going to have two first-round picks next year. To me, this is a home run draft and a home run day for the Liberty.
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