You know, when I watch an NBA game, there are certain things that you expect. Things like passing, making shots, rebounding, and just overall effort. Well because I am an NBA fan, I made the mistake of setting the TiVo to record last night’s Knicks vs. Celtics game. I did that because I am one of the lucky few to have satellite so I got to watch the Packers vs. Cowboys game on the NFL Network. I know, Bryant Gumbel is probably the worst play-by-play guy in creation, but at least I could mute him and still watch a good game (yes, I did that after a while, same as I do for every game they show on NFLN). Back to the Knicks, I probably should have not recorded the game and instead record “Ugly Betty” (hey, Vanessa Williams still looks great to be like 80 years old).

What I saw from the Knicks was a team that said screw it. Virtually every player stole last night’s game check “Ocean’s 11″ style. Isiah looked frustrated on the sidelines, and the Celtics looked like they were playing the Louisiana-Monroe Fighting Nutria’s basketball team. Pretty much whatever they wanted to do, they did with little to no resistance.

Hey, one would not expect that from a Stephon Marbury led team right??? Steph looked like he was more interested in selling $14.98 shoes at your local Steve & Barry’s. Marv Albert called it “an embarrassment” and Reggie Miller called them a “team in turmoil”. But what got us to that point??? Let’s examine…

Isiah is an ok coach but the absolute worst GM this side of Scott Layden. You know, it’s funny, because Scott Layden was the last GM of the Knicks. Who hired these guys??? That would be James Dolan, he of the powerful Dolan family (Cablevision empire). It took fans to chant “Fire Layden” every game, sometimes before games even tipped, before he got his hands off his guitar and started to write pink slips. Guess which chants have just started at Knick home games. As far as personnel moves, he is the one that has assembled this “roster”. I made the point earlier that this current roster is pretty much a clustef**k of parts. You have a LOT of shoot first, shoot second, shoot third, and shoot some more players.

Last night, I saw Zach Randolph miss two shots in a row and he was 4 ft away from the basket. Marbury jacked up jumpers like he was on a Pop A Shot machine at Dave & Busters. The only players that showed any heart were Ronaldo Balkman, Nate Robinson, and David Lee. While that was great, they are not real scoring threats. oh, also, DID I MENTION THAT THEY ONLY SCORED 59 POINTS!!! An NBA team in this day in time should score more than 59 points. They shot 30% from the field, 20% from 3 point range, and 14 turnovers. Of course, Quentin Richardson did provide some motivation to the Celtics by saying that they were “a 3 man team with no depth”.

So what now??? Isiah needs to go. 3 or 4 players are serviceable, but the rest of the roster needs to be gutted like a fish. Dolan needs to get someone in like a Jerry Colangelo that knows what they are doing, and needs to stay out of the way. If he does this, David Stern will not make good on his threat to “fix it”. The good thing is that because the strike on Broadway, a good drama can be found at the Garden. How about this: Le’s dress up the Knicks goal as an SUV with a picture of an attractive intern in the back windshield. Then maybe he will know how to “get it in the hole”…