On November 21, the course of the Knicks’ season took a curious turn when Nate Robinson shot at his own basket.  Even though the basket didn’t count and he only released it after the buzzer had already sounded, coach Mike D’Antoni was furious.  The incident was in many ways a microcosm of Robinson’s career in New York.  And it was the first domino to fall in a fascinating sequence of events for the Knicks.

Ten days and five consecutive losses later, the Knicks were 3-14, and the organization’s outlook was cloudy at best.  This was the year that they were supposed to turn the corner, be respectable and position themselves to attract a big free agent in the offseason.  To make matters worse, the Knicks had to kick off the month of December against D’Antoni’s former team, the Phoenix Suns, who at 14-3 had the best record in the league.

For reasons unknown (at the time), Robinson played just 11 minutes in that game, and the Knicks, remarkably, routed Phoenix by 27 points. D’Antoni, desperate to build upon whatever momentum the team might have gained, decided to promote Larry Hughes to the starting shooting guard slot and shortened the rotation to just eight players.  And Robinson, whose lack of hustle and defensive grit continued to frustrate his coach, apparently was not one of the eight.

The Knicks went on to win seven of ten without their second leading scorer from last year, and Nate seemed hopelessly entrenched in Coach D’Antoni’s doghouse.

Robinson’s benching surprised a lot of people around the league, but it shouldn’t have.  For D’Antoni and general manager Donnie Walsh, this year has always been about just three things: (1) trading Jared Jeffries and Eddy Curry to free up salary for the offseason; (2) developing Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari; and, as I mentioned earlier, (3) creating a winning atmosphere at the Garden.

Most people believe that the first task will be nearly impossible to accomplish because both Curry and Jeffries have large, bad contracts that extend beyond 2010.  The second goal is actually realistic, because both Chandler and Gallinari fit well within D’Antoni’s up-tempo, free-firing offense, and D’Antoni himself is the one doling out the minutes.  (So far, both guys are having very good years).

But the third task – actually winning games – will ultimately be the true test of D’Antoni’s mettle.  Can he somehow turn this dysfunctional group of me-first players into a winning team?  Can he, the architect of those high-scoring Phoenix teams, actually teach the Knicks how to play some defense?

D’Antoni understands that his legacy as a coach in New York, and perhaps in the league, will depend upon his ability to attract at least one, if not two, high-profile free agents this summer.  And he also understands that his ability to do that will depend upon the Knicks establishing some credibility this year.

Which was why Nate’s benching lasted so long.  When the Knicks started winning without him, D’Antoni didn’t dare tinker with his new rotation.  The team was playing spirited defense and appeared to even have developed some – gasp – chemistry!  D’Antoni’s win-at-all-costs imperative, together with the timing of New York’s sudden surge, essentially conspired to keep Robinson relegated to bench duty as long as the team kept winning.

And who could argue with the logic, when three weeks into his exile, New York found itself just one game out of the eighth and final playoff spot in a dismally shallow Eastern Conference?

But then something happened.  The Knicks played poorly against Miami on Christmas Day and then two days later lost again, this time to the surging San Antonio Spurs.  They looked utterly flat offensively in both losses, falling to superior defensive clubs.

After bouncing back with an impressive 104-87 victory in Detroit, the Knicks returned to New Jersey to face a reeling Nets team on December 30.  New York surely viewed this as a golden opportunity to build another winning streak, since the Nets, who had been without star point guard Devin Harris for much of the year, had set an NBA record earlier in the season by losing its first 18 games.  But New Jersey took it to them, and Brook Lopez, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Harris sparked New Jersey to an inspired 104-95 victory.

Which finally brings us to January 1^st, when the Knicks, losers of three of four to finish December, travelled to Atlanta to play a powerful Hawks club.  Many experts had Atlanta (21-10, at the time) pegged as one of the five best teams in the league, along with Cleveland, Los Angeles, Boston and Orlando.  And according to ESPN’s John Hollinger, the Hawks rank 2^nd in the league in offensive efficiency, behind only D’Antoni’s former club, the Phoenix Suns.

For the third time in four games, the Knicks again came out of the gate looking flat, and fell into an early 20-11 hole.  It was then that, with about three minutes remaining in the first quarter, D’Antoni looked down the bench and finally, for the first time in fourteen games, called Robinson’s number.  Nate was so surprised by this that he had to be nudged by a teammate, because it didn’t quite register that he was being asked to play.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Robinson carried New York to a come from behind, overtime victory with 41 points on 18-24 shooting, along with 8 assists, 6 rebounds and a steal.  And as good as that stat line is, it doesn’t begin capture just how spectacular Nate really was.  The only way to really understand is to follow the story of the game itself.

When he entered the game, New York trailed by 9.  But three minutes later, after Robinson hit a buzzer beater to finish the first quarter, New York was within four.  Robinson then scored another 10 points in the second, and by halftime, the Knicks had a one-point lead.

But Atlanta dominated the third quarter and took a commanding 13-point lead into the fourth.   The Knicks, however, slowly started chipping away, and six minutes later,trailed by only six.  With 5:46 remaining, Nate set up Al Harrington for a dunk, which closed the gap to four.

And that’s when Nate took over, when it counted most.  He went off to score 10 of the next 12 Knick points, including eight in the last two minutes, to tie the game and force the Hawks into overtime.

In the extra frame, Robinson either scored or assisted on every Knicks basket, finishing with 11 points and an assist.  And, after coming up with three consecutive spectacular moves at the basket to push the Knicks ahead by three, he hit a devastating three-pointer with 1:32 remaining to put them ahead by six, effectively ending the game.

In all, Robinson had scored 19 of New York’s final 21 points.  And this game, I believe, will be remembered as a turn point in the season for the Knicks.  New York has won two in a row since, including a 40-point smack down of the Pacers and a nail-biter against playoff rival Charlotte.  They are just ½ game behind Milwaukee for the 8^th seed in the East, and are actually one of the hottest teams in the league.  They have won four of five and seven of ten, and haven’t lost by double digits in more than a month.

The latter statistic is more important than you think, because it means that even when they lose, they are rarely outmatched.  As D’Antoni points out, they’ve been in every game since beating Phoenix in early December.

There’s no way of telling whether Nate’s benching was the reason why the team started playing better, or if it was just a coincidence.  Maybe the opposite is true; maybe the Knicks would have won a few extra games had Nate been playing all of those minutes that Larry Hughes ended up with.  But remember, Hughes only got promoted because he was outplaying Nate at the time, and he is clearly the better defender.  In fact, he is probably the team’s best perimeter defender, expect for perhaps Jared Jeffries.

The more important question is what we can expect from the little guy going forward.  In his two appearances since the Atlanta game, Robinson has actually played pretty poorly, scoring just 6 points against Indiana (while the rest of the team scored 126, mind you) and ten against the Bobcats.  Not to mention seven turnovers against Charlotte, and four against the Hawks, which is precisely the kind of knuckle-headed play that got him benched in the first place.

Regardless of how Nate fares going forward, his story will forever be intertwined with that of his team’s this season.  I predict that the Knicks will make the playoffs this year, and Nate will eventually become a part of the reason why.  Ironically, I think it is D’Antoni who will really deserve the credit for his evolution as a player, because he will be the first coach to actually convince Nate to buy into the team concept.   If Nate ever does fully embrace the implications of this doctrine, he has the potential to be a very, very good basketball player.  Because make no mistake about it, he is one of the most gifted athletes in the NBA.  This performance against Atlanta should, if nothing else, remind us of that.

But for now, I think Robinson will be maddeningly inconsistent.  He still isn’t sure exactly how to play the way that D’Antoni wants, and quite frankly I don’t think he’s even sure what that is.  For that matter, D’Antoni might not know either.  I mean, even in the Atlanta game, Nate took some pretty questionable shots.  He ended up being the hero because most of them went in, at all the most important times, but had he missed?  We’d all be talking about Nate Robinson will never learn his lesson.

Yet D’Antoni has to be thankful that he brought Nate back for that game, because it was yet another big win for the team, and big wins is what this group needs most.  They need to believe that they have what it takes to win close games against the best teams.  Remember,  entering this season, nobody really expected them to be very good at all.  They certainly had to be considered long shots to make the playoffs.

If you’re following the Nate Robinson saga on TV, here’s what you need to look for.  Watch to see if Nate is slashing to the basket or if he’s falling in love with his jumper.  He is at his best when he uses his speed and agility to penetrate the paint, where he can either get a high-percentage look or draw a foul.  Keep an eye on his assist to turnover ratio, because this will be what D’Antoni will focus on when doling out minutes.

Finally, in order to stay on the floor, he has to play better defense.  In the pre-season, D’Antoni said that his with his quickness, he should lead the league in steals every year. But Nate is such an emotional player that he takes ill-advised, low-percentage shots, forces plays when they aren’t there, and brings his offensive failures back with him on the defensive end.

From a fantasy perspective, proceed at your own peril.  Nate will probably win you a few games by himself, but that’s a double-edged sword – he’ll cost you some too.  If Fantazzle were the wild, wild west (which it kind of is, if you really think about it), you’d be that poor bastard in Dirty Harry who has to stare down the barrel of Clint Eastwood’s gun.  The name “Nate Robinson” will haunt you every time you have to pick your weekly lineups, mark my words.  The only question really is: are you feelin’ lucky, punk?  Well, ARE ya?

- Dr. Quez

Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball (http://www.fantazzle.com/fantasy-games)

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