I have to admit that this is as pessimistic as I've felt all season about the Knicks' chances in a game (and that includes games against the Celtics) -- the Nuggets are a very difficult matchup with their collection of athletes, their size inside, and their defensive toughness with guys like Nene, KMart, Dahntay Jones, Balkman, and even Chris Andersen off the bench.

Alan Hahn has an excellent article in Newsday today which reports Coach D'Antoni's extreme dissatisfaction with the Knicks and their quality of play lately. The key quote:

"This is a crisis, without a doubt," D'Antoni said of the five-game losing streak the Knicks (11-17) take into today's home game against the Denver Nuggets"

Quentin Richardson is apparently still out with a sprained ankle, so even with the increased sense of urgency surrounding the home team, there's only so much lemonade that can be made from this group of lemons. I'm hoping the Nuggets were showing off their tats into the wee hours last night at various NYC nightclubs, and come out sluggish for the 1pm start. If the Nuggets get off to any sort of decent lead on the Knicks early, it's likely to be a rerun of the last few games.

As far as the rest of the league, I try hard to diversify my NBA viewing, but it's hard not to be a closet Blazer groupie these days with the way Brandon Roy is playing. In last night's win against the Raptors, the dude made his first seven shots in the 4th quarter of a tight game,  and got nothing but net on all of them (while being heavily defended) -- it was an amazing display, but it's become almost routine for the guy. As I remarked on my Twitter feed last night, Roy alone has justified the price of League Pass this season.