Stephon Driving the Lane Photo by Nick Laham-Getty	Jamal Lays One In Photo By Seth Wenig/AP

After the Jets and Giants were absolutely blasted by the Cowboys and Vikings over what had become a VERY long Thanksgiving weekend, the New York Knickerbockers, so berated from the opening tip of the season, stormed back against the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz  to staunch the wounds NY suffered on Thursday and Sunday.  Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford returned to playing together, taking care of the ball, and making aggressive moves to the basket.  They even played some defense.

Not that they were alone in their efforts.  Basketball is a team game and the Knicks were firing on all cylinders.  Eddie Curry was a force in the paint, making some textbook blocks yesterday especially, and Zach Randolph minded the boards, played some defense and made some shots.  David Lee did his thing in relief as did Richardson and, well, name a Knick, he did pretty well. 

Surprising?  Not to me.  They had enough talent last year to gain a playoff berth.  That they didn't was due to injuries to Crawford and Lee towards the end of the season.  When they acquired Zach Randolph, a legitimate star at power forward, I thought he might just be the missing piece the Knicks needed . 

Worse luck, though, a team couldn't have to start the season.  Randolph had some nagging injuries and was allowed to leave the team for a death in the family.  Marbury and Crawford were playing bad fundamental basketball.   When Isaiah took Marbury to task about it, Stephon left in a huff.  The local newspapers, anxious to blast Isaiah at every opportunity, jumped on the situation.  AGAIN we had to hear about the opportunistic Anucha Brown Sanders, her sexual harassment suit and the poor decisions by James Dolan.

But the Knicks played really tough against the Bulls on Saturday.  The Bulls had their backs against the wall themselves, off to a horrible start themselves and anxious to bury another team that was down.  It didn’t happen.  The Knicks wouldn’t let it happen.  Marbury, Randolph and Curry were the scoring leaders and Quentin Richardson pulled down 15 boards.  They out-rebounded the Bulls 52-42 while reducing their turnovers to 17, still too high but much better than the 27 they suffered in their previous debacle against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday.

As good as they looked against the Bulls though, the Jazz would be a different matter.  They were a playoff team, a big, strong, Western Conference playoff team.  There was a strong feeling among observers that the Knicks would crash.

Instead, they soared.  "I thought Marbury was great," Thomas said. "His leadership throughout the game, during the course of the game, his decision-making, his defense, his shot-making ability. Just from start to finish he was great. "Overall a good team effort, but No. 3 was really good tonight."

As good as Stephon was, Randolph was almost as good. He went 11-15 from the field and had only 3 turnovers.  The Knicks as a team had only 13 turnovers and 6 blocked shots, two really big ones coming from Curry at critical points in the game.  They hung on to win 113-109, a game nailed down by free throws from Jamal, who shot 7-16 from the field himself last night, with a lot of shakin’ and bakin’ along the way, one of which made the ESPN highlights for the night.

All in all, a great night for New Yorkers for, although the Knicks face a tough schedule ahead, there is now hope that they can deal with it, and perhaps make up for some games lost in their horrific start.  At the very least, it helps us forget about the dreadful showing of the Jets and Giants.

Take the Jets, please.  In front of a national television audience on Thanksgiving Day, they played their worst game of the season, which is saying a LOT.  And, of course, the simpleton newspaper coverage immediately jumped on the quarterback, Kellen Clemens, for his poor performance.  Never mind that he had no time to throw, that his receivers didn’t get open, that Lavaranues was out, that they couldn’t get the running game going.

Did he do some things wrong?  Absolutely.  He holds the ball too long.  He doesn’t seem to feel the pressure.  He’ll have to do a better job of getting rid of the ball.  Other than that, though, the kid deserves a pass.  Especially coming off a masterful performance in beating the Steelers just four days earlier, the kid deserves a break.  And not just for Thanksgiving Day but for the rest of the season.  

The Jets are still hurting from the loss of Pete Kendall.  Their offensive line just doesn’t have it.  They’ve graduated though from consistently awful to showing signs of getting it together at times, such as they did against the Steelers.  The difference is in the preparation time.  Mangini and his staff obviously prepared them well for the Steelers, coming off the bye week.  They went from having eleven days preparation versus 3 days preparation.  And it showed.

The Giants were just as bad in a way.  Eli Manning, who I still feel is a fine quarterback, threw four interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns.  So what.  We have seen the finest QB’s have bad days, with names like Favre and Peyton, Unitas and Elway, Tarkenton and on and on.  The G-Men had no running game Sunday.  And the Vikings have their number.  I was unfortunately in attendance for their last pasting put on them by the Vikings.  In that game, they returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns.  In addition, the game started badly, Tarvaris Jackson lofting a long pass for a touchdown right off the bat.  

But, in all fairness, the coaching could be a lot better.  The Vikings have discovered that a rush in Eli’s face makes him throw off his back foot.  Did the Giants recognize that and change the game plan?  No, they did not.  Did the receivers catch all the catchable passes?  No, absolutely not.  Did they run the right routes?  Well, no.

But at least we have the Knicks on a streak!