CLEVELAND – New York City has its basketball team back again.
Infused with new life by the stunning transformation of point guard Stephon Marbury as an on-court leader, the Knicks ride a season-high three-game winning streak into Cleveland’s newly named Quicken Loans Arena tonight (7:00, MSG, ESPN: 1050 AM) to take on LeBron James and the Cavaliers (20-11).
With 51 games left, Team Titanic is three games out of the eighth seed. Buckle up. There may be a season left at the Garden after all.
Larry Brown will be worth every penny of his four-year, nearly $40-million contract if he turns Marbury into the type of smart, winning point guard he has been the past four outings. Marbury is averaging 23 points and 12 assists since the game in Orlando 13 days ago, when his career hit rock bottom and the captain and coach stopped speaking.
Tonight, Marbury faces Cleveland point guard Eric Snow, whom Brown considers the NBA’s prototype point guard – minus the shooting or driving dimension Marbury adds. Brown wanted Snow, who played for him in Philadelphia, on the Knicks so he could move Marbury to shooting guard, but team president Isiah Thomas wasn’t willing to give up any youth, so Snow ended up with the Cavs.
Brown may be singing a different tune now. In the past four games, Marbury has made his teammates better. It sounds like a cliché, but that’s the No. 1 mission of a great point guard – and Marbury’s failure to do so has been the biggest knock on his career to date.
“It’s a mindset,” Brown said in July, shortly after being hired. “Ask anybody who has played that position. He’s got to be an extension of the coach and has to make everyone on the team better. He has to get involved in the offense, get people involved.”
Since 2006 began, Marbury has lifted the play of Eddy Curry and the Knicks’ three rookies: David Lee, Channing Frye and his wild backcourt mate, Nate Robinson. It’s almost as if, playing alongside the high-energy but mistake-prone Robinson, Marbury feels a renewed responsibility to be not just be a creator but also a calming influence.
Marbury’s scoring average has risen to 18.5 points. He has had 26 assists and two turnovers the past two games, and is averaging 6.9 assists and 3.0 turnovers. He’s able to concentrate more as offensive floor general because Robinson has taken the load off him defensively by guarding the opponent’s point guard.
“It really helps Stephon. He doesn’t have to be on the ball on defense and offense,” Brown said. “That’s a huge factor.”
Marbury is initiating fastbreaks at the right time, slowing the pace when necessary, showing the court sense the great ones have. He’s reading the defense perfectly. He’s pulling up for jumpers when given space. He’s penetrating all the way to the rim or driving and kicking as he finds guys open when they may not realize it.
Marbury attributes his new flow to Brown setting a consistent starting lineup the past four games, with Lee solidifying the ever-changing starting small forward position.
The emergence of Lee, a cerebral, unselfish, role-playing, ball-moving, hustling player who would have made Red Holzman proud, has been the second-most important ingredient in the turnaround of Team Titanic.
“I provide energy, talk a lot out there,” Lee said. “I just try to get in situations to make [the other players] better. Sometimes it’s about getting out of their way.”
“The only way we can start to play better is limit the rotation and play the young kids,” Brown said. “That’s our future right now.”