What is it with Rip and getting thrown out of MSG?

Bench PT by starter DNP/Ejected etc. works for me.

Very impressed with Theo, he is still very athletic. Still I am almost waiting for him to pull something, maybe we will get lucky and he will stay healthy.

Prince really stepped up in place of Rip, Stucky shot 6 for 9. Whats up with the low board totals for Maxiel? 2nd game in a row.

Be interesting when Sheed returns how Ratliff will be integrated.

I would not worry about it. Most NBA games on the road are close. Can't blow them out everytime. Its good practice to win these close games, Prince and CB really stepped up when it counted. And they were able to do so because they had some solid bench help which kept them fresh. When you think about it almost every game in 04/05 was close and that really helped the team in the playoffs. Now we actually have a bench.

Nice gut win missing 1.5 starters. Only concern would be that the # 1 ranked defense in the league gave up 97 points. Have to guess that Rip and SHeed do play some defense when they in there concentrating not distracted and mad at the world for a bad call

I don't know. I think its good to stand up for yourself when you can't get a call. If the other team is allowed to hold Rip back so he can't move then he can't execute his game. Maybe the league will look into this and the next time he will get the call.

I think I replied before you edited your post to mention him.

Theo still looks like a real player. I can easily see him starting. One thing many of us are in agreement on is that Dyss's minutes should be cut whether they go to Maxiel, Amir or Ratliff. Its soon, but Ratliff has way more mobility than Dyss and is a bit bigger. Yes, he did get scored upon, but overall there was some defensive spark.

At any rate, Theo is no 5th big back up that the Detroit News reported. If he were that second rate, Joe wouldn't have gone after him the way he did. He may be the only hope as at least he is a vet and Flip might bring himself to let him have some of Dyss's minutes. Really, Amir, Maxiel and Theo should be a 3 big rotation with Sheed as our main big and Dyss brought in in certain situations to spread the defense with his jumper. Dyss should not be on the floor in the last few minutes because of defense.

Way too much Dice and Dixon in this one. Dice was absolutely terrible. Chucking nothing but 20 footers on offense, not rebounding, and playing zero defense. The 30mpg is clearly taking it's toll on this guy as everyone on the planet but Flip predicted.

I already don't get Flip's fascination with Dixon. He's incredibly undersized, forces more bad passes than anyone on the team, shoots nothing but J's, and gambles on defense. Afflalo and Rodney should be getting his minutes. Especially in this one, where Rodney was lighting it up from everywhere, and making good hustles plays left and right (back to back charges and crashing the glass).

Now that Theo's here, it's obvious he's going to get some burn (rightfully so). I just don't know where it's going to come from. Sheed will get his 30mpg. Both Max and AJ have unquestionably earned their 15mpg or so. The obvious answer is to cut down Dice's minutes to 15-20 at most, so that he can be healthy for the playoffs, but Flip is too far off in his own dream world to think that up. To him, a starter has to play 30+ minutes regardless. AJ will be Flip's ingenious plan, and the team will be worse off for it.

As for the game- Tay and Stuckey were the stars of this one. AJ and Chauncey were pretty good as well. Max gets left off the list because of 1 rebound in 30 minutes. That is sad.

I'm hoping this is still the "we got a new guy, let's throw him out there and see what we got" phase. Like they did with Primos.

Now not only has the new-team-shooting honeymoon faded for Dixon, last night the new-team-I-can-dribble honeymoon was also going away. I think he's a better player than we've seen the past couple of games, but you're right, bring back Affalo.