Hello Linus, I found The Great Pumpkin hanging out in Brooklyn. Picture phone shot: He and a couple of friends after watching the Knicks Lose To The Pacers

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Pacers 101, Knicks 89

"In a way, everybody's kind of in their own world. We're not clicking as a team. A lot of us are struggling offensively. When that happens, you kind of put so much weight on each shot and it kind of gets you in a funk." -- Chris Duhon

"We had some lineups out there we haven't played with [and] we didn't execute at the times we needed to."-- Larry Hughes

"We can't worry about what we screwed up. We've already screwed this up. So we'll be positive, try to get this thing straight and lets get a win on Friday." -- Mike []'Antoni

I can't even bring myeslf up to writing a synopsis about D-League night at MSG.  You guys do it. Pitiful.  Brandon Jennings should have been on the Garden Floor instead of messing with us in the Live Blog last night.  Who's going to watch David Lee guard Shaq on Friday night? Read more if I write more. . . .ARGGGGGH.

YANKEES WIN WORLD SERIES

I found this nice tribute to the late-baller and musician Wayman Tisdale by his good friend and fellow musician Toby Keith at Indy Cornrows while researching the (0-3) Pacers. The song "Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)"  was premiered this week on Country Music Television.  Very Nice, IMO. It is a fitting salute to a very nice and talented man who also exemplified the symbiotic relationship between music and basketball.  Enjoy. A story about the premiere and Wayman Tisdale's impact on the NBA and Oklahoma's music and ball scene can be found in the Tulsa World.  You might also enjoy this music snippet from Tisdale.

KNICKS STARTING LINEUP

Hornets 111, Knicks 117

"Pieces are just falling into place a little bit. I don't want to get ahead of myself. We took a gigantic step forward, for sure." -- Mike D'Antoni

“I knew how hard I worked; I kind of figured that my chance would come.So I wasn’t too frustrated. I wanted to be out there, but I wanted to handle it the right way.”-- Larry Hughes

A few quick hits this morning folks:

Newsday reports that Nate Robinson will be out 10-14 days, which means he could miss the games against the Hornets, Pacers, Cavaliers, Bucks and Jazz in addition to the Hornets game tonight. The good news is that we get to test my theory about how important Nate is to the Knicks. Certainly, Gallinari's time will increase and Hughes may solidify his role in the rotation or just implode as I expect. Nate is a former football player so I expect him to be back earlier (no medical training, I just play like it on the Internet) to face Jamal Crawford who is doing well with playoff bound Atlanta (2-1). He is only shooting 10% (1-10) from the tre arc, but he is a key reserve and last night scored 17 points in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaking of former Knicks doing well. You need to check out the starting center for the Suns. Gallinari does not have a better shooting percentage than this former Knick. Who is it? Channing Frye. Frye is looking very good in the so-called D'Antoni system.Last night as the starting center, Frye scored 25 points in 26 minutes while hitting 6-10 tres in a victory over the Timberwolves. Amazingly, Frye is averaging 19.7 points in 32 minutes off of 58% shooting with 65% from the arc.  Both percentages are far above his career averages, but he has been working on that tre and we always knew he already had a sweet shot.  His rebounding (5.7 per game) and blocks (0.7 per game)  still suck but he is playing in the stat inflationary system that has his Suns at 3-0 to start the season.

The NBA fined Harrington $25,000 for stating that the call against him which led to the winning freebies in the Charlotte loss were the result of refs losing interest in the game. He said "I guess people was ready to go home." I always wonder, how acting like the Gestapo protects the NBA's image. Their effort to silence emotional comments and stifle dissent about calls reeks and simply places more attention on refs poor calls. Although admittedly it probably does have a strong deterrent effect, since bad calls are part of the NBA game. Anyway, they sure know how to dip into a player's pocket.

KNICKS KEEP IT INTERESTING AS THEY FALL TO 0-3

Overcome Another Double Digit Deficit Only To Lose In OT by 14

76ers 141, Knicks 127

I know we're 0-3. I understand that. I understand that two of them were overtime games. There was just some really good stuff. We're going to accentuate the positive." -- Mike D'Antoni

“It doesn’t mean nothing because we lost. I don’t care how much I score or what I do, I just want to win with this team.” -- Danilo Gallinari

For a little over three quarters, against the 76ers, the Knicks turned Halloween into Hollow-ween as they once again came up empty in the effort department and at one point found themselves down by 23 points.   In what has become typical fashion, the Knicks turned a frighteningly bad performance into a scary-decent effort as they erased the double digit deficit to drag the Sixers into overtime, only to lose by 14. The game appeared to be an offensive breakout game for a few Knicks: Danilo Gallinari, who scored 30, Al Harrington, as a sixth man, who contributed 42 points, and  Larry Hughes, who looked better than himself and much better than Chris Duhon has looked since last year.  But, unless you are just looking for a sliver of silver lining in a torrential reign of terrible basketball, you know that it was all gold belonging to fools.  (read more)