Knicks 103 Raptors 99: This was a strange game. The Knicks scored a season-low 12 points in the first quarter and it appeared they would turn in another embarrassing performance in a season full of them. But, they got off the mat and scored a season-high 40 points in the second quarter and kept it up from there. Jamal Crawford poured in 43 points and Zach Randolph added 26 points and 15 rebounds. The only......

Raptors 109, Nets 91: If this is a sneak preview at life after Jason Kidd, it wasn't pretty. Well, even if this isn't a sneak preivew, it wasn't pretty. The Nets never led and trailed by as many as 30 north of the border. Then they got word that the Kidd deal may not be done yet. Thanks to the veto of Devean George, who was in the deal to balance out contracts and not......

Celtics 86, Nets 77: Maybe the Nets should play as well in the even quarters as they do in the odd periods. New Jersey got outscored 23-9 in the fourth quarter and fell to the 30-4 Celtics. Josh Boone did well -- except when he was at the free-throw line. He had 14 points and 16 rebounds in 37 minutes, but he went 0-for-6 from the stripe. The Nets as a team made only 9......

Rangers 2, Devils 1 (SO): Petr Prucha did enough to finally earn a second "E" for his name. He set up the only goal in regulation and scored the only goal in the shootout. Scott Gomez struck against his former club. The Rangers had other chances, including Chris Drury's breakaway in overtime, so this win helped them sleep better at night. Islands 3, Penguins 2: This could have been a Pyhrric victory. Rick DiPietro got......

Cavaliers 110, Knicks 106: Throughout his tumultuous summer, Isiah Thomas seemed to want to use basketball to shield himself from sexual harassment lawsuit he eventually lost. If he was devoting any amount of energy to preparing his team for its first game against Cleveland, he failed miserably. His team looked out of sorts as it got the season off on the wrong foot. Letting LeBron James score 45 points is understandable. Choosing not to guard......

Cleveland 110 Knicks 106: The good news is the Knicks played a pretty good game on the road against a tough opponent. The bad news is they still lost. Zach Randolph had a nice debut with 21 points and 14 rebounds and Jamal Crawford also had 21, but LeBron James exploded for 41 points. The Knicks stayed in the game to the end and if they had done a little better from the line (11-19)......

Sabres 2 Rangers 1: The Rangers were eight seconds away from winning this game and taking a 3-2 lead in the series when Chris Drury netted the game-tying goal. Up until that point, the Rangers had played a great game, but anyone who watched the final minute of regulation has to wonder why Jaromir Jagr was on the ice? After taking a 1-0 lead with just over three minutes left, the Rangers needed to play......

Red Sox 11 Yankees 4: Just how bad is it going to get in Yankeeland? Not only are they in last place, five games under .500 and losers of seven-straight, but also there are reports that the Dolans are trying to buy the team. Their starting pitching is completely broken and Mariano Rivera can’t get an out. The offense is now slumping and the bullpen imploding from overuse. Steinbrenner is reportedly ready to fire Joe......

Raptors 89, Nets 83: All the pressure in Game 2 was on the Raptors, but they came back and evened this series at one game apiece. This game had a painfully low-scoring first half, but things picked up down the stretch as Toronto's Chris Bosh and Anthony Parker overcame the efforts of Jason Kidd and Vince Carter for the Nets. Richard Jefferson's absence in the first half -- he didn't score and ended up with......

Mets 7 Braves 2: Jose Reyes missed hitting for the cycle because he didn’t get a single, while Carlos Beltran missed because he didn’t hit a home run. No matter, because the Mets pounded the Braves behind the two of them. Beltran and Reyes went 7-for-10 with a home run and 3 RBI’s. Ramon Castro and Damion Easley both went deep and Oliver Perez struck out nine in six innings. Boston 7 Yankees 5: New......

A's 5, Yankees 4: After all the work the Yankees did to outlast A's starter Rich Harden and hold the not-so-potent Oakland offense in check, Mariano Rivera gave up a three-run walk-off homer to Marco Scutaro (he's a former Met) and the Yankees lost a series in the Bay Area. They could have easily swept the three games, but a tough extra-inning loss Friday night and an even tougher loss Sunday made them settle......

Knicks 92 Raptors 74: The most important thing is that they won, but you have to be concerned about how it happened. Eddy Curry played another lackadaisical game, disappearing on defense and getting into foul trouble. Luckily, Renaldo Balkman replaced him and led the Knicks to a big third-quarter. Balkman finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, giving New York the spark they desperately needed. So, do you rejoice in the win, or do you......

Raptors 104, Knicks 94: Losing to the Raptors while T.J. Ford and Chris Bosh run wild isn't that bad. But the Knicks did that while making the frontcourt of Jorge Garbajosa and Andrea Bargnani look like twin towers north of the border on Wednesday. Their ability to defend the two foreign big men no doubt would have been helped if David Lee, out three to four weeks with an ankle injury, had been on the......

Raptors 120, Nets 109: Vince Carter, welcomed with the usual boos, had 17 points and 10 assists, but Toronto took advantage of a weary Nets team and extended its division lead to 4 1/2 games. Bostjan Nachbar pitched in 26. New Jersey didn't struggle offensively -- even Eddie House had 19 -- but it allowed Toronto to shoot 59 percent from the floor. Not going to win too many games playing like that. Warriors 120,......

Nets 87 Hawks 85: Finally New Jersey didn’t blow the game. Yes, it was against the Hawks, but this was a big win. It took a Vince Carter layup and rebound to seal the deal, part of his 22-point effort. Jason Kidd had 9 assists, 9 points and 7 rebounds and the Nets “improved” to 23-27, still 3 ½ behind the Raptors. Islanders 2 Flyers 0: Philadelphia showed again why they are going nowhere this......

If you're a Nets fan, you probably keep the Tums close at hand. Last night, the Nets managed to lose in the final moments of the game again. This time to the Philadelphia 76ers, 100-98. It was the 2nd night in a row that the Nets lost in overtime (they lost to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday) . The only other time the franchise has consecutive overtime losses is in 1977. The loss was......

Islanders 5, Rangers 3: After snapping a six-game losing streak against the Rangers on Tuesday, the Islanders are probalby hoping they can play their rivals more often. The last five games in this series -- including four this season -- have gone the Islanders' way. Tuesday's also ended a four-game Rangers winning streak, and it turned when Viktor Kozlov and Mike Skillinger scored goals within 27 seconds of each other. Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was......

-Raptors 90, Nets 78: Each team played without a star, but only the Nets played without energy. They missed Richard Jefferson and also, it seems, the ability to defend Toronto's T.J. Ford, who helped his team overcome the loss of center Chris Bosh. Vince Carter was -- surprise! -- booed when he touched the ball. He probably didn't let it get to his head, but he still was held in check during a 12-point performance.......

-Nets 112, 76ers 107: Vince Carter scored a season-high 41 points as the Nets started a new streak by winning two straight games after losing six consecutive contests. Jason Kidd came up a rebound and a point short of another triple double. With Richard Jefferson healthy (he scored 24 points and doesn't seem to be showing lingering effects of his sprained ankle), there's no reason the Nets can't go on a mini-tear in the sluggish......

-Knicks 118 Memphis 117 (Triple OT): New York almost wrecked their season in the first game. After building an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Knicks let it slip away and found themselves in a contest of endurance. It wasn’t pretty most of the time, but the important thing is they found a way to win. Also important is that they won using only nine players (a rotation at last!) and with significant contributions......

...and words escape us. Okay, fine: It's really, really goofy, which is probably about right for a sports team ditty (remember Let's Go Mets?) Nets part-owner Jay-Z chose the song from over 700 submissions, which makes us wish the other songs had been made public. It's by Michael Barnes, a 22 year old from Manhattan, and this is what Jay-Z/his press statement said, "In 'Going Hard' M Bars completely captured the intensity of Nets Basketball......

Break open the champagne the Knicks are back in the win column! Ok, so beating the Raptors at home is hardly something to be excited about, but that is a good indication of the depths to which this team has sunk. Wednesday’s 98-96 victory wasn’t pretty and wouldn’t have happened without a jumper by Jamal Crawford with three seconds left in the game, but it’s still a win. So, the Knicks will head to the......

It has come to this, Larry Brown comparing himself to Roy Rubin, a coach of the 1972-73 Sixers- the worst team in NBA history. While the Knicks will not break that record for futility, they are quickly approaching some of their own. Monday they lost 100-72 in Dallas, their tenth consecutive loss. The last time the Knicks lost ten in a row was 21 years ago. That team was also coached by a Brown, Hubie......

Kobe Bryant dropped 81 on the Raptors less than a week ago and 40 on the Knicks on Tuesday, but last night Epiphanny Prince almost topped his total for the two games combined. The senior at Murray Bergtraum scored 113 points in a 137-32 win over Brandeis yesterday. The point total is a record for a girls high school game, besting Cheryl Miller's (that's Reggie's sister) of 105 from 1982. Prince, who will be attending......

It is hard to imagine how things can get worse than this. Off the court, the Knicks have a sex scandal and revelations of their GM’s love child. On the court, they have completely given up. Facing a terrible Atlanta team, New York turned the ball over 23 times and lost 120-101. Coach Larry Brown called his team out after the game responding to a question about whether or not his squad had quit with,......

Antonio Davis is at home in Illinois serving his suspension for entering the stands Wednesday night. Yesterday he angrily refused calls to apologize and appealed his suspension while reasserting his original story that an intoxicated fan attacked his wife, Kendra. But details are emerging that Kendra may not be completely innocent. This is not the first time she has gotten into trouble during a game. In 2001 she got into an argument with Latrell Sprewell......

And just like that the winning streak is over. The Knicks didn’t just lose on Sunday they were humiliated. Atrocious defense, poor rebounding and lousy free throw shooting all played a part in Toronto’s 129-103 victory. Toronto scored the most points in franchise history while shooting an astounding 59% from the field. The Raptors took control of the game early, taking a 13-point lead at halftime and effectively ending the game in the third quarter.......

Tonight marks the end of the NBA regular season. Depending on the results of tonight's Nets/Celtics and Cavs/Raptors games, Jason Kidd will either head off to the playoffs or...to the golf course. The Nets are tied with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavs for the final playoff spot. The Nets own the tiebreaker, so the odds are good that the Nets will live to see another year in the postseason. All of this is......

2005 continues to be a bleak year for the Knicks, and coach Lenny Wilkins is bound to take the fall for it. Another fourth quarter collapse resulted in a 98-81 loss to the way below .500 Toronto Raptors last night. The collection of embarrassing losses to sub-par teams is just another in a long line of disappointments for Knick fans, who are probably used to such mediocrity by now. The Knicks may have even topped......

Late Friday, the Nets and Toronto Raptors agreed to a trade that brings Vince Carter to the Nets and ships Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and two first-round draft picks north of the border. Carter has been out with an injured achilles since early December, but the Nets anticipate his return this week. In a question that Gothamist seems to be asking too often these days, did the Nets (in this case) give up......