The Post is Prologue: Knicks @ Warriors

Knicks (21-29)
@
Warriors (17-35)
10:30 P.M. EST
Oracle Arena, Oakland, Calif.

The good thing about the NBA is that there is (almost) always another game. Unlike, football there is ample room to bounce back from a devastating loss. Or a disheartening four-game losing streak. Which is what the Knicks are trying to do tonight on the left coast. The game between the Knickerbockers and the Warriors is being billed as "an entertaining shootout" according to ESPN.com and has the highest OVER/UNDER of tonight's nine-game slate according to Vegas at 231.5

I'm actually hoping for a game that doesn't see that many points scored. Mostly because the Knicks are on the road and have played as tough a stretch as anyone is likely to play this season (and hasn't handled it as well as the Lakers did who played a pretty tough first week of February themselves) over the past eight days. No matter what the Warriors' record is they are not a team that you want to face on a road trip when you're dragging and looking forward to getting home again. Nellie will have his horses run all over you on a night like that. Which is why I'm hoping for a lower scoring game. That way I know the Knicks will be there at the end.

Of course, if the game is too close at the end then we may all get to watch Jamal Crawford hitting a game-winning shot to lift his new team over his old one. Between Jamal's match-up against his onetime teammates and Al Harrington's return to Oakland there are storylines aplenty. I'd imagine that Harrington enters tonight's tilt with a bigger chip on his shoulder as he was shipped out of the Bay Area because he was in Coach Nelson's doghouse. Crawford, on the other hand, knows his Broadway exit stage left was purely business.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to it and gladly willing to drink a few extra cups of coffee in the morning after staying up late to see this one played out.

As (is again becoming) per usual, I've been trading emails today with a blogger who covers the Knicks' opponent. Below you'll find a back-and-forth with noted Warriors blog Fear the Beard.

WWOD?: How's Jamal Crawford doing? I miss him. Sometimes. Is he most accurately described as the Warriors point guard?
FTB: Jamal is doing well. The adjustment process is always a bit strange for players new to Nellieball, and obviously the Dubs are stacked with combo guards and scorers, so sometimes he disappears a bit. But his passing and game stewardship is being utilized more these days with Monta back in the lineup at the two. His defense is coming along as well as this unit starts to mesh.

WWOD?: What's your final impression of Al Harrington, and the swap for Crawford?
FTB: Tough to say. We still don't have a traditional "four" most of the time, except for the rare occasions where Biedrins and Turiaf have taken the floor together. This makes it a little hard to say it was the ideal trade. Nonetheless, Harrington was always going to be the victim in Nellie's system, which places a lot of unusual pressures on the "four" position.

WWOD?: Given the Ellis injury and the departure of the Bearded One in the offseason, what were your expectations heading into the season? What are they right now?
FTB: My expectations were admittedly pretty low coming into the season, but lately (with most of the team being healthy for stretches here and there) it seems like this team might be a little better than I thought. They're still going to have trouble defensively, but it seems that Crawford's continued development as a floor general and maybe one good trade could get them back into the mix in the west. Next season at least.

WWOD?: It seems like almost every time that I watch the Warriors (which is probably no more than 2 or 3 times a month when their games are nationally broadcast) that I hear about some other young player in Nellie's doghouse. Is his relationship with the players on the roster becoming a problem or do those in the rotation appreciate his my-way-or-the-highway approach?
FTB: Probably safe to say that young players are always going to chafe a bit in his system for a year or two. Unless they are absolutely brilliant, finished products upon arrival. Even Chris Webber was in his doghouse. Chris Mullin too. It's almost a rite of passage in his psychological approach I'm thinking.

WWOD?: With Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Harrington and Pietrus gone, do you still think that your current squad can look to build on the 2007 upset over Dallas? Or has the franchise really started fresh? Is the most lasting legacy of that playoff series the renewal of local interest in the team?
FTB: It's a new team and a new day. Most of the key figures in the playoff upset have left the building, so I would say that the legacy is really passion, for the fans and the remaining players. The culture of losing was vanquished at least temporarily, and that's better than not at all.