The Knicks Fix

Isiah Thomas has gone out of his way to promote his mid-level signing of Jared Jeffries from last summer. He's the glue, Thomas told us, that will bring it all together.

If you saw Jeffries' performance against Jason Kapono in the first quarter against the Heat, you'd see that the glue isn't sticking to anything. Especially Kapono.

Thomas pulled Jeffries in the midst of that 27-0 Heat run -- 27-0! -- and he didn't see the light of day until 26 seconds in the second quarter. After that, he rode the bench the rest of the way, which means $60 million in payroll, which includes the previous mid-level signing Jerome James, was rendered unusable by Thomas.

Little by little, Jeffries has started to fall out of favor and his minutes have declined. Will he eventually be taken out of the starting lineup and replaced by the popular choice, David Lee?

As some of you have noted already, Channing Frye is another Knick to analyze. He gives you a little something early in games, but by the second half, he's relegated to the bench. His numbers look decent (10.2 points, 5.6 rebounds in 26:09 minutes per game), but his defense on the post is very weak. Frye is a small forward, at best. He's not your typical power forward and if the Knicks are going to live with Eddy Curry as a mediocre rebounder and a disinterested defender, they need a pogo-stick PF who can block shots and rebound (Marcus Camby). With a decent stat line however and his young age, Frye has a lot of trade value so you wonder if teams will be calling for him come the deadline. I'd be curious to see if Thomas will listen. Or will James Dolan's edict to develop the young players make Frye an untradable commodity.

Bottom line, the Knicks eventually need to make a decision: Lee or Frye. Having both of them is like having two former all-star point guards.

Evident progress? Perhaps as a coach, because Thomas has proven he can motivate (other than at the start of games, that is). But as a team executive who makes personnel decisions, his record is still very questionable.

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The run, which was led by Kapono's red-hot shooting (he was 3-for-3 from downtown and 5-for-6 overall), set a franchise record for the Heat for consecutive points scored. The previous record was 26, which Miami did against Golden State on March 24, 1995.

The Knicks finished the quarter with 12 points, which is a low for a first quarter this season but not the worst in franchise history. That mark -- 5 points -- was set in 1956 when the Knicks played the Pistons. The Fort Wayne Pistons.

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Most halftime entertainment in the NBA is actually worth watching. But what they had going on here tonight was completely wrong. They call it "The Great Baby Race" and it is three infants -- literally infants -- placed on a mat with lanes drawn on it. Then the parents entice their baby to crawl toward them while the weird looking Heat mascot bobs around madly and a crowd screams.

One baby went right at it, crawling desperately to his Mommy and Daddy to get him out of this scary place. Another kind of looked around. And yet another sat and wailed.

Somewhere in Miami, a child psychologist knows he has some potential clients headed his way.

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OK, so I only spent an hour by the pool. My wife called from home and I didn't have the heart to tell her what I was doing. But she guessed it. I told her, "I'm only staying out here an hour so I don't get sunburned."

Her reply, "If I stayed an hour outside I'd get frostbite."