ESPN NBA

No, not really. The headline is a total lie.

I was there, watching the Knicks vs. Celtics last night. I was online, with my laptop open, ready to write about the first interesting thing that happened.

Then the final buzzer sounded, and it was time to go.

Honestly, it was a snoozer of a game, with not much to report.

Have you ever gone snow skiiing or snowboarding? There's a certain thing that happens when you're moving really fast on a warmish day, and then down near the bottom of the hill the conditions change and suddenly there is a big mess of heavy wet snow -- almost like a puddle of water. It's very slow, and grips on to you in a way that is simply not fun.

You can go from thirty miles an hour to five miles an hour in a heartbeat, and never see it coming. It's like entering slow motion.

I had that feeling at Madison Square Garden. The last time I was in an NBA arena it was the NBA freaking Finals. Now it's ... this. The rate of deceleration can knock you over.

The Knicks missed a million threes, Kevin Garnett is talented, and the Celtics played mediocre ball and won easily.

The one and only thing I saw that really stuck out to me at all was: Zach Randolph was really trying.

He was moving his feet on defense, and giving up the ball on offense, in ways that I have simply never seen before. I don't know if it's Mike D'Antoni, or Randolph sniffing his NBA mortality -- everybody knows he has long been much worse than the box score would indicate, right? -- but this was a preseason game, and he was working hard on both ends of the court.

Keep an eye on that. He could become relevant again.

(Also, what a strange spot for Donnie Walsh to be in. Everybody knows he has to move huge contracts -- has said he's all about free agency in 2010. So is there any chance Randolph's apparent improvement, and the nice things everyone will be saying about him, could inspire the Knicks to keep him?)

So, while we were in New York not watching great basketball, having the feeling the game of the night must have been elsewhere, top overall pick Derrick Rose was, sure enough, leading the Bulls to a fancy comeback in Dallas. Rose had 30 points on 18 shots, with seven assists. Down the stretch he was all scorer. 

If I were Vinny Del Negro, I'd have Rose watching an infinite amount of Chris Paul video, because Rose has the strength to do a lot of that stuff -- for instance, letting the lob passes fly, which he has been reluctant to do. But Chicago has horses who can sky, catch, and flush. When Rose starts empowering his teammates like that, the Bulls won't need so much fourth quarter heroism to snag a lead.

As it is, though, Bulls fans are as excited as they have been in years. And here.

And, as I'm sure you know, a couple of sad notes last night, as Kobe Bryant and the now non-trivial Wilson Chandler both got hurt. You hate to see that in the preseason.