GAME 7 of 82, vs. New York, Open Game Thread

Ah, the NBA schedule... For every Detroit Pistons, there's a New York Knicks. God bless Russ Granik.

Tip-off around 6 p.m., televised on Comcast SportsNet with radio on 1140 AM.

STARTING LINEUPS:
NEW YORK
PG - Stephon "The Untradeable" Marbury
SG - Quentin "The Recently Traded" Richardson
SF - Matt "Damn, I Wish He Was Backing Up Peja Like Old Times" Barnes
PF - Antonio "Haven't I Played With Half of You Guys Before?" Davis
C  - Eddy "Takes A Licking But Keeps On... Oh Wait" Curry

SACRAMENTO
PG - Michael Bibby, The Pride of Cherry Hill, New Jersey
SG - Gawen Deangelo Wells
SF - The Belgrade Bomber
PF - Julius Shareef Abdur-Rahim
C  - Bradley Alan Miller

(Bonzi, I'm sorry. Please don't destroy me.)

The line: -7.5. Again, I'd be reluctant to bet on the Kings until they put, you know, like two solid games in a row together.

Fun bet o' the night: Matt Barnes stops against Peja - remember, Barnesy went up against Peja in practice who knows how many times. Also, Peja is kinda easy to figure out - force him to step to his right. Peja needs to get some excellent screens. I predict 16 points for The Belgrade Bomber.

Sideshow most likely to be entertaining: Stephon Marbury versus Larry Brown. There's comedy, there's high comedy, and then there's paying a ridiculous sum of money for an egomaniacal coach who always clashes with his star player if they don't show the fundamentals of "playing the right way" on ever play, especially when your team's superstar has never played the right way by any stretch of the imagination. Throw in that superstar having a pretty much untradeable contract (which is redundant when talking about the Knicks) and the coach having a long-term deal. Also, your general manager is one of the three worst in the Association. And ACTION!

Matchup to watch: Larry Brown vs. Rick Adelman. Remember, some of you Kings fans wanted a coach like LB this offseason instead of Adelmania. Fools, all of you. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that LB has only won ONE NBA title - you'd swear he was the second coming of Red Auerbach or something.

The verdict: Kings by 12. Bibby gets 20+, Shareef is the model of consistency and Barnesy has a ridiculous game.

I know it's early (it almost always will be on Sundays), but um, let's go Kings! The middle of the pack awaits!