The Pistons shot just 30% from the field and missed a franchise low for points scored by one thanks to a three-pointer by Amir Johnson with 13 seconds remaining. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone having a worse night, though Rudi Giuliani in the New Hampshire primary comes to mind.

To be fair, Detroit was maybe a little tired when they reached the Garden to play the last of four road games, but these guys are supposed to be professional athletes who do all that conditioning stuff, right? Or maybe Flip Saunders lets his team just lay around eating Ding Dongs and Ho-Ho’s during road trips.

The worst part about this, though, is that the Knicks might point to this game as evidence that Isiah Thomas is in fact doing a good job and shouldn’t be fired. Not that James Dolan ever needed reason or logic to justify a fucked up decision.

“When Isiah Thomas dispatched Jamal Crawford to find out how the players would react if and when Marbury rejoined the team, all of them voted against allowing him to play. Thomas, according to one person who spoke with Crawford, had pledged to hold out Marbury if even a single Knick didn’t want him on the court.

So how did Thomas react to the team’s unanimous vote?

He sat Marbury until late in the first quarter then played him nearly 34 of the game’s remaining 39 minutes.”

While Isiah claimed later that he was just giving the team the best shot to win, you can’t help but wonder if it had more to do with Starbury’s smirking threats of late to go public with assorted juicy details and “bury” Isiah and the Knicks if he doesn’t get the playing time he wants. While we realize the futility in trying to make anything related to the Knicks make sense, that’s pretty much the only thing that makes even quasi-sense, as far as an explanation for Isiah’s decision to so quickly cave in, overruling the entire team’s vote of no confidence in Starbury.

Which makes us wonder just what the hell dirt Starbury actually has on Isiah, that’s worse than the dirty laundry already aired? Pretty much the only thing that might sully Isiah’s sterling reputation at this point would have to involve sex with animals, consorting with minors, or secret Nazi rituals in the bowels of Madison Square Garden at the stroke of midnight.

So come on Starbury, spill the beans…

Because that’s what’s wrong with the Knicks, right? The coach sucks? Right?

The coach that’s had nothing but success nearly everywhere he’s gone in his journeyman career, except at New York, where he was continually hamstrung by Isiah’s penchant for trading talent and salary cap space to anyone offering up some leftover packets of ketchup from Wendy’s?

The same Isiah that’s likely now going to be coach, right?

(Crickets chirping.)