He spoke to them for roughly 15 minutes, laying out a case that was compelling enough, but in the end just as hollow as the noise of grumbling patrons exiting a half-empty arena. Jeff Van Gundy assembled his players yesterday and let them know what the real problem was, then stepped aside to measure the impact of his ever-ready statistics.

"I watched our five losses yesterday," he told the 2-5 Knicks during their morning practice, "and I don't see how we're 'overmatched' with inside scoring and against big threes. I think the common denominators for our losses were poor perimeter defense, poor covering for each other on defense, and just very poor shooting. So are we overmatched or under-performing? I would go towards the end of performing."

As usual, he had the numbers to support his thesis that it isn't a size thing, that even though the Knicks' entire rotation virtually stands 6-8 and under, they can compete even with the likes of relative behemoth Portland tonight.