He was booed at home for his recent uninspired play and questioned by coach Larry Brown for hurting the Knicks by passing up open shots in Wednesday's loss in Orlando, and everything about Stephon Marbury's downcast demeanor suggests he'd rather be someplace else.

But as Marbury went out of his way to emphasize yesterday, looks can be deceiving.

"Hey, man, I love New York, and I want to be here more than anything," Marbury volunteered in an interview after practice. "Whatever it's going to take for me to win, I'm going to do it because I feel like New York deserves it ... If it's sacrificing my game, I'm willing to do that."

In Marbury's view, that's exactly what he was doing in Orlando when he took only three shots in the first three quarters and finished with five points, 0-for-7 shooting and three assists. The hot shooters were Eddy Curry, who had 29 points, and Jamal Crawford, with 24. Marbury said he passed up open shots to get better ones for teammates, which is what Brown wants from his point guard.

Brown was in no mood to add fuel to the fire yesterday, declaring the incident over. But he did not back off his critical postgame comments. Performance fluctuates from game to game, but Brown said, "In my mind, he had a lot of good looks [in Orlando] that he didn't look to take. I think you can hurt your team by doing that."