It's Curry Time!!

My basketball-playing, basketball-fan son and I had been watching some Knicks games during the season, are now watching the NBA playoffs, and have developed a new phrase: "It's Curry Time!"™

(Based on the overweight, unmotivated, perpetually injured and indifferent Knicks player, Eddie Curry, who has about an $18 million annual salary but who played only about 5 minutes this year, during which time the Knicks were badly outscored.)

He's a big center, only he can't or won't run, jump, pass, catch a pass, rebound, or play defense. He can shoot from 5 feet away when he's healthy, but getting him the ball there is another question unless he's being defended by Ferdinand the Bull (as distinct from, say, Joakim Noah the Bull).

Curry Time!™ used to be the moment when a game was enough of a blowout that you would voluntarily put Curry in if you were the Knicks coach, just to showcase him (as if that could help) and rest someone else. Meaning, garbage time to the nth degree.

It's been redefined to mean the point in a game when the team with the lead could put in Curry if they had him, keep him in for the rest of the game, and still win.

At the end of the third quarter tonight, the Cavaliers were beating the Pistons by 27 points. I asked my son: "Is it Curry Time!™ yet?"

He thought it was still a bit too soon. Even with a 27 point lead, even with LeBron, the Cavs might not be able to hold this lead against a mediocre 8th seed with Curry in the game.

Turned out he was right. Even without Curry, though also without LeBron (whose presence would be a wash at best for Curry's), it's down to 11 points with 8 minutes to play.