The Knicks beat a rapidly disintegrating Pacers team at home last night, 92-86, to capture their seventh consecutive victory. Despite the winning streak, the Knicks are still four games back of the Hawks for the final spot in the East. But now they’ve got a new Papa looking on, as Phil Jackson watched Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points in the victory.
We could babble on about the Pacers, and how dreadful they looked, but we’d rather highlight ‘Melo’s 12-for-23 shooting performance to go with five dimes and three steals.
But it was this sequence at the end, where ‘Melo passed up a contested, long-range 2-pointer to find Raymond Felton wide open at the elbow for his own jumper that made us think Phil’s presence had a salubrious effect on their ball movement.
It almost seemed like the Knicks were firing off passes to impress Phil, which probably made Mike Woodson happy, while simultaneously leading one to think: why not three months ago? Anyway, the Garden faithful (and there’s a lot of faith the Zen Master can turn things around), gave Jackson a not-quite raucous ovation when he was announced to the crowd.
It remains to be seen whether the Knicks can catch the Hawks over their next 14 games (the Hawks have 16 remaining), but James Dolan was smart to bring in Jackson when he did as a solvent for the possible sting if the Knicks miss out on a postseason birth (which gets more likely with each passing day).
Will the Knicks make the playoffs?
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