ORLANDO — Slowly but surely this is becoming Patrick Ewing’s team.
Back on Feb. 1, Ewing embarrassed himself and played his season’s worst game, looking like a dinosaur against Orlando’s John Amaechi. But since that game, Ewing has played like an All-Star and emphatically put a bookend to his season’s lowest moment in another wondrous performance last night at the former O-rena.
Ewing finished with 28 points and 18 rebounds as the Knicks held off the Magic, 96-89. After he carried the Knicks in the final minute with a block and 3-point play, Ewing all but guaranteed a win in tomorrow’s mega-match in Miami.
“We’ll gain a game when we win,” Ewing said. “We ain’t losing.”
Asked if that was another Ewing guarantee, he said “Don’t start that again.”
Fact is, if he dominates tomorrow like he has the last two nights, Ewing will be proven right. Somehow, he followed up his season-high 30-point outing vs. Washington with last night’s monster game.
“We knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy,” said Ewing, who grabbed seven offensive boards. “We had to match that energy and match their effort on the boards. I got good rest and came with a lot of energy.”
Will wonders never cease? It’s now on to South Beach, where the Knicks (47-28) face the Heat (49-26) in their last chance to pass them for the Atlantic Division crown and the all-important No. 2 seed in the playoffs. If the Knicks finish in the No. 3 spot, they likely will face sixth-seeded Toronto — an unkind matchup as opposed to No. 7 Detroit.
“This is one of the best wins we’ve had all year,” said Jeff Van Gundy, whose club nearly blew a nine-point lead with 8:31 left.
“That was like playoff basketball. It was hot and heavy,” Van Gundy said. “It looked like they were going to run us out of there in the third, but we found our second wind.”
Ewing, playing ferociously in the second night of a back-to-back, closed it out by altering Chucky Atkins’ driving shot and tipping it off the glass with 39 seconds remaining with the Knicks clinging to a 3-point lead.
Ewing then iced the game on the other end, getting the ball on the low right block, peddling left into the lane and hitting a baby jumper with 22.3 seconds remaining. He was fouled and did a little shimmy in front of his former teammate, Magic coach Doc Rivers.
“I was just messing around,” said Ewing, who made the free throw for a 92-86 lead. Ball game.
Ewing exited with 14 seconds left to a serenade of cheers from the large contingent of Florida snowbirds.
Ewing said that final play was to go to Larry Johnson had the Magic lined up differently on defense. “We were supposed to get the ball to Larry if Pat Garrity was on him but he was on me and they doubled Larry,” Ewing said.
Latrell Sprewell, who hit four big free throws in the final two minutes, and foul-plagued Allan Houston combined for just 20 points in the victory — the third straight game their totals have been way down. But Ewing’s picked up the slack.
Houston, who picked up his fifth foul with 5:15 left, finished with 10 points on 5-of- 17 shooting from the field. Still, Van Gundy praised him for his defense on Ron Mercer (3 of 15).
“He wasn’t shooting well but he did other things,” Van Gundy said. “It was one of Allan’s better defensive games tonight. When he plays like he did tonight defensively, which he’s capable of doing, I just like the fact he did other things even when he didn’t shoot well. Mercer, historically has given us a lot of problems.”
For Ewing, it was a superb ending to a superb game. He scored 10 of the Knicks’ first 14 points in building a 14-6 lead eight minutes into the game. Any doubt Ewing was ready for this back-to-back was erased.
“I don’t think anyone with great pride surprises you totally, but I do think a player who is older and who’s played in tough situations plays with good energy level most of the time,” Van Gundy said. “Now there’s been some nights, when you’re older, you don’t have as much, but tonight he was terrific.”