The crisis is officially over. There may actually turn out to be a basketball season in New York.
The Garden roared with repeated and thunderous chants of “De-Fense” last night in the closing minutes, not “Fire Isiah,” as the Knicks hung on for a superb 113-109 victory over the Jazz.
It is a victory that may mean something.
So what if Italy-bound Stephon Marbury and Isiah Thomas never share a gondola ride in Venice? Marbury has a fire lit under his butt. He carried the Knicks with him during a festive Garden night for their second straight win.
“No. 3 was really good tonight,” Thomas said of his feuding partner, whom he inexplicably benched two weeks ago, setting off a firestorm that threatened to wreck the season.
In the space of two games, Marbury has turned the boos to cheers. Last night, he racked up 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting with six assists in outplaying the league’s best young point-guard stud, Deron Williams.
Jamal Crawford, who finished with 22 points, iced the win with two free throws with 6.6 seconds left after Zach Randolph’s mammoth offensive rebound. Randolph finished with 25 points and 14 boards.
The Knicks’ victory over the struggling, cold-shooting Bulls on Saturday was a massive relief, but controlling the 10-5 Western Conference finalists, withstanding their late rally, was a legitimate sign the Knicks are waking from the dead.
“When they made their run, we stood still, we didn’t panic,” Marbury said. “Before, we’d hit the panic button and went into a different mode where we didn’t know what we were doing.”
Knicks owner James Dolan, who has missed it all, his baseline seats empty for the second straight game, doesn’t need to give Thomas a public vote of confidence now. The Knicks have shown enough confidence on the court these past two games to show he has not lost control of the team.
Eddy Curry blocked two shots. Renaldo Balkman flew into the Jazz bench after a loose ball. Marbury and Crawford razzle-dazzled the Jazz on the fastbreak. The Knicks, who shot 53.2 percent, are fighting.
The Knicks’ first winning streak puts them at 4-9 and comes on the heels of an eight-game losing streak that threatened to wreck the season in November and prompted the “Fire Isiah” chants. The mighty Celtics are up next Thursday in Boston.
“Hopefully our worst basketball is behind us,” Curry said.
And the Garden is getting behind the Knicks.
“They root hard for us and root for us to win,” Thomas said. “They demonstrate their disappointment through boos. It’s a hard place, tough place. They gut you open and test you.”
Thomas and Marbury both got booed again during intros, but then it was all good. Once the ball went up, the fans left Marbury alone.
“I have the ball more,” Marbury said. “When I have the ball more and am able to create and make plays, it will be in a nice flow.”
Marbury put pressure on Williams early. Williams finished with 26 points and eight assists but Marbury played the more poised ball at the finish.
“Their record obviously doesn’t show what kind of team they are,” Williams conceded, even calling Thomas “a great coach.”
His slump over, Marbury had a brilliant 15-point first half, charging hard to the hoop like he was a Coney Island teen-ager in summer and draining all three of his 3-pointers.
Marbury engineered a Jason-Kidd-like fastbreak early in the first quarter in which he went behind his back in slicing through the lane, then feeding behind his head to a hard-charging Randolph for a layup and foul.
After the Knicks controlling the whole game, it got hairy in the final minutes as Utah cut it to 107-104 with 3:03 left.
But the Knicks forced three straight turnovers. Dogged by Marbury, Williams committed a huge backcourt violation. Curry blocked Williams on a drive and Quentin Richardson intercepted a pass leading to Marbury fastbreak floater that put them up 111-104.
The Jazz scrambled back, got within 111-109, before Randolph grabbed the pivotal offensive rebound with 8.2 seconds left after a Crawford missed trey. Randolph got pushed for a non-shooting foul. On the inbounds, Crawford got fouled and made both free throws with 6.6 seconds left, sending the crowd home happy again.