Finally, the Knicks are looking down at the Atlanta Hawks — sort of.
Granted, their heady perch is .0018 percentage points above the Hawks and they are more or less tied. But after chasing and falling down and getting back up and chasing again, the Knicks can say they are in the eighth playoff spot in the East.
Thanks to their 110-81 manhandling of the Nets at the Garden Wednesday, the Knicks moved inches ahead while the Hawks were losing at home to the Bulls.
“It means a lot,” Carmelo Anthony said after the Knicks (33-43) routed their cross-river rival Nets (40-34). “We’re in a dogfight coming down towards the end of the season and this stretch is important.”
The Knicks still trail the Hawks by one game in the loss column with six more games remaining — all against playoff teams — and Atlanta holds the tiebreaker based on conference record.
“It’s all on us at this point. This year’s a lot different than the past couple of years,” Anthony said. “But coming down to April, it’s just, we know what we want.”
The April schedule, featuring seven games against five teams all headed to the playoffs, has worried the Knick faithful for weeks. And after the first of the seven games, there was one question:
What the heck was all the fuss and worry about?
The Knicks, who played Tim Hardaway (17 points) despite a sore ankle, did it in every way. They shot 60 percent from the field. They came away with 11 steals, five by Iman Shumpert, who came off the bench and keyed a decisive first-quarter stretch that transformed a 20-19 deficit into a 29-20 lead. Then with a landslide 34-18 second quarter — and a technical foul shot to start the third quarter — the Knicks outscored the Nets, 45-18.
“Our intensity has changed, the way we start games, the way we approach the lead, instead of losing it,” said J.R. Smith, whose game-high 24 points led five Knicks in double figures.
Unlike the home game against Cleveland on March 23 when a seemingly insurmountable 17-point lead evaporated, this lead against the Nets was not going to disappear. The Nets got within 14 in the third quarter. So, the Knicks ran off eight straight points, Smith scoring five, including a 3-pointer.
“The way our intensity is and the way we’ve been playing as of late, especially on the defensive end — everybody knows how talented we are on the offensive end — on the defensive end we’ve been spectacular,” Smith said.
New Knicks president Phil Jackson attended the game, but did not speak with reporters.
As for the Nets, who got 16 points from Paul Pierce, they looked every bit like a team on a back-to-back. They are chasing the Bulls — the team that snuffed the Hawks, 105-92 — for at least fourth in the East.
“Tough loss,” Pierce said. “More disappointed with the way we defended. … Tonight, we didn’t get better. I don’t know if it is a back-to-back but we didn’t defend. If you allow teams to shoot 60 percent, you are not going to win many games.”
And so the Hawks, who have been in free-fall mode, now get to look up at the Knicks, as crazy as that seems. These are the Knicks who once were 21-40, losing nine in a row at one point, look like a playoff team. Go figure.
“I always believed. I’ve been saying it since the beginning of the year. Just one game at a time,” said Anthony, who scored 23 points. “It’s funny how things work, being in this situation right now, having a chance to make the playoffs. We control our own destiny. We can’t worry about what Atlanta is doing or anybody else is doing. We got to win basketball games. If we continue playing the way we’ve been playing, we’ll be there at the end of the season.”
Perhaps facing Miami, but that’s a whole different story. The fact is, they are in position to do so. How is this possible?
“Really, our approach and understanding and communication on the basketball court,” said Tyson Chandler, who recently proclaimed the Knicks would be a playoff headache for anyone. “You have to get to a stage, you have to get to a point where you’re past excuses and you’re just getting out there playing. And I feel that’s where we are right now.”