National Basketball Association

Enjoy it while it lasts, Knicks fans

Published Apr. 17, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The New York Knicks’ 118-110 win over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night was a lot like their season so far: An up-and-down affair filled with unbelievable moments of promise and equally dispiriting signs that the bubble would burst soon enough.

In this game, at least, the bubble held, allowing the Knicks to win a game that moved them a step closer to locking down the No. 7 seed and a likely first-round playoff date with the Miami Heat. Bolstered by a blistering second quarter in which New York hit 11 3-pointers, the Knicks ran off to a 72-53 halftime lead.

That was the magic — the flurry of 3-pointers, J.R. Smith coming off the bench to score 15 points in the second quarter, the swelling sense of greatness that filled Madison Square Garden as the absurd barrage continued to fall through the net. It was like a little bit of Linsanity crammed into a jaw-dropping, where-did-this-come-from second quarter that had the home crowd nearly foaming at the mouth.

Carmelo Anthony, overshadowed by the spectacular first half, finished the game with a triple-double after notching 35 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Center Tyson Chandler added 20 points to the total, Smith and Steve Novak each finished with 25 and the Knicks dazzled in the waning days of this regular season with a big win against a very good team.

“They shot the ball unbelievable,” Chandler said of his sharpshooting teammates. “They put on a shooting clinic. They played unbelievable tonight.”

Still, when the smoke cleared and the win was in hand, some uneasy facts remained. The Knicks let Boston make a game of it by midway through the third quarter, and as late as 2:49 to go in the game the Celtics were within six. The Garden, at one point the center of Knicks pride, turned panicky and angry. There were boos. There was doubt.

While Boston’s bench combined for two measly points, its starters rattled off huge nights that should make New York’s defense blush. Paul Pierce had 43; Kevin Garnett scored 20; Rajon Rondo had 13 points and 13 assists; Brandon Bass had 15 points and Avery Bradley added 17.

So, yes, the Knicks got ridiculously hot and hit almost every shot they took in the first half, shooting 63.4 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from the 3-point line in the first 24 minutes. That latter mark included 14 treys, a number that tied the NBA record for the most made in a half.

But New York also played such awful defense and coughed up such a big lead, it’s hard to know what to make of this team.

And how could anyone know the Knicks? This was perhaps their fifth persona of the season. They have a new head coach in Mike Woodson. They have Anthony at the helm, again, and Jeremy Lin injured until probably the second round of the playoffs (if they survive that long). They’re waiting on Amar’e Stoudemire to come back from injury, perhaps as early as Friday, and they are running an offensive system entirely different than the one former head coach Mike D’Antoni oversaw before resigning last month.

So who are these Knicks, this incarnation that is just a month old despite being just 10 days from the playoffs?

They’re no longer a team attached to Linsanity’s now-faded (and injured) star. They’re not that group of stars — New York’s Big Three of ’Melo and Amar’e and Chandler — that was going to fit into D’Antoni’s now departed high-octane offense system and use Chandler to offer the defensive push capable of making them contenders.

All we know for sure is they are again ’Melo’s team, yes, and on this night that was a good thing to be.

But they were also the group that got so hot they couldn’t lose despite their own defensive ineptitude. Clearly, they have some firepower that, if properly applied, can cause some trouble once the postseason comes.

But are they capable of getting past a team like Miami, their likely first-round matchup?

“Anybody can be dangerous when they are on fire,” Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said. “The Celtics are really dangerous when they are on fire. Everybody is dangerous in the playoffs. I said it all year, obviously Miami and Chicago are the favorites, but I like us. A lot of teams can win this thing.”

A lot of teams can. Teams like Boston, certainly, who have the fortitude and toughness to keep fighting. It’s unlikely a team like the Knicks are going to set many records for 3-point shooting come the playoffs. The odds of doing so four times in a seven-game series are remote, to say the least, and the fact is many role players often tighten up under playoff pressure. Living by the 3 could be a quick way for this season to die by it.

Fact is, in the second half Tuesday, the Celtics outscored the Knicks 57-46. Minus New York’s record-breaking zone of 3-point bombs falling in, one after the other, the Knicks are just a pretty good team that’s likely to steal a game or two come the playoffs before fading away.

“We knew we had to play two halves,” Novak said. “We had other games this year where we didn’t finish the game. There was so much to play and they are a good team.”

New York held on, but the game was still a tale of two halves. The first was a reminder of those halcyon days in New York basketball, first when this season began and later when Linsanity seemed to reset it one more time. That was a time of unmitigated hope, of some eye-popping ball, and a few whispered voices by the buzz killers of the world that it couldn’t last.

The second half was those whispered warnings taking hold of reality. The second half was a reminder of how those hopeful times have faded for the Knicks all year long. In the end, what’s left is this: New York is a pretty good basketball team. Just not good enough to play past the first round of the playoffs.

You can follow Bill Reiter on Twitter or email him at foxsportsreiter@gmail.com