It’s difficult to figure out exactly who these new Knicks are.
They’re definitely more entertaining than they’ve been in years, and they’ve given the Garden some life again. But just when you think maybe this team isn’t that bad, they demonstrate coach Mike D’Antoni has not been able to completely fumigate the franchise yet.
In last night’s 116-106 victory over Oklahoma City, the Knicks opened up a 30-point lead, picking up where they left off in Wednesday’s dismantling of the Grizzlies. Then the bad, old Knicks returned and watched their lead dwindle to seven points against the young, energetic Thunder.
D’Antoni’s troops held on, though, scoring just enough down the stretch to hold off the dismal Thunder and improve to 6-3 this season, their best start since the 1998-99 season, when they went to the NBA Finals.
“It’s human nature to celebrate a little bit early,” D’Antoni said. “We were hot after Memphis and playing so well the first half I thought we didn’t run out of energy physically but mentally we just got a little happy. I think that’s normal and I probably led the charge of being too cool. We’ll work on that.”
Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph led the way for the Knicks with 29 points each, combining for 10 in the final four minutes. Ranoldph also had 19 rebounds, giving him seven consecutive double-doubles.
D’Antoni’s run-and-gun offense fired more blanks last night than in the win over the Grizzlies, when the Knicks hit 19 3-pointers. Against Oklahoma City, they took advantage of defensive breakdowns and scored plenty of easy baskets.
They blew the game open with a 16-0 run that stretched from the closing minutes of the first quarter into the first minute of the second. When it was over, they led 44-20 and had removed nearly all drama from the game.
Nate Robinson hit his first five shots of the game, giving him 13 consecutive shots without a miss after going 8-for-8 in Memphis.
By halftime, the lead was 68-42. It was the most points the Knicks have scored in the first half since Jan. 5, 2007, when they also scored 68 in Seattle against this same team, then known as the Sonics.
The Knicks shot 54 percent in the opening half and outrebounded Oklahoma City 33-20 in the opening 24 minutes.
The lead reached 30 when Randolph converted a three-point play with 8:10 to go in the third quarter. The Knicks seemed to relax with the big lead and the Thunder chipped away. Oklahoma City went on a 23-9 run to end the third quarter and held a 19-5 rebounding advantage in the quarter.
“When you have a team down like that, you have to step on them,” Crawford said. “You have to finish the game out. You can’t give them any life.”
The Thunder closed to within seven points with just over five minutes left, and it looked like the Knicks might take a giant step backward with a brutal loss.
Crawford and Randolph, however, took over the final few minutes and the Knicks improved to three games over .500 for the first time since Dec. 29, 2004, when they were 16-13.
Even with the sloppy second half, it is clear these are no longer the dismal Knicks of the Isiah Thomas era. They are already 3-1 against the Western Conference, a year after going 3-27 versus the West.
Knicks 116
Thunder 106
