Seventy-nine points from four starters after *three* quarters. The team's offense humming at a close to 140 points per 100 possession pace.12 of 22 on three pointers, which combined with the Utah game meant 25 of 48 three-point shooting over the last seven quarters. Twenty-six assists after three quarters, after a 31 assist game the other night. And all this was coming against one of the hottest teams in the league, a top 10 NBA defense in a difficult road venue.  My favorite comment on this spectacular display of offense came from Rob Peterson on twitter:

Then the fourth quarter arrived with the Knicks up 14 and it all got a lot uglier, and in weird ways. The quarter started with four minutes of nothing -- missed jumpers, turnovers, ugly drives by players who shouldn't have been making them (Anthony Carter, take a bow), three quick fouls to put the Knicks on the verge of entering the penalty with just under ten minutes left in the game, and some bad luck.  To the Grizzlies' credit, they forced the Knicks into these misses and errors by playing much tighter defense and disrupting the rhythm of the Knick offense.

The Grizz got the margin down to six, but then came an excellent stretch from 7:30 to 3:30 where the Knicks just kept running a set and variations which started with Carmelo coming up to the top of the key to slip screen Douglas, dive to the lane, and then Amare coming over from the opposite corner to receive a pass and either shoot or engage in a two man game with Melo. The peak of their execution of this set came at 6:30 when Amare received the pass, kept rolling to the basket, then passed behind him to Melo trailing behind, who spun one way and then other to get a layup to build the lead back to 10 at 100-90. 

A variation at 3:59 was just as tasty, where Shawne Williams and Landry Fields, who had been parked on the weak side with little to do for minutes beyond setting a screen or cutting once in a while, got shifted to the top of the key and left wing respectively, while TD, Amare and Melo all moved to the right side of the court. Fields moved up to meet a pass from Williams, and then cut backdoor to make it 106-96.

But from 3:30 to the final seconds, the Knicks reverted to the worst execution of the evening, resulting in three turnovers, five missed shots, and at least two inexplicable fouls on Grizzlies baskets that produced 3 point plays. The Grizz started anticipating the plays that the Knicks ran so successfully throughout the game, and in particular started pressuring the Amare catch at the left elbow -- they got one steal and forced another heavily contested shot by Amare (one of the worst forced shots he's taken all season).  In general, the Knick activity on offense started to devolve into more one on play as the defense got tighter, an understandable reaction given the three primary scorers are instinctively shoot-first types, but no less maddening for the way it played into the hands of the opponent.

Even then, the game looked ready to be clinched when Carmelo stole the ball off Darrell Arthur with 38 seconds left after Arthur rebounded a Toney Douglas miss, but instead of running the clock all the way down, he backed into the lane and forced a tough close in jumper with ten seconds still on the shot clock. Then Melo compounded the error by fouling Zach Randolph on a basket to give him an and-1 that tied the game at 108.

D'Antoni avoided a timeout and instead had Melo and Amare attempt to run a pick and roll on the left wing; the Grizz overloaded on Amare, so Carmelo did what he does best, a jab step to create a slight opening and then a jumper over Tony Allen that looked good from the time he released it, leaving only 0.5 seconds for the Grizz to run a lob to the basket that got intercepted by Jeffries.

Game notes:

*  The reaction of Knick fans on the web to the win seemed a tad overexuberant given the way the Knicks frittered away such a large lead, but then I remembered that for the last two years, it's been Al Harrington, David Lee and Chris Duhon taking those last second shots. Seeing Anthony take the last shot so confidently, even against solid defense, definitely re-sets expectations in an entirely new, far more positive direction. Carmelo will make and also miss his share of attempted game winners in the future (he seems to practice them with every 2 for 1 three pointer he attempts near the end of quarters), but having such a strong scorer as a late game option is a feeling fans will no doubt come to enjoy without a second thought. 

*  This was only the seventh time an NBA team won while attempting only four three throws (all by Anthony). Much of this had to do with how easily the Knicks were getting jumpers and making them with astounding efficiency. Additionally, Toney Douglas' limitations as a distributor and his own weaknesses in the area of drawing fouls meant that the Knicks weren't getting much either inside or at the foul line -- the Grizzlies had 52 points in the paint vs just 28 for the Knicks, and an absurd 33 FTs. These huge disparities kept the Grizz in the game throughout.

*  The Grizzlies were playing the passing lanes with unusual ferocity in the first half, and the Knicks with their mantra to move the ball aggressively played right into the hands of the Memphis defense, quite literally as it turned out. The Grizz ended up with 28 points off 17 Knick turnovers, which is a high for a Knick opponent this season. The flip side is that when the Knicks kept their heads, they were able to use the Grizz' aggressiveness against them and find open shooters time and time again.

*  Before the game, I expected Marc Gasol to team with Z Bo to torment the Knicks in the interior, but he was a relative non-factor and ended up playing only 23 minutes, most likely because he was having difficulty chasing the shooters. Instead, Darrell Arthur picked up the slack and was a serious pest off the bench with 20 points -- along with Tony Allen, Mike Conley, and ZBo, they led the charge back from the big deficits in the second half.

*  One of the issues with a team with many new players still learning to get comfortable in its new "must move the ball" identity is in understanding the tendencies of teammates enough to know when moving the ball is *not* a good idea, as well as when it is. Toney Douglas a couple of times over passed rather than going for a better shot on his own, and Amare and Melo rifled passes into Jeffries, who then proceeded to get blocked or fumble the ball -- the instinct was correct, because Jeffries finds himself open frequently, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to pass it to him unless he can then make the hockey assist to another teammate. D'Antoni in the fourth quarter ended up making offense-defense substitutions frequently between Jeffries and Shawne Williams in the final seconds, which have been a rarity for him this year.

*  Shawne Williams, Jared Jeffries and Ronny Turiaf all took turns defending Z Bo and Gasol with the expected mixed results; Jeffries did the best job on team defense with this steals and drawn charges, but Shawne really impressed me with the way he battled ZBo on the block and fought on the boards, even getting a couple of blocked shots in the process. 

So now it's on to Dallas for the second game of a back to back against an even better team, and one that's bound to be quite angry after blowing a close game to the Hornets (without Chris Paul) just after the Knicks got their win in Memphis. I'm not sure how much to expect with both teams on the end of a back to back, but I am interested to see how this group guards Dirk and how they battle overall, after giving in to the Mavs in pretty tame and lackluster fashion at MSG with the pre-trade group.