The playoffs have been an inevitability for a while, but last night against the Cavs was an opportunity to turn the page in several different ways. The Knicks had the opportunity to show everyone how well they could play with some rest, with more practice time to develop chemistry, and with extreme motivation against a less talented team that had made them look bad all season.  The Knicks passed most of their tests last night despite some rough moments, and with a solid win over the Cavs  (along with Washington's win over Charlotte), they can celebrate a playoff berth and build on several of the positives that contributed to last night's victory.

The Knicks started out going back and forth with the Cavs for the first six minutes, with Chauncey Billups' red hot shooting fueling a lot of the offense; the Knick defense was animated but still prone to interior breakdowns (especially Amare at the hands of J.J. Hickson...again). Shelden Williams and Landry Fields had some good moments but struggled with the Cavs' quickness, with Landry also providing the night's embarrassing lowlight by mistiming a dunk in transition. Once Jeffries replaced Shelden and Douglas replaced Fields, the Knicks were off to the races -- the defense tightened up and Chauncey and Carmelo turned it up on offense.

The best part of the first quarter was how much more the team looked like a D'Antoni team on offense -- excellent energy in pushing the ball, super efficient offense and a 108 possession pace. Billups' baskets were heavily weighted toward the spot up threes he tends to be overly fond of, but he had an extra spark that made most of his early offense look smooth rather than forced; he also got others involved, and Carmelo and Amare got several of their baskets on the move toward the lane after off-the-ball movement (rather than through stagnant isolations on the perimeter).

The start of the second quarter was even better thanks to great production from the bench (especially Bill Walker), and the Knicks built their lead to as much as 21 points before Baron Davis made three 3 pointers in 54 seconds and drove enough of a run to get the Cavs within ten at the half. Prior to the Cavs' first half closing run, the Knicks at least showed effort on making their rotations past the first couple of Cavalier screens, and stayed home on most of the outside shooters. As the Cavs started breaking down the Knicks in transition and getting them more disorganized in terms of defensive spacing, a lot of whatever Knick defensive discipline existed evaporated.

This was most evident in the third quarter, when the Knicks' shots weren't falling (Billups and Anthony were 0-9 in the 3rd), ball movement got stickier, and the Cavaliers started getting more easy baskets inside. The Cavs got the lead down to two at 77-75 and had an opportunity to take the lead on a Baron Davis three, but the Knicks averted disaster -- the second unit again contributed key minutes, stopped the bleeding, and maintained a lead of five to seven points through the end of the quarter. Still, it was a discouraging return to past Knick tendencies with less efficient offense at a drastically reduced pace (only 22 possessions in the quarter). Only 4 of the last 20 possessions in the quarter featured an assist or had much ball movement at all.

As discouraging as the third quarter was, the Knicks saved the best for last with their final quarter effort. With a lineup of Carter-Douglas-Jeffries-Amare-Walker, they got three steals, a blocked shot, and forced two other Cavs turnovers in the first four minutes of the period. Additionally, 6 of the first 12 Knick possessions in the quarter were either assisted or featured a pass that led to a foul and free throws -- the highlight being a Carter diagonal pass into the lane that hit Walker in stride for a dunk over Samardo Samuels. (Clyde narrating the replay after the dunk: "The Master Blaster! So nice we show it twice!"). Walker took matters into his own hands in a subsequent possession by driving and getting a three point play -- Walker going hard to the hole and drawing fouls has been so rare this season that I didn't even mind that it was done in isolation.

Consider too, that this decisive final run was driven by three Knicks from the rebuilding days (Douglas, Jeffries, Walker), a Nugget castoff (Carter), and the original free agent prize (Amare) who'd been looking more beat-up and mortal since the trade. It was a satisfying way to punctuate the Knicks' return to the playoffs for the first time in seven years, and though the win couldn't have been accomplished without the firepower of the three biggest Knick stars, there's a reason the coach sounded happiest in the postgame press conference with the way the second unit plus Amare got the job done at the end.

Game notes:

*  Pace, Pace, Pace: In case it wasn't clear from this recap, pace was (and will continue to be) significant for the Knicks to assert themselves against opponents and minimize (somewhat) some of the glaring weaknesses that aren't going to go away until reinforcements arrive in the off-season. 11 out of 14 games since Billups' injury have been played at a pace of 95 possessions or less (the Knicks lost 7 of those 11 games). Last night's 99 possession game was the fourth straight game played at a more ideal Knick pace, a direct reflection of Billups' improving health and the team's deployment of lineups with a greater comfort with playing faster. Here's how the possessions and efficiency broke down against the Cavs:

New York	Possessions	Efficiency
1st Q	27	133
2nd Q	26	119
3rd Q	22	118
4th Q	24	125
Total	99	124

Clearly the Knicks pushed the pace well in the first half and were rewarded for it, slowed down in the third, and then used turnovers and better efficiency through ball movement and transition to get it back up in the fourth. The standard qualifier applies that these gaudy numbers came against the worst defense in the league, but a team that plays at the slowest pace as well. Speeding them up and limiting their efficiency in the final period (only 79 points per 100 for Cleveland in the fourth) was encouraging and should be the norm against lesser teams.

*  Minimizing the Damage From the Pick and Roll and Spot Up Jumpers:  The Cavaliers have done more than any other opponent to destroy the Knicks in pick and roll coverage -- first with the likes of Mo Williams and Boobie Gibson and Antawn Jamison in the game right after the Carmelo trade, then with Baron Davis and a raft of unlikely open shooters (Christian Eyenga, anyone?). Last night, Baron still tormented the Knicks by making 5 of 8 threes, but the rest of the team missed 10 of 14 and got less open looks. The New York pick and roll coverage wasn't exactly suffocating, but the Knicks improved notably from previous efforts:

	CLE Pick and Roll %	Points	CLE Spot Up %	Points	Result
vs CLE 2-25	25%	29	14%	22	L
vs CLE 3-4	23%	23	23%	64	L
vs CLE 4-3	24%	15	14%	17	W

Source: Synergy Sports

The points allowed from spot up jumpers (typically swing passes to open perimeter shooters after a high screen) were disastrous in the last loss to the Cavs. Last night was much better, and of the 27 pick and rolls the Cavaliers ran which resulted in either the ballhandler or the screener taking over the play, a full third of those ended with a turnover.

*  The Bench Sets The Example For Ball Movement: I don't have the problem that some fans and media do with how the ball sticks with Carmelo's early isolations or some of Chauncey's jumpers -- better ball movement can eventually be generated through their scoring skills as offenses have to load up on them, and Carmelo in particular has shown himself to be an elite scorer and willing passer the last few games. But there's a lot to be said for how much more smoothly the ball seems to move when the second unit is in -- especially with Amare as the lone starter playing with them. Last night, the bench generated 11 of the team's 23 assists, led by Douglas and Carter.

*  Jared Jeffries, Still Doing A Lot Of "Nothing": 0-2 FGs, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocked shots, 2 charges drawn, 0 fouls, in 25 minutes. He still doesn't look like he does much of anything, other than get rid of the ball quickly once he receives it on offense. Yet he was a game high +26, and the Knicks were unmistakably better with him in the game even if it was hard to tell why whenever he got near the ball. I can't wait for Ronny Turiaf to return to full health and take some of his minutes, but I can live with the kind of nothing Jared provides in limited playing time when it works as it did yesterday, even if he hasn't been the same player he was with last year's Knicks.

*  Amare Regaining His Form, With Some Help:  Amare looked lively on offense early but missed some easy drives, and on defense he was pretty slow and awful through most of the first three quarters. He was still too much to handle for Hollins and Samuels, and in the fourth quarter he picked up an extra gear on defense and had two big blocks on Alonzo Gee and Ramon Sessions, as well as doing a better job of keeping Hickson in front of him. Early in the year, Amare was capable of inspired (if limited) stretches of defense late in games, but as he's worn down he barely registers an impact and too often ends up a liability.

What bears watching in future games is which role player to pair Amare with so that his weaknesses are minimized. Against Orlando, the best option was Shelden Williams for his ability to guard Howard, but last night Shelden-Amare lineups weren't good (-11 on the evening); instead, lineups with Jeffries and Amare together were a + 25.


Next up is the Raptors, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a little bit of a letdown with the pressure of the playoff chase having gone away, and with future games not having much of an impact on seeding. The coaches are going to push for more wins though (just a hunch, but I suspect staying at .500 or better means something to D'Antoni), and maintaining good habits and improving the quality of play remains a priority in preparation for the playoffs.