The Knicks went into last night's game against the Sixers with a level of enthusiasm and commitment to winning that was surprising for the second game of a back to back in early April, with the playoffs already clinched. But one sensed that it was important for the Knick players to prove to themselves that they could beat a good team on the road with something at stake, even if the value of that "something" (sixth seed in the East) was difficult to articulate.

Two stories dominated this game from the Knick standpoint, especially in the first three quarters -- one expected (Carmelo Anthony) and one totally unexpected (good defense). The Sixers are a mediocre offensive team that got worse in the last week with Lou Williams' unfortunate injury, but everyone has seen since the trade deadline that even bad offensive teams can light up the Knicks defense with ease. However, the Knicks held the Sixers to a 19 point first quarter and a 41 point half. Some of it was bad Philly shooting (missing 16 of 18 three pointers), but a fair amount was genuinely solid defense at the start of quarters -- limiting the Sixers to 8 points in the first six minutes of the first period, 7 points in the first 7 minutes of the second, and 9 points in the first 6 minutes of the third.

Meanwhile, the Knicks overcame a shaky start on offense and built a sixteen point lead midway through the second quarter, thanks to a barrage of ball movement and three pointers from different sources (Shawne Williams, Anthony Carter, Carmelo) -- the Knicks collected seven assists in a six minute stretch from the end of the first quarter to the five minute mark of the second. The Knicks were still missing a lot of jumpers, but dogged defense coupled with trust and ball movement on offense produced the type of results that the coaches always preach.

The Sixers made a run to get it down to eight at the half, but the Knicks then flexed their newfound muscle in the third quarter and put together one of their most impressive post-trade stretches of basketball. They grew their lead to 19 points on the back of sets that made Amare more of a facilitator from the high post for Carmelo on the wing or Fields on the weak side. Melo had 15 points in the quarter, Amare had 4 of his 7 assists, and Fields' off the ball movement got him two layups, and he looked better integrated with his teammates than he has in a while.

A special mention should go to Turiaf's defense, particularly the help defense, which was terrific -- he may be the most important player beyond Billups-Amare-Melo-Douglas for his ability to plug up the leaks in the defense, and his mobility was superior to Shelden Williams' more lumberingly physical interior D in dealing with the quick Sixers swingmen.

The Knicks' momentum was derailed with a combination of bad luck and dumb fouling -- Billups suffered another thigh contusion going around a screen that sidelined him for the rest of the game, and Melo committed three careless fouls (all on Igoudala) and had to leave the game earlier than desired toward the end of the third. In this quarter, the radiant and maddening qualities of Melo surfaced -- the scoring was spectacular at times, but his defense got grabby and lazy as the game went on. The Knicks scored only two points in the final 3:20 of the third quarter to allow the 76ers to get within 13.

The fourth quarter, with no Billups running the team and a desperate Sixer group ratcheting up the defensive intensity and activity around the boards, quickly became hell for the Knicks as it did the last time these teams played in Philadelphia. Through the first few minutes, the Knicks managed to hold on to a double digit lead at 83-71. Then the game turned on this frenetic sequence:



In the space of a minute, the Sixers got five offensive rebounds, forced a Knick miss and a shot clock violation, and got two quick jumpers to start an insane run over a five minute stretch (led by three Thad Young layups in transition) that got the Sixers the lead. The Knicks had 19 assists in the first 3 quarters but only two in the last quarter, and the offensive execution plummeted to a level way south of wretched. Douglas seemed to forget the basic responsibility of a point guard is to know the shot clock, and possession after possession featured shots rushed madly to beat the clock (which fueled the Sixer break) or shot clock violations. TD's season long difficulty in finding his star teammates at crucial times continued, and Amare struggled with a tweaked ankle while Melo seemed to lose his earlier spark, and rushed his drives when he did have the ball.

In fact, Douglas only looked comfortable when he stopped trying to find teammates and simply found spaces for his long jumpers -- his first three pointer in the fourth temporarily stopped the bleeding and made it 87-78, and after the Sixers took the lead and missed a chance to increase it on a Jodie Meeks missed three, TD dribbled around and then called his own number to make it 90-88 with 1:47 left.

The value of Turiaf really showed itself on the next two Sixer possessions -- Holiday drove left off a pick and roll past Douglas and Turiaf blocked the shot, then on the next sequence Young broke past Amare and drove right for a layup but Turiaf slapped the ball onto Young's leg out of bounds. Still, the Sixers had it down to one point on an Igoudala three at 92-91, but as was the case at Memphis, where a huge lead vanished in the fourth quarter, Carmelo made a huge game clinching three pointer over Igoudala with 11 seconds left to clinch the victory.

Game Notes:

*  Last night was the fifth fourth quarter where the Knicks failed to break 20 points since the trade. The Knicks can be excused somewhat for this particular fourth quarter collapse because of the absence of Billups and the reduced effectiveness of Amare, but if Billups is going to struggle with maintaining peak form through the rest of the season because of nagging injuries, I can't see how the Knicks can win more than one game in the playoffs (if that).  Even before the injury, Billups looked slow to loose balls, shot very poorly (1-7) and didn't have any assists in 23 minutes. In his defense, it was the second night of a back to back, and the coaches ran more of the offense through Amare, and Billups spent more time than usual off the ball.

*  Derrick Brown had two four to five minute spells of play, in the second and fourth quarter. The fourth quarter spell was especially interesting as it came with the Knicks desperately trying to hang on, and with Brown guarding the red-hot Young. It wasn't an especially distinguished run for him (1 point, 1 rebound, 1 block, -9), but he may get more time anyway against the Nets on Friday with Amare possibly being out for the game.

*  Last time Carmelo played the Sixers, it was as a Denver Nugget on January 30th -- Igoudala hounded him into a 12 point, 3-12 shooting night with 6 turnovers in 32 minutes. Igoudala has been battling nagging injuries recently and looked slower and more tentative on defense against Melo last night, giving him surprising amounts of room on his jumpers. Anthony took full advantage and rode his continued three point hot streak (now 10 of 15 over the last two games), and he had another one of those 27 foot three pointers on the move that you'd excuse only from a scorer like him. Additionally, Amare has gotten more adept at finding Melo in his favored shooting spots, a great sign for the playoffs.

*  The rotation for the playoffs is still way up in the air, if last night is any indication: Melo and Amare with 37 and 39 minutes respectively, Billups with a truncated 24 minutes, Fields with 25, and Douglas with 30; five bench players got 13 to 15 minutes, and Shelden Williams and Derrick Brown got under 10. The Billups injury probably threw everything off, as more minutes for Douglas in place of Billups means decisions on whether to play Carter alongside TD or play one of the swingmen instead (as was the case last night because of Evan Turner's size advantage). I'm not sure D'Antoni has ever had such a knotty set of personnel choices with any team he's coached so close to the playoffs.

*  Blocked shots are far from the best indication of a good defense, but nine blocked shots was a throwback to the pre-trade days when Ill Will and Amare (with fresher legs) and a healthy Turiaf were dishing facials out with regularity and at least making opponents think twice about driving inside too casually. Last night was probably an anomaly, as four different bench players had a block apiece and even Carmelo (!) had two blocks. But you like to see that kind of feistiness in challenging shots as long as it's not too reckless, and it beats the cape-waving defense the team showed against the Raptors the night before.


Friday's game against the Nets will probably have Stoudemire and Billups both out, meaning a glorified scrimmage in Newark with more opportunity to evaluate the bench players and get TD more minutes as a starter running the team. The sliver lining with Billups' absence will be the opportunity to get Douglas and Anthony to try and work more smoothly together -- so far, it seems like they connect best when it's Anthony that controls the ball. That has to change if Douglas is going to be a remotely effective playmaker late in games.