Short recap tonight, as I'm fighting a fever, and the regular season is winding down with lots of mailed-in efforts. BUT...

The Friday Night Curse is over! Hoorah! Granted it took playing a New Jersey team without Deron Williams, Anthony Morrow and Kris Humphries to get the job done, but the Knicks lost to the likes of the Pistons and Timberwolves on Friday nights this year (blowing big leads against them, to boot), so no win gets overlooked when it comes to overcoming the spell of the Robert Randolph Band.

Last night's game in Newark was actually competitive for a little over a quarter, thanks mainly to a terrific start from Brook Lopez (14 point first quarter where he bullied Shelden Williams and Jared Jeffries)  and very hot shooting from Travis Outlaw off the bench (3 three pointers in the first half). But Carmelo's own hot shooting and strong effort on the boards (23 points, 10 rebounds in the first half), along with Billups looking fully recovered from the thigh contusion scare the other night (13 point first half) helped establish separation slowly, and the defensive activity of the second unit  -- Douglas, Carter, Turiaf , Brown, and Walker -- was fantastic. They took advantage of New Jersey's lack of quality playmakers and harassed the Nets into rushed shots and turnovers.

In the final six minutes of the first half, all the Knick scoring came from Billups or Anthony as they built the lead at halftime to 17. The lead grew to 20 in the third quarter before the Nets had a small run to get it down to 12, but the Knicks scored the last twelve points of the quarter as they kept leaking guards for fast breaks, and the fourth quarter was pure garbage time.

Game Notes:

*  Carmelo was a mismatch for anyone that guarded him on the Nets, and it wasn't close. (Seeing him abuse Mario West, in particular, was kind of painful). Melo's looked as locked in as any player in the league the last few games of this winning streak, and it's been a pleasure watching him stretch out opponents with his hot three point shooting since the trade.

*  Shelden Williams continues to be the starter, but he wasn't effective defending Lopez one on one, and Turiaf off the bench played well and still looks like the most capable interior defender (and the more versatile defender overall). Turiaf's effort was referred to positively in the postgame press conference, which gives me hope that he eventually regains his starting position.

*  Derrick Brown got even more playing time and had a nice looking stat line (3-4 FGs, 7 points, including two three pointers). He still looks too raw to have any expectations regarding his ability to contribute in the playoffs, but with more experience he could develop very nicely with the Knicks the way Wilson Chandler did. I would like to see him get more than one rebound in 18 minutes, especially in a game with lots of rebounds to be had.

*  The second unit with Carter and Douglas applying a lot of ball pressure on opponents' back up point guards, and Jeffries or Turiaf showing hard on screens, might be the best looking defensive lineup the Knicks have had since the trade. As noted earlier, they made life miserable for the Nets and their activity also fueled transition points for the Knicks. They may not get as much time in the playoffs with the rotation about to get shorter, but I'm sure D'Antoni has to be intrigued by the possibilities of using them in short bursts to generate some pace and create some turnovers.

*  Jared Jeffries made three layups, and for the second time in three games converted a basket off a behind the back assist (this time from Toney Douglas). Who knew the secret to getting Jeffries to convert cleanly was to whip a behind the back pass to him on the run toward the rim? It's even funnier to consider how much they must work on this in practice. (On a serious note, Jared had another solid game, even if he wasn't able to defend Lopez any better than anyone else)

*  Once the lead ballooned to 24 by the end of the third, Avery Johnson chose to sit his starters for most of the final period, with only Vujacic getting significant time. This means people were treated to a lot of Ben Uzoh, Stephen Graham, Johan Petro, Brandan Knight and Mario West on the Nets, and a less-than-murderers-row lineup of Knicks bench players as well. There were some extremely ugly spells of offense from the Nets as a result, including an alley-oop to Stephen Graham that he somehow managed to slam against the bottom of the rim, a Mario West double clutching shot at the shot clock buzzer that sailed left and hit the side of the backboard, a Petro flat-line jumper that hit the rim and bounced flatly several times before just dropping to the ground, and a Graham fastbreak where he attempted to cross over and shake off his defender with extra mustard.

It was an excruciating quarter of basketball to watch if you love basketball -- the Knicks had six of their sixteen turnovers in the fourth, and virtually everything was a long jumper -- but blowouts with young players (mixed with second tier veterans) going through auditions for their coaches are like that sometimes.

* Another sign of how ugly this came got: the ball hit the back of a player on either the Nets or Knicks three different times without the player realizing it. Lots of turned heads and blown assignments on defense in this game. As Clyde would say: "See your man and see the ball!"

*  Best part of the win: guaranteeing a .500 record for the season. I predicted 40-42 in my season opening preview, and it looked like that would still be a good forecast as recently as a week ago, but the current winning streak is a nice way to end the season and reward the efforts of the GM, coaches and players who wanted to produce an improved product in the third year of the program. I never would have expected that the path toward this record would have ever taken the twists and turns that it did, but ending the season at .500 or better, even if it's a modest accomplishment, is still an accomplishment with the amount of roster turnover that's taken place.


Next up is the Pacers on Sunday, followed by season ending games against the Bulls and Celtics back to back. The Knicks will probably look like a depleted Nuggets team from earlier in the season for the second game in a row, with Amare continuing to rest his ankle, and Billups, Anthony and Shelden Williams putting in major minutes. But it's still worth watching to see how these winning Knicks play against a Pacers team that just clinched a playoff spot - the same Pacer team that started the Knicks on a serious losing streak a few weeks ago with a back to back sweep.