Hollinger today:

Break up the Knicks!

Few things cause greater hyperbole than a winning (or losing) streak involving the gang from Gotham, so the likely truth is that this team is neither as bad as it looked early in the season (when locals were calling for Mike D'Antoni's head on a platter) or as good as it has looked over the past 10 games.

Nonetheless, New York's seven-game road winning streak is undeniably impressive. While the wins haven't exactly come against a murderer's row of the league's elite -- of the victims, only New Orleans owns a winning record -- seven straight road wins against any opposition is a feat worthy of praise in a league in which home teams have won more than 60 percent of the time. Overall, only six teams boast a better overall road mark than New York's 9-4.

That's a rather unexpected state of affairs given the largely negative storylines entering New York's season -- that they whiffed in free agency after failing to land LeBron James, that they lacked the Steve Nash-like point guard who could make D'Antoni's system hum, and that ownership was still surreptitiously taking advice from Isiah Thomas.

A 3-8 start lowlighted by a second-half drubbing in Minnesota dropped expectations further, but since then the Knicks have been humming. The 'Bockers have won nine of 10 and would own the sixth seed in the East if the playoffs started today; with their next two road dates against Washington and Cleveland, it's very likely that the streak will have a chance to hit double digits when they head to Miami on Dec. 28.

More importantly, this finally looks like a D'Antoni basketball team, and not only because big man Amare Stoudemire is the featured scorer. The Knicks' improvement has largely been an offensive phenomenon, as they've overcome an early-season rash of turnovers to ascend to fifth in the NBA in offensive efficiency. The defense has actually slid a bit and now ranks 18th, a placing that will sound very familiar to any Phoenicians in the crowd.

However, New York's offense is rolling because it finally established that trademark of D'Antoni teams, the 3-point shot. During the past two seasons and in the first two weeks of this one, the Knicks shot the 3-ball often but not very well. Eight games ago they were 23rd in 3-point shooting; they've moved all the way up to the league average at 35.9 percent.

The Knicks still launch with frequency -- only Orlando has taken a larger share of its field goal attempts from downtown -- but the fact that some of them now go in has created a lot more space for Stoudemire to work his magic in the paint. He has overcome a sky-high early-season turnover rate to play some of his best basketball over the past 10 games, and his current stat line -- 27.0 points per 40 minutes, a 22.96 PER and more than eight free throw attempts per game -- is hardly changed from his output in Phoenix last season.

Aside from the soft stretch of schedule and Stoudemire's recent outburst, two other major changes catalyzed New York's turnaround.

First and foremost, Raymond Felton has gone absolutely bonkers. He never played anywhere remotely this well in his five previous pro seasons, but he is averaging 19.0 points and 8.7 assists per 40 minutes as the point guard for D'Antoni's attack in New York. This is all the more surprising because his game seemed something of a misfit for the Knicks' pick-and-roll-heavy style; Felton will never be mistaken for Nash in this phase of the game.

But while Felton's half-court game might not be ideal for this system, his ability to push the ball in transition is perfect for it. New York is playing the league's third-fastest pace, a largely Felton-fueled phenomenon and a skill that was utterly wasted in Larry Brown's somnambulant offense in Charlotte.

As a result, put this one in the "Stats we didn't expect to see" file: Only Derrick Rose has more estimated wins added than Felton among Eastern Conference point guards this season. Felton has played 38 minutes a night, hasn't missed a game and is shooting with much greater accuracy than at any previous point in his career, making him one of the great free-agent bargains on a three-year, $25 million deal with only two guaranteed seasons.

Given his career numbers, Felton may not perform at quite such a lofty level all season, especially if the Knicks don't get him some rest; reportedly the team is shopping for a backup point guard as we speak. Nonetheless, he appears to fit far better in D'Antoni's system than he did in Brown's.

One other Knicks maneuver, however, is likely to have a fairly permanent positive impact: Playing their best players. You'd be amazed how well this tactic works. It's something other teams really ought to try more often.

D'Antoni is an eternal optimist, which is why he looked at Timofey Mozgov in the preseason and thought his size and mobility would make him a quality starting center. Mozgov is indeed quite big and moves fairly well for his size; unfortunately, he isn't any good at basketball. After compiling 28 fouls and only 34 points in a dozen games as the starter, Mozgov went to the pine permanently on Nov. 18 in Sacramento. In an amazing coincidence, New York has won nine of 10 since.

That wasn't the only shift. D'Antoni moved Wilson Chandler from his sixth-man role into a starting forward spot -- partly due to Ronny Turiaf's injury and Mozgov's ineffectiveness but also because Chandler has been their third-best player this season -- and has adjusted simply by playing Stoudemire more minutes at center. New York would prefer to keep Stoudemire at power forward and may go back to doing so for long stretches once Ronny Turiaf is back in working order, but for now the Knicks have a solid, workable eight-man rotation -- about all the infamously short-rostered D'Antoni requires.

While D'Antoni's glass-half-full approach blinded him to Mozgov's shortcomings, it's had benefits too. Most notably, he saw the skills of rookie shooting guard Landry Fields, a second-round steal who is averaging a shocking 7.4 rebounds per game from the wing position and scoring in double figures. Reclamation project Shawne Williams, who blew up off the bench in wins over New Orleans and Toronto this past weekend, may go down as another example.

Amazingly, New York has done all this with virtually no contribution from the player most consider as the one with the most potential: Anthony Randolph. Acquired in the sign-and-trade for David Lee, Randolph has played only 11 minutes in the past 10 games. Frankly, he hasn't earned any more.

At this point, whatever the Knicks get from Randolph would be gravy. As long as Felton stays hot, Stoudemire stays proficient and the top eight players stay healthy, the Knicks look set to break the cycle of mediocrity in which they've been trapped for the past decade. They won't be making the Celtics or Heat quake in their boots, but you can start spreading the news: New York, finally, appears to be a legit playoff team again.

Well He's stating the obvious. No brownie points for simply looking at the facts and agreeing with them. The Celts and Heat should be concerned tho, cuz this is the kind of team that can give them problems. We basically can score with any of the top teams and tho our D isn't so great, we can stay in games and if we get hot we can beat anyone. In the playoffs you don't want to play teams that have that kind of upside. We may play pressure free, cuz we won't know better. We're not supposed to be competitive with these teams? The mostly young Knicks don't know that. They're just playing and by the time the playoffs get here, the fear of those teams may have eroded having played the better teams and I believe we'll be competitive. Our Leaders Amar'e and Felton won't show fear and that will translate down to the rest of the kids.

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:Longer term goals for the rest of the season:

More consistency out of Gallo
Finding a backup for Felton
Finding a pulse from Anthony Randolph

Yeah that's a serious hot button list. Also get Turiaf healthy and Timo settled down. We'll be a serious threat in the playoffs if those things are addressed.

if we simply play randolph instead of mozgov i think we can leapfrog atlanta esp with jj out for them.

we're currently getting zero from our backup frontcourt at the moment. it's not even zero, it's negative. i'm convinced that if we play randolph he'll help us out on the boards immensely which could bring us to around league average. at the moment, we're slightly worse than average and that's because our frontcourt does not rebound well at all despite fields leading all guards in boards.

randolph could average 10 boards a game in 30 mins based on his athleticism alone. yes he's dumb, yes he has inconsistent effort but if it means every other game we're getting mozgov production that we're currently getting everyday, i can live with that. in the end, that move could add 2-3 wins by itself and that's if he plays like he did last year! if he makes any kind of progress then we might be able to make some noise in the playoffs.

at the moment i honestly can't name a center that he's clearly better than in the nba. at the moment he's just ahead of hasheem thabeet in PER with a whopping 5 something. yes we currently have one of the worst players in the league in our rotation.