Steve Popper
Knicks now have bigger goals and it shows


Feb 07, 2004

When the All-Star Weekend convenes on Friday in Los Angeles, the only presence the Knicks will have is Stephon Marbury, who will honor his commitment to participate in the skills competition.

So the Knicks are left to prove themselves under a lesser spotlight, but a more important stage.

It began on Tuesday night with the 97-90 win over the Indiana Pacers, the first proof that the team has a chance to achieve something this season. While the Knicks have won 8-of-11 games since Don Chaney departed and the pieces have begun to settle in, the schedule offered little challenge until Tuesday night with the defensively-challenged Seattle Supersonics the only team above .500 the Knicks had beaten. But the Pacers win showed the Knicks something and now they have a chance to show something more.



With three days off after that game, the team did not take a day off as most teams would, instead spending the time on the practice court, acclimating themselves to Lenny Wilkens' system and trying to fit together in time for what may be a most telling week.
Before the Knicks can split up for the All-Star break, they will play four games in five days, beginning in Miami on Saturday afternoon against a Heat team that humbled them just two weeks earlier. The Knicks return home to face the Clippers on Sunday night and then travel to Dallas and New Orleans on back-to-back nights. Three road games, two marginal teams and then two severe tests.

“We want to finish up strong right before All-Star break,” Kurt Thomas said. “We've had some good rest the past couple of days. My body feels awesome right now with the rest. We just want to finish up strong. We would love 4-0. We don't even think about losing right now. We're just trying to win every game to try and strengthen our position.

“We're playing with a lot of confidence right now. Every time we step on the floor we feel we have a chance to win the game. As long as we go out there and play our type of basketball and we don't let our mistakes hinder us, we'll be okay.”

While you can feel the confidence growing, you wonder just how good this team can be. The record tells you that for all the enthusiasm of the revamped roster the Knicks are still four games under .500 at 23-27. That figure is just one game better than where the Knicks were a season ago when few would argue that they were going nowhere.

“Oh, it's just feels so different,” Thomas said. “The confidence of the team itself and the situation we're in, we just feel we can win.”

Wilkens added: “I’ll just let you in on it: I haven’t even looked at the standings. I don’t want to until the All-Star break. Now, I hear people talking. But I don’t want to look at it. I think that you set little goals and if you achieve those little goals you can move on to other ones.”

The difference is that this group has bigger goals. A year ago, an eighth seed and a first-round ouster would have been an ambitious goal. Now, with Marbury running the show, everything has seemed to fit just a little bit better. Keith Van Horn has still managed to thrive with his one-time teammate and nemesis. Penny Hardaway, Michael Doleac and Kurt Thomas have been revitalized by fitting around Marbury. And Allan Houston is certain that by the time the team returns from the All-Star break he will be back and ready to play.



But the test is now. If the Knicks were to sink through – losing say three of the four games, they would slink into the break still smarting with a 24-30 record. Win three of four and you start to believe. The Knicks are closing in on the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, a spot that might have seemed out of reach before the shuffling and changes began. And there is still a good chance that this won’t be the roster that makes the final run with Isiah Thomas repeatedly insisting that he believes the team still needs to get better.
The players don’t want to leave anymore. They can make their case for that in the next five days. And they’d better. On All-Star weekend, the players may be left home, but the GM’s are all schmoozing and working deals for the Feb. 19 deadline. These next four games might convince Thomas to sit tight for now.

“We just want to carry that momentum and remember what we did to get us to that point and just bring it into All-Star break,” Keith Van Horn said. “If we can go into All-Star break at or near .500, we'll be in good position to make a nice run after the break is over.

”It's not something we discuss. We just know it in the back of our minds, and we know where we want to be.”

And that is not in Los Angeles for the All-Star break. It’s playing for something in May and June.