Knicks: Reach .500 And Keep It Going
Need 17-11 finish for winning record

By Greg Logan
Staff Writer

February 13, 2004


It's not a turnaround until the Knicks' record says they are a winning team for the first time in more than two years, but even at 25-29, they are a playoff team at the All-Star break, holding the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference. Two straight losses prevented them from reaching the .500 mark, but the new regime of president Isiah Thomas, coach Lenny Wilkens and point guard Stephon Marbury has the Knicks thinking like a playoff team again.

"The mind-set has changed," Wilkens said after a disappointing loss Wednesday in New Orleans without forward Kurt Thomas, who was serving a one-game suspension. "They're very upset that they lost, and they should be. This was an opportunity for us. When an opportunity presents itself, good teams will jump on it, and we're becoming a good team. We've got to learn that when that opportunity is there, take it."

Approaching the final third of the season, the opportunity certainly is there for the Knicks to improve their playoff seeding and finish with a winning record if they go 17-11 in the last 28 games.

Owner James Dolan went so far as to suggest that the Knicks are capable of going to the NBA Finals, and who's to argue with the boss?

"Let the sky be the limit for us," Wilkens said. "We're going to go out each game and play as well as we can, and we're going to play with confidence and believe that, yeah, we can keep moving."

Since Don Chaney was fired as coach, the Knicks have gone 10-5, including one win under assistant Herb Williams. Despite limited practice time and the loss for the past seven games of Allan Houston (sore knees), Wilkens has succeeded in focusing the Knicks' attention on defense and has improved their offensive movement.

"I think I've got them where they're playing aggressive defense and they're believing in each other," Wilkens said. "But we're still going to execute better as time goes on, and we need to take care of the ball. Those are areas that we can get better at. But the enthusiasm we bring now and the defensive energy we play with is huge."

Houston has been shooting and undergoing therapy at the Knicks' practice facility for more than two weeks, and Wilkens expects him to return for the first game after the break against Detroit on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. How long it takes Houston to get up to speed depends strictly upon how his knees respond after the rest.

Although the Knicks went 5-2 without him, the silly notion that Houston might come off the bench when he returns was shot down by Wilkens, who said, "How do you sit 20 points [a game] down?"

Of greater concern is whether Isiah Thomas will try to shake things up again before the trading deadline at noon Thursday. Or will he let a team that has gone 16-10 since he replaced Scott Layden settle down and see how good it can become down the stretch?

"I think we have a lot of talent in this room and have good players that like to play with each other and that can get the job done," said forward Keith Van Horn, who has been the subject of several trade rumors. "But that's not my decision, and you have to roll with the punches."

Van Horn gave Thomas credit for bringing the Knicks together and focusing on winning, said Wilkens has been a positive presence with his adjustments during games, and praised Marbury for dramatically changing the team's playing style and creating new options. "There's definitely a different atmosphere than there was at the beginning of the season," Van Horn said.

Despite losing two straight after a five-game winning streak, Van Horn said there's no reason for the Knicks to hang their heads. Referring to what his former team in Philadelphia achieved last season, Van Horn said, "We were in a very similar situation at the break, hovering around .500, and we finished one or two games from the best record in the Eastern Conference. We're going to have to take it upon ourselves once the All-Star break is over to come out and really get on a roll. If you do that, who

knows what can happen?"

Tuesday

Pistons at Knicks

7:30 p.m.

TV: MSG

Radio: WFAN (660)

well, this is certainly a nice post. I don't know why folks post copies of articles that we link to on the front page without some opinion or discussion attached to it. But it's cool for now I guess.