Jordan had another Madison Square Garden moment to remember Saturday night, hitting a tiebreaking jump shot with 3.2 seconds left as the Washington Wizards rallied to beat the Knicks 87-86 Saturday night for their ninth straight victory.

"Sometimes you just have a favorite place to play. This has always been one of my favorite places, and I didn't play particularly well the last time I was here," Jordan said.

The winning streak matches the longest in franchise history. The Wizards, who were without second-leading scorer Richard Hamilton (strained groin), came back from a 10-point deficit in the final six minutes.

On the winning play, Jordan was isolated at the top of the key against Latrell Sprewell. Taking two quick steps to his right, Jordan pulled up from 16 feet away and drained the jumper for an 85-83 lead as Sprewell and Allan Houston lunged at him.

"He's so good at shot-faking that I tried to stay down, and that's what I did," Sprewell said. "I really wasn't happy with the (defense). If I could have just gotten a hand up, you can live with that. But you have to be aware that he shot-fakes a lot."

With Jordan playing tight defense on Sprewell on the ensuing inbounds pass, Sprewell stepped on the sideline for a turnover. Chris Whitney sealed the win by making a pair of foul shots with 1.4 seconds left before Houston hit a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Jordan, who tormented the Knicks in past seasons and had the only triple-double in All-Star game history when it was played at the Garden, finished with 26 points.

Hubert Davis added 14, and Tyronn Lue tied his season high with 12.

"It seems like when things are going well, when a team like Washington wins seven or eight in a row, they expect something good to happen," Knicks guard Mark Jackson said. "When a team like us is trying to fight and scratch and claw and is losing games, we almost expect something negative to happen."

Houston and Kurt Thomas had 16 points apiece for the Knicks, who lost for the sixth time in seven games and had their home losing streak extended to four games.

Jordan held Sprewell to 3-for-16 shooting and six points.

The Knicks scored 32 points in the first quarter but just eight in the second, and Houston's basket at the buzzer was their only field goal in the final four minutes of the game.

"Defense has helped us win," coach Doug Collins said. "Teams are averaging in the low 80s against us. We shoot 30-something percent and we win, and you can't do that unless you guard."

The Wizards trailed 80-70 with six minutes left, but used a 13-2 run -- with Jordan scoring five -- to regain the lead four minutes later.

Washington went ahead 83-82 when Brendan Haywood made two foul shots with 2:01 left. Mark Jackson made one of two from the line to tie it with 51 seconds left before Jordan and Sprewell each missed jump shots.

Jordan rebounded Sprewell's miss and called timeout with 24.4 seconds left, then dribbled the clock down before hitting the game-winner.

The Knicks went ahead by as many as 14 points late in the first quarter, 32-18, but their offense went cold in the second quarter and the slump continued early in the third.

Jordan stole the ball from Houston and went in for a high-flying one-handed dunk to cut New York's lead to 40-39, then fed Davis for a 3-pointer that gave the Wizards the lead.

Neither team pulled away until Shandon Anderson hit consecutive 3-pointers early in the fourth to make it 75-69. Jordan had turnovers on Washington's next two possessions, and a breakaway dunk by Sprewell gave the Knicks an eight-point lead. Charlie Ward hit a 3-pointer to make it 80-70.

On Friday, Marcus Camby complained that he and Kurt Thomas were not involved enough in the offense. He and Thomas took 18 shots in first half -- nine each -- as the Knicks mixed things up on offense, but Camby scored just two points in the fourth quarter and Thomas did not score.

"It's bad, but it's not that bad," Camby said. "We're 12-15 and there's a lot more basketball games left."

Game Notes
The Wizards franchise has had three nine-game winning streaks, most recently in the 1978-79 season. ... After missing his first nine shots, Sprewell got past Jordan and went up for a dunk -- only to have Jahidi White emphatically reject it. ... Hamilton is listed as day-to-day. The Wizards don't play again until Wednesday. ... Anderson's 3-pointers were his first since Dec. 1.