MINNEAPOLIS – All season long, coach Mike D’Antoni’s Knicks have been known just for their entertaining speedball offense and their crazed 3-point shooting proclivity.
But during this rousing Rust-Belt tour, the Knicks’ grit has come out and now they’re not just entertaining, they’re smack dab in the middle of a playoff race in mid-March.
This March Madness continued as the Knicks soared to 3-0 on the trip in ugly fashion, muffling Minnesota and grinding out a lunchpail 102-94 victory at the Target Center.
The soaring Knicks (28-37) moved a half-game out of the eighth and final playoff seed for the moment, with the Bucks, Bulls, Pacers and Bobcats all losing. They moved into a three-way tie for 10th place with Charlotte, after the Nets lost 109-100 to the Trail Blazers last night in Portland. The Bulls (29-37) are in ninth place, percentage points behind the Bucks.
Now it’s onto a showdown with Cleveland tomorrow in what could be – dare we say it – a first-round playoff preview.
“Our spirits were down after losing to Charlotte and Jersey,” said David Lee, who scored 12 points with 13 rebounds and five steals despite playing with a sprained knee that required a brace. “If you told me we’d be 2-2 on the trip, I’d be very, very happy with that. We’ve won our first three and we’ll give it our best shot in Cleveland.”
The Cavaliers have lost once at home all season.
“We’ll be fired up,” Larry Hughes said. “We’re trying for a 4-0 road trip. To go 3-0 on a road trip this late in the season is big, especially for what we’re trying to do.”
D’Antoni admitted he was viewing the scores, as all the teams they needed to lose lost.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” D’Antoni said.
After turning up the defensive volume in Milwaukee and Detroit, they held Minnesota down, racked up 15 steals and won a game in which they shot just 39 percent. The Timberwolves were without Al Jefferson and Randy Foye, their two best players, which is why D’Antoni didn’t seem overjoyed by their performance.
“We didn’t play well, we got the win, and let’s go on to Cleveland,” D’Antoni said. “That’s about all it’s good for. We were kind of sleepwalking and that’s what happens when it’s easy at first. We thought we didn’t have to gear it up, but I thought the last quarter defensively we picked it up.”
The Knicks hadn’t won three straight road games on the same trip in more than six years, dating to December 2003 when they beat Memphis, Miami and Orlando. The last time they won three straight road games was April 2005 (Indy, Cleveland, Charlotte).
Wilson Chandler led the grit patrol with 24 hard-earned points and 12 rebounds. Chandler’s most grinding play wasn’t a score. It came with 3:40 left when he missed a runner in traffic, batted the ball three times until he got it safely out to the perimeter. Though Hughes air-balled the ensuing jumper, Jared Jeffries caught the ball, got fouled, made both free throw and the Knicks led 89-80. Not pretty but points.
“Everyone saw how huge Wilson was in the fourth quarter,” D’Antoni said.
Nate Robinson, starting for injured point guard Chris Duhon but playing with a stomach virus, throwing up once near the bench, didn’t have a good shooting night and committed a costly technical from the bench for arguing. He finished with 25 points, 6 boards and seven assists and made 14 of 17 free throws.
Knicks 102 T-wolves 94