For One Night, the Knicks Were Kings

The score is still New York 128, Dallas 84. I woke up today and it hadn't changed. I was worried.

The New York Knicks ran their record to 23-45 with a 34-point win over the Dallas Mavericks, who fell to 45-22. New York got its first win in Dallas in more than a decade. They snapped the 13-game winning streak of a team most consider a title contender. They outscored the Mavs in every quarter, and by 24 points in the second half. 

Mike D'Antoni's team did it with a nine-man rotation that shot 56.2% and made 16 threes while holding Dallas to 42.5% from the field. Four Knicks produced 20 or more points -- Bill Walker, Toney Douglas, Al Harrington, and Wilson Chandler -- while only Dirk Nowitzki could muster that many for the Mavs. And they certainly avenged January's 50-point evisceration at the hands of the Mavericks in Madison Square Garden.

For the Knicks, it was a good night, perhaps one of the best in years. Harrington explains how it happened.

"Revenge is sweet sometimes. That's a really good team over there but we caught them at the right time. They were ripe for the picking," said New York reserve Al Harrington, who had 20 points. "When you're rolling along and the Knicks are coming in, you figure you can score 150 points on 'em in your sleep. But that Knick team didn't show up today. We caught 'em by surprise."

"That Knick team" is likely to show up many more times before the end of this year, because it has shown up in losses to the Nets, and many other embarrassments this season. And even if the Knicks were to win out, they probably still wouldn't make the playoffs. But even though this season is more about holding out hope for the next one, these Knicks and their fans will always have March 13, 2010.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.