Coming off back-to-back wins against the Pacers and Nets it looked as if the Knicks may actually be meshing and began to look like professional basketball players. After stopping the season’s bleeding with a win in Indiana the Knicks traveled across the Hudson to visit the worst team in the NBA: The New Jersey Nets. Six Knickerbockers scored in the double digits to give themselves their first winning “streak” of the season.

Then the Celtics came to town looking to snap the Knicks back to reality like an alarm clock to a workingman dreaming soundly. New York was hoping to use its home court advantage and optimism from 2 wins in a row to startle the defending Eastern Conference Champs. And they almost did.

The Knicks managed to push the Celtics to an overtime game thanks to David Lee (22 points game high 15 rebounds) and Al Harrington off the bench (30 points and 7 rebounds). The Knicks had the lead for most of the second half thanks to an impressive 3^rd quarter in which the Knicks outscored the Celtics 29-21. After an exciting three by lil Nate extended the Knicks lead to 7 in the 4^th the Garden began to believe the Knicks could pull this one off.

But in all too familiar fashion the Knicks allowed their lead to dissipate and failed to win the game in regulation. So the Knicks went off to overtime for the third time (already?) this season where Mr. Paul “I’ll never walk again; help me. Carry me off the court I couldn’t possible walk let alone pla….OH MY GOD I feel great let me get back out there looks like I didn’t need you to awkwardly carry me off the court” Pierce took over the game scoring the first 7 points for the Celtics in OT.

Pierce’s 7 points were matched by a feisty Knicks team which set the scene for Kevin Garnett’s game winning shot as time ticked away. Garnett had been terrible all night, and only managed to score 8 points before he drained a wide open 19-footer to win the game. Lee decided to stick with Pierce on the double team and Harrington didn’t swing around to take KG in time leaving the Future Hall of Famer with plenty of room to remind the crowd that good shooters keep shooting and nail the game-winner.

The Knicks “streak” would barely be one as it ended with only 2 consecutive wins. But if there is such a thing as a good loss this was one of them. With games against the Celtic and Lakers (this Tues.) coming back-to-back, it’s important to show your fans and your opponents that you can play with the big boys. The Knicks looked good on both sides of the ball even if it was more of a bad days for them than good games for us thing.

Harrington has managed to put his ego aside and find comfort in coming off the bench and has averaged just over 24 pts a game in the past three games as a sixth man. Perhaps this is where he plays most effectively. “You can call me Al” Harrington has never really been a top tier player. He played well in Indiana as a young player who decided to skip a valuable year or two of college in order to go straight to the NBA (pre one year of college rule).

He can be seen as great example of why kids aren’t allowed to go straight to the NBA out of high school. His raw talent and ability unfortunately don’t overshadow his selfish play and dumb mistakes; both things that could have been fixed playing NCAA ball. Either way you look at it Harrington is not a big enough star to carry a franchise and might perform better coming off the bench, something I think the Knicks desire to invest heavily in the 2010 free agency pool helped him realize.

The Knicks will now do their best to not come home from a 3 game West Coast road trip with three more losses. First up are Kobe and the Lakers. The Knicks traveled to LA early in the season last year and gave the Lakers a run for their money before losing in predictable fashion. It’ll be hard for me to believe that they’ll give a similar performance despite my desire to see it. We can all remember Kobe scoring a MSG record 61 points against the Knickerbockers and if nothing else the Knicks should want to avenge that embarrassment.

But again we have to be realistic. I figured the Knicks would be 3-10 heading out West so let’s figure they’ll snag one on this road trip probably against the Kings. That’ll bring the Knicks to 4-12 a.k.a. awful. The Knicks aren’t going to get much better than this so let’s do our best as fans to remember overtime games against the Celtics when they’re down by double digits in LA and Denver this week. The Knicks have gotten a whole lot better the last three games; all we can ask for is that it continues.

Team/Player Photos: WASHINGTON WIZARDS v NEW YORK KNICKS on Apr 13, 2010

Go easy on ‘em Kobe.