Believe it or not the Knicks are a hot team right now and might even be the hottest. They’ve won 4 in a row and have won 5 out of their last 6 games, which includes two on the road. Their shooting has improved, as everyone seems to be finding the stroke that wasn’t there earlier in the season. What’s more surprising than watching the Knicks perform on this hot streak is realizing that it may continue through Christmas.

Their next five games are against opponents with sub .500 records. They’ll face the Bobcats and Bulls twice (once on the road, once in the Garden) with the Clippers coming to visit in between. They are all teams with 9 wins or fewer and are all teams the Knicks can beat.

A lot of the Knicks success can be attributed to D’Antoni’s use of a small line up. Not including Curry, who played for just 6 minutes on Friday against New Orleans, D’Antoni used a 7-man rotation to snag the 17-point victory. That’s a lot of minutes for not a lot of guys. And although that’s a lot of ware on their legs, it didn’t look as if the Knickerbockers were tiring at all considering they finished the game on and 18-0 run that spanned over 4 minutes and included 6 three-pointers.

To shoot that well from deep with such little time left in the game shows you how in-shape all these guys are. If you’re going to run an offense with a 7 or 8 man rotation you better hope they’re in top shape and it looks as if these guys are (except for maybe Curry but again he played just 6 minutes Friday…sorry tubby). I have to admit that I never thought I’d be complimenting this Knicks team on their fitness and energy but then again I never thought they’d win 5 out of 6 like this.

A lot of the Knicks positive results have come from playing team basketball. Each game highlights a different player, with Friday’s stud being Chris Duhon. The Normally quiet and conservative point guard busted out of his shell with a 22 pts, 9 assists performance that included shooting 6-8 from behind the arch and 7-11 overall.  Playing in front of more than 50 friends and family members, the Louisiana-born, Duke alum put on a show worthy of an encore, which Knicks fans hope comes tomorrow versus Charlotte.

Al Harrington had a great game as well scoring a game-high 28 pts with 7 rebounds. The new tame, team oriented Al Harrington has proven to be a very beneficial offensive tool. He has accepted his role and performed well recently as a starter and as a scorer off the bench.  David Lee had a normal Lee-like double-double with 17 points an 14 rebounds. His consistency is invaluable to this Knicks squad and the fact that he is performing like this while playing 41+ minutes is mind-boggling. Especially when you think of his style of play and how he hustles for every ball.

These two players have to continue to play consistently stellar basketball if the Knicks expect to fulfill D’Antoni’s prediction of making the playoffs. It’s a long season of basketball especially on a team this small that plays at such a sped up-tempo. I can’t help but wonder if their bodies will last playing like this. An 8-man rotation is easier to control from a coaching standpoint, but it doesn’t give many breaks to their knees. They’ve hit a hot streak at the moment but one can’t help but wonder how long they can hold up playing like this.

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

It obvious I’m not the only one thinking about this when you see Curry trying make yet another slow come back to respectable playing time.  It’d be nice to have him back. There was a time when Curry played 35 minutes of every game and averaged 19.5 pts and 7 rebounds a game.  While those days may be long over it was only 3 seasons ago that he did that for the Knicks and let us remember that the man’s only 27 years-old, well within the prime of a basketball player’s career. Is that 2006-07 Eddy Curry still in there somewhere? D’Antoni is sure hoping so. It’d be nice to have a productive 7-foooter in the line-up, but I won’t hold my breath.

The Knicks have an opportunity to win these next 5 games, which would bring them to their Christmas day matchup against a .500 Miami Heat team, a game they could definitely win. However, before I get too far ahead of myself lets just see if they can keep this 4-game streak alive tomorrow in Charolette.