After the first quarter of Wednesday night's Knicks game, there was a fun new party game sweeping the land.
It was called "Name Things That Will End Long Before the Knicks Losing Streak" and some popular choices included the war in Afghanistan, the country's fascination with the Kardashian family and Wile E. Coyote's vendetta against the Roadrunner. That's what missing 14-of-17 shots en route to falling behind 27-14 will do to people watching a Knicks team that looked just as hapless as the one that had lost its last six games.
Before we could declare a winner of the impromptu contest, however, the Knicks decided to snap to life. They made 13-of-17 shots, including all four of their three-point tries, and got to the free throw line early and often to erase the Kings lead and take a five-point advantage into halftime. They finished with 40 points overall in the second quarter and they were off and running to their much-needed fourth win of the season.
The two guys who did the most to bring the victory home were the two guys that we expected to see leading this team all season. Amar'e Stoudemire and Danilo Gallinari each scored 27 points, but only Stoudemire did it in his usual manner. He blew past defenders in one-on-one situation, pulled up for a few jumpers and had a big dunk over DeMarcus Cousins to help seal the deal in the fourth quarter.
Gallinari, on the other hand, played like he was wearing hair tonic made from the sweat of Karl Malone. Gallo refused to settle for three pointers and kept attacking the goal until he racked up a stunning 17 free throw attempts. That's always going to work out well for a guy who hits nearly 85 percent of his shots from the stripe.
It's one win against admittedly weak competition, but it was one everyone really needed. Mike D'Antoni needed it, the Knicks players needed it and a fan base that was staring at another year starting to smolder desperately needed it. So exhale, everybody, because the Knicks are now on a winning streak.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
