INDIANAPOLIS — Carmelo Anthony hit the game-winning shot, made the game-winning block, and the surging Knicks feel light years removed from their last tragic visit to Conseco Field House 3½ weeks ago.
Melo scored 34 points and made two giant plays — a 16-footer over Danny Granger with 4.9 seconds left and a block on Granger’s last-second attempt — to bring merriment to the Knicks universe. They notched their seventh straight win in a sensational 110-109 road victory last night that clinched their first winning season after nine straight losing campaigns.
They could not have done it in a more dramatic, ironic fashion, as their defense blanked the Pacers across the final 3:31, allowing the Knicks to rally from a six-point hole.
Granger become the goat, Melo the hero. In that last meeting, Granger hit a last-second game-winner over Shawne Williams after Anthony had put the Knicks ahead on March 25.
“Another Melo moment,” Anthony laughed, repeating a reporter’s line.
The Knicks (42-38) lead the Sixers for the sixth seed by one game, and they have to win just one of the last two games to seal it.
Of course, with Miami’s crushing of Boston yesterday, a sixth seed could well mean the Celtics, who fell to third place.
“We want to finish sixth, it’s a big step getting there,” coach Mike D’Antoni said, adding of the winning record, “It’s a baby step, but it’s a good one. I don’t want to downplay the importance … but it’s not our goal every year to have a winning record. We have higher ambitions.”
During a timeout late in the third, with the Knicks’ defense falling apart, he lit into the team, screaming, “You think this game doesn’t matter? [Darn] it, let’s go!”
It was deja vu in the last seconds. The Pacers went to the well again with virtually the same play, off an inbounds, but Melo was all over Granger and blocked it.
The ball caromed to Darren Collison, who threw it to the rim as time expired before Mike Dunleavy attempted to tip it in.
A giddy celebration ensued, with Anthony in the middle, as Amar’e Stoudemire, who did not play because of a sprained ankle, led the charge off the bench, walking boot and all.
“The shot was cool, but they still had time to come back down,” Anthony said. “I just buckled down and made a great defensive stop.
“I was wondering if they were going to do the same thing, run the same play. In my mind, whatever I do, don’t let him get any space in between both of us. I do know he likes to go right and pull up. My thing was to stay down on the shot fake, don’t foul, make it a tough shot.”
Anthony’s game-winner came off a broken play. Though Chauncey Billups got him the ball on the right wing, the play was more complex and run too fast. Didn’t matter. Anthony did his trademark jabstep and drilled the 19-footer that put the Knicks ahead 110-109.
“I just love the moment,” said Anthony, who bagged six more 3-pointers to continue his downtown frenzy.
Last meeting, Melo left the court upset that he didn’t get a pass near midcourt with .4 seconds left. This time, he ran off laughing. He smiled from here to Boston after he sank that jumper.
“I knew it was in,” Anthony said. “Sometimes I’m skeptical about it. This was one I knew. I told Jared [Jeffries] on the bench, ‘If we get a stop, we’re going to go home happy today.’ ”
The Knicks made stops, finally, and held the Pacers to 13 points in the fourth quarter, erasing that six-point deficit in the last 3:31.
Shawne Williams had a big steal, Landry Fields intercepted a pass and Billups played hellacious defense on the quick Collison in the final minute, forcing a shot-clock violation after he forced up an airball.
“He had to make a play,” Billups said. “I wanted to give him enough space to contest a shot, and if he tried to get past me, use my strength on him. I made him take a tough shot.”
Donnie Walsh was in attendance, making his first road trip, and said beforehand the key to a playoff run was if “we really lock in on defense.”
For those four minutes, Walsh couldn’t have asked for more.