INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks found their own “Answer” last night in the fourth quarter, playing the best period of the season in rallying for a stunning 110-103 victory over the Pacers that snapped a six-game losing streak.
Rallying from a 19-point deficit with 3:25 left in the third, the Knicks pounded the Pacers, 34-17, in the final quarter at Conseco Field House in what could be their last game without Allen Iverson.
Eddy Curry’s season debut was impressive and Al Harrington went wild with a 13-point fourth quarter. The 2-9 Knicks got a victory and — from all indications — may now get Iverson, who becomes a free agent tonight.
“Break up the Knicks,” a relieved coach Mike D’Antoni said. “They’re all nice, and we haven’t had a lot of all. I think they decided enough was enough.”
The players all but skipped to the locker room after the Knicks busted out for a late 22-3 run as the Pacers went stone cold.
The Knicks jubilantly munched on Chinese food in the locker room afterward — smiles and giggles everywhere for the first time in a while.
“The biggest part of tonight, we played like a team,” Curry said. “It wasn’t the same team I saw watching from home.”
The slimmed-down Curry scored 10 points in 11:44, and repeatedly went to the foul line in the fourth quarter, putting the Pacers in the penalty early. D’Antoni was even calling plays for Curry, and the Knicks were plus-10 when he was on the floor. An inside-outside threat of AI and Curry? Not horrible.
Curry got the ball on the low block and made a couple of pretty turnaround jumpers. His point total would have been enhanced, but he struggled from the free-throw line — 4 of 8. Point is, he got there.
“He should get better from here,” D’Antoni said of Curry. “He’s going to make a difference.”
The same-old Knicks were down 69-54 at halftime after allowing the Pacers a 43-point second quarter, but they bore down and shut down All-Star Danny Granger in the second half. The foul-plagued Granger scored just 3 of his 33 points in the final two periods.
“We started overplaying him,” D’Antoni said.
Harrington, in his return to Indianapolis, scored 13 of his team-high 26 points in the fourth. Harrington hit three straight 3-pointers with a free throw to bring the Knicks down from 11 points to 1 with 4:05 left. D’Antoni stuck with veterans and benched a scoreless Danilo Gallinari for much of the second half.