FORWARD PROGRESS: The Knicks’ star-crossed pairing of Amar’e Stoudemire, scoring over Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony made a leap forward with cohesive play and a combined 61 points in yesterday’s sweep-avoiding 89-87 Game 4 victory over the Heat. (EPA)
By the end, with the building chanting and their own hearts pounding, the two Knicks who will always have the most to lose thrust their arms skyward toward the pinwheel ceiling, drinking in the relieved roar of 19,763 fans, their own basketball ambitions realized for an afternoon.
It is too late to salvage the season, even if this 89-87 victory over the Heat did extend it by at least three days and one game. But what Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony proved across 170 minutes and one heart-stopping finish was this: The partnership can be saved. And if the Knicks accomplish nothing else with their appearance in these playoffs, that is a precious piece of knowledge heading forward.
“It was a great win for us, a great win for our fans to finally get over that hump,” Stoudemire said, speaking of a franchise playoff losing streak that had spanned 13 games and 11 years and finally ended when Dwyane Wade’s turnaround, fade-away 3 bounced harmlessly away at the buzzer, inviting a silly storm of streamers and confetti to mark the occasion.
“It makes me feel better that we won,” he said. “I wanted to play as hard as I could today to help us get the win.”
Stoudemire had been heroic, silencing critics (this reporter among them) who believed he had no business playing yesterday, who thought it folly, an attempt to restore a ruptured reputation. But Knicks fans cheered him early, roared for him late, and all was forgiven by the time he put 20 points and 10 rebounds on the board.
“He gave them the spark they needed,” LeBron James said.
And Anthony gave them the star power they needed, 41 points and a team-high four assists, making the 3-pointer that gave the Knicks the lead for good. Between them there were 61 points and only three healthy hands, and there was a distinct chemistry that has so often been missing over the past 15 months.
After what we saw yesterday it is impossible to assert the Knicks’ star-crossed science project of jamming Stoudemire and Anthony in the same lineup can’t work. Maybe it won’t work over time, though we should probably give the experiment a full 82-game season before declaring it dead.
And when it works, it really is something to see. We saw it work yesterday, even as Stoudemire played one-handed, even as Anthony got off to another sluggish start, even as the Heat jumped out to a seven-point lead early in the game and an 11-point surge early in the second half. Stoudemire was as active as he’s looked with two good hands all year. And Melo, once he caught fire, never cooled off.
“I thought Melo and Amar’e were huge tonight,” coach Mike Woodson said. “We needed a big game out of both of those guys to get over the hump. And it couldn’t happen to two better people. They’ve been fighting all year and now we have this monkey off our back. We’re still playing. Still looking to Game 5.”
Still alive. Still with a season and, more important, a future together. The Knicks looked deader than dial-up a couple of times, looked for some key stretches like they were only intending to tease their fans, taunt them a little, before letting the Heat have the rest of the week off. But then Melo outdueled LeBron, and Stoudemire turned in one of the more courageous performances we’ve seen out of the Knicks in years.
Separately, they inspired. Together, they delivered.
Just as advertised.
“Melo was amazing. He hit every big shot he took down the stretch it seemed,” said Tyson Chandler, who himself managed to control the game even by scoring but one point and grabbing only nine rebounds. “And [Stoudemire], just him being out there, being very vocal, he’s a very energetic guys and he definitely uplifted the team.”
At the end, they understood how important it was to salvage something out of this zany season, and appreciated even deeper the message it sent: This can happen. This can work. This really can be what it’s supposed to be. What it has to be.
“It’s a great feeling, especially to play that way and finish that way here, at the Garden,” Anthony said. “Now we’ll see what happens when we go back to Miami.”
And beyond.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com