It must have been the lucky shoes on St. Patrick’s Day.
Toney Douglas, wearing lime-green on his feet, had the touch of gold on his hands. He tied the franchise record for most 3-pointers with nine as the Knicks broke their three-game losing streak with a 120-99 rout of the Grizzlies.
The Knicks also broke the franchise record for most treys in a game, hitting for 20, as Douglas’ last trey with 17.8 seconds left set two milestones.
The Knicks wore their traditional green jerseys for the holiday, but Douglas outdid his teammates by matching the uniforms with those bright lime shoes he plans to give to a special friend he would not reveal.
For one night, it was all green and good at the Garden. Their struggling defense turned into a non-issue after a recent week of turmoil stemming from two straight losses to the mediocre Pacers that called into question the merits of the Carmelo Anthony trade.
Coach Mike D’Antoni said before tip-off the fans should take a “Prozac and hang in there.”
And so they did with an historic evening as the Knicks bagged 20 of 36 3-pointers. With nine treys, Douglas joined Latrell Sprewell and John Starks in the record books, and the Knicks broke a team record set vs. the Grizzlies in 2008, when they hit 19 treys.
Douglas scored 29 points in 31 minutes, making nine of 12 3-pointers. The Garden crowd chanted his name after he hit a 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds left in the third quarter.
Anthony aided in the explosion with 28 points — 19 in the first half. He hit 3 of 7 3-pointers and heard his share of “Melo” chants.
“It was a great way to bounce back,” he said.
Not only did Douglas dress like the flamboyant Clyde Frazier, he played like him, hotter than the first warm day of spring.
“When he plays like the way he did tonight, we can be a dangerous team,” said Amar’e Stoudemire.
Douglas said the shoes weren’t headed to Detroit, where the Knicks face the Pistons tonight.
“I’m going to keep the shoes and give it to somebody,” Douglas said. “I love that color. I had two days of practice in them and everyone was like, wow, those are really loud shoes. They’re special shoes now. I’m going to tell the person I give it to not to wear them again. I told him if I have a good game and we win, I’ll give it to him.”
Outside the locker room, by the player elevator, Douglas’ fiancée held the lime shoes in her hands but Douglas said the shoes weren’t going to her.
This night was a gift to panicky Knick fans whom D’Antoni characterized as being thrown into “hysteria” by their record since the Anthony trade. The Knicks are 7-6 since the blockbuster, but it still doesn’t compare to Denver’s 9-2.
“We stopped the bleeding,” D’Antoni said.
Douglas still is not being viewed by D’Antoni to start alongside Chauncey Billups, who has struggled since his return from a thigh injury three games ago. In Douglas’ first game back off the bench on Sunday, he shot 1 of 12.
“He is a little streaky but he’s been better this year,” D’Antoni said.
Douglas said he had no explanation either for his streaky nature.
“If I go 1 for 10, it’s one of those nights,” he said. “I just took what the defense gave me. They gave me 3’s, so I took them.”
A Douglas-Billups starting backcourt would send Stoudemire to center and take Jared Jeffries out. But D’Antoni still wants Jeffries in for size and interior defense and he had a nice game last night with five points and six rebounds.
“We don’t want to go that way right now, D’Antoni said. “We need Toney’s points off the bench, and Toney and Shawne [Williams] are most comfortable doing that. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
The 3-point parade allowed Stoudemire to be a distributor as he scored just 16 points, taking only 12 shots, taking advantage of the way Memphis was playing them.
“What I noticed at the start of the game, they were denying me the ball,” said Stoudemire, who had nine rebounds and two kick-out passes for treys. “On the screen and roll, they’re sucking in on me and letting guys open on the outside. I told the guys be ready to show because they’re not leaving me at all.”
D’Antoni said defense still is the key issue that will make or break them this season despite their wild shooting spree yesterday.
“The whole thing is we are going to look at the defense and make sure the intensity is right and we are all on the same page,” D’Antoni said. “It would be nice if we all shoot like this and we should win by a lot. [But] there are nights we don’t.”
The Knicks (35-32) led 59-51 at the half behind Anthony’s 19 points and one wonderful assist on a fast break. After catching a long feed from Stoudemire, Anthony, instead of going in for a layup, threw the ball spectacularly over his shoulder for a charging Jeffries, who laid it home.
In recent days, Anthony has talked about “making his teammates better” and last night he did.