Knicks have done the impossible: put New York City to sleep

"I don't know why we put ourselves in this situation, but at least you get a lot of time to bounce back and prove yourself. We have the players and tools to do this, so I don't see why we shouldn't."

Both New York and New Jersey are uttering the Rolling Stones' Time Is on My Side as frequently as its heard in the movie Fallen, where everyone from Denzel Washington to John Goodman takes a crack at it.

"There's a lot of time left in the season. We have only played 25 percent of the season. There are a lot of teams that are trying to find themselves in the East and we are one of them," said Thomas, the Knicks' coach and eternal optimist. "The teams that find their way and come out of this are the ones we are talking about in April. I hope we are one of them because we definitely have the talent."

There's no question both teams have talent. New Jersey gets something of a pass because Krstic is still waiting on his knee to get right and is the latest individual to admit to trying to come back too fast. But the Knicks have no excuse. They've dealt with bereavement issues, from Zach Randolph to Stephon Marbury's present situation, but not even Thomas will pin the blame on the loss of loved ones. The fact is, his pieces haven't fit and owner James Dolan has been inexplicably patient enough to hope they'll magically come together.

Meanwhile, Knicks players aren't waiting for the ax to drop because if it was going to, it would have a long time ago. With the predictability of that situation out of the way, all they can do is push ahead.

"We can't worry about it. Can we do something to stop it? We don't make those decisions," said Richardson. "All we can do is get out there and try to win games. Why would we worry about something that we can't control? We have zero control over it.

"We understand the fans are upset, but it's our job to go out there and fight. We can't get down because they're down. We have to try and figure out different ways to win and stay positive. If we get down, we'll never come out of it."

Saturday night's win may not have gotten many in attendance excited. Realistically, it may not have even provided even the slightest glimmer of hope that things are about to change, but it did stop the bleeding. Had New York lost, the likelihood that Dolan might finally fire Thomas would've been part of the city's discussions to start the week, albeit taking a backseat to whatever the Giants do or how badly the Patriots beat the Jets or whatever Yankees-related development comes out of the Mitchell findings.

In that sense, the Knicks and Nets are getting a pass. There are plenty of other things for New York sports fans to occupy themselves with.

"I love New York. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's a great city. It's been frustrating that we've lost the last couple of years, and I think things would be better if we'd have won the last couple of years, but it's still great. We just have to get everybody's morale back up," said Knicks forward David Lee. "The tides can quickly turn, so we're just looking for a spark, start winning around here and hopefully we can make them get excited by stringing together a couple of victories. I think the biggest thing with the fans here is they demand effort and they demand a team that wins.

"If they don't get it, they're going to boo until they get it, so I think the fans are really knowledgeable. They want a winner in New York and it's our responsibility to do our best to bring it to them."

Unfortunately, it sounds like New York Knicks fans have grown tired of even booing. It's all falling on deaf ears since Dolan, who wasn't at the game, isn't listening anyway.