Phil Jackson might have been sitting in the Garden crowd asking: "What the heck do the Knicks need me for?"
After all, the day began with a meet and greet between the franchise's newest hoped for savior, Jackson, and the coaches and players.
But it ended with a 92-86 upset of the Eastern Conference-leading, 50-victory Pacers before a frenzied, soldout Madison Square Garden crown as the Knicks ran their playoff-hopeful winning streak to seven games behind game-long defense plus 34 points and five assists from Carmelo Anthony who showed why Jackson would want to keep him.
With the dream of the playoffs — a long shot at best — growing perceptibly dimmer, any Knicks defeat could be devastating. So against Indy and in front of Jackson, the Knicks desperately wanted to send messages to all corners.
And what better way to impress the boss than to beat the best in the East? Call it the Phil Effect — of Ephect.
A healthy, double-digit lead almost — very important word almost — evaporated entirely, but the Knicks surged in the fourth quarter to make the first game of the Jackson Era a success.
After Indiana closed to within 67-66 in the fourth quarter on a rare score from frigid shooting All-Star Paul George (4-of-17, 17 points), the Knicks ran off eight straight points and then fought back every challenge as the likes of Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire (21 points) repeatedly made big plays. There was slop and dumb plays (Tyson Chandler fouling George on a 3-pointer at :13.5) but the Knicks prevailed
The Knicks saw a lead that once was as large as 16 dwindle to three in the third quarter as the Pacers rallied behind Roy Hibbert (20 points) scored eight of his 14 third-quarter points in less than two minutes against Chandler's replacement Cole Aldrich. Chandler had seven points, 14 rebounds.
Sitting back in the crowd near center court, Jackson and the rest of the throng had to be stunned as the Knicks led, 47-35, at halftime. The Pacers looked as pathetic as any of the mainly patsies the Knicks rolled in their win streak.
"It's kind of hard for me to even sit here and talk about the Phil Jackson situation," said Anthony. "We still got [14] games to try to make this push into the playoffs. It's kind of a great situation on one hand but an unfortunate situation on the other hand, talk about [Jackson] rather than focus in on playing basketball."
So whatever Jackson said in his brief meet and greet with the team before the game appeared, for a while at least, to have a profound effect.
Jackson drew the biggest hand of the night when he was introduced to the crowd at 5:55 of the first quarter. After clips of his introductory press conference flashed on the MSG video board, Jackson was shown in his seat. The crowd ate it up. About the only thing that might have topped it would have been Willis Reed limping onto the court in uniform.
Jackson met coaching staff at the practice facility earlier in the day and then introduced himself later to the team at the Garden. Figure he really didn't need the introduction, what with his picture in all the papers. Players described the meeting as brief and informal.
"He was just excited about joining. It was short and quick. He came in spoke, shook everybody's hand saying how excited he was about this opportunity but he wanted us to focus on the game," Anthony said.
And no, Anthony did not stage a heart-to-heart with Jackson about his future although he was excited to hear of all the praise the new team pres heaped upon him Tuesday.
"It was brief, just an introduction," said Stoudemire, who started alongside Anthony and Tyson Chandler as the Knicks continued with their big lineup. "It's going to be a good thing. He's bringing a winning pedigree to the ball club. He has great experience of what it takes to become champions. We're looking forward to hearing his expertise in the field."
Which they really didn't hear beforehand.
"It was a simple introduction. He didn't go into detail," Stoudemire said.
During the game on MSG Network, Jackson described his pregame meeting with the players.
"I told them they're the last people I've met in the Madison Square Garden Corporation. I've met a thousand people, the coaching staff, everybody else, but the players," Jackson said, noting he also told them they "are the most important people here, you're the ones that have to go out and do it."
And Wednesday they did.
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