You know the story. After a tough loss in Atlanta, downtrodden and tired, the Knicks returned home and--won wire-to-wire against a much better team? What? Indeed, New York dispatched the Pistons with gusto yesterday afternoon. In fact, if it weren't for a full-scale collapse in the third and fourth quarters, tonight's game might've been as much a blowout as last January's Knicks-Pistons matchup in New York.

In the first half, Chris Duhon relocated his mojo, and worked the screen and roll with all his friends to lead by as many as 29 at one point. The Pistons couldn't open shots, and on defense, cared not to chase Du around the key or close out on Harrington and Q behind the arc. The Knicks also got a slew of foul calls, and seemingly every 50/50 loose ball went their way, which was a product of their simply trying harder than Detroit. Their problem was compounded by Rip Hamilton getting himself ejected for a blatant, childish shove of Jared Jeffries after a foul call.

In the second half, things got ugly. New York put up just 39 points in the final two quarters while Tayshaun Prine summoned the doubble consonnant sqquad- Walter Herrmann and Arron Afflalo- to help in his crusade to spoil my day. Luckily, a couple timely threes from Wilson Chandler and Quentin Richardson, as well as some unfathomable Piston misses on wide-open attempts saved this one for the good guys.

With Nate Robinson back2rehab, the Knicks once again played seven guys. Tim Thomas and Jared Jeffries played twentyish relatively unproductive minutes each, meaning the starters got quite a bit of court time. Check out some of these lines:

That's pretty heroic output from every starter. Duhon played the entire damn game! It's impressive, but Du's probably breathing a sigh of relief at these rumors that Donnie Walsh is ready to use his trade exception from the Renaldo Balkman deal (whatever that is) to dig up a bench guard (via The Knicks Blog). For one game, though, the undermanned lineup really held its own. Tomorrow night's matchup is in Chicago with the Bulls. We'll talk before then.

Good morning, friends. The Knicks make a brief return to the Garden this afternoon to face the difficult Detroit Pistons. Deeeeetroit's 11-7, but oddly enough, is 0-4 so far this season in Sunday games. Possible reasons include God spiting Joe Dumars for his formation of a satanic cult, Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace's habit of playing Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! until dawn every Saturday night, or Tayshaun Prince's concern over whether or not there will be boobs in that night's episode of True Blood. I'm going with all three.

I haven't ready anywhere whether or not Nate Robinson will be ready to go again this afternoon, but I would assume that Jared Jeffries is back for good. We could really use Nate, as Duhon is clearly wearing down and Roberson's point guard play makes me think my TV froze.

This here's your spot for comments throughout the afternoon. If anybody's down to write a recap, that'd be much appreciated. I'm gonna catch as much of the game as I can, but some papers due tomorrow are beckoning pretty hard.