Knicks 109, Nets 98: "I like these free-spirited Knicks."

Hey, that was fun! The Knicks dominated the Nets as they have a couple times this season, but this time they did it without Carmelo Anthony, with scant minutes for most of the starters, and with a lot of loose, carefree basketball from some deep bench guys. Cole Aldrich played a wonderful game, dropping in some graceful-ass hooks  and holding his own around the rim. Toure' Murry hit a couple threes and looked surprisingly sharp in the pick-and-roll, though he missed a whole lot of other stuff. Jeremy Tyler appeared a bit winded in his first real spin in a while. Tim Hardaway Jr. shot absolutely everything and hit most. Shannon Brown did his usual gliding around in transition. It was a good time. Like joshgabs said, it was pleasant to watch the Knicks relieved of pressure. Spirits were indeed rather free.

A night like tonight was about moments, so here are the moments. GIFs from BJabs:

Amar'e Stoudemire put-back slammin' (he proceeded to let Mason Plumlee get by him a few times, but WHO CARES):

Iman Shumpert crossing up Paul Pierce to end a quick flurry of pull-up jumpers in the second half (there may have been a push or a trip in there but WHO CARES):

Murry hitting Shumpert with an off-the-glass dish for a BIG tomahawk out of the fast break. Poor Tyler couldn't get in on the fun:

Update: Here's Cole hookin' via Reddit and BJabs:

I'll add more if there were more. For now, let's look forward to the playoffs. The Knicks' get the Nets playoff spot because they beat them, right?