New York Knicks Streak Watch: Here comes a new challenger!

By: Rafik Dimian

It’s not a Miami Heat-sized winning streak, we know that very well. But this is a genuine winning streak now because the Knicks finally had a chance to take out a quality opponent and did exactly that when they held off the Memphis Grizzlies in the final frantic minutes at the Garden on Wednesday night.

They’ve been putting beat-downs on undermanned and undersized teams (Boston), bad teams (Orlando and Toronto) and teams that look like they don’t care (Utah). But this was a signature win, with Memphis at full strength, albeit with Marc Gasol playing with a torn abdominal muscle.

“Right now we are rolling," Iman Shumpert said after the 108-101 victory.

It’s not much of a roll, this six-game winning streak, not when you compare it to Miami’s run that finally came to an end at 27 games on Wednesday night against a Bulls team playing without Joakim Noah and Marco Belinelli.

When the Knicks were done with the Memphis Grizzlies, they were crowded around the TVs in the back, watching the Heat lose for the first time since Feb.  1 at Indiana.

Jason Kidd took his time getting treatment, watching with his son, T.J. All the old Lakers, from 1971-72, must be relieved, someone said later to Kidd’s son.

“And you know Kobe Bryant is probably very happy, too,’’ said the younger Kidd.