NEW YORK -- The New York Knicks have dealt with adversity on the court and off of it during this disappointing season. But for one night, trouble was averted when Carmelo Anthony hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds to play to give the Knicks a 110-109 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
New York nearly blew a 17-point lead against a Philly team playing its second game on back-to-back nights without Joel Embiid, its best player. Had Anthony missed the shot, the Knicks would have fallen behind the Sixers into 13th place in the East.
Even with Saturday's win, it's unlikely that the Knicks make the playoffs (they're 4.5 games out of eighth place with 23 games to play). But the season essentially would have been over Saturday if Anthony had missed the shot.
Instead, the Knicks can continue to pursue their implausible playoff push.
"We're still trying to win games," coach Jeff Hornacek said afterward, a quote that won't sit well with some Knicks fans who want to see the team tank for better draft position.
The debate over the merits of tanking instead of making a playoff push will probably rage on among Knicks fans over the next few weeks. But there was another issue that emerged Saturday that could be equally significant.
After de-emphasizing the triangle offense in the early part of the season, Hornacek said the Knicks will be running more triangle the rest of the way. Players say the club worked on implementing more of the triangle into the offense -- particularly in transition sets -- in the two practices after the All-Star break.
"I think part of it was we thought maybe it could help our defense a little bit and get in position a little better," Hornacek said. "When Derrick [Rose] drives to the basket and we're stuck in the corners, we're having a hard time getting out of those corners, and teams are running back on us in transition. We thought the more we run it, you typically have two guys up higher, we should be able to get back better defensively."
Kurt Rambis, the club's defensive coordinator, has played a role in helping teach the triangle increase. Courtney Lee said Saturday that the offense has helped organize things for New York when a set play isn't called.
It all worked pretty well Saturday against Philadelphia. The issue, though, is that privately several Knicks have expressed a distaste for the offense, which they view as slow-paced and predictable.
Derrick Rose gave a less-than-glowing review of the triangle when asked about it shortly before the trade deadline, calling it "random basketball." Anthony has said that he doesn't want to utter the word "triangle," which tells you all you need to know about his opinion of the offense.
All of which makes you wonder: how will this triangle increase will impact the morale of a team whose season is on life support?
Hornacek insisted that team president and triangle devotee Phil Jackson didn't have any influence on the recent increased emphasis on the offense. But the Knicks ran it almost exclusively in Jackson's first full year before Derek Fisher de-emphasized it in 2015-16. That trend seemed to be continuing under Hornacek until a recent change of approach.
To be fair, the Knicks' offense looked great for three quarters against Philadelphia. Will the triangle increase continue to help a group that has looked disjointed so often this season, or will this be another failed experiment in a year full of them for New York?
We'll find out more Monday, when the Knicks take on the Toronto Raptors, a team that has 12 more wins than the Sixers.