There’s trouble brewing in Gotham City. The Knicks need a Batman. And it ain’t Roger Mason … Here’s a cure for what ails the Knicks: play the Boston Celtics in MSG every night. Or at least that line would’ve worked well if you deleted the tape from the last seven minutes last night. During that time, Boston, a team dead in the water for much of the game, swooped in and made like bandits, eating up a deficit and walking out of a shocked arena with a 96-86 victory for their 50th win of the year … The Celtics shot just 38 percent through the first three quarters as Paul Pierce (21 points) was virtually invisible. But in the fourth quarter, they used a 15-0 run to take the lead. Pierce made every big shot and Boston and Kevin Garnett (24 points, 11 rebounds) converted all of the hustle plays. Down the stretch, New York had the look of an unprepared kid just furiously scribbling down answers on a test. They shot two straight airballs while Boston had at least three wide-open layups. In the last seven and a half minutes, the Knicks went from being up nine to losing by 10. They received zero fourth-quarter buckets from Carmelo Anthony (22 points) and Amar’e Stoudemire (16 points, 11 rebounds) and even though Anthony came out focused (hit his first three shots), much of that focus was misdirected (taking bad shots, committing stupid fouls). Those whispers about him not being a total team player are only growing louder. … Nice sequence during the second half that put the Knicks back up nine: Ray Allen missed a layup because of a Jared Jeffries elbow that left him looking like a Halloween costume, followed by a beautiful fake pass and layup from Landry Fields (who is starting his own TV show) … Despite the W, we aren’t sure if anyone is scared of the Celtics anymore. The Knicks ran all over them in the first half, building a 14-point lead through some hot shooting from Anthony and Stoudemire, and even a physical inside presence from Ronny Turiaf … Clyde Frazier on Ray Allen last night after Jesus left the court with blood dripping off his face: “The umbilical cord is never severed.” … Speaking of the Glyde-ful one, the NBA TV pregame show had a fashion showdown between Frazier and Craig Sager. Lets just say between Sager’s Bozo the Clown outfits and Clyde’s sex panther suits, it topped anything that Derek Zoolander and Hansel did … If you’re a tortured Knicks fan, take solace in the fact that you aren’t a Raptors fan. Or a Cleveland fan. Or a Kings fan. All three of those teams got straight abused yesterday. Toronto walked into Denver’s Pepsi Center and got blitzed, giving up 123 points in a 33-point loss. Ty Lawson (23 points, 8 assists) and the Nuggets had seven guys score in double figures and an eighth (Danilo Gallinari) had nine. The Cavs might’ve made the score respectable against the Magic, but Dwight Howard (28 points, 18 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 blocks) was toying with them all night long. Every time Howard caught the ball inside, he was fighting off three or four Cavs. And each time, he massacred them, dunking it through, on and over all of them. It was ugly. And then the Kings, who might need a new name soon, lost to Chicago by a ridiculous score of 132-92 in a game where the Bulls were playing so well that the mascots started showering everyone in the stands with popcorn. In Carlos Boozer’s first game back, he went for 16 points; in hardly the first showcase of his athleticism, Derrick Rose (18 points, 8 assists) had a couple of monster dunks. Chicago placed eight players in double-figures … Other headlines from around the league: Indiana and Roy Hibbert (24 points) held off the Nets by four; Memphis inched closer to a playoff berth with a 103-85 win over the Jazz as Zach Randolph (19 points, 13 rebounds) is inching closer to a new contract; and the Spurs ran away from the Warriors by 15 as Manu Ginobili (28 points) went off … In that Spurs game, Tim Duncan sprained his ankle. The injury is serious enough that Gregg Popovich said that Tim will be out a “while.” He might just be happy to give Duncan a rest for the remainder of the regular season … We’re out like the love in New York.
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