The Morning After is a look at the night that was in the NBA along with other NBA-related fodder.

When Amare Stoudemire’s nullified game-winner ripped the net in Madison Square Garden, ending an exhilarating 48 minutes wherein the Knicks for the most part exhibited confident, manic-by-design basketball, there was hardly enough time to process what we’d just seen before we had to acknowledge that yes, the New York Knicks are once again a team worth paying attention to.

And they clearly are, and that is a good thing. When everything is flowing as effortlessly as it was for much of last night, they will push the elite teams in this league. With D’Antoni as coach, they’ve had a system ready and waiting. It wasn’t until this season, and the additions of Stoudemire, Felton and Fields that the blueprint and pieces have been so in-sync, rather than rubbing against one another like sandpaper. So yes, there is finally an upside for the New York Knicks, a reason to get excited, one that isn’t five years down the road. For a rebuilding team, that is arriving.

Last year, on a smaller market scale, the Milwaukee Bucks arrived. We Feared the Deer and watched as John Salmons became the consistent wing scorer they needed. We watched as they pushed forward after the devastating Bogut injury and took an apathetic Atlanta Hawks team to the brink in the playoffs. Safe to say, any expectations of Milwaukee last year were far surpassed, because there probably weren’t any.

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