the Knicks breezed through the cake part of their schedule, feasting on the bottom dwellers while winning nine straight and overall 19 of their last 23. Friday became the first game since 2000 ...

And for much of the night, the Knicks appeared to be up to the challenge ... time in NBA history and the first time since Feb. 29, 2000, that two teams brought winning streaks of at least nine ...

The Knicks had a nine-game win string ended. The matchup was the NBA's first between two teams on winning streaks of nine or more games since Feb. 29, 2000, and just the fourth in league history.