NEW YORK - The passion and fire that New York Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni had been looking for in their last six games finally surfaced last night.

With nothing else to play for but pride and respect, New York turned a ho-hum first half into a spirited 103-93 come-from-behind victory over the short-handed New Orleans Hornets.

At periods end, the margin expanded to 35-16 and the Knicks never looked back. New Orleans was without two main players in Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler. It had a major impact on their offense as All Star guard Chris Paul had to rely on back-ups, who had problems hitting outside shots (6-of-20 in 3-point attempts) and could not establish an inside presence as well.

What bothered Hornets head coach Byron Scott more than that was his team’s lack of passion coming into the second half. “We were so passive to start the third quarter,” he said afterwards. “We talked about coming out aggressively and really try to jump on them. We just came out passively.”

The aggression and passion Scott was looking for was embodied in Knicks guard Nate Robinson, who caught the ire of D'Antoni in the first half after three ill advised turnovers. Robinson went at Paul pushing, shoving, grabbing and barking to the point each were hit with technical fouls with 8:48 left in the game.

D'Antoni knows there is a fine line between Robinson’s fire and reckless play. “Sometime he goes over the line,” he said. “He has a good heart. He apologized, he feels bad about it but it’s hard to say tone it down and then you become a normal person.”

The New York Knicks had lost their previous six games and are at the point of just playing out the season with nothing to look forward to. So much so that D'Antoni considered given minutes to Eddie Curry. That would have happened if New Orleans expanded their halftime lead. Their third period outburst kept Curry on the bench as the head coach needed a victory.

“It’s pretty simple, he continued. You got to have grit and determination. You got to play with do or die spirit every game. If we don’t do that we have no chance.”

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