New York Knicks: Tyson Chandler Leads Knicks in Important Bounce-Back Win

I'm sure after the New York Knicks' blowout loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, there were plenty of fans, and maybe even players on the Knicks team, who were thinking, "Here we go again."

But the Knicks quickly put that to bed with their own blowout win over the Detroit Pistons, 101-79.

There's no question that New York has been a streaky team, having won as many as seven in a row at one point this season and then dropping six in a row, which ended up costing Mike D'Antoni his job.

So it was very possible for this team to fall into another slump but, instead, New York continued its dominance over Detroit this season.

Tyson Chandler shined for the Knicks in the win, grabbing 17 rebounds to go along with his 15 points on the night. Impressively enough, Chandler had 14 of his 17 rebounds in the first half, helping the Knicks gain an early double-digit lead in the process.

"We felt like we let one go and we didn't come out with the energy that we needed to in that game," Chandler said. "We wanted to come out tonight with a purpose and get back on the right track."

Both Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin had low field-goal attempts, and both shot at slightly higher clips than their season averages. Lin scored 13 points, while 'Melo had 15.

Amar'e Stoudemire led the team in points with 17, and with all the rebounds Chandler was grabbing, he still managed to pull down eight boards on the evening.

J.R. Smith led the Knicks off the bench with 14 points.

The Knicks had five scorers in double-figures last night, four of them in the starting lineup as New York enjoyed an even distribution of scoring all around.

Now, maybe the Knicks can put together a consistent stretch of games instead of being the all-or-nothing team they've been during the 2011-12 season. That would do wonders for the confidence of this team moving forward.

And in doing so, the Knicks can finally make up some of the ground left between them and the seventh-seeded Boston Celtics, as well as the current Atlantic division leaders, the Philadelphia 76ers.

Without consistency, the Knicks have been unable to catch two teams who have been sputtering much like New York has this season. If they can string together a consistent stretch of winning, the Knicks stand to greatly improve their playoff positioning and, thus, their chance to get far in the NBA playoffs.